Chapter XXV: A little Piracy II

The Wildlands South of the Heian Kingdom, The Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 37, 172 ,328 DE

Looking into the terrified eyes of the last Cultivator on the airship, I watch him try to stem the flow of blood from his neck. My Bowie knife sliced more than halfway through his neck, but did not sever his spine. The wound is still fatal. In less than thirty seconds, the light or life fades from the middle-aged man's eyes.

A sense of dissatisfaction fills me. The captain did not use any Martial techniques. Most likely, he saw that I was not a Cultivator and looked down on me. He would have thought using Martial techniques against common trash to be demeaning. He died for his arrogance. The rest of the crew never had the chance to. They were already dying before they knew they were in danger.

True Martial techniques go beyond mere physical attacks. They create patterns and strike with a variety of energies. Even though we are here to collect information and not to fight, I would have liked to see what forms of Martial techniques these Cultivators to could use. If I could face those types of techniques head on, I might come closer to grasping control over Trinity.

Putting aside my discontent, I leave the cabin. Vorn exits the one on the opposite side of the corridor. From the indifferent expression on his face, you would never know that he was part and parcel to the killing of more than twenty people.

As Vorn's eyes settle on me, he frowns. "Did you hold back when you fought me? Was that all an act?"

I do not think I keep the confusion out of my expression. "What in all the hells are you babbling about?"

Before speaking, Vorn narrows his eyes and stares at me for a few moments. "You did not hit as hard or move as fast when we fought."

I shrug. "I had a breakthrough with my Body Forging."

"Right." With a disbelieving expression, Vorn continues to stare at me.

I turn and hack to the bridge. As I pass by the cabins and glance at the corpses, I refrain from shaking my head. The airship's crew were not exactly strong, but they died too easily. Except for the one that Vorn killed, while I killed the captain, not a single one of them seemed to have any aware of their environment. The airship is moored in a formerly abandoned compound in a Ferocious Beast infested wilderness. Did they think they were safe? Were they just so arrogant that they looked down on any possible dangers?

I push the questions down into the subconscious level of my Mind. Even if I am a half human, I do not understand humans. I do not want to understand them.

Entering the bridge, I hear the slow, even breathing of the first mate. She does not stir, and her scent does not change. She is unconscious.

Picking up the first mate, I sling her over my shoulder. Without a guarantee that I can capture another member of the yacht's crew that can pilot that airship, I cannot kill her.

As I leave the bridge and slide down the ladder to the cargo deck, Vorn continues to stare at me with a contemplative expression on his face and suspicion filling his scent. Without saying anything, he follows me to the cargo deck. After retrieving my pack and the chest, I crouch in a shadow next to the ramp.

Once the next patrol passes through the airfield, I quietly sneak my way over to the second transport airship. After stashing the first mate and my pack next to a mooring bollard, I move over next to the open ramp of the second airship. From the scents, like the first airship, there should only be two crewmen, one male and one female, on the cargo deck.

I look at Vorn. He points upward, then holds up two fingers.

I nod and hold up three fingers. I change to two fingers, then one, then a closed fist. On opposite sides of the ramp, we both spring into the air. Grabbing the edge of the fuselage, we flip inside the airship.

Like the other airship, these Cultivator crewmen are only at the peak of Qi Condensation. They do not even have the chance to react before our blows render them unconscious. After killing them, we stuff their bodies in lockers.

As I test the air, I separate out the scents of more than forty people, who should be on this airship. Nearly twice as many as the other airship. Looking at Vorn, I see him looking around with a frown.

"I'm just going to sabotage the steam engines." My words barely reach the volume of a whisper.

Vorn nods. After retrieving the first mate and my pack, I stuff them into two more lockers, and we climb up the ladder to the engine room.

Like the first airship, the boilers sit quiet and cold. No crew members stand duty in the engine room. In less than ten minutes, I alter the sigils in the fireboxes of both steam engines, and we return to the cargo deck.

While the latest patrol passes through the airfield, rattling and muffled, panicked mumbling emanates from the locker with the first mate. Opening the locker, I drag her out. As she sees my face, she struggles.

Crack.

Even without using more than half my strength, my slap twists the first mate's head halfway around.

"Shut up! Don't struggle! If you give us away, the first one to die is you." Since I use Sprache, there should be no question of the first mate understanding me.

The first mate stops struggling. As she stares at me with her eyes wide open, a mix of anger and fear fills her scent.

"Do you want to die?"

The first mate shakes her head.

"You will be quiet?"

The first mate nods head repeatedly.

As I sling the fist mate over my shoulder, I notice a strange smirk on Vorn's face.

"What?"

Vorn shakes his head and speaks in Sprache. "I just realized how natural you like kidnapping a woman. You're like a barbarian stealing a mate."

"This one isn't good enough to mate with."

Outrage and anger fill the first mate's scent, and she struggles.

Crack!

With nothing but a thin pair of linen drawers to protect her ass, my full strength slap has to be painful. The first mate quiets down, once more.

Grabbing my pack and the chest from another locker, I quickly leave the airship. Looking like he is suppressing his laughter, Vorn follows me.

"You're really rough on the women, but this one looks like she wants more." Vorn keeps his voice soft enough that even I would have trouble hearing it more than six meters away.

At Vorn's words, the first mate stiffens on my shoulder, but she does not make any noise. Her senses seem more acute that I had thought them to be.

Stretching no more than fifty meters from nose to tail, the yacht does not have a cargo ramp like the transports. One side has a larger hatch that is probably for supplies. The other side has two smaller hatches. A fourth large hatch sits between the propellers at the rear. All the hatches are closed, but one of the smaller side hatches has an external wheel to open it.

As the wheel turns easily, I am somewhat surprised. I would have expected the hatch to be locked, but as I open the hatch and scent the air, I understand. The stale air carries no fresh scents of human. No one should have been on the airship for the past seven or eight days.

After we enter the airship, I spin the interior wheel to latch it in place. A metal pin hangs from a thin chain next to the hatch. I stick through a hold drilled through the wheel's shaft and its housing. With a quick test, I estimate that it would probably take a Core Formation Cultivator to snap the pin, but it said Cultivator would be more likely sheer the wheel from the shaft.

Locking the door is semi-pointless. If anyone really wants to break into the airship, an early Formation Establishment Cultivator with an axe or hammer could break through the hull in just a minute or so.

I set the first mate on her feet and pull the gag out of her mouth. If not for the dark bruise forming on the left side of her face, she could be considered moderately attractive for a human female, but she would never be mistaken for a great beauty. Her shoulder-length, medium brown hair gives the impression of a very militaristic or business-like personality.

"You can fly this airship. Correct?"

The first mate nods. "If you mean pilot it, I can. But I'm not a technician. I don't know how to operate the steam engines or the lift bags."

"You don't need to. I'll take care of them."

With her disbelief obvious in her expression, the first mate looks me up and down. As I smile at her, she shivers slightly, but quickly represses the reaction.

I toss the first mate to Vorn. "Take her to the bridge and get ready to sail."

Vorn smirks at me. "Aye-aye, Captain."

Ignoring Vorn, I head to the back of the airship. Opening a hatch at the end of the corridor, I enter the engine room. Two steam engines, much smaller than those on the transports, take up most of the room.

I know more than just a little bit about steam engines. Being raised by Old Man Jones and trained as an Artificer , I know more about Engineering and Forging than most of the experts on the Great Plateau.

A quick inspection reveals them to contain much more advanced and powerful sigils in their fireboxes than the transports and larger fire stones. The boiler and piston assemblies look to be of much better quality. By my estimates, considering the quality of the steam engines and the much smaller size of this yacht, it should be able to reach speeds close to twice those of the transports.

On a normal airship, the bridge "controls" notify the engine crew of how to set the desired power output from the engines. The engine crew then adjust the engines and gears connecting the steam engines to the propellers.

This airship has a completely different method. It could almost be considered a work of art. A rather well-designed clutch assembly controls the engagement and disengagement of the propeller shafts. Wires, presumably coming from the bridge, connect to the clutch houses, which are covered with some rather interesting sigils related to the force and inertia. The sigils directly control the clutches.

Activating the fireboxes, I leave them to warm up and climb the ladder at the front of the engine room. It passes through the upper deck in a fully enclosed tube. It would not do to offend the owner of the yacht by having lowly crewmen on the passenger deck. The cook and serving staff would be the only ones allowed. This airship's officers might have cabins on the passenger deck, but they probably live on the lower deck with the rest of the crew.

Opening a hatch at the top of the shaft, I enter the gas bag section of the airship. A small steam engine sits on the roof of the passenger deck. Powered by the steam engine, a pump and two sets of pipes connect twenty-odd gas tanks twenty-odd deflated, large, silk gas bags. One set of pipes runs through the steam engine to heat the gas, and the other does not. Valves control which set of pipes would be used. With both forward and reverse cycles, the pump can fill the gas bags or return the gas to the pressurized tanks.

A series of cables connect the gas system to controls on the bridge. This is a standard design for a dirigible.

After activating the firebox and bringing the small steam engine to operating temperature, I return to the engine room. The fireboxes and boilers have reached operating temperatures. The completely sealed boiler systems do not leak any steam into the engine room. This ship could probably run for weeks or even a couple months without needing to top off the steam engines' water supplies.

Taking the cover off a speaking tube, I speak into it. "Vorn, do you hear me?"

After a moment, Vorn's voice emanates from the tube. "I hear you."

"I'm going out to cut the mooring lines. As soon as I cut them, tell the first mate to get this ship airborne."

"Better watch yourself, Captain. A patrol just entered the airfield."

For a moment, I contemplate beating the shit out of Vorn, but put the idea aside for later.

Reaching the hatch with the pinned lock, I crack it open and watch until the patrol leaves the airfield. With the patrol gone, I rush outside and cut the mooring lines.

By the time I race back to the open hatchway, the airship has already risen three meters into the air. Without slowing, I leap through the open hatchway and close the hatch behind me.

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