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voyages-extraordinaires · 6 years

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C:R ~VE~ Chapter 40

It’s about 13,000 km from Argentina to the Arctic, which means that we’ll be on this blimp for over four days.

When Cardia told me this, I felt my stomach sink so far it could’ve hit my spine.

She responds by giving me one of her brilliant smiles and helping me stand up.

“Come on,” she says. “You can’t see the land anymore.”

Shame swells through me as I cling to Cardia’s side and hobble towards the promenade windows.

“Not bad, nooooot bad...” Nemo beams as I hesitantly look out the window. “The last time you faced a view like this, you had to be carried!”

Barbicane looks at Nemo and runs a hand through his hair. “Still don’t know how you managed that one.”

Nemo pouts. “Ohhhh, ye engineer of little faaaaaaaaaaaaith! I was spurred on by a magnificent loooove power!”

Ned quickly walks over and lifts one of Nemo’s arms. “Love power can’t fix skinny-ass arms.”

“Ohhh... that is truuuue...”

A wide smile cuts Nemo’s face as he uses his free hand to point a pistol against the harpooner’s nose. “But love power aaaaalso can’t fix a hole in the face, Mr. Land.”

“Woah woah woah!” Barbicane waves his hands and walks over, slapping Ned’s hand away from Nemo’s arm and Nemo’s gun away from Ned’s face. “Ned, hands to yourself. Nemo, where the hell were you even hiding that?!”

“Impeeeey Barbicane, a word to the wiiiise... you should have at least one gun and one bomb on your person at all times.”

“AT LEAST?!” Barbicane’s face goes pale as he begins patting down his friend.

Nemo just stands there, slumped and smiling as Barbicane begins removing several explosives from Nemo’s coat pockets.

To be honest, I’m only half-listening as all of this is going on. My eyes are captured by the sea stretching out beneath the ship from horizon to horizon. It’s a rough sea topped with white froth, its churning mesmerizing me and making me forget where I am. No matter where you view it from, the ocean is the same expanse.

It makes me relax, just a bit.

Barbicane takes a step back from the impressive pile of weaponry on the floor. Other than the aforementioned bombs (shrapnel, tear, and sleeping) and pistols, there are knives, box cutters, syringes, and vials of god-only-knows what. There’s even a small crossbow that looks like a prototype of some kind or another.

Nemo glances down at the pile, mumbling to himself as he counts everything up.

“Hmmm~ very thorough, Impeeey... but you’ve missed a few...” Nemo slowly lifts his goggles up and gives Barbicane a wink. “Care to look a little clooooser~?”

Barbicane shudders. “I think I’ll leave the ultra-invasive search to Polly-chan, thanks! Just lay off on the whole aggressive bit, won’t you? That goes for you, too, Ned... Ned?”

Ned Land is staring at Nemo’s face, his jaw slack and eyes wide.

“Oh,” Cardia smiles sympathetically. “I guess that was his first time seeing it.”

“Hrm?” Nemo peers from Cardia to Ned. “Seeing what?”

“In... Incredible...” Ned can barely form words. “I never... woulda believed it...”

Nemo tilts his head and sighs when he notices that Ned’s staring at his face. He rolls his eyes before putting his goggles back in place and muttering with a click of his tongue: “Paaaatheeeetic.”

---

The door finally clicks open after a few hours and we’re allowed to explore. The three men stick together like schoolyard chums, excitedly poring over every gear and wire that they come across. Cardia is kind enough to stay by me, teaching me the ins and outs of airship flight in a language I can understand.

But at night, Nemo always comes back to me without fail. He takes me to one of the viewing decks and we spend a long time talking about aerial navigation. He looks so happy, I can’t help but feel guilty whenever I cling to his arm at the ship’s movement.

... It doesn’t look like he minds too much, though, even when he has to steady me as we go back to our cabin. In fact, he looks downright gleeful...

I always try to stay up as long as I can, but the basic need for sleep eventually wins out over my fear, and I let myself be relaxed by Nemo’s excited humming and murmuring as he strokes my hair.

He’s always gone when I wake up, but I’m used to it by now. When it comes to airships, I don’t think the man ever sleeps!

---

My mood has improved considerably by the time the fourth day comes. It’s funny, most people would be afraid to be so far away from land and all terrestrial assistance, but I feel much better above the water. I know it sounds backwards, but I’m not questioning it. It’s nice not to feel nauseated for once.

“Say, have you noticed?” Cardia takes a step closer to me as we walk along one of the interior hallways of the airship. “The crew members have changed their uniforms.”

I take a closer look at the men walking past us. Cardia’s right, they’ve changed from plain jumpsuits into long white coats with fur-trimmed collars. They would blend perfectly into the snow, but they’re bright aliens against the metal of the ship. The eeriest piece of their uniform, though, are the circular masks they wear. With solid black eyes and flat, narrow beaks I can’t help but think of owls.

Cardia and I instinctively move closer to each other, even though the crew doesn’t even look our way.

When I look over at Cardia, her lips are drawn thin in worry.

“Cardia?”

She jumps in surprise before giving me a smile. “Sorry about that.”

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

Cardia shakes her head and looks around. “Being on an airship like this, surrounded by men in masks... I guess it just reminds me a bit of Twilight.”

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her, or what support I could possibly give, so I simply reach over and squeeze her hand.

Somewhere in the background, I register what sounds like... a stampede?

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” Cardia shakes her head before patting my hand. “Really.”

“But...”

The noise is getting louder, and by the time I realize what it is, Nemo has already bounded in and thrown his arms around both Cardia and myself.

“Noooooooooo no no! That simply woooooooooon’t do!” he rubs his cheek against the wide-eyed Cardia’s. “This airship flies...”

Cardia gurgles helplessly as Nemo pulls her tighter against him and gives an enthusiastic thumbs up. “... On the wiiiiiiiiiiiiiind of friiiiiiieeeeendshiiiiiiiiiip!! So you’ll never, ever, eeeeeeeeeeever have to feel loneeeeeeeely!”

Nemo pulls away and puts his hands on Cardia’s shoulders-- she’s been yanked around so much by this point that she looks more like a rag doll than anything.

“The one similaaaarity between this place and Twilight Heaaaadquarters... is that in both places... your beloved, darling big brother is aaaaalways there to proteeeeect you!” Nemo beams.

Cardia slowly looks up at him and speaks in a deadpan expression. “Didn’t my ‘beloved, darling big brother’ perform experiments on me all the time back then...?”

Nemo ignores Cardia and yanks down the front of her cap playfully before turning to me. “And how are you handling things, myyyy deaaaar~? This cool beauty of an airship is quite smoooooth, isn’t she?”

I smile up at him. “You’re in a good mood, Nemo.”

“I’m in my eeeeeeeelement!” Nemo throws his arms into the air triumphantly. “At last, at last, at laaaaaaaaaaast I am back in the sky where I belong!! The sky is my home, much like the sea is yours!”

Before I realize it, he’s grabbed my hands and has spun me around like we’re on a playground. I’m not expecting it, and laughter bursts out of me before I can stop myself.

“Mmmnnnn~” Nemo puts his cheek on my hands and looks at me pleadingly. “Come to the bridge with me, woooon’t you?

“The bridge?”

Nemo nods.

“The bridge, where... this thing is piloted?”

Nemo’s still nodding.

“Where there’s... very big windows for maximum visibility and gauges showing exactly how high up in the air we are and... how fast we’re going... and...”

My sentence dies on my dry tongue as Nemo nods so hard that I’m afraid his goggles will fall off.

But before the chill can set into my body, Nemo wraps his thin arms around me and cradles me to his chest. He’s so warm and his excitement is so... it’s strange to say it, but it’s so... pure. His love for these ships is unsullied by the hate and bitterness that seeps into so many of his fancies.

He looks so happy.

“... All right, I’ll go with you.” I rest my cheek against his shoulder and sigh, trying to release the fear burrowing inside of me.

Nemo squeezes me tight and happily sways from one foot to the other while humming delightedly. “My cute, brave professooooooor--! I love you--!!” He releases me enough so that we can walk side by side, his arm wrapped around my waist so I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to.

“Oh, Cardia--!” I turn around to look at her.

“You two go on ahead,” she smiles sympathetically at me. “I think I’ll pass this time.”

I worriedly look at her as Nemo draws me away, and she replies with a friendly wave.

If I die from sheer terror, I’m blaming her.

...

It seems strange, given the situation we’re in, but it’s nice walking with him. I can pretend that we’re just a normal couple taking an afternoon stroll instead of flying thousands of feet in the air straight into the clutches of our enemy.

I thread my arm around his waist so we’re mirroring each other, and he responds by giving my head an affectionate kiss.

When we pass the large windows, I try my best to stare at the floor and concentrate on the sound of our boots hitting metal. It works surprisingly well. Soon the hallway opens up into a gargantuan space that, judging from Nemo’s happy dance, can only be the bridge. I’m surprised by how many of the mechanisms I recognize thanks to Cardia’s lessons, so I know exactly which screens NOT to look at. I really, really don’t want to know how high we are.

“Oh-hooooo!” Nemo scrambles back over to me and watches me examine the ballonet gauges. “I’m not too surprised you ‘dove’ over here, my little submarineeeer~!”

I give him a smile. “Cardia said that this would interest me, since it’s so similar to the ballast tanks of the Harper.”

“Airships and submarines do have to control their buoyancy in similar manners... hmm... I must say myyyyy sisteeeeer does have a good head for engineeeeeering... if oooonly I had gotten hold of her sooner, I miiiiight have steered her along the same scientific path as senseeeeeeiii...”

Nemo sniffs sadly, so I pat a hand on his arm to distract him. “Don’t you think she’d look cute in a white lab coat?”

Nemo quickly looks over at me, and I can see his eyes shining behind his goggles. “Mmm--! She’d look so preeeeecious, an angel of science just like Impeeeeey Barbicane says!”

I’m pretty sure Barbicane has never called Cardia an angel “of science” specifically, but Nemo looks so happy about his ‘little sister’ that I won’t correct him.

“Hmm, but he isn’t the ooooonly one with an angel of science...” Nemo thumps my nose with the tip of his finger. “I bet you looked lovely in your white coat back at your univeeeersity...”

I look back at the ballonet gauges, smiling rather coquettishly as Nemo leans in and runs his lips over my earlobe. “Peeeersonally... I think black would suit you better.... fwee hee hee... we’d maaaatch...”

Nemo can barely take my earlobe between his teeth before we hear someone clear their throat.

“Pardon the interruption, Nemo-kun.”

My happy, teasing expression is drained immediately when I heard those words-- that voice.

I pull myself away from Nemo to look at him, at that man standing there with a warm smile, like an old friend dropping in for tea.

“Aleister!”

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