1805-Dover Harbour
Captain William Adama was grateful for the shade Galactica provided from the relentless midday sun. Leaning against the great dragon's foreleg, both captain and dragon watched the impatient sailors climbing the rigging while remaining as far as possible from the dragon deck with resigned patience; the winds remained favourable yet their departure continued to be delayed.
As the Atlantia was forced by its size to remain anchored outside the port, there was no opportunity to go ashore; a benefit in that there was no need to worry about any attempts of the men to absconded from their duties, but then even the officers could not take a turn about on solid ground before setting sail. Instead they could only watch from a distance the bustling port, ships of trade unloading their wears, the small fishing boats and even a great ship-of-the-line.
The dragon turned her head into the wind and her captain placed his hand against the fading scales of her leg in silent reassurance, beyond that slight movement both remained quite still.
Their companion was not quite so contained; First Lieutenant Saul Tigh, never the most even-tempered in all the years Adama had served with him, continued to pace to the deck railing and back again. Adama noted that if it had not been for the bottle green coat of an aviator, with his visible impatience and patch over one eye his first lieutenant could quite easily been mistaken for one of the sailors.
"If you don't stop pacing in front of me you are going to make me seasick before we have even set off," Adama eventually said.
"Hell, they tell us to hurry, then they make us wait in port for God knows how long." The irate lieutenant paused in his pacing to glower down at the Captain of the vessel who was keeping watch on his crew, as if his glare had the power to induce the man to give the order to set sail. He had reason to wish for a swift passage, as his wife had gone ahead on an East Indian ship a week previous, even though as a captain Adama would have been able to secure a place for her on the transport had Tigh asked; much to his relief Ellen Tigh had preferred to weather the sacrifice of separation from her husband for a more luxurious vessel.
"He doesn't seem to be too happy about the wait either." Galactica said. "Flying is much more straight forward." She paused to rearrange her wings across her back, turning her head and peering critically at the slightly tattered edges of her wing membranes.
"Even in your prime you wouldn't have been able to fly across the Atlantic, you overgrown lizard, you're too big to be a courier" Tigh said, "mores' the pity! I'd rather take the chance with our own than stuck on this tub for months on end. And why this particular boat, I don't know." He trailed off into grumbling, though both man and dragon shot a furtive glance towards their captain. Adama just continued to stare ahead and gave no sign of hearing, though he thought briefly that the Admiralty could not have punished him more effectively had it been malicious intent and not chance that led to the HMS Atlantia being their means of transportation to the Caribbean, before pushing all such thoughts from his mind and making do with glaring straight ahead.
"I do wish they weren't sending us away." Galactica suddenly spoke up. "There is plenty fighting to be done here. All this talk of fighting Napoleon and what a danger he is, of course I not going to sit around in the breeding grounds while everyone else gets to battle!"
"Huh, we all know that the Admiralty wouldn't see sense if it bit them," Tigh said. "Still plenty of fight left in you, plain as day."
Adama let such, almost traitorous remarks go unchecked; none of the men were near by to over hear it and privately he agreed with them both. But he suspected that Galactica's refusal to retire gracefully had only provided their Lordships with the excuse they were looking for to ship them out of sight. The dragon was still an impressive sight; a heavyweight of nearly 20 tons despite her uncertain pedigree, and the numerous scars that marked her grey scales and broken horns only added to her ferocious appearance, but there was no escaping that she had lost some weight and did not move as quickly as she used to. Instead he just asked how the crew were holding up. Away from their normal routines and discipline the enforced idleness of such a journey could be the ruin of a good dragon crew.
Tigh shrugged. "I've not had to knock any heads together yet, though I don't doubt that at the end of this little trip you'll want to shove half of them over board."
They lapsed into silence, and even once they had set sail there would not be much for them to do, but the impatience of the sailors was contagious. Galactica once again turned her head into the wind, and Tigh continued to pace, and Adama observed from the occasional twitch of his hand giving away that he would rather be below decks with a bottle in his hand.
Such peace was shattered as Galactica suddenly twisted her neck around to look towards the port; well used to the swift changes of combat Adama was standing with feet firmly on the deck before the dragon stood and stretched her head higher to get a better look at whatever had caught her attention. The sudden commotion and shouts of members of the ships crew on that side of the vessel confirmed that they were being approached by a row boat.
"What do you see?" he asked Galactica, who after her initial burst of interest was settling down with an air of nonchalance, though she continued to look in the direction of the disorder.
"Just a boat bringing people," she said. "Nothing exciting at all."
Perhaps not interesting to the dragon, but a row boat approaching a dragon transport vessel that by all means should have set sail was enough to raise Adama's ire. It would be understandable if some item of importance had been left on the shore, but they had been waiting for the wind to change for over a day, surely enough time for everything to have been ferried aboard.
An attempt to waylay Captain Nagala as he strode past proved futile: the man waved him off abruptly with a short statement about having to pick up other passengers, and from the expression on the man's face Adama deduced that he was as unhappy about the enforced wait as his sailors. However when he commented on this observation Tigh just snorted.
"He was perfectly happy to be rude when he thought we would be leaving on time."
The activity provided some brief interest, and some speculation, the sailors pulling up the bosons chair with rude haste, though the captain greeted the new arrivals with perfect politeness. It was a small party, though from their movements it was impossible to gauge of how many, dressed in travelling clothes but still perfectly apparent that these were respectable members of Society along with a few servants, yet as their luggage was quickly brought aboard there seemed to be less than Adama would have imagined such a party would have been brought with them.
Galactica continued to watch the group through heavily lidded eyes, and the attentions of such a large dragon were not something easily ignored. One of the party, whose dress had given him away as a Reverend had visibly startled at the sight of the great grey dragon when they had been brought on board, but several more began to look nervous at her continued interest. The only one to retain their composure was also the only woman of the group, apart from her maid, an attractive lady of middle years, responding to Captain Nagala with equal politeness of her own.
"Now why on Earth would they be travelling on a transport ship?" Tigh said, giving word to Adama's thoughts. A dragon transport ship could never be considered an ideal mode of passage for respectable people, being as it was dedicated to the transport of what Adama had come to feel Society considered a mere necessary evil.
"The men will need to be on their best behaviour," Adama said quietly.
"I doubt we will be mixing with the likes of them," Tigh harrumphed, but at Adama's look he said "understood, I'll make sure they know that. But Galactica will surely keep them bellow decks."
"It will be a long voyage, familiarity breeds contempt, and even the company of a dragon will no doubt seem preferable to them than the air of their cabins."
But Tigh was correct; the group quickly vanishing below, and now with their imposed wait lifted orders were shouted to begin preparations to set sail immediately.