[h1]Episode 2 Finale Part 5 - “And The Sea Shall Yield Up”[/h1] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/t2w0g4b.jpg[/img][/center] JP/Collab from [@Aalakrys], [@wanderingwolf], [@Gunther], [@Xandrya], and [@sail3695] Time spent on a pitching deck proved a skosh too harsh on Rex’s stomach. With a complexion gone long past green, the First Mate beat a hasty retreat aft, toward an appointment with the porcelain bowl. Things were looking up; the Cap’n had that easy look about him as China Doll buttoned up her bomb bay for a trip upstairs. But nothing in this ‘verse comes easy. When the call came, it almost sounded like somebody was spoofin’. Someone named Sam was certain of a castaway, adrift on the wild sea. Cap’n thought better of rushing into the rescue, until an immovable Pen and this...Sam...managed to turn his thinking on the matter. “Ladies! [i]Go Hwong Tong[/i]. What part of ASAP ain’t clear--look, go pick up this [i]Buhn Dahn[/i] before this whole job is [i]Soh Ya Feh Tian[/i].” (‘Enough of this nonsense’, moron, and ‘ruined at the last moment’, respectively). "Shiny, Cap'n, can do." Pen’s voice was nigh on chipper over the intercom. Aow alone in the cargo bay, Cal and Hook could feel the force of China Doll’s atmo engines as Pen gave her the spurs. They were on their way to yet another uncertain outcome...with a boat full of fish that’d be much happier in the icy black. Under full atmo thrust, the Firefly hurtled North. The seas beneath her hull grew ever more restless, as ominous cloud and increasingly violent wind harried her flight. As predicted, Hurricane Daniel was dying out in the much colder latitudes, but the death would prove a lingering, hard fought affair. Joe grabbed a railing to steady himself feeling the power of the Firefly class ship move towards the distress signal. He didn’t know what they were going for, but was ready to help anyway he could. Once she reined the ship back under her hand, Penelope checked with Sam that they hadn't strayed the estimation. No corrections were needed on speed, but they’d strayed a few degrees so she flipped the engine thrusters to hover and adjusted while letting off the throttle at an ease. They’d traveled north a ways, and external temperatures had dropped. So much for needin’ that sweater later on. Now they just to find the source of the signal. In waves topping out in 15' while wind whipped against the ship, the China Doll descended from above the clouds. From where she sat, it was easy to spot the strayed wreckage through the viewport. Debris that was floating spread wide across the wavetops that rose and fell like someone had shook up the ocean nice and good. Hurricanes would do it, she supposed, as her eyes scanned what they could. Sam spoke up when they neared the spread. Just before the nose of the ship covered her view, she thought she’d glimpsed a huddled figure atop a wide splintered section of wood. "Cap'n, need eyes below. Pretty sure we’re over our target." The turbulence in the sea could be felt in the sky, that was for certain. Penelope activated the underbelly floodlights as a gust struck at the neck of the bird, and instead of cresting she used the push to slow their glide. She knew without the engines burning, the ship would sail right on down like the hunk of metal it was, but used her past experience with gliders in conjunction with the Firefly capabilities rather than defaulted to what she knew. If she had to have any ship to pull this off in, it would be this one. Even if it required a bit more strain of the muscle to keep her dancin’ in this storm. In fact, the last words that’d left her lips were strained with that effort. As she held tight the controls with both hands firm, she spoke to herself with gleeful delight through the tensity, her eyes just as alight. “Tempest, my favorite mistress, you’re makin’ our final number this trip one to remember. Why not go a li’l easier for the poor soul below, ey?” Nothing. There was nothing left of this world but angry black clouds, howling wind, and mountains of water that tossed him about. The first of his senses to go was that of time. Though sluggish daylight had come, he couldn’t gauge the day’s passage. It might be midafternoon...or it might be years past...the ocean’s fury offered no hint by which to orient his thinking. It simply pummelled...and pummelled, and pummelled again. Yuri, battered and chilled through and through as he was, could scarcely be bothered. Fearing the loss of his hands, he’d secured the strap to his left bicep. Now, legs that barely answered splayed across the remnants of the splintering table. His fingers were melded into two claw hooks. He couldn’t move them independently...but on the bright side, he couldn’t feel them, either. In fact, he was feeling less and less of the storm’s punishment. A deep sense of relaxation washed over him...sweet and smooth. He had to remember...he had to tap the code. [i][b]* * * - - - * * *[/b][/i] It was something to do...a subconscious response. The drummer held a dignified quietude as he laid down the beat. The piano fell in, an amazing whisper, kept on a delicate balance by the musician’s brilliance in knowing not just chords and rhythms, but the measure of force. Such a simple backbeat, but the whole room was held transfixed by this ancient music...this jazz… “Brubeck.” Yuri smiled. [i][b]** ** - - ** **[/b][/i] [i]”The SOS,”[/i] some voice murmured. Really kind of rude for anyone to be talking right now, when the saxophone was just about to join in. Yuri glanced about the darkened nightclub. Not a sign of the uncouth dolt. [i]”SOS...”[/i] “Oh,” a wave crashed over his shattered life raft, threatening to roll him off as it swept him into a trough. That’s right...he had to send the signal. [i][b]* * * -- --- --- * * *[/b][/i] Yuri didn’t know if the contraption worked anymore. For all the pounding and drenching it took, most likely it didn’t...and he cared not a bit. All the radio seemed good for was to bring him back to the here and now, trapped in a body that was on its way toward shutting down amid the icy waves. They weren’t gonna find him...at least not when it mattered. So why torture himself? That night in Birdland was right there, reaching out to him. A warm comfort in the darkness, the hand of a beautiful woman...what was her name? And Brubeck. Brubeck to take him home… China Doll dropped through the racing clouds. The Firefly swept in over the wavetops, her belly mounted searchlights playing beams that danced and plunged over the roiling tempest. Her atmo engines swiveled, going vertical as she came to a hover in the storm. Luck be damned, Cal had hailed Alana to tend to a possible shipwreck survivor. She knew the hurricane had taken some lives with it, and it was a miracle the poor soul had survived at all. She grabbed her medical bag which was always at the ready, slinging it over her shoulder so it hung across her frame, then took off for the cargo bay. As the doc joined Hook and Cal in the cargo bay, the com squawked. Pen’s voice rose from the tiny speaker. "Cap'n, need eyes below. Pretty sure we’re over our target." At Penelope’s call, Cal flipped open the bomb bay doors again, peering through the wind and rain to the sharp waves below. Sure as the mail, the China Doll hovered and lilted over a scrap of something buoyant enough to buoy a lifeless figure to the surface. As the Captain opened the hatch, Joe dropped into a prone on the cargo bay floor looking out at the surface below. His hand clipped on the walkie, “Hold steady, I see ‘em twenty feet below.” Just as the Captain radioed the bridge, Joe pointed at the figure in the water. “Sure thing, Cap’n,” Penelope chirped back as she set the Doll to hover over the ocean for the third time during this visit to New Melbourne. This time, there was more a sense of purpose for her - the first, an unknown criminal act, the second just pickin’ up some fish - also could be judged as a criminal act if’n they didn’t go loop-holin’. But this time they were [i]savin’[/i] someone. It made the tension in her arms all the more easy to just be part of it. ********************To Be Continued**********************