The Fresh Cloud Diamond

His decades of skyfaring immediately initiated, and he got all of his men below deck.

"How's our wick?" The Cap'n asked Neville.
"Wick, sir?"
"The static wick, boy. The thing keeping the anvil crawlers from frying us from here to..."

Neville looked blankly.

"Wick and Spator are in working order, sir" shouted a more experienced helmsman.

"Very well," Cap'n said. As long as the static wick and the dissipator were intact, the lightning was a non-issue.

"Cap'n, distress message came in from the ship before our ship went dark." The OS reported hesitantly.

"Speak!"

"It's an old ship sir, a real old ship. There's no way it'll make it through this storm, the anvil crawlers are gonna turn it to ash." The OS showed the cap'n the original message and the other ship's reported specifications.

"Damn! Who in the hell would sail that antique that close to a Dark 7. There's old-fashioned, and then there's f***ing stupid"

"Are we gonna try to assist 'em cap'n" Neville asked.

"Neville, bless your heart, but we can't see the damn ship, we can't even go outside of our own ship without getting fried. I'm sorry, boy, but that ship was dead in the sky the second it set sail."

"So we're just going to let them die?!"

"Neville, there's nothing we can do, unless the cloud decides it wants to disappear in the next few minutes that ship is done. If the bloody ship is even still out th--"

"...please...if...still the...help us...our....s burning...we can't--" The radio crackled into white noise after the distressing broadcast.

"...dissappear?" Neville perked up, "Cap'n if the storm was gone could you catch the ship before it crashed into the ground?"

"What're you on about, boy?"

"There's no time cap'n could you catch it?!"

"Of course I could, This ship could haul a ship twice its size, and I wouldn't be a Captain if I couldn't haul a..."

Neville didn't wait for him to finish. He maneuvered around the cap'n, grabbed the biggest balls in the inventory, and strapped on the captain's jetpack.

"He was going to try and capture the Dark 7 with the two ships still inside." The cap'n thought. It was an almost certain suicide for Neville, but it would almost certainly save the ship.

The Cap'n looked out the nearest window and the familiar shifting resplendent hues began to shine.

"that damn kid."

CHAPTER 2

"It will be a beautiful mornin' that's fer sure," a deep voice rang out.

The siluette turned to face the man who would dare to disturb such a moment. There was no menace or threatening motions from this large man.

The shadow once again faced the dawn.

"It sure will be. There's nothing quite like a sunrise after the clouds have passed."

It was quite for a while as both looked out to horizon, each lost in their own thoughts. After a while, the large man sighed, and began again.

"My pop always told me stories of his voyages across the world, and he often mentioned that the sunrise was the most lovely here. Never did believe him, but I think he may have been right. Not many places compare to the sight here."

The shadow slowly turned on the man.

"How many sunrises have you seen?"

"Too many to count. But I always come back home to see this," he sighed. "It never gets old."

"Wow. I can't honestly believe that. I mean I always thought there was somewhere better out there."

"You never see what you have, until you haven't seen it for a while."

"Perhaps I'll leave and be able to see this place the way you do then. Someday."

A chilled breeze blew the stream's mist over the pair. It's settled gently on them, in the same fashion as the quiet of the morning did. The mist came together on the gentleman's lightly bearded face; he was a dwarven king of old.

The man once again broke the silence. Though not by much.

"I have an opening on my ship," he stated softly. "Why not make someday, today?"

The dark shadow turned carefully.

"Um...could I really, I mean, you'd let me come? ...um what do I call you?"

The dawn finally crept high enough to permit each other to see. "Just call me Captain," he said with a smile.

He extended his hand and....

---

Well I decided to double post due to low traffic and no post for a week. Didn't really want to choose who they were, but oh well. If need be, I'll write this whole thing myself! I'm joking! But I'd still love to see some new faces, or even returning ones.

"Doc..." The Cap'n said not attempting to hide his concern, "...give me some good news."
"The good news is his lungs are fine. With this type of trauma, the lungs are linked to most of the fatal cases. He was luckily wearing his goggles and earplugs protecting them from the most common injuries. Bad news, he's got 2nd degree burns all over his body from the cloud itself. Then our catching the cloud with him in it caused some fractured ribs, a minor concussion, a severe open arm fracture, and a less severe leg fracture. He'll have to go into surgery for the arm and leg."
"So he's done as a Skymen, then..."
"He may lose the arm, but he may not lose the skies. We'll know more when I have more equipment at the hospital. Don't lose hope Cap'n"

The ASC Prism docked at the nearest town with a hospital, Propinq. It was a decent town with a decent hospital. Unfortunately, as they rushed to the hospital, The cap'n noticed that the town had been overrun by advertisements for Nimbus Co., the new, industrial, destructive piss-ants who think cloud gathering can be put into the hands of automation.
"Keeping your head in the clouds" The Cap'n read on a billboard as he accompanied his Chief Hospital Corpsman to the local infirmary. He didn't have time to hate these imbeciles right now. He had to make sure Neville would be alright. Neville had to be alright.

The Cap'n waited in the freezing hallway rank with the aroma of antiseptic. Now, out of surgery, Neville lay in a hospital bed with a majority of his body wrapped in bandages with his very lucky arm still attached. It was just a matter of time now before the Cap'n would be able to see him. He can't believe he had waited the whole day. All of the ship's status reports for the day had been delivered in that hallway. He had tried to eat, but the only thing he could force through the worry was a pack of pretzels, some water, and fruit snacks...That kid.

"He may be a little drowsy from the Morphine, but you can go in to talk to him now." The attending physician said as she walked out of Neville's room. The doctor was a rather devastatingly attractive looking woman with interesting eyes. She had fiery curly red hair that hovered above her shoulders, and a familiar and almost mystically reassuring smile that forced the Cap'n to be at ease.
"Thank you," he muttered.
"Oh, and may I say you have a fine crew. Your skyman in there wouldn't have both of his arms still if it weren't for your medic,"
"Thank..."
"Look, I know Nimbus is going to be all over this story to try and use it as a case for their 'safer' automated cloud suckers, but if I were you, I would tell your crew to dock in a nearby town so as not to raise the scent for their PR dogs. It may be a bit too late for that, but do it and I'll try to keep it as quiet as I can about you guys."
"...Why would you do that? This town looks like it loves Nimbus, hell, I'm pretty sure I saw a brochure in the waiting room."
"Even though, most of us have gotten 'donations' from Nimbus, I'm one of you. A few here served as medics for you guys to get through med school. I know how much cleaner and potent cloud gathering is if done the right way. I'm not gonna let a new paint job in the hall way turn me into a sheep or so..I'm sorry, look I didn't mean to keep you. I just wanted to let you know, we're not all on the bandwagon."
"I really appreciate that Doctor..."
"Evans, Dr. Evans."
"Well, Ma'am, you are as wonderful as you are lovely. Thank you for everything you've done, and we skymen appreciate your support."
Dr. Evans gave a playful salute to the Cap'n and walked off to hand in paperwork to the nurse. The Cap'n walked into the room and was instantly disheartened by Neville's state. With every beep of the EKG his heart sank.

"Did the other ship make it?" Neville groaned.
That kid, first thing he asks is about the other ship, not about the unbelievable dark 7 he safely captured nor about his future on the ship.
"Thanks to you. How are you...I mean how does..."
"Cap'n these pain meds make me feel like I'm still up there on the ship. I feel fine, just glad they made it."
"Don't you want to know how you did with the cloud, boy?"
"No, I know I was crap, I tried doing everythi..."
"You milked it dry, kid."
"..."
"We had almost 97% energy extraction. There's only a couple of people on the planet that could have returns that pure...and they are both in this room."
Neville's eyes began to sparkle. "Hell yeah!...ow."
"Morphine can't handle victory spasms?"
"Guess not."
They both laughed though only one of them painlessly.
"I guess you want to know if you'll be ready to sail again,"
"Later...Before that, what're you holding Cap'n?"
The Cap'n looked down under his arm.
"Oh! right." The Cap'n placed a large wooden box on Neville's bedside dresser. It was a very old and decrepit looking box. It had something scratched into the wood above the latch but Neville couldn't turn his body enough to read it. "That ship you rescued, its captain came to thank us after catching it. I thought the ship belonged to someone else...A woman I used to...Never mind. Anyway, he was a strange looking bloke. Looked like the pirates you read about in the nursery tales. He was an older lad with these strange tattoos on his hand, long silver hair tied into a pony-tail, and these piercing blue ey...anyway. Apparently, it was a merchant ship, he said. Even though when we searched the ship for wounded we didn't see any cargo...didn't see much of anything actually, but he said that he was giving you 'his most precious cargo.' I don't know what that means, but he gave this to me, said to tell you to keep it safe. After that, said he was done with the sky, and said he hoped we'd keep it safe...Didn't know what that meant either, but anyway. this is for you."

The cap'n put the box in Neville's lap. Neville could just make out the hand-scratched markings on the box.
"wait..." Neville said just before The Cap'n was going to open the box.
"What is it boy?"
"How did these guys...the guys on the other ship, how did they sound"
"They had a bit of an accent...why?"
"It's just, my grandparents, they weren't from around here and when I was younger, they always made me learn these words that they said were from our ancestors. My parents told me it was just dementia, and that my grandparents like to make things up,"
"I'm hoping there is a point coming soon..."
"Sorry, it's just, the scratch marks on this box look an awful lot like that stuff my grandparents used to teach me. Sorry, Cap'n I guess it was just a weird bit of nostalgia. I can't even believe I remembered it, I was like twelve"
"Well, does the made up language say anything important, like 'do not open' or 'box will incite memories of useless anecdotes?" or..."
"Ha. ha. cap'n, glad to see my hospitalization hasn't dulled your wit."
"Calm down, kid,"
"It doesn't say anything like that anyway, if I'm reading it right that is,"
"So you can read it?"
"I mean maybe, kinda...I dont know."
"Go on."
"Nothing, it was just a silly thing, let's just open it."
"look I'm sorry for making fun of it, go ahead and read it. If nothing else, I'll have plenty to ridicule you about when you're back on the sh...come on for fun."
"Fine, looks like...Cloud clean...No wait, sorry. Umm. Fresh. Cloud...diamond? Then again it could just be chicken scratch or maybe it says 'roast-beef sa..."
The Cap'n went to the room door, shut it, and locked it. He then went to the window, looked out of it suspiciously, and closed the blinds.
"Cap'n?"
"None but us can know what is in this box, do you understand?"
"...Cap'n?"
Without waiting for a response, The Cap'n walked over to Neville and opened the box.