The Search for Cleo

by Aaron J. Ethridge

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  Less than a minute later, the holo-emitter was on-board, Morgan was back on the bridge, and the ship was slowly rising into the air.

  “Is it just me, or are we listing to starboard, Mister Qwell?”

  “I'll have it fixed in no time, boss,” Vox replied. “Doc, give me a hand, would you?”

  “Certainly.”

  The two rose and made their way to the workshop (followed by Morgan), where they lifted the anvil and moved it from one of the room's sides to the very center of its back wall. As soon as they did this, the ship righted itself.

  “That was crazy,” Morgan observed aloud.

  “In order to conserve power,” Vox replied, “I've set the gravity drives up to produce a basically-balanced field. They can handle a little bit of a mass difference – like us walking around in the ship – but, the anvil was a bit much for them to deal with in their current configuration. They weren't made for a ship this size, you know?”

  “Be honest with me, Vox,” the young man said. “Are we all gonna die?”

  “No,” he smiled. “We just have to be a little more exact – and more careful – than usual.”

  After Vox had made this assertion, the trio headed back to the bridge. At Robert's command, the ship began making its way out of the cave that had been their home for weeks.

  “I know it’s weird,” Morgan said, as the front of the ship was just passing under the cavern's mouth, “but, I think I'm really going to miss this place.”

  “So am I,” Azure agreed. “It had almost gotten to be 'homey'.”

  “It was alright,” Robert replied, “but, The Cleo is home. Any action from the probes?”

  “None,” the green maiden replied.

  “Perfect,” the traveler smiled.

  Less than half-an hour later, they were nearly half-a-planet away from their previous home – having flown from one side of the planet to the other.

  “It looks like we've left the last of the probes behind us, Rob,” the green maiden asserted, gazing down at the monitor in front of her.

  “Alright, Vox,” he replied, “let's get the stealth field reconfigured. Before this is over, we're likely to need every spark of power we can save.”

  “Absolutely,” Vox nodded.

  In less than ten minutes they had shut down the stealth generator, reconfigured it, and turned it back on. After this was complete, they set a course for the vacuum of space.

  “Are we sure these shields are gonna hold?” Morgan asked, poking the aforementioned shields through the pane-less hole that served as the bridge's windshield.

  “If they don't,” Robert smiled, “this is going to be a short trip.”

  “They'll hold,” Vox assured him. “In fact, most of the ship barely needs them. They just have to counter their air-pressure inside the hull.”

  Mere seconds after Vox made this assertion, the ship was hurtling through the void, headed toward their first destination.

  “Seeing as how we're not dead,” Morgan said, gazing at the stars in the distance, “in spite of the fact that we're flying through space in a wooden spaceship, what do we do now?”

  “Take a nap,” Vox suggested. “I'm about dead, bro. These last few weeks have been killer. We need to put our feet up while we can.”

  “We certainly have the time,” Robert replied. “For the next three weeks or so, all we're going to be doing is flying along in a straight line.”

  “Unless of course,” Morgan said, “we run into asteroid fields, or some of those blood-sucking space-bats you've talked about, or a random pack of swag-mad pirates, or who knows what else.”

  “We won't,” the traveler asserted. “For one thing, I made up the space-bats. For another, this region of space is fairly swag-free at this period in history.”

  “And, the asteroid fields?”

  “As a general rule, they don't just float around in the middle of space,” Robert explained. “Plus, if we did happen to run into one, we could just go around it. Either way, Vox certainly has enough time to take a nap.”

  “Which is good,” Doc said, rising from his seat. “Because I need one, as well. Weeks of night-fishing has taken a toll on me. I'll see you all in a few hours. Or tomorrow morning at the latest.”

  After Doc made this statement, he and Vox headed for their rooms. The rest of the crew decided that they were far too awake for naps of their own (having not missed much sleep during the preceding weeks and having woken up just over two hours before), so they decided to sit on the bridge, gazing at the stars, and chitchat.

  “What do you think Sturm's up to?” Morgan asked after a few minutes' general conversation.

  “Hiding,” Robert ventured.

  “He wasn't hiding a few weeks ago,” Azure pointed out.

  “Yes, he was,” Robert counter pointed out. “It's just that hiding wasn't all he was doing. At that point, he was also scheming. Now that he thinks he's stopped me, all he has left to do until the universe fixes itself (as he believes it will) is hide.”

  “I wouldn't think I'd stopped you,” Morgan observed.

  “Neither would I,” Azure agreed. “Although, Sturm might not know you as well as we do.”

  “In all honesty,” Robert replied, “in a lot of ways, Alex knows me better than you two do. Well... He's known me much, much longer, anyway. You two certainly know me better, but Alex has seen me accomplish a lot more than either of you have. As such, he knows more of what I'm capable of.”

  “Meaning that he certainly won't assume that he's stopped you,” Morgan opined. “Which makes me wonder exactly what it is he's up to at the moment.”

  “What I want to know,” Cleo added, “is why he didn't just blow the ship up.”

  “That's a good question,” Celeste nodded. “Sturm has to realize that stealing it was just daring Rob to steal it back.”

  “That's why he didn't blow it up,” Robert explained. “Like I told you before, this is a battle of wits between he and I. If he just blew my ship up, it would prove that he thought he couldn't keep it out of my reach. Which is why, incidentally, when I finally manage to steal his, I don't plan to blow it up.”

  “That's crazy, Rob,” Cleo pointed out. “If we get the chance, we absolutely need to destroy it.”

  “We certainly do,” Azure agreed. “That's just common sense.”

  “No,” Robert disagreed, “What's 'common sense' is making it an exhibit in the Robert Nathaniel Hood wing of the Never Never Land museum. There, it can still serve a purpose.”

  “What purpose?” the green maiden asked from under a single raised eyebrow.

  “It will discourage people from ever trying to outsmart me again.”

  “You have a wing of the museum named after you?” Morgan asked.

  “No, he doesn't,” Cleo replied, rolling her eyes.

  “I will have,” Robert assured her.

  “Will a section of it be dedicated to me?” the young man asked.

  “Absolutely,” the traveler nodded. “You'll be featured in one of those cave-man exhibits that show people how you lived before you met me.”

  “Epic,” Morgan smiled.

  After this, the conversation turned to more mundane topics like the ship beginning to cool off (which it had, in fact, begun to do) and how they might be able to use one of the portable air conditioners to heat their food. Doc and Vox woke up in time to eat dinner and relax for a few hours before the entire crew called it a night.

  During the first day of their travels, everyone had been too worn out to begin getting bored. This wasn't true the following morning, however.

  “Other than sitting around talking,” Azure said shortly after breakfast, “what else are we going to do for entertainment during the next three weeks?”

  “I have a suggestion!” Morgan immediately answered.

  “No,” she replied.

  “In that case, I'm out of ideas,” he confessed.

  “I'm planning to get back to wor
k,” Celeste said. “It may not exactly be 'entertainment', but it will certainly help eat up the time. On top of which, I want a real blanket as soon as possible. Our room has gotten downright cold.”

  “No, it hasn't,” Vox denied. “It couldn't have been below sixty last night.”

  “Sixty,” she said, “is far too cold when we have to sleep in separate beds.”

  “You should have taken one of the air conditioners,” Azure replied. “Cleo had our room close to eighty last night.”

  “One is all we can spare,” Robert replied, shaking his head. “We have to keep the other one up on the farm deck. If those plants get too cold, they'll die. Even as it is, I wish we could keep it warmer.”

  “I'll take the one we're using up there in a few minutes,” Cleo said. “When I'm awake, I'll just stay on the bridge or in the saloon. They're both warm enough to keep me from actually freezing to death.”

  “You can bundle up in my sheets during the day,” Robert smiled. “That should help a little until Celeste can make you thicker clothing.”

  “I thought you said the shields would keep the heat in,” Morgan pointed out, his eyes on his captain.

  “They are,” Vox explained. “It's just that heat is energy. So, keeping it trapped requires energy, and we only have so much energy to spare. We had to spread the shields pretty thin in order to cover the entire ship with them.”

  “Couldn't we reshape them,” Morgan asked. “Like leave the hold unshielded, so we could thicken up the shields around the rest of the ship?”

  “We certainly could,” Azure nodded.

  “It's too dangerous,” Robert replied. “If we did that, a random rock could hit the hull and blast all our supplies into space. For the moment, the shields are configured the way they have to be.”

  “Which is why we need blankets,” Celeste asserted. “Which is why I need to start spinning.”

  Just minutes after this conversation, she had gathered both the girls (Cleo wrapped up in all of Robert's bedclothes, and Azure wearing one of Vox's shirts that Morgan used as a sheet) and the young man (who was warm enough even in his rags) together in the workshop. She began her work by showing Morgan how to prepare their cotton for use with the drum carder – which was incredibly easy to do. As soon as he had carded enough fiber for her to work with, Celeste took up a seat at the spinning wheel and began turning fiber into yarn.

  “Eventually,” she said, as she sat working at the wheel, “we're going to make thread. But, considering the fact that Cleo is about to freeze to death, I thought it would be best to start out knitting rather than weaving. With any luck, she'll have a cardigan in the next few days.”

  “You know, Celeste,” Morgan replied, as he sat on the floor cranking the carder, “you're pretty much amazing, you know that? You can cook, make dishes, weave baskets, spin thread, and who knows what all else. On top of which, you had enough sense to realize that we'd need extra clothes more than we'd need a tank full of snails, or packs of gum.”

  “Thank you,” she replied with a smile. “It's nice to feel useful. Of course, before this is all over, we might even find a use for the snails.”

  “Or even the gum,” Azure added with a smile of her own.

  “I certainly hope so!” Morgan replied.

  “The truth of the matter,” Celeste continued, “is that, at least at first, I felt a lot like a fifth wheel around here. All of you have skills suited to being... whatever it is you are.”

  “Heroes of the universe,” Morgan suggested.

  “I suppose that fits,” she laughed before continuing her thought. “For close to a century, I've been a homemaker. I've only just begun to learn to shoot, I don't know anything at all about how to fight, I'm not capable of helping Vox like Azure is, or able to hack (or whatever it is that Cleo does), or even secure things like you do, Morgan. All I can do is cook, and clean, and keep you all company.”

  “That's not even remotely true,” Morgan observed, as he carefully pulled his cotton fiber from the carder. “You've spent the last few weeks proving that.”

  “She certainly has,” Cleo agreed. “Without you, Celeste, our little Thundera adventure would have been miserable. We'd have been sleeping on leaves, eating nothing but fruit and broiled fish, and drinking out of bamboo cups the whole time.”

  “I'm not sure about that,” Celeste smiled.

  “I am,” Azure nodded. “The last time we had to camp outside, Morgan and Rob made us sleep on a pile of palm-fronds.”

  “It was all we could find,” Morgan pointed out.

  “I didn't say we didn't appreciate it,” the blue maiden said with a sweet smile. “I was just pointing out that it wasn't as comfortable as mattresses made out of clothes stuffed full of cotton.”

  “Which we had because of Celeste's forethought,” Cleo added.

  “I appreciate being appreciated,” she replied. “But, the truth of the matter is; I need to learn some new skills. How many times are we likely to need basket weaving before Rob's finished saving the universe?”

  “It's really hard to say,” Morgan opined. “If you'd asked me that a few weeks ago, I'd had said; never. Obviously, I'd have been wrong.”

  “I suppose you would have,” Celeste agreed. “Still, I think you'll agree that it would be a good idea for me to learn how to do more.”

  “I can't argue with you there,” he nodded. “In my opinion, that's always a good idea. You'll certainly be able to do it. When Rob picked me up, I didn't know nothing about nothing.”

  “Anything about anything,” Cleo corrected.

  “See what I mean?” he replied with a smile. “Either way, the good news is; there's plenty of time to study up on whatever it is you want to learn how to do.”

  “There certainly seems to be,” she nodded.

  Roughly two hours after this, Celeste had managed to teach Azure the art of spinning yarn (at least, well enough for their current needs) and had begun knitting the yarn she had already spun into a cardigan for Cleo. As the remainder of the day passed, each of Celeste's three apprentices took turns with the carder, the spinning wheel, and the knitting needles. During this time, Robert, Doc, and Vox had all been busy with the farm, tinkering with the engines a little, working to optimize the shields, and just generally goofing off.

  The next three days followed this same general pattern. On the fifth evening after their departure from Thundera, Cleo arrived at the dinner table (which was in the saloon) attired in her newly knitted cardigan. The entire crew celebrated this, both because it meant that Cleo would no longer be freezing and because it meant Celeste was going to have time to start work on their sheets.

  After dinner, Morgan was surprised to find that he wanted a few minutes to himself. On The Cleo, he would often end up with more time alone than he cared for. On The Morgan-mobile, however, the entire crew was basically living on top of each other. The only time he was by himself was when he was in the PPSU – and that hardly counted.

  With this in mind, he grabbed some of his bedclothes and snuck up to the top deck about an hour before bedtime. For roughly half-an-hour, he lay on the floor in silence, wrapped in the semi-darkness of the artificial-night Robert had setup for the farm, staring at the stars above. He was surprised at just how much light the holo-mirrors were able to collect, but realized this was due, in part, to their current proximity to the star that sat at the center of the Thundera system.

  As his thoughts often did when left to themselves, they eventually made their way back to Azure. He really was in love with her. At least, he thought that he was. Of course, he had to admit (if only to himself) that Rob had certainly been right about him not knowing what love was when he had first joined the crew. A lot had changed since then, though. If he wasn't in love with her, love was something to be afraid of. Emotions that were any more powerful than what he felt for her would drive a man insane. On the other hand, Rob kind of was insane...

  “Mind if I join you?” Azure asked, standing just above his
head with an armload of her own bedclothes.

  “Never,” he smiled.

  She immediately began to make a pallet at his side.

  “It's funny that you got the same idea as me.”

  “Not really,” she replied, laying down at his side and gazing at the stars above them. “Rob asked me to go find you. I spotted you up here five minutes ago, you just didn't see me. I went to let him know where you were, grabbed my stuff, and headed back up here.”

  “I'm glad you did.”

  “So...” she said, turning her head and gazing into his eyes, “what mystery of the universe were you trying to work out before I interrupted you?”

  “I was thinking about you,” he confessed.

  “At least some of your lies are flattering,” she replied with a coy smile. “Most of Rob's are just silly.”

  “It's good of you to say so,” the young man smiled. “But, I wasn't lying.”

  “Prove it,” she said playfully. “What were you thinking about me?”

  “All kinds of things.”

  “Anything that would get you slapped if I knew about it?”

  “Not at all,” he replied, shaking his head slowly. “I hadn't gotten that far yet.”

  “Then, it's probably best that I stopped you before you did,” she giggled. “How far had you gotten?”

  “Actually,” he said, turning his face back toward the sky and slipping his hands behind his head, “I was thinking about the fact that I don't really know you all that well.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, still staring at him. “I think we know each other fairly well, all things considered. I realize that we haven't known each other all that long, but I think you'd have to agree that basically living together – I mean, living in the same place, and seeing each other all day every day – has given all of us a crash course in getting to know you. Not to mention the fact that you haven't known the rest of the crew all that much longer that you have me, and you seem to know Rob just fine.”

  “I don't mean like that,” he explained. “These... however many weeks or months it's been... that we've all been 'living together' – as you put it – have absolutely given me the opportunity to get to know you. Not in the Biblical sense, obviously. Although...”