The crew of the Nordic Troll continued with the repairs to their ship: Aldous Gavigan and his sister Loomie worked in the engine room to refill the coolant reservoirs in both engines. In the mess compartment, Gerrin had cut away the patch and the insulation from the bulkhead around a hole in the ship’s hull and was welding a small plate over the hole while Jamie Reilly stood by with a fire extinguisher.

After two hours Aldous reattached the coolant reservoir plate over the reservoir on the port engine. Stepping to the intercom box, he pushed the “talk” button and announced to the rest of the crew “Okay, everyone, that’s it. The engines are ready to test.”

Gerrin and Reilly had just finished returning the welding equipment to the ship’s hazmat locker when Aldous made his announcement. Gerrin stepped to the intercom and replied “Loomie, get to the cockpit, contact port control and tell them we’ll be doing an engine test in ten minutes.”

“Roger that” Loomie answered.

* * * * *

Anna and Lewis continued their search for a ride home. None of the ships parked outside the salvage yard were going where they needed to go, so they decided to catch a shuttle out to the mud factory. The “shuttle” was a long wagon with five rows of benches pulled by six horses. Anna paid for their passage with what money she had and she and Lewis took their seats in the middle of the wagon. As the wagon left the “station” and headed slowly toward Canton, the two of them discussed their situation.

Lewis wasn’t settled with leaving. “We don’t have to leave” he protested. “They had a bad day, that’s all.”

Anna looked at him. “How many more ‘bad days’ are they going to have?”

“We had bad days at home, too.”

“No.” Anna shook her head. “Verbena was just a place we got stuck in for a time. Persephone’s home, that’s where we’re going”.

“We had a home on the ship” Lewis commented.

Anna sighed “Thin