Chapter 22: The Karenna’s First Voyage

Jake awoke for the second time with his wife in his arms. He decided Catherine was right. This was home. This ship and her. She had said this would be their home where she wanted to raise their children and live out the rest of their lives. Jake had thought it sweet she had said it. Laying in their bed this morning though, he had to agree. It was the perfect plan.

The two kissed and said what newlyweds say, then got dressed. Jake was worried they should have come and woken him when the Pride arrived. They hadn’t. That meant either the Pride didn’t arrive, or they hadn’t come to get him when the Pride did arrive. Catherine told him he was worrying over nothing. If there had been a problem the watch officer would have come and gotten him. Since they hadn’t there were no problems.

The two dressed and headed to the bridge. Catherine had been right. The Pride had rendezvoused with them. He was informed Millie had been shown to her quarters. Catherine said she placed her in her old room. Her aunt promised to help keep an eye on her.

The two made their way to the main cargo hold. The night before Jake had orders passed for the new crew members to organize and move any crates in the hold. The three airships in the large hold were moved out and secured to the main deck. Jake believed the they would fare better than the crew for an hour. Working forms on deck while your airship lazily cruised at nighttime speed was one thing. The Karenna was currently traveling at over a hundred miles an hour. There was no way he would risk any of his crew up there at these speeds. Especially not his cadets.

When they got there most of the crew and all the cadets were already waiting. Jake had Cali and Terry stand at the two main entrances to the hold and told them if anyone wanted in, they had to do twenty pushups to get past them. They both thought that was wonderful. Catherine and Jake led the stretches. Jake saw both children stop several late arrivals for pushups. When they finished stretching Jake said, “For those of you who choose to stay with us, we will have a morning and evening workout session. All crew members not on medical will be required to attend one of the two sessions. This morning being late cost twenty pushups. In the future, it will be much more expensive.”

Jake led them through the forms once then had Catherine take over as he walked around correcting those who needed it. To his surprise the cadets didn’t need as much guidance as he had expected. A cadet about nine was having trouble. She just didn’t understand, and Jake was having trouble explaining. Rebecka came to his rescue, telling the young girl to think of it as a dance. Jake moved on as Rebecka counted out the beat and the girl soon was able to follow along easily.

Jake returned to Catherine’s side and finished the last repetition with them. He was about to dismiss everyone, but his wife said, “Score a hit and you can have me this morning.” The kick she threw almost took his head off. He had still been trying to figure out her meaning. He was barely able to dodge in time to avoid the strike. Jake had to work hard to keep her from striking him. Finally, he was able to move in close and use a grapple to tumble her to ground. As soon as he did, he worried about dumping her on the deck.

Catherine rolled away and to her feet. Then moved to reengage. This time Jake was able to catch her arm and force her to surrender. When she surrendered, the hold broke out in applause. Jake whispered, “I will never willingly strike you love.”

Rebecka stepped forward and said, “What they just demonstrated is very advanced. Lady Catherine wanted you women and girls to see a woman can hold her own if she trains hard. Both of them have been training for years to get as good as they are. There is no reason all of you can’t become that good if you wish.” Then Rebecka returned to the formation.

Jake called, “Tomorrow’s session is canceled since we plan to make port. Dismissed.”

Jake and Catherine stayed a few minutes answering questions. Then made their way to their quarters. Jake learned sparring had a definite effect on his new wife. After getting cleaned up and other activities, the two dressed and went to the Captain’s dining room. Tomas, B, and Millie were already waiting.

Jake stepped around the table and pulled Millie into his arms. He held her for several seconds as she wept. When she had cried herself out, she stepped back and smiled. “You have always known when I needed a hug, and never once complained when I cried on your shoulder. I can’t thank you enough.”

“Nonsense, it’s in the contract.” She gave him a funny look. “It says in big bold print adopted son must offer Mom his shoulder to cry on and hugs when needed.” That got a smile.

“I must have missed that part when we adopted you,” she said. Jake stepped back and pulled Millie over to where Catherine was standing. “Mom meet my wife Catherine. Catherine this is Millie sometimes Mom or Mom2 if my mother is around. Since she moved to the capital it hasn’t been a problem.”

Catherine smiled and stepped forward hugging the older woman. “I’m so pleased to meet you. Don’t even think about calling me by my title. If I hear one Your Grace or Duchess from you, I’ll find the most obnoxious title in history and stick you with it. I’m Catherine to my family. Since you’re Jake’s second mom that makes us family.”

“Very well, Catherine it is. I have to say you are a very lucky woman. I have known for years it would take a special woman to catch Jake’s heart. Part of that was Bridget’s fault. Having a voluptuous young woman telling you she will blow you up if she catches you looking at her chest, made him a bit gun shy around females,” Millie informed her.

“Yes, I heard about that. Bridget and I have an agreement. She and I are friends and will remain friends until she threatens to blow him up again. If that ever happens, I’ll hunt her down and skin her alive,” Catherine said

“Catherine, you didn’t say that to her, did you?” B asked

“I most certainly did. She said good. I can be your friend on those terms,” Catherine said.

“Yes, that sounds like my wonderful Bridget. One thing she hates is weak women. If you don’t show her you’re just as strong as she is, she doesn’t think you’re worth her time. Since she has never found someone who was her intellectual equal, including my husband, she looks for other traits of strength by pushing a person’s buttons,” Millie said. She turned to Jake and asked, “How is the little walking stick of dynamite?”

Jake sighed. “Let’s sit while we eat, I’ll tell you about her blowing up not one but two mountains.” The five of them sat and May started serving their breakfast. Jake told Millie of all her daughter’s exploits. When they had finished eating, they moved to the sitting room. Jake said, “I believe my wife has been successful in getting her interested in one of our crew. Paul Kennedy has become both her lab assistant and her lab rat. I think. I know of three occasions she said the two of them had other experiments to conduct, and Paul blushed. This was after Catherine pointed out her earlier method of scientific experimentation with the opposite sex was flawed. Like I said, I think the two are a couple. I have been afraid to ask. I didn’t want to derail any progress Paul has made. I know he is head over heels in love with her.”

“Wow. That is much more than I ever hoped for. She can be so stubborn. You said you would wait until I got here to tell her about Maynard. Is that still true?” Millie asked.

“Yes. I still haven’t told her,” Jake said.

Before they could continue the discussion the door to the sitting room opened and Bridget came in. “Good morning, Captain. Good morning, mother. First, I know daddy is dead. Second, I am not mad at either of you. Third, if you’re here to take me home you have wasted your time. I’m not leaving. If Jake won’t let me stay on the ship, then Bookend and I will find some place to set up a lab. Before you threaten me, I promise no even remotely dangerous experiments on the ship. Furthermore, I will teach advanced science to your cadets. Four hours a week. Bookend will teach emergency repairs four hours a week. Additionally, we will ensure you have enough rockets to defend this ship. Jake, I’m asking you this as a favor. Please don’t make me leave.”

“Bridget, we’ll work it all out. I promise. One question what have you been working on?” Jake said.

“Fireworks. That reminds me. Catherine, would you do me a favor and have one of your reporters print there will be a firework display an hour before dawn the day we arrive at the capital in memory of Dr. Maynard Williams.”

“I would be happy to do that for you,” Catherine said.

Bridget sighed. Then said, “Mom I love you, but I have so much more work to get done. I promise when we get to the Capital you and I will sit and have a very long mother daughter talk. That should be interesting. I have so much to tell you.” She turned to the door and said, “Bookend get in here.” Paul came through the door. “Mom Bookend. Bookend Mom. His name is Paul Kennedy, but the foolish man doesn’t think I can go a year only calling him Bookend. Daddy wrote me a letter, right?” When Millie nodded. Bridget said, “Keep it until tomorrow. It will just make me cry. I can’t cry yet. I have too much to do.” She stepped over to Millie and gave her a long hug and then a kiss on the cheek. Then whispered in her mother’s ear, “Paul doesn’t know it, but he will be my children’s father. I love you so much,” then she stood and disappeared through the open door calling, “Close the door and hurry up. we have a lot to get done before tomorrow morning Bookend.” Paul gave them a casual wave, and a shrug, then closed the door as he backed out saying, “It was nice to meet you, ma’am.”

Millie burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she had tears in her eyes. It took her several seconds to get herself under control. Then she stood and walked over and gave him a huge kiss on the cheek. “We did it. My little girl is in love. I couldn’t be happier.” She turned and said, “Tomas, B, you must think rather poorly of me, but that was one of the best conversations I have ever had with my daughter. Normally it’s biting wit and snarky retorts with an occasional I love you thrown in. By the stars my little girl has found a husband. Wait, that wasn’t what she said. Oh, blast that girl. All she said was he was the future father not the future husband. I wonder if he realizes she’ll never marry him.”

“Wait, what? Millie, I don’t understand. Maybe if you explain it we can help. Do you mean she’ll never marry him?” Catherine asked.

Millie sighed and sat back down. Then she explained, “When Bridget was younger, she figured out I was trying to get her and Jake together. I told you what a disaster that turned out to be. She told me if I ever did such a thing again, she would never get married. I forgot about the conversation, or maybe I just ignored it. A year later I met a nice young man and invited him to dinner. I still haven’t forgiven myself for that. I’m sure he hasn’t either. Maynard came in, saw the young man, and nodded. Then asked him to take a walk he had something to show him. I wasn’t too worried. There were no explosions like when he would take our older daughter’s suitors for the walk. That was a mistake. Instead of his usual threat of blowing the man up he showed him some acid he had that ate through steel. Then said if the man upset his daughter, they would never find his body to give to the mist. The poor man was white as a ghost when the two returned.” She paused thinking about the event.

“If he thought the worst was over, he was sadly mistaken. Bridget and my husband spent the entire meal asking him what he knew about one chemical or another. Bridget even started asking if he knew what would happen if she sprinkled some this and some of that on his food. I wasn’t surprised when he refused dessert and claimed he had a very busy next day. I saw him run from the front steps to his runabout. When I returned to the table the two were laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. I lost my temper and started yelling. That is always a mistake with Bridget. Whenever someone yells at her it is always the same result, like one of their known experiments. First, she goes quiet, then she gets angry, then she makes you wish you had never spoken. The first time she did it she was six, and the recipient was a teacher at school. The man should never have yelled. She started firing off questions he couldn’t answer. Making each one sound like the simplest question when she gave the answer. She kept on until he fled the class. Well, that night I was the recipient of her ire. She never said a word until I finished. Then she stood and said, Mother I told you if you meddled in my affairs again, I would never marry. I was willing to let it pass, since Daddy and I both enjoyed ourselves. After what you just said, that has changed. I swear by all the gods by all the stars and by science itself I will never get married as long I live. If I ever have children, they will all be bastards with our family’s name. This I swear. Anytime she swears on science you know it is either an indisputable fact or it will be. I wonder if she has told him yet,” Millie finished.

No one knew what to say. Even Jake had never heard the story. He knew she always said she would never marry, but he had thought she might change her mind. He didn’t think so anymore.

Catherine said, “Hmm, well. We’ll just have to think of a way to challenge her belief. That worked last time. I don’t see why it wouldn’t again.”

Jake said, “Because this isn’t based on faulty data. This is based on an oath she made to science. It will be like trying to use logic to sway a deeply devout person their god doesn’t exist. It won’t work. I’m all for you trying to reason with her love. I will even talk to her about it. I just don’t think we will be successful. Sorry.”

The conversation was dead after that. Millie, Catherine, and the older couple headed off to their rooms. Millie promised to bring Jake his letter when Catherine gave her the tour. Jake headed off to check on the ship’s progress.

Jake was pleasantly surprised to learn Gran had already slowed the Karenna and re-secured the three ships in the hold and then returned to full speed while he was eating breakfast and talking to Millie. He had expected to have to do it. She informed him those ships had been causing too much drag and slowing them down. Based on their progress so far, they would have to slow down or they would reach the Capital just after midnight. Jake decided to wait until they were closer before adjusting their speed. They could always creep along for a couple hours. It was impossible to go faster than your ship’s maximum speed. Well, mostly impossible.

Before going to his office, he requested, “Will you send for cadet Mary please. I have a task I think she can help me with.”

“Of course, Captain,” Gran said.

Jake locked his office door open. Then he sat at his desk and read through the night’s logs. He was just pulling out his Captain’s log when Mary arrived. “You wanted me, Captain?” she asked very hesitantly.

“I did. I have a job I think you can help me with.” He stood and returned his logbook. Then gathered up all the messages on his desk and from where he had stuffed them in his desk. “These are all the messages that we have been getting from people. Most are just people sending congratulations. Some for the Karenna and some for the wedding. What I would like you to do, is sort them. Read each one then decide where it should go. Some of them may have something important hidden in them. Make one pile for all the ‘Well-done Karenna’. Make another for the ‘you tied the knot.’ If a message says both put it in a different pile. Anything that doesn’t fit into those three, place in its own pile. I’ll help you with those later. Think you can do this for me?” Jake asked.

“Yes, Sir. I can do it,” she promised.

Jake worked on his logbook. He hadn’t written in it since before he had gotten married. A lot had happened in the last two days. Jake looked up when he heard Mary say, “I’ll take those. Anything important you can place on the Captain’s desk. The rest I get.”

Tammy looked to Jake for confirmation. Jake said, “You heard my cadet. Anything important or needing my immediate attention goes on my desk. She gets everything else.”

Tammy said, “Yes, Sir.”

Jake went back to his logs. None of the message slips landed on his desk so he tuned out the two as Mary explained what she was doing. He didn’t hear Tammy offer to help or her niece refuse the offer and explain this was her task and she planned to do it properly. After Mary had finished Gran had told him of the conversation. She was rightfully proud of her granddaughter.

Jake helped Mary form three new piles. The first were requests for information on the Karenna. The second was for inquiries as to booking passage. The third was requests for information on their planned academy. Jake was surprised the last two pile were as large as they were. He asked, “So what do you think we should do about the requests for information on the Karenna.”

“Most of them are just people wanting to know about the ship. Those we could answer. If we did, I think we would get even more requests. That would tie up the wireless.” She scrunched up her face for several seconds. Then smiled and asked, “Could we give those to the reporters? That is like their job. They could then write the answers. People might even start sending them requests instead of us.”

“That, Cadet Mary is a perfect solution. However, you have now created more work for you and the other cadets. First you need to make a list of all the questions. Then I’ll mark off any we won’t be answering. Then you can make a nice copy of all the questions. You might want to keep track of how many times each was asked. Lastly you get to try to find the answers.” When he saw her eyes widen at the task, he said, “I don’t expect you to do it all. I think you are a good choice to be in charge though. If you don’t think you can do it, I’ll find another cadet to supervise the job.”

“No sir, I mean yes sir. I can do it,” Mary said.

“Good we’ll take those down to lunch and I’ll talk to our Cadet Mistress and ask her to assign you some help. How many do you think you need?” Jake asked her.

“If I have too many trying to write out the questions it will just make more work. One person to read the questions, then some to write them out. We could do it by areas of the ship. That would make it easier when we try to find the answers,” she said.

“Yes, it would,” Jake agreed.

“Ok, me plus four more. Do you think it would be alright to ask one of the adults to help. Not to do the work, just help us with getting them organized. I have no idea what some of the questions mean,” Mary explained.

Jake told her, “It is never wrong to ask for supervision or assistance when it is needed. More people get into trouble because they refuse to ask for help than ever got in trouble for asking. If I hadn’t asked your Gran for help this ship would still be sitting in the cave, we found her in.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Mary said.

“It’s only wrong to ask for help to dodge doing the task. Do you understand?” Jake asked.

“You mean like when one of the boys says the trash is too heavy for them to carry, but they have no trouble moving heavy parts around the yard?”

“Yea just like that,” Jake said. “What we need are some boxes.”

“I know where there are some empty boxes that are the right size. They had linens in them. Lady Catherine said to store the empty boxes so we could put them back in them when the ship went in for refit,” Mary offered.

“Excellent. I knew I had picked the right cadet for this job. It’s almost lunch time. Let’s head down and eat. Then we’ll talk to Brenda. Once you have your team you can fetch the boxes,” Jake said.

“Yes, Sir,” Mary said.

They exited his office and made their way down to lunch. Jake talked to Brenda before they ate. Brenda said she would have the group ready for Mary by the end of lunch. Jake asked Catherine if one of her ladies might be interested in assisting Mary with the project. Catherine called over Lady Ann and had Jake explain the task. Jake explained Mary was the one in charge. All she needed was an adult to help them with the questions she didn’t understand, and be there to offer her advice on leading her team. Ann said she would love to do it and went off to talk to Mary and Brenda. Jake asked Catherine what she thought they should do with all the wedding messages. She said she would ask Aunt B to go through the stack and sort them by importance.

Jake looked around then asked, “Um, love where is Millie? I thought you were going to give her the tour. You didn’t come by the bridge, and I don’t see her in here. Where is B for that matter?”

Catherine giggled. “Those two are in the nursery. Aunt B came with us for the tour. I made the mistake of asking Millie if she wanted to see the nursery. Both women about mobbed me. That was as far as the tour went. There are four infants down there. Our wonderful ship doesn’t even register as existing next to that. I tried to get them to come to lunch. When I mentioned the infants’ mothers might want them back, I thought saw flames coming from those two women’s eyes. We may have to forcibly restrain them to get the babies back to their mothers. I’m warning you it wasn’t a pretty sight.”