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"The Congo, really?" It seems I've hit the right expedition. Her attention was drawn from the man on the roof by the young man beside her. She shifted her walking stick from her right hand to her left and shook his hand. He didn't look to be much more than a schoolboy. A smile crinkled the corners of her eyes. "Please to make your aquantance, Giles. Rhett Metven."

"If you're in need of a guide, ma'am," her attention turned once again, now to the woman appearently in charge of the expedition. "I know the area well enough and would be glad to sign on."

Dr. Hertford smiled slightly at the brief exchange between Corporal Darkfeather and Mr. Oates, but inside, she was just as doubtful as the Corporal, if not more. She turned back to the tan woman who had introduced herself as Rhett Metven.

"I would be very happy to have you aboard, Ms. Metven," she said. "Maps of the Congo are scarce and typically unreliable, and knowing my luck..." She trailed off at this and grinned.

The Corporal was right; this was a rather rag-tag group. Only in the Tillinghast Association does one find oneself amongst such interesting company, Dr. Hertford thought to herself.

"Well, hopefully we will find ourself an airship soon. If not, I suppose I'll have to hire one of those ridiculously expensive government-owned ships." Dr. Hertford desperately hoped that this would not be the case. She hated dealing with the government.

((if we don't get an airship captain within the next few days, we can just get started with the airship captain being an NPC, and if someone wants to jump in as captain later, they can.

"Well deary me. No airship? No captain? We shall have to change that, shan't we, me pretties?"With a military turnabout on the spot, he was facing the Doctor.

"Permission to leave the party, ma'am?" Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the young man, Giles, he gave him an innocent smile. "And where, per chance, could one theoretically find this Terra Nova of your cousins? It's not inhabited, is it? That may cause... complications."

[[ on Friday, I'll be gone form computers until August 3rd, so...if Giles needs to be used, could someone steer him? Thank you! ]]

"Oi," said Jonathan, whilst tapping Dr. Hertford on the shoulder, "I need information." He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then crossed his arms in front of his torso. "I'd like to be prepared for any sort of encounters we might find, so I need to ask you a few things."

Dr. Hertford turned to Mr. Shneider and replied, "I will try to the best of my ability to answer any questions you may have. To be honest, I don't know much beyond what I posted in the job advertisement. However, I can fill you in on some standard procedure of the Tillinghast Association."

As she awaited Mr. Shneider's reply, she noticed someone standing near the message board holding an application and looking a tad lost.

"Excuse me, sir," she called to him. "Did you have any questions about my advertisement?"

Things had started looking up. They had a ship, nearly all of the crew they needed, and would hopefully be off within a few days. How the rag-tag assembly would do in the dense Congo jungles was anybody's guess, but at least they would be able to start heading over there soon.

Silas could see everyone was a little... preocupied. He took the oppertunity to slip away into the darkness. The less witnesses the better. The Terra Nova was in Docking Bay 4, and that was all he needed to know.

Leaving the expedition-to-be behind, Silas wandered south through the dark alleyways. The friendly voices dwindled as the creaks and shouts of the city grew. Leaping fences and dodging dodgy citizens, he finally emerged from the lab'ryinth of buildings in the docks. He made his way along the dock's edge to Docking Bay 4, and saw before him a grand and mighty airship, complete with an array of cannons and with a great many fans and sails, perfect for a voyage into the depths of hell itself. Next to it was the Terra Nova, a modest but serviceable vessel.

"I can hardly steal the Terra Nova now, can I?" thought Silas. "It wouldn't be nice!" He ran up the rope of the great airship, only to find it guarded by four soldiers. Looking down on his tiny switchblade, then back at their rifles, the Corporal slid back down the rope and ran over to the Terra Nova. Jumping aboard, he ran into the engine room, threw some coal in the furnace, ran back into the cabin and took off. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten to untie it.

Dangling the metal ring which used to be a part of the dock from the rope, and now with some bullet holes in the side from the irate guard below, the airship sailed over the city back towards the square, taking many chimneys out along the way.

Eufrasi chuckled, waving his hand passively, sensing the doctor's lack knowledge into the machinery.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," he replied, pulling a socket wrench from his belt and twirling it artfully. "I've worked on steam engines and boilers for large buildings, I can't imagine the same machines being too awful different in an airshi-"

He was cut short by the crashing of a nearby chimney, looking skyward with a look of disbelief on his face.

"Please tell me that's not our airship, I really don't feel like grounding a ship today..."