Let him turn the ship

Eyya stood to the side as Marcus veered the ship. It moved against the strong winds and both of them viscerally felt the ship begin to strain. Eyya grabbed a microphone from the control panel and yelled into it.

“All crew take brace position! Avoid edges and congregate to safe zones!”

She gripped two handles at the front of the boat and braced, a look of determination and ferocity on her face.

‘I wont go down here. I wont go down like this. Not after everything. I. Will. Not. Lose’

Four other ships flanked them to their right and they turned in sync with their ship. Marcus flipped another switch on the control panel and a wheel shot up from the floor just in front of him

“Manual control! Its the only way I can do this!”

He grabbed and steered to the right with concentration and precision. The ship began to groan even more. And then – they heard it. Sharp granite protrusions jarred into the right of their ship. The protrusions began to push forward – driving their ship towards the others. Marcus had to walk a fine line – either he drove the ship too hard into the boulders – which would snap his rudders and they would completely lose control and collide into the other ships. At the same time if they did not push back hard enough they would also smash into the other ships.

Sweat dripped down his brow. For minutes that felt like hours he navigated that fine line – switching between the manual wheel and the speed and motor controls on the abacus.

“400 meters to go!” Eyya shouted over the groaning of the ship.

A deep snap came from within the bowels of the ship and it lurched to the side. Marcus was thrown to the side and knocked out. The handle began spinning and spinning out of control and the ship began to lurch to the right.

Eyya jumped at the spinning wheel and pushed it to left with all her body weight. She could hear the granite shear itself into the side of her ship. Marcus jumped back up and helped her push the wheel. The groaning and creaking sounds grew louder and louder as the granite boulders began to gut the inside of the ship.

“We have to veer left or everyone on this ship is going to die Marcus”. Marcus looked to the side at Eyya. He was man literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. He hesitated for only a moment before veering the wheel to the left.

She ship lurched to the left side with the force of the boulders and caused their ship to barge into the one on the right of them. There was a loud crack and then – silence – they had passed the granite bay and were now in the safe bay of the island.

They both slumped over in exhaustion. “What a colossal fuck-up Marcus muttered.”

Resting for only a second, they made their way out onto their ship to assess the damage.

The ship was absolutely wrecked and would not be going anywhere soon. But all of their men had survived and the damage overall seemed minimal. They both spent an hour our two giving orders, getting repairs started and making sure the injured were being tended too.

Just as the sun crested the horizon 20 troops boarded their ship. A lieutenant marshal lead the pack of men. Marcus and Eyya walked up to greet them.

“Marcus Ashford and Eyya Ashfirt – I am placing you under arrest for treason against the empire of humanity”