Elise Runs and Dorothy Falls

Chapter 28

Now Tyrio had lost his cook, too. He hadn't understood half the things the witch shouted at him—in that inner city accent she had—but he got the gist of it. She didn't like him.

Well he didn't like her, either.

The sky above them grew steadily darker, but, with Giada's help, Elise and Dorothy managed to mend the holes in upper and lower viewing windows. They wouldn't be rained on, at least for a little while. The Wall Cloud could not have been more than an hour away now: the last horizon of humankind as they knew it.

"Welp, we'd best settle in for a bumpy ride." The voice came from behind them. "Think we could get a hand? The rest is back in the first crew quarters."

Turning, the girls found Tyrio and Albbenaro joining them with camp rolls, blankets, towels, sundry provisions, and even a gas lantern. You can imagine how encumbered two four-foot goblins looked bearing it all!

"What is all this?" Elise asked as Dorothy went to help.

"Well you see, Elise, it's like this. Albb and I managed to get the environmental stabilizers operative again, and even aft and port thrusters. BUT, given the fact if we turned around we'd be blown away by roughly six hundred Air Army interceptors, we decided our only choice was to keep on trucking the way we're headed and reserve as much fuel as possible. Therefore, starting now, we're going to shut down virtually all our systems—lights included—and route all our power into one endeavor: not crashing into the ocean."

"You mean... we're going INTO that thing?" Elise turned around and looked at it; it fell with lightning. Her voiced cracked, "But I thought the whole point of fixing the engines was to get away from it!"

"He's right." Dorothy returned with more camp rolls and provisions. Alexis went and returned with her suitcase as though awaiting a connecting flight. "We can't go back to Unum." Dorothy dropped her load. "One bein' we probably wouldn't make it. Two, I'm sick of runnin'." She shook sharp bangs from her eyes. "Beyond that cloud are lands where not one of us is an outlaw or a second-class citizen... I could go for that about now. Couldn't you?"

"But how do we know there are lands beyond it? For all we know, it could be an endless expanse of death!"

"Eh, don't sweat it, kid," said Tyrio, rolling out a sleeping bag himself. Albbenaro had begun to clear a space at the back of the bridge between the tactical console and the exit. "If you haven't lived through a killer storm then you haven't lived. I tell you what, when I was a wee gobbler, we would get the biggest darn storms you could imagine. Used to collect the lightning as a power source. Got electrocuted once or twice, but that's what being a goblin is all about!"

Elise would have said she wasn't a goblin if saying say so would have helped, but the decision had been made. On her hands and knees, in a position she was used to and felt secure by, Giada began to arrange towels and blankets for everyone to sit on. Albbenaro sat down the gas lamp in the center. Outside, the suns were just about gone.

At that moment Father Sergius stepped onto the bridge. His expression didn't bode good tidings.

"Your friend John isn't... responding to treatments, captain," he said with some difficulty. His face looked haggard and exhausted. "I can't tell you why, only that something is mighty wrong."

Tyrio nodded, stony faced. "Bring him here. We're shutting down heating and light all over the ship."

"Aye. Could I get some help with the stretcher?"

"Help him," Dorothy said to Alexis.

"Yes, captain," Alexis said, heading out after Father Sergius. Tyro turned to Dorothy with combative eyes.