Elara watched the captain address, or rather shout, at his first mate impassively. She’d been a crew member of the Aleph Null for two years now, and that was more than enough time to become accustomed to the captain’s less than congenial nature. When he turned to her she straightened, eager to hear what the plan was. She was dying to get the ship out of this prolonged idling and do some real flying. Waiting for the target to appear was making her anxious. 

She listened to his instructions attentively, already visualizing the maneuvers in her head. The captain’s plan made sense, and with a bit of finesse it wouldn’t be a hard task to accomplish. Grady did seem to be putting quite a bit of weight on remaining unseen for as long as possible, so she would need a smidgen more finesse than usual, though it shouldn’t be a problem. The weather seemed to be in decent condition for this kind of job, she mused. The thing Elara really needed to worry about was making sure the ship didn’t stay too low in the chop for too long, otherwise the plume of steam the ship would generate might give away their location too soon. Her mind was going over the calculations for each step, trying to plan the best course of action as per the captain’s instructions. Her earlier frustration began to fade away as she focused on the task at hand, she almost forgot to respond.

“Of course, Captain,” she said, turning back to the wheel. “There shouldn’t be any problems. I’ll alert you as soon as I spot the bastards as we can get this show on the road.” She narrowed her eyes at the clouds before them, willing the target to come out where she could see them. She heard the two men exit the navigation room behind her as she watched the skies.

Elara concentrated on the view in front of her, fingers drumming on the wheel impatiently. She maintained the same, mind numbingly slow speed they’d been going at for the past two days, as instructed. Trying to find a ship that should have shown up at least an hour ago was grating on the young sailing master’s nerves. Luckily, she did not have to wait much longer. No more than half an hour later she could see it. There, in the distance, a dark shape was coming around one of the cloud towers, quite a ways away. “Oh, thank the stars,” she muttered, squinting at the ship, trying to get a better look without having to pull out her telescope, only to do so a moment later. The ship was maybe two leagues away, she estimated, looking at the vessel through the telescope’s lens. Given their position and distance, there was no way the Aleph Null could have possibly been spotted yet, flying as subtly as they were. She left the helm briefly, sticking her head outside the navigation room. She snagged the first crew member that passed by, some young deck hand, and spoke to him quickly, her firm voice causing the boy to snap to attention.

“Find the captain and first mate immediately, you hear? Tell them the target has been spotted, a little less than 2 leagues away, and I’ll be carrying out the plan presently. Then, you find Kisaki down in the engine room and tell her we’re about to start moving for real.”

The boy stood, looking at her for a moment.

“Go!” she snapped, and let out a frustrated sigh as he gave her a small salute and ran off to find Captain Grady and Van Williams. 

“Okay,” she said, letting out a breath at she took her place back at the ship’s wheel. “Here we go.” 

With Elara at the helm, the Aleph Null began to sink slowly, lowering further into the chop. She could feel the ship creak with the sudden change in movement. Outside the glass walls of the navigation room, she could see the swirling gray clouds increase as the ship descended. She continued to move the vessel forward as she sank, still going slowly, but at the same time beginning to approach the target, given that they were still quite a ways off. She glanced back towards the aft of the ship frequently, keeping an eye on the steam that began to increase ever so slightly as the vivum worked to cool the ship’s engine.

Elara stayed low in the chop for a short time, letting the coolant do its job. Outside the navigation room she could hear various crew members racing back and forth as they all prepared for the tasks ahead. [i]Attacking another ship was no easy business[/i], she thought. She could feel the difference in flight as the ship began to run more smoothly, and began to rise the vessel slightly, increasing the speed as they went. They began to gain on the target, but Elara warily eyed the steam coming out of the ship. They’d had to cool it down, but the quickest way to be spotted was by the telltale white plume that followed every airship. 

Elara would make sure they remained undetected for as long as possible. If she got her way, the other ship wouldn’t even know they existed until they were already side by side. With this in mind, she reached out with her senses, focusing on the stannum in the wind all around the ship. Mentally reaching out, she manipulated the caith around the vessel, the newly blowing wind causing the steam to dissipate before it could truly become noticeable. It wasn’t necessarily easy to focus on both flying and aeurgy, having her concentration split on two very different tasks, but Elara had had her fair share of practice doing just that. 

Soon they were fast approaching the target, the distance closing as Elara circled the ship, wide like the captain wanted, using the cloud towers around them as cover whenever they passed by one. Once they were a little more than half a league back, the Aleph Null began to rise steadily in the sky, lifting out of the chop all together and going higher and higher. Getting in someone’s sunspot was sometimes a challenging thing. You had to be close enough to make your move, but also make sure that they didn’t see you rising out of the chop, which would defeat the initial purpose entirely. Sure, Elara had worked out the numbers in her head, and could tell someone exactly how high they needed to be, but if you were to ask her, this kind of flying relied on feeling and skill more than it did on straight measurement. Luckily, the clouds around them seemed to give the ship sufficient cover as they rose, and suddenly, it was time to approach the enemy vessel.

Hearing the usual groan of protest from the ship as she suddenly changed the direction of their movement, the ship descended, moving further forward. When they were close, she increased the speed, wanting to get beside the other ship as soon as possible. It was inevitable that they would be seen now, but the Aleph Null was pulling in alongside them before they’d have had enough time to really react anyways.[i] Now[/i], she mused, [i]it’s up to everybody else to do their jobs[/i]. She sighed in relief and let her aeurgy fade away. [i]However[/i], she thought, a small frown forming on her face, [i]now I have to wait[/i]. She sighed again, this time in resignation. Elara disliked waiting.