54 pages • 1 hour read
Airborn
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Chapters 18-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary: “Ship Taken”
Bruce, hiding in the trees, calls out to Matt. He reports that he attempted to find Matt and Kate after the cloud cat attack but saw them waylaid by pirates. He returned to the Aurora, slowed by his injured leg, and arrived just in time to see Szpirglas and his crew tie up the Aurora crew. They scheme how to rescue the hostages without being killed. Matt is shocked at Kate’s insistence that they will have to kill the pirates first. She plots to sneak up on them, strike them over the head, and steal their guns. Matt advocates for another plan; he does not think he could shoot anyone, not even a murderous pirate. Bruce and Matt quibble over who should be in charge. Bruce claims his higher rank is more important than Matt’s years of experience on the ship.
Matt suggests another way: he will sneak to his cabin to fetch his keys, then lure pirates to different cabins and bays and lock them in, using his intimate knowledge of the Aurora to avoid detection. They creep to the rear tail fin and climb inside, though Bruce struggles to do so with his injured leg. When they inspect the injury, it shows signs of infection. Matt hurries to retrieve his keys, anxious about leaving Kate and Bruce alone.
Matt climbs through the ventilation system, sliding between the cells of hydrium gas as he performs reconnaissance. He spies on the passenger lounge from above, finding the passengers crammed together and the crew tied up. Baz is injured. Dr. Halliday pleads with the pirates to retrieve painkillers, but they refuse—Szpirglas with a courteous apology. Matt counts eight pirates. He overhears Szpirglas confirming the rest of the crew will arrive in three hours. When they arrive, they plan to scuttle the Aurora and kill the passengers and crew.
Matt retrieves some basic medical supplies for Bruce as well as a vial of sleeping tonic. He returns to Kate and Bruce’s hiding place. His instincts send up alarms that he has been spotted, though he encounters nobody in the inner workings of the ship. Matt cleans Bruce’s wound as he relays what he has learned, impressing Kate with his knowledge of first aid.
With time running out, Matt suggests a new plan: flying the Aurora so no further pirates can board. Bruce thinks it is impossible with their small group, but Matt is confident, and Kate supports him. He proposes throwing off the lines as quickly as possible and taking the vial of sleeping tonic to Vlad, who is cooking for the pirates. Vlad will dose the food, rendering the pirates “dopey” by the time the engines start. Bruce heads to begin throwing off lines and Kate and Matt head for the deck above the kitchens so Kate can lower Matt via the dumbwaiter.
Before Kate and Matt reach their destination, they hear voices. They hide beneath the catwalk, frozen as the pirates stand directly above them. They reach the space above the kitchens and Matt barely manages to wedge himself into the tiny dumbwaiter. Matt struggles to contain his feelings of claustrophobia as he ascends the shaft. Vlad takes the vial, understanding the plan. He hands Matt a bowl of soup and Matt reenters the dumbwaiter. When he reaches the bottom of the shaft, Kate is gone.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Airborne”
As Matt begins to panic that Kate has been caught, she appears from a cupboard, clutching a frying pan. She urges haste; she had hidden because she had heard someone coming. They hurry to the starboard side of the ship to help Bruce throw off lines. Matt worries the wind will pick up before they are ready and the shifting of the Aurora will alert the pirates to their presence. He hears the pirates laughing through the walls of the lounge and hopes they have been drinking and eating the tainted soup.
When only the stern line is still attached, leaving the Aurora vulnerable to even the slightest wind, Kate and Matt encounter a cloud cat that has snuck onto the ship. Matt realizes this is what he sensed earlier. He thinks of how both Crumlin and Molloy noted the creatures’ curiosity. Kate worries the pirates will shoot the creature. Matt worries the cloud cat will damage the gas cells. Fretting about this development, they return to the auxiliary control room to meet Bruce, who confirms all the lines have been thrown.
Matt converts controls from the main control room to the auxiliary room and jumps out of the ship to cut the final line. He hears a shout and sees the other pirates have arrived. He urges Bruce to begin ascending without waiting for Matt. Ballast drops as he hurries to untie the knot lashing the Aurora to the ground, loosening it only at the last moment. As the ship rises, Matt climbs the line. He urges Bruce to dump more ballast; the pirates are attempting to climb the other dangling lines. Matt throws levers to dump ballast despite Bruce’s protests that this is contrary to protocol. The Aurora rises quickly, stopping any further pirates from climbing on via the lines.
They ascend too quickly; Bruce vents hydrium to compensate. They gradually turn on the engines, gaining the ability to steer, working urgently under the knowledge the pirates will arrive imminently. This takes too long, however, and as they emerge, they are spotted by two pirates, the element of surprise lost. They slip into the landing bay. Matt urges Bruce and Kate to hide as he hears the jingling of keys that signal the pirates are searching for the right key to unlock the door. When they enter, Matt makes a sound to lure the pirates in his direction until they are standing over the landing bay doors. He opens the doors, dumping the pirates into the water below. Six pirates remain on board. Kate confirms she can detect a fishy smell, indicating that the pirates ate the doctored soup.
The ship begins to turn, and Matt belatedly remembers Szpirglas’s comment about not liking fish. He would not have eaten the soup. Matt realizes he has gained control of the ship. They split up to cut off the fuel lines, Bruce headed one way, Kate and Matt the other, so Szpirglas cannot return them to the island. Matt and Kate have shut off two fuel lines when a pirate begins shooting at Matt. He climbs through the propeller shaft, but the pirate grabs him before he can escape. Matt locks him in the engine hatch, glad he has contained another enemy. Then he feels the press of Crumlin’s pistol against his head.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Airborn”
Crumlin has captured Kate, as well. The pirate, who smells strongly of soup, calls down to another pirate called Rhino Hand, whom he orders to release the pirate Matt trapped in the engine hatch. Rhino Hand struggles to walk, which causes Crumlin to realize his own instability. The cloud cat, drawn by the smell of fish, drops to the catwalk between the pirates. Crumlin shoots at the cloud cat, hitting Rhino Hand instead. Matt tackles Crumlin, knocking the gun from his hand. The cloud cat attacks Crumlin as Matt and Kate flee.
They head for the aft engines, seeking Bruce, but when they find him, he is already dead. Matt hears movement in the nearby starboard engine car and races for it, hoping to shut one of the three remaining pirates inside. He tells Kate to hide. Szpirglas emerges from the hatch before Matt can close it, however, and shoots at Matt, hitting one of the hydrium gas cells. Matt throws a wrench, which strikes a furious Szpirglas in the head. Then Matt dumps glue on him, which jams his gun. When Matt reaches the observation dome, he pauses. He can no longer see Szpirglas and does not know what to do next.
Matt climbs to the exterior of the ship and then, to his astonishment, sees the cloud cat perched on the Aurora and gazing out over the skies. He wants to marvel at the creature but knows there is no time. As he attempts to reach another hatch, Szpirglas emerges, knife in hand. Matt is trapped between the pirate and the cloud cat. Szpirglas shoves him over the side of the ship. Matt is unafraid as he falls, feeling this a fitting end, but grabs on to the Aurora’s tail fin at the last moment. The violent halt reminds Matt that he is not, as he has long been described, “lighter than air,” and he feels the crushing sadness of his father’s death consume him.
Matt cannot climb back up the ship from his angle and feels certain he has only moments before falling to a watery death. He watches, amazed, as the cloud cat leaps from the ship and begins to fly despite its damaged wing. Szpirglas climbs down, intending to knock Matt off the ship. A large flock of cloud cats flies past the ship. One clips Szpirglas with his shoulder, knocking him from the Aurora. As Szpirglas falls, cloud cats claw and bite at him, ripping chunks from his body. Matt grabs for Szpirglas’s safety line, hauling himself to the crow’s nest with the last of his strength. He looks back and sees the cloud cat with the injured wing flying with the flock.
Matt realizes the ship is about to crash and races for the control car, imagining Walken’s calm voice in his head as he inclines enough to avoid the mountain ahead of them without burning out the engines. He steers until he realizes he is no longer imagining Walken; the captain, along with Baz and Kate, has arrived. Walken confirms that the remaining pirates have been detained and urges Matt to continue steering the ship.
Chapter 21 Summary: “At Anchor”
Six months later, Matt attends an exhibition showing the reassembled cloud cat skeleton. He speaks with Kate, whose discovery has gained popular notice but still garners disdain from many scientists. Matt feels awkward; he has not seen Kate since immediately following their adventure. Matt received a reward for leading the Sky Guard to the pirates’ village and has used his portion to attend the Airship Academy. He enjoys the opportunity, though he misses spending most of his time aloft. He attributes his ability to be happy while landlocked to his newfound ability to dream of his father even when on the ground. Kate, faintly surprised by the idea, confides that she thinks her parents are proud; she plans to attend university the following year.
They look out over Paris as the Aurora flies in. Matt hopes to serve on the ship again after his schooling is finished. Kate returns Matt’s father’s compass, and the awkwardness between them suddenly vanishes. They sadly remember Bruce and discuss Kate’s plans to return to the island, tentatively plotting to wait until Matt finishes the Academy so he can fly her himself. Kate suggests she might attend university in Paris, near Matt, and they watch the Aurora fly again.
Chapters 18-21 Analysis
The final chapters of Airborn draw in the borders of the novel for its climax, before expanding them again for the denouement. The protracted final face-off between Matt, Bruce, Kate and the pirates takes place entirely on the Aurora, Matt’s most familiar turf. He dispatches the pirates with relative ease, using his intimate knowledge of the Aurora to his advantage. This same facility does not serve Bruce, offering a metaphoric answer to the novel’s tension between hands-on experience and education. Experience, the climax suggests, always wins out. The final chapter, however, shows Matt attending the Academy, which complicates this conclusion and opens the apparent conflict between the two modes of knowledge to reinvestigation in the series’ subsequent installments. The apparent contradiction stems from the Class Divide that the two approaches to learning represent, after all; classroom education is usually only available to the upper classes, while working-class children like Matt must learn through the work they do to survive and support their families. Matt’s monetary reward has made it possible for him to gain access to the education he needs to cross the class boundaries that have held him back—but he won that reward by deploying his hands-on, work-based experience. It is a complicated balance, and the novel leaves open how Matt will navigate it through his Academy years and after.
The novel’s main villain, Szpirglas, represents the moral inverse of Captain Walken as well as the shadow path that Matt could, but does not, choose to tread. The two captains use their equal skills to opposing ends. Both are skilled airmen and gifted leaders who inspire loyalty among their crews. Whereas Walken has succeeded through fairness, kindness, and justice, however, Szpirglas has succeeded through greed and ruthlessness. Matt’s close observations of and identification with both men suggest that he shares some qualities in common with each of them, opening the possibility that he could become a Szpirglas rather than a Walken. The novel introduces this concern via Szpirglas’s repeated references to how Matt would make a good member of the pirate crew. But Szpirglas’s offers fail to tempt Matt because of their fundamental difference: Matt lacks the selfishness and greed to choose personal safety or riches over doing what is right. Furthermore, it is this very greed that ultimately leads to Szpirglas’s demise. Szpirglas’s egotistical need to kill Matt himself, rather than letting him simply fall into the ocean, leads him to be knocked free from the Aurora and killed by a flock of cloud cats. In contrast, rather than claiming the glory of defeating the pirates for himself, Walken tells Matt to continue piloting the Aurora even after the pirates are secured in recognition of his skill and heroism.
Finally, the novel’s final chapter expands the horizon of the text both geographically and temporally, suggesting new vistas for Exploration, Adventure, and Storytelling for Matt and Kate. Matt attends the Air Academy in Paris, and Kate discusses the various places she is considering for university, suggesting that she, too, might choose Paris to be near Matt. The world, the end of the novel suggests, is open to them: Paris, the cloud cats’ island, and beyond. As is often the case with the adventure genre, the close of one adventure opens up possibilities for the next. Nevertheless, they still have challenges to overcome. Matt’s anxieties about growing up persist, and he cannot be certain that he can seize the future he hopes for. Meanwhile, connected to the theme of History, Modernity, and the (Im)Possibility of Discovery, Kate continues to face opposition from sexist, ageist academics even as she gains popular recognition for her adventures. The ending implies that both Matt and Kate will face institutions seeking to curtail their explorations and discoveries due to their class, gender, and age, and will need to overcome them once again.
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By Kenneth Oppel
