Flotilla Outpost, Unnamed Island, Fleet Territory

  Mid-Dry Season, Year 17

  “Rise and shine, Jo- oh. You’re awake.”

  I cinched the laces on my boot and stood up from the bed, looking over at Remus who was standing in the doorway of my room, holding the door open with one arm. “You sound disappointed.” It was still dark outside, the world I could see through the window high on the wall just a block of dark night sky.

  “Waking up new recruits before dawn is a tradition,” he pouted. He shook his head. “Well, it’s good that you’re dressed. We’ve got a mission. Several, in fact.”

  “Yeah, I heard,” I said, walking over to the door. Remus stepped out of my way and I closed the door on my way out. He went ahead of me, the two of us half-turned to pass through the narrow hallway. “If you want to surprise me, you should probably lower your voice. I could hear you all the way from Seiwuai’s room.” There was an annoying scratching sound from the clay walls as we went, random metal bits on our clothes scraping against it.

  “Most people are so tired after leaving training, they’d sleep through an attack,” Remus said without looking- without turning back. “If you’re such a light sleeper, you’ll have an easier time of it on the water.”

  “There normally a lot of attacks while we’re asleep?”

  Remus just chuckled in response to that, passing through the open archway of the building out into the open.

  “...I don’t think I like that answer.”

  “Well, you should comforted that I intentionally didn’t give one.”

  The building we’e slept in was an isolated structure. It stood on a sharp spike of land jutting out over a bay, waves three times my height crashing noisily against the base ans filling the night with a rumbling roar. From what I’d gathered, this was a Fleet dormitory. An unoccupied building with private rooms, decent beds, sealed windows, and all the rats managed out of sight. Just a furnished building in the middle of nowhere, on the off chance some group of assholes - like ours - was passing through and needed somewhere between ‘missions’.

  Given the amount of food I’d seen the rest of this band shovel down last night, I’d assumed that would be a few more days out at least. From the yelling to get Seiwuai moving and the group of people I could see idling on the beach ahead of us, that didn’t seem to be the case.

  “Morning, sleepyhead,” Julius said, covering a yawn with his elbow. We walked into the middle of a half-circle of people, Julius standing in line with the rest of the group. At least, he was standing beside Seiwuai while Elia and Hua sat on the ground.

  “You’re more tired than I am,” I said, walking over.

  Julius stared at me blankly, bags under his eyes, then yawned and rubbed a fist against one. “Sorry, think I fell asleep for a second there. Damn barracks beds are always trash for shuteye.”

  “Alright, folks,” Remus said, clapping his hands. “There’s new directives for us. However, we're still short one member to be back to full headcount, and I’d prefer not take our precious little recruits into danger unnecessarily. Fortunately, we have time to work a few smaller tasks on the side so we’re taking a little detour. Hopefully recovering our wayward charge along the way.”

  “Rescue?” Elia asked, raising an eyebrow. She was sitting with one knee up, an arm leisurely draped over it like she was posed for a painting.

  “Perhaps,” Remus said, tilting his hand unsteadily. “There hasn't been any contact, but that’s not unusual.”

  “So no emergencies we know about,” Hua said, her legs folded. She’d been drawing something in the sand with her fingers, but erased it once we started talking. “Just the usual unexpected crisis.”

  “That’s very pessimistic of you,” Remus said happily. “It’s like you think we’re cursed or something.”

  “Sorry,” I raised my hand. “Who are we rescuing? Where are we going?”

  “Is it the ‘Alonso’ you mentioned?” Seiwuai piped up. I looked at her at the same time as the rest of the group, and she flinchee before she continued. “You said the name yesterday.”

  “Good memory,” Remus said, sounding impressed. “Elia?”

  “Sure,” the giant woman said, shifting to sit up straight as Remus sauntered down to the shoreline. “We are- well, we were a five person squadron. That’s enough people that we could usually handle multiple smaller issues at once: split up to into subgroups, handle business, and meet back up periodically. And unless there’s something significant happening - border conflict, sea serpent outbreak, reinforcement request - we don’t usually need everybody to show up.

  “But Alonso’s late, and he’s never late,” Elia sighed, shrugging with one hand. “So we’ll need to find out what’s going on, deal with that, then get on with our regular schedule.”

  “Which is big,” I said. Elia looked at me in mild surprise, and I gestured towards Remus who was…tossing a rock or something into the water. He was using his foot to keep in place, and I really had no clue what the hell he was up to. “Remus doesn’t want us to go with one person missing so this is a full house job. Conflict, outbreak, that kind of thing.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Caught that, did you?” Elia said, chuckling, because yes, I'm pretty hot shit too. Then she nodded. “Yes. You’re right.”

  I stared at her for a second, then at the rest of the squad who were a mix of disinterested and tired. I looked back to her. “So, do we get to know what that mission is or…?”

  Elia shrugged. “You’ll find out. No point worrying about it when we’ve got a more immediate problem to deal with.”

  Ah, the ‘you don’t need to know’ approach. Well, I wasn’t a stranger to that. Sometimes there was even a good reason for it, and it only sometimes screwed you over. “So, this guy stuck somewhere in the Flotilla? Or inland?”

  Hua looked up at me, squinting her already narrow eyes. “...are you pretending to be stupid, or does that come naturally?”

  I flipped her off without looking.

  “I think Johannes is asking where we’re going,” Seiwuai said, raising a hand politely. “I, um, would also like to know? We don’t have a ship, so…”

  “Who told you we don’t have a ship?” Elia asked, looking amused.

  “Sei, Jo! Come over here!” Remus had turned back to us, waving us over as a…white…bath tub floated in the water.

  “That’s not my name,” I said, looking at him out the corner of my eye as I wandered over. “It’s not even her name.”

  “It is,” Seiwuai said.

  “Would you prefer Hannes?” Remus asked, looking at me curiously.

  “Why are those my options?” I crossed my arms.

  “Because it’s time to get in the boat,” Remus said, grabbing my shoulder and shaking it like we were old friends. He held a hand out to the white ceramic tub, a genuine bathtub with clawed feet, that was somehow floating in the shallows.

  “That’s not a boat,” I pointed out.

  “It might be, if you believe.” I looked at him like he was an idiot, which I was starting to suspect might be the case. “See? Seiwuai’s gotten in.”

  I looked over where Seiwuai had taken a few steps out into the water and was carefully climbing into the tub, the thing rocking as she stepped into it.

  “Your turn, Jo,” Remus said, patting me on the back.

  “Why does she get her full name back and I don’t?” I took a step out into the water, the waves surging up to attack my shoes and try to infiltrate down to my socks. Fortunately, the legs of the jumpsuit and the shoe collar made a solid seal that was enough to keep my feet dry. I stepped over the edge of the tub, the thing rocking slightly as I put my foot down, then levelling out as I climbed in. “Alright. I’m in. It’s still not a boat.”

  “Oh,” Seiwuai said, holding the sides and looking down. “I get it.”

  “Are you believing yet?” Remus asked, walking over and resting a hand on the side.

  I blew out a breath. “No.”

  “It won’t work unless you believe.”

  “...fine. I believe fucking shit!”

  The tub rocked and the three of us rose into the air, the outline of a boat growing out from the edges and pushing up from the water. The waves splashed noisily, shoved backwards by the boat suddenly resting in the bay, two masts several men tall shooting up from the deck and sprouting billowing sails. The boat settled in place a moment later, heavy and substantial, a completely solid vessel of dark wood and red painted trim with a faint blue glow coming from between the planks.

  “See? You just had to believe,” Remus said, turning and walking away. Wood sprouted from the deck, forming a box around us, a door appearing in his path on the far wall. Remus pushes it open and looked back- faced us. “Now, if you two wouldn’t mind stepping out of my bathtub?”

  Seiwuai and I glances at each other and climbed out of the tub, stepping out of the room and emerging onto the open deck. The rest of the squad leapt over the side of the ship, passing clear over the railing.

  “This is your Warship,” Seiwuai said from behind me, as I walked over to the railing. “Right, Petty- er, Seaman?”

  “‘Remus’ is fine,” Remus said. “I consider brevity a virtue, especially when things start going wrong. And yes. Our Warship, to be specific.”

  I looked over the side of the ship to the shore below, easily twice my height between the ground and the floor.

  “‘Our?’”

  “Mine, Hua, Julius, and the mate’s,” Elia said.

  “But this is…so thorough. How can you do this as Ordinary Seamen?”

  “It's not about strength,” Elia said. “And having both a physical anchor and a consistent goal helps.”

  “How the hell did you make that jump?” I asked, looking back at them.

  Remus walked towards the side of the box that had grown out of the deck, climbing stairs to another smaller level that serves as the room's roof. Julius and Elia looked over, the bald man being the one to answer.

  “With our legs?” Julius looked at me like I was clueless. “Is that not how you jump?”

  “Not two fathoms,” I said, pointing down to the ground.

  “Huh. Poor guy can’t jump,” Julius shook his head and wandered away.

  “That does remind me,” Remus said, stopping by one of those wooden wheels they steered boats with, draping an arm over it. “You two have no gear. We should do something about that.” He shook his head. “But until then-”

  “Get to mopping, Johannes,” Julius said, walking back over to me. He handed me a mop and a bucket, grinning. I could see over his shoulder where Elia was handing a compass and a stack of papers to Seiwuai, who was nodding seriously to whatever she was saying. “Oh, and…you ever heard of a bilge?”