C.M.S Changyuan, the flagship, the only airship surviving in Tangyu Empire's aerial fleet, is now on its tenth day searching for the Sumer Republic's remnant.
Like a beast, it roars in a low humming voice, industrious and desperate. It is an absolute beast, but the bigger a beast is, the more food the beast consumes, and that is generally a bad thing. Chong learned this in military history back in the academy, the massacre of dinosaurs that had to be carried out by the army a few hundred years ago: They ate too much, inefficient, and the empire's resources are scarce.
Now they themselves are nothing more than the dinosaurs back then.
Up on the horizon, there is nothing. He sighs.
He puts down his binoculars. He should not stress, as even though he is one of the youngest Airship captains, he is more experienced than a lot of his counterparts. But he is indeed under a lot of pressure right now. He instinctively searches for his cigarettes, only to remember that he hasn't brought any: Even though this airship is no longer a huge cluster of hydrogen, even though he is an officer with enough rank to carry cigarettes on board, the old habit on airships still persists in him.
Looking outside the bridge, he finds nothing unusual: Water, water, only water. Water is covering where water was, and the same water is also covering where land was. He looks back towards east and the image of the airship fleet still sticks in his mind: C.M.S Changzhong, her gondola snaped off when the water gushed into the airfield; C.M.S Changming, her crew was fast, but the airship's frame was struck by a falling tower and bent, the flight-ready airship was buried under the water… Their helium cells should still be floating somewhere near the base. He is glad that all his men were all on board for the children's day celebration when the waves start to move to his direction.
For how many days longer could his gladness remain? He could not be sure, this should be the last Kungpeng class airship remaining, if not the last airship remaining on the entire earth. Maybe they are the only humans remaining on the entire planet… He halts his thoughts to a complete stop: They are dangerous for his morale, hence dangerous for the entire ship.
The engines vibrate gently from above and no other noise could be heard in the bridge; everyone is too focused and too tired to talk. He almost appreciates this silence: This one moment of tranquility is an essential, as he has a lot to think about.
But the next second the silence is broken, the door hinge behind him makes a noise: "Captain, do you have time?"
Chong swears silently, he puts his poker face back on and looks behind: "Lieutenant Gao, please speak."
The lieutenant draws out a standard aviation map from his pocket, folded neatly in a square: "Captain, look, if our navigation is still accurate, we are crossing the Yamdrok Dessert now, and if we take a slight detour…" He takes out a compass and points it towards south: "We can get to mount Sagamata, which is eight thousand meters tall, and might still be above the sea level."
He ends his speech, looking into Chong's eye. Gaoyao is a handsome young man, but under this amount of stress, his hair is turning grey at an astonishing speed, combined with his brown leather overcoat which haven't been take care of for days, he now looks more like a peasant than an officer. However, Chong still knows his appearance is among the better ones in his crew. At least he does not look like a beggar.
"How far is the detour?"
"Twelve hours, and if we can resupply quick, we can be back on our mission in two days."
Chong sighs.
"Two days is too much."
How much he hopes that the cigarettes are with him! At least they could give him a sense of comfort.
"Captain." Lieutenant Gao looks like he got hit with a club: "You seems to not know the situation down in the engine room, we are running out of everything, the ship could sustain no longer."
He knows the ship is running low on supplies, but he just has a task more urgent than any other thing in this world. He could just be selfish and benevolent and turn the ship south, which will save lives, three hundred lives on this airship.
He could not, however. He clamps onto his badge on his chest: Its edges are pocking into his flesh.
"You have to understand, lieutenant, that the situation is simple: The imperial family is still alive but, on an island, stranded, and if we could not hurry to find the Sumers with their big ship to evacuate them, they would die. There is not a second could be wasted here, let alone two entire days."
Gao clutches onto the map: "Sir, we are running out of fuel. We will be a hundred miles short before reaching the Sumers's territory if we fly without resupplying."
"Then throw the furniture into the boiler, we don't need seats in the meeting room. We must find the Sumers as soon as possible."
"It will be a one-way trip, Captain!" The lieutenant almost burst into cries, but he manages to calm himself down at the end of the sentence. He looks at Chong, almost begging in his eyes.
"I weight the emperor's life more than ours." This is the cold response given out.
The lieutenant almost wants to argue, but his words get choked in his throat, rendering him speechless. Then the choking words turn into gas that he has to exert out. He takes a long sigh, as if it is his last breath ever. He looks paler than before.
"Well." He manages to squeeze out some words in the end: "I respect your decision."
Waves after waves, roaring beneath the airship. Chong misses the green lands beneath the airship. No, they don't have to be green, they could be yellow, could be brown, could be any other bleak color as long as they are still land. Land means hope, means steadiness.
But now what he could only see is the drowning color of deep blue.
He walks out of the bridge and into the dimly lit corridors, the smell of kerosene from the lamps combines with the smell of sweat gets into his nose. He walks towards the open gun platform, where he hopes he can get some fresh air. He suddenly thinks of something and stops a Able Seaman walking by: "Go tell the flight engineer to dim the lights, we more urgently need those fuels in the engine." "Aye sir." That man looks at him fearfully, then runs away quickly.
He walks outside. The clouds are gathering above his head. The air is humid, intermixed with a faint smell of weed. A faint smell of weed? Looking around, he sees a spark behind the cannon. Silently he walks towards it.
"No smoking, especially for drugs like this. You should know that well enough."
"I am sorry, captain." The man murmurs, he crushes the remains under his shoe.
"An apology is not enough in the military. Lieutenant?" He calls though his transmitter. The lieutenant's figure soon appears on the deck.
"I need you to execute this man. I also need his body displayed in the crew's quarter."
Both the lieutenant and the man are shocked: "Captain, what have he done?" The lieutenant draws his holster a bit further from his reach.
"Merely some misdeeds, but it is wrong place wrong time. Our morale is collapsing. Nothing deters the crews better than a body."
Recovered from the initial shock, the man is watching their conversation as if they are talking about others.
"There is no need for an execution!" The lieutenant walks closer to the captain: "It is already hard for them, please captain…"
"You seem to be undeterred." Ignoring the lieutenant, Chong says to the man.
"Ha, that's because you are talking about a relief than a punishment." He laughs: "Do you think I still care about my life? Nothing in this world, nothing I care about have survived, my home, my wife, my kids…" He points at Gao's holster: "If you would like, I want the shot right now!"
If one man behaves like this, half of the crews are thinking like this already. This is dangerous. The crew, they already lost everything, their families, their land… They are poor and desperate; a desperate crew is more dangerous than the entire airship filled with hydrogen. This was the first thing Chong learned in the officer's academy.
"Well, Captain, in that case…" Gao asks tentatively.
A lightning strikes though the sky, Chong immediately looks.
Even though the view was blocked by the giant hull, soon he could still see smoke coming out on the other side of the ship. Then a smell of burning fabric comes from the starboard.
He feels the ground beneath him suddenly starting to tilt and shift.
"Forget about it, go back to your post now." He says to both the man and the lieutenant. He feels a drop of rain on his face. Running back to the bridge, he sees other crew trying to balance themselves in the corridor: "Go back to your posts!" he yells. In front of the bridge, he meets the flight engineer, Xizhong, who is hardly catching his breath: He rushed all the way from the starboard to the bridge, two solid hundred meters.
"What happened?"
"There was a lightning… hit the fourth and fifth… helium cell on the starboard." Xi looks distressed.
"Will she still fly?"
"Even dropping all the ballasts, the buoyancy still… falls a bit short."
"Then let's drop the ballasts first, then we will feed some weights into the engines."
"Aye, Sir!" The bosun starts to run towards the ballast control, but the engineer stops him.
"No, we can't drop our ballast yet…" He says, hoarsely.
"Why?"
"We have to stabilize, there is a storm approaching, ahead of us."
Looking out of the window, the grey clouds are starting to become black.