The first mate ordered them aloft, bringing in all sails but the mainsail and topsail. They'd scarcely come back down the rigging before they were sent aloft again, this time with orders to reef the mainsail, fastening part of it to the spar so that the sail area was reduced by half. By now the wind had risen into a gale, occasional more powerful gusts setting the taut rigging to singing as if the entire ship were a musical instrument about to be played by clumsy giants.

Despite the sea legs she had acquired in her time at sea, Kira staggered as the deck tilted up then twisted as the ship corkscrewed down into a trough. The seas had risen even more while they had been aloft, the swells looming higher and higher while the troughs gaped deeper and deeper. When the ship rose stern-first to meet a swell, the motion was as abrupt and sickening as an impossible fall upward. But each rise was followed by another twist and fall as the ship slid down the back end of the swell into the trough.

Kira hung onto the mainmast, staring at the swells which were now rising higher than the deck. The sheer force of the water was awesome. She understood now what the first mate had meant. Against the immeasurable power of the sea, Kira's own strength seemed of no value at all. The ship itself was already dwarfed by the forces of nature which kept rising to higher levels of fury. Around her, Kira could see fear on the faces of the rest of the crew.

The first mate came running back from the quarterdeck to address the crew gathered near the mainmast. "The captain's lashing himself to the wheel along with Fasi and Dax," she shouted over the increasing ferocity of the storm. "It'll take all three of them to keep the ship under control. If we don't keep her stern to these seas we'll be swamped in short order. All of you lash yourselves to a mast with a stout lifeline."

Kira stared for a moment, then seeing everyone else grabbing rope and tying one end to the mast and the other end around their waists started doing the same. She lost track of Jason for a moment, then saw him at the foremast, tying himself to another line. He looked her way, his eyes unusually large in a face drawn with apprehension.

A moment later the rain hit, not in a gentle buildup of raindrops but as if the heavens were emptying an endless series of buckets on the ship. Kira wavered on her feet, pummeled by the battering sheets of rain, as she hastily finishing knotting the rope about her waist.