Captain Devereaux cursed under his breath, and grimaced. "Thank you Mr. Smithson." He considered the situation. "All hands, make ready to move on my command. First Officer?"

"Here, sir." I said as I came forward.

"Ah, good lad. Now here we have a bit of a situation, Mr. Orvis." The Captain coughed behind a fist, glanced at his hand thoughtfully, and closed his eyes. He continued speaking to me. "Égalité is damaged, as is her foe. We've taken shelter in this cave, and Jormungand likely believes that she has chased us off or wounded us grievously. We still don't know how badly she herself was wounded. Apparently not badly enough. Our lair lies between the serpent and the village she was making for."

He didn't need to ask the implied question. The Captain was fond of phrasing these problems as if they were textbook exercises in strategy and tactics. "Sounds like a good situation for an ambush, sir. Of course, if Tromos suspects that we have remained, that would be very dangerous to attempt." We both knew that the commander of Jormungand was at least the equal of the captain in the realm of strategy, if not slightly better. We had faced the serpentine behemoth more than once before.

"Exactly my thinking. Now, we are going to need the Égalité in top condition either way, and we have barely had time to stabilize the internal systems after that last bout. I want you to make a final check of the outer hull."

"Sir?" I asked, slightly puzzled. Even if there were a problem with Égalité's outer hull, we wouldn't have enough time to do anything about it before Jormungand started moving again.

"No time for arguments, Max. I need to know if anything important is about to fall off. If you can fix something fast, do it. If not, we'll have to take our chances. Take our young student with you; you'll get done twice as fast." The Captain coughed again and paused while I gave an order to Milly. He looked at me oddly, but I was distracted with preparing to make my inspection. "You understand, Max? Take good care of her. If I don't miss my guess, one day she'll be yours, and with my blessings."

"As you wish, sir. Égalité is a good ship. I doubt there'll be any problems," I replied, while casting a worried glance toward where I imagined Jormungand to be making preparations even as we spoke. Looking back, I wish I had been paying more attention to the man that was my captain, mentor, and once my surrogate father.

There was only one person the captain could be referring to as 'our young student', and that was Sarah Jocelyn Devereaux, the Captain's fourteen year old daughter. The captain was probably having her come along as part of her continuing education, and of course it fell to me to show her the way. I collected the eponymous crewmember and together we disembarked for our inspection.

We had rapidly eyeballed three-quarters of Égalité's keel when I heard the hatch close and saw the ship begin to move. I heard my companion gasp in surprise, and it was certainly a shared sentiment. As silently as ever,Égalité slid forward toward the cave entrance, hovering eerily on the magnetic field of our Earth by means of her ultraconductive keel (which, of course, repulses said field). I could do little more than gape as our ship began to pick up speed and abandon us. The Captain's daughter, not realizing the futility, started yelling to the crew to wait for her as she chased the ship out of the cave.

Then it hit me. The captain had intentionally put his daughter off the ship, and placed me in charge of her welfare. That meant that he was about to do something very dangerous ... probably intended to have done with Jormungand and her devious captain for once and for all. Quite likely this would bring the end of Égalité as well, which would explain my current situation. Damn the man! I should be there with him. Why me? What did I know of raising a young girl? Why not Milly? Then I reconsidered these thoughts as unworthy. I had, after all, helped to raise and train the girl for nigh-on 13 years now.

Of course, if the Égalité survived this battle, the Captain would return and collect us and I could be angry at him as was Right and Proper. I called my young charge back from the cave mouth. For the first time ever she seemed about to refuse my order, but then gave in. We collected the packs that Égalité had dropped for us.

The events of that day are now burned into my memory, but it pains me to relate them in great detail so I shall summarize. Jormungand was making for the village at full steam (why she did not burrow, I cannot say). Égalité moved to intercept, which must have come as a surprise to Jormungand's crew. But not a total surprise, for they soon began ranging Égalité with their weapons. Égalité did not return fire, but did take just enough evasive action to avoid being blown to fragments. Mr. Smithson was in rare form. I kept waiting for Égalité to return fire, but she did not. She simply ducked and weaved and kept her nose aimed at her foe. Then I realized why...

Égalité meant to RAM the Jormungand!

Apparently the Jormungand's pilot realized this at the last second, for the mechanical beast attempted to dodge out of the path of the hurtling line-streamed missile. Instead of a head-on collision, Égalité struck a glancing blow to the head of the serpent, evoking a heart-wrenching cry from the girl at my side. The attack had some effect, producing at least one explosion and a lot of black smoke. Unfortunately, the Égalité did not emerge unscathed. She was listing badly to port, and could not seem to maintain more than half her usual altitude.

And incredibly, both vehicles were still functional! Égalité led a meandering course to the north and away from the village. Jormungand, seemingly enraged that this tiny nuisance had struck such a mighty blow, gave pursuit, her weapons apparently nonfunctional. The two craft soon disappeared from view.

We waited for hours for our Captain to return victorious and reclaim his wayward crewmen, but this did not come to pass. We camped the night in that cave, with my young charge crying herself to sleep on my shoulder. Our friends had not returned by morning. But neither had our enemies.

I had hoped to return to the ship and berate my captain, but the more I think back on those events, the less certain I am that there would be anyone to argue with. I suspected that the Captain was wounded in our first encounter with the serpent ... and now I believe he was mortally wounded. He knew his death was upon him, and he did what he could to make it count for something important, even if it was but an apparently insignificant village in France ... and the life and well-being of his daughter.

I made a resolution then: that I would do my best to care for the girl; that I would train her as I had been trained, in the Science of the Electrodyne Engineers; and that, someday, I would help her to continue the battle begun by her father. ...and if, by some chance, we should make our way back to that hidden fortress in the ruin-strewn mountains of another continent, Égalité may once again sail above the earth and below the seas to carry that fight unto the Union itself ... even if I must rebuild her from the ground up.