Ghalrak Dramz, son of Zharok Dramz, son of Kalrok Dramz, commander of the Dwarf trading ship Stonebreaker and all the stout Dwarfs aboard her, watched with grim stoicism as the strange metal craft grew closer. His men, those who still lived, murmured warily amongst themselves. More than a few of them csped their weapons tightly and prepared for another onsught, for it was ever of the nature of his kind to expect the worst until proven otherwise. True, the vessel had sin the monster, but that proved nothing. For all Ghalrak knew, the vessel was a pirate ship and simply wanted the pleasure of looting and sinking the Stonebreaker itself.

  For a moment, Ghalrak considered ordering the gun crews to open fire. With the foreign vessel slowed to a crawl to pull up alongside him, it would be impossible to miss. The Stonebreaker was wounded, badly, but it still had teeth. She could deliver a full broadside into the metal beast before it had time to react.

  But even as the thought crossed his mind, he dismissed it. If the metal ship had power enough to kill a full-grown leviathan, there was no way his own ship could prevail against it. Oh, he'd get some good shots in--assuming they even penetrated the strange craft's metal hull--but it would be a futile gesture and only seal the doom of Stonebreaker and everyone aboard her. Besides, if the strangers had wanted to destroy them, they could have done so from a distance, without bothering to come so close.

  He squinted up at the banner flying from the vessel's mast. A white and red-striped fg, with a blue field studded with white stars in the canton. Ghalrak thought it was a rather busy, somewhat garish ensign, but was wise enough to keep that to himself.

  Chief Gunner Zarrl, streaked with soot and smelling of sulfur from overseeing Stonebreaker's gun crews during the fight, nodded up at the strange fg as he limped over to Ghalrak's side. He'd had that limp ever since one of his legs got gnawed off by a wyvern in his youth, and had repced the leg with a peg leg carved from the femur bone of the same animal who'd taken it. "That's a new one, and I've sailed all around this miserable world."

  Ghalrak nodded. "It's not one I'm familiar with, either."

  Further conversation was cut off when someone--a human?-- leaned over the side of the metal ship and spoke through some sort of device that amplified his voice. Magic, no doubt, Ghalrak thought sourly. The Dwarves used magic in their own way and after a fashion, but they didn't use it like a crutch the way the High Elves did. Humans tended to be little better about that sort of thing, in his experience. At least the High Elves didn't throw their magic around willy-nilly the way human mages did, as if they had something to prove.

  "Permission to come aboard?" the human asked.

  Ghalrak squinted and pointed his axe up at him. "That depends on who's asking, d. I'll not let strangers set foot aboard this vessel without knowin' their intentions first. Who are ye, and from whence do you come? And how the devil do you speak Dwarvish?"

  The human seemed to hesitate. "I'm not speaking Dwarvish," he said. "We're both speaking English."

  "The hell we are." Ghalrak bared his teeth. "Another spell, I'll wager. Do you use magic to wipe your arses too?"

  That got a round of ughter from Stonebreaker's crew. If it fazed the human, he didn't let it show as he replied through the device, "We're from a pce called the United States of America--"

  "Never heard of it." Ghalrak folded his arms.

  "My name is Jacob Hunley, Executive Officer, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Lexington--"

  "Never heard of you, either. Or your ship."

  "As to how we're able to communicate, I honestly don't know," Hunley went on. "Maybe it's a...side effect."

  "A side effect of what?" demanded Ghalrak.

  Hunley decided that maybe it wasn't a good idea to tell the short man everything just yet. No, he corrected himself silently, Not a short man. A Dwarf. Right down to the beard and stubborn attitude. He felt a sudden surge of giddy, almost hysterical disbelief and pushed it away. He'd have time enough to freak out about how ridiculously impossible all of this was when he was off-duty. "Nothing, it doesn't matter. In any case, we mean no harm and wish to offer assistance. May we have your permission to come aboard?'

  Ghalrak thought about it for a moment. "No."

  Hunley seemed nonplussed "Er--"

  "I'll not put the lives of my men at risk so soon again by letting strangers set foot aboard Stonebreaker," Ghalrak called. "If you've words to bandy about, I'll hear them aboard your ship, not mine. Send down a rope, if the words you speak be not falsehoods. Else leave us be and shove off, or prepare to fight!"

  The human vanished from view for a moment, then reappeared. "Permission granted to come aboard! Stand by!"

  A rope dder with metal sts for steps was dropped over the side of the metal beast and unrolled itself like a carpet. When it stopped, it hung there, swaying gently as the ocean beneath them rolled and swelled.

  Ghalrak turned to Zarrl. "If I don't come back in an hour or so, run as far and as fast as you can. Tell King Firebeard what you've seen, and he will rouse our people to war."

  Zarrl nodded, just once. Then Ghalrak turned and began to climb. He was astonishingly nimble for one with such a stocky, heavyset build. He cmbered aboard the Lexington with a grunt, then gnced about, curious despite himself.

  The ship, though made by human hands, was well-crafted. Very well-crafted, He admitted that, though only to himself. He bent to inspect the rivets in the deck and the gleaming steel of the railings. "Never seen a ship made completely of iron before," he grunted. "At least not one that actually works." The Under-Realm had been experimenting with metal ships for a long time, but none of the prototypes yielded promising results. He turned his hard, brittle gaze up at Hunley. "Who commands here? Not you, I'm guessin'. You're too young."

  Hunley reddened a little, but was saved having to respond to that when his commanding officer strode out from the bridge "I. do," she said, her voice firm and unyielding. "I am Lieutenant-Commander Aisha Kingley."

  Though she was careful not to show it, Aisha's heart was pounding underneath her uniform. This, she thought, is so far out of my pay grade I can't see it with binocurs. First contact? I'm not trained for this. And this guy is no fool, if first impressions don't lie. One wrong word and I could wind up starting a goddamn war. Talking to something--someone--who looks like he came out of a fantasy novel was not covered at the Naval College.

  Ghalrak folded his arms over his broad chest again. "Then I guess I should be thankin' you, for helpin' us out," he said. "Some mighty powerful magic you threw at that thing." That was an understatement, obviously. Ghalrak's people were no slouches at blowing things up and making things that blew other things up, but he'd never seen anything like what killed the sea monster. The sheer destructive power of the ordnance alone was enough to give him pause, but the speed at which they'd traveled, too...nothing in the Under-Realm could shoot at such velocity.

  The idea that the Dwarves might py second fiddle to anyone, for any reason, rankled him deeply. The Under-Realm was rightly famed for its technological prowess, yet what he'd seen so far from these humans was unlike anything the best Dwarf engineers could conceive. He had to admit, however begrudgingly, that he was growing more and more impressed the more he saw. And the more he saw, the more he grew concerned about what this might mean for his nd and people.

  Kingley extended a hand. "Happy to help. Welcome aboard the Lexington."

  Ghalrak let the extended hand stay there for a moment before gripping it in his own meaty palm. "Odd name for a ship, that," he said.

  "Not to us," Aisha replied. "It's named after a pivotal battle in our history."

  Now that was the kind of thinking Ghalrak could understand. "Hmm," he grunted, then seemed to realize he hadn't introduced himself in turn. He pumped Aisha's arm, just once. "Ghalrak Dramz."

  "A pleasure," said Aisha, and hoped it was true. "Would you like something to eat? Some water?"

  "No. Don't need neither. Got plenty aboard my ship, even after the fight." It wasn't true. Ghalrak was famished, and the seawater that rushed in through the breach made by the monster had ruined most of his ship's stores, but damned if he'd give the humans the satisfaction of admitting it. "The d there," he jerked a thumb at Hunley, "said you'd help us get her steady again. Do that, an' then we might have more to talk about."

  Aisha gave a wry smile. "You're not a very trusting sort, are you?"

  "Nope."

  "Why not?"

  "Experience," grunted the Dwarf. He paused, as if uncertain whether to say what he said next. "This is a fine vessel." Coming from one of the Under-Folk, that was high praise indeed. "I'd be curious to see more of it. See how it's made."

  Aisha arched an eyebrow. "I can show you some of it, but there are parts of it I can't let you near. Security reasons, and all that." She gave a lopsided grin. "We're not wholly trusting of strangers, either. Nothing personal, you understand."

  That raised her a slight notch in Ghalrak's estimation. At least he wasn't dealing with a bunch of naive idiots. "Aye, I understand," he said, and meant it. "And not to put too fine a point on it, but while we stand here gabbin', my men are working like rhinoxes trying to keep my ship from takin' on any more water. If you're gonna help, do it now."

  That suited Aisha just fine. She didn't know what a "rhinox" was, but the meaning was clear enough. She turned to her XO. "Organize the crew into repair teams. We'll work in shifts. Make sure they understand the...delicate nature of the situation." In other words, try not to offend the Dwarves or piss them off. "We should have some canvas and other things in the ship's stores we can use to help patch Stonebreaker enough to stop it taking on too much water, at least for now." She turned to Ghalrak. "I'm afraid we don't have the tools to repair your vessel fully." She diplomatically didn't mention that back on Earth, such tools hadn't been in use on most naval vessels for more than a century. "But with your permission, we'll rig a tow line and bring it into our nearest port. You can get more extensive repairs done there."

  The idea of heading into the port of a foreign, hitherto-unknown nation, to say nothing of a nation that possessed such powerful weapons, immediately made Ghalrak suspicious. But then, what were his other options? Right now, the best he could do was keep Stonebreaker from foundering. If the Dwarves still had tools of their own they could've fixed the ship themselves, but they'd been swept out into the ocean or destroyed when the damn sea monster made the breach.

  Ghalrak recoiled at the notion of having to accept what amounted to charity. But he was also responsible for the lives of the Dwarves under him, and even a Dwarf's pride had its limits. He would not, could not, doom them for the sake of his own ego. "Fine," he bit out.

  Aisha nodded curtly. She understood his suspicion and didn't hold it against him. In his position, she'd probably feel the same way. She understood, too, how much it humbled one's pride to accept aid from a stranger. "Between the two of us, our crews should have no trouble getting your ship stable enough that it won't sink," she said. "And in the meantime, I'd like to extend an invitation, again, for you and your crew to join us for a meal when the work's done."

  Ghalrak opened his mouth to refuse, but Aisha held up a hand. "It's not a command, and it's certainly not a trap," she assured him. "I give you my word of honor, no harm will come to you or your men. It's an invitation of hospitality, not a gesture of pity."

  The Dwarf chewed it over. He didn't have a problem refusing free food and drink when offered, but he knew many of his fellows wouldn't share his reservations. An empty belly did a lot to humble a man, especially when that man was a dwarf. "Got meat?" he finally asked.

  Aisha nodded, a smile pying on her lips. "Yup. We've got burgers." Frozen burgers, yes, but burgers all the same. But he doesn't need to know that. Besides, when you've been at sea for months on end, any kind of beef looks good.

  Ghalrak frowned. "What the krak's a burger?"

  Aisha's smile widened. Oh, you're going to learn something new today, pal.