Kate
- Matt is in the kitchen assembling a breakfast tray for the ladies when Mr. Lisbon, the chief steward, tells him that the Captain wishes to speak with him. This could be his moment, Shmoopsters…
- As he is walking along the catwalk toward the Captain's cabin, Matt feels for his compass, which his father gave to him on his tenth birthday. He used to use it to trace his father's travels around the world, but now he just carries it as a talisman, because on the back is engraved "From one sailmaker to another."
- He mentally goes over everything he knows about the position of sailmaker, in case the Captain decides to quiz him on his knowledge right away.
- Matt reminisces about the first time he met the Captain: he was six, and his father had been on shore leave when he'd taken Matt aboard the Aurora for a tour. He distinctly remembers how warmly the Captain had spoken with his father, which only added to the amount of hero-worship he endows upon both of them.
- When he arrives the Captain regretfully tells him that while they will have a new junior sailmaker on board, it won't be Matt.
- Apparently the super-rich magnate who owns the Aurora, Otto Lunardi, has decided that his son needs the job, so Captain Walken doesn't have a choice. In fact, he's pretty pissed off about the whole thing, because he knows Matt deserves the position way more than the Lunardi kid.
- The Captain goes off on a rant about the Air Academy and how it promotes people with money and connections more than the people who actually deserve the positions on board a ship. There is nothing that can replace experience and hard work, especially not a fancy certificate that someone's money paid for. He thinks that the Lunardi dunce will try and bail the ship as soon as this trip is over.
- The Captain offers to give a glowing recommendation for Matt if he would prefer serving another ship where he will have a better chance of promotion, but Matt turns him down because the Aurora is his home—it was his father's ship, after all.
- As he leaves the captain's cabin, he is filled with jealousy and loathing for the Lunardi boy (and who can blame him?).
- Anyone interested in the tour of the ship was supposed to gather by the grand piano at 10:30, but when Matt gets there he only has one taker: Kate.
- Kate's chaperone has a headache and needed to take a nap, so they're on their own.
- Matt starts with the A-Deck: the lounge, the reading and writing room, first-class reception, and the dining room.
- Then they walk through the gymnasium (which was sadly neglected by the guests), the cinema (currently showing the latest epic, Gilgamesh), and finally the smoking room, where they pass up the impressive Depressionist paintings in order to preserve their respiratory health.
- They head down the grand staircase to B-Deck, which has almost the same stuff as A-deck, just slightly less large and lavish. He also shows Kate the bakery and crew's mess before he unlocks the access door that leads to the rest of the ship; the "bone and sinew" of the Aurora.
- Kate enthusiastically listens to Matt's lecture on the tanks of ballast, fuel, and bundles of wires and cables, but the giant gas cells fascinate her.
- The cells are made out of goldbeater's skin, which is actually a pretty name for membranes from cow's intestines that have been specially treated to make them impermeable to gas. (There's a fart joke in there, somewhere. Ten points to the person who crafts it.)
- Kate's sensitive nose also detects the mango-scented hydrium gas that fills the cells.
- Matt shows Kate the axial catwalk above the keel catwalk that runs from the nose to the tail of the ship. There is lots of detail about the ship's structure in this chapter… Long story short, the whole ship is constructed of specially-treated cotton laid over an alumiron framework, so the only thing protecting those fragile gas cells is fabric and a prayer.
- Matt shows Kate one of the Aurora's four engine cars, which are so noisy to work within that the machinists have to wear special leather helmets to block out the sound.
- Matt then reveals that he was actually born on an airship, while his parents were emigrating from Europe.
- In the mood for sharing, Kate tells Matt that her parents aren't much for traveling (or parenting, for that matter); they were too busy to take this birthday trip with her, hence Miss Simpkins's delightful presence.
- When Kate starts asking a bunch of detailed questions about the Aurora and how she flies, Matt wonders whether Kate might have an ulterior motive.
- And she does. Kate is asking all of her questions because she is the granddaughter of the man Matt rescued from the hot air balloon.
- Matt relays her grandfather's last words to Kate, and they both feel emotionally drained by rehashing the experience. But that's when Matt discovers that Kate is on the Aurora to try and see the beautiful winged creatures her grandfather claims to have seen.