Screen 1
ONE:
SABRE has spread the map on the TABLE, her eyes bright, a grin on her face as she reads it. DRAKE and DRUM are exchanging looks over her.
1. SABRE/small: Ohh, brilliant.
2. SABRE/small: Ever-loving-brilliant.
TWO:
DRAKE and DRUM each stepping out of the way as SABRE suddenly springs between them, for the door.
3. SABRE: WEST!
4. SABRE: WESTFIELD THANE!
THREE:
At the door to the cabin. WEST is there. We might, correctly, assume that he’s been standing right there all this time.
5. WEST: Captain?
6. SABRE: Set course nor-nor’west, as much canvas as she’ll take.
7. SABRE: How long to the break?
FOUR:
WEST, grinning, SABRE grinning back.
8. WEST: On the bells, Captain.
9. SABRE: Joyous.
Screen 2
ONE:
Back in the cabin, DRAKE and DRUM are looking at the MAP on the table, as SABRE makes her way back to them.
1. DRAKE: I see nothing on this map worth dying for—
2. SFX: ding-ding
3. SFX: ding-ding
[[[more]]]
TWO:
DRAKE and DRUM looking up at the sound of the bell.
SABRE is moving to the TABLE briskly, preparing to brace herself and all that’s covering it.
4. SABRE: I’d grab ahold of something, boys.
5. TAILLESS/off: All hands—
Into the Aether! I’m excited!
Apologies for this being a little tardy today, guys. I had to do some emergency yardwork yesterday and involuntarily went to sleep much earlier than usual for a Sunday night.
if it happens again, Cap’n Sabre will keel-haul ye!
So… my interpretation, based on some quick googling of nautical terms, is that sailing the aether involves navigating some manner of wave-like construction that appears to be fairly predictable. You go up the wave for a while, then hit the break and speed down the face of the wave. “Up”, “down”, and “wave” may be relative or even emblematic of whatever the ship is actually doing in the aether. That the break can be timed relative to the ship’s bells (my assumption is that those bells are just marking the time and that the coincidence of the bells and the break is coincidence, but it might be a warning system instead) indicates that the “waves” are long-lasting, fairly stable, and therefore predictable or maybe even mappable.
Maybe that’s what the arrows on the map are? Judging by them, it seems that the “waves” tend to flow in particular directions, or maybe the terrain lines delineate the “waves” and the flow occurs in between them.
Also on the map, I see what looks like a few different types of terrain. I’m pretty confident that one of them is ice or snow. There’s also some sort of clouds. There are grey blotches that seem to come in largish blotches and smallish blotches–might be the same thing, or two related things. Similarly the snowflakes in some areas could be small blotches (water?) rather than snowflakes.
Right. All that.
Outstanding writing!
I get the feeling that Sabre is more excited that she is acquiring more trained talent. She didn’t even care that Drake picked up the map. Absolute trust. Is this how she builds her crew? There is some neat character development occurring.
Maybe the X is under Sabre’s hand, or in the unrolled parts of the map. I’m guessing it’s a path through a previously impassable location.
To me the “map” looks more like a chart, so there wouldn’t be an X. And by her excitement I’d guess that it’s a chart of a large portion of the aether if not the whole thing and further from her excitement and from the protection that these things aren’t common. Back in the day before you could measure your exact position on the seas navigation charts and pilots and their logs were invaluable, the logs were closely guarded national secrets and selling them to enemy nations was a capital offence.
Tl. dr. From what I can surmise Lady Saber is now the fastest thing in the aether.