Crew of the Peregrine: Chapter One

           Matthew Larkin always had a fascination with the sky. When he was little, he loved to run to the open field down the road from his house, lay in the grass, and watch the clouds swirling above. Like most kids, his mind would wander and the clouds would take shape. He conjured brave heroes and magnificent creatures out of clumps in the sky. He told himself stories; he would sit there for hours, sending his imaginings into barren cities and creepy caverns to discover hidden crypts filled with great, unknown treasures.

            Occasionally, his parents worried that he wasn’t making friends or doing all of the other things ‘normal’ kids were supposed to do. When his baby brother was born, they hoped that he might be a bit more outgoing, that he might help Matt straighten out. But Emerson was just like his big brother, and so Matt had ten times as much fun creating adventures with a mind as creative as his own. Together, they moved beyond laying on the ground simply telling stories. They started to make swords out of twigs and go into the cities and caverns themselves. Matt always led the expedition, and Emerson was happy to follow so long as he was second in command of all their imaginary party members. Together, they’d venture into the unknown and face all sorts of horrible dangers, but they always made sure they got out of it without losing a single man. That was their motto from the start: once you’re in, you never leave, and you are never left.

            Matt has never worked any other way.

*          *          *

            He stood there, staring at the clouds below through the frosted window pane. He watched the propellers whir and spin as they kept the ship aloft. Not for the first time, he marveled at the few pieces of brass that keep this hunk of metal airborne several thousand feet above the ground. Well, it’s a little more complicated than that, he heard Emerson saying in the back of his mind. No doubt he’d be offended at the simplicity Matt was projecting onto a complex and delicate machine. He might have even pulled out a schematic just to prove his point. Or rant about the amount of hours he put into maintaining the engine so they wouldn’t all crash into the earth.

            Matt meandered around the cockpit. He hopped up the stairs to the piloting console, adjusted the steering levers ever so slightly, checked his pocket watch and sighed before thumping down the other side and making his way to the starboard window. The window itself stretched around half of the room in a big semicircle, allowing the pilot to see a little more than 180 degrees of the surrounding sky space. Matt thought this to be one of the best features of this ship. It was more efficient, and the view was killer. He stopped at the glass and peered over the side to see the upside-down letters engraved in the hull: The Peregrine—another aspect about this particular vessel that he liked. The name had always suited him.

            Another fifteen minutes passed, during which he further fiddled with the controls and whistled a few songs, wandering aimlessly around the room until he finally stopped at the door and stared.

            For a moment he was silent.

            “Okay, this ridiculous”, he grumbled. He pushed it open and ran headlong into a hulking mass.

            As his head hit the floor, he heard, “Oh, shit! Sorry!” from a deep, friendly voice. He looked up at the giant in front of him. Matt wasn’t the biggest guy around, but that shouldn’t underscore the fact that John was three times his size. And about half as threatening. Truly, he was a teddy bear, and it showed as he eased Matt up off the ground, still apologizing. “I’m so sorry, Matt! Are you okay? I didn’t see you—”

            “It’s fine, I’m fine, we’re good,” Matt stammered, trying to regain some composure as he stood up, his head pounding.

            “I’m so sorry, sir!” John said again. “I was just coming up to tell you that Jo might be awhile.”

            “What? She’s been down there for over an hour.”

            “Lavinia doesn’t want to risk an infection.”

            “Just man the helm for a little while. I’ll handle it.”

            “Yes, sir.”

            “For God’s sake, some of us have better things to do than fill in for others,” Matt muttered as he started off down the hall.

            John scrunched his eyebrows and turned after him. “Like sleeping?”

            “Like official captain’s business.”

            “Sweet dreams, Captain,” John replied as he shut the door.

            Matt climbed down the ladder at the end of the hall and made his way towards the medical bay. As he approached the door, he heard a concerned voice wafting into the hall. “…and I know it’s not always your first priority, Hon, but you should take a little more care. I can only patch you up so many times.”

            “It’s barely even a scratch, Vinny.”

            “If it requires stitches, it’s not a scratch.”

            “Only three!”

            “Three stitches that could mean the difference between life and death!”

            “Don’t be dramatic.”

            “Then don’t be an idiot!”

            Matt pushed open the door and leaned against the frame. “Someone’s asking for me?” A pair of stark blue eyes met his own before Lavinia returned to the task at hand. “Captain,” she replied, icily. “You might find that a little inspection of this death-trap every now-and-again would yield positive results. You know, so that you don’t lose a perfectly good pilot because of a tetanus-infested, loose screw.”

            Jo broke into a smile. “Aww, you hear that? She thinks I’m a good pilot.”

            “Not a very smart one.”

            “I’ll take what I can get.”

            “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Matt responded with mock offense. “I keep the place in perfect condition.”

            Lavinia was not amused. “No, you’re brother does. Kate does. You, not so much.” She pulled out of strip of clean cloth and wrapped it around the wound. “Done,” she announced, “Just stop by later on your way to bed so I can change the bandage.” Jo hopped off the table and made her way past Matt, thanking Lavinia as she headed out the door. “Oh, and be careful to—” Lavinia started.

            “I think she can survive a scratch,” Matt interrupted.

            “It’s not a scratch!”

            “A scratch that most doctors, by the way, can treat in half an hour.”

            “We were catching up. She’s up at the console all day, every day, and I needed to talk to her.”

            “Well, first of all, that’s her job, especially during a 48-hour non-stop flight. And second, what could you possibly have to catch up on if she’s up there all day, every day?”

            “Just…personal things,” she said, turning her back on him and beginning to clean up. Matt waited a moment before shutting the door behind them.

            “About her sister?” he asked.

            “I told you, Matthew, personal.”

            “My crew, my problem.”

            “You don’t need to worry. I just had an update. Nothing’s changed.”

            “That’s not really an update, but that’s…good, I guess.”

            “Well, it’s not worse, so that’s something.”

            Lavinia went around the room, straightening the tables up—which was pointless considering she kept everything close to godliness in the first place. Matt stood there for a moment watching her. She always cleaned when she was anxious, when there was a patient she knew she couldn’t help.

            “When did you hear about this?” he asked.

            “I got a telegram right before we took off from New York. Her sister wants to see her.”

            “And you told Jo?”

            “Of course I told Jo. The message was for her.”

            “But it was sent to you.”

            “Yes, because she’s wanted in New York and the doctor who sent the message knew that.”

            Matt scoffed. “We’re all wanted in New York.”

            “I didn’t send the message, Matthew. Don’t get mad at me.”

            “No, but you delivered it without checking with me first.”

            Lavinia turned on him. “Because it wasn’t for you.”

            “Right now, the last thing we need, that Jo needs, is a distraction.”

            “Her sister is not a distraction.”

            “She is if she’s taking Jo’s eye off the ball.”

            “Not everything is about the job, Matt.”

            “It is, because not focusing on the job could get Jo killed!”

            Suddenly, a loud blast came from downstairs and the ship shuddered. Matt and Lavinia grabbed onto the nearest table and braced themselves, but the shuddering quickly abated. Matt ran out the door and headed for the end of the hall. He slid down another ladder and turned to find Kate and Emerson shouting at each other while simultaneously trying to put out a flurry of flaming coals scattered around the room.

            “See?! I told you that much fuel would overheat the furnace! You can’t add more coal to the engine if you don’t compensate by adding the cooling agent and reducing the flames!” Emerson screeched as he stamped out the embers around him.

            “Don’t ‘see’ me! I told you to add the cooling agent right before I threw in the fuel! It would have been fine if you were paying attention!” Kate yelled back.

            “Well excuuuuuse me for making sure we don’t drop several thousand miles before drowning in the Atlantic!”

            “We would die from impact before we had a chance to drown, moron.”

            “I was being hyperbolic—”

            “I’m just trying to get us there faster! You’re the one who wouldn’t shut up about meeting our deadline!”

            “Whoa, whoa, hey! Guys! What the hell’s wrong?” Matt asked, cutting them off.

            “He is!”

            “She is!”

            “Matt, tell your brother to keep his head out of the damn clouds and the ship in them.”

            “What do you think I was trying to do?” Emerson retorted.

            “Is there anything we need to worry about? Anything that needs to be replaced or that will keep us from arriving in London in seven hours?” Matt asked, checking his watch.

            Emerson sent one final glare to Kate before kneeling down and checking the mechanism underneath the furnace. “Yep, we’re gonna need a new ignition system. The blast damaged it.”

            “Which also means that once we land, we can’t get back up in the air until we replace it,” Kate added.

            “How much is that gonna cost us?” Matt asked.

            “Three, maybe four hundred silver,” Emerson replied as he stood up, trying to wipe the grease off his face.

            “Three to four hundred—! Are you serious?”

            “If we want a functional one, yeah.”

            “That’s almost half of what we’re making for this job!”

            “Well, maybe you shouldn’t sign us up for jobs that pay jack-squat,” Kate commented from the other side of the room, tightening the bolts on the pistons.

            “Not helping.” Matt turned back to Emerson. “We can’t afford one of these and still pay all of the crew their share. Even if we cut out ours.”

            “For the record, I’m not taking a pay cut for this,” Kate interjected again.

            “Kate!”

            “This is your fault!” Emerson started up again, “This whole thing wouldn’t have happened if you had just double-checked with me before—”

            “Emerson! Let it go for a second!” Matt grabbed his brother’s shoulders and got his attention. “You’re telling me we don’t have the money to fix the part, but we can’t make more money until we do? Come on, man, give me another option.”

            “I don’t know what to tell you. We need the new part, or else we can’t fly.”

            Matt sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “We’re going to have to find work in town. Or else make a trade. Maybe we can scrounge up some spare parts lying around and see what we can get for them. In the meantime, keep this rig in the air and try not to use each other as fuel.”

            “That’s ridiculous, our bodies wouldn’t produce nearly enough heat to keep us aloft.”

            “Kate, would you just—”

            “She’s right,” Emerson acknowledged, “But maybe we should look into other sources of fuel.”

            Kate perked up. “Like what?”

            “Something that burns hotter and longer. We should do some tests when we land,” Emerson suggested, walking over to the papers and blueprints piled on the table in the corner. He began making some notes.

            “Yeah!” Kate hurried to look over his shoulder. “You know I bet we could find some cheap things in the marketplace to try out. See if we can lower our expenses on fuel.”

            As they continued to mull over their idea, Matt made his way up the ladder and headed for his room, shaking his head as he wondered what in the world had possessed him to hire this crew.