Shipwrecked
- The storm is really wicked. Kate and Matt blindly lurch through the forest dodging falling trees and sudden waterfalls.
- Matt sees a small cave and ushers Kate into it.
- The cave apparently goes back quite a ways, but Matt is unwilling to explore it—he's too frantic about harm coming to his ship.
- Matt has to check his compass (which he prides himself on rarely needing) to see where they are, because the storm has completely disoriented him.
- Kate starts asking which direction the creature's tree lies in and where the bluff they saw it disappear was. Matt thinks she's just trying to distract him from the storm… we're not so sure, though.
- Matt smells mangoes, and feels hungry.
- Matt's claustrophobia overwhelms him. He confesses to Kate that the reason he needs to keep flying is because otherwise his sadness about losing his father catches up to him—he is trying to outrun sadness. Kate thinks it'll catch up to him eventually, though.
- The storm calms a bit, and Matt is suddenly aware of a hissing sound in the cave behind them.
- They run out of the cave, back into the rain—they don't need to add snakebite to their adventure repertoire.
- Matt can still smell mangoes and looks around for a tree to pick some off of, but can't find one. Hmm…
- When they get back to the ship Matt's worst fears are realized: the ship is once again deflated, and worse than before.
- The captain is on the beach looking at the ship, and he sees Matt approaching with Kate. He gives him a look of weary disappointment, and Matt is heartbroken.
- The ship is in really bad shape—now they're officially shipwrecked. That's bad.
- Matt meets with Baz and gets the update. Before the typhoon Miss Simpkins was raising ruckus over Kate being missing; it was noticed that Matt was absent too, and now trouble is afoot.
- The captain holds a meeting with the whole crew. They've lost too much hydrium, and cannot get aloft. Now they have to consider their options.
- The pirates destroyed their radio pretty efficiently, but even if they could get it repaired they're probably too far out to send a distress call.
- They've been driven two hundred miles off course by the pirates, so most shipping routes will miss them. Plus people will just assume they crashed in the ocean, so a rescue mission would be pointless.
- The captain suggests that maybe it's time to familiarize themselves with the island, even if there is a possibility of hostile inhabitants.
- He asks Matt if he's seen any people during his wanderings of the island (umm… no… not people, exactly), and then he puts Matt on the exploratory team they are assembling.
- Mr. Lunardi pipes up with a suggestion from something they studied at the Academy—there was another ship that had been grounded due to lack of hydrium and they stitched together a smaller balloon, vented the remaining gas into it, and flew off to find help. Bruce is thinking they could at least float up into the shipping lanes and try to signal for help from there.
- The captain wants to avoid cannibalizing the Aurora, but acknowledges that if it comes to a worst-case scenario he will keep it in mind.
- Mr. Bayard, the junior wireless officer, adds that they could also just attach a salvaged transmitter and send up a balloon with a distress signal, which would increase their range.
- The captain agrees to this solution, and then turns to the situation on the ground. He knows they have fresh water, and Chef Vlad enthusiastically says that they have fish and fruit to last them forever.
- Even though some people are saying that there might be passengers who don't like fish, and that some will perhaps be upset about the soon-to-be lack of bread or meat, Chef Vlad doesn't understand that concept—he is envisioning a culinary rebirth for the spoiled passengers. Chef Vlad is pretty awesome.
- Matt gets placed on water duty, trudging buckets of water back and forth from the stream to the ship. As he's daydreaming about Kate, he wonders whether he could convince the captain to use all that rubber tubing they unloaded to make some system of water transport to save his back.
- Matt looks up and sees a glorious rainbow.
- He also sees two sailmakers rappelling down the side of the Aurora, about to cut into her to make that balloon.
- Just before their knives cut into the precious skin of his airship, Matt's brain goes click—that cave they hid in + the hissing sound + the smell of mangoes… duh… There's hydrium on the island.
- He shouts to the captain and the sailmakers to stop and explains to them what he and Kate found.
- Not only is there hydrium, but they have a method to convey it back to the ship: the rubber hosing.
- Captain Walken praises Matt for being such a remarkable cabin boy.