The boat lurched as the pull from the leviathan abruptly ceased. Allistor found himself ducking down as the ocean in front of him erupted in what started as a white mushroom of rising water, but quickly turned pink. Bits of sea monster and probably shark meat rained down across the water, some of it even reaching the deck and crew.
Everyone on the boat leveled up, some of them getting several levels. Allistor got one.
Level up! You are now Level 36! You have received two Attribute Points.
Dan was shouting again, this time at Bagwell up in the bridge. He was waving one hand around in a circle, calling out, “Turn the boat around! Pull up alongside!”
Bagwell nodded, putting the boat back into forward motion and turning as sharply as it could. The rest of them looked out at the bloody, mutilated corpse of the leviathan. It had rolled onto its back, the white underbelly exposed. Up near its head, where Allistor assumed its gills would normally be, there was a massive, gaping hole. The shark’s body must have lodged somewhere in its throat when the monster began pulling the boat, keeping it from swallowing its meal.
When they pulled alongside, Dan said, “Quick! Jump down and loot it!” He took hold of the unused steel cable on the other crane and set the winch to unwind. Pulling the cable toward the port side where the carcass was now floating, he took a moment to tie a heavy rope through the eye at the cable’s end. Tying the other end of the rope to a stanchion, he waited for the cable to unwind a bit more, then leaped over the edge.
Allistor looked on with astonishment as the man fell ten feet or so into the water, slapping the sea monster’s belly as he fell past. Loot secured, he kicked his feet and swam underneath the monster’s tail. Surfacing on the other side, he used one arm to hold himself against the tail, while he tried to wrap the cable around it with the other.
“Need some help down here! Some muscle! And hurry before the sharks start to show up!”
Allistor, shook his head, thinking the man was crazy. But he wasn’t about to leave one of his people in danger by himself. So he jumped over the rail, imitating Dan as he touched the monster’s flesh and looted it before his head plunged below the bloodstained surface. He swam over to where he saw Dan’s legs pumping, then surfaced.
As quickly as they could, the two men wrapped the cable several times around the monster’s tail in front of the split tail fin. Once Dan was happy that it was secure, they swam to the ship’s stern and climbed out. Several of the others who’d jumped in to loot the monster were already back on deck and McCoy reached down to lend a helping hand.
The minute Dan was back on deck, he grabbed the rope that was attached to the cable and wrapped it around one of the winches. Activating the machine, he watched carefully as the four-inch thick rope was hauled in slowly. Eventually, the lead end of the cable was pulled in as well, and Allistor helped Dan secure it with a massive clamp attached to the base of the crane.
Turning to shout up at the bridge, he shouted, “Home! Fast!”
The engines kicked in again, and the ship began to pick up speed. Bagwell steered her back toward the island and the cove. Allistor and the others watched as the massive mosasaur’s corpse was turned in the water, then pulled by its tail like a gigantic tuna being hauled in. The carcass shed a trail of blood and bits of flesh as the boat moved faster and the wake caused the catch to bob and thrash along.
McCoy started to chuckle, then laugh loudly, slapping one knee. The others looked at him like he was insane. Allistor finally asked, “What’s so funny?”
McCoy took a few deep breaths, then said, “It just occurred to me that maybe that thing isn’t the biggest baddest fishy down there. What if right now we’re using it as bait for an even bigger sea monster?”
“Nope.” Allistor started shaking his head. “Uh uh. No way. Why would you even say that?” He pushed McCoy away from him slightly, the man laughing again. “You know the rules! Never say shit like that when you’re in a dungeon or hostile territory! The RNG will make your worst nightmares come true!”
The others on the deck all began to look around, searching the water for any sign of another monster. Allistor crossed his fingers, and moved over to the radio. Pressing the talk button, he said, “McCoy just cursed us. I need you to move this thing as fast as it will go!”
He wasn’t sure, but it sounded like the ship’s engines cranked up a bit higher. At least, that’s what he convinced himself as he moved back to near the aft rail to watch the monster being dragged behind them. A moment later, Dan was pushing him to one side, pointing from the sea monster in the water to the crane it was attached to.
“If something bigger takes that bait, you don’t want to be between the fish and the crane.”
Allistor nodded his thanks, and took a few more steps to the side, just to be sure.
None of the crew relaxed during the short voyage back to the cove. Dan directed Bagwell to steer the ship right into the protected and shallower waters of the cove, rather than parking it at anchor where it had been before. He’d played the line out a bit more while they’d been moving fast, letting the creature’s weight pull it farther astern. Then he went up to consult with Bagwell.
When they entered the cove, he steered the ship as close to shore as he dared, then turned her hard to port and cut the power down to one quarter. The ship slowed as it turned, the prow getting too close to the cliffs for Allistor’s comfort. But the maneuver worked, and the monster’s momentum carried it into the shallows where it beached itself in about ten feet of water not far from the docks. The ship came to a halt at the mouth of the cove, her bow pointed out toward open water. A moment later, the anchor dropped, and the crew gave a loud cheer.
*****
There was a huge feast that night at every Stronghold in Allistor’s domain. The leviathan provided enough meat to feed everyone, and then some. Meg and Sam consulted with some of the others who’d raised their Cooking skill, and passed around recipes. The leviathan meat was alternately grilled, sautéed, broiled, served raw like sushi, stewed, and smoked. Whichever method and recipe the various chefs used, the base buff from the meat was +4 Strength, +3 Stamina, and +10% Health Regeneration for six hours. Many of the chefs managed to increase those numbers with their techniques.
Allistor made sure a good store of the meat was preserved in rings for use before battles or dungeon runs. Buffs like that shouldn’t be wasted. Fuzzy helped himself to the chunks of leviathan meat left on the beach after it was butchered, plopping right down in the shallow water and eating his fill. Allistor swore the bear consumed his own weight.
The remaining goblins were quickly executed by the lowest level people at Pelican Bay who were willing to participate. The kills earned them several levels, and they were allowed to keep any loot they were awarded. One of the young women who stepped up and took part in the execution received a scroll for a spell called Fade that would put the user in stealth mode, making them nearly invisible. She was thrilled, and was about to open the scroll and learn the spell when Allistor stopped her. It took some persuading, but eventually she agreed to let Ramon and his people copy the scroll first. Allistor ended up paying her ten thousand klax to wait a few days before learning the spell. He also secured her promise not to share that fact with anyone. He didn’t want it to become a trend to charge him for use of the scrolls that were looted.
Happy with the day’s events, and glad to have the goblin prisoner issue resolved, Allistor returned with Fuzzy to the high rise in Invictus and spent a quiet evening with Amanda, Helen, and the two girls. Fuzzy was quickly banished to a corner near the window after he tried to lick Addy with leviathan-guts breath.
Chapter 13
Morning brought some interesting news. The moment Allistor was awake and moving, Nigel informed him that he had a message from Gene.
“Go ahead and play it for me please, Nigel.”
“Hey Allistor, it’s Gene.” Allistor rolled his eyes. “So between my guys and me, and the robots, we’ve managed to repair
the colony ship. I thought we might take it for a spin. Interested in coming along?”
“Hell yes I’m interested!” Allistor’s grin spread from ear to ear. He reached over and began to shake Amanda. “Did you hear that? The colony ship is flying again! Let’s go check it out!”
She mumbled into her pillow, something about “seen one, seen ‘em all” and swatted blindly at him to shoo him away.
“Okay fine. Stay here and sleep. If you don’t mind, maybe find something for the girls to do today? They seem to like cooking, but maybe there’s another craft they’re interested in?”
She just shot him a very specific hand gesture and pulled a blanket over her head.
Chuckling to himself, he grabbed a shower and headed down to the lobby. It was past sunrise, and his people were bustling around, some grabbing breakfast, others moving to use the market kiosk. Battle droid guards stood motionless in various spots around the building, only their eyes moving to track potential targets.
He stopped at the main dining hall and grabbed some toast, bacon, and orange juice. While he was eating, he asked Nigel to put him in touch with Gene.
“Morning, boss.”
“Hey Gene! Great news about the colony ship! I’m headed to see you in a few. Is it like, fully repaired? As in safe to fly? I thought I’d bring a few people and get them started on some crew skills, but if the ship might crash…”
“The goblins weren’t that great at maintenance. I think the ship is actually in better condition than when it first arrived. The droids are amazing when it comes to repairs, and they only stop working to recharge.” He was talking a mile a minute, and Allistor grinned at his bacon. “Oh! And all of us have leveled up our Mechanic, Engineering, and Circuitry Repair skills. I didn’t even have that last skill until yesterday. Now it’s level four!”
“Okay, okay. You can tell me all about it when I get there. I haven’t seen the bridge yet, what kind of stations does it have? Like, navigation, weapons, and such?”
“Umm… Communications, Sensors, Navigation, Weapons, Engineering, Logistics… that’s all that I remember.”
“Alright, I’ll round up some people, and I’ll see you soon.”
Chewing and swallowing his last bit of bacon, he gulped down a long drink of his orange juice. He took a quick look at the clock on his interface, which read 9:30am in his time zone. “Nigel, loudspeaker please, everywhere except the west coast.” He didn’t want to scare people out of their beds.
“Go ahead, Sire.”
“Good morning everyone! Prince Fancypants here. I’ve just been informed that the colony ship we captured has been repaired. We’re going to take it for a little test flight later this morning. The thing is, that ship, and our other one too, need crews to operate them.”
He paused for the newly-awakened to get their brains on straight. “That’s right! We’re gonna have our very own space fleet! Well, right now it’s three ships. But hey, it’s only been a few days, right? Anyway, I need bridge crew that are interested in navigation…” He ran through the list that Gene had given him. When he was done, he added, “We’re also going to need engineers and mechanics to make repairs or modifications to the ships. We’ll need a chef on each one, and some kitchen… excuse me, some galley crew to assist with cooking, cleaning, and serving.”
He paused to try and picture all the old Star Trek episodes he’d watched. “We’ll need somebody to run the cargo bay, and a few fighters, I’m sure. So, if you’re interested in serving at least part time on a spaceship… how cool does that sound?” He paused to wink at some of the people standing nearby. “Report to the Citadel in thirty minutes. We’ll all take a ride, and see if we can’t figure out who will be good at what.”
Several of the people who were already in the building came toward him to ask questions or volunteer. He got them to ask one at a time, and answered loud enough for everyone to hear. About a dozen people had volunteered, and they were all heading toward the teleport pad when he heard his name being shouted by a familiar voice. And not in a happy tone.
“Allistor!” He turned and spotted Amanda coming toward him, the two teenage girls behind her.
“Hey hun! I thought you were going to sleep in.” He knew by the look she gave him then that he’d said the absolute wrong thing.
“I was indeed going to sleep in. Then some fool made an announcement about training to be space cadets or some shit.” She gave him an even dirtier look, and pointed over one shoulder with her thumb. “These two came bursting in demanding that they be allowed to go. Wouldn’t let me go back to sleep until I brought them down here. You wanted me to find something they were interested in? Mission accomplished! They’re all yours. I’m going back to bed.” Without another word she turned and strolled back toward the elevators.
The two girls tried to look contrite, but were clearly too excited to pull it off. “Can we come with you? Amanda said it was okay!”
Allistor shook his head, unable to resist their enthusiasm. “Don’t make a habit of waking Amanda when she’s trying to sleep in. She knows all the most painful places to poke and cut you.”
Both of their eyes widened for a moment, until his grin escaped. Relaxing, they immediately started bombarding him with questions as they all walked toward the pad. “Nigel, please request that Gralen and his top three senior officers join us.”
“It shall be done, Sire.”
A minute later they were climbing into a caravan of vehicles and driving down to the airport where the ship was secured, along with a few hundred others, including four of the beastkin mercenaries.
Gene greeted them at the ramp that led up into the cargo bay. Allistor shook the man’s hand in greeting. “Great job, Gene!”
“Thanks, Allistor. I heard your message about recruits. FYI, when you do those, it broadcasts in the ship, too. Made Parkins bump his head on a console.” He grinned and nodded toward a scowling man that had to be Parkins.
Gene continued, motioned Allistor and the others to follow him up the ramp. “So we didn’t have a whole lot of time to prepare, but we’ve got tables and crates set up here in the cargo bay for interviews. Based on the crowd behind you, I’m guessing that will take a good part of the day.” He paused, smiling, then spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“But there’s no reason we can’t be airborne while we work!”
There was a cheer from the volunteers and the engineers who’d already been working on the ship. Everyone climbed the ramp and gathered near the center of the cargo area where a space had been cleared. A unit of twenty battle droids stood guard around the bay’s perimeter, while another twenty stood in formation near a charging station.
“Alright people,” Allistor raised his hands. “Gene here is going to the bridge to fire this baby up in a few minutes. Before he does that, I’d like to choose a few of you to accompany him and begin to get some experience at the various operations stations. So raise your hand if you’re here for navigation.” Maybe a dozen hands went up. Too many, if each station had that many hopefuls. He ran through the other posts that Gene had listed, and in each case there were multiple applicants. Weapons was the most popular, with close to forty volunteers, nearly all men.
“Well, that’s not going to work.” Allistor observed. “Okay, navigation. I’m thinking of a number between one and fifty. Closest gets first shift on the bridge.”
The prospective navigators shouted out numbers, and one was chosen. He used the same process for each of the other stations. When they had their first bridge crew chosen, Allistor asked Gene to lead them to the bridge.
“Gralen. You and your officers are the only ones here with knowledge of what skills are best suited to the various posts on a ship like this.” He held up a hand as the mercenary started to object. “I know, you run a military ship, and this is a colony ship. But it can’t be that different, can it?”
Gralen looked like he still wanted to object, but just shrugged instead.
“That’s wh
at I like! Such confidence!” Allistor winked at him. “Alright people! Captain Gralen and his officers are going to set up at tables and interview each of you. They’ll ask you some questions about your skills, what your goal is here today, and… I don’t know. Please answer them honestly and completely, so they can help us figure out who’s best suited for the various crew positions. And keep in mind, we have three ships now, so there are lots of positions to go around. And by the time we leave Earth to take the fight off-world, we may have more ships.” There was a spattering of cheers from the group.
“But before you sit down, I want to be clear. If you sign up to crew one of these ships, you will be putting yourself in harm’s way. We’ll be leaving Earth sooner than later, with the intent to make trouble among the aliens. It might be a suicide mission. We could be blown out of the sky by hostile forces before we leave Earth’s atmosphere.”
Allistor looked around at the suddenly less enthusiastic faces. “There’s no shame in going home. We’ve all had to fight to survive this first year. We’ve all lost family, friends, people we cared about. I know I’d like to just settle down and enjoy some peace and quiet for a while. And I wouldn’t blame any of you for feeling the same. Anybody who feels like returning home, head on back to the Citadel and get a nice breakfast.” He gave them what he hoped was a reassuring smile, then turned and left the cargo bay, headed for the front of the ship.
The moment he stepped through the door, two things made him shake his head. First, he realized he had no idea where the bridge was. And second, he heard Gralen begin to shout. “Line up in four columns! Bridge crew wannabes to the left. Engineering next. Fighters in third column! Support in column four!” After a brief pause and a question Allistor couldn’t make out, Gralen added, “Support is cooking, cleaning, maintenance, cargo… everything that doesn’t fit into the first three.
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