You wouldn't think to see the sky today that there was ever a storm cloud to cross it. I mentioned this to the captain and he told me that it is often like this, both on the ocean and in the air, storms come without much time to prepare and you have to take your chances. He told me that the people in his command and himself get extra pay for the danger that they endure and he seemed shocked that I wasn't getting paid in a like fashion. I have promised myself that I will bring this up the next time I write to the paper. It isn't right that I run the same risks and get paid the same as I did when I had both feet still on the ground.
There is more to say then just this though about my conversations with the captain. He doesn't only make me feel dissatisfied and cheated in my job, he also gives me a new look at the ocean that I have never had before, even though I am a captain's son. It is strange I admit that I have to take to the air to really understand my father's element but so it has been going. My father is a very quiet man but the captain has many stories to tell, some of them even involve my father. I had never realized that my father went to places like China and India before I was born. When I was a child he always made local voyages where the longer he would be gone was a couple of months. He would come back as if he had never been anywhere and sit by the fire and dismiss anything I asked of him until I just stopped asking in the end. Voyages that I wanted so badly to hear about when I was a boy I now am learning about, and they are full of such danger that I almost wish that I didn't know my father endured them and I am grateful for not having learned about them until now. They would have given my nightmares if he had mentioned half of what happened on the ocean back in those days. The captain's stories are full of ships wrecking, explosions, storms, fires, and diseases that could kill the entire crew of a ship in a few days time. I am filled with new admiration of my father's age knowing that he lived through all of those dangers.
I have been told by several crew members, who take their pleasure in trying to make me uncomfortable, since they know I am not of this world of theirs, that we are growing close to the enemy. This could mean several things, it might mean that we will be shot down before we can do anything by guns on the ground. It could mean that we would me engaged by an enemy airship or one of the small fighters that the enemy has began to develop and are only now just taking to the air to challenge dirigible dominance. What we hope for above all else though is that we will be left undisturbed to make our bombing run and then flee in safety. There is a limit to the amount of time that we can remain in the air and we have to get back to a friendly port before that time is up.
Everyone is more on edge I have noticed, now that we are closer to action, it isn't just me. The captain has been speaking to me less, spending more and more of his time on the bridge with his many mysterious tools speaking to him. The crew's laughter seems more forced and everyone is speaking more softly even though there is no way that we could be heard the many miles between us and anyone listening. The arms drills have also increased recently, I am certain that the captain is trying to make sure his men will know exactly what to do, no matter what happens. I am not left out of this, like the captain said, there will be no idle hands on his ship. I have a post when we are under attack, at one of the guns. I will not be firing the thing, I have no training for it, but I have been told that it doesn't take a lot of training to hand the gunner whatever they ask for so that is my job. At least the gun I'm posted at is on the second deck so if we catch fire that will give me a minute more then the people on the first deck to get away, not that I suppose it will make much difference but it is a comfort to think about just the same.
To be continued...
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