Seaswept (Seabound Chronicles Book 2) (3 page)

“Because we have
to,” David said. “Like it or not, people are forming bigger and bigger
coalitions, and that means commercial activity. The politics that go along with
it are becoming more sophisticated.”

“I don’t want to
get into all that.”

Esther had enough
of politicking on the
Galaxy Flotilla
to last her awhile.

“At least think it
over,” David said. “We still have almost two weeks until we reach the
Amsterdam
.”

“Wait. What about
Judith and Dirk, our favorite power couple?” Zoe said.

“She’s right,”
Esther said. “We’ll have to clear it with the council. I can ask my dad if
he’ll get me into the next meeting.”

“May I come along
when you talk to them?” David asked. “I’ve been wanting to attend a council
meeting.”

“I can’t make any
promises.” Her father may be back on the council, but he wasn’t in charge yet.

“Understood,”
David said. His mouth lifted in his enigmatic smile.

Salt, he was
handsome. Why couldn’t she stop staring at that smile?

Zoe cleared her
throat. “Seriously, guys, we’re supposed to be celebrating. Grab yourself a
drink and join us, Hawthorne.”

“All right. If
Esther doesn’t mind.”

He stood up.

“Why would I
mind?”

He grinned.
“You’ve been avoiding me for weeks.”

“Have not. I’ve
been working . . .” Esther buried her face in her water carton.

David laughed and
went to get a bottle for himself.

“Tell him how much
you like him, Esther,” Anita said as soon as David left the table.

“Anita!” Zoe
shrieked.

“I don’t like
him.”

“Of course you
do,” Zoe said. “Listen to the woman when she speaks, Esther! Or I could tell
him you want to—”

“Shh,” Esther
hissed. “He’s coming back. Don’t you dare say a word!”

Zoe and Anita were
shaking with laughter when David returned with a tall plastic bottle. A label
about something artisanal was still visible on its side. Esther’s face felt
hot, and she refused to look at her friends. She had no choice but to meet
David’s eyes. He smiled.

“So . . .” She
cleared her throat. “I should really get back to work. I need to run some tests
on the oil before we build the big separator for the main engines.”

“
You just got the prototype to work,” David
said. “That’s no small feat. Why don’t you take the night off?”

“Yeah, seriously, Esther,” Zoe said, finally suppressing her laughter.
“You’re no fun when you’re working.”

The afternoon shift had ended, and people were beginning to return to the
Mermaid Lounge. Sunlight slanted through the windows and cast golden patches
across the threadbare carpet. The chatter of voices rose around the room. It
would
be nice to be around people after
she had been drowning herself in her work for so long.

“I promise not to talk business if you stay,” David said.

She supposed she could start on the fuel tests tomorrow. And if David
wanted her around . . . He was looking directly at her, his gaze unwavering.

“Fine, I’ll stay for a bit,” Esther said. She
buried her face in her water jug again.

Chapter 3—Leaders

A week later Esther
walked to the council meeting with her father, Simon.
There was a bustle in the corridors typical of the hour after the shift change.
People greeted them enthusiastically as they passed. Public opinion had warmed
to Simon again during the water crisis. He had kept everyone calm until Esther
and the others brought help on the
Lucinda
.
Now he was standing straighter and moving with a greater sense of purpose than
Esther had seen in years.

“How’s the
progress, Esther?” Simon asked. He’d gotten a haircut recently, and he wore his
green scarf loose around his neck.

“I’m almost
finished building the big separator based on my prototype,” she said. “So far
the biofuel is working out. I’ve rigged it so the extracted oil will go
straight into the refinery some of the guys from the
Galaxy
helped me set up. I should be ready to fire up the big
engines by the end of the week. I want to finish before Judith has a chance to
trade away all of this year’s salvage.”

“That’s great,”
Simon said. “I didn’t realize things were so far along. You
could
visit me more often.”

Esther cringed.
Technically, she still lived with her father, but she had been staying in the
bowling alley or in the Mermaid Lounge with her friends more often than not.

“I mean to,” she
said. “You’ve been busy, though.”

Esther was glad
her father was back on the council. It was good for him to be occupied, and it
helped to loosen the chokehold Judith had enjoyed for years. But that wasn’t
the only reason she had been spending time away from him.

“Are you sure this
isn’t about Penelope?”

“That would be
childish,” Esther muttered.

“You’ve barely
said two words to her in the last month. And I know you’ve been sleeping in
your workroom. You should come home. Get to know her a little better.”

Simon had taken
his relationship with their neighbor public after Esther’s return from the
Galaxy
. He’d said something about the
crisis making him think about how short life was, as if any of them needed that
reminder. Penelope Newton, the woman Esther had always thought had a few screws
loose, now had her father’s attention and public affection.

“You two need your
space,” Esther said.

She banged on the
door to the bridge and pushed it open before her father could answer.

The bridge
stretched the full width of the ship. Rows of computer consoles occupied the
room, though most had been silent for years. The engine control room in the
bowels of the ship was also shut most of the time, unless they needed to move
in an emergency. The bridge itself was Judith’s headquarters. She and Manny,
her second-in-command, ruled the ship from here while the
Catalina
drifted. The only other person who worked here was a
morose woman named Ren, who still wore her faded officer’s uniform from her
early days as a navigator employed by the cruise line.

The
floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the bridge showed a solid blue sky.
Judith stood silhouetted against it with her hands on her hips. Her ash-blond
hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail, her body all angles and edges. She
looked annoyed as usual.

Most of the
council had already assembled. Serving on the council was a rotating duty, one
that was supposed to be shared equally amongst all the adults on the
Catalina
. In recent years people had
grown apathetic, and the council had fallen into a pattern: Judith chaired the
meetings, and everyone pretty much agreed with what she said.

But the encounter
with the
Galaxy Flotilla
had shaken
things up. Suddenly, Judith didn’t have quite as much control as she wanted.
Dirk was the instigator of most of her troubles. As soon as he learned about
the council’s structure, he had insisted on joining immediately as the
representative for the former Galaxians.

Dirk leaned
against the foremost console, his muscular arms crossed over his chest. He was
a big man, in his fifties, with coal-dark skin and deep worry lines in his
forehead. He still wore the coveralls that had been his work uniform on the
Galaxy Flotilla
’s oil tanker, but he had
unbuttoned the top part and tied it around his waist, revealing a thin black
T-shirt straining over his muscles.

The man talking to
Dirk was slightly younger but nearly as large. He had thick curly hair with
hints of gray, and three-day stubble on his chin. Reggie headed up the hull repair
crew on the
Catalina
. He was one of
Esther’s good friends and was popular with most people on the ship. His turn on
the council had begun a month ago. He got along well with Dirk, and they had
come to represent the hard labor crews. The friendship between Reggie and Dirk
was where the fractures in the
Catalina
’s
community had really begun to appear.

An elderly woman
with a steel-gray bun sat in a rolling chair from one of the computer consoles.
Mrs. Cordova led a faction of her own: her large and influential family. There
had been a Cordova family reunion on the original
Catalina
cruise, so after the disaster the whole clan had been marooned
together. Over the years they had added an entire third generation. Mrs.
Cordova, the matriarch, had extended her term on the council by volunteering to
take her son-in-law’s place. One of her daughters was up for the council next,
and everyone assumed that Mrs. Cordova would be filling in for her too.

“Just because the
new water system is more efficient, doesn’t mean we should throw our resources
around like confetti,” Mrs. Cordova was saying when Esther and her father
entered the bridge. She was pontificating to two other council members. Both
elderly former
Catalina
passengers—a
man and a woman—they were firmly in Mrs. Cordova’s camp.

“You’re right,”
said one of her sycophants, an older woman with shaky hands and wispy white
hair. “We should stockpile. What if the system breaks?”

“Exactly!” Mrs.
Cordova said. “It has happened before. It’ll happen again.”

The trio looked up
as Esther and Simon joined the group. “It’s about time,” Mrs. Cordova said.
“We’ve been waiting.”

“Apologies, Rosa,”
Simon said genially. “Thank you for your patience.”

“Let’s call this
meeting to order,” Judith barked. She glared at Dirk and Reggie, who were still
talking. “Anytime, gentlemen.”

“Hold your
seahorses, woman,” Dirk said. “Aren’t we still waiting for someone?”

Judith scowled.
Esther had seen her make
that
face
plenty of times before.

“David Hawthorne
asked to be part of this discussion,” Judith said, her voice razor sharp, “but
if he can’t bother to show up on time . . .”

“Afternoon,
everyone!”

David sauntered
into the room. As usual his clothes were pressed and his hair perfect.

“Nice of you to
join us,” Judith grumbled.

“Mrs. Cordova!”
David said. “So lovely to see you again.”

He took Mrs.
Cordova’s hand and bent over to kiss it. She blinked and giggled. David greeted
her two companions, then shook Judith’s hand formally. She gave him a sharp
nod. Next, David turned to Reggie and Dirk. He took an extra second to clap
Reggie on the shoulder, but he shook Dirk’s hand every bit as formally as he
had shaken Judith’s. Finally, he smiled and nodded conspiratorially at Esther
and Simon. Esther couldn’t help feeling that the order and manner of David’s
greetings had been carefully calculated before he arrived.

“Okay, first on
the agenda: Esther,” Judith said. “Why don’t you tell us what this is all
about?”

“Oh . . .” Esther
studied the feet of the council members. She should’ve known Judith would get
right to the point. “Well, I’ve been working on a separator, and now that it
works I—”

“Hold on a
minute,” Mrs. Cordova said. “What does this contraption separate exactly?”

“Right. Let me
explain,” Esther said. “You know how there has been way more algae on the sea
lately. Well, algae has a lot of oil in it, and that oil can be converted to
biofuel to power diesel engines. The trick is to separate the oil from the rest
of the plant so it can be used. Before the disaster, people were working on
this apparently, but they used chemicals, and we didn’t have the right ones on
board. Well, I’ve figured out a mechanical way to do the separation and refine
the oil into biofuel. I’ve made the process highly energy-efficient, the same
way I modified the desal system. I can run the machine with a battery-powered
motor—so, energy that comes from the turbines and the windmills—and
produce a lot of oil for the amount of energy required.”

Esther looked
around expectantly.
 

“In short,” Simon
said, “Esther has made it possible for us to move freely.”

“Yes, we can
produce enough fuel to run the propulsion system,” Esther said.

Silence reigned in
the bridge as the council members took in the news. They had been drifting at
sea for a very long time. Esther glanced at David, but his face was impassive
as he studied the others.

“You mean we won’t
need to trade for oil anymore?” asked Mrs. Cordova’s male companion finally.

“Right, but we
still need enough power to run the separator,” Esther said, “and we need the
algae of course.”

“But there’s
plenty of that to go around,” Reggie said. “We can’t get rid of the stuff on
the hull fast enough.”

“Yes,” Simon said.
“The algae has been growing faster and faster over the past few months. I
believe this is due to the temperature changes. You’ve all noticed it’s getting
warmer. It’s also possible something in the volcanic ash settled into the seas
and made them more hospitable to the fast-growing plant. We don’t have anyone
on board with the expertise to tell us for sure, but we do have a rather
brilliant mechanic who has allowed us to take advantage of this phenomenon”—Simon
put a hand on Esther’s shoulder—“even if we don’t fully understand it.”

“Way to go, mate,”
Reggie said. “I knew you’d come up with something eventually if I kept sneaking
you parts.” He grinned at Esther.

Judith shot him a
dirty look. “Yes, well done, Esther. Now, is that all?”

“No,” Esther
began, glancing at David again. He stood casually between her and Dirk, arms
folded. “We’re getting to the
Amsterdam
soon, and this new technology is going to change how we trade with them. First
of all, we won’t need any crude. And we should think about how we’re going to
share the technology with the other ships.”

“My proposal,”
David cut in smoothly, “is that we should sell the separator idea. I’m sure you
all know how valuable it is to have an energy-efficient method of travel,
especially one as innovative as this. I’d be happy to handle the arrangements—”

“Hold on,” Judith
said. “I don’t think we should distribute this system to anyone. You’ve done
well, Esther, but the technology should stay with the
Catalina
.”

“Why not just give
it away?” Esther said. “You know how this technology will change things. It’d
be pretty self-serving to keep it.”

“Need I remind
you, Esther,” Judith said, “that we’ve acquired a rather dangerous enemy in the
form of the
Galaxy Flotilla
?
You stole their ship and a group of
their citizens. We have to protect the
Catalina
above everything else. The best way to do that is to keep any advantages to
ourselves.”

“I agree with
Judith in part,” David said, smiling at her with all of his straight white
teeth. Judith was unmoved. “I’m fairly certain the
Galaxy
captains decided not to chase us when we got away on the
Lucinda
because it would waste too much
fuel. It was a simple cost-benefit analysis, but that doesn’t mean they won’t
cause problems for us later on down the line. That’s exactly why we should sell
the technology. We have the opportunity to make ourselves some powerful
friends.”

“The
Catalina
is better off without friends,”
Judith said. “I think your ‘friends’ on the
Galaxy
proved that, don’t you? And if we release the technology to anyone else, the
Galaxy
might get their hands on it.”

“Another option
would be to produce the biofuel and sell it ourselves,” Simon said. “We’d
control the means of production at least.”

“Absolutely not,”
Judith said. “We cannot expose ourselves to regular contact like that.”

Judith had always
kept the
Catalina
as isolated as possible.
They only met with the
Amsterdam
once
a year out of necessity.

“You can’t just
close yourselves off from everyone,” David said. “Where will we get parts in
the future? I’m sure Reggie can tell us that the raw material we have on board
this ship won’t last forever.”

“The problem is
rust and salt,” Reggie said. “Simple as that. Everything is going all rusty and
salt-corroded. If we can’t trade for new shit to patch things up, eventually
we’re going to lose the hull.”