April 9th, Shortly before Dawn — The Voyager, docked in the Thames
Alfred hadn't slept since getting the Minister's letter last night, but he wasn't feeling even a little tired. The adrenaline would carry him through at least another twelve hours or so, he figured. There was too much to be done to be tired. The Voyager was ready to sail at a moment's notice but if they were going to be underway for any length of time they would need provisions, which had to be onloaded through the night. Hopefully the Ministry was paying for all of this (Alfred had assumed they would be, anyway); for the moment his credit could cover it. He had a good reputation amongst the docks and the surrounding parts of London, and even if he hadn't, there was something about banging on doors in the middle of the night and demanding things be loaded immediately that made people believe you meant business. He hadn't had any trouble finding all of the things he needed, and he had enough sailors in his usual crew to get underway with only a few additions. Hopefully the ones he didn't know were solid seamen, because he didn't have time to vet them before setting sail. Time was of the essence.
He'd been told to expect some complement of healers and Ministry officials to arrive before they departed, but other than ensuring he had enough berthing space to house them (which actually was a consideration because no one had told him whether there would be women onboard, which meant he might need double the space as he would have if they were all men, to keep them respectably separate) he hadn't concerned himself with them much. They would arrive on time, or he'd leave them behind. His only concern was the ship and the crew, and preparations were coming along as well as they could be on such short notice.
He was on the quarterdeck and shouting orders to two men aloft in the rigging when he noticed that people were coming aboard. Glancing down, he saw a familiar figure, and he couldn't help but grin.
"Zelda!" he called, taking the ladderwell down to the midships area too quickly and jumping the last three feet of it instead of taking the time to climb down. He was maybe smiling a bit too wide, given that this was a rescue effort, but he couldn't help it. He liked feeling useful, he liked feeling busy, he liked having exciting work to do, and of course he liked seeing Zelda. "Come to see me off?" he asked, tone chipper.
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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER