Seabound (Seabound Chronicles Book 1) (21 page)

Dax slumped onto
the cot. “It’s all my fault! I invited her to see the dumb cabaret show. I just
wanted to do something special for her. What if she’s dead, Esther?”

“She’s not dead.”
Esther sat down beside him and eased off her bowling shoe.

Dax was working
himself into a frenzy. His voice cracked. “But what if she is? I’ve never felt
this way about someone before.”

“We’ll find them.”

Esther inspected
the stitches in her foot. The wound didn’t look infected. The nurse had been
carrying a pocketful of travel-size Neosporin tubes. This cut would heal faster
than some of the other injuries she’d sustained in her work. She didn’t have
any painkillers, though, and her foot throbbed.

Dax leapt up and
paced back and forth across the tower. “I should have taken her for a quiet
dinner on the
Crown
instead. Those finish early. She’d have been home
before the first gust of wind. But I had to do something glamorous. I’m so
stupid. I just wanted to kiss her.” He sat back down on the cot, still tugging
at the spikes in his hair.

Esther took pity
on him. “She loved the cabaret. It’s just her type of thing. Better than a
quiet—wait a minute. You go to dinners on the
Crown
?”

“Yeah, my parents
live there. My mom was a director on the cruise line before. The captains
entertain select groups all the time. I thought it would be boring for Cally to
meet all those stuffy people.”

“Can anyone go to
one of these dinners?” Esther stared intently at the floor, as if she were
sketching out a diagram with her lost pocketknife.

“No. You have to
be invited specially, unless you’re a regular.”

“And your parents
are regulars?”

“Yeah.” Dax
watched the beam of light sweeping around in a circle on one of the screens,
looking dejected.

“Would you be able
to get me in?” Esther asked. A plan was taking shape.

“You?”

“I want to talk to
the captains,” she said.

“They’re not the
friendliest dudes.”

“But they’d be in
the room?”

“Yes.”

“That’s all I
need. When’s the next dinner?” Esther sat a little straighter and reached for
her shoe. The fist that had been crushing her stomach eased a little.

“They’ll have one
tonight to celebrate the reunion of the
Galaxy
. Why do you want to meet
the captains so much?” Dax flopped back, deflating like a burst weather
balloon.

“I want to
convince them to send a search party after the
Catalina
. She’s nearly
out of fuel and water. They won’t survive long without help, even if we do get
her on the satellite.”

“Out of water?”
Dax would know how dire that was, having lived on the ships for most of his
life.

“The desalination
system is still broken.”

“The whole thing?”

Esther gave a quick
nod. “They can make do for a while, but not without fuel.”

Dax stood and
paced before her, tugging at his hair, fiddling with the pockets of his
sweater. “I don’t know, Esther. The captains aren’t very helpful.”

“Why does everyone
keep saying that?” Esther said. “You’re on the Guest Services welcome team. You
were falling all over yourselves to help us when we arrived. Why should now be
any different?”

Marianna pulled
her headset down around her neck, capturing her thick hair like a bonnet.
“Don’t you see, Esther? They were trying to entice you to stay with the
Galaxy
.”

“I know that. They
said anyone was welcome to stay. I considered it myself,” Esther said. Somehow,
now that the
Catalina
had been swept away, all she could think about was
getting back to it. Had she really been so determined to leave?

“You don’t
understand.” Marianna’s liquid brown eyes bored into her. “The
Flotilla
is like a great big Venus
flytrap. The captains welcome in anyone who comes across their path, then
consume their resources and their people. They want your ship. They’d dismantle
the
Catalina
and use it as scrap metal for their own ships. Your little
group would barely be noticed in the
Flotilla
,
and you certainly wouldn’t be joining the elite. Most of you would be doing
menial labor, adding to the captains’ great empire. They don’t care about
helping anyone unless they’ll get something out of it.”

“Why don’t people
just leave? Turn in their chips and join the
Amsterdam
?” Esther asked.

“Officially, they
can,” Marianna said. “But lately when people try, they’ve been told their chips
are worth far less oil than they thought, so they can’t afford to take the
leap. People who complain about it have been demoted for minor infractions or
forced out of their cabins to live on the cargo ships. Some people get away,
but most are too scared of what’s going on in the rest of the world. The
Galaxy
has been their haven, and they’re
afraid to go.”

Dax opened and
closed his mouth a few times, but he didn’t contradict Marianna. So the
Galaxy
, with all its talk of starting a
new civilization and welcoming in strangers, was an illusion. They were just
another scared group of people living on ships and looking out only for
themselves. Judith had been right to be suspicious. And as far as Esther knew,
they were almost out of oil too. Eventually, the whole charade would come
crashing down.

“Why didn’t you
tell me this?” Neal said. He had yanked off his headset as well.

Marianna frowned.
“Perhaps I was a bit selfish. I wanted you to stay.” Her musical voice was
quiet, like a tinkling wind chime.

Neal threw up his
hands. “I thought this place was special. Some kind of paradise. That was all a
lie?”

Esther listened
dully, feeling the tight pinch of betrayal.

“I’m sorry,”
Marianna said.

“What
else
have you been keeping from me?”
Neal asked.

“Neal.”

Dax looked back
and forth amongst the three of them, clearly not understanding the subtext.
Esther wished she didn’t understand it either.

Finally, Dax said,
“So . . . do you want to go to the party or not?”

Chapter 21—The
Galaxy Crown

Esther held Dax’s arm
as
they boarded the water taxi. It was dusk, and lights were coming on across the
Galaxy
Flotilla
,
rippling
like fragments of sunlight on waves. They sped beneath the ships. Dents and
gashes remained from the storm. Small boats tugged salvaged debris across the
water. Both of the oil tankers had survived, but one had taken on a leak in two
compartments. A crew of workers swarmed around it. Some hung from cables over
the water, swaying in the movement of the sea as they patched up the hull.

Marianna had lent
Esther a soft black dress that was long and loose on Esther’s frame. She
wrapped her feet in gauze and stuck them into high-heeled boots. She wondered
who had bothered to bring these onto a cruise ship in the first place. Marianna
instructed her to walk on the balls of her feet, both to protect her stitches
and keep from falling in the too-big shoes.

Despite Marianna’s
reservations, Esther had decided to approach the captains and prevail upon them
to take pity on the
Catalina
.
She would ask the captains to send out a search party with supplies. What
Marianna had said didn’t change that. If the captains wanted to consume other
ships, they might be willing to help find this one.
Esther would try to
bargain with the captains, to swear whatever fealty they required. The
Catalina
would join the
Flotilla
and work
for the captains if that’s what it would take. Nothing mattered more than
finding the
Catalina
before the last
drops of water from their reserves ran out.

This dinner was
the quickest way to get to all the captains. Esther had wanted Neal to go
instead of her, knowing he was a more persuasive speaker, but their ability to
get to the captains hinged on Dax’s promise to introduce his
Catalina
girlfriend to his parents. Esther smoothed back her dark hair and hoped Dax
hadn’t told too many people his new girlfriend was a redhead. She also didn’t
look sixteen, but she was close enough.

Esther shifted in
her seat beside Dax as their water taxi approached the
Galaxy Crown
. A
mere handful of other boats followed in their wake. Most of those privileged
enough to attend the dinner lived on the
Crown
already.

The
Crown
was grander than even the
Emerald
. It had been one of just a few super
cruise ships in the world before the disaster, capable of carrying nearly six
thousand passengers, along with hundreds of crew and staff. It had been designed
to overwhelm with sheer excess. The hull sloped upward like a white cliff face.
Metal and glass trimmings shone in the lights from the
Flotilla
. It was the biggest thing Esther had ever seen. She
worried she’d have to limp up a retractable staircase and possibly rip her
stitches. Instead, they sailed into the shadow of the huge hull to a railed platform
rigged to a pulley system. They stepped straight to the platform from their
boat, and it lifted them into the air like shrimp in a basket.

When they
alighted, Esther looked around for any sign of David, feeling both hopeful and
nervous that he’d be here. Maybe she’d been too harsh on him earlier. She’d
been scared and confused—and annoyed at herself. Maybe she shouldn’t have
taken it out on him. He might convince the captains to listen to her. On the
other hand, maybe what had happened between them meant nothing to him. He could
get her thrown off the ship. She could trust Dax, who so badly wanted to be a
hero for Cally, but she couldn’t tell what David Hawthorne wanted.

On board, they
walked down a corridor to a grand plaza that was nearly as big as the entire
Catalina
.
Deck upon deck rose above them, culminating in a sparkling glass atrium. Café
tables dotted the edges of the plaza. Real trees planted in massive pots loomed
above the tables. Esther stopped short. Wire songbird cages hung from some of
the trees, with real, live birds inside. She felt a surreal sense of nostalgia,
remembering her father’s garden, where she’d listened to sparrows singing as
she played. The birds twittered a chorus to the sinking sun.

Dax tugged on her
arm, and they continued across the plaza. A large, fully functional swimming
pool occupied one end. The water must have splashed all over the deck during
the storm, but someone had already cleaned it up and refilled the pool with
clear green water.
Who wants to swim in a pool when they live at sea?

People lounged
about the plaza, sipping cocktails beneath the trees, sprawling on benches,
laughing. Esther didn’t understand how they could be so idle given that the
Flotilla
had just been through a catastrophic
storm. She thought of the workers hanging from ropes down the side of the oil
tanker.

Dax led her to a
row of glass elevators that zipped up and down the decks, passengers on full
display. They joined the line for the lifts behind a petite couple with
matching sea-gray hair. Esther gripped Dax’s arm harder to keep him from
bouncing up and down on his toes. He was almost as bad as Cally!

When it was their
turn to board, Esther felt a bit like jumping up and down too. Real working
elevators! She’d played around with the lift mechanisms in the
Catalina
’s elevator shafts before they’d
been repurposed. They were fascinating contraptions. She enjoyed the rushing
sensation as the plaza sank beneath her feet.

They stepped onto
the fifth level with the elderly couple. Esther felt the whisper of air
conditioning on her skin. They crossed plush carpets to a pair of double doors
trimmed in gold and bearing the name Lucky Fish Chinese Restaurant.

“My mother says
the Chinese food here wasn’t authentic, even when it was a proper cruise,” Dax
whispered.

He held open the
door for the elderly couple. A young man in a crisp black shirt stood sentry at
a small podium inside the entryway. Esther and Dax waited as he checked in the
elderly couple.

Dax jiggled his
leg up and down.

Esther tried to
divert some of his nervous energy. “Did she grow up in China?” she asked. “Your
mother?”

“She moved to
America when she was a teenager.”

“People on the
Catalina
used to talk about moving to China,” Esther said. “They don’t have any ash.”

“Or food,” Dax
said.

“You’re right. No
one gets past the borders anyway.”

“I’d like to go
there someday, if they ever let people in again.” Dax’s breathing had slowed
somewhat, and he stopped bouncing his leg.

The young guy in
black finished with the elderly couple, and they shuffled past him into the
restaurant. A straggly hint of a mustache struggled to assert itself on his
upper lip.

“Yo, Dax. Haven’t
seen you in a while.”

“Hey Connor. This
is . . . my girlfriend, Cally.”

Connor grinned at
Esther, all teeth and teenage bravado. “Girlfriend, eh? She makes you look
tall.”

“Is it cool if I
take her in?”

“Sure thing. Your
parents are already inside. Guest Services treating you well?” Connor laughed
unpleasantly and mimed a series of obsequious handshakes.

“It’s great. How’s
being a waiter?” Dax said.

Connor stopped
laughing immediately. “Table eight.”

“I know.”

“Oh, and you’ll
have to sign in.” Connor tapped sharply on a big book of names on the podium.
As Esther signed Cally’s name, she eyed all the extra paper space that was
going unused beside the column of names. Her father would be able to do so much
with that. She said a little prayer for him as Dax led her into the restaurant.

The smell of fish
oil and incense greeted them. Glasses tinkled lightly. A cellist, the same one
from the cabaret, played a simple melody in the background. Round tables draped
in scarlet cloths filled the large space. Elaborate engravings lined the walls,
gilt shining in the candlelight.

Esther and Dax
weaved between the tables. Esther didn’t make eye contact with the assorted
diners as she teetered past them in her high-heeled boots. She stayed focused
on the task ahead, hoping she wouldn’t forget any of her lines. This had to
work.

One table stood
apart from the others on a raised platform, where two distinguished-looking men
and one wrinkled woman were already seated. Five empty chairs awaited other
occupants. The woman could have been Judith in a previous life. She had the
same pinched look to her eyebrows, the same severe hairstyle, the same frown.
Those must be the captains, though neither Captain Ryan nor the raven-haired
man she’d seen at the cabaret had arrived yet.

Esther and Dax
made their way to another table for eight by the far wall. Four of the seats
were already occupied. A short, round Chinese woman stood up from the far side
of the table.

“Ai-ya! I haven’t
seen you for so long, son. You should come to visit your mommy more often.
Daddy misses you too!”

Dax’s father
looked up from where he had been scratching wrinkled fingers along the scarlet
tablecloth. He didn’t smile. Tufts of hair stuck out of his ears like the
whiskers on a seal.

“I’ve been
working, Mother.” Dax tugged at his hair.

“Working too hard
for your family? I was so worried about you during the storm.”

She came around
the table to fold Dax into a hug.

“I’m fine,
Mother,” Dax said, pulling away with a red face. “This is Es— Cally.
She’s my girlfriend.”

“What? A new
girlfriend? You should tell me these things.”

Dax’s mother took
Esther’s hand in both of hers and kissed her on the cheek. Her face was warm
and soft.

“It’s nice to meet
you,” Esther said, responding awkwardly to the gesture. They sat, and Esther
positioned herself so she could see the dais. She thought about approaching the
first three captains before the others arrived. Maybe she could convince a few
of them to take her side.

Dax seemed to
guess her thoughts. “Not till after they eat,” he whispered. “People are always
less agreeable when they’re hungry. Guest Services 101.”

“What are you two
lovebirds whispering about?” Dax’s mother demanded. “I’m so happy Desi brought
you to meet us, Cally. He is so bad about visiting his mummy. Maybe you will
help him remember his family. Have you tried the food here yet?”

Esther shook her
head. “No, this is my first time on the
Crown
. . . Wait,
Desi
?”

Dax’s face went as
red as the tablecloths. “Thanks a lot, Mother. My real name is Desmond. But I
go by Dax now,
not
Desi.”

His mother threw
up her hands. “I’m sorry, son. I always forget.”

“Desmond’s a nice
name,” Esther offered, suppressing a smile.

Dax cleared his
throat theatrically. “
Cally
is from the
Catalina
, Mother.”

“The little cruise
ship we met a few weeks ago?” his mother asked.

“Yes, that’s the
one.”

“How sweet.” She
patted Esther’s arm.

The other couple
at the table turned toward them at the mention of the
Catalina
. The man,
who had a purplish face and lumpy jowls, stuck out a large hand.

“I’m Henry
Morrison, and this is my wife, June. You’re from the
Catalina
, eh? Is it
true you’re living at capacity over there?”

He had a loud
voice, and the people at the next table looked over.

Esther shook his
hand. She was getting better at that.

“Yes. We have over
a thousand residents, and it’s not a large ship.”

“Imagine!” June
tittered. She wore large jeweled glasses and what looked like real lipstick.
“How do you have enough food?”

Esther glanced
over at the captains’ dais as she answered. “Well, the sea supplies everything
we need; it’s just a matter of collecting it. We have a small speedboat for
fishing and seaweed collection. We don’t have anything like your farming and
gardening program, though. I wish we had the soil for that.”

“Oh, I’ve never
been over to the garden boat myself.” June took a sip from her glass and smiled
politely at Esther.

“What’s the energy
situation like?” Henry asked. “You can’t have very large fuel reserves.”

“We rely on wind
and solar as much as possible,” Esther explained. “We have a good power storage
system, so we can collect energy reserves during storms.”

“That’s enough?”

“We get by,”
Esther said. “Water’s a problem, as it is for everyone. And we can’t move
around much.”

Esther glanced
back at the dais. Another captain had joined the group, shaking hands around
the table before settling his large, fleshy body into a chair.

“Why is water a
problem? We’re at sea,” June said, giggling. She took another sip from her
glass. Tiny bubbles floated to its surface.

One sip from her
own glass told Esther there was at least some alcohol in the bubbly drink. She
set it down and didn’t touch it again. She needed a clear head.