Airships: A Time And A Place

Suddenly, many things happened at once. Crewmen appeared all around them, carting off the crates in various directions presumably where they would be transferred to the _Silver Skies_.

At some point, she ended up squashed next to Hawkeye on one of the lifeboats. It was loaded with far more cargo than she felt was reasonable to ask such a tiny boat to hold, and consequently there was even one half-crate lying sideways on their laps. Hawkeye was tapping out a short message on a small portable heliograph back to the _Skies_, and was leaning halfway out of the vessel to try and get a better view of the heliograph turret.

Elletra had a view of the relatively familiar outline from a different angle, realising in a flash what had bothered her all along - that was a Martese officer's revolver, worn crossdraw for easy access in tight situations. The grips were stencilled with his name and service number... with a date only months after she'd left.

The girl looked up sharply, and their eyes locked.