OVER THE SILVER SKY TO THE WORLD OF NEVER : Part 285 - Do I Really Need To Explain?

THE WORLD OF SPROT - It's rugby so don't get your hopes up.

Yes that's right I've returned to my great passion sprot. Earlier today the Rugby World Cup commenced in Japan. Which is confusing because in Japan, today is yesterday already. They've moved on. Leaving us behind. Rugby isn't a true sprot, it's more a good excuse for a fight. Unlike all other sprots the violence is restricted to the pitch. It's not like tennis where all the death threats and beatings take place in the crowd. No the mayhem is always on the grass. If you love the sight of blood, like I do, this is the sprot for you. Fifteen players per side and you have to see if you can hold the opposition players down long enough to stick your fingers up their ass . Often there's a funny shaped ball in there, which looks a lot like a badly swollen right testicle. You get points for tries and tries for points. You also get extra points depending on how many fingers you get up there and how deeply you fist your victims. It's a wonderful excuse for homoerotic man games. Ass rape for fun is always highly entertaining so it's well worth watching. I'd recommend it to anyone who's just come out of an abusive relationship. You see what happens on the pitch and think "Fuck me I got off easily." Rugby is quite cleansing for your emotions, but do remember to wash your hands afterwards.

(The copyright to this image is the property of Techradar.)

The Crystal Dragon was back. Its sea trials nearly 100% successful. There were a few modifications to make which were already being made. Jake had become accustomed to faking captaining proficiency sufficiently enough to fool the casual observer. The crew weren't watching over him. They had jobs to do. Thanks to his officers, his lack of knowledge and skills was camouflaged. Every morning Pip brought him a tablet with information written in it. He'd pretend to read it. Then his friends would pretend he'd ordered them to do what needed doing. The system worked. He'd decided his job wasn't to manage the men and women under his command. He was more the human resources guy. His responsibility, to keep everyone happy. An impossible task he discovered. Before becoming captain he hadn't known how many fights took place on board. Generally one a week, but more regular in port. He'd had to deal with 3 already. That consisted mainly of fining the combatants, who'd already settled their differences with the fight. He'd learned early on you didn't intervene. You waited until the end then punished the winner. In the event of a draw they'd both lose half a days pay.

Today he had something planned. Thanks to his wonderful crew, Norbert, Poppy, Morag and Sade specifically, it was ready to go. Taking Fetu with him as cover, he was putting it into motion. They headed up on deck. The air still had the morning chill one associated with worlds where there was a sun. Here the cause of such things was a mystery. There she was. Making sure everything was prepared for their voyage out into nothing but sea. Jake had decided to play this hard. Hopefully doing so would cover up their intent. He and Fetu stood over Pip as she juggled 3 pads and her firewave. Jake tutted loudly. She looked up.

"What?" She huffed.
"Do I really need to explain? You know exactly what this is about. Don't pretend otherwise. I blame myself as much as you. More oversight on my part and I'd have spotted this a lot earlier. Thanks to Morag and Sade the damage has been limited. But boy they aren't happy with you. All the extra work they've had to do because of your error, come with us. They'll explain when we get there."
"Explain what?" Pip shuffled her devices, scanning them for clues.
"You know I don't understand half the technical lingo. Leave it to them. Prepare yourself for a roasting boatswain. I'll let them decide how you should be punished. Come on. Hurry up. We've lost enough time as it is."

The look on her face meant he had to hide his own. Thank God he'd prepared for this. Pip handed off her duties to Herman the German. A new recruit who'd served with the ship previously. He'd taken up the position of boatswains mate following the loss of Pengelly. A good man apparently. Jake knew precisely 2 things about him. His name wasn't Herman and he was Austrian. That was all the biographical data he needed after Fetu put in a good word for him. The man had near supernatural gunnery skills meaning he could calculate a range and trajectory instantly. Oh man she looked desolated. Then angry. Then anxious. Then disappointed in herself. Right now Jake was finding it hard not to hand her a gun so she could shoot him. He and Fetu climbed into the front of their hired van. She sat in the back. Alone with her thoughts.

Keeping his eyes on the road ahead, he evaded her questions. Morag or Sade would explain when they got there. Up the hill beyond the statue for the founders of Far Palamar. The one he'd had blown up, what felt like years ago. It was a good half hour before the 3 of them reached the end of the road and had to walk the rest of the way up a steep slope. Pip had intuited there was something she was going to be shown. Therefore all of her attention was on the scene below and not at what lay ahead. Frowning as she studied the docks below. Trying to work out exactly what she'd done wrong. The trio moved through a small wooded area until they reached the summit of the hill. Pip's attention was finally drawn away from the city and towards Sade and Morag who were stood at a powered winch, looking very serious. An act they couldn't maintain. Both of them breaking into huge smiles as they presented the outfit to Pip.

"Okay." She mumbled. "What's going on here?"
"That is a wing suit. Based on the one Taini had. Only this one's better. Norbert and Poppy have upgraded the design. Go on put it on." Sade clarified.
"You son of a bitch." The formerly contrite Pip exclaimed. "I've just gone through so much self laceration I'm weak from blood loss. You tortured me you bastards."
"It's supposed to be a surprise. I knew you wanted to fly. Other people made it happen."
The ease with which she shed her outer clothing to don the suit was breathtaking. Scolding him as she did so. Once she'd zipped it up Jake began to explain how dangerous it could be to an inexperienced first time user. Pip ignored him, breaking into a run as she hit the winch remote.
"I've done over 50 hours on simulations." She called as her feet lifted from the earth.
"Yeah, well be careful. You're very difficult to replace. We'd have to advertise and that's expensive."
His heart was in his mouth when she went over the edge. Dipping below sight before slowly climbing upward.
"I'm definitely having a go." Sade announced, placing an arm around Fetu. "Sorry husband, we haven't got a suit big enough for you." He shrugged.
"Look at him he's devastated." Jake observed.
"You can go after me if you like." Morag was already donning a suit of her own. Sade picked another up.
"I've got a thing about heights. Caused by a problem with my inner ear."
Morag, the medic, grabbed him by the head to take a look.
"What kind of inner ear problem?"
"It tells me not to jump off tall things. It just won't stop. I've tried everything."
She pushed him away, rewound the winch, attaching the cable to herself. Seconds later she to was airborne. Shortly after, as Sade went aloft he had a holy shit moment. That was the cream of his ships company up there risking their lives. He couldn't keep his eyes off them. Wincing every time it looked like they'd collide or dive to their deaths. His comms badge bleeped.
"No point you hanging around here." Sade advised. "Pack up the gear then head back to the ship. We'll meet you there."

Revenge was sweet, Jake presumed, given the number of times Pip whizzed past a few meters over their heads. Once she'd set the precedent the others took it in turns to buzz them. Oh brilliant. Now they were doing tricks and flying in formations. On the drive back he knew he was experiencing every emotion Pip had on the way up. Where had he gone wrong? He should have thought things through far more thoroughly. Even after he got back to the Nemesis there was a half hour wait while the three women did some flying over the docks. People watched them. A couple of film crews showed up videoing their exploits. Giving him the feeling they'd just introduced a new fad. If they ever got back here this would have spread across the whole coast in all directions.

Much to Jake's relief his officers all landed safely. Being who they were, each one came down in a different manner. Not in competition, they weren't men. Morag landed first. Opening her chute at the last instant to alight daintily on the ships railings. From where she stepped down elegantly. The crew and crowd showing their appreciation for the spectacle. Sade next. She managed a beautiful shallow dive that allowed her to run across the water before landing firmly on the deck. Pip came down on the top mast before gliding down a rigging rope to trot to a halt a few paces from him. She gave him a hug, a punch and another hug. No words exchanged. She was off to talk about what they'd just done, with the people she just did it with. Going by past experience that could take longer than their flight had. Poppy tugged his sleeve. Ah. Maybe she'd have liked a go as well.

"Sorry, you can have a go tomorrow if you like." He apologized.
"No it's fine. I've had a few goes in the Dragon's kite and I used to fly microlights back in Harrowmist. It's not about that. Norbert and I have had the mainframe running over the data Pip brought back with her. We've got the beginnings of a map. Thought you might like to see it. It's not very impressive compared to this I suppose."
"I could do with calming down. I was having kittens all the time they were up there. Lead on science officer."

Norbert displayed the fruits of their labors so far on a huge virtual screen. It was a big map. With mostly nothing on it. Thanks to Poppy he hadn't built his hopes up. Then Norbert zoomed in, the spot there was the continent they were currently on. That dot was the main island of the Harrowmist archipelago. The map wasn't big. It was bloody enormous.

"This is the part of the Never we're familiar with." The redhead explained. "Boring as hell I know. We were expanding outwards from the Ustraski space ship. Only now that's taking more and more processing power for every extra kilometer."
She handed over to Norbert, who continued.
"Poppy amended the search protocols so that we could refine our search to the direction indicated by the statue." He flicked through some tiles on his computer. "It's still pushing the equipment to the limit, but progress is a lot faster. Most of what we've found so far is as boring as Poppy stated. However we've now climbed up from soporific to mildly intriguing. This morning when we checked the new areas revealed we found this." The image jumped.
Jake stared at it long and hard.
"I see what you mean Norbert. Have you thought of any rational reason why it's like that?"