Chapter 360 – Stargazing

Chapter 360 – Stargazing
The White Oak was still moving forward through the mist, the surging power output from the steam core drove its large and efficient propulsion system, causing it to quickly pass through this fog-covered sea.

It had gotten a little darker at some point, and the cold wind from the sea was making it even more uncomfortable; Lawrence tightened his coat, figuring that he’d spent enough time on the deck blowing in the wind today, and turned around to head back into the bridge.

A young chaplain in a black, silver-trimmed, blue-striped robe was benedicting a machine, and shaking the incense burner in his hand slightly, causing smoke to linger on several consoles, and upon seeing the captain he paused to nod politely in greeting to Lawrence.

He was Jensen, the ship’s chaplain for the voyage, and Lawrence did not know the young cleric well – in fact, most captains who undertook the transportation of “unusual items” had to deal with unfamiliar clerics on a regular basis, and their ship’s chaplain was appointed directly by the city church and changed frequently, a chaplain accompanying a ship was appointed by the city church and changed frequently. In fact, most captains on “abnormal goods” transportation missions are constantly dealing with unfamiliar clerics, and their chaplains are assigned directly by the city churches and are frequently replaced, with a single chaplain usually following the ship on only two or three voyages, and this replacement system is of course for safety reasons.

After all, a ship transporting dangerous goods will inevitably be affected by transcendental forces, and as the ship’s “transcendental barrier”, the accompanying chaplain will take on almost all of the pressures brought about by transcendental interference, including the contamination brought about by the ship’s contents, as well as the mental stress generated by the members of the ship’s crew during the voyage –Even the reality of each crew member’s dreams at night will be fed back into the chaplain’s daily prayers and rituals.

Chaplains accompanying the ship are also mortals, and will inevitably be assimilated and influenced if they are under the pressure of specific transcendental influences for a long period of time. After a few ocean voyages, they will lose their keen senses of transcendental contamination, and may even become cracks in subspace invasions, so usually, chaplains accompanying the ship will have to return to shore after a period of time, and undergo a period of cleansing and spiritual remodeling at specific churches. After that, most of them could recover and were assigned to other ships to continue to serve as ship’s chaplains, while some of those who had left behind hidden spiritual dangers could only stay away from the sea and continue to serve the church for the rest of their lives as clergymen on the land.

So in a sense, these honorable priests …… were also expendable on the voyage.

But then again …… who isn’t expendable in seafaring?
“Mr. Jensen, what is the status of the machine?” Lawrence inquired with concern as he nodded to the young priest in front of him.

“It’s running fine, Mr. Captain,” the young chaplain said, his voice calm, “I’ve just been to the lower machinery bay, and all is well with the entire power system and steam pipes.”

Lawrence nodded in satisfaction, and after a few more moments of casual conversation with the young chaplain, he went to the wide window at the front of the bridge and looked out.

The deck was gray, the sky outside was a bit dark, and the sky was shrouded in a chaotic blur of clouds, diffuse light floating between them, spilling out breathlessly onto the surface of the sea – it wasn’t a good day, but it wasn’t far enough away from the Frost to get stuck in a storm or anything bad before reaching the city-state.

Lawrence suddenly frowned and looked to the crew sitting at a console not far away, “Still no response to our signal from Frost?”

“No,” the crewman in charge of monitoring the telegraph system shook his head, headphones on his head and a pencil grasped in one hand while a small machine in front of him was lit up with an orange light, “No feedback from the signal either – But from the position, we’re at a distance where we can make direct contact with the Frost harbor.”

“…… Not quite right,” the old captain finally felt a hint of uneasiness, he looked up into the distance again, his expression gradually becoming grave, “At this time, in this position, we should be able to see the Frost’s coastline ……”

He suddenly turned his head and looked at his first mate, “Has the course been confirmed?”

“Just confirmed, we’re in the right position.”

Lawrence frowned, and after a moment, he suddenly took a light breath, “I’ll personally go confirm it again and prepare the stargazing room.”

Hearing the captain’s words, the first mate obviously hesitated for a moment, but before he could open his mouth, that young ship-attached priest Jensen came over and said to Lawrence, “Captain, it is no longer appropriate for you to enter the stargazing room at your age ……”

Lawrence turned his head to look at the young chaplain and didn’t say anything.

He knew what the other party meant – entering the stargazing room was required to withstand a certain amount of contamination, the light and shadow originating from the interlayer of the Profound and Spirit Realms would put pressure on one’s mind, and as an old captain who had already spent most of his life adrift in the Boundless Sea, his mind had long since not been as normal and intact as it had been when he was young, and it would be very likely that he would lose himself in the process of observing the stars. himself.

Often, however, only older captains are experienced enough to see the signs of a ship’s deviation in the subtle changes in starlight – something that young, mentally fit navigators cannot do.

“I’ll do it as soon as I can,” Lawrence finally spoke after a few seconds of staring at each other, his expression serious, “I suspect the ship has yawed, but there’s a misalignment on the stargazer’s side of the room, and I’ve had experience with calibration.”

Confirming Lawrence’s firmness, the Chaplain with the ship could only sigh and step to the side, “…… You are the Captain, and the Captain is the law of the ship – I’ll prepare your protection.”

Lawrence nodded and looked back in the direction of the bow again.

There was still nothing but pale, endless sea, and endless mist in the direction where one would expect to be able to see the frosty coastline.

He withdrew his eyes and walked towards the passageway leading to the stargazing room. After leaving the bridge, walking through a corridor, and stepping up a staircase that extended towards the lower levels of the White Oak, passing through several connecting hatches and doors in between, the stargazer’s room was located.

It was on the lowest level of the ship.

Lawrence stood in front of the door, the ship’s chaplain Jensen began to be busy, this young cleric added special spices and holy oils to the incense burner, and while reciting obscure scriptures, he shook the chain in his hand, so that the scent of incense gradually filled around Lawrence, and then took out a ritual knife depicting a number of storm symbols, and scratched the air in front of Lawrence with it, in order to symbolize that the storm goddess Gemona’s shelter descended upon this place.

The navigator of the White Oak had already rushed over on hearing the news, this was a young man with a slightly pale face, he looked a bit uneasy, after seeing that the captain was going to enter the stargazing room to confirm the course in person, he was so nervous that he almost pulled off the buttons on his shirt.

“Relax,” Lawrence noticed the navigator’s reaction, a small smile appeared on his face and reassured the young man in turn, “It’s not necessarily your fault, the Spirit World and the Profound are full of inscrutable variations, and Spirit World lenses aren’t always reliable, and astrological phase shifts are a normal occurrence –You’re inexperienced, that’s normal.”

“I …… I double-checked it, our course is fine,” the young navigator said subconsciously, “but …… “

Lawrence waved his hand, “I’ll figure out what’s going on.”

“Captain, the blessing is complete,” the voice of the ship’s chaplain sounded from the sidelines just then, “You may enter the stargazing room – but remember, don’t stay too long, don’t gaze too long, and in fifteen minutes, if you haven’t not come out, I will go in to you.”

“Ten minutes will be enough.” Lawrence straightened his clothes and said with a calm expression.

He then breathed a soft sigh of relief, took a step to the large metal door depicting storm runes and inlaid with holy silver filigree, and pushed the door in.

A dimly lit cabin came into view.

Lawrence casually closed the metal door behind him and took a general look to confirm the situation inside the stargazing chamber.

There were no windows in this room, the metal door was the only way in and out, and there were no unnecessary facilities in the whole room, the only furnishing was the cylindrical device with a diameter of about one meter placed in the center of the room.

It looked like an altar, but there were a lot of cranks, rods and mirrors around the cylindrical pedestal, next to it there was a small platform for people to stand on, which was reserved for the navigator, and on top of the cylindrical device was a transparent part that was concave inwards.

It was a crystal lens, held up by a very complex set of rod supports, and the crystal lens was bowl-shaped, and its interior appeared to be empty – but when the eye was focused on it, it was as if one could see waves of light sparkling in the lens.

It was as if the waves were filled with seawater.

Lawrence stepped onto the small platform next to the cylindrical device and gazed at the lens in front of him.

A ship sailing on a vast and boundless sea, with almost no marking items for reference on the sea, and the city-states being isolated islands, once they passed by their destination, the navigator would be lost in the boundless sea – then navigation became a very important discipline.

Vision 001 – The sun is a very good sky marker, using the sun to confirm the direction of the ship is of course one of the navigation techniques, but the sun is not always visible in the sky, and sometimes the sun alone can not provide sufficiently accurate navigation and positioning, when encountered in this case, how to accurately determine whether you are sailing on the right course?

The answer, of course, is to look at the stars.

Stargazing is an essential skill for modern ocean sailing.

Lawrence lowered his head and slowly ambled down, submerging his entire face in the recessed structure of that large crystal lens.

The stars were deep, deep down – to see them required not only delicate equipment, but a sound mind.

(End of chapter)