"A metal island? It can fly?"
Birmingham's voice carried an air of unbelievable absurdity, but his intuition, honed by years of seafaring, told him that Karen and the lookout were not joking, especially given the strange interference occurring simultaneously with all the magical instruments.
"Where is he? That Colton?"
“I have put him in solitary confinement and put him under a gag order. No one has been in contact with him except for me and the guards.”
Karen immediately replied, "This is a serious matter, I dare not make it public."
"well done."
Birmingham stood up, his tall figure appearing somewhat imposing in the rather cramped captain's cabin.
He grabbed the captain's coat hanging on the back of the chair and put it on, his eyes sharp as knives:
"Take me to see him. I want to hear what kind of 'metal island' could terrify my instruments and even fly!"
Karen solemnly accepted the order and stepped aside to lead the way.
The two walked through the brightly lit but somewhat somber lower deck passageway and arrived at the confinement room located in the bottom deck at the stern.
It was damp and cold here, with only a dim oil lamp providing faint light.
Upon seeing the captain arrive, the guards immediately straightened their backs, saluted, and silently opened the heavy iron gate.
Inside the confinement room, young lookout Colton was curled up on the cold iron bunk bed, his face pale and his eyes filled with fear and unease.
Upon seeing the captain and first mate enter, he sprang to his feet like a startled rabbit, stood up awkwardly, and spoke in a trembling voice:
"Captain... Captain! First mate!"
Birmingham didn't ask a question immediately, but instead looked the young sailor up and down with his eyes that seemed to see right through him.
Colton was not old, probably in his early twenties, and was recognized as one of the best lookouts in the fleet. He was also usually quite calm and reliable.
“Colton,” Birmingham’s voice was deep and calm, yet carried an undeniable authority, “tell me again everything you saw, exactly as it was, without omitting a single detail or adding any of your own imagination. Understand?”
"Yes, Captain!"
Colton swallowed hard, trying to calm his wildly beating heart as he recalled the terrifying and shocking scene.
"It was probably...it was just before the magic device went crazy."
I... I was on the mainmast lookout tower. The clouds were very low and visibility over the sea was poor.
I...I habitually look up and scan the sky, mainly to see if there are rain clouds or...or something like the legendary Stormhawk.
He took a deep breath, and the terror he had felt then resurfaced in his eyes:
"Then...then I saw that the clouds, slightly north of our fleet, those grayish-white clouds...suddenly seemed to be pushed upwards by an invisible giant hand! A huge hole was torn open!"
Right there in that hole… Good heavens… Captain! I swear I didn’t see wrong! That’s definitely not a cloud or a mirage!”
Colton's voice rose with excitement, and he gestured unconsciously with his hands:
"It was... a huge black shadow! The edges were very... very hard! Straight! Angular! It was definitely not alive!"
It's huge! It's really huge! I feel... I feel it's several times bigger than the Anvil! Even bigger!
It was entirely black…or dark gray? The details were hard to see clearly in the dim light, but the surface…the surface seemed to have a metallic sheen? Very faint, but definitely there!
"It moves...it's terrifyingly fast!"
Colton's face showed lingering fear. "Just like that... 'whoosh'! Like... like a stone thrown by a catapult! No, even faster! In the blink of an eye, it completely disappeared into the thicker clouds above, and the hole it had created quickly closed up... and then... and then the instruments below started screaming!"
His description was somewhat incoherent, but the intense visual impact and the accompanying instrument interference were clearly conveyed.
Birmingham listened quietly, his face expressionless, but his eyes held a turbulent undercurrent.
A huge, angular, metallic, high-speed moving black shadow that could cause strong magical interference... This was completely beyond his comprehension.
"Are you sure... it's not a hallucination? Not just your eyes playing tricks on you? Like... some rare flock of large seabirds? Or... an illusion of distant mountains?"
Birmingham pressed on in a deep voice, each word striking Colton's heart.
"Absolutely not! Captain!"
Colton's face turned red with anxiety. He pointed to his eyes. "You know my eyes! I can see water droplets on a dolphin's dorsal fin hundreds of yards away in the dark! The shape of that thing... it's so strange! So... so regular! It's definitely not something natural! And... and the instrument broke down after it disappeared! Is... is this just a coincidence?"
Birmingham fell silent.
He stared into Colton's eyes for a good ten seconds, and there was only pure fear, shock and an eagerness to prove his innocence, without a trace of lying.
The unprecedentedly intense interference occurring simultaneously with all the fleet's magical instruments... this cannot be explained by mere coincidence.
"Okay, I understand."
Birmingham's voice regained its usual composure, but with an added touch of solemnity.
"That's the end of this matter. You stay here for a while longer and get some rest. Without my orders, you are not to mention what you saw to anyone, not a single word! Understand?"
"Understood, Captain!"
Colton nodded repeatedly, as if granted a pardon, but a lingering sense of fear remained in his eyes.
Birmingham turned around, gave Karen a wink, and the two left the solitary confinement cell in silence, the iron door closing heavily behind them.
In the passageway, only the heavy footsteps of the two men and the creaking of the ship's keel remained.
“Karen,” Birmingham’s voice was extremely low, with an unprecedented seriousness, “what do you think?”
Karen Stone's expression was equally grim:
"Captain...it's hard to believe, but Colton's description...especially combined with the instrument interference...I'm afraid...I'm afraid it's true."
What...what is that thing? A secret weapon developed by the Sassuaries or the Kree? Impossible! They don't have that technology! Could it be...something from our old enemies to the east? But...how could they have something that can fly? And so big?
Birmingham slowly shook his head, his gaze fixed intently on the deck above, as if trying to pierce through the layers of planks and seawater to reach the deep sky:
"We don't know... There's so much we don't know. The oppression from the east... the unknown of the New World... and the metal islands flying in the sky..."
He paused, then said with absolute certainty, "But one thing is certain:"
That thing possesses power we cannot comprehend, capable of easily crippling our fleet! It... at least for now, shows no hostility towards us; otherwise, that would have been an excellent opportunity to attack.
“Then… Colton?” Karen asked hesitantly.
"It's closed for now."
Birmingham made a decision: "Ensure his safety, and ensure the information doesn't leak. Once back at port, transfer him from the front lines to a classified department ashore. His eyes... may have seen something he shouldn't have."
As for the fleet... record the time, coordinates, and characteristics of this unusual interference, and mark it as 'Class X Unknown Phenomenon'.
Report to the military, but use vague wording, only emphasizing the collective malfunction of the instruments and the possible influence of the unknown energy field. As for the 'metal island'... don't include it in the formal report for now; wait until I report to the Grand Duke personally."
"Yes, Captain!" Karen solemnly accepted the order.
Birmingham Yad looked out the porthole at the seemingly calm but actually turbulent sea, a heavy shadow falling over his heart.
Flying metal islands in the sky…
The skies over the continent of Tyre no longer seem safe.
…………
Meanwhile, far away in Blackrock Fortress, Lind finally relaxed after receiving the last stable navigation signal from the Steel Sky and the unharmed reconnaissance images of the Ork fleet.
His steel star is quietly traversing the southern tip of the continent of Til, heading resolutely towards the storm-ravaged "Skullcrushing Horn," towards the starting point of rebirth.
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