(Disclaimer: Excerpts in this scene from Ellington Radio were, of course, written by Ellington.)
Caine strapped the Blood Angel's wheel and got up from his seat, stretching luxuriously in the Osprey's small cabin. He glanced over his shoulder out the windshield, then stepped to the back of the cabin and unlatched the heavy steel door leading to the crew quarters.
Olga sat with her back to him, her red mohawk bobbing as she nodded her head to some bizarre music coming from the radio set.
Caine closed the door behind him and clambered up into his bunk, retrieving a battered cardboard box from under his pillow.
"How are skies, Meester Caine?" Olga asked without turning around.
"Blue," replied Caine, hopping down and pulling up a chair to the little utility table his mechanic was sitting at. He opened the cardboard box, smiling. Within were a handful of cookies, nestled in a bit of white tissue paper. He took two and stuck one in his mouth. "Cookie?" he offered, holding out the box to Olga.
The armadillo peered skeptically at the box. Her nostrils worked. "What kind cookies smell like that? Is like someone put grass in wet sock and boiled on stove."
Caine laughed, nearly choking on his mouthful of cookie. "Oh, yeah," he replied after he'd swallowed, "I forgot -- they're nip cookies." His ears pinkened slightly and he set the box aside. "Don't know what they'd do to an armadillo."
Olga frowned at him. "You eat those and then you fly plane?" she asked, incredulously. "Now I see why always plane has hole in it!"
He waved her complaint away with a hand. "No, no," he insisted, "it's not like that. I only eat one or two at a time while I'm in the air." He folded the tissue paper back over the cookies and shut the box. He stared at it for a moment, then lifted his gaze to Olga. "It's not like I get whacked out on the stuff. Can't really, from just these things."
Olga's persistent frown told him she didn't believe a word he was saying.
"Really!" he said, sitting up straighter in his chair. "I got them from a nice old lady on Lhasa. They're mostly ... well, just cookie dough. If they were dangerous you'd really be able to smell the nip in 'em." He extended his arm, holding the other cookie under Olga's nose. "See?"
Olga pulled her head away from the offending object. "I see, but I do not want to smell," she complained. "Just make sure you are not crashing plane because of crazy stinky cookies, Meester Caine."
Caine just shrugged and got up to retrieve a container of milk from the tiny refrigerator. A 'Happy Unification Day!" magnet, blaring its message in red and white, caught his eye as he opened the door. "Where'd this come from?"
"Strange old squirrel gave to me when I do walkaround last time you go to tavern," she replied noncommitally. "Gave red shirt too. Is too big for me. Maybe you wear it."
Caine set the milk bottle on the table and poured a quantity into a ceramic mug.
The radio squawked briefly, causing Caine to flatten his ears against his head in protest, then went silent. Olga glared at it. After a moment, the voice of Ellington came over the airwaves. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the audience. Open up your ears, your hearts, and your minds ... it's time yet again for the best show ever, the fast talking, melodious sounds of the world's first and only pirate radio show ... Ellington Radio."
Caine, like many other Skyrates, listened to Ellington whenever his broadcasts broke through the regular stuff on the airwaves. He smiled and settled back in his aging chair, despite its protests. He took a sip of milk and popped the other cookie in his mouth.
Ellington spoke for several minutes, mostly about the Order and the Court. Caine didn't know much about them, except that they were strange people from outside the known Skylands and that they were full of mystery.
"On to the mystery of the week," the radio host continued, "Is it a geological phenomenon? A secret project by the world's movers and shakers?"
Caine raised an eyebrow and took another sip. Olga got up from her chair and came around to his side of the table, frowning at him as she used a rag from her toolbelt to mop up a drop of milk he'd carelessly dropped on the table.
"Mere hours ago," said the radio, "fishermen on a small water-based boat noticed the sea near New Hovland ... bubbling."
"Huh," grunted Caine, getting up. "We're about an hour out of New Hov. Wonder if we can see it from here."
Ellington's voice described this bubble occurrence and postulated about its cause. Was it volcanic activity far below the surface of the water, or was Eltsina, leader of the Green Republic, tooling around down there in her submarine?
Caine took his mostly-empty mug of milk and went back to the control cabin. Olga made a noise of disbelief and turned to busy herself with some maintenance task or other.
"Anyway," Ellington chattered on from the crew compartment, "ERN staff will be monitoring the bubbling to give updates as soon as things change."
Caine leaned over the control panel, staring out the windscreen at the ocean far below. "Ah," he muttered to himself, "can't see anything from this far up." He dropped into his pilot's chair and checked his instruments.
Olga poked her head in from the crew compartment. "Am hoping you are not thinking to go down to water with plane to see this bubbles," she admonished.
He turned in his chair to look at her, licking a few drops of milk from his muzzle. "It could be something interesting, Olga," he insisted.
"'Interesting' usually means 'trouble'," she replied, taking the empty mug out of his hand. "Long flight from Alpha 4 has made you bored. Come, we will listen to Uurwerk dance radio station. Will perk you up."
Caine stared at her, one eyebrow slowly rising. "No," he said after a moment, "I think I will stay here." He sat up, frowning, as if waking from a mild trance. "You go listen to your dance music," he instructed her, rubbing his arm across his face. "Enjoy." He turned back to the controls.
"I will," she said, with conviction, as if it were a very important decision. "And Meester Caine?"
He leaned out over the side of the pilot's chair to gaze lazily at her. "Yeah?"
Olga pointed to her own snout. "You have missed a spot." She turned and went back into the crew compartment.
_________________ Caine Silversabre on the Skyrates wiki Adventures on the Blood Angel (and other places)


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