James stepped from the office, having taken over an hour to get paperwork signed and stamped by a half dozen people. Lugh stepped out of the shadows of a nearby building to walk beside him. When he said nothing, James glanced over at the god, who munched on a chocolate chip cookie.

  “I see you found the officer's mess. I guess being a god and a vice admiral has its perks.”

  He popped the cookie in his mouth as he stopped beside him.

  “Yeah, it was fun getting caught up with people that I haven’t worked with in a decade or so. I forgot how good the food is at the mess here. You do have a great assignment, and you don’t want to put that at risk.”

  Despite the urge to resist it, James raised an eyebrow as he answered.

  “I wouldn’t know about the officer's mess, but you’re right about this assignment. From what I’m seeing, the only thing putting this assignment at risk is standing right next to me. What do you suggest I do about it?”

  Lugh laughed so hard that the sound echoed off the buildings and warehouses in the area. When the god finally spoke, his voice was light as he started walking again towards the birthing of the USS Constitution.

  “That's very fair. This mission is likely the most dangerous part of your recent career, but it shouldn’t be anything like Afghanistan, though. Besides, I’ve known this ship since a warrior of mine took command in 1824.”

  James stopped in his tracks, stunned at the off-handed comment. Shaking his head to clear out the cobwebs from the day, he jogged to catch up. He caught back up to Lugh as he stopped at the base of the gangplank that led up onto the deck of the Constitution.

  Two marines stood at the top in their heritage blues with rifles resting on their shoulders and their tall plumed hats fluttering in the wind. As Lugh stepped onto the ramp, the two marines snapped into a sharp salute with their arms horizontal across their chests, with a fist resting on their rifles. With a flourishing salute, Lugh walked past them and made his way up onto the deck. James walked up the ramp behind him, saluting the young marines before speaking quietly to the one on the right.

  “Johnson, go let the commander know that we have a special guest on a tour. He’ll be working out of our office for a while, so we need to break out the bells and whistles.”

  Spinning on his hill, the man walked quickly from his post towards the great cabin. When the marine disappeared down the hatch, James turned to Lugh and motioned for him to join as he headed toward the bridge. That section of the deck was mostly empty as they moved to the front of the ship and stopped where the foremast would block their conversations, letting James speak freely.

  “I’ve always thought this ship had a weird layout with the bridge at the front. Was it weird for you the first time you saw it?”

  Lugh laughed as he walked over to the wheel as he responded.

  “I’ve ridden on hundreds of ships in my life, and almost all of them have the bridge on the back or center. This was a strange design for sure, but I’ve also seen this beauty do amazing things in combat.”

  Resting his hand on the wheel, he glanced back at the skeleton crew that was assigned to the ship while it was at the dock.

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  “The world is a better place for what this ship has done, and I’m glad that my people have played a big role in her history. Let's go walk the ship and check it out. I’d hate to see some dark corruption aboard this vessel. If there are issues on the ship, we’re going to have to do a full purge of the base.”

  Before James could respond, the hatch lifted, and a navy and gold bicorn hat emerged before the tall officer appeared beneath it. A broad smile crossed the commander’s lips as he climbed the last few steps and crossed the short distance to where James and Lugh stood. After a sharp salute, he spoke in a deep raspy voice of a lifelong smoker.

  “Admiral Lamfada, it’s an honor to have you aboard. To what do we owe this pleasure?”

  Lugh returned the salute before stepping over to pat him on the shoulder as he responded.

  “It’s good to see you again, Steve. It’s been quite a while. How has command been treating you?”

  Commander Steve Hughes glanced over at James before responding.

  “Command has been pretty good so far. I appreciate your recommendation for my promotion. Are you just visiting or is there something I can help with?”

  James stepped forward to take the question before Lugh could go off on another tangent.

  “Sir, I was asked to give the Admiral a tour of the ship since he’ll be working with us for the next little while. Perhaps you would like to join us and show the admiral some of the places that aren’t on the public tour?”

  The Commander stood a little straighter at the suggestion before smiling broadly.

  “That’s an excellent suggestion, Gunny. Do you have other duties that you need to perform, or are you assigned to the Admiral?”

  A quick glance from Lugh told James that he needed to let the god go with the commander while James did the check that he had mentioned earlier. James nodded slightly to the god before responding.

  “If you would give the Admiral the tour, I would appreciate it, sir. I’ll be handing over watch command to Sergeant Fuentes while I’m assigned to the Admiral. It would be nice to have a minute to do one final inspection before I brief him.”

  The commander gave a sharp nod before turning to lead Lugh over to the gun deck. When the two began to descend the narrow ship's ladder, James turned his back to the hatch and lifted his hands to his temples. With a whispered command, light flashed against his closed eyelids with a blinding white fire before fading.

  James opened his eyes and let the fey sight push through to layer over the ship that he knew so well. Etheric plants lined the deck of the ship with trails left where the sailors regularly walked on their patrol routes and maintenance schedules. The places where shadows naturally fell were all lit up by the plants and small insect-sized beings that zipped between magical flowers.

  Moving to the prow of the ship so that no one could see what he was doing, James reached out and brushed his fingers along the edge of an electric blue flower. The unnatural feeling of a flower petal that was the temperature of warm bread made him pull away for a moment. Fighting the shock, he reached out again and cradled the blossom between his fingers, leaning down to smell it.

  The smell of spring rain drifted up to him, warming his soul with a peace that he hadn’t felt in a long time. He let the flower settle back down into the vines that ran along the railing before turning and taking the hatch down into the bowels of the ship. Lugh’s presence was clear throughout the ship, etheric life following the path he had taken, while the rest of the ship only had scattered plants and small creatures that flitted back and forth.

  He checked the store rooms of the upper gundeck, finding more of the same before moving down the next ship’s ladder to the lower deck. As he slid down the ladder into the deck normally reserved for the ship's crew, with a few offices, an armory, and supply storage. He checked each room with his fey vision that made the room glow with living light and found a few dark spots, but there wasn’t any sign of the creatures of the nether.

  At the aft hatch, shadows crept up from below, filling the dark areas along the floor and in the corners of the room. The hatch to the bilge was shut and was covered with a thin film of dust, despite the frequently used storage rooms that sat next to it.

  James glanced around to be sure that none of the ship's limited crew were watching before he drew Claiomh Solais. He breathed deeply and let his connection to the sword fill him with confidence and light. As the skin of his hands began to glow with the godly light, he knelt and lifted the hatch.