Free Airship Desire by Riley Owens Page A

the grappling ropes to be deployed, and they lashed the Deadly Miss and the larger airship together.
    So it was in a very subdued manner they took over the Heavenly Soul .
    She was a beautiful ship, made of polished exotic woods, carved with angels on every surface, and with an envelope above made of scarlet silk. No expense had been spared in her making, and yet her former owners had abandoned her so easily.
    On the whole Clementine would have much rather preferred a stand-up fight.
    As she let her hand trace over the wheel, she scrambled to gather her scattered thoughts. It did not go unnoticed by Clementine that the crew were looking as confused as she felt. They put away their weapons with the air of disappointed children.
    Their captain felt just as deeply, but wasn’t about to let them know that. It could easily go badly for her if she did.
    Clementine jerked her head at her engineer, Strom, and he immediately understood. Together they quickly made their way to the belly of the Heavenly Soul , the engine room. It was as hot as a sauna—as all engine rooms were—but it was beautifully maintained.  Even the furnace looked clean, and Clementine could imagine the engineer taking great pride in it. Such thoughts made her shiver.
    “Looks all here,” Strom growled, straightening up from his examination of the boiler. “Nothing rigged to blow.”
    She breathed a sigh of relief. She’d heard of a couple of merchants who had booby-trapped their ships when it was apparent that they were going to be boarded.
    “So everything is as if should be?” She pressed just to be certain.
    “It looks fine captain,” he said, looking down at her with a confused smile on his face. “More than fine in fact, this one’s a real beauty.”
    “And not out of coal as we thought.” Clementine observed with a jerk of her head towards the coal bay full with black energy.
    Strom shrugged. “No, captain, looks like they had plenty in store. Maybe there was some other reason they was limping along like that.”
    It had not been fear of the Deadly Miss , and it had most certainly not been a lack of coal that had bought them to a halt. More of a mystery then.
    “Well,” she said, clearing her throat, “just check the rest of the system. Not just in here, but all the connections into the engine. I’ll get Bonnie to examine the rigging…in case there is something else at work here.”
    Strom frowned and scuffed his feet, but turned back to his work without further comment.
    As Clementine strode back along the corridors and up the ladders to the deck, she managed to find her best mask-like face to wear. She tugged down her corset and adjusted her bandana as she stepped before the crew once again.
    She returned to her people, and managed to put together a more confident expression. “You bag of rugamuffins,” Clementine snarled, “turns out they’d rather kill themselves than face you.”
    She slapped Eran on the back, and the big man grinned. “Reputation. Ha! Finally someone taking notice of us. Now we have this ship, so soon will the rest of the world.”
    The rest of the crew liked the sound of that, and even raised a little cheer. Every sky pirate wanted a reputation; something to put the fear of God into their opponents. Often a fearsome reputation was enough for merchants to unlock their coffers without a single shot fired. With that thought, what they had seen was a little easier to put aside.
    Clementine tugged Bonnie aside while the shouts of the crew were still ringing out. “Make a thorough check of the rigging,” she whispered in her ear.
    Her First mate nodded, and turned to do it.
    The captain tugged back after a moments consideration. “And the rest of the ship while you are at it—bow to stern mind.”
    Bonnie held her gaze for a moment, but reliable as ever she did not question.
    While the rest of the crew celebrated, Clementine turned towards where the captain’s cabin must be. It was a great success…now if