The Captain invited Gabrio to his cabin to check him out. The captain sat on the bed of his cabin, looking at Gabrio with darkened eye bags. “Doctor, it is good to see you again.”

“It has been long, Captain Malfor,” said Gabrio, inspecting the Captain. “So where are you hurting, Captain?”

“I like your professionalism, Doctor,” said the Captain, rubbing his knuckles. “You know what your place is, but at the same time you are one of the luckiest or perhaps the unluckiest crew members of my ship. I like that you care, hate it that you spend too much time caring for our members.”

Gabrio stopped, “Do you not like how I do things?”

“Not at all. You are well-liked among us. Strict, but fair, but your lack of interest in the state of the ship bothers me sometimes. They are not loyal to you. They wouldn’t die for you, but they will tolerate you. Even if they go mad, I believe that they are willing to keep you alive because you are good to them. To kill a man who had nothing but help would make them hate themselves.”

“You’re making me nervous, Captain. Do we have a mutiny happening?”

“Mutiny? Not at all. No such thing is going to happen when Cooper Ackie is hard at work,” he extended his hand. Gabrio took a long look and saw that he had a gash on his biceps.

“Who did this, Cap?”

“Accident, my officers told me to get it checked. Infection, ah, we have all the guns in the world and our soldiers still die because their wounds are infected. I’d cleaned it with water, but it would be nice to have it cleaned, doctor.”

Gabrio pulled on his leather gloves, inspected the wounds through the monocle and saw no oddity in it. He took out his suture kit, closed the wound, wrapped it with a cloth. The Captain said no word during the process, he just stared at Gabrio’s handiwork.

“Do you know how many of us died? Hundreds of us died during this campaign, we are professionals, hardened, and men of war. Aon had been through war, made a living of it, and we had not once thought that there would be a day where Aon wouldn’t be at war.”

Gabrio had heard of how many that had died. Personally, he was saddened by it, but truthfully he didn’t know anyone. They were just numbers to him that made him feel awful. He didn’t think that he was that heartless, but without a face, they are nothing more than the amount. Casualties that sacrificed themselves to the good of the Voyage.

“Are we going to bury them?”

“We will. We shall honor them before we leave this continent.”

The exhaustion in his voice. The shaking of his hand made Gabrio wonder what happened. But he had lived long enough to know that there are simply questions you mustn’t ask first.

“I hope so, Captain. We will finish this journey.”

“We will. Light willing we will reach the thousand islands. Make everything worth it. Ah, forgive me, doctor. The affairs of late have been keeping me from thinking straight. Fighting is easy, pulling the trigger, and defeating your enemy. Now that is easy. But keeping up with all this process makes one wonder how long it will be. Our naive soldiers, the untested young, think that we should charge on. They think that a voyage like this happens because of the whims of the people of Aon! Hah, do you know that we almost bankrupted our continent because of this? The cost of weapons, ammunition, food, and many more. There is a big chance that even if we do succeed, Aon would be no more again, either ended by the blinks or because our people were robbed of many things.”

“Robbed, was it that bad? The acquisition? I thought that this was approved by the senators and governors?”

“Ah, some of it, yes, but our Chancellor, not even he could quell the dissatisfaction that would arise from this. Our United Aon is young, and if we were given years, then we would have solidified the foundations. But time is something that we do not have, unfortunately. The blinking, the light fading, and the creatures of the interstice crawling out of their holes. Forgive me, Doctor. The recent affairs have weakened my mind. This is unsightly of my status.”

“I am a physician. I will listen and do not worry, Captain. I know how to keep silent about the affairs of my patients.”

“You call it the Healer’s Oath, isn’t it? I like it. Better than the oaths of knights of old. I’d heard good things about it as well.”

“Are there really people who want us to leave immediately?”

“Of course, they say that we are wasting time here. The need for speed is clear, we do not know how much time we had spent fighting. There is still an ocean to cross, but we must resupply, reinforce, and heal.”

“Is there anything else to worry about?” Gabrio sat on the stool, placing his tools aside.

“We are planning to take some of the Icean Spine natives with us.”

“We what?”

“Yes, the Lord that turned against them, Lord Seike? Seiko? I don’t know his name, but he told me that it was their duty to help us. They plan to lead the way, navigate the first hundred miles. They trust him, considering that he had been helpful in informing the fleet. But you see Doctor, how can you trust a person who had betrayed his people? Let half of it drown in the mud of monsters? Nonetheless, he is useful and has shown himself useful.”

“I can understand if there are people who are against it.”

“Aye, he knows that many of us are against it. It’s the reason why we are spending time on this continent instead of sailing away after reaching this place. It is maddening, all the meetings, the talks, it makes you wish that we still have the thinking of our untested young and just charge on, no?”

Logistics, preparations, planning; such burdens were placed on the officers of the Fleet. The leaders manage the affairs, make plans, and prevent any mishaps during the voyage. The Reconnoiter Company, was after all, still a company and an organization. They need to make agreements, concessions, and decide on the actions of the voyage. To the ignorant, they may think that the fleet was just traveling together. The unending process, the bureaucracy of the fleet, it was surely tiring. Even the Captain’s room was half-filled with paperwork. The clash of professional knowledge, pride, and experience and common sense made things slower.

“Rules, procedures, regulations; it makes us civilized, organized, but it also makes us slower to act. You have a good role, doctor. Better than what we have now?”

“I have to agree,” Gabrio said. The paperwork he had to do was mostly about the patients that come in, the medicine he uses, and how many have missed their shifts. He also had to handle the roster, making sure that everyone was attended to.

“Good, I had persuaded the high-class ones living with us who own their own cabin to help with the paperwork. Considering that they bought, sponsored for this trip, I’d expected them to take offense.”

“I guess being outnumbered in the middle of a land does not give them so much courage.”

“True. Perhaps, that is one way to look at it. But what do you think they can do? Spend doing nothing? In fact, they said it themselves how they wanted something to do. They see how things are, and choose to contribute instead of lazing around. I admit that there are some who refuse to do something. Instead, they choose to read the books our scholars had stored. Thankfully, there are only a few who are like this.”

“Rule of the Galleon makes them helpless. Good thing that our soldiers are disciplined and united. No one wants to make trouble when the Inquisitor is around. No one wants to make trouble when they can be thrown out of the ship. Even the foolish ones understand that we need to be united, the Cosmic Blink, the creatures and monsters of the sea and interestice are our enemies. But what about the natives here? It is not their presence that bothers me, but their involvement in our affairs the moment they become part of the fleet.”

“Yes, they might become a problem...in the long run.”

“We have the Jesters and the Soundless to guard them. With them around, I doubt that they would have thoughts of mutiny or cause trouble. We had allowed them to join, with conditions of keeping them leashed. If anyone can be trusted to look after them, it would be the hidden blade of the Chancellor and the Killers of the Elven-kin.”

Gabrio looked up, “Why are you telling me this, captain?”

The Captain looked at the wounds on his bicep, “I admire that you sit between the fence, Captain. You do not have many opinions, you stay true to the role you were hired for, and do not take extra steps. I want you to understand, however, that people are more susceptible when they are wounded. They believe a man who has helped them wounded, than a man who they heard that he is respected. You show through action, and it makes it easy to accept you or take your opinion.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Really? Or are you saying that because you know where I am going with this?”

His expression was cold and calculating. Gabrio had an idea on what he was after and he didn’t want to be part of it. He was a Doctor, nothing more, nothing less. “I refuse if that’s where you are going. I… know how to separate my views. If it is a concern of the people of Milostiv, then you can count on me helping them steer their thoughts to such things.”

Gabrio knew that changing minds was impossible. To influence them, make them see things, and change their own thinking by their own volition was the most likely thing. He wasn’t a politician who had the powers of persuasion, and even if he had the ability to talk people into thinking his way. Gabrio had long decided to stay out of such affairs.

“Your fencing-sitting reminds me of your teacher.”

“Have you met my teacher, Captain?”

“I was a military officer, boy. I’ve talked with your Teacher, it is a small world, no? Nonetheless, you have the same ideals, conviction, but different in a way that he prefers to keep his silence while yours is heard. He wouldn’t say what he thinks in front of others, just like you did.”

“Captain, I simply want to make it clear that I am a Doctor. I do not belong to such ranks, and if possible I would like to stay in the middle of things. How can a man heal if he chooses sides? Of course, I know who to heal and who I shouldn’t. But if I have learned something well from my teacher, it is to take time when joining sides. Of course, I would do my role if it means keeping the crew safe and healthy. But more than that, I leave it to the officers and the leaders of our fleet.”

There was a trace of disappointment on the Captain’s face for a moment. The face vanished, replaced with a blank, professional look. He covered the wound on his bicep, and dragged the table that was weighted by locks that was keeping it in place. “I thank you for your honesty, Doctor. A shame that such honesty would have been laughed at in Aon.”

“Oh, I know. But it is different in a closed-off environment like this. My loyalty is to this Galleon, and although we are fleet-kin to others, I would care more about the people of Milostiv other than the Grand Galleons or even the Arkshelled Island.”

“I understand,” the Captain said. “You may go now, Doctor. Keep doing what you are doing, and thank you for the treatment.”

Gabrio left the cabin and headed back to the clinic. Oh how he hated it when he got involved in such things, but nonetheless he had to persevere. “Need to watch out more in the future, huh,” Gabrio felt a headache coming, and for a moment he thanked the Captain in his head for reminding him that he was part of a Company and an Organization under Admiral Magnus.