A Trip To Tuanaki

Chapter 1

And Mal owed him a few favors, so he'd agreed, as little as he'd liked it. And now here they are with not some stolen cargo, as he'd half expected, but an entire living, breathing, human who was to be kept out of the Company's sight.

Lovely.

"Well, you'd best come up here, Alice," Mal says. "No need for you to be sleeping down there. There's a perfectly good cabin you could use."

Gunny gives Mal a pointed look. She knows perfectly well that the Ship Without A Name has precisely one cabin, and it belongs to the captain. Which means one of two things — Mal is gonna kick Den out of the kitchen and call it a cabin, or he's going to join Gunny in the crew's quarters. Either way, she's about to get a roommate, which is not something she'd agreed to.

"Since when are we taking on passengers?" she asks Mal. It's not terribly subtle, but she's not sure she has the patience to be, at this point.

"Since we needed the coin," Mal says. "She's going to Tuanaki. It won't be much trouble of a trip, and if we stop at Aparo first we can make a killing on basic supplies."

Gunny frowns, and then shrugs. "Whatever you say, Captain," she says. Her tone is only a little mocking, for which Mal silently applauds her. "You gotta sling your own hammock though."

And with that Gunny strides off. She only heads for the far side of the deck, but it's far enough from the gas lamps by the ladders that Alice has to squint to see her. "Did I say something wrong?" Alice asks.

"Not you," Mal says. "Come on, get up from there. No reason to be down there without a cargo."

Alice scampers up the rest of the ladder, and Mal watches her do it. She isn't fazed by the climbing, but she hasn't quite got airlegs, either.

"So, you spent much time on airships?" he asks. Something about this young woman is interesting, and it's not just her particular combination of youth and tricky relationship with the Company. She certainly wouldn't be the first such youth he's met. Though, of all the islands she'd choose to run away to, he couldn't imagine how she could have chosen Tuanaki.

"Not as much as I'd like," Alice admits. "I'd like to own one, but everyone takes one look at my pretty little face and tells me to go send my daddy to buy me the ship for my birthday."

"You don't look old enough to own an airship," Mal says. She still looks a teen, for all she doesn't address him like she were.

"I'm twenty years old," she says. "It's not like it's my fault I don't look it."

"Oh, please, like twenty is old enough to own an airship. No one under the age of thirty has nearly the experience they'd to sail one by themself, much less be able to manage a crew..."

"And I suppose you've always been older than thirty, hmm, Mr. Elf?" she teases. Mal looks at her sternly... and then slowly grins.

"Alright, you've got me," he says. "Elves start counting their age at thirty. So forgive me if I find it difficult to believe that you're only twenty..."

Alice grins. "Well, we humans start counting at zero. So maybe if you can make that adjustment..."

"Right," Mal says, shaking his head to hide his own grin. "Well, I'll show you the cabin, I suppose. And try not to break anything, hear. This is the only place on the ship with a locking door, so we've left some... valuables inside. I would greatly appreciate it if you could refrain from picking our locks from sheer curiosity. The locks are there for a reason."