simplestgift | Twenty-Nine Bells: [Action/Voice/Written] FORWARD-DATED to the 19th and 20th

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Twenty-Nine Bells: [Action/Voice/Written] FORWARD-DATED to the 19th and 20th

[Today, Archie is on the beach. He has a couple of homemade instruments with him that might look odd to someone who isn’t a sailor—a quadrant and a sextant. He also has a gigantic container, the type one might bring on picnics with lots of family, with some drink or another inside. Spread out on the dock is a tattered blanket, two large books lying open, and scattered forgotten foodstuffs and folded blankets. The one object which never leaves his hand is a watch.

Anyone with any sailing experience would see, when he’s using the tools, that he’s determining the sun’s altitude at varying times of the day, probably as a way to check his current latitude. He’s especially focused when the sun is at its zenith. He jots down observations and calculations in a small notebook.

Usually an experienced lieutenant wouldn’t sweat this much over a routine, but Kennedy always did this as little as he could even back home after moving from the midshipmen’s berth to the ward room, and hasn’t done it since coming to Luceti over a year ago. As the Britannia’s undisputed first lieutenant, however, he is suddenly worried he won’t be able to do this at all after so little practice. Therefore, he has to prove he can do this, as much as he hates it. Always he checks his watch, measuring the time throughout the day and night. This is why he brought so much coffee.

At around six in the evening, when he’s finished plotting his position upon the planet or given up on it, he’ll send out a spoken message.]

[To Elizabeth Swann; filtered 78%]

Elizabeth? The sun is about to set. Would you like to meet me at the docks?

[The next morning, he jots down his findings on the journal network. First is a set of numbers schoolkids and navigators could recognize as latitude and longitude. Then:]

A solar day here is the same length as one on Earth. On the other hand, our position doesn’t correspond with anything that would make sense on Earth. At least, not to my reckoning. I plotted it while standing on the beach, where there used to be a desert till it was flooded. Nevertheless, aren’t all planets possessing of different solar and lunar days? Why should this one correspond exactly with the one I’m from?

Have I done something wrong?

Besides assume the existence of Greenwich upon this planet, of course. Perhaps Luceti should be reckoned the prime meridian when we make further observations about the longitude of other locations?

[There is no way to determine whether or not the Barrier provides too much refraction of light for the measurements to be accurate, either--something he hasn't really considered, even though he's plenty aware of the phenomenon.]

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Oh, well. It's all right. I just... [His lips draw back slightly as he glances away, nervously, at the ocean.] ...haven't done this in some time.

[Now that he has the man's attention there is little need to maintain this distance between them. He finds it disagreeable to have to raise his voice when speaking conversationally, and besides, it would be quite rude of him to continue in this manner. That being the case, he begins to walk slowly toward the young sailor. The longer he takes to get there, the greater Archie's opportunity to turn him away.]

"It is this place, lieutenant. It dulls our edges one and all, and with such terrible efficiency."

Edited 2012-02-19 04:05 (UTC)

It's been over a year. [Longer than that, really. With four lieutenants, a master and two master's mates, he hasn't had to do this in a long time.] I'm sure Captain Hornblower must have done this a thousand times by now. I'm struggling to do it once.

You must not be disheartened.

[He stopped again ten feet away, and faced not Archie, but the ocean.]

A thousand times on familiar seas, yes, but with the scope of our experience of this planet -- if indeed it is a planet -- why, Captain Hornblower himself might balk before he undertook this, and here.

[That causes hesitation.]

How couldn't it be a planet?

I have considered that we may be on a vehicle of sorts - there are men in Luceti who claim to have served on ships which navigate the stars as we do the sea, and make islands of the planetary bodies above. Might we not be upon one such ship? You have been to the battle-dome, I trust?

[He waves his hand dismissively]

But it is an abstract fancy, little more.

Then this would all be meaningless. [He waves at the quadrant and sextant lying there.] But if we're not, then it isn't.

[So he repeats:]

You must not be disheartened.

[It's an interesting thing to hear from this particular admiral. Still, he remembers the man's kind words to a withdrawn, embittered, and frightened midshipman. That doesn't go away, really.]

I'm not. [He lets out a breath.] As many ways as there are to waste one's time round here, at least this one feels like doing something.

I understand.

[It is the lingering inclination toward that very same mentorly impulse that lies at the heart of these gentle words of encouragement. He has not forgotten Midshipman Archie. He couldn't have if he had wanted to.]

But it is strange to see you here alone.

[...which is to say that there is a conspicious Hornblower-shaped hole in this equation.]

Edited 2012-02-20 02:11 (UTC)

[A soft chuckle. He knows what Norrington means.]

Captain Hornblower is on board the Britannia.

Yes. And as such he is not here.

[The former fact is hardly an adequate explanation for the latter.]

Edited 2012-02-20 02:17 (UTC)

...I wanted to be sure I could do this. He's...ingenious, when it comes to mathematics. Natural as breathing. The sort of beauty and comfort others find in music, he finds in numbers. It's why he's brilliant at whist. At any rate, if he were here, he'd never leave well enough alone and I'd never know if I'd fall on my face or do very well at this.

Ah. Then any assistance that I might render you would defeat the purpose.

Edited 2012-02-20 02:28 (UTC)

[A sharp exhalation like a laugh.] I suppose there's nothing wrong with correcting a mistake already made. Would you like to take a look?

[The admiral had come within feet of the lieutenant by now, but scrutinizing Kennedy's calculations required him to move closer still. James Norrington was a tall, broad-shouldered man and he knew himself for an imposing figure. While he stood and read, leaning slightly forward, he did his best not to appear to be looming.]

Edited 2012-02-20 02:40 (UTC)

[Even so, this feels exactly like Captain Keene looking over his results aboard Justinian. Except Keene was a frail, witty old man losing his awareness of the world around him, while Norrington is humorless, young, and sharp. Archie awaits the verdict with some anxiety.]

The methodology appears sound.

[He begins there, but does not look up. Either he has not finished reading over it all, or he has begun again.]

The application of mathematical principles -- rigorous.

[That all sounds very non-committal to Archie, so he waits.]

And yet something seems amiss -- does it not?

[Archie blinks and peers at the figures.] Where?

Here.

[The admiral says, and points to a figure representing the position of the sun at 3.00PM.]

Does this figure not seem somewhat -- excessively high? Yet for the life of me I cannot say why. Perhaps I am mistaken after all.

[He hands the notebook back. The lieutenant's competence is writ large across its pages, and James has no wish to rob him of a single shred of dignity. Besides, he has no doubt that Kennedy requires little more than a gentle push.]

[Archie knows when he's being patronized. He stares at the numbers for a moment, knowing exactly what he'd meant to write there.]

Not...especially possible, that one. [He scratches it out and corrects it, speaking somewhat stiffly.] Thank you.

[The admiral took no pleasure in Archie's response. He turned his back and looked out at the sea, and if he observed either the expression cast his way or the lieutenant's hasty correction then he made no sign of it.]

[Archie finishes correcting his work and closes the notebook.]

Do you miss the sea?

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