“Yes, I understand,” the colonel said. “But you have been frustrated?”

“I can’t get a ship north for love or money. It’s driving me crazy—not to mention quickly broke before I’ve started.”

The colonel thought a moment. “Tell me, Captain, do you think you could handle the sort of ship they must use here?”

The Well World did require rather bizarre ships, since there were water hexes as well as land ones and those water hexes had the same technological limitations as their dry counterparts. Thus, a large ship had to be able to move entirely by sail through nontech waters, switch to basic steam fed by manual labor or ingenious cog-drive mechanisms for the semitech, but could use an efficient fusion plant for the high-tech regions.

“I began in sail, if that’s what you mean,” Brazil told him. “And I’ve got—had—a master’s license for steam as well. My latest ships were big diesels, but the power source of a modern plant isn’t relevant if the power’s fed to the engines in the amount the bridge demands. I’m a little out of shape to climb rigging myself, but I could handle most anything else.”

“Then why do you not sail there yourself?”

“For the same reason you, as an air force colonel, didn’t have your own personal supersonic transport. That would take an incredible amount of money, and I’m afraid I’m still a wee bit short.”

The colonel chuckled, a very eerie sound. “Yes, I see. But there are much smaller craft making the runs. Private and government yachts, ferries that are built in one place and must be sailed to where they are needed, smaller fishing boats or their equivalents, that sort of thing.