Voidhawk

by Halstead, Jason

  “I asked you too,” she laid her hand gently on his shoulder.

  “You should be more careful,” he said, “I don’t want to lose another first mate.”

  “Afraid you can’t get anybody else to take the position?” she asked with a smile.

  They were close enough now that Dexter found himself leaning in and dropping the pretense. He kissed her and within half a heartbeat Jenna was returning his kiss. He wondered, briefly, if she had fooled him when he felt the strength of her arms pulling her against him. She slipped her leg between his and pulled, not letting him separate from her. When the dust settled they were on the floor and Dexter was snugly held against her.

  Dexter opened his mouth to speak but Jenna pulled him down before he could do more than draw in a breath. When their lips parted she warned him, “Don’t you dare talk, Dexter Silvercloud!”

  Her mouth found his again and she untied her leather vest. She grabbed his hand and pulled it to her breast, placing hers on top of his and offering encouragement. Jenna continued to slip out of her clothing beneath him, until she managed to lay nude on the wooden floor.

  Her hands then turned to Dexter, roaming over his body and finding the laces, buttons, and clasps necessary to remove his clothing. With a silent acquiescence that surprised her, he let her have her way with him.

  “Take me, Dexter,” she whispered to him. “Take me and make me yours!”

  She positioned herself beneath him, breath held in anticipation and fear. When Dexter’s flesh met hers she gasped, a dam suddenly bursting within her. All the teasing, all the waiting, all the denial over their time together was over. She bit her lip to fight back the emotions that made her eyes blur and her throat tighten.

  Dexter worked at it, rolling his hips and losing control of himself. He shook his head as he felt her wrap her self around him, accepting him fully and asking for more. Jenna looked up at him, confused for a moment. Understanding came as she felt his muscles stiffen against her. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye at the abrupt consummation. Dexter grimaced and grunted, burying his head in the crook of her neck.

  She held him tight, her legs entwined around his trapping him inside of her. Her fingers ran in lazy circles over his back and shoulders, offering comfort. When Dexter looked up at her he had a sheepish expression on his face that turned to one of surprise at the tears in her eyes. He opened his mouth to speak but Jenna pulled him closer and kissed him instead.

  “It’s been a long time,” she whispered when she broke the kiss. “And this just tells me how strongly you feel.”

  Dexter smiled, his cheeks red from more than exertion. She winked at him and pulled herself up to kiss him again. “Besides, I’m not finished with you. Roll over.”

  Eyes wide, the Captain obeyed his First Mate. What followed was far more satisfying for both of them.

  * * * *

  It took a few days of rest for Bekka to reestablish contact with the helm. Though she hid it well, her anxiety over the disruption began to raise her doubts. Once she tried it and was successful, she felt the weight of fear rise from her shoulders. Bekka enjoyed many things in her life – in fact she made a point to enjoy as much as she could – but seldom was there anything that could compare with piloting a ship.

  Now, less than a week later, Dexter was on the bridge with her, perusing star charts and trying to determine his next course of action. Bekka pulled her consciousness back from the ship somewhat and turned her head toward him.

  “Dex, how are you?” she asked him.

  Dexter jumped, startled a little to hear her ask such a thing. He turned and studied her for a moment, then shrugged. “I am well… shouldn’t you be paying more attention to the ‘Hawk?”

  “Nothing but us and the void, Captain,” she answered.

  “Well, all the same, keep an eye out.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Dexter had just returned to his train of thought when she spoke again. “Back on Azmea, when we were trapped, Jenna told me how you filled her with hope even as you denied her.”

  Dexter sighed and turned around. “Telling you to mind the ship’s not going to do me any good, is it?”

  Bekka smiled.

  “I’m thinking I know why they say women on a ship are bad luck,” he muttered to himself. Sighing in defeat, he asked her, “What about it? I did what any Captain ought to do.”

  “You did,” she acknowledged. “But there’s more. Captain – Dexter, Jenna is special, very special. You do see that, don’t you?”

  Dexter blinked. He hid the grin from his face and nodded. “Aye, she’s one of a kind.”

  Bekka smiled again. “Good. If you didn’t, then you wouldn’t deserve her.”

  Dexter’s laugh was hesitant. Did she know? Did the entire crew know? It had only been a couple of days and he’d had made himself scarce whenever Jenna was around. What they’d done was too complicated; the words they’d spoken too important. Involvement was dangerous, damn it! Why didn’t that fool woman understand? Had Kragor’s death taught her nothing?

  “What do you mean?” he asked, catching himself before the silence dragged on too long.

  Bekka shrugged and glanced away. “If you didn’t deserve her, then I’d have to convince her to find someone who did.”

  Dexter stared at her with wide eyes. “Someone who did? Like who?”

  She looked at him and shrugged again. “Not many elves can look beyond their race, she’s special. She had no kindness for me when we met, but she’s overcome that and even gone so far as to apologize for her kind.”

  Dexter snorted. “Not her fault her kin are bastards.”

  Bekka nodded. “True, but still she did it. She’s got a heart of gold, and only now learning it herself.”

  “So you’d be one who deserves her then?” he asked, intrigued by the idea. He felt mildly threatened as well. He tried to stomp away the jealousy – after all, he knew better than to get involved with one of his crew. What happened must have been a mistake. Too many emotions lately: Kragor’s death, their narrow escape and Jenna’s near death.

  “Only if her first choice fell short,” Bekka said.

  A commotion in the companionway heralded the opening of the door. Rosh stuck his head through and looked around. He saw the two of them and shrugged, then pushed himself in.

  “Hope I ain’t interruptin’ nothing,” he said, knowing he probably was but not caring. He had spent a fair bit of time screwing up the courage to have the talk he planned on having.

  “Of course not,” Dexter said. “Just taking about Jenna’s brush with death.”

  Rosh grunted, hardly caring. Bekka laughed lightly. “Among other things, like when the Captain will stop denying that he loves her.”

  Dexter glared at Bekka, who only shrugged and refused to back down.

  “You love her?” Rosh asked, surprised. “Careful Cap, she likes messing with people, I think she’s got your number.”

  Dexter threw his head back and groaned. “Enough! There’s no talk to be had about my love life… because there isn’t one! Jenna’s second in command, you’d do well to treat her with respect.”

  Rosh blinked and then grinned. “Sunk her teeth in ya, ain’t she?”

  Dexter bristled, forgetting that he was supposed to be in charge momentarily. “You’ve got no room for talking! What about Willa and you?”

  Rosh opened his mouth then shut it. He looked thoughtful as he pondered what Dexter had said. “You think?” he asked. “I thought we was just friends and all.”

  Bekka snorted from her position on the helm, but other than a sharp glance from Dexter, she was ignored. The pause served to help Dexter reign in his frustrations. He took a deep breath and addressed his Arms Master.

  “What are you needing, Rosh?”

  “Huh? Oh,” Rosh said, glancing briefly at Bekka and then shrugging.

  “Cap, the other day, I didn’t mean nothing by what I said,” he explained. “I was just… well, we been having a r
un of bad luck.”

  Dexter nodded; he could tell the big man had more to say.

  “The course you been laying ain’t been easy, but we’re still here and I guess that’s something,” he continued. “Still, a fellow can’t help but wonder sometimes about other things.”

  “What are you saying?” Dexter asked him, wanting to get to his point and spare the man the clumsy rhetoric.

  “That’s all,” Rosh said. “I was just saying what I said. It ain’t easy for me, ya know.”

  Dexter nodded, accepting the closest that man could give to an apology. Rosh smiled a little self-consciously, then slipped back out the door and headed off to have a friendly chat with Willa. The Captain watched him go, then sighed and turned back to the charts on the table.

  Unseen on the helm, a faint smirk found its way to Bekka’s face.

  * * * *

  The following days had been very stressful on the Voidhawk. Bailynn had seemed increasingly withdrawn. Jenna had been distant, though Dexter was thankful for that. His own thoughts were considerably remote, but in spite of it he still noticed how surprisingly cheerful Logan seemed to be. Apparently life on the Voidhawk appealed to him.

  “Been meaning to have a word with you,” Dexter said, catching the man as he hopped up the stairs onto the forecastle to make sure some lines were tightened down.

  Logan glanced up and smiled. He looked at the ropes and, assured they were right, turned his full attention to Dexter. “What can I do for you, Captain?”

  “Between the problems we had and… everything else, I’ve had no chance to welcome you proper to the ship.”

  Logan chuckled and shrugged. “Don’t worry, Captain. As you said, there were a lot of problems. I was reluctant at first, but now I find I could not have landed in a better place.”

  “You’ve done right by us,” Dexter said thoughtfully. “But I’m still wanting to know what ails you.”

  Logan glanced at the main deck and then shrugged. “I’m not sure,” he admitted, turning back to Dexter. “The moon, on Azmir, caused me madness.”

  “At times I would wake up with my clothing torn and signs of trouble about me. Dirt and blood on my fingers, once even some hair stuck to my arm,” he said frankly. “It was never my own, and I could never remember where it came from.”

  He shrugged again. “Since we left Azmir behind, I’ve yet to have any problems.”

  Dexter nodded. “I got no idea what sort of thing this could be,” he said. “Don’t make sense, it just going away though. You be sure and let me know if you feel it coming back, we don’t need any more trouble here.”

  Logan chuckled, unable to repress his good mood. He nodded though, and promised Dexter that he would. He returned to working and Dexter watched him for a long moment before he decided to head below and see about getting some food. On his way he stopped and saw Kragor sitting halfway down the steps to the main deck, the ghostly dwarf watching Willa as she worked on the main deck.

  “Kragor,” Dexter said softly, by way of greeting. He found himself smiling, putting his troubled thoughts aside for a moment.

  The dwarf glanced up at him and smiled, then pointed back to Willa. He gave a thumbs up motion, letting Dexter know he approved of her. For what, Dexter had no idea, but it still made him feel better.

  Jenna rounded the corner suddenly, the elf girl moving silently and quickly and surprising them. She took the stairs quickly and passed right through the spectral dwarf, which caused him to scowl at her as he patted himself off. Jenna paused at the top of the stairs, next to Dexter and peered back down at them curiously.

  “That was odd,” she muttered. She turned to the Captain, her expression still baffled. “Did you feel something?”

  Dexter smiled uneasily. “Jenna, I-“

  She scowled and snapped, “Not that! I meant when I came up the stairs I felt a touch of something cool. Not chilly or painful, just… odd.”

  Dexter and Kragor met each other’s eyes. His scowl was gone and in its place was a wide grin. He pointed at each of them, one hand a piece, then formed a circle with the fingers of the hand pointing at Jenna and took the pointing finger of the hand pointing at Dexter and inserted it into the circle. He proceeded to pantomime a rhythmic motion that Dexter could hardly dismiss the obvious implications of.

  “What’s wrong?” Jenna asked, seeing the color rising to Dexter’s cheeks. “Embarrassed to be seen with me standing near you now?”

  Kragor, laughing silently, faded from view. Dexter turned, sputtering, to the elf and was going to try and defend himself but instead she just glared at him. “Bekka said we’d be coming up on a gravity well. She thinks it’s a small moon or something, it’s not on the charts.”

  Dexter nodded. “Jenna…”

  The elf shook her head, “Save it,” she told him. “This is a bad place for talking, and you don’t want your crew seeing what I plan to do to you.”

  The tone in her voice and the angry and sad look in her eyes told him that he did not particularly want to know what she had in mind for him either. He nodded and sighed. “Alright,” he told her. Then, as he turned to head down to the bridge he whispered so he could be certain only her elven ears would pick it up, “I’m sorry.”

  On the bridge Dexter glanced at the charts of the area briefly to be certain that it was as Jenna had told him. Sure enough, there was nothing but empty void where they were. Bekka was aware of him and asked distantly, “Captain – do you want to go around it or stop and investigate?”

  Dexter thought about it for a long moment. They had plenty of supplies, so stopping was hardly necessary. Still, something uncharted could be a secret boon that might pick up everyone’s spirits. It might be undiscovered trade opportunities or perhaps a long lost pirate cache of equipment and loot. Dexter found himself smiling at the prospects, but then realized it could also be nothing – or perhaps something worse than nothing.

  “Check it out,” Dexter said, moving closer to one of the two large round windows in the bridge.

  Bekka did not respond, but after a few more minutes the ship began to decelerate as it entered the field of gravity. Dimly, Dexter could hear Jenna above calling out orders to bring the ship in closer for a look.

  He hurried up to the deck for a better look as they sailed in. The ship moved in, the sails trimmed to slow it down some, and arced wide to give whatever the port used as a pilot boat a chance to catch up to them. As with surface harbors, a port for ships that sailed the void needed to be guided in to prevent chaos from clogging up the lanes.

  No boat appeared. They drew closer and closer to the lush, albeit small, world and saw no sign of anyone interested in greeting or guiding them. Dexter’s grin spread and his excitement grew, overshadowing his other concerns and troubles. Had they discovered an uninhabited world? It was small, the size of a small moon, but that still would allow for thousands of people to live in peace, should they desire to do so. His thoughts raced ahead. If it was unoccupied, he could claim it and set himself up as Lord.

  Dexter chuckled and Jenna glanced at him. Her jaw was clenched tight enough to turn her cheeks white. “I’ve enough trouble with a ship; I’m hardly needing a world to run!”

  Her expression gave way to one of confusion, then returned to annoyance. She went back to barking out orders to the crew while Dexter returned to his thoughts of capitalizing on their finding.

  His hopes were dashed when they circled the planet and made out a fair sized city. Details were impossible to make out from their altitude, even though the world seemed to not be pestered with such silly things as clouds. With no guide to take them in, Dexter ordered them to find their own way down. With recent experience sailing the winds of a world, they had little trouble dipping into the atmosphere and circling down towards the lone city.

  Carved into the top of a small plateau, a large harbor rested on the edge of man-made lake with dry docs dotting the remaining area. Dexter opted for a water landing, trusting that the hull was better
supported thusly.

  The spacious town was well designed and the keep had a low wall connecting five towers. The palatial grounds gave way to a four story mansion containing enough rooms for dozens of people to live comfortably. It was no proper castle, by any means, but still large enough to clearly be the residence of the ruling lord of the city.

  The town’s inhabitants crowded the shore and stared at the Voidhawk is pulled up to the dock, scrambling around to help tie off the lines. Dexter, Rosh, and Xander walked down the plank to the dock and cheering erupted. The three looked to one another and then back at the ship before continuing.

  A man stepped forward, grinning ear to ear, and welcomed them. “Well met, we’ve been waiting for the next visitors from the skies.”

  Dexter took his offered hand and let him shake it, vigorously. Rosh stood nearby, glowering threateningly at anyone that came too close.

  “I am Constable Lorren, welcome to Deepingdale,” he said.

  “Captain Silvercloud,” Dexter responded. “This is my Arms Master Rosh and my ship’s wizard Xander.”

  “Tell me Constable, why is it I could not find Deepingdale on any of my charts?” Dexter asked. He turned and looked at the port. While largely vacant, it still harbored seven other ships.

  Constable Lorren smiled and shrugged. “It is not mine to say, Captain. Perhaps your charts are out of date? Perhaps we are not on any trade routes. This is a small world, with Deepingdale being the only city.”

  “It is our paradise, I admit,” he added, and glanced over his shoulder at the many others gathered here. “But we have little to trade aside from camaraderie.”

  Dexter nodded, thoughtful. Something seemed amiss, but he could not place it.

  Xander cleared his throat and asked, “You mentioned you’ve been waiting for visitors?”