A few tense minutes passed as they levelled off and continued to the east. The creature had seemed to go northeast, but that didn’t mean anything when it could move so stealthily through the cloud sea.

Of course, Rhys had Zaxx give him regular updates until the creature was out of the range where Zaxx could sense it, but he couldn’t exactly tell the others that. Considering how shaken he felt right now, it must be worse for the others who lacked that knowledge.

Flying at this height was using more fuel, so Rhys started to gently drop them down until they were a little higher than their original altitude. He didn’t want to go any lower, but they couldn’t afford to strain the thrusters at the higher altitudes for no reason.

‘Captain, would you like me to take over for a while? I know that I needed to walk off the tension after seeing that beast,’ Oliver said, coming over and giving Rhys a particularly strained smile.

‘Do you know what that was?’ Rhys asked him, picturing the colossal creature in his mind once more.

‘It was a Kurador.’ Lucy said, coming over to stand next to them, Tom as few steps behind her. ‘I’ve never seen one this far out of the Expanse and never that close before. Those two rays looked a bit big for the ones you see around here, though. Maybe it followed them in. Thankfully, we weren’t worth the effort of it chasing us.’

‘You’ve seen one before?’ Oliver asked, turning a surprised expression her way.

‘Yes, but only once before. There are very few things that make rays go for the open sky. A kurador is the main one. Terrifying things, I’ve watched one destroy a frigate that tried to drive it off. Their scales are incredibly resistant to the energy from our cannons. I’ve never heard of one being more than scratched, let alone killed.’

‘Damn, that’s scary,’ Oliver said under his breath, voicing Rhys’s sentiments exactly. Given how destructive the weapons were on a ship designed for battle like a frigate, the kurador must have incredibly resistant scales.

‘I had no idea that things like that were out in the Expanse. Why do people even live there?’ Rhys asked, struggling to think of what could possibly cause him to live within the hunting grounds of such a creature.

‘They’re rare, with vast territories, so you’re unlikely to cross paths with one. They usually leave ships alone unless they’re in the way. Of course, cloud ships in the Expanse rarely go into the sea, let alone any lower, for fear of encountering something like a kurador.’

Rhys remembered his trip down into the Misting and the dread he’d felt from being so low. Now that he knew there were creatures like that living down there, it made him feel a little queasy. The Endeavour was little more than a snack to something like the kurador, and Rhys was insignificant at best.

‘Wait, how do you know all this?’ Oliver asked, cocking his head to one side as he looked at Lucy.

Rhys locked away his fear for the moment. He’d let it back out later when he was in private and process it all then. For now, he wanted to hear what Lucy had to say for herself.

‘Well, I spent a few years out in the Expanse working as a ship’s artificer and gunnery master,’ Lucy said with a slight sigh, looking away from the stunned expressions on their faces.

‘You served on a ship big enough to need an onboard artificer?’ Oliver asked, his voice rising in pitch as he spoke. ‘What are you doing here? No offence, Captain.’

‘None taken,’ Rhys said, waving away the comment.

‘Some taken. Can’t he see how superior the Endeavour is to any other ship?’ Zaxx whispered, making Rhys look down and roll his eyes at the decking. Trust Zaxx to pick that one thing to comment on out of this whole conversation.

‘Yes, well, they were very focused on their goals, and there wasn’t much time for me to do my personal projects. Plus, they had a high crew turnover, and I got tired of being questioned by the new crew when they doubted my competence. As if being a woman stopped me from being a damn good artificer.’ Lucy frowned and plunged her hands into the pockets of her overalls with a frustrated snort.

‘Well, you’re here now, and we’ll judge you on results first and foremost,’ Rhys said, making it both a statement and an order. He gave both Tom and Oliver a stern look, not that he expected them to be a problem.

‘Thank you, Captain,’ Lucy said, her frown melting away to a dazzling smile.

‘Not at all. Now, let’s all get back to work. I want one person at the prow on watch until we arrive, but rotate it around every couple of hours as well. We should be there in half a day’s travel at most.’

‘I’ll take the first watch,’ Tom said immediately, giving Rhys a determined nod as he strode back to the prow of the Endeavour.

‘I’m going to get a cup of tea and try to calm down. Care to join me?’ Oliver said, looking at Lucy.

‘In a moment, I’ll enjoy the breeze for a while first. Thank you though,’ Lucy said, turning to look out at the surrounding sky and the highest wisps of the cloud sea.

‘No problem,’ Oliver said, his eyes flicking from Lucy to Rhys before he shrugged and turned to head back to the stairs.

Rhys took the opportunity to correct the drift in their course that had happened while they were talking. He doubted they were heading straight to the spire forest anymore, not after dodging around the kurador, but it would be close enough.

‘So, tell me, Captain, what are your long-term plans?’ Lucy asked, coming over to lean against the helm as she spoke.

‘I’m not sure,’ Rhys said honestly. ‘It’s going to depend on so much that I’ve not given it too much thought. I want to keep the Endeavour flying and build her up a little, but other than that, I’m not sure.’

‘Build her up?’ Lucy asked, a slight frown creasing her brow as she looked over at him. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Oh, err, you know,’ Rhys said, coughing into his hand as he realised he’d slipped up a bit there. ‘I’d like to see about upgrading the interior, maybe try and make better use of the space we have.’ He winced a little internally at the flimsy reasoning, resisting the urge to wipe his brow as he looked at the compass to check their heading.

‘That’s ambitious,’ Lucy said with a raise of one brow. ‘You might need a second set of hands to help on a job like that. It could be a nice joint project.’ She said, giving him another smile as she straightened up and headed back down to the stairs, leaving a confused Rhys in her wake.

Tom was studiously looking out from the prow and not looking his way, so Rhys was able to sigh in relief. He’d thought he’d messed up badly there for a moment when he referenced the upgrades.

-**-

The rest of the trip passed quietly, the cloud sea was quiet, and there was little activity to be seen. Everyone else managed as best they could, pushing past the fear of the kurador like the professionals they were.

Part of Rhys wanted to let them know that he had a way of knowing if it was nearby, but he knew that would be foolish at best and disastrous at worst. Instead, he was forced to watch as they took turns keeping a lookout at the prow, tension and apprehension written throughout their body language.

‘I see the forest!’ Tom called out as they came close to their destination, heading over to the stairs to shout for the others.

The spire forest was made up of almost thirty small spires. Small was, of course, a relative term for the spires, some of which were big enough for a village or farm to be built atop them. However, there was a larger than normal variation in height, with some extending a few hundred feet above cloud level, while others were far lower. Typically, the spires in a forest were roughly the same, though one or two may be particularly tall or short.

Rhys could see that one particular spire was partially submerged into the cloud sea. The interaction between its rocky top and the clouds gave it an odd appearance as the misty top layer of the sea drifted back and forth across its surface.

‘Can anyone see the harvesting station?’ Rhys asked as they continued their steady approach.

‘Is that it over there?’ Tom called out, pointing off to their right.

‘Yeah, that’s it. Captain, you need to come about by two points to starboard,’ Oliver called back from the prow. The helm was slightly raised to give the pilot a good view, but there were still large blind spots for whoever was steering the ship.

On their trip over, Oliver had been helping Rhys learn the various correct terms for steering the ship. It made directions less ambiguous and helped make Rhys feel like an actual sailor.

‘Two points to starboard, aye!’ Rhys called back, pulling down with his right hand until two more spokes had gone past the top centre. Holding the wheel there, Rhys let them start to gently curve to the right, waiting for further instructions from Oliver.

‘Meet her, Captain. Once you’re amidships, go two points sea-ward, that should bring them in view for you,’ Oliver called back.

Meet her, then two points sea-ward, aye!’ Rhys shouted over the wind, bringing the rudder back to neutral then turning one point in the other direction to counter the rotation of the Endeavour. Once they were no longer turning, Rhys moved the helm one point back to starboard and finished with the king-spoke pointing to the sky.

With their course straight, Rhys eased off the ventral thrusters by two points, letting the Endeavour start to slowly descend as they approached their destination. Sure enough, the harvesting station soon came into view for Rhys.

The station was on one of the central spires and was made up of a dozen buildings around a central port setup. Traditionally, cloud ships landed at a dock, which was built off the edge of the spire. A port, as he could see here, was instead built in the centre of the spire.

This particular port had four cradles for cloud ships, two small ones, one particularly large one, and a fourth, empty cradle sized just a little too big for the Endeavour.

The smaller cradles contained a pair of pinnaces. A pinnace was a cloud ship that was carried aboard a larger one for inter-spire travel and then used for swift short-range distances.

Each pinnace was at most a quarter of the size of the Endeavour, if Rhys was being generous. Their lack of size meant that they lacked a lot of the features of a larger ship. Sails, cabins and anything crew-related was typically left out of a pinnace, which freed up a large amount of room for storage. Depending on the style and class of ship, they might have weaponry available, but if they did, it would typically be akin to the swivel guns that the Endeavour was equipped with.

The third and largest cradle held the parent ship for the two pinnaces. It was huge, easily the biggest ship Rhys had seen for a long time. It must have been at least a class or two above the Endeavour and was over double its size. Rhys could only imagine the sheer amount of space that they would have on board for cargo.

With the size of the ship, it was no surprise that it was far better armed than the Endeavour, with several weapon emplacements visible on its upper deck.

Each emplacement was essentially an ironwood bunker, with a rune-powered cannon inside, one far beyond the swivel guns on the Endeavour. A single such weapon was enough to deter pirates, and the big ship had three.

With his eyes already on the emplacements, Rhys noticed straight away when the one closest to them rotated to track the Endeavour. He tensed and gripped the helm, but Rhys knew they were close enough at this point that it wouldn’t matter. Thankfully, though, the menacing weapon simply tracked them and made no further hostile moves.

Tensing up and sweating a little, Rhys kept them on course for the fourth cradle. A harvesting station like this would need to be defended against pirates, so it only made sense for them to be wary. They weren’t going to shoot at him.

Focusing on that thought, Rhys followed Oliver’s directions as they slowly came to a halt over the cradle and gently settled down into it. Unfortunately, the cradle was designed for a larger ship, but it seemed somewhat adjustable, and some workers were already moving the supports to brace the Endeavour properly.

‘Well, damn, that’s a big ship,’ Tom said, looking at the huge cloud ship next to them as he rubbed his left forearm with a slight frown. Not only was it longer than the Endeavour, but it was taller too, standing twice as tall as the Endeavour in its cradle.

Now that they’d landed, Rhys noticed that the design of the larger ship was a little out of the ordinary. Most ships were built for purpose, not for aesthetics, like the original design of the Endeavour. Of course, Zaxx had changed that somewhat, smoothing out the rough edges and giving the ship a more organic appearance. The big ship next to them seemed to have been built to achieve a similar look, which Rhys hadn’t seen before on a cloud ship.

‘Yeah, and those weapon emplacements aren’t cheap. I wonder who these guys are,’ Lucy said, craning her head to look up at the ship with a thoughtful expression.

Rhys had been expecting a camp, with maybe a small ship like his own to act as a runabout for them, but this was something else entirely. There was an air of professionalism to the whole operation, from the sturdy cradles to the well-built, though quite boxy, nearby buildings. He would be interested to learn more about how all this came together.

‘Rhys, someone is approaching the outer hatch,’ Zaxx whispered, his voice cutting through Rhys’s musings and bringing him back to the here and now. They had a job to do. Then he could sate his curiosity.