Seabound (Seabound Chronicles Book 1) (15 page)

It was cold in the
cabin, and Esther shivered in her wet clothes. She had so many questions, but
the men did not come near her as they sailed across the flotilla. Half an hour
later, Esther felt the boat bump gently to a halt. Voices came from overhead,
then a scrape and a curse or two. Presumably, they had arrived at the
Crystal
and the men were unloading their
cargo. Esther crept back onto the deck and scrambled up the ladder to the
Crystal
without looking back.

Breathing heavily,
she climbed two decks away from the entrance before sinking down to put on her
boots. Her fingers were shaking so much she could barely tie her first lace.
What was going on here? The
Galaxy
didn’t have as much oil as she’d thought. That much was certain. But why all
the secrecy? What were the captains hiding in that deckhouse, and why had the
oilman helped her to escape but then refused to tell her anything? It made no
sense. And what did they want with the
Catalina
?

As she pulled her
second boot onto her foot, something made Esther look up. Eugene, the old man
who’d been introduced as a trade representative on the
Abby Rae
, was standing in a corridor near the staircase, watching
her. He wore a simple gray shirt and navy trousers, and seemed almost to blend
into the bulkhead.

“Excuse me!”
Esther said. “Mr. Eugene?”

She tried to stand
but tripped over her half-on, half-off boot. When she looked up again, Eugene
was gone. She stumbled to the corridor and called his name, but the hall was
silent. She hadn’t seen him since their very first day. Why had he been so elusive
if he handled trade? And why did she have the sneaking feeling he knew where
she’d been?

Chapter 16—Cabaret

Esther wanted to talk
to
Neal about what she’d seen, but Neal and Marianna were spending hours every day
locked up in the broadcast tower on the
Crystal
. When Esther asked about
it a few days into their stay at the
Flotilla
,
Neal had insisted they were discussing languages and working on the satellite
project.

“Marianna’s team is
trying to establish contact with any satellites still in orbit. She thinks the
ash is finally clear enough to rebuild the old networks.”

A persistent
hopefulness had taken up residence on Neal’s face. Esther suspected this had
little to do with the satellites. He always seemed to be on the verge of
breaking out in song—or tears.

Cally and Dax from
Guest Services were spending lots of time together too. She’d come back to the
Catalina
from their movie date in raptures. She’d spent an hour reporting on the
afternoon with a level of detail she never managed when talking about engine
maintenance.

“They had sweets
packaged in plastic that you could buy with the casino chips and eat in the
theater. And the movie! Esther, there were pictures of big fields hundreds of
miles from the nearest salt water. And real live horses! Can you imagine? It
looked
just
like Bernadette’s mural!”

Later, Dax had
taken her to the smaller library on the
Crystal
. “We spent hours just
reading side by side,” she told Esther as they cleaned out one of the fuel
injectors the day after Esther’s visit to the oil tanker. “Can you believe how
many books they have? And Dax has been so sweet. He promised to take me to the
Galaxy
Crown
for a special dinner one night. I might even get to see the captains!”

“Judith doesn’t
seem to like them very much,” Esther said.

She hadn’t had a
chance to report back to Judith about what had happened on the oil tanker. As
usual, David Hawthorne and the captains had been keeping her busy.

“Judith is just
grumpy. She doesn’t like that someone else is in charge. Anyway, the
Galaxy
Crown
is supposed to be beautiful, even majestic. I want to go there so
badly!”

“Mmm.”

Esther’s hands
were busy checking and double-checking each element of the injector she’d been
working on. It hadn’t been quite right since their journey to the
Galaxy
.

“Did you hear
about the cabaret tomorrow?” Cally’s head bobbed up and down like a buoy on the
other side of the engine.

“What’s a
cabaret?”

“It’s like a show,
but a million times better than the ones we do. Dax told me that we’re all
invited. It’ll be on the
Galaxy
Mist
after dinner tomorrow. You
should totally come.”

“I might stop by.”

Esther hadn’t
visited the
Mist
yet, but she’d heard from Byron that it was one of the
more sparsely occupied ships. A substantial portion of it was used for storage.
Maybe she could poke around, find out what kind of supplies were being kept
there. It would be good to have something more to report to Judith. Despite
herself, she wanted to impress Judith, to prove she’d made the right decision
by asking Esther for help.

“Apparently, they
have this big theater, and they serve dinner and drinks while you watch the
show. Isn’t that amazing?” Cally sighed, her work neglected yet again.

“Sure,” Esther
said. “Maybe I’ll see if Neal and Mar— . . . if Neal wants to go.”

She was keeping
Neal’s secret, even from Cally. She still didn’t know anything about Marianna’s
husband.

Esther caught Neal
in his tower after her shift. He was alone for once. He had already been
planning to ask her to go to the cabaret show with him. Marianna and her
husband were going, and Marianna had urged him to bring a “date” to avoid any
unnecessarily awkward situations.

“I need you to
have my back, Es,” Neal said. His headset was down around his neck as usual.
The high decks of the
Emerald
loomed
outside the windows. “I’ve never met the guy, but Marianna seems to think we’ll
get along swimmingly.”

“Why would you
want to meet him? Aren’t you still thinking about stealing his wife?” Esther
said. She sat on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest.

Neal swiveled
around in his chair. “Marianna says they have an unconventional relationship.”

“What does that
mean?”

“I’m not sure,” he
admitted.

Esther sighed. “At
least tell me if you guys are actually hooking up,” she said, “so I know what
I’m getting myself into.” She scratched at the leftover scab from the explosion
in the desal room. The cut was mostly healed, but it still itched.

“It’s not like
that. I just want to be around her . . . listen to her voice . . . watch her
lips move.”

“You’re just
making this harder on yourself,” Esther said, “but okay, I guess I can come to
this carberay thingy. Might be interesting.”

“Thanks, Esther,”
Neal said. He bit his lip. “Oh, and we’re supposed to dress up. Do you think
you can do that?”

“Dress up how?”

“Like, wear a
dress.”

“I don’t have
one.”

“I’m sure Adele
could get you one. She’s the magic worker around here.”

Esther rolled her
eyes. “Great.”

The next evening
found Esther in a red skirt that was a little too tight. She couldn’t quite
take a full stride in it. She’d stuck with one of her usual black tank tops
because Adele hadn’t found a dress in time. The skirt would have to do. It was
made out of real silk, and Esther was terrified she’d spill something on it.
She hoped no one would pay too much attention to her bowling shoes. She
couldn’t bring herself to ask Adele for high heels and was pretty sure she
wouldn’t be able to walk in them anyway. She’d taken extra care to scrub her
hands clean, and she’d washed her hair with real shampoo, one of the luxuries
the
Catalina
had long since run out of. She had to admit that she liked
the flowery scent. Surreptitiously, she pulled the edges of her shaggy hair to
her nose as she waited for Neal on the foredeck.

Neal wore a
scarlet tie and a dress shirt with his usual dark blue pants. He too had opted
for his bowling shoes. His mousy brown hair was slicked down with some sort of
shiny grease; Esther made him comb it up before they left the
Catalina
.
He tried to make it stand out like Dax’s hair but only succeeded it pushing it
back and forth on his head in stiff waves.

They took the
bridge over to the
Emerald
and then a water taxi across the flotilla to
the
Galaxy
Mist
. The
Mist
floated far from the
Emerald
, past the oil tankers and the stern of the
Galaxy
Crown
. As they sped through the water, the lights of the ships emerged
around them. Sea spray misted their faces. Esther had the sensation that she
was floating along the San Diego boardwalk on a summer evening. It made her sad
to think of that lost city, drowned first in ash and then in surges from the
volatile sea. She didn’t often think of what had been lost on land. She’d been
so young when the disaster began. She didn’t grieve for places, only people.
Still, as she had grown older, she felt sad for what her life could have been
like, unconfined by the limitations of the sea.

An eerie array of
blue lights spread across the deck of the
Galaxy
Mist
. They
glimmered like stars in an ashy sky. The water taxis sailed to platforms beside
the hull, which were also illuminated in blue light. Esther and Neal
disembarked and climbed the gangway to the deck. A crowd gathered around
several long tables that had been set up under the stars. The women wore long,
sweeping dresses and hair ornaments made of delicate shells and stones. A few
had traces of makeup that made their eyes pop in the low lights like
mother-of-pearl. The men had brightly colored vests beneath their coats. Their
shoes shone in the bluish light.

The people from
the
Catalina
stuck out amongst the
Galaxy
residents because of
their relative shabbiness. Like Esther’s and Neal’s, their outfits had been
pulled together with donations and found fabrics. Esther spotted a tablecloth
dress shirt on one man. Sturdy work boots peeked from beneath another woman’s
skirt, which was the exact hue of the
Catalina
’s
bedsheets.
 

Cally had
convinced her mother to make her a dress in the “
Galaxy
style” for her
date with Dax. She looked radiant in a shimmering green, complemented by the
whites and blues of the ship and sea. If Esther wasn’t mistaken, that fabric
had once hung in the Mermaid Lounge on the
Catalina
.

Dax stumbled as he
came to greet Cally on the deck.

“Neal, over here
mi amor
.”

Marianna had been
waiting for them by the railing. She wore a pretty caramel-colored gown that
hugged her shapely hips. Esther felt sad for Neal when she saw the way his face
turned sunset pink the moment he laid eyes on her.

“Marianna.” Neal
put a hand gently on her arm and kissed her cheek. “You look so lovely. I don’t
know enough languages to tell you how lovely you are.” Esther cleared her
throat. “Sorry, this is my friend Esther. I think you met on the yacht when we
first arrived.”

“Esther, it’s a
pleasure to meet you. Thank you for coming along. Neal tells me you are
sympathetic to our situation.”

“I feel sympathy
for you, yes.”

Marianna looked
away. “Ah, here is my husband,” she said. “Come here, Paris, I’d like you to
meet Neal and Esther, from the
Catalina
.”

A tall man with
thick gray curls and a shimmering gold vest sauntered over to them.

“Absolutely
charming to meet you.” He kissed both of Esther’s cheeks, then both of Neal’s.
Neal stiffened in surprise. “Marianna has been telling me how you’re on the
same wavelength with all this radio business. I find it frightfully dull
myself. I’m the artistic director for performances. I believe you’ve heard my
string quartet already. Such a find they were. Ronaldo the cellist is an
absolute
daaarling
.” He stretched out
the final word like an elastic band.

“Nice to meet
you.” Esther and Neal exchanged glances.

“Do come and get a
drink,” Paris trilled. “I’ve convinced the captains to let us dip into the
alcohol supply for this little occasion. It’s our first opportunity to truly
show our guests what kind of civilization we’ve been building anew on the sea.”

Esther and Neal
followed Paris and Marianna through the crowd to the tables. Esther lost sight
of the blue lights for a moment as strange faces surrounded her. She almost
wished she’d borrowed some high heels. Almost.

Small glasses
filled with ice lined the table.

“You make ice
here?” Esther said. She knew down to the joule how much energy that took.

Paris laughed.
“This isn’t all we make here, my dear.” He stepped up and flicked four fingers
at the thin-faced young man behind the counter, who opened a bottle and poured
an amber liquid over the ice. “Whiskey.” Paris placed a glass in each of their
hands and immediately raised a toast. “To whiskey, new friends, and the
fabulous performance you are about to witness.”

The drink burned
Esther’s throat. It made her think of fuel blasting into a combustion chamber.
She sipped very slowly.

Neal and Marianna
were staring awkwardly between each other and Paris. Neal commented on the
weather. Marianna agreed enthusiastically that it was an “exceptionally calm
night.”

Esther scratched
her scab and looked down at the alcohol and ice in her glass. The
Catalina
occasionally acquired liquor, but it had to be shared among many. She rarely
had more than a sip. She’d only taken a gulp or two when the young man topped
off her glass.

A bell chimed
three times. It made Esther think of the three horns that warned people about
running storms on the
Catalina
. “That’s our cue, darlings.”

Paris led the way
inside the ship. The dinner theater was located just off the main atrium. It
was at least three times bigger than the theater on the
Catalina
. Tables
arranged in a half moon spread out from the open stage, which had no curtains.
All the chairs faced the stage. The balconies rising up around the theater were
filling with people in glittering, brightly colored attire. Paris settled his
group at a table on the ground level, to the right of the stage, and then he
bustled off. “I must greet the captains and check on my performers. Ta-ta.”

“Um, Marianna,
Paris seems nice,” Esther said. “How long have you two been married?”

Neal shot her a
look.

“Oh gosh, it’s
been seven years now. I was quite young.” Marianna looked at Neal sadly. “He’s
good to me. He’s been a good partner and companion.”

“Do you love him?”
Neal asked, his voice unnaturally high. The weight in his words made it sound
like a conversation continued from another time.