Maybe I should go back, Momiji thought. The little girl who had just lost her mother and has nothing. Do I just run away and pretend I never saw the kid?
#
Hirohira held the reins out for Momiji. He looked around and listened for any danger. Momiji got on the horse and slid her other foot into the stirrup. The nervous gelding trotted a few steps in a circle. The noise of battle in the distance was upsetting it; even a warhorse got frightened of that much cannon fire and explosions.
"We need to get going," Wendy said. "Just in case they send someone after her."
"I'm not even sure who freed me," Momiji said.
"What do you mean?" Hirohira said.
Momiji told them about the two different slaves claiming to be spies. She mentioned her suspicions of whom they could be working for other than Harriet Tubman.
"Tubman may have sent word to both of them," Hirohira said. "Nevertheless, let's go."
"Why don't you three just stay where you are?" Seraphine said. "Don't any of you draw a gun for mine is ready to fire."
Hirohira turned, his right hand poised above his Katana revolver, but didn't move as her gun was aimed at him.
"Why are you doing this?" Momiji said.
"We wanted to get 'our' hands on you," Seraphine said. "We didn't want you to be in Confederate, or any other human, hands."
The Martian attack-shuttle appeared over their heads. A beam of light came out of it to cover all four of them including the horses. Hirohira felt that he couldn’t move as beam pulled them up and he wasn’t able to say anything. I did it again. I wasn’t good enough. How did she sneak up on me? He and the others floated up to the alien flying vehicle. How is this possible?
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Ashton's Anger.
A little girl screamed. Ashton James assumed it was one of her slaves. She walked through the house looking for the girl. Once the fighting had started she didn't know where anyone had gone. At the time she had been trying to have a quiet private bath in her bedroom and then all hell had broken loose.
The goddamn war is over, she thought. Don't they know that? Who would be attacking us? Why? It couldn't be because they wanted that Japanese woman from California back, could it? What have Frank's younger brother and Bell gotten us into?
Ashton walked into the dining room to see a bloodbath. Teddy and Betsey both lay dead on the floor. She turned around and screamed. "Where is everybody?"
Ashton searched more through the house and found her husband dead in his library.
"Noooooo!" She clutched his cold body in her trembling arms. "Why? Why?"
Explosions erupted outside. Damn them! She got up and ran outside. She stopped at the building she used as her lab because the biggest airship she had ever seen before floated downward with dozens of lights shining in different directions.
Anti-aircraft guns fired at HMS Kaede and it returned fire with big guns. All around, her husband's men died. She realized this must be the airship that Frank's brother and Bell had mentioned.
"Damn you! Damn you, bastards!" Ashton ran into her building to get one of her inventions that she had been working on.
Ashton dragged a huge device onto a small wagon. She pushed and pulled the wagon and eventually got it out of the building. Then she ran back inside to get the rocket she had been working on. She would only have one chance for this, but she would give it all that she had—for the only man she had ever loved. Once Ashton got back with the rocket, she rotated the device towards the giant airship.
It is Goliath and I am David!
Ashton looked through the sights and aligned it. Then she remembered it needed to be loaded. Ashton picked up the rocket and shoved it into the cylinder that stuck out on end of the big steel barrel on the wagon. There! Ashton tossed in some more of the special coal that she had invented, which got fires started with great speed, so her weapon's steam engine would start working with great speed. For you Frank! Ashton pulled a lever and turned a knob.
"Listen to her hum, you bastards," Ashton shouted. "Hear her fury! Feel her wrath!"
Ashton touched the lever that would launch the rocket at Goliath in the name of God. The rocket launched. It shot towards the airship, but missed. It exploded far above the airship and didn't cause it any harm.
"Noooooooo!"
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Painful Escape.
Inside the Martian vehicle, Hirohira could barely move. For some reason he now found that he could move his right hand. He glanced around. Momiji and Wendy couldn't move at all. Seraphine stood up as if nothing was stopping her.
"Sorry about this, Hirohira," Seraphine said. "Except for your eyes you and your friends won't be able to move for a while. We could have left you unconscious, but there was no reason to hide anything from you. We did have some fun, didn't we? I bet you never knew I was Martian. Now we will take you to the island homelands that we took from the British. Our scientists will cut you and your friends open and look inside every little inch of your primitive bodies. It might hurt, but we still aren't sure if you humans have feelings. Not that it would matter if you did.
Hirohira decided not to speak or let her know he could move his hand. His instincts told him that he could fight whatever had been done to him, if he had the time. Seraphine walked towards a wall. Just as he assumed she was going to hit it, there was a popping sound like a balloon and a doorway appeared. She walked through it. Another pop and the doorway vanished.
Once she was gone, he found that he could turn his neck and blink his eyes. He squeezed his hands into fists and tried to tighten all the muscles in his body. This method was used as a form of relaxation and muscle control in the Shinobi martial art that his uncle had taught him. After that, he was able to move around and climbed off the horse he was still on. He patted the horse's neck and found that the horse didn't move. He looked into its eye. It seemed empty, as if the horse wasn't there.
Hirohire checked Wendy and Momiji. They seemed the same.
Why doesn't it affect me? Are they drugged? Some sort of strange Martian technology that we don't know about. How do I turn it off?
Hirohira shook Momiji and slapped her cheek a couple of times. No response. He tried the same thing with Wendy and got the same response. He turned away, walked towards the wall and felt around for the invisible doorway. A pop sounded and an opening appeared. Luckily no one was on the other side. He looked back at the women then cautiously stepped through. Once he was through, it popped again. The wall shut.
Now where did Seraphine, or whatever she calls herself, go to? Hirohira followed a corridor that led to other corridors with markings on the walls that he recognized as Martian characters. He was far from as knowledgeable of alien languages as McKeon, so he was unsure what they meant. He sighed, made a guess and moved on.
I need to remember what those Martian characters look like because I'll need to be able to find my way back. At least I hope I can and no one kills me first. Not a good thought, Hirohira. Where is that bitch-thing? I had sex with a Martian! Sick!
Hirohira heard noises up ahead. He stopped, heart thumping in his throat and he slowed his breathing without think of doing it.
Someone's talking. Seraphine? Who is she talking to? There must be other Martians on this thing other than her, right? What do I do? What are they saying? If I heard them talking would I know what they were saying? Probably not.
Hirohira edged closer to the voices. He recognized Seraphine's voice. He pulled both revolvers from the holster. He tried to cock them both at the same time as he had done so many times while practicing. The small gun fell from his hand. A hand seemed to grip his heart and lungs. Sweat popped on his temple and a soft sigh dropped from his lips.
The voices had gone silent. They started up again and he heard noises of heels quickly hitting the floor.
"Shit." Hirohira picked up the small revolver. "Shit!"
"Hirohira!" Seraphine shouted. "How did you get here?"
The other Mart
ian said something in Martian to her.
"You give up or we will destroy you. There is no place you can run to,” Seraphine the Martian said.
An urge to run grew inside Hirohira, but just before he moved he started shooting with both guns. Seraphine went down. The other Martian helped her up. Hirohira thought they might fire weapons at him, but instead they ran away.
They are afraid of me? Hirohira reloaded his revolvers.
He shoved his fear down into his gut and took off after them—into a room full of levers, switches, and blinking lights. AM screens on the wall showed what was outside.
Seraphine was lying on the floor holding her hip. Bluish-green blood seeped from the wound. The other Martian was frantically opening a metal locker. He yanked out a long, twisted tube that Hirohira guessed was a weapon. He fired at the Martian. The alien fell backwards, his chest smeared with a bluish-green substance.
Seraphine screamed. Hirohira had fired blindly and now smoke floated from the screen beside the locker.
"You stupid human," Seraphine screamed. "You just killed us all! How could you have known where to hit?"
"Luck?" Hirohira fired at other parts of the room that might be important until the guns were empty.
"Aaaah!" Seraphine screamed.
Hirohira turned and ran through the bizarre corridors, trying to remember the strange Martian characters he had seen before. Somehow he got back to where the women were.
Hirohira discovered them hanging out an opening in the floor where he had left them and the horses. The Martians must have opened the floor up again to drop everyone before I killed them. Momiji and Wendy seemed conscious now and were screaming for help. He ran to them and grabbed hold of Wendy. Her weight pulled on his arms and pain tore at his elbows and shoulder joints. Kami, she was heavy. Hirohira got her part way up and realized why she was so heavy; Momiji was hanging from Wendy's leg.
"Hirohira," Momiji said. "Don't worry about me just get Wendy to safety."
"No!" Wendy yelled.
"Don't be a fool," Hirohira said. "Hold on! I've got you both! Just give me your hand!"
Momiji reached for Hirohira's hand. He caught her hand and held on with both of his hands. Now with less weight Wendy was able to bring one of her legs up and brace a knee on something solid. After that she climbed back into the room. She turned to help Hirohira get Momiji up.
Wendy kissed Momiji again and again.
"Oh shit!"
"What?" Momiji looked back. Wendy stopping kissing her.
"I think we are going to crash!" Hirohira said as he was flung against the floor or wall. He wasn't sure which.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Medicine, Rockets, and Guns.
Hirohira awoke. He stood up and wished he hadn't. There was a horrible pain in his head, and dizziness. Someone was yelling. He touched the side of his face. His hand came back with blood on it and wondered if he was in a lot of trouble. Someone grabbed his arm and someone else held a cloth to the side of his head.
"Is...’e...kay?"
"Don...Hirohira. Don't move, Hirohira," Momiji said. "You have hit your head on the wall and you're bleeding-- Wait, it stopped?"
"What?" Wendy said. "How could it do that? He was bleeding all over the place. That's not possible, is it?"
"I don't know. I'm more knowledgeable about machines than human bodies."
"We need to get back to the Kaede," Wendy said.
"I know, but we don't want to be caught by the Confederates, either. I'm not sure if we should move him."
Hirohira realized that he was now sitting down and had somehow gotten outside the alien craft. The pain in his head had disappeared and he was feeling better.
"It-it's not so bad now, Momiji," Hirohira said.
"What?" Momiji said.
"Its not so bad now. The pain, I mean. I don't remember coming out of the ship."
"Oh my God," Wendy said. "Look, Momiji, the gash in his head has closed up."
"What?"
"How could that be? That scar is healed perfectly."
"Wha..." Hirohira started to say, but remembered something. "That stuff that Thomas Whetstone gave me. He said it was given to him by the star people."
"Who?"
Hirohira told them about how bad he had been after his fight with Jeremiah Klein and how one of the Red Badger brothers had showed up with a shaman from the Nez Perce people.
"I was wondering how Doctor Miller patched you up so quickly,” Wendy said. “I was thinking you had some top secret medicine or something."
"It was," Momiji said. "The Nez Perce have been in contact with the Venusians longer than we have."
"Really?" Hirohira said.
"Some sort of Venusian medicine," Momiji said. "Do you have any more?"
"How could it still be working?" Hirohira said.
"It must still be in your body, Hirohira-san. Amazing! Did Doctor Miller look at the medicine bowl that it was in?”
"I don't know," Hirohira said. "He might have. You would have to ask him."
Momiji nodded.
"Then we can get out of here?" Wendy said. "I want to get away from that weird alien airship, or whatever it is."
"Good idea, Wendy-chan," Momiji said. "We need to go. Can you stan..."
Hirohira stood up. "I feel better. Let's get out of here."
"I found your guns, Hirohira-san." Wendy handed them to him. He returned them to their holsters.
Hirohira slowly started forward with the two women on either side ready to grab him if he was unstable. The trio walked away from the alien craft. He heard fire ahead of them and knew that somewhere in that mess were their friends and their enemies.
"Strange," Momiji said. "I just got out of that damn house and now I'm going back towards it."
Now what was that old European army proverb, Hirohira wondered.
"Come on. Let's go straight over there," he said. "What do you soldiers want to do, live forever?"
"What?" Wendy said.
"I don't know," Momiji said. "Let's keep walking!"
"I've heard that before," Wendy said.
"What?" Momiji said.
"Nothing," Wendy said.
"Wendy, did they teach you how to shoot in the academy?" Hirohira said.
"Yes. But I learned mostly from my dad."
"Good." Hirohira handed his.22 revolver to Wendy. "Here. Take this."
"Thank you, Hirohira-san." Wendy popped open the gun to check the bullets and shook them out to see what ones hadn't been fired off. "Do you have any more? There are only two left."
"Let's see." Hirohira checked in his sleeve pocket for a box of .22 bullets and shook them to check. "There's some more in here."
"Thank you, Hirohira-san," Wendy said.
Wendy accepted the box and reloaded. Hirohira did the same with his Colt Katana, while Momiji looked around to see what was going on. They were now further away from the alien craft and nearer to the area where the fighting was going on. He heard something from the building with Mrs. James crazy inventions lying around it. Someone stood just outside the building.
"What is that?" Hirohira said.
"That's Mrs. Ashton James' workshop where she invents things," Momiji said.
"No that thing," Hirohira pointed. "What is that woman standing near?"
"I think that's Ashton," Momiji said.
Something exploded into flames around the strange machine and part of it took off into the air just as the Kaede appeared from behind clouds.
"Is that a weapon?" Hirohira said.
"A rocket!" Momiji said. "She's trying to destroy the Kaede!"
The rocket missed the airship and exploded above it in the clouds.
"Some kind of explosives?" Wendy said. "Like what's used in cannon shells?"
"Possibly," Hirohira said. "I've heard of the theory of rockets full of explosives, but aiming them is a problem, as you can see."
"Whatever her idea was, it didn't work right," Momiji suggested.
"She should have stuck with something more traditional," came a voice from behind them.
Hirohira spun around. Jeremiah Klein, Abbie Tail, and George Donaldson were approaching. Jeremiah was patting his holstered sidearm.
He pointed at Hirohira. "This time we don't play around like a bunch of school kids. No. This time we draw our guns and see who the best is, eh? How about it, Mr. Slant eyes?"
"Kill him, Jeremiah!" Abbie jumped up and down. "Shoot his balls off too!"
"Right." George tapped his leg with his rifle barrel. "I see that one of the ladies have a gun. I think I'm going to shoot the bitch."
Hirohira wished he had never given Wendy the gun. "Wendy-san?" Hirohira said.
"I'm okay," Wendy said. "Just focus, Hirohira-san."
Momiji kissed Wendy on the cheek before stepping away just as Amber did.
"Draw after I say one," Abbie said. "Ten...nine...eight..."
As Abbie counted, Hirohira tried to think what to do and not of the sweat falling from parts of his body. Should he go for Jeremiah and then try for George? Wendy only had his .22. "Six...five..." Abbie counted.
He decided he just needed to relax. Let his training and skill take over. To just let it happen. There was a peace of mind that Hirohira's samurai ancestors search for called mushin. Whether one used a bow, sword, or revolver, a samurai needed to center themselves--find the peace that fear was not a part of. Where things just happened. In such peace of mind, what happened now was no different than training.
"One!"
Hirohira's revolver came out of the left holster. The first bullet hit Jeremiah in the side of the head. The second slammed into George's lung just before Wendy's hit him in the belly. Hirohira's third bullet struck Abbie between the eyes. The time it took was short, but Jeremiah had enough time to draw. Thankfully the shot missed Hirohira's heart.
The Mighty Airship Kaede. (The Mighty Airships of Earth. Book 1) Page 23
