Chapter Three: Moon, Sun and Stars — Part 8

The plan is simple. Jynx will be dropped down the left side of the ship, while a weighted rope will be dropped opposite her on the right side. Once she has latched herself to both ropes, she will then use them to center herself under the ship, and drop down until she can see ahead of the percussion field. She’s already been warned she might find herself caught in 80 to 100 mile and hour gusts, combined with a need to see anything that might be in their path, and given that Jynx has volunteered, it seems only logical to let her try it.

Fastening herself to the dangling rope, Jynx drops down, pushed by the wind at an angle swinging against the ship’s hull a couple of times. Once below the belly, Jynx finds herself hitting what feels like a membrane of gravity. It isn’t solid, but it won’t let her drop any lower. Across from her, the weighted rope dangles along the same plane, much like the rocks had been doing around the base of the arch. Her toes are tingling, because they are deeply settled into the percussion field. It isn’t an entirely unpleasant feeling. Jynx needs to get to the center of the ship. To do that, she needs to get the second rope into her hand.

For some reason, everybody had thought she would be able to crawl along the belly of the ship, somehow sandwiched between the base gravity and the cool metal skin, but the physics prove not to work that way. Instead, Jynx is dangling over a cloud of writhing light, acting as a conduit of energy, cold plasma leaking off of her skin and drifting lazily up the rope and onto the belly of the ship. Jynx swings back and forth, trying to get close enough to catch the weighted rope, or snag it with the residual of rope dangling on the gravitational edge beneath her. She’s low enough that she should be able to clear the ship, until the rules of swinging change unexpectly, and the rope goes slack as her swing levels out. About the time she face plants against the side of the ship, falling back with a bloody nose and bruised pride, Daria squirrels down the other side.

Daria’s smile fades slowly to an expression of concern when she sees Jynx holding a rag to her nose, a white cotton cloth now stained red. Daria turns upside down and swings out and down, keeping her feet toward the ship, so that when the rules of swing change, she slams against the ship feet and butt, rather than face and shoulder. Somehow, Daria has positioned herself on the far side of the arching belly of the ship, her rope swinging out so that Jynx can grab it. Daria doesn’t stay against the belly of the ship. She starts to fall back, dragging Jynx with her. Jynx grumbles something under her breath, and then shields herself as she is pulled against the ship’s belly one more time.

Arm over arm, she pulls Daria to her, until the two of them are hanging under the belly of the ship, and Daria has an arm wrapped around Jynx, straining to keep them together. She quickly ties their harnesses together with an excess of her rope, freeing her good hand to first secure the knot, after which she starts using a damp cloth to clean the blood from her friend’s face. They are two feet under the belly of the ship, unable to drop further without some kind of momentum to push them down. They look forward, back, and down, left and right. The sky and ocean are visible behind them, the sun low on the horizon, and soon to set.

“So . . . Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Daria asks, kissing Jynx gently in tiny pecks across her cheeks and lips, mostly out of worry for her nose.

“I know you’re thinking it.” Jynx says, “And if it wasn’t so damn cold, I’d be first in line to try, but uh, dangling thousands of feet in the air, or not dangling, while both disturbing and intriguing, isn’t really what I would call mood enhancing.”

“I got an idea.” Daria says, loosening the rope between them, “Sort of a win-win.”

Jynx, always cautious, but with a hint of a smile asks, “Dare I ask what you have in mind?”