Chapter 403: Butterfly Effect: Wonder Ship
“Huh, those guys sure sound lively,” Captain Douglas said to himself as he heard an uproarious cacophony coming from the strange looking warehouse.
It wasn’t any of his business as to why they were celebrating, but he could at least appreciate the feelings of joy they were exuding.
“I’ll take their joy as a good sign,” Captain Douglas mused, “maybe it means my ship was repaired to a state even better than before.”
Captain Douglas had absolutely no idea how true this statement was going to be.
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[Hey Logos, Pathos.]
=Yes?=
[Why am I the one being sent to watch over these guys? Aren’t Lacerage and Archanidame better suited for recon work?]
=Technically yes, but they had to return the Lord’s family’s estate to take care of business. They got mortal disguises, remember?=
[Oh yeah…why didn’t we do that?]
=Our lord still needs a protective retinue on hand in case shit goes sideways or he attarcrs trouble…both of which are very possible with him.=
[Fair point.]
[Insightful.]
[So what’s the real reason I’m here?]
=They wanted a first hand record of the reaction that occurs when people receive our compensation. Since our lord is busy sleeping off one hell of a night, duty falls to the one member of the group still active.=
[Aren’t y’all crazy smart. Why not make a drone for stuff like this?]
[I can read…now.]
=Development, love it.=
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Captain Douglas entered the dry dock with a jovial mood, expecting to see his beloved ship in tip top shape.
“Good morning my beloved Nimona, it has been far too-what the fuck?”
However, the moment his attention focused on the ship, or rather the space where his ship should have been located, he became very confused.
The reason being, it wasn’t his fucking ship sitting in the dry dock…or so he thought at first.
“Who stole my fucking shi-wait a minute…”
Captain Douglas’s ship, the Nimona, was a galleon class ship that he had acquired secondhand from a chance encounter with a naval officer he was friendly with back during his service. Apparently the ship was scheduled to be dismantled, but Douglas had managed to convince the officer to sell it to him instead.
Since then, Douglas removed any remnants that indicated the ship was a military vessel and repurposed it for passenger and mercantile use. However, he did keep one thing from the original design: the figurehead.
The figurehead was that of a beautiful woman with sea creature features here and there, a mermaid to be more specific, that Douglas didn’t have the heart to remove. Something about the figurehead spoke to him on a spiritual level, so he kept it.
In fact, the reason why the ship was called the Nimona in the first place was because of this figurehead.
He had named the figurehead, so by that extension, the ship.
So, when he saw this very familiar figurehead appear to be a natural part of a very unfamiliar ship, he had put together that this new ship was still his beloved Nimona, albeit, it was a completely new type of ship. That and the figurehead had been given some accessories, namely a crown and necklace made of brass.
It was a nice touch, but a little unnecessary.
“My beloved galleon, what happened to you?” Captain Douglas muttered to himself as he walked closer to get a better look at the ship.
The first thing thay he noticed that was different, was the fact that he was now down one entire mast and a set of sails. In it’s place was a large black metal pillar embossed with all sorts of brass decorations that had a clear ocean theme in mind.
The second thing he noticed was that on both sides were a pair of giant wheels like those of a watermill, but the paddles were thinner and longer like an oar. It was as if the wheel was designed not to be moved by the water, but to move the water instead.
Last but not least, he noticed that next to the figurehead of his ship was the name “Nimona” painted on in a brilliant silver against blue. However, painted just a little before it, was the suffix of “PS”.
The captain had no idea what that stood for.
“What does ‘PS’ stand for?”
“Paddle steamer,” a drowsy sounding voice answered, “the PS stands for paddle steamer.”
“Huh? Where is that coming from?”
For a brief moment, Captain Douglas had assumed the voice had somehow came from the ship itself. However, when he began to look around the dry docks, he realized that the voice came from an adolescent boy sleeping atop a pile of wooden crates.
This boy was Captain Douglas’s cabin boy, Simon.
“Simon?! What the hell are you doing, sleeping on the-wait…”
Captain Douglas was all set to scold and reprinand the boy for sleeping on the job, until he remembered that he didn’t assign Simon to do anything with the ship last night. If anything, the boy was supposed to be with the others at the inn.
‘If he’s sleeping here, maybe he knows what happened last night?,’ Douglas thought to himself. With this idea in mind, he proceeded to wake the boy up for answers.
“Simon?”
“Mmm.”
“Simon.”
“Five more minutes…”
“Simon!”
“Bah! The PS Nimona is a paddle steamer ocean liner powered by a special aether engine designed to hear water into steam!,” Simon suddenly blurted as he shot awake.
Captain Douglas looked at the cabin boy with a confused look on his face, unsure of what the latter just blurted out, while the cabin boy himself also looked confused at what he just said.
Actually, he just looked confused in general.
Simon looked around himself in an attempt to figure out his bearings until he laid eyes on the captain.
“Captain Douglas, sir!”
At the sight of his superior, Simon immediately stood to attention in order to give his captain a proper salute.
“Sorry you had to see me in this state, sir!”
“At ease, boy,” Douglas said while gesturing for the boy to put his arm down, “I thought you were supposed to be at the inn alongside the others. Why were you here?”
“Permission to speak freely sir?
“Granted.”
With the permission given, Simon looked visibly more relaxed than before.
“I had heard the ship’s repair was done sooner than anticipated, so I wanted to check it out for myself.”
“Ah…wait, that means you were here last night,” the captain realized, “does that mean you know what happened to the ship?”
“Huh? What do you mean, captain?”
Without saying anything else, Captain Douglas merely pointed behind Simon towards the ship.
A touch confused, Simon followed the finger and turned around to the face the ship.
“Captain? What are you- HOLY SHIT, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SHIP?!”
“I was kind of hoping you could tell me that,” Douglas repeated, “do you remember last night?”
“I…”
It took Simon a minute to regain his composure, racking his brain as to remember what transpired the night prior…
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I remember coming back to the ship, seeing it was in a pristine shape, and admiring the work…
But then there was a loud bang, the sound of conflict and then…I was knocked out?
No, just…groggy?
Minutes or hours passed, I didn’t know which…
Then I heard voices? Commenting about… something.
“Oh shit, that is a sizable hole.”
Then, I think I saw a bunch of creatures appear in the dry docks and then one walked up to me and…
Huh.
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Simon felt around his pockets until he felt something that definitely wasn’t there before.
Reaching into the pocket, he pulled out a small folded piece of paper with a weird seal on it.
“What’s this?,” he asked aloud.
“It appears to be a note,” the captain observed, “let me have a look.”
Following the order, Simon obediently handed over the piece of paper, allowing the captain to unfold it.
“Ah, it is indeed a note, a short at one at that,” the captain confirmed, “let’s have a read.
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Dear presumed captain of this cabin boy,
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits, because we regret to inform you that due to extraneous circumstances out of our control, your ship was horribly damaged as a result.
As compensation, we have taken it upon ourselves to not only fix the damages done but also upgrade the ship into a steam ship.
If you don’t know what that is, that is fine, if we have included a manual in your new captain’s quarters and bestowed the knowledge to your cabin boy.
To gain access to the ship, please use the passphrase: Nautilus.
Sincerely,
K&Z.
P.S.
Sorry for knocking out your cabin boy.
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“Nautilus?,” Captain Douglas repeated.
*Click, click, WHIRRRRR!*
As soon as that word was said, the sound of gears and springs began to echo throughout the dry docks.
