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Author's Chapter Notes:
Excelsior
After the ferry arrived, they quickly piled onto the pier and headed out to the far docks, where the Excelsior was anchored.

The water in this part of the inlet was deep, sitting out past a high shelf on the coast, deep enough for even a vessel of the Excelsior’s size to dock. Along the pier, the crew wheeled and carried crates of varying sizes, loading them aboard as the ferry crew offloaded their own luggage for them. The sheer size of the ship impressed each of them in their own way.

Overseeing the operation from near the gangplank stood a man of modest height, stocky, with shoulder-length blond hair and a neatly-trimmed beard.

“Captain Mercer!” Maximilian called out.

“Young Master Maximilian, welcome.” Though dressed not much differently than his men, mostly dockworker garb, he also wore a white captain’s cap that accentuated his commanding posture as he stepped up to greet them. When Maximilian reached out to shake his hand, he paused for a moment, then reached out and took his hand. With a raised eyebrow, Mercer scrutinized them thoroughly. “And who are these people? Passengers?”

“Yes,” Maximilian informed him, “these are my friends I told you about. I owe them my life, so they will be taking this voyage free of charge.”

“I see,” Mercer replied. “Welcome aboard the Excelsior. If you’ll pardon me, Master Maximilian, I have cargo to attend to, if we are to set sail by tomorrow.”

“Of course,” Maximilian nodded, leading them aboard. “Please don’t think him rude. This is kind of a last-minute arrangement for him, as well, so he really has his hands full right now…”

“Mercer, you said his name was?” Max asked.

“Yes,” Maximilian told them. “When I offered to take the Excelsior off their hands, the Assembly still didn’t have any leads on a buyer for a ship this big.”

“And the Assembly gets to lose a white elephant,” Shades intoned, then seeing the looks on everyone else’s faces, added, “A term from my realm, something that costs a lot to just keep around, but serves no actual purpose. The Assembly is probably just trying to get it off their hands, but since Rawne lost the treasure, this is probably the closest thing to a windfall you’re gonna get.”

“Exactly,” Maximilian continued, “but there was just the question of where to find a crew, since Freedan was apparently going to have Rawne’s crew do it, and no money for us to hire one. Fortunately, one of my father’s old… business partners, Assemblyman Sloan, referred me to Captain Mercer, a traveling merchant with more goods to unload than he could find buyers for in Alta. He has prior experience captaining ships, so we struck a deal. A limited partnership. He could keep the lion’s share of the profits from this cargo as payment— minus operating costs— and if this arrangement proved profitable, we would split future cargo and passage fifty-fifty.”

“It was all a very hasty arrangement,” Sebastian admitted. “I just hope we can find some more clients along the way…”

“You worry too much, ’Bastian,” Maximilian laughed. “It was the perfect stroke of luck. With that pittance of a stipend we were left with, I was afraid we’d be stuck [I]living[/I] in this harbor until we found a crew and a client. Instead, fortune brought them to us.”

“I see,” Justin commented, “They need a ship. You need a crew. But do you really think you have enough people to run a ship this size?”

“Admittedly,” Sebastian confessed, “most of the men up there are just dock crew Mercer hired to load our cargo. He really only has about twenty men. Fortunately, when Master Chauncey first started setting up the Excelsior, he hired a nautical engineer to install an automated sail rig that greatly reduced the number of crew needed for a ship this size. Most likely to cut back on operating costs, but it also works in our favor. Even if the engines fail, or we run out of fuel, with the auto-rigging, we could run this ship with a skeleton crew, if need be.”

“We would have volunteered as crew,” Max told them.

“Since we need passage,” Shades shrugged.

“At least for a while,” Justin conditioned.

“I’m grateful for the offer,” Maximilian bowed his head to them, “but I’m glad it didn’t come to that. You’ve already done so much for me…”

“We’re kinda all in the same boat anymore…” Shades pointed out, patting his pocket where he kept his Cam-Jam music player. So glad he thought to take it with him on their expedition into the Undercity, as it was now one of his few remaining possessions. Just thinking about it made him realize just how much he had come to lean on the Maximum’s sound system over the course of their journey, how much he was going to miss it. “Metaphorically speaking, and now literally, as well.”

As they entered the cabin and walked among the corridors, Justin couldn’t help but think back on the Skerry, the elusive passenger ship he stowed away on for a portion of his childhood. The long rows of doors taking him back quite unexpectedly. Found he kept expecting to see Mr Morgan or Eleanor around every corner.

For his part, Max drank it all in, recalling both his parents, as well as his uncle Angus, talking about great ships like this, that could haul an entire village from one place to another. Until now, he had only seen them from afar, and only in a couple places, like Centralict or Bodeen. Actually walking the decks aboard one gave him a whole new appreciation of their size and scale.

“It is pretty big, isn’t it?” Maximilian remarked, trying to sound nonchalant, but still came out sounding every bit as awed as his companions. “It’s like having an entire wing of Vandenberg Manor floating out here… I believe our quarters are up on the next deck level. We might as well get settled in, since we’ll be staying the night onboard. One of the other conditions for this bargain was clearing out the Manor sooner…”

“I already miss it, too, Young Master,” Sebastian confided, “but this is our home now, and it’s up to us to make the most of it.”

“Of course,” Maximilian nodded. “And you guys are welcome to make yourselves at home here, too. After all, I know we can’t catch up with your ship, even if we knew where they went…”

“We know,” Shades assured him. And to think, we were more worried about having to take it back from Rawne’s henchmen, or breaking out of some kind of impound, not gone with the wind… “But if that’s who I thought it was, I suppose we should just be glad we weren’t around for it.”

“I hope she [I]does[/I] catch up with ’em,” Justin snorted. “Serve ’em right for stealin’ our ship…”

“That’s Striker’s revenge against us they’re facing,” Max reminded him, and by no means for the first time in the last three days.

“I still can’t believe you actually fought a pirate like Striker to begin with.” Maximilian shook his head incredulously.

“Neither can I,” Shades admitted.

“Says the guy who originally proposed the idea,” Justin quipped.

“Not one of my most brilliant ideas, I’ll admit,” Shades conceded. “Still, I have to wonder what the look on her face would be if she finds someone else onboard…”

They all shared a laugh at that.

“Even so,” Justin thought aloud, “I always thought they went after the Triad.”

“At least Kato had a sporting head start on them,” Max added. “Still, that was some time ago, even before our stay in the Konas, so maybe it was just…”

“A coincidence?” Shades intoned. “Luck?”

Our luck,” Justin muttered, his face as sour as his tone.

“All the same,” Sebastian piped up, “I can still barely believe our good fortune that we found such resourceful allies in our hour of need.”

“Even though I doubt they would have been much use against anyone as dangerous as Aden Rawne,” the Young Master told them, “I still didn’t want to drag my friends into it. Even if they still had the time of day for me, now that I’m no longer part of their high society…”

“I can respect that,” Shades replied. “Dragging your friends into trouble seldom ends well, trust me. And sometimes you don’t know who your true friends are until the chips are down.”

“Yet you didn’t even know me…”

“We didn’t have to. We could see you were in over your head. That, and we stuck our necks out because Max was already involved, and he’s our bro,” Shades explained. “I guess we’re used to living dangerously anymore. Still, as much as experience as we have doing thing people shouldn’t try at home, I would never ask either of them to do that on a whim.”

Both of his friends nodded in wholehearted agreement.

“I see…” Maximilian nodded.

At the end of the corridor, Sebastian opened a door, showing them into what was surely the most spacious cabin on the passenger deck. Though bigger than any of them were expecting, bigger than even the captain’s quarters, it was sparsely furnished, with only the most basic amenities, in spite of being billed as a luxury stateroom. The bed, which didn’t even look like it belonged on a ship, being the only thing that looked terribly ‘deluxe’ about it. Even stripped down, though, the window still offered a commanding view of the lower deck and the Ocean beyond.

“These are your quarters, Young Master,” the butler informed him. “I’m sorry about the… accommodations, but most of the original furnishings were no longer fit for use, and there was no way to procure anything else on such short notice. Or on our budget. Your father’s things shall be brought up here shortly.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for, Sebastian,” Maximilian replied. “You did what you could.”

“Your quarters are next door,” Sebastian informed the rest of them, “And Captain Mercer’s room is right across the hall. There is also a lounge on this level, and I will be serving dinner there within the hour.”

“It’s still bigger than any of our rooms aboard the Maximum,” Max pointed out, “so I have no complaints.”

“Beats having to hole up in a different corner of the hold every other destination,” Justin shrugged, “I’ll give it that.”

“Then it’s settled,” Shades agreed. “I guess all that’s left is to get settled in.”

That having been said, they quickly realized that none of them really had as much to unpack as they thought, even with the supplies Sebastian provided them.