The Gem Lords

Suddenly Mortal - Part 6

     No real damage was done to the Jules Verne, although everyone felt the deck lurch under their feet as the Ship of Space was knocked sideways, but the other ship was more seriously hurt. The mast was bent upwards, splintering it half way along its length, and the sails and rigging it supported flapped loosely on one side, stretched and tore on the other. The whole crew of the open decked ship was thrown from their feet by the impact, and heads turned in all directions as they searched for the enemy they assumed was attacking them.

     The officer opened his mouth to bark orders, but then the ship was engulfed by a hurricane as the gravity fields of the two ships overlapped and the air surrounding the sailing ship was sucked across to fill the vacuum surrounding the Jules Verne. Saturn felt an unexpected wind tugging at his robes and suddenly there were sounds all around him. The creaking and groaning of splintered wood and the terrified cries of crewmen who suddenly had only a fraction of the air to breathe they'd had a moment earlier.

     It was as if they'd been teleported instantly from sea level to the top of the highest mountain and they convulsed in agony as their blood boiled; their eyes swelling out of their heads in a hideous stare of death and foam bubbling from their mouths and nostrils.

     The Jules Verne crewmembers stared in horror at what they'd inadvertently done, at the unspeakable agonies being suffered by a hundred human beings so close beside them. "Gods!" cried Lirenna, her voice tinny and weak in the thin air. "Tom! Oh Gods! We have to help them!"

     "Necklaces of Vacuum Breathing!" agreed Thomas, turning back to the airlock door and opening it.
Saturn's first instinct was to turn to stop him. How many of the intensely magical artifacts did they have? Not enough for every member of the Jules Verne's own crew now that it had been tripled in size, and even if they handed over their entire supply there wouldn't be half enough for everyone dying aboard the wooden ship.

     Then he paused, though. Not even he had that level of inhumanity. They could save some of them, and perhaps more of them could be brought across to the Tharian ship. The Captain would have a fit at the security threat, but he would also be forced to accept the necessity. This was their first contact with the Shipbuilders, after all, and you only got one chance to make a first impression. What happened here and now would determine their relationship with their people, perhaps for centuries to come.

     Thomas scrambled into the airlock, only to return a moment later with only two necklaces in his hand and a stricken look on his face. The rest were being worn by Jules Verne crewmembers, out on the walkway. Saturn barely noticed. He was shouting into the air, using the Helm of Telepathy to tell Strong to bring the Jules Verne back alongside the wooden ship, which had pulled away somewhat and was rolling back and forth as if on invisible waves.

     Drenn, meanwhile, pushed past Thomas to open the inner airlock door while Clawdus helped the ballista crew to drop a ballista bolt in the outer door, preventing it from closing fully. The airlock was designed to prevent both doors from being open at the same time, and the priest of Samnos had to attack the inner door with his sword to damage the mechanism. He finally got the door open, and air rushed out through the airlock, bringing the air pressure around the walkway up to Tharian sea level, the peculiar physical laws of this universe holding it close to the ship and preventing it from escaping into the vastness of space. The Lifegiver, meanwhile, the intensely magical artifact that kept the Pantrys filled with food and kept the air fresh, generated new air to maintain the air pressure inside the ship, as Drenn had known it would.

     "What's happening?" asked Lirenna, appearing from the next airlock around the curve of the ship from where she'd brought another four necklaces. "What are they doing?"