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

by George Wier

  Ekka placed her hand on his shoulder, “We are here because of the sacrifices of those good men. We cannot let their gift to us become chaff in the wind.”

  Tesla replied, “We are on a battered ship in the ether, with a shaking engine that may slip its pins at any time and destroy us. We are hoping to return to earth with only half as much oxygen as is needed. I see no way to be cheerful about the gift we have, much less how we will be alive in three days.”

  Billy said, “That you can think at all is a gift, Nikola. Your mind, your brilliant mind, can figure all this out and get us home. I know it can. I have faith in you.” He walked to the window and stared into the ether.

  Tesla wasn’t expecting praise. “I can think as long as we are alive. I can do that.”

  Ekka said, “Concentrate on whichever dilemma you see fit. If nothing else it will keep your mind off more maudlin things.”

  Billy motioned for Ekka and she joined him at the window. He said, “I didn’t want to add to his plate, but look there.”

  Coming from the moon towards the Arcadia were three ships with wide, translucent sails shaped like the wings of a dragonfly. Prism- colored lights glowed along the edges and danced across the surface in irregular patterns. The body of the ship was long and slender, with two barrels extending forward below the nose.

  “Do we have anything left with which to fight?”

  Billy held up his hands, “Only these. My guns are empty.”

  Ekka said, “Bring Tesla here. Let him see.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “He deserves to know.”

  Billy brought Nikola to the window and showed him the ships. He studied them in silence before saying, “Their power is from solar sails. The sails derive all needed energy from the sun.”

  Billy said, “So we can’t outrun them.”

  “No.”

  “And we have no weapons except a few firearms and swords. Do you have any ideas?”

  Tesla said, “Scour the ship for anything useful. Leave out nothing. Bring it all back here and we will see what we have.”

  “That’s it?”

  Tesla said, “You will be surprised what we may come up with in such a search. I am right on this. Now go. I want to study their ships.”

  PART VI:

  THE RETURN

  [ 101 ]

  The Arcadia shimmied with each thump of the transmogrifier. Tendrils of blue smoke emerged from the machine. Billy regarded it for a moment and then looked to Ekka, who shook her head. They were in the engine room of the ill-fated craft, floating in the air before Merkam’s monstrous machine. Its hundreds of gears resembled that of an overblown Swiss timepiece. The glass casing covering it was shattered. Bits of cloth, tiny pieces of human flesh, bone and hair stuck to the turning gears, adhered there with the burnt umber of pureed and dried human blood. They dared not turn the machine off. It was their only hope of making it to Earth alive. And yet, it must be repaired.

  Billy scratched his head.

  Ekka put out her hand and touched his shoulder. “I must take Denys’s diamonds back to Tesla. For some reason, I feel they are important. Can you manage here?”

  “Oh, I don’t know about ‘manage’, but I will do something. I don’t know what, but I’ll think of something.”

  With Ekka’s departure, Billy was alone with the machine. He removed Ross’s body from the engine room and placed it in the horror chamber that was his late wife’s stateroom. At least the two were together in death. Billy wracked his mind to think of something, anything that Ross or Merkam had said about the transmogrifier— anything that would give him a clue as to how to proceed. No doubt up on the bridge, Tesla was grappling with the dilemma of the approaching alien ships.

  Billy closed his eyes and conjured images from the past.

  They had been in Colorado Springs. He was taking his first tours of the Arcadia, his eyes wide and feet uncertain on the metal decks.

  He remembered a moment when Ross asked him to calibrate one of the small drive mechanisms at the base of the machine because Billy’s hands were smaller and more agile, and Billy was far more limber than the steam engineer. But that wouldn’t help. The problem was something else!

  Then, with his eyes closed, Billy allowed himself to move his mind outward, into the machine itself. To pervade it.

  Conklin had fought with Ross in the engine room. Even as he was dying, Ross forced Conklin’s body into the transmogrifier and it turned the Ripper’s body into so much grist. Billy understood, quite abruptly.

  “Yes!” he said aloud. He kicked off from the ceiling and grasped the speaker cone. “Tesla! Are you there?”

  “I’m here,” the tired voice came back. “What is it?”

  “I’m in the engine room. I think I know how to get the transmogrifier running properly again. I’m surprised it hasn’t completely blown thus far, but I think I know the answer as to why.”

  “Can you fix it?”

  “It’s not a problem of fixing it. It’s a problem of cleaning it. But we can’t shut it down or the moon will grab us and pull us back and the aliens will catch us with our pants down.”

  “Cleaning it. Hmph. Mr. Gostman, you may proceed and spare me the details. But be careful.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s always easier to clean the crud off the wagon wheels when they’re turning than when they’re stationary.”

  “Very good. I’m studying these alien ships. Alert me if there’s any trouble down there. I feel that it’s getting rather close in here. We’ll have to solve the oxygen problem and the carbon dioxide build-up problem soon enough.”

  “I’ve just thought of that one as well. As a stop-gap, tell Ekka to start opening all of the spare suit tanks in the cargo hold and to close off the stateroom ring.”

  “Very good, Billy,” Tesla replied. “I told you’d we’d manage. Carry on.”

  “I’ll come up there when I’m done.”

  Billy pushed himself down to the floor and opened the base of the transmogrifier. Sure enough, he found a fifth of whisky, three-quarters full.

  “God Bless you, Steam Ross,” he said.

  [ 102 ]

  Nikola Tesla regarded the three dragonflies converging on the Arcadia. He pulled his monocle from his vest pocket and placed it before his stronger right eye, then peered into the telescope. The lead craft leapt into view after a brief moment of adjustment. For all of its shimmering beauty, its body did closely resemble that of the insect. Numerous black protuberances stuck out from the thorax like the hairs of an insect. The craft’s ribbed body was reminiscent of the wasp. And at the aft, almost hidden from view was the stinger that told him the rest of the tale. A steady blue flame emanated from the craft’s wasp-like tail, which meant that the craft’s main propulsion was that of thrusters of some kind. The light from the sail somehow fed power down the body of the ship and to the engines in the aft. An idea struck him like a bolt from the blue.

  Tesla reached for the speaking tube again, but Ekka was there beside him, giving him a start.

  “Ah! Miss Gagarin. I have a thought about the alien ships.”

  “Yes?”

  “When they come alongside, or rather, if they should happen to come alongside, we will pull a little trick on them.”

  “Explain, please,” she stated.

  Tesla regarded her. The woman was clearly exhausted, and the blood-caked wound on her scalp looked serious. She hung limply in the air and her eyes seemed to stay open by sheer power of will.

  “I dare not explain in great detail. Suffice it to say, energy is created in this universe from a difference of potential between two terminals. The Arcadia generates a great deal of energy from its engine, which your Billy is about to repair for us.”

  “Then he’s found a way to do it?” Ekka’s eyes widened in interest.

  “He believes so. I prefer not to know his modus operandi. Let me say that I have faith in him.”

  “Billy is wonderful, Nikola.”

  Tesla
smiled. “All women have to think so of their mate, or the whole sexuality thing is rendered moot. But what I was talking about was energy. When Billy comes into close proximity to you, energy is produced, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Yes. I would say.”

  “It’s the same kind of thing between the two terminals in a battery, for instance. A bolt of power will arc between the two when they are close enough. There is always an exchange of energy. That is the underlying principle on how the Arcadia runs. So, when the alien ships draw close enough to us—and they must be very close to us—then we will reverse the polarity of the ship for a mere, say, three seconds. At that moment we must send all of the electricity from the coil out into space.”

  “But there is nothing in space for it to go to!” Ekka said.

  “Yes. Exactly. Nothing but the alien ships. A few trillion volts of electricity should take care of them.”

  “Nikola,” Ekka said gently. “When they get close behind us, I am certain that they will fire upon us from behind. We will likely never get the chance to try your plan.”

  Tesla nodded slowly, then sighed.

  Ekka held out a velvet bag to him.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  “Denys’s diamonds. They were a gift from his Cecil Rhodes.”

  “Ah yes. I remember the man.”

  Tesla unknotted the drawstring and allowed the diamonds to drift before them in the air.

  “It’s too bad we no longer have Cyclops,” Tesla stated.

  “Oh, but we have his head. Why would you want the thing? It attacked us. It very nearly killed us all.”

  Billy’s voice intruded into the cabin, “I’m about to...um...fix the transmogrifier. There may be a bit of a roar.”

  “A roar?” Ekka asked. “Billy, what are you going to do?”

  “Never you mind. Prepare for a roar in one minute. Not sure if this will work. If it doesn’t...”

  “You have to make it work, then,” Ekka said. She turned back to Tesla. “What about the robot?”

  “I have an idea. Can you bring me its head?”

  “Ugh. Yes. I can.”

  Tesla smiled. “Wait here until after Billy slays his lion.”

  Tesla began picking Denys Jay-Patten’s Rhodesian diamonds out of the air.

  [ 103 ]

  Billy Gostman retrieved the small box of matches from his shirt pocket that he and Ekka found while ransacking Jay-Patten’s stateroom. He tried to pull one of the matches from the box and a dozen matches spilled into the air, floated before him. He selected one, and then placed it at the end of the long metal dowel rod he’d found earlier in Ross’s tool box. He carefully wrapped the match and the rod with a bit of wire until satisfied it would hold. He set it in the air close by and maneuvered himself to the side of the transmogrifier.

  He unstoppered Jack Ross’s bottle of whiskey and quickly placed his finger over the hole. A bubble of amber liquid floated into the air before his eyes. Billy opened his mouth, leaned forward and snatched it out of the air. It burned its way down his throat as he swallowed it and in a moment a warm glow suffused his stomach.

  “Ahhh,” he sighed. “Well, here goes nothin’.”

  Billy held the bottle out before the transmogrifier and watched as the contents spilled out and were pulled toward the running machine. There was a loud wet chopping sound as the whiskey flowed into the inner workings of the machine.

  Billy struck the match and held it close to the machine.

  He had expected a small, momentary flash. What he got instead was the Fourth of July.

  HuuUUU-WAP!

  The flash was more of an explosion of yellow light mated with a thunderclap. The ball of flame leapt out ten feet in a straight line from the transmogrifier, immolating the spot where he had been floating moments before. The ball divided into to six equal mini-balls of fire that came rushing back to slam into the face of the machine once more.

  In less than ten seconds the flames were gone and the gears inside the machine began whirring at a much higher rate of speed.

  Billy listened. There was no unsteady thump to it, as had been there before.

  “What the hell was that?” Tesla’s voice came over the speaking tube.

  “That was a Shanghai Fire Dragon, Mr. Tesla. And your machine is fixed.”

  “God Bless you, Mr. Gostman. You’ll see Ekka headed aft along the way. Tell her not to switch the robot head on until she brings it back.”

  “Will do. What about the company we have coming?”

  “They’re still coming. We have about five minutes, maybe less. One of you will need to get in a space suit.”

  “That would be me,” Billy said.

  “I understand. All right, change of plans, then. Since we’re limited as to time, I’m coming aft. Tell Ekka to check the robot’s head for a power source we can work with.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Turn it into a weapon. If all goes well, it’ll be the biggest six-shooter you’ve ever shot, Billy The Kid.”

  “Mr. Tesla, I think you understand me. Perfectly.”

  [ 104 ]

  Ekka stuck her head down into the engine room.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were Billy The Kid?” she asked.

  Billy looked up. “I didn’t think it mattered,” he said.

  “Grab a wrench and a few other tools. There’s no telling what we’ll need.

  Billy retrieved the tools, then tensed his legs and shot upward toward her. She caught him as he emerged from the wide hatch and planted a kiss on his lips.

  “Does it matter?” he asked her.

  “It doesn’t. I still love you.”

  Billy grinned. “Same here.”

  “Let’s get aft,” she said. “I overheard the last part of that conversation. Are you sure you want to get in one of those damned suits?”

  “I don’t want you in one of those damned suits,” he said. “And that’s final.”

  “Your wish is my command.”

  “All right, then. Let’s go.”

  [ 105 ]

  The rear cargo hold appeared to be a shambles through the window beside the closed hatch. The pressure gauge beside the hatch showed a complete absence of pressure beyond the portal. The disembodied and dimmed head of Cyclops tumbled about in the vacuum beyond.

  “It’s dead space in there,” Billy said.

  A number of empty suits floated in the corridor. Several had punctures in them.

  Ekka began gathering up suits. An alien suit appeared to be the only one not riven and torn.

  “I don’t want to wear one of those things,” Billy stated.

  “You will wear it, Billy The Kid,” Ekka said, and pushed the large alien suit into his arms.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said.

  Billy put on the suit.

  Tesla came up behind them. “Where’s the robot head?”

  Billy hooked a thumb toward the glass. “In the cargo hatch. I’m going out there. You need to tell me now what to do. Out there, I’ll have to figure out things on the fly. Apparently sound doesn’t do so well without air.”

  “No. Indeed it doesn’t.”

  Ekka handed Billy the helmet. Before he could don it, she gave him a quick kiss.

  “I know. Don’t get myself killed.”

  “Yes.”

  Tesla talked as he handed Jay-Patten’s diamonds to Ekka while Billy tightened the alien helmet.

  “You have to pop the face plate off of the red eye chamber. A knife or a screwdriver should do it. You will then have to remove the ruby and replace it with one of these diamonds. Hopefully, the power cell for the head works. Once the diamond is in place, you go into the last chamber and through the wreckage so you are exposed directly to space so you will have a clear field of fire. Aim the head manually at the alien craft, then switch the robot head ON. If all goes well, the diamonds will turn the light into...something else. Something highly focused. Place my monocle over the diamond before replacing
the cover. Make sure they perfectly align. Test it at long range first, then...fire at will.”

  Ekka pointed. Through the window and past the wreckage and into the blackness of space beyond. Three points of light grew in intensity. The aliens were coming.

  “I’ll try,” Billy said through the helmet. His voice was muffled, but they could understand him. “One of you is going to have to open this hatch and then close it behind me. Fast. There will be a windstorm for a second or two.”

  “I’ll do it, of course,” Ekka said. “Nikola, please get back to the bridge.”

  “Yes. Yes ma’am. Certainly.” Tesla turned and launched himself forward.

  Ekka turned to Billy? “Are you ready?”

  “I was born ready. Are you ready?”

  She nodded.

  “Brace yourself, then,” he said. When he saw she was beside the door with her legs spread to wedge herself between one of the ship’s ribs and the panel beside the doorway, Billy looked into her eyes and said, “Do it.”

  [ 106 ]

  The moment the door was partially open, Billy ducked and allowed the rush of air to bear him inward. Behind him Ekka began cycling the door closed. Likely she was freezing to death with each passing instant.

  The door closed.

  The head of Cyclops spun about in the fresh gale, and when Billy put his hand on it the thing slowed, yet it pulled him into the slower spin along with it. He fought to ignore the blurring spin and focused on the visor of the robot head. There were two points where something could be wedged beneath the glass plate—one on each side. He took the screwdriver and pushed gently, hoping the glass wouldn’t shatter. If it did, then this particular plan would likely have to be abandoned.