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Emboldened, you and Aaliyah move forward. Another gunshot is heard. There is amazingly little echo up here, thousands of feet in the air. You hear men grumbling and - laughter?
You climb the ladder and carefully, with as much stealth as you can muster, lean your head over to see what is happening.
You immediately sigh with relief. Leave it to men to do stupid things.
One of the Empress' two life-balloons have been deployed, and is now trailing behind the airship, being pulled by ropes. A series of targets are being dragged behind it. Several men are standing, harnessed to a railing, on a small recess where the topdeck is not curved, and they are smoking, laughing and taking turns to shoot at the targets from a hunting-rifle.
Aaliya squeezes next to you on the ladder and looks over. She then bursts into a laugh, and you can't help but share in.
The men turn around. One of them is rounder than the others. "You louts need to warn us when you do these things. You had us worried sick!", you say, with a smile.
Alejandro steps forward. "My apologies, ladies. It's just, Pietr just gifted me this rifle over lunch, so naturally we thought nothing else but to immediately test it out."
"It's latest model from League.", Giuseppe chimes in. "Percussion cap, not flintlock."
Alejandro steps forward, offering you and Aaliyah both a hand to climb onto the recess.
"Do forgive us, ladies, we gave you such a scare. We had notified the crew, but I can't believe nobody thought to inform the ladies."
"Well, we did briefly consider if we were being boarded by pirates."
The gentlemen laugh. "Pirates! In this day and age? Gentlemen, we better pack it up, or we'll cause a panic in the ship!"
"Nonsense, Mister Ortega. We would never fault the gentlemen for having a bit of fun."
Giuseppe chimes in: "You should joining us. This rifle kicking much less, even a woman could shooting it. Though if she hitting something is different matter!", he laughs.
"That is not a bad idea. Would you care to join us, ladies?", Alejandro asks, offering the rifle up for inspection.
Aaliyah seems to have reached the extent of her curiosity - she politely refuses.
> "Oh, I'm not much for shooting rifles. They make such a dreadful noise - I'm content watching."
> "Oh, I've never shot one." (she lied as naturally as she breathed) "But I suppose I could give it a go."
> "Oh, how interesting! I would love to give it a go, if you don't mind."
