The Captain's Trial (8)

Writers: Anaria
Date Posted: 6th June 2011

Characters: Tiernan, Paraner, Hawthen
Description: Recovering from the damage, and the losses.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 2, day 8 of Turn 6
Notes: For point of reference, the Seawing is loosely based of the
Clipper ships of the mid 1800s. It is designed to travel extremely
quickly with a small to moderate amount of cargo and a somewhat small
crew.

While the storm had began slowly, it had disappeared in a hurry. The
clear night sky was the first bit of mercy that the weather had shown
the crew of the Seawing, and Tiernan wasn't about to let it slip away.
Quickly grabbing maps and star charts, he located the primary
constellations of the night sky. Then he tracked the placement of the
moons of Pern, in order to figure out what time it was. "A hair after
the middle of the night..." Tiernan muttered to himself. The storm had
hit around noon time. Had it really been half a day? He felt like he'd
been fighting the storm for years. He knew his crew felt the same. The
apprentices had lost the spring in their steps and the older crew
members were too weary to even complain about the pain in their bones.

While many ships had a separate navigator, Navigation was Tiernan's
speciality, and he prefered to handle it himself. It was a mix of
exact calculations regarding the position of astrological bodies, and
of pure gut instinct. "Hmmmm," he hummed to himself, double checking
his calculations.

"Well sir? Where are we?" Paraner asked after some time.

"Under normal speeds, we're about 5 days journey North of Topaz Sea
Hold," Tiernan said. "Under present conditions, who knows," Tiernan
said, sighing as he studied the two remaining masts. The one aft of
the middle had been heavily damaged by the lightning strike as well.
"With Galliet's condition, I think it's best if we try to contact the
Hall and get a tow to the nearest dock." It wasn't an option Tiernan
wanted to use, as he felt like a failure if his ship couldn't limp
back under it's own power. "At minimum, we need to tell them that the
shipment for the North is damaged." Tiernan collected the maps and
charts, and folded them up carefully so they wouldn't get damaged. The
absolute last thing they needed would be to be sailing blindly like
this.

The goods that the Seawing had been carrying included barrels of wine
and other alcohols, in addition to some wood, and some textiles. Many
of the barrels had come loose in the cargo Hold, letting loose their
contents over the textiles. At least the wood was in good order.
Tiernan hoped that his otherwise flawless record with deliveries would
make up for this one incident. It all depended on whether the Masters
at the Hall thought that he'd made the right decisions given the
conditions. They would likely also want details about Fievan's death,
and he wasn't certain what he was going to tell them.

"I spoke to the cook. Many of our dry food supplies got waterlogged in
the storm," Paraner said, his face grim. "I'm not certain how long
we're going to be able to survive on what we have left."

"Oh... food..." Tiernan said, with a sigh. His stomach rumbled, and
his mouth was parched. "I haven't even eaten since this all started."

Paraner tossed Tiernan some hard rolls, and a piece of fruit, and
Tiernan munched on both while he considered what course of action was
best. "I'm going to see if Squirt can be coerced to deliver a message
for us," Tiernan said. Squirt was the only firelizard aboard the ship,
and while he was occasionally a good messenger, more often than not he
was lazy. Tiernan entered his quarters, and searched for the tiny
firelizard. There weren't _that_ many good hiding places in there, but
Squirt had a knack of finding all of them. Just when he was about to
give up and declare the creature lost, he peeked into the back corner
of one of his locked desk drawers. "You clever git," he said, shaking
his head ruefully. "I forget that locks don't stop things that can go
/between/."

"C'mon, friend, you need to deliver a message," Tiernan said.

~~fear~~ Squirt sent back, peaking his head up.

"The storm is over now, it'll be alright. Come on now, we really need
you to take a message to the Dockmaster at Topaz," Tiernan said,
sending loving thoughts to the firelizard.

Squirt made an unhappy noise, and tucked his head back under a wing
protectively. Tiernan kicked the desk in angry frustration, then
hopped around in pain. He'd forgotten just how hard "hard wood" could
be. Tiernan could only hope that Squirt would come around soon. If he
didn't, his first purchase when he got back to the dock would be an
egg containing a gold or bronze!

Nearly 12 candlemarks had passed since the beginning of the storm.
Hawthen continued to keep Galliet knocked out with fellis, although he
wasn't certain how long their supply would last. Their glows were
getting dimmer, and Tiernan didn't want to use more if they didn't
know how long they'd be stuck adrift at sea.

"Paraner!" He called out, heading back to the main deck. "Order the
crew to their beds. We'll sleep now, and see what more we can do when
Rukbat rises.

"Aye Captain," Paraner said.

Tiernan entered his quarters and closed the door behind him, before
sliding down onto the floor, his momentum thoroughly spent. Ever inch
of his body ached - every bit of skin, every muscle, he would even
swear that his hair was sore.

He though of his father - the noble, perfect sea captain, that
everyone on the Seacraft wanted to be like. The one who always made
the right decisions, and treated his crew with respect. The one who
loved his wife and children more than anything else...

Or did he?

Tiernan let his head fall back, and it collided with the door with a
solid **THUMP**. All his life he'd wanted to be like his father. Did
that mean that he was living a lie? One day. Twelve candlemarks. That
was all it took to turn a confident man into a mess of doubts.

Last updated on the June 13th 2011

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The Captain's Trial (8)