Caledonia knew she should be annoyed, irritated, full of fresh doubt about this girl who’d joined her crew under false pretenses. But she found instead a still pool of understanding. She’d always admired Nettle for her daring and bravado. That had not changed.

“Please don’t kick me off the crew,” Nettle said in a small voice, her eyes wide and pleading. “I’m too good for you to let me go.”

Hesperus barked a laugh. “Until you have something she wants, then she’ll rob you and leave without a word.”

Caledonia let a smile warm her cheeks. “Maybe you didn’t give her enough to do,” she chided.

“Ha!” Nettle clasped her hands into victorious fists. “That means I get to stay, right?”

“You get to stay,” Caledonia confirmed.

Hesperus shook his head and continued his lesson. There were controls for ascent and descent, for thrusters, which were positioned all around the small ship, for pressurizing the cabin as they descended and the weight of water increased. There was even a scope they could use when they were near enough to the surface to gauge the distance to any ships. It was a complicated system designed to keep them all breathing in the very bosom of the ocean. The more they learned, the less Caledonia liked it. This was so much worse than relying on a blue lung and swimming beneath the ship as Pisces often did. This was intentionally trapping yourself inside a metal canister and dropping it into the deep ocean.

Caledonia leaned on Hesperus’s every word. She needed to know exactly how these worked even if she wasn’t destined to pilot one. And she needed her crew to believe she had faith in the ships even if they became fodder for her nightmares. She couldn’t ask half of her crew to do something she wouldn’t do herself.

“Pine, release the cables,” Hesperus instructed, calm and confident. “Nettle, be ready on port thrusters.”

The ship bobbed as Pine detached the clamp holding them against the dock, then the cabin filled with a gentle vibration as Nettle initiated the thrusters and began to move the deepship into open waters. Caledonia curled her fingers more firmly around the wheel, her palms already damp and too hot.

“We’re going to take her out slow and steady.” Hesperus stood at her shoulder, his eyes glued to the glass bowl before them. Beams of light swept across the gleaming metal hull of six other deepships as they nosed away from the dock. “The others haven’t moved, so we’re all clear, but stay on your guard down here.”

Caledonia glanced up where the bowl of glass joined the steel husk of the ship. Water splashed along it in shallow waves, proving they were not yet fully submersed. The surface was still within easy reach. It wasn’t much of a comfort.