Firestorm

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Commander Greg Garrett, former gunnery officer of the old Asiatic Fleet “four-stacker” destroyer USS Walker (DD-163), now captain of the sailing frigate USS Donaghey, leaned on the starboard quarterdeck rail, staring through his binoculars. The colors of the sea and sky had proclaimed their independence from each other and a yellow-red smear splashed the eastern horizon. The boisterous sea was becoming a tumultuous, toothy, pink-tinged purple. The Lemurian lookout, high in the maintop, had sighted dawn-spangled sails to the northeast with her keen eyes, but Garrett still saw nothing. As he searched, the sun darted tentative beams over the distant, hazy line of the continent.

“What have we, sur?” asked Lieutenant Saaran-Gaani, joining Greg beside the rail. Saaran was Donaghey’ s exec, her “salig maa-stir,” in the Lemurian vernacular. He’d replaced Muraak-Saanga, who’d been recently appointed to cothe new USS Tassat when Garrett declined the honor in favor of remaining with Donaghey. Saaran was a bona fide “Sky Priest,” of a southern denomination, so he filled the “sailing master” role without suffering any of the religious resentment that sometimes plagued laymen in his post. More and more Sky Priests joined the Navy these days, surely out of patriotism, but also possibly to help secure their relevance in these strange, transitional times.

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