Incursio Part 1: Anathema-1

EARLY 1915

"Message for Captain Hobbes," Deryn said to the reptile in front of her. "Newkirk says there is a massive flying machine inbound on the dorsal end of the ship! We must act immediately! End message."

As the message lizard scampered off, Deryn put a pair of binoculars over her eyes to see the object Newkirk spoke of with his semaphores. It was still too far to see clearly, but one thing really caught her eye: the machine was huge, well bigger than the Leviathan, metal, and was flying relatively fast. No propellers in sight, either. This meant it was way too advanced to be made by the Clankers, or anyone for that matter.

Wait... could it be...?

Oh, if it was, Captain Hobbes would be furious. Still, if he really was coming, then why? What business did he have in their world?

Oh, right, he did speak of building a summer home there. But wait, it was still January. Obviously, he was there for another purpose.

As it came nearer, Deryn could make out more details. It really couldn't be Clanker; the color scheme was blue and white and there was no German cross. Anywhere. In fact, no symbols to speak of and the hull bore the word Salvation.

English. Not Clanker-talk. It had to belong to Ned Johnson.

After about a minute, the lizard came back. "Roger that, I see it," it said in the captain's voice. "Alert all crewmen in the vicinity, Mr.Sharp. Tell them to take defensive positions."

He called her Mr. Sharp. Right- only Count Volger and Alek knew she was a girl. Of course, the latter needed someone to tell him, that person being Ned Johnson himself.

That reminded her. "Message for Captain Hobbes. Sir, I believe the Clankers are not controlling it. I think it may be... him, sir. End message."

She raised the binoculars again. The Salvation, if that's what the airship was called, appeared to have no shortage of ammunition, its weaponry being mostly guns and cannons that couldn't be found in their world, but they weren't in offensive positions. So Ned came in peace, but was prepared to engage if it came to that.

The Leviathan was stirring, apparently sensing this foreign machine coming for it. Also, more time passed and the lizard had not returned. Was Hobbes contemplating what to do about Ned if it was him? Nay, since is was him?

Still, there was Hobbes' order. Deryn ran along the spine telling all crewmembers that the captain was ordering defensive maneuvers. Take up arms, but don't engage unless engaged.

While running, she nearly bumped into Alek, who was carrying Bovril on his shoulder. They both surprised each other.

"Oh, hey, Alek," Deryn said, almost letting her instincts kick in and tell him the order.

"Hello, um..." Alek still didn't quite know what to call her now that he knew her true identity.

"It's best that you keep calling me Mr. Sharp," Deryn whispered.

"Mr. Sharp," Bovril repeated, giggling. Barking spiders, was that beastie ever going to get tired of saying that?

Alek still hadn't quite gotten over the fact that Deryn was a girl. Sometimes, he was deep in thought over it and he had asked her many questions regarding the matter. What a Dummkopf.

But no time to think about that now. By that time, the airship was coming close.

"So what do you suppose that is?" Alek asked, motioning towards it.

"I'm thinking it may be Ned," Deryn replied.

"What makes you say that?' Alek said.

"Well, look at it. Closely. Who else could be operating that ship?"

Alek didn't get a chance to answer (not that he needed to anyway; the question was rhetorical). The Salvation was now close enough to dock with the Leviathan and was showing some activity now.

It's port wing, which was bifurcated off the middle, so it technically was two wings, cast a shadow over the spine and some doors behind a railing and walkway opened up under it. Out of them came many crewmembers wearing identical uniforms and taking a formation behind the railing. All of them were unarmed, which told all crew on the Leviathan to lower their weapons.

A few things really struck Deryn about that ship's crew. For one thing, it wasn't just men- also women. That was debatable enough, but the crew was also... multiracial. White men stood beside negroes, both as if they were equals. Barking spiders, how much was the world about to change!?

Now, two other doors opened, but what initially came out of them weren't people. Instead, metal walkways came sliding out and touched down on the Leviathan's skin. Then six people who weren't wearing uniforms at all came walking onto the spine.

One of unmistakeably was Ned Johnson. Black hair, tall, scar on his face, triangular sword on his back, navy blue trench coat- that was him all right.

Another one, a young woman, was one only Deryn would recognize as Emma. A picture showing her was in Ned's wallet. She had long, very black hair, a jacket that went down only to her sides, deep blue eyes, and there was that ample chest that made Deryn envious once more.

The rest were people neither Deryn nor Alek recognized at all. The only other female was a teenager who also had black hair, though it was put in a braid, and she was wearing a bow and quiver. One of the males was short and dressed oddly formally, another was the opposite and had blond hair that fell to his shoulders, and the last appeared to be fourteen and strangely was wearing crimson armor. Who were these people?

Ned walked to the front and started addressing the Leviathan's crew. "It's good to see you all again. Y'all should recognize me as Ned Johnson, the one who helped you practically win Armageddon. Now, straight to the point: I just want to see Captain Hobbes for a bit and I come in peace, so please, stand down."

Of course, it was probably intimidating when everyone around you carried a gun while you only had a sword.

Ned began walking forward with his other companions following. Since everyone else know who he was, they cleared a passage for him. Deryn and Alek felt like they should follow, so they did.

"Quick! Barricade that door!" Captain Hobbes explained to his backup helmsman, the only other person in the bridge. "Do not let him in!"

The man frantically went to do as he was told, first by running to the door. However, before he could do anything else, Ned kicked the door in, hitting him square in the face and knocking him out.

"Hobbes!" Ned exclaimed joyously, entering.

Captain Hobbes, not joyous on the other hand, groaned and said, "Mr. Ned Johnson, you are like a cockroach infestation! There is just no way of getting rid of you!"

Ned simply laughed. "Yeah, it's good to see you too. But don't call me Mr. Ned Johnson. You see, that big, beautiful vessel out there is my ship, so you know what that makes me?"

Hobbes' eyes widened and his face started to redden, realizing what he was supposed to call Ned.

"Come on, say my title!" Ned continued mockingly. "Starts with a 'C!'"

Though quite painful, Hobbes managed to say, "C-Captain... Ned... Johnson."

The fellow captain triumphantly threw his fists in the air and yelled, "Yes! I made you say it!"

"Why are you here, Ned!?" Hobbes exclaimed, trying to avoid this new issue.

"Oh, come on, Hobbes! You don't have to be jealous of me having a ship that's even bigger than yours!"

"Will you shut up!? Why did you even bring that?"

"Well, I- I'm just having fun!" Ned said, a bit of a tone to his voice, then started imitating Hobbes. "Oh, I'm Captain Hobbes and I hate fun!"

"Wha-!? I don't hate fun!"

"Oh, Ned, your whole idea of having a great time inside a fabulous metal airship is so stupid! You know what's really fun? Combing the family of chickens out of my epic beard!"

"Why! Are! You! Here!?"

Ned started laughing really hard. "Oh, come on! I was just about to get to the-"

"I'm about to lose it!"

"All right, all right! My world is kind of facing a crisi, say the 'deadly pandemic' kind. I'm going to need a bit of Dr. Barlow's help in fixing it..."

"You know where her cabin is! Why couldn't you just go to her first!?"

Ned cleared his throat. "Well, uh..."

Hobbes' face turned bright red with realization and wrath. The flames of Hell hath no fury like his. "DID YOU COME HERE SIMPLY TO BOTHER ME!!?"

Ned turned his eyes away and just shrugged.

"...AND I JUST LOST IT!!" Hobbes yelled.

"Okay, I-"

"NO! JUST GET OUT!"

"Fine, I'll get on with my business."

With that, Ned departed, closing the door behind him. Hobbes then woke his backup helmsman.

Ned walked past his friends and noticed Deryn and Alek. "Oh, good! I was just wishing for you two. You're gonna need to know just what's going on. Come with me."

"Say, Ned, who are these people?" Alek asked.

"Oh, right, I should probably make introductions," Ned replied, then motioned to each person down the line, starting with Emma. "This is Emma Sitnam. No staring, she's my girlfriend."

"Contrarywise, he's my boyfriend," Emma said, then they both giggled at this joke.

"This guy is Jaysun-"

"Hey, what's up?" the blond guy said in a hard Irish accent.

"-He's from Ireland and roughly 500 years in the future of my world. This young lad is Christian Corvallis and he's from even further."

Corvallis interestingly was a bit quiet.

"This guy is from a bit in the past named Artemis Fowl. He's fought some unusual foes in his time."

That kid seemed uncomfortable inside the guts of a floating whale.

"And this girl is Katniss Everdeen from the mildly far future. She participated in the barbaric Hunger Games-"

"Twice," Katniss added.

"-And later led a successful revolution." Now he started talking to his five new companions. "Guys, these are the ones I've been telling you about."

"Uh... which ones?" Jaysun asked.

"You know, the Brit and the Austrian...?" Ned said, obviously telling them he couldn't say Deryn's real name when others were around.

"Oh, right, yeah."

"Now that that's out of the way, shall we go see our doctor?"

"Guys, stay out here and give us some room. Deryn, Alek, you come along," Ned said before entering Dr. Barlow's cabin. Deryn shut the door behind them.

"Don't you ever knock?" the lady-boffin asked.

"Oh, sorry," Ned replied, then knocked on the already closed door. "There, how's that?"

"Ah, so you haven't changed one bit," Dr. Barlow said, getting up and approaching him.

"Well, you know, just a few months aren't enough to easily change somebody," Ned replied, shaking her hand.

"So what brings you back to the Leviathan?"

"Long story short, it's a matter of global crisis back home. In a way. I'll need Tazza's help. Where is he?"

Indeed, it was odd how that thylacine wasn't by Dr. Barlow's side.

"Um... why do you need his help?" she asked, sounding a bit worried.

"I'll tell you in a minute. Now, whereabouts?"

"Tazza is...ill. A veterinarian is looking over him in the other room."

"Ill?" Ned asked as if something bad was about to happen and hurried into the other room.