Up Ship!
- One year later, the Aurora is once again taking off from Lionsgate City—all of the passengers are on board, the cargo is loaded and tied down, and the ship dumps water ballast to rise into the air.
- Matt has just finished up a week of shore leave with his mother and two little sisters. They liked their presents (a didgeridoo for Isabel because she's musically inclined, a tortoiseshell hairband for Sylvia, and for his mother her favorite perfume from Iberia that his father used to bring home for her).
- He is relieved to be back on the ship because, although it's nice to see his family, he never sleeps well on the ground. The longer he is on earth the more claustrophobic he gets, and to make things worse he doesn't dream of his father, so he misses him horribly.
- Matt can see a variety of other airships creating traffic around the port, and he is filled with relief and a sense of adventure.
- The Aurora is bound for a five-day journey across the Pacificus to Sydney, Australia.
- The crew is exhausted from loading the airship for its voyage, but Matt is most impressed with the twelve thousand pounds of food they are carrying as cargo.
- With everything on board—including passengers, cargo, gear and provisions—the Aurora weighs more than two million pounds, but once filled with hydrium gas the huge ship (we're talking nine-hundred-feet-long-by-fourteen-stories-tall huge) weighs almost nothing. Pretty magical indeed.
- Matt gets to work assisting the one hundred and twenty passengers in getting settled in their quarters, which all sound pretty darn fancy.
- Then it is time for breakfast, and the sheer decadence involved makes it sound like all of their passengers must be Hobbits.
- Matt is working in the first-class dining room alongside Baz and Kristof, serving fresh rolls and croissants as fast as they can be sent up in the dumbwaiter from the bakery below.
- Although serving in the dining room isn't his favorite task as Cabin Boy, Matt is elated because he's pretty sure this is his last voyage in that role. Tom Bear, the assistant sailmaker, is rumored to be leaving for another ship, and after his daring rescue last year Captain Walker promised Matt that as soon as there was a suitable vacant position he would get a promotion. This would make Matt the next assistant sailmaker.
- While still serving his voracious guests, an ornithopter passes close to the ship on the starboard side (it is described as an "ungainly looking contraption with […] flapping feathered wings" (2.42)).
- The ornithopter continues to circle the Aurora, so Matt's curiosity is roused—he asks Baz to cover for him as he goes to investigate.
- Matt grabs a tray of baked goods and coffee to bring to the control car as cover for his presence there.
- When he arrives, he hears that the ornithopter is requesting to make a landing on the Aurora to drop off two guests who had missed boarding. The officers seem to think that this is a pretty cheeky request, but Captain Walken decides to be accommodating.
- Captain Walken thanks Matt for his uncanny timing, and then asks that he help the late passengers once they make their landing.
- Apparently, in order to dock his aircraft safely, the pilot of the ornithopter has to essentially fly at the Aurora's belly, cut speed almost to a stall, and then hook his overhead landing gear precisely over a docking trapeze at just the right moment. Nothing is easy in this world of aircraft.
- After a first attempt is aborted due to an unfortunate gust of wind, the craft makes a safe landing in the Aurora.
- One of the passengers, a woman named Miss Simpkins, is visibly and very vocally distraught over the fright of their aeronautic maneuvering. Appearing crazed, she haughtily orders Matt to help her and then to attend to Miss de Vries, the other passenger.
- Miss de Vries is a girl around Matt's age, who is quite pretty and seemingly exhilarated with their adventures, rather than scared like her companion.
- Her companion, it turns out, is Miss Marjorie Simpkins—the chaperone for Miss Kate de Vries; they have reserved the grand stateroom, so Kate much be super rich.
- It starts to be clear that Kate is a girl after Matt's own heart. She finds everything fascinating, and enjoys taking everything in rather than using her privilege to walk blindly through life.
- Because Kate is looking all around the airship with blatant curiosity, Matt informs her that there will be a tour later on that morning.
- The stateroom is the definition of opulence, and Matt explains to the ladies that if there is anything they need they can either pull a cord for assistance or use the vacuum message tube to send a note anywhere in the ship.
- Kate seems focused on looking out the enormous panoramic window in their sitting room, as if she is looking for something.