"Damn it, I'm fine," the half-elf muttered. "I got a little sleep, anyway. If we make it quick, we won't drop more than a few hundred feet, a thousand at most. How high are we? Arc we above the clouds? No-I mean, are we above-are we high enough to make that drop okay? You know what I mean, Aelfred. Just tell me."
Aelfred looked up at Teldin and gave a quick shake of his head, his lips pressed into a line.
Teldin then caught on to what was happening. "Aelfred, do you want me to take the helm?" he asked. "I don't know anything about how to make this thing work, and the last time I tried running the helm, it didn't work."
"You did pretty damn well when we flew out of the reach of those scro at Ironpiece," Aelfred said flatly. "We don't have time to quibble. We've got to get up and out of this atmosphere, or we'll never get anywhere. We don't know how high the air goes, but it will be faster sailing for us all the farther we get from the ground and the scro. No offense, Loomfinger, but we need the best person in that helm right now. Sylvie's too tired to do it, and I want you to try, Teldin." Aelfred looked back at the gnome on the helm. "What's the situation out there?"
The gnome swallowed. "The fleet is still behind us, sir," he said, his speech growing more rapid with each second. "We are at two and a half miles altitude and I count twenty ships to aft so far, and they are gaining on us and should be upon us in ten minutes or so unless we change helmsmen, but I can still run the helm in an emergency if you need me anytime. Just call me and I can run the helm in a jiffy and never-"
"Forget it! Just forget it, Loomfinger," Sylvie interrupted, standing suddenly and swaying. She caught Teldin's arm in a tight grip but did not relax it. "I can do it. Bring me some water so I can wash my face off, and I can get on the helm. Hurry it up."
Aelfred stared at Sylvie, who was still swaying, then looked at Teldin with desperation. "You up to this, old son?" he asked. "Can you make that cloak of yours run a ship again?" "Aelfred, I said I would try it!" Sylvie yelled suddenly. She angrily whirled around, looking at everyone. "Would you all just get out of here? You're driving me crazy!"
"Sylvie, calm down!" Aelfred said, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. "You haven't had any sleep, and- Teldin!"
Without a word, Teldin acted on impulse. He reached out, caught Loomfinger under the arms, and lifted the surprised gnome off the helm to set him on the floor. At that same moment, Teldin had a curious feeling, as if he had stepped off a high cliff and was starting to fall. He lunged for the helm in panic, not having expected the change so soon. His cape flowed out behind him as if he were underwater. Everyone in the room fought to keep from falling over as the gravity left. Sylvie shrieked, flailing with her arms.
"Gods, Teldin!" roared Aelfred, his face turning white. His feet had left the floor. "You idiot!"
Teldin's right hand grasped the back of the helm, and he heaved himself clumsily into the helm's seat, holding himself down by grasping the arms of the chair.
Nothing happened.
Now weightless, with the screams of everyone in the room ringing in his ears, Teldin felt a terror that he'd never dreamed he could feel. He had just murdered everyone aboard the ship. They were going to die because of his stupidity. And dying was going to take a long, long time at this altitude.
Wildly, he clutched at the arms of the chair, concentrating on making the ship rise with every bit of willpower he had.
Nothing happened.
"Noooooo!" he roared. There was a cracking sound, and one of the arms of the helm broke loose in his grip.
Time slowed down.
Warmth flooded through his body again, as it had on the Probe. This time the warmth and surge of power felt even stronger and clearer than before. In a daze, he pulled himself down to the helm. As he did, he felt his spirit pull loose from his body and flow out through the ship and into every part of it. He felt himself fully become the Perilous Halibut.
With the ship's internal gravity restored, Teldin felt himself slowly thump down onto the helm's seat, his cloak glowing with bright pinkish light. He was vaguely aware that everyone else was flailing about in slow motion, but all were falling toward the floor now. Luckily, they didn't have far to fall.
Spelljamming the Halibut was a strange sensation, somewhat different than it had been on the Probe. He could see everyone in the helm room with him, and he could also see all around the outside of the long, black ship. He saw both the floor of the room and the ground miles below the ship. It took only a few seconds to look back, without turning his head, and see the nearing fleet of scro ships above the horizon. They were hovering almost motionless, but he knew that they were just slowed by his perceptions. The Perilous Halibut had fallen quite a distance in the last few seconds.
Strangest of all, Teldin felt as if he was the ship. The ship's hull became like a second skin, though he could feel no heat or pressure from it. It was simply there, a part of him now. He wondered if he was gaining more awareness of things as he acquired experience with spelljamming.
Business first, he thought. Aelfred had wanted to gain altitude in hopes the ship could move more quickly. Teldin focused all of his energies into going up. He felt no different sitting on the helm. His view outside, however, revealed at once that the Perilous Halibut was climbing rapidly.
Time returned to normal again.
For a few seconds, the room was filled with cries and struggling bodies on the floor.
"Teldin!" Aelfred thrust his face right into Teldin's own, the pink light from Teldin's cloak reflecting on them both. "Teldin Moore, you son of a bitch, what in the Nine Hells possessed you to do that?" Aelfred shouted at the top of his lungs, his face pale with fear and rage. "Damn you for screwing around with the helm! We all could have been killed! Don't you ever think first?"
Teldin looked at Aelfred and felt an onrush of shame. He knew he had acted too quickly and had endangered everyone, but he felt his anger spill out instead. "It was either act or stand there and listen to everyone argue," he retorted. "I apologize for the shock, but we're gaining altitude from the scro fleet. They won't catch us now. It worked!"
Aelfred continued to stare into Teldin's face at eye level. "Wonderful, but don't ever do it again," he said. "You scared the crap out of me. The gods damn you for that."
Teldin nodded, his face deep red. He switched to looking outside the ship. The sky above the ship was getting darker, bit by bit. How high did the air envelope extend, all the way to the sun? They'd know soon enough.
Sylvie looked at Teldin, blinking rapidly. "You've torn the arm off the helm, but you're flying the ship."
Teldin looked down and nodded. "The cloak must work only if there's no functioning helm on a ship," he said slowly. "That's why it wouldn't fly for me before now, and why I could fly the Probe with both helms down."
Sylvie stared at him. "I see." She tried to rub her face, but her hands were shaking too much. Swaying from foot to foot, she turned and left the room without another word.
Aelfred followed her to the door. "I want to talk with Teldin for a while, so go ahead. I won't wake you up again. Gaye and Loomfinger, you two can leave, too."
"I wanted to talk with Teldin, too," said Gaye, as Loom-finger picked himself up and scuttled for the door.
"Out," said Aelfred, jerking a thumb at the entrance. Gaye rolled her eyes and mumbled, "Darn," as she left.
When the door closed behind everyone, Aelfred stepped back from Teldin and took a deep breath. "You've saved us again, but this time I can't think of a good excuse for it," he said in a calm but hard voice. "You took a chance and blew it, then you broke the helm and, by an incredibly stupid piece of luck, you saved us. But if anything had gone wrong-the ship rolling over, you missing the helm, whatever-we'd be at the bottom of a crater about now. For all your powers, Teldin, you still don't know dirt about spelljamming, and you'd better leave decisions on it to people who do know dirt about it. Think before you act! Do you want to kill us?"
Teldin couldn't meet his friend's gaze. He nodded, facedown.
Aelfred shook his head and looked away. "I almost soiled myself when you pulled Loomfinger off his seat." He shivered for a moment. "It's different in wildspace. You don't fall anywhere there if someone gets off the helm to go to the head. The ship keeps on flying. You can't do that in a gravity field." He glanced back at Teldin. "As long as you're up there, are there any signs of our followers?"
Teldin looked, using his helm's-eye view of the outside of the ship. "None that I can see. We're not leaving the atmosphere yet. The air envelope here must be very thick. Where should we go next? The fal?"
Aelfred nodded. "Of course. If I'm going to put my life on the line for you every few days, I want to know some of the reasons why. That slug had better have some good answers, too. I heard Dyffed knew how to get there, using some little magical box of his. Any truth to that?"
Teldin had almost forgotten about the gnome. "He has a device that picked out the fal's location just a few moments before Gomja came up and warned us about the scro fleet. It works on mental energy in some way. I don't pretend to understand it. He may be able to set a course for us using it. He said we had to use it outside the ship on the deck, or at least I had that impression."
Aelfred looked at Teldin with an odd expression. "Messing with the helm has addled your brain. I think you meant that Gomja found out about the scro fleet from you when he came up on deck, don't you?"
"No," said Teldin. "He told us."
Aelfred looked at Teldin blankly. "Now, how could that be? Gomja's been inside the ship this whole time. I assumed he'd gone up to see you and you'd warned him then, or else you'd come in yourself to tell him."
"Wait, let me think about this," said Teldin, becoming confused. "Couldn't he have found out from Loomfinger? When he was on the helm, didn't Loomfinger see the fleet behind him and warn everyone?"
"I wasn't here, but Loomfinger wouldn't know a fleet from a flock of gullions," Aelfred said. "He's not much more than a minor illusionist with a handful of spells, and he can barely pay enough attention to the real world to keep from getting killed on a daily basis. I guess it's possible that he could have warned Gomja. I never asked the giff how he found out about the scro. He practically dragged me out of my hammock to tell me about them. I ran to get Sylvie right after that, and Gaye showed up wondering what everyone was doing in the helm room, then you showed up, and there you are. I should ask Loomfinger, just out of curiosity, I suppose, but I don't know if it matters now. Maybe I should give him a medal."
"We should find Dyffed first and get that thingfinder from him." Teldin tried a weak smile. "Not that I'm telling you what to do, mind you."
Aelfred didn't smile back, but he relaxed slightly. "I'll arm wrestle you for control of the ship, if you like," he said, "then you can try to command a crew of gnomes."
Teldin shook his head. "I'm afraid I threw my arm out when I was rowing over to the shore to meet those rastipedes," he said sorrowfully. "As soon as it's better, I'll let you know." Aelfred laughed. "That's what I like," he said, "job security. I'll go find Dyffed."
When Aelfred had left, Teldin's smile faded. He knew that he had done a nearly disastrous thing in pulling the gnome from the helm. Now that it was all over, he couldn't believe he had done it. What if things hadn't turned out, as Aelfred had said? What had made him do it? He remembered thinking, for just a moment as he grabbed for Loomfinger, that he could do anything he wanted to with the cloak, and it would work if he tried hard enough. Had he been getting cocky, then, with his new powers? He knew he would have to use his intelligence from now on, not his ego.