Chap. 227 Dolphin recovery

Chap. 227 Dolphin recovery

K'ndar looked with dismay at the size of the giant crate.

"My harness isn't going to be able to handle that big a load," he said.

"We're just about to warp it over the side," Harve said.

K'ndar saw two crewmen finish harnessing the slatted crate. Inside was a large lump covered in canvas.

"For some reason I thought you'd have to carry it off, " he said.

Harve laughed. "No, K'ndar, it's far too big. Block and tackle and a good boom, that'll make short work of her. What do you mean, your harness won't fit?"

"What I meant was, ordinarily, cargo is a lot smaller, and I have extenders on my harness that can sling load it under Raventh. But that thing is huge," he said.

G'aryk, waiting for the fish he was tasked to transport to be unloaded, looked at the crate with a doubtful eye.

"It's pretty big, K'ndar. Do you think Raventh can handle it? He's small for a brown," he said. "Do you want to swap loads? Corth is a lot bigger," he said.

"Umm," K'ndar was torn.

I can do it. As long as it doesn't swing Raventh said.

We'll launch and then go between. There shouldn't be too much swing. Are you certain?

Of course. I can do anything Corth can do. Anything.

K'ndar smiled.

"Thanks, G'aryk, but Raventh says he can lift it."

G'aryk's expression said he understood. "Browns."

"Aye. Browns" K'ndar agreed. Brown dragons were always a bit on the defensive, being smaller than bronzes and golds, but larger than blues and greens. Bronzes sometimes teased browns for that. So they were always trying to prove to the larger bronzes that they could do anything a bronze could do.

Leana measured it with her eye.

"Your harness isn't much longer, G'aryk," she said, "and we didn't bring extensions."

"Neither did I," K'ndar said, fretting.

"Is it the weight you're worried about? Because I don't have the weight on it," Harve said.

"No, it's not the weight, Harve, and besides, the crate is slatted. That reduces a lot of weight. I can see you covered the skull with canvas?"

"Had to, K'ndar. The thing stinks. It's pretty fresh, it still had scraps of flesh on it," Harve said.

"It's not the weight, Harve, we don't go by weight, anyway. Dragons can lift just about anything as long as they believe they can. It's my harness. I don't have a long enough harness for Raventh to transport it."

But the ropes, now...

"If I can keep the ropes? I can tie them to the harness," he said.

Harve frowned.

"Ropes...ropes belong to the ship, K'ndar. I'll have to ask Cap'n Disko."

"Harve, you know me. I promise I'll bring the ropes back as soon as possible. Tomorrow. The crate can be a problem, though. I don't know when I'll return it. Will you still be here tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure, K'ndar. Normally we're in port for two, three days. We'll spend the rest of today unloading, tomorrow mornig, we'll clean the hold, inspect it for leaks or damage. Ordinarily, we'd start loading tomorrow afternoon. If the weather's good, we'll leave on the evening tide. But this is Cove Hold, unlike other Holds, they don't have much in the way of cargo to ship out. So we'll be heading out 'deadhead', meaning no cargo in the hold. That's a pain, K'ndar, because with no cargo, we're always having to re-arrange ballast at sea, and that can be dangerous. Not only that, but we don't make any money shipping air," the teen said.

He looked at the crate, now ready for lifting.

"I'll ask the captain about the ropes. As for the crate, I'm thinking he'll be glad to be rid of it, for now. It caused him nothing but worry, K'ndar. We had to cobble it together, and it was too big to fit below. That and the crew would probably have mutinied had we put that stinking thing below. So it rode all the way here on the deck, and no seaman likes having cargo on deck. Cargo on deck has an ugly habit of breaking loose and causing all sorts of damage. Sometimes, even sinking the ship," he said.

"What?"

"Aye. Loading cargo is a science, K'ndar, one I am breaking my brain trying to learn. An unbalanced load in the hold can sink a ship. My uncle, Captain Disko, is a scientist, K'ndar. He knows to the centimeter the capacity of his ship. We'll line up all the cargo we're going to load, and he'll walk back and forth, placing the crates, the nets, whatever, into the hold in his mind. Then he'll close his eyes, think for a moment, and then say "this one, stow it aft, starboard side, just inboard of the ladder, and parallel to the keel." A well balanced cargo makes the ship go 'sweetly', nice and even. And don't stow it wrong, K'ndar. We don't cast off until he's looked at the load, checking every single crate, and the stars help you if you've put something wrong. Cap'n finds a box or a crate misplaced, the person who did it will spend every hour of his or her off duty time watching the crate,making sure it doesn't move. That means even sleeping on it, K'ndar. Cap'n Disko doesn't like having to re-arrange cargo, especially at sea," Harve said, "doing that is a guarantee of someone getting hurt. That and the crew probably would have mutinied to have that stinking thing in the hold. Truth is, K'ndar, Cap'n wanted to toss that skull overboard, especially after it tore up a new net. I had to beg him to keep it. I knew you'd want it," the teen said.

"You're right, Harve, and thank you. I owe you and your Captain. And I can pay for the net," K'ndar said, glad that he'd brought his pouch. "I don't know how much a net costs, but I'll pay for the damage."

"They cost a lot, Harve, but Cap'n will probably say no to that. We've already repaired it. He's just happy to be getting the thing off his ship," Harve said.

K'ndar felt overwhelmed. It took him several moments, then he said, "Thank you, Harve. I have to insist, though. I want to pay for the net."

Harve shook his head. "The ropes, I have to ask about, K'ndar. The rest? No. Cap'n said it. You're family, K'ndar, and when a Nerat takes you in, you're in for life." Pride filled his eyes.

How you've grown, K'ndar thought, how far you've come since we plucked you off that fly speck of an island. You might be only fifteen, but you're a man, Harve. Unlike that little shit Marsh.

"Thank you, Harve. I'll return the ropes tomorrow. I'd return them tonight, but it'll be dark by then. How long do you think you'll be here?"

Harve looked at the sky.

"Ordinarily, I'd say two days, one to unload, one to upload. But two things are pushing us..the sky looks ugly, K'ndar, there's a storm brewing from the east and we want to be out to sea as soon as we can. I give it two days, three at the outside, before it hits. The other thing that's making us hurry is that we'll be leaving without much cargo. If we can outrun the weather, we'll be heading west, where we can hole up if necessary and get a hold full of goods from Southern," Harve said.

"You're better at weather forecasting than I ever hoped to be," K'ndar said, admiringly. "So, you won't be here tomorrow?"

"Probably not. We're about unloaded already," Harve said.

Possession of the ropes was weighing heavily on K'ndar's shoulders, until a simple thought hit him.

"Duh. Sometimes I wonder where my brains are. Depending on the weather, I'll take the ropes to Southern Hold. Or wherever you happen to be."

Harve brightened. "That will work!"

"You, on the dock there! Hi, Harve! Hi, you landsmen! Move ashore, we're about to warp this beastly crate over the side!" called one of the crew.

Harve hustled K'ndar, G'aryk and Leana off the dock.

It was a good thing he did.

The boom, bending slightly under the weight of the crate, screeched slightly as it swung outboard.

"Is it too heavy?" K'ndar asked, alarmed.

"No, no, the boom can handle it, easy. We have nets full of fish that are heavier. It's the...." Harve started to say when something went 'SPANG!"

K'ndar saw a block at the top of the boom explode into pieces.

"HEADACHE!" someone shouted, and Harve jumped backwards, covering his head.

The three dragonriders, having no idea what the warning meant, witnessed the crate plummet into the sea with a huge splash. It just barely missed the end of the dock.

For one long moment, there was silence, then a cloud of swearing erupted from ship.

"NO!!!" K'ndar shouted. Without thinking, he rushed to the end of the dock, watching the tail end of the rope vanish into the depths.

"Anyone hurt?" the captain yelled.

Harve and the others all looked at each other.

"Well, I'm wet, but otherwise, okay," Leana said. She'd unfortunately caught most of the splash.

"None here," Harve shouted.

"Bloody crate," someone shouted.

"What happened?"

"That bloody block...I knew it were bad! It didn't sound right!

The Captain was at the spot in a moment. "That's the second block that's broken. I'll never deal with that ship chandler again. Nothing good comes from those shysters at Tillek!"

He pointed at two crewmen. "Take down the boom and replace the block. Use one of the new ones! Did the winch break?"

"No, sir, the brake held on 'er, so all the strain were on the block," said one of the crew. "Part of the block almost hit me. It went whizzing right past my ear," she said.

Dismayed, K'ndar, saw a few bubbles rising from the sunken crate.

Shards. Shard! So close to bringing the skull home and now this!

Harve came to look. The Captain was at the same spot as the boom operator, looking over the side.

"I didn't trust that skull," he grumbled, "It was a nuisance from the start."

K'ndar shook his head, saddened.

"Shards. It's a loss, I guess. I guess I don't have to worry about returning the ropes," he said, dejected.

Harve laughed.

"No, it isn't, we've had this happen before."

"What do you do, dive down there and pick it up?" K'ndar said, despairing.

"No, no, no, K'ndar, that's too much work. We'll just pull it up by the ropes."

"Are you serious? It's deep! How in the world can you lift it out of the water?"

"K'ndar. We have friends who are experts at deep sea recovery," Harve said, grinning.

"I know!!" Leana said, "Dolphins! Right?"

Harve grinned. "Yes, ma'am, dolphins. If someone will ring the dolphin bell, they'll come in, bring the ropes up to us, where we can reeve a line up the boom to the winch."

Leana went running for the dolphin bell.

__________________________________________________________________________

K'ndar didn't know the dolphins. But he was, as always, entranced by them. Leana was overjoyed to finally get to see them.

"They're more beautiful than I imagined!" she said, laughing.

Three of them had arrived within ten minutes of the bell being rung. It appeared the entire population of Cove Hold had responded to the bell as well, to include Rahman, the astronomer.

"K'ndar! Hello! Why are you here?" the old man said.

"Sir, I'm 'staff' now at Landing! As their "Field Biologist"!"

"Good on you, lad!! What's going on?"

"Sir, this young man is Harve. I'll fill you in on his story, but his ship, the Serengeti, caught a skull in one of their nets. They want me to have it, I planned on taking it to Landing so I can examine it."

"I see no skull, " the man said.

The crew laughed.

"It's at the bottom, sir, that's why we called the dolphins, they'll bring the ropes up for us to recover it." Harve said.

It was fascinating to see the dolphins quickly grasp the situation, and easy for them to bring the rope to the surface. From there, the crew re-reeved the line and prepared to lift the crate.

"What in box?" asked one of the dolphins, standing on his tail. K'ndar noted a bright, off white mark on his forehead, looking like a star.

"A skull," K'ndar said, "A big one."

"Skull!"

The three dove as one. They pinged it with their sonar and surfaced.

"Where find skull?"

K'ndar turned to Harve, who said, "Ten days ago, we were off the southern half of Western Continent. It was in our net."

"Deep water at Western," said Star. His companions agreed.

K'ndar said, "I think it's a mosar skull."

The three dolphins immediately disagreed.

"No. Not mosar."

"NOT a mosar? As big as it is?"

"Not mosar. How you know mosar?"

K'ndar tried to laugh but was too stunned to do so. Not a mosar! Meaning, something...new?

"I'm K'ndar, Raventh's my dragon."

The three conferred again. He was waiting for them to laugh, then saw that they immediately knew who K'ndar and Raventh were, but that the Tillek's command to never tease him again was obeyed.

"Keeendar! Swash friend!"

"Yes," he said, "and if you see Swash, tell him K'ndar says hello!"

"Oh," Leana said, softly, "I'd love to have a dolphin for a friend."

So what is the skull? He ransacked his brain for the next biggest thing he'd seen come from the mysterious depths.

Ah.

"Is it a paladen?"

The dolphins looked at him with questions in their eyes.

"Not know what paladen is," said Star.

Oh, that's right, dolphins call the paladen a 'deep diver'

"Deep diver?"

Again, all three denied it without hesitation.

"Not deep diver. Not mosar."

"What is it?"

For the first time in his limited experience with dolphins, K'ndar realized that the dolphins were as clueless as the humans.

"Not know what is. Never seen it before. Maybe Tillek knows."