1889: Journey To The Moon (The Far Journey Chronicles)

by George Wier

  It dawned on Billy with sudden horror. “We’re doing this without Koothrappally! ” he shouted. “We’re doing this from a damned card! ”

  “If the first numbers are right,” Tesla said calmly, “then it stands to reason the numbers following it will be correct. Trust Koothrappally. He knows what he’s doing. You’re doing fine, Mr. Gostman.”

  “It’s Billy,” he said. “Billy The Kid.”

  [ 55 ]

  John Koothrappally floated in space for several minutes holding his swelling wrist. The pain was nearly intolerable. He wiped the tears from his eyes, gritted his teeth, and took stock of his surroundings.

  The Tesla coil, the central shaft running from the bridge down to the engine room, perceptibly dimmed. Someone on the bridge had called for the power to be lessened, which meant that he had missed the course change. The card he had filled out would have been used.

  He quickly reviewed the calculations in his head to make certain he had missed nothing. If they were off by so much as a hundredth, the Arcadia could very well crash into the moon with devastating impact.

  Koothrappally made contact with the railing of one of the upper decks and latched onto it with his right hand for dear life.

  At that moment Jack Ross stuck his head up from the engine room and shouted up to him from two floors below, “Koothrappally! Get your ass to the bridge!”

  “I’m going!” he shouted back, having forgotten to embellish his speech with his usual thick accent.

  He oriented his body such that the top of his head pointed to the bridge hatchway, and launched himself once more into space.

  [ 56 ]

  “Course change,” Tesla said. “Thirty seconds on my mark: zee minus six. Barrel roll one-eighty degrees right, eight point four cut in power.”

  Billy’s hand tensed on the left stick. He spoke into the tube, “Jack, prepare to cut power by eight point four, on Tesla’s mark.”

  “Got it!” Steam Ross’s voice came back.

  “At least he’s on the job,” Tesla stated. “All right. Five, four, three, two, one, mark!”

  Billy shifted back three ticks on the left stick and moved the right stick one notch to the right. The moon swung around dizzily and was suddenly below them, with the horizon and a distant Earth beyond. Billy moved the right stick back into position and the roll ceased. They flew along at a terrifying clip toward the mountains, which quickly grew in size.

  “Oh my God,” Koothrappally stated as he floated into the cabin.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Billy asked, craning his neck backward.

  “Eyes forward,” Tesla said. Then to Koothrappally, “Yes, old chap. What’s going on back there?”

  They dropped in altitude as the hum of the Tesla coil diminished beneath them.

  “Judah Merkam is talking out of his head. It is the old injury. My wrist is broken.”

  “Where’d your accent go?” Billy asked.

  “One minute until gradual power up to full,” Tesla said calmly. “That is, if these numbers are right,” he flopped the card before Koothrappally’s face.

  “Yes,” Koothrappally said. “For our sake, I hope they are perfect.”

  “All right, then,” Billy said.

  “Make it a ten second gradual increase in power.”

  “You get that, Ross?”

  “I heard!”

  “What about the accent, Mr. Koothrappally?” Billy asked. “That broken wrist didn’t make you learn English, did it?”

  “Nevermind about my damned accent,” Koothrappally said. “Land this unholy thing, Mr. Gostman. Don’t crash it.”

  “I have every intention of doing so,” Billy stated.

  [ 57 ]

  Ekka met Two Hats and Denys Jay-Patten in the main chamber.

  “Are you ill, Ekka?” Denys asked.

  “Not anymore. Abigail Ross is dead. Butchered. Mr. Merkam is talking out of his head in his stateroom. I strapped him into his bunk. They’ll cut power to the stateroom ring soon, and anything loose is going to go flying.”

  “Iron Hand Jack does not know of his woman,” Two Hats stated.

  “He’s doing his job,” Ekka said. “I think we’re landing on the moon.”

  The three glanced out the main bay window and saw grayish landscape blurring by them. The Tesla coil hum had decreased markedly.

  “Where is Teach?” Ekka asked.

  “Sleeping off his drunk, which is what I should be doing,” Denys said, rubbing his head.

  “What about Conklin?”

  “Snake Spirit,” Two Hats said. “It is my name for him. Him sometimes...nowhere.”

  “A fitting name,” Denys agreed. “I haven’t seen him either.”

  “We have to find him,” Ekka said. “But watch out. I don’t know who...did that to her. It could have been Conklin. I have to get to the bridge. Find Conklin. If he’s covered in blood, then you’ll know. Check on Jude first, then, if you dare, have a look at what’s left of Mrs. Ross.”

  Denys’s face moved back from Ekka. A communication of a kind passed between them. Denys nodded.

  [ 58 ]

  “Ah!” Koothrappally said. “You have to cut power to the stateroom ring. We’re under the moon’s gravity now. The spin can damage the ship.”

  “Where?” Billy asked.

  Tesla pointed. “You’d better announce it. We wouldn’t want people thrown from their bunks.

  Billy spoke into the speaker. “Cutting power to the staterooms! The spinning will stop. You are warned!” He thumbed the switch.

  “Begin power increase in five, four, three, two, one, mark!”

  “Power increasing,” Jack Ross’s voice came back to them.

  The Arcadia’s forward momentum slowed markedly.

  The blackness of the mountains of the moon filled the forward viewing port.

  “Maybe we won’t crash,” Tesla stated. He glanced at the card, then at his watch. “Two degrees down in five, four...”

  Billy gripped the left stick and waited.

  “One, mark!”

  He slid the stick back a notch and the nose of the ship dropped. They flew as fast as a horse could run parallel to the surface of the moon. As he watched, their pace slowed.

  Ekka Gagarin floated onto the bridge.

  “Good God, Ekka,” Billy said. “I’ve been worried about you. What’s going on?”

  “First, turn off the speaker.”

  Tesla pointed to the proper knob. Billy switched it to the OFF position.

  “Jude is strapped in his bunk. He’s talking out of his head, not making any sense. Jay-Patten and Two Hats are going to check on him.”

  “Why keep that from Ross?” Billy asked.

  “There’s more. Abigail Ross is dead.”

  “What?” “How?” “My God!” The three men began talking at once.

  “Someone carved her into a few hundred pieces. The last I saw of her head, it was on her bureau. With the power cut to the ring, she’s probably all over the floors, ceilings and walls. You don’t want to see it.”

  “Who did it?” Billy asked.

  “I don’t know. Land us. We have to find out before any other action is taken.”

  Ekka’s feet lightly touched the floor. “At least it appears we have some gravity. Movement through the ship will be difficult.” She turned to go.

  “Wait a minute?” Billy asked. “Where are you going?”

  “To see to Judah. Possibly he will need...protection.”

  “From whom?” it was Tesla’s turn to inquire.

  “From God knows who. Are we landed yet?”

  Billy leaned forward in his seat. “We’re not moving. I think so. The ground is hard to see, but it’s not that far down.”

  “Then congratulations, Billy Gostman. You are the first pilot to land on the moon.”

  Despite the recent bad news, Billy smiled.

  “We did it!” He pulled the cone of the speaking tube before his face. “Jack! We did it!”


  Tesla pointed to the speaker knob.

  “Oh.” Billy flipped the knob upward. “Jack! We did it!”

  “Good! Now maybe I can have a goddamned drink! Cutting power!”

  “Go ahead. You’ve earned it!” Billy replied. And very soon, you’re going to really need it, he thought.

  But when the hum of the Tesla coil ceased abruptly, there was a moment of weightlessness, followed by a teeth-rattling thump!

  “Oh,” Billy said, recovering. “I suppose we’ve landed now.”

  [ 59 ]

  Edward Teach awoke when he thumped onto the floor of his Arcadia stateroom.

  “Good God. What in the name of Slim is happening?”

  There was no one there to answer.

  He tried gaining his feet and found himself floating to the ceiling, from which he rebounded with a thump that sent a shiver through his body. He found himself slowly floating back down to the floor.

  Teach emerged from his stateroom beside the ladder, and instead of checking further around the stateroom ring, tried to climb the ladder. Instead he went sailing through the hatchway and across the main chamber of the ship. He yelled as he flew, to no avail.

  At the last second before he struck the farther wall, Edward Teach saw what could have been none other than an apparition, disappearing aft into the cargo hold. For an instant the ghastly figure turned and regarded him, then went into the darkness beyond. In the split second before he impacted the wood paneling with his head, he could have sworn it was the ghost of Will Quinlan, dripping with blood. Quinlan’s face was distorted, however, with one side of his mouth pulled down while the other was pulled up into a twisted grin.

  Teach thumped into the wall face first and the flames of a thousand candles flared and winked out in his head.

  [ 60 ]

  Denys Jay-Patten was the first into Jonathan Conklin’s stateroom. He expected to find the doctor resting peacefully. What he found instead was the grim repetition of what he had seen in Abigail Ross’s stateroom.

  Two Hats entered the doorway behind him, took one look and swallowed hard.

  A faceless head rested on the floor in the center of the room. The face did, however, hold Conklin’s glasses. The various other parts of the body were strewn about the place. Blood was everywhere.

  “We know it wasn’t Conklin,” Denys said.

  “Come,” Two Hats said. “This place tomb. Breathing people should not be here.”

  Denys nodded, turned and followed Two Hats back outside. “Yes. Let’s close the door to this place. We must not allow entry. I think Ekka should see this. Maybe she can somehow make sense of it.”

  “We have special problem,” Two Hats said quietly.

  “Yes. We have an insane killer in our midst.”

  [ 61 ]

  Billy found Edward Teach’s form resting on one of the platforms. The man was still breathing. He shook Teach and the man’s eyes fluttered open. He had a gash in his forehead that would need treating, but for the moment there were bigger fish to fry.

  “Hey!” Billy said. “Teach!”

  “Huh?”

  “You all right?”

  Teach groaned. “My head hurts. Something awful.”

  “You’ve been injured. Come on. Let’s get you on your feet.”

  Billy lifted Teach as though he were a small sack of grain. “I’m really strong on the moon. I like it here.”

  “I saw somebody,” Teach said.

  “Who?” Billy asked. “Who did you see?”

  “One of my pirates. A fellow named Will Quinlan. But there’s no way he could have stowed away for two weeks without us knowing about it.”

  “Quinlan, you say?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I suppose we’ll know him when we see him because he’s not one of us. Tell me, was he a crazy murdering son of a bitch?”

  Teach shook his head. “No. Quinlan was a good boy. One of the best. Why? Why do you ask?”

  “Because someone murdered Abigail Ross. I was on my way to tell Jack when I found you.”

  “Good God. I don’t envy you your task.”

  “Want to go with me?” Billy asked.

  “I’ve nothing better to do.”

  “Come on, then. Maybe we can learn to walk in this insane gravity along the way.”

  [ 62 ]

  Two Hats and John Koothrappally stood outside Abigail Ross’s stateroom door. They waited for Jack Ross to come. Billy would be giving the man the bad news about now, and they suspected Ross would go instantly berserk, and any man with a powerful robotic right arm should not be permitted to do so. Each person on board the Arcadia had seen how the man regarded and treated his wife. He had loved her deeply, as much as any man could love a woman, and in particular, as much any man would worship a woman who was no longer capable of returning the sentiment. Very shortly there would be hell to pay.

  [ 63 ]

  In the cargo hold the giant robot came to life when the presence returned. Its lone red eye tracked to him, scanned him, then made a complex set of internal calculations. The robot waited.

  The presence stood before the robot and removed its face.

  The internal clicking from the robot rose to a fever pitch.

  It stated one word. “Recognition.”

  [ 64 ]

  Judah Merkam came to with the faces of Ekka Gagarin, Nikola Tesla and Denys Jay-Patten looking down at him.

  “What? What?” he asked, attempting to rise but was held back by some invisible force.

  “You are strapped to your bunk,” Tesla stated. “This was done for the purposes of protection.”

  “Where are we?” Merkam asked. “We’re not under spin.”

  “We’re on the moon,” Ekka said. “We made it.”

  Merkam digested the news slowly. “Did I...faint?”

  “We don’t know,” Ekka said. “I found you on the floor. You were talking, but not making any sense. How do you feel?”

  “I...my head feels as though I am in a fog. But the fog is lifting, I think.”

  Ekka felt his forehead, then withdrew her hand. “You have no fever.”

  “Can you untie me?” Merkam asked.

  “Let’s wait a bit on that, old chap,” Tesla said. “We don’t know when or if you will return to a...fugue state.”

  Merkam nodded slowly.

  Ekka brought her face close to Merkam’s. “Tell us, Jude. Whom do you consider a...”

  “A what?”

  “A...‘bitch’?” she said, just above a whisper.

  “What?”

  “It is important, Jude,” she said. “You were talking about ‘killing the bitch’ and it being ‘a mercy’. Do you remember anything of it?”

  “Certainly not. Why would my ramblings when I was not myself be important?”

  Ekka stood, and as she did, she rose several inches. Tesla put out a hand to keep her feet to the deck and found himself drifting upward. Jay-Patten put his hands on both their shoulders and held them to the deck.

  “The moon’s gravity,” Merkam said. “It will take some getting used to. Are we near the alien compound?”

  “How should I know?” Ekka stated.

  “We are at the coordinates you laid out,” Tesla said. “I see no evidence of any alien structures through any of the windows. But, then again, we haven’t had time to look.”

  “Good. They are on the other side of the ridge from us. That is why I chose this spot and carefully selected our approach. We were not to be seen. Did Billy pilot us in?”

  “He did,” Ekka said. “He’s a good pilot.”

  “I thought he would be,” Merkam replied. He looked around. “Where is he?”

  “He’s giving Jack Ross some bad news,” Tesla stated.

  “What bad news?”

  Ekka and Tesla exchanged glances.

  “Out with it,” Merkam said. “I must know. Now.”

  Ekka bent forward again. “Abigail Ross has been brutally murdered.”

  None of
the three expected to see the abrupt change in Merkam’s demeanor. His face contorted and his lips quivered. The tears began.

  “I loved her,” Merkam said. “I never stopped loving her.”

  [ 65 ]

  “Jack!” Billy shouted.

  But the man was already in motion to the engine room door.

  “Let him go, Billy,” Teach said. “He could kill one of us with that arm of his. He’ll go crazy either quickly or slowly.”

  “I’m wondering,” Billy said. “Why we came here in the first place.”

  “I’ve been wondering the same myself. If Merkam wakes up, I think someone is going to need to have a long talk with him about what is expected of us. I don’t relish leaving this craft, but if it’s necessary, I’d say we’d better be about our business and get ourselves home, and soon.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Billy agreed.

  “We’d better follow Jack. Make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone.”

  “Yeah.”

  The two men slowly made their way out of the engine room and into the hulking, quiet emptiness of the Arcadia.

  [ 66 ]

  Jonathan Conklin put out dishes, food crumbs and dirty glasses. Once he completed setting up the cargo hold to suit his purposes, he strapped two of the oxygen cylinders onto the back of one of the diving suits and checked the hoses. He slid into the suit, placed the bulky helmet over his head and stepped to the cargo hatch doorway. He lifted the portmanteau he had taken from Judah Merkam’s stateroom. Inside it was a detailed map of the lunar surface, including the position of the alien base.

  He turned and regarded the robot. After a moment the red light on its brow faded. The machine had switched itself off.

  Conklin checked the seals on his suit one last time, then pulled the latch on the first cargo hold doorway. When it opened, he stepped through and closed it. The last doorway stood before him.