A wharf and docks were built on the Frozen Shore. Three of the wrecked Zonian ships were dragged ashore and disassembled. It gave the wildlings enough wood to build the docks and wharf for ten ships. A pair of giants drove the pilings from cut trees, and the carpenter oversaw the construction. They had enough wood leftover to build a small warehouse for trade. In essence, a new port town was born, but they still called it Frozen Shore. As soon as the ice melted enough, a ship from King's Landing landed with a supply of guns, fire arrows, ammunition, and some crew and captains to aid the wildlings in getting set up and functioning. Two of their former troop ships were converted into trade vessels, giving them 3 fighting ships for the invasion. A few wildlings had some sailing experience, and the wisest of them became the captains of the three fighting ships. As to the crew, very few of them had experience manning a ship, but every one of them was itching for more fighting the Zon and looting their ships.
Winter's end worked its way into full spring, and still no invasion appeared. Arya looked at her 4 intelligence people across the table and asked, "Where are they?" Ming raised his hands in the air; they all had no idea what was going on. They had expected the full invasion fleet by now. "Maybe they aren't coming this year?" he offered. You could feel the air escaping the lungs of the entire room at once. Clearly, it was too good to be true, but oh, what a joy it would be. Tyrion piped up, "Oh, they are coming, make no mistake about it." The sager heads around the table of that meeting nodded, clearly, they were still coming, but when?
Still, things went on as normal, new troops were trained and deployed, and construction of new ships continued. There were arrivals at the vehicle station coming in at regular intervals. For one such arrival, Arya and her two growing children were waiting for Sansa to disembark. The two children loved their aunt, Sansa, and she always brought them great gifts. The young ones ran to greet her as she stepped out of the passenger car. Another 30 troops came after her, and frozen meat was being unloaded from the cargo car behind it. Grist for the mill, as it were, the troops had to be fed and rations made and loaded onto ships as well.
The four of them walked arm in arm back to the city, the children chattering on about schooling and how wonderful the spring was. Sansa nodded happily at all that was going on, winking at Arya on the side. The two sisters had a cheerful laugh at the youngsters' expense. It was good to be alive in the spring of the north. A strong wind picked up as they headed into town, and dark clouds began whipping past overhead. A storm was quickly brewing.
Out along the coast, a shift change was happening on balloon watch. A new observer and telepath were raised back into the air by rope. The strong wind caught them by surprise as the storm blasted in from the east. A bright sunny day suddenly became dark and malevolent in moments. As they reached their full altitude, a shout came from the ground, "It's too rough, we will bring you back down. Hold on!" The ground crew strained at the rope spool's handles to drag the balloon back to earth. The balloon whipped around in a sudden gust, nearly lying sideways in the wind. Penny, the young telepath, had to grab and hold the evening meal basket she had brought with them. Bart, the observer, grabbed hard on his spyglass and the water keg that was standard issue. The ground crew scrambled to get more hands on the rope spool, and, under heavy strain, they slowly began reeling the balloon back down. But just then, a loud crack announced the shearing of the rope eyelet that attached the balloon basket to the rope; they were free in the air and at the mercy of the storm. The balloon righted itself as the wind grabbed them and thrust them out over the sea.
There had been several test flights of balloons before they were used regularly as observation stations, but none had gone well. They almost always ended in an uncontrolled crash back to the ground. And now Bart and Penny were over the ocean, unable to do much of anything to change their fates. P)enny sat huddled on the bottom of the basket and sent out a call, "Help, this is Penny, our balloon has broken free over the ocean, and we are adrift!"
Less than an hour later, the small skiff was dropped into the water from the deck of the Sovereign. It was the fastest thing they had on water. A crack crew of 4 tree-kin wind affinity users and 3 sailors manned it. Supplies for an extended trip were loaded onboard as well. Another telepath made the eighth crew member. Their task was to chase down and rescue the balloon team. The wind was blowing at nearly 30 miles per hour, so the balloon could have a large head start on them. Both Arya and Sansa stood on the wharf to see them off. Arya said, "Bring them back safely!"