Pieces of Eight Part Quatre

Groggily, Captain Jezebel stumbled out of her quarters an hour after sunrise. Foggy light came streaking through the narrow windows, making her squint and raise a hand against the intrusion. The clock on her wall chimed eight times. Jezebel groaned. She pulled the leather jacket more tightly about her shoulders and slowly navigated her way to the bow of her airship.

The Captain dodged, ducked and drove her way through low-hanging cables, holes in the floor and various members of her crew to the cockpit. There were more men than just her modest crew on board. The yard's maintenance men were hard at work on the Jewel already. Sounds of machinery and shouts of orders were all around the ship, echoing off the walls. Jezebel stood behind her captain's chair, gazing out the bay windows and into the still-foggy airship yard.

"Uhm, Captain?"

Jezebel turned to find her mechanic, dressed in leather apron and grease, standing in the doorway. "Yes, Dunham?"

He stepped forward into the room. "Came to give you a report on the repairs, ma'am. We've got nearly all the tears in the canvas patched, and all but one of the hydrogen tanks have been exchanged." He wiped his stained gloves on his apron. "If things keep going at this rate we'll be back in the air in two days max." He looked up, and his eyes widened at the grin on his Captain's face.

“Horace, that's brilliant! Two days is sooner than I imagined. Amazing work, Horace. You're the best mechanic flying. After these repairs are complete, you'll get two days' off-duty. How does that sound?" Jezebel couldn't help but smile at the boy's stunned face.

"V-very fair, Captain," he stammered,

"Wonderful. You're dismissed." The Captain saluted and watched Dunham walk hurriedly down the stairs. She turned back toward the large windows of the cockpit, letting her hands fall to the back of what she still thought of as 'his chair.'

"Two whole days, huh? That's quite generous of you."

Jez ducked her head at her First Officer's comment and smiled. "He deserves it. He works harder than any of us, and doesn't get any breaks while we go off looking for treasure."

Miles came to stand next to her, cocking his head at the different crews working on the other airships. "Who said looking for treasure isn't work?" He replied.

Jezebel laughed. "I suppose going after this particular treasure will be a great deal of work. Speaking of.. are our 'commissioners' awake yet?"

"Commissioners? I like it."
"'S got a nice ring to it."

The Captain turned to find Barnaby and Jim lounging in the doorway of the cockpit. "Ah, good to see you're both up and dressed. There are a few matters of importance that we've yet to discuss." She folded her arms and leaned against the back of the worn leather seat.

Jim stepped forward into the small room, taking the invitation. "I was wonderin' when you'd be bringin' money up.," he chuckled.

"Wonder no further. You two do have money, don't you? My ship, crew and services are not free," Jezebel stated, gesturing to the piece of machinery surrounding them.

"'A course we got money," Barnaby laughed. "Whaddya take us for?" He glanced at his partner who took from his tattered jacket a rather large brown leather purse. He tossed it across the room.

The Captain caught it. It jingled and weighed heavily in her hand. "Feels like a decent amount of money." She loosened the drawstrings and peeked inside.

Barnaby scowled behind his scraggly beard. "You questionin' how we got it?"

"No, no. Of course not," Jezebel smiled. She passed the purse to her First Officer. He slipped it into his own coat.

"Now that that's settled," Jezebel went on, "let's get down to business. This treasure you're after... the Pieces of Eight. Do you really know what you're after?"

Barnaby scoffed. "'Course we do!"
"Question is... do you?" Jim added, leaning against the far wall.

Miles took a slight step forward. "We've heard of Edison's experiments. It's preposterous to think he was trying to reach outer space. It's doubtful this machine even exists."

"Oh it exists, alright," Barnaby said. "I've seen it."

The Captain and her Officer stared at the men. "You what?" The former asked, incredulous.

"I've seen it with my own two eyes," Barnaby said proudly. "Used t'work for the man himself, afterall." He sniffed. "Even laid my hands on the thing once or twice. It exists an' I mean t'find it."

Miles raised an eyebrow at Jim. "Is he telling the truth? He's actually seen Edison's invention?"

Jim shrugged. "Never had a reason t'doubt him before. Don't see a reason to start now."

"How is it, then," Jezebel narrowed her eyes, "that you need a buncha pirates like us to hunt it down for you?"

Barnaby huffed and ran his hand over his tattooed arm. "There might be one or two people that need not know 'bout this little exp'dition."

"Which means we're not the only ones looking for it." Miles glanced at his Captain.

She shrugged. "That doesn't matter so much. Barnaby, what can you tell us about Edison's invention?"

"Anythin' you wanna know," he replied.

"Alright then," she stood straight. "Start talking. Tell us everything."

Barnaby sniffed. "Well it's a rocket. Like one-a them ones they say will get us outta orbit. Comes in Eight pieces, ye see. An' it's big enough that if ye had four or five ye could send a vessel a little smaller'n this nearly to the moon itself." He paused for effect before continuing. "Only saw it all put together, though, so it'll be hard findin' all the pieces separately. Pretty sure I could put the thing back t'gether, though..."

"What's it made of?" Miles asked.

"Diff'rent metals, light ones that could be strong, but fly high. Looked like a patchwork when it's all put together."

"And how and why did it get out of Edison's hands?" Jezebel asked.

"Don't rightfully know." The man scratched his nose with a dirty fingernail. "Rumor was that the government wanted the rocket for itself, but Edison didn' want it in corp'rate hands. So it was taken to some lab in Jamaica or someplace for safe keepin'. But the place got raised by the old Pirate Coalition, an' they stole it. Didn' know what t'do with the thing, though, so they broke it all up an' scattered and bartered it. S'pposedly it's in places all over the Caribbean."

The Captain frowned. "Only rumours? You don't know anything more than that?"

Before Barnaby could answer, there was a knock on the doorframe in front of her.

"Sorry to disturb you, Captain," Dunham said, slightly out of breath. "But there's a man outside wantin' to see you."