Chapter 1: The Hunt

The sun was bright as Captain Jake Harrow maneuvered his ship, My Lady’s Dreams, trying to give his lookouts a better angle. My Lady’s Dreams, or the Lady as the crew called her, was an eeler. The Lady was a very successful hunter of sky eels. If the truth was told she was the most successful eeler in three countries. The reason for her success was the captain and his crazy ideas on how to catch the eels. Captain Harrow had grown up on the Lady. She had been his father’s airship. She was named My Lady’s Dreams, because Lloyd Harrow told his wife, “With this ship, I will fill your every dream.” Captain Jake Harrow had started helping on the ship at age six. His father, who was rarely home, promised young Jake if he got good grades he could go with My Lady when school was out.

Not only did Jake’s grades improve, but he also got perfect marks. Every year he earned perfect marks, and every summer he spent on My Lady, or as his mother called it “The Other Woman.” Lloyd never struck it rich like he planned. His family was far from starving. In fact, they lived rather well. Lloyd though was never satisfied with good enough. He always had to try for one more run. “One more good run this year dear and we’ll be set.” His wife loved him dearly and only on very rare occasions did she complain. Like when he missed the birth of his daughter ‘doing just one more run.’ Oh yes, she complained that time. She complained so loudly when he returned to port, that to this day women threaten to do a Molly if their husbands don’t behave. When he missed the birth of their second son, and his death a week later, Molly Harrow never said a word. Lloyd told his First Mate the silence was far worse than her yelling.

Jake never saw the Lady as his future. He planned to be a great Air Corps officer. He entered the Academy at age sixteen. He was accounted a good student and a bright young officer. He was posted to several prestigious vessels and saw action on more occasions than he would speak of. He was in a hospital in the capital recovering from a bullet wound to the leg when the news reached him of his father’s death. Pirates had attacked My Lady’s Dreams, and Captain Lloyd Harrow had been fatally wounded. The first mate was able to outrun the pirates and save the ship and crew. Jake left on an Air Corps frigate heading to his home the same day he received the news. Lloyd Harrow had already been given to the mist when his son arrived.

His mother was for selling her husband’s mistress for scrap. “That whore robbed me of many things over the years. Still, she wasn’t happy until she took his life. If I had my way, you’d take her out to the mist and burn to her keel.” When Jake offered his savings for the airship his mother refused. She said if he promised he wouldn’t let the ship ruin his life he could have it. It was his birthright after all. With his wound taking so long to heal the Air Corps had more than hinted he could transfer to the reserves, and they would be happy. That is what he did. LCDR Jake Harrow of the Allerion Crown Air Corps became Captain Jake Harrow of My Lady’s Dreams, and Lieutenant Commander Harrow of the Crown Reserve.

The first thing the new Captain Harrow did was dry dock The Lady. He and the crew refitted ship with the most modern equipment they could. Her sails were replaced with lighter and more efficient sails. Her battery bank was removed, and new nacelles replaced it. Just that upgrade lightened the lady by over a ton. Jake got lucky and salvaged four new engines from a wreck another captain told him about. Salvaging those engines took the crew two weeks. Changing out the old for the new took another two and help from two cousins of one of the crew. The Lady lost her large booms and the nets to go with them. Her lift kit was removed and replaced. She got a new helm well, new for her. The new controls came out of a wrecked pleasure craft. The controls were designed for a smaller vessel, but when they took her out, she handled better than anything her Captain had flown before. Lastly, she got a new coat of paint. Her hull was painted in varying shades of blue in a swirling pattern. All told, the lady was dry docked for three months.

It took her twenty-six-year-old captain another three months to work out his new technique. The new system Jake had thought up and had created for the Lady used six high pressure tubes to launch weights attached to a net. The nets would entangle the sky eel and then the crew would winch them aboard. The best part as far as the captain and crew were concerned was that the system could be used to fire other things besides nets if she was attacked. Now five years later My Lady’s Dreams sported four of the systems on each side of the ship. As well as one forward in the bow, and another behind the helm on the pilot deck. Her crew now consisted of eight gunners, six haulers, three spotters, a cook, the First Mate, and the Captain.

Jake rubbed the rail near the helm for lucks as he continued his high elevation hunt. The freezer was only half full and though half full was a decent haul, he and the crew were hoping for better. In recent years, a new fad had started with the wealthy eating Sky Eel. It tasted like crap in his opinion, but he had converted the hold to a freezer and smiled at the added income. It wasn’t like they skinned the eels themselves.

“Swarm two o’clock low heading for the Old Man,” cried the starboard side lookout.

Jake bellowed, “Swarm spotted. Look alive gentlemen. Here we go.”

He pointed his ship to the heading and started his dive. The lookouts called out course corrections as the swarm changed course and Jake adjusted the course of the ship. Within minutes he could see the swarm. Now was the hard part. He had to anticipate the swarm and maneuver the ship into the swarm without causing it to scatter. Then he would have to stay with the swarm for as long as he could while the crew harvested the eels. In the last five years, he had gotten very good at this little dance. He could almost feel what a swarm was going to do.

Soon Jake had the Lady sliding into the swarm. He received a challenge from one of the males as he pulled into the center, but the swarm just made room for him. The men didn’t just open up when they were in position. They had learned that lesson the hard way. If they started firing as soon as they joined the swarm the eels would scatter or dive for the mist. The trick was to wait and become a part of the swarm. Then they had to start changing course. Once the swarm was changing course to match theirs, they could begin harvesting. Soon the Lady was gliding along with swarm all around it. Twenty minutes later and the swarm was his. He nodded to the First Mate who called out the order and the harvesting began.

The swarm stayed with them for over an hour. Jake was about to call out to the First Mate when the top lookout called out a ship sighting. The ship was high and in the sun. Jake had to use a shadow box to get a good fix on it. A ship above them wasn’t troubling on its own. A stationary ship hiding in the sun glare, that was an entirely different matter. When he turned from the shadow box to call his first mate, Bowman was already at his side.

“Have them wrap up. Then get the cannons loaded to defend. I think we may have uninvited guests for supper.”

The crew went about their work with the ease of a job done many times. The haulers had the toughest job. First, they had to winch the eels onboard. Then they would determine if it was male or female. The males got the gaff. The females got returned to the sky to make more eels for the future. Jake had noticed on two occasions the females would follow the ship after being released. One had followed them all the way to port. As other airships came in sight she finally dove for the mist. His crew always counted it good luck when one of the females they released followed them even for a short time. Jake eased the helm back and the Lady slowly rose. The eels stayed with her for her initial climb. Then they began to drift back to swarm.

He stayed with the swarm as they flew. He hoped whoever was the captain of the ship marking them would think they were just taking a break. If the pirates thought, he didn’t have a full load they might wait until he did. His crew finished changing over the guns to a more lethal load than the nets. Then they started the cleanup. There was never a lot of blood on the deck from the eels, but eel blood was slicker than oil on an airship deck. Once they finished cleaning up and stowing the harvest gear they grabbed a quick bite of food.

The Lady had been extremely lucky over the last five years. She hadn’t seen a single pirate since her new captain took charge. Jake handed the helm to the first mate and went about eating. The crew’s mood was odd he thought. They seemed excited. That was normal with the hold full of eels. He thought he would see more fear with a ship high above them. They were now at five thousand feet which was three thousand higher than the mist. He used the shadow box and got a good fix on the ship. By his calculations, she was flying at close to twenty thousand feet. That meant they would be using air tanks to breathe. That meant they had a limited amount of time before they had to either attack or give up. He didn’t think they would just give up and go home.

Captain Harrow checked to make sure his revolver was fully loaded. Then he checked his sword. It was an old weapon, but that made it better in his estimation. It was a family heirloom passed down from father to son for generations. His father had given it to him when he graduated from the academy. He had used it on more than one occasion to defend himself. Its blade was a dull black denoting it to be made of Detherium. Detherium was a light hard metal, and this sword was worth almost as much as the ship he was captaining. His father had told him his thrice great grandfather had won the blade in battle against the Empire. As a boy, he had believed that story. Now he wasn’t so sure. He had seen Detherium blades of the empire, and they looked nothing like the blade he now carried.