//------------------------------//
// Lulled Winds 
// Story: The Red Sun Rises: Siege of Manehattan 
// by The Atlantean 
//------------------------------//


Celestia Sea, bearing N25W. ANS Trinity. 1500 nautical miles from Manehattan.


The wind had lulled for five days now. If it weren’t for that, Trinity and her accompanying ships, the Tranquility, Dark Phoenix, Firespit, and Raven Nightfall would be pulling into Manehattan harbor at this very moment. Aboard the flagship, Captain Platinum Starlight looked to the east, taking note of the brewing storm. It was a mass of rising clouds and thunder.
“Sir, the navigators say that with our current rate, we reach Manehattan shore in a week,” a sailor reported.
“Understood. Dismissed,” he replied. Platinum knew a week was too long, but he’d have to take it. At least the wind wasn’t blowing into the storm…
He sighed. The Atlantean transport fleet sat in the most dangerous part of the sea: Hurricane Highway. And if that storm to the east was what he feared it was, the crews may never see land again. Because no ship has ever survived sailing into a Celestial hurricane. Every wise captain sails around the central Celestial Sea, keeping shore less than a day away at any given time. Since that could have added several weeks to the sailing time, Captain Starlight opted for the direct route.
But hurricanes weren’t the only danger this far from land. Unmarked coral reefs, whirlpools, and pirates dotted the sea, waiting for anypony to be stupid enough to sail into the central waters. The fleet had already lost the Liberty to a reef, and Dark Phoenix was constantly deemed to be the weakling of the fleet, costing two dozen lives to prevent pirates from stealing her and her cargo of Atlantean technology. Platinum figured that they would never go for Trinity.
Trinity, the largest ship ever constructed at one hundred meters long, twenty-five meters wide, and fifty meters tall, was the pride of Atlantis. Built over the course of a decade, with secret construction during the Atlantis-Dominion War, she was launched on the eighth anniversary of Atlantis’s victory at Aquarius River. She had been equipped with the latest gunpowder weaponry before her departure, and sported a grand total of one hundred forty guns. Her seven masts were twenty by two meters of solid wood each, and her bowsprit ten. This square-rigged sailing battleship was formidable enough in size to deter most aggressions, but was insignificant next to the Gem’s destructive capabilities.
If we could just get up to ten knots, we’d be there in four days, he thought. Turning to the Helmsman, he ordered, “Relieved. I’ll take it from here.”
The Helmsman saluted and gave Captain Starlight the wheel. For a ship its size, Trinity was surprisingly nimble and responsive. She handled like the twenty-meter Dark Phoenix in almost every way. Speed was the main problem; since Trinity was the slowest with a top speed of 12.493 knots in good winds, she set the pace of the fleet.
As he sailed her onto a slightly more accurate bearing towards Manehattan, he gazed over the side to see hundreds of oars slowly pushing the ship along. The shift had just ended, so their pattern was interrupted a bit. The same happened on the other vessels, moving them all along at about two knots.
Platinum turned his head to see the storm bearing down on them. It was moving quite fast, with a three meter surge, high winds, and waves that could easily swamp Dark Phoenix and possibly Trinity. With her deck at least fifteen meters above the waterline, that was certainly a cause for worry. The loss of Trinity was the worst thing that could ever happen to Atlantis and Equestria.
Captain Starlight called up the other captains on a comms spell. He told them to switch to universal light beacons and sail away from the hurricane. At a maximum speed of two knots, they would be overwhelmed in a matter of hours. The developmental steam engines aboard all five ships could be of assist, but he wasn’t sure if they would even work. He gave the order to use them anyway.
The steel combustion chambers deep within the bowels of Trinity were filled with some of the stored coal, and were set ablaze by an extremely careful sailor. Seawater in the cylindrical tank above the fire began to slowly boil, leaving any soluble materials in it at the bottom of the tank. Eventually, steam blew out through the steel tubes to the turbines and began to turn them. Down the steel shafts, two propellers rotated, connected to the spinning turbines. Steam returned to the water tank, its heat gone, to be reheated and go in the loop again.
Platinum felt the massive wooden hull beneath him pick up speed as the excess steam flowed out of the small metal funnel on the starboard side of the ship. He saw that the same happened aboard the other ships, and was pleased to know the steam engines worked quite well.
A pony hauled a rope over the side to calculate their rate of travel. After a minute, he pulled it back aboard and recorded his findings.
Galloping to the Captain, he said, “Sir, we have accelerated to fifteen knots and counting.”
“Good. Keep me informed. Dismissed.”

For a few hours, it seemed like they would be hit by the hurricane. But when Captain Starlight woke the next morning, there was no need for concern. The storm had gone south, towards the Dragon's Lair and away from the fleet.
The battleship and four heavily armed transports continued on with their steam engines on, at a speed of nineteen knots. It was definitely going to make up for lost time.