She continued speaking into her headset and brought the channel up so everyone on the bridge could hear.
Les peered outside but saw only the rain pummeling the glass and filling the bridge with a soft, percussive white noise.
“They aren’t responding, sir,” Ada said.
“Ensign Corey, do you have them on radar?” Les asked.
Eevi checked her screen. “I don’t see anything yet, sir, but we’re nearing their last known location.”
“How about this hurricane?” Les asked. “Still looking like the worst of it will miss the Vanguard Islands?”
“I think so,” Eevi said, “but we all know how unpredictable these systems can be.” She checked her console again. “You see anything I’m not seeing, Pepper?”
The AI crossed the bridge. “From my estimates, the Vanguard Islands will see increased wind and more heavy rain, but unless the path of the storm changes, there should be only limited damage.”
“Good,” Les said. He stepped back up to the porthole window, listening to the barrage of thunder below them. He had seen a lot of bad weather in his day, but this wasn’t your garden-variety electrical storm.
“I’ve got something on radar,” Eevi announced.
Les hurried over to her station. “Is it the Lion?”
“Yes,” Timothy replied.
“Good,” Les replied. “At least, we know they haven’t been taken down by a storm wave.”
“So we can go home now?” Ada asked.
Les saw the fatigue in her eyes too, but he still wanted to confirm that they didn’t need assistance. “Hail them again,” he said.
Ada did as ordered, but again lightning static crackled over the channel.
Les stared out at the brilliant display. “We should descend for a closer look.”
He caught the unease in the glance that Eevi and Ada exchanged. And he understood it well. He also felt conflicted about helping the people who had shot both him and his son in the fight for the Metal Islands.
But the war was over, and the Cazadores hadn’t killed his boy. The machines had, and if Les wanted the rest of his family to survive, he needed to work with the Cazadores to secure the Vanguard Islands.
“Take us down,” Les said before his crew could object. “Twenty degrees down angle.”
“Descending,” Timothy reported.
The hull groaned in reply.
“Winds out of the northwest at almost seventy knots,” Timothy added.
Eevi and Ada tensed, grabbing the arms of their chairs.
“All due respect, Captain,” Eevi said, “but why are we risking our ship to check on them? We already know they’re down there.”
Ada looked at Les for his response.
“Because it is our duty,” he replied. “Do you have a problem with my order, Ensign?”
“It’s just…” Eevi began to say. Her words trailed off, but Ada, who held rank over the ensign, picked up the thread.
“This is one of the ships that attacked the USS Zion, is it not, sir?” Ada said. “One of the ships that murdered Captain DaVita.”
Les licked his dry lips. She was right, damn it, and he hated that some of the warriors on that ship may have fired the very rounds that killed her.
Still, he had a duty—and orders from X—to make sure the warship was not in trouble.
“Those Cazadores have sworn an oath to fight for King Xavier Rodriguez, and he has given us the task of checking on the warship as part of our patrol. Do you understand, Lieutenant?”
Her freckled brow scrunched, and she nodded.
“We are all human and should work together,” Timothy said.
The other officers didn’t acknowledge the AI or correct him, but Les nodded. Part of Timothy still believed he was human, and maybe, somehow, there was a bit of him left in all that artificial intelligence.
What Les knew for certain was that Timothy had been a good person. He had died taking care of his family and had suffered terribly since then, yet he still did everything in his power to help his species.
The hull creaked and groaned as the airship lowered through the storm.
“Turn on frontal beams,” Les ordered.
The bright lights activated, cutting through slanting rain that looked like knives hitting the bow. Lightning flashed, followed a few seconds later by a thunderclap loud enough to rattle the hull.
“We’re at four thousand feet,” Timothy said. “The Lion should heave into view in a few minutes.”
Les stared ahead, trying to see through the storm. The ship held steady, withstanding the storm better than he had expected. She was a solid ship, built to last, and she had spent only a tiny fraction of the Hive’s time in the sky.
“Two thousand feet,” Timothy said.
The beams raked the surface, hitting what looked like a sloshing tub of water.
“Dear God,” Les whispered.
Even from this height, the waves appeared gigantic. And down there, plowing through them, was the bow of a small Cazador warship, bobbing like a toy.
“There they are,” Les said. “Eevi what’s their bearing?”
“Due west, sir.”
“Ada, try hailing them again.”
This time, Ada received a garbled reply in Spanish.
“They are taking on water,” Timothy translated. “The captain is making a run for the islands to try and escape the worst of the hurricane.”
“That’s fifty miles away,” Les said.
“Forty-nine now, to be precise,” Timothy replied.
Les watched in dismay as the Lion seesawed over the monster waves. A crate on the deck snapped free of the chain holding it down and slid down the deck as the ship climbed over another wall of water.
“They aren’t going to make it,” Les said. “We have to do something.”
“What can we do?” Ada asked.
“Timothy, approximately how much does the boat weigh?” Les asked.
The AI raised a brow. “The ship, sir? Far too much.”
“Not the ship—the ship’s boat,” Les said. “Maybe we could lift them up and carry the boat back to the islands.”
“In these winds?” Ada said, looking at Les as if he were crazy.
He did feel that he was starting to go off the rails, but most of that had to do with lack of sleep.
Get it together, Mitchells. Lives, and the airship, are on the line here.
He picked up the radio and called the launch bay. “Alfred, I need your team to lower the cables. Proceed to the lower bay, ASAP.”
The lead technician came back on the horn. “Sir, for what reason?”
“Just get down there,” Les said. He cradled the handset and crossed the bridge, but Ada moved to block his way.
“Sir,” she said, “You’re risking Discovery by doing this. You heard what Timothy said about the winds.”
“The ship can handle it, and we need their help, Lieutenant,” Les said.
“Why do we need their help?”
“Because the battle between our two societies is over, and the war with the machines will require every single man and woman,” Les fired back.
As if in reply, the hull gave out a long groan.
“You’re on the ragged edge of insubordination, Lieutenant,” Les said. “Now, step aside.”
Ada clenched her jaw but moved aside and let him pass.
The passages were deserted, all crew members either at their stations or in their shelters. Discovery could take much more punishment than the Hive, especially since Samson had it retrofitted with stronger shields against the lightning.
Les ran to his locker in the launch bay and got into his suit and armor. Helmet in hand, he took a ladder down to the lowest deck, where the belly of the airship opened under the turbofans.