Upon Our Seas, In Our Skies: Voyages of the HMS Javelin

This story is part of the Upon Our Seas, In Our Skies collaboration of stories, poetry and art set in the universe of The Môrdreigiau Chronicles by the fantastic Leanne Shawler! If you’d like to participate, follow this link for details and lore. You will be able to read all of the submissions here.

Just for a brief moment, close your eyes.

Feel that brisk chill in the air? A spray of water from the sea, before you rise up to touch the clouds. There’s the sound of waxed canvas creaking as the gas envelope fills to the brim. A pop as the wind catches the sails, pulling the ship forward. Wood creaking in the deck beneath your feet.

You’re moving—no, sailing—between cloudbanks as if charting a course to new undiscovered countries…

Only to hear a peal of thunder, feel a blast of smoke, realizing it may be pirates, or much, much worse—if you’re lucky.

These are the logs of the hospital Aetheric Dirigible, the HMS Dawn Javelin. First of her class, she sets sail along the skies to help the infirm, sick, and giving aid to those in need.

Book 1: Where the Blood Calls

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Blood Might Be Thicker Than Water, But Her Past Could Drown Them All

On the maiden flight of the Aetheric Dirigible, HMS Dawn Javelin, the crew responds to a cry for help from a Scottish fishing village.

Little did they know it wasn’t a simple mission of mercy.

As the Javelin’s captain and landing party are trapped in the village below, Dr. Rebekah Verity Thorne faces a dire challenge in the sky. A tragedy from her past rises from the clouds to threaten ship and crew, testing loyalties, honor, and ingenuity.

In the end, it wasn’t a rescue—but a reckoning.

Book 2: Death’s Compass

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Wind guides a dirigible. Morals do a doctor. But Death has a compass all its own.

After the horrors and victory of Portlethen Bay, the crew of the HMS Dawn Javelin were due for a rest and refit.

Instead, they sailed into an awards ceremony with nosy nobility. One that gets interrupted by a dying woman who’d been dead once already. In her hands is a damaged compass that doesn’t point north.

It points toward the dead.

When Dr. Rebekah Thorne and her crewmates discover the woman was once sold as a corpse by resurrectionists, events take a dark turn. From there they have to navigate a conspiracy hidden beneath aristocratic society itself. Wealthy patrons, respected surgeons, and more come under suspicion with disturbing rumors of forbidden studies.

Even worse? Some of those subjects may not have been dead—or stayed that way.

As bodies vanish and witnesses are silenced, the compass leads Dr. Thorne into ever darker waters. Ones with signs that her missing sister Maeve may still be alive, and far closer to the heart of all this than is comfortable. The truth waits behind velvet halls, surgical steel, and candlelit lies.

In the end, it may be that some truths should never have been unearthed.

Where the Blood Calls of Upon Our Seas, In Our Skies is a work of pure, unashamed fiction. In truth, when its not fending off pirates, problems, and perils, it’s rather thoughtful and contemplative. Often, it enjoys a good book by a fireplace with a fresh cup of tea. Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. So the blame really lies at his feet.

In fact, it could be said any resemblance to persons living, dead, or washed ashore is coincidental—if not pure flummery. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author are apt to argue like cats fighting over cream. Often.