Voyage of the Stardancer

Chapter 7-The Voyage Begins

So with a crew of twenty five not counting Brigsy and I, consisting of Brindacs fifteen Soldats, with the rest of the volunteers made up of Gentecs including Oberon and Telbar with his Hydrotec sailors who sailed the boats in the vast underground lake we cast off. Using a communications satellite left in high orbit by the Stardancer to guide us via our modified translators we set off in the gathering dusk, which we thought would be safer. With the oars out we sailed past the wrecks of the private vessels in lines by the jetties, most sunk at their mooring, some just seaweed covered skeletons, looking like some long dead dinosaurs rib cage. Protema , with the crew pulling strongly made head way out into the huge natural bay. I watched as the Andorians looked on as we passed the last of the moored wrecks, the sadness on their faces portraying the loss of things that their people had achieved, and the generations of their ancestors that had never seen what they had lost as a nation. The sail was raised and with a sharp crack, filled out and took the wind, the Protema surged forward like an unleashed animal, so with the oars shipped, the voyage had begun. Telbar who led the Hydrotec sailors, stood holding on to the prow, spray bursting from Protema's bow, obviously enjoying himself. I joined him and with a huge grin and wet face he said that the wind on the underground lake was never like this, so exhilarating. Suddenly Oberon shouted a warning to look to our left; he could just make out in the poor light a small gunboat like vessel had left the navel dockyard in the far distance on the far side of the bay and was heading in our direction at high speed. I looked at Brigsy in dismay, were we going to be killed by the Andorians Guardian before we even left the bay to stop this madness and save the survivors of a once peacefull people dragged into a war they did not want. I told Telbar to hold course because we could do nothing to defend ourselves. Brindac shouted that we should of brought his Soldats projectile weapons, I said that if I think what will happen when the patrol boat sensors no threat we will be left alone, Brindac looked at me and gripped his bow and quiverfull of arrows, a poor substitute for his assault rifle. The gunboat arrived, its engine powering down and the hull settling into the water with roar as its wake caught up with it, it was around fifteen metres long with a small streamlined superstructure with no windows. A small calibre twin barrelled gun turret mounted on the bow swivelled into our direction, an infra-red type camera scanning us in the on-coming twilight. It circled around the Protema a couple of times, everybody dreading the deadly noise of the weapon firing, which would rip us and the flimsy craft to shreds. Suddenly the gunboats engine increased in power, the vessel obviously satisfied we posed no threat, and with the hull lifting out of the water by  its powerful engine, it sped away back towards the Dockyard. Brindac looked at me and nodded a huge look of relief on his and everyone's faces, including ours! We left the sheltered waters of the bay and into the open sea, the Protema riding the wave troughs, her prow cutting though the peaks with spray bursting over the gunwales. Good time was made and by mid-morning the next day we passed the much fought over islands of Eldin, a desolate place of destroyed overgrown buildings, with bomb craters littering the hill sides. I wondered whether they were still fighting on the island or had it become some sort of no man's land. An Andorian jet appeared coming in low, it screamed thirty metres overhead, the engine noise deafening us, we crouched down in the boat wondering once again if this was the end of us and the voyage. It too circled low over our position as if waiting for further commands, and then without warning banked over and was gone. The noise slowly getting fainter as the aircraft headed back to the mainland, the lack of weapons and metal in the construction of Protema appeared to be working and making us a non threatening target. With Eldin dropping behind us, the next landfall would be the Minevian mainland.