by Raven Bond
Chapter 19
Bridge, Wind Dancer, Yang tze Hills
Will had left a grieving Abigail with Saira in the cargo hold. He charged to the Bridge and towards the front windows to stand by Rogers.
“Lawrence!” the Captain snapped, What's the situation with those things that were following us?”
“Captain,” Rogers greeted him, relief evident in his voice, “The. . .enemy seems to be beaten back inside the hill.” He lowered his voice, “What the hell are those things, if I might ask?”
“The hands of a great evil,” Will murmured to his First Officer. William Hunting Owl continued in a louder voice, “Mr. Rogers, I have the Bridge.”
“Capitan has the Bridge aye,” Rogers agreed.
“Jarro, turn us about so that the coil cannon can get a good shot down that gorge. Naomi, compliments to Jaime. He is to aim a full charge into the small opening where the gorge and hill meet, as soon as we come to bear.” The bridge crew braced themselves as the large Helmsman turned the air ship. Tesla staggered onto the Bridge. He crossed over to where Will stood.
“Do you know what you're doing?” Tesla whispered, as Jarro turned the ship gracefully from its center to face the gorge.
“Killing a great evil,” Will whispered back. “I hope.”
“But think of all that we can learn from it if we can study it!” Tesla pleaded. He stretched out his hands towards the Captain, as if beseeching him to reconsider.
“There must be another way!” Tesla said. Will turned towards the Savant. His eyes were as predatory as his namesake, Hunting Owl.
“What other way?” Will asked Tesla coldly. “What other way can you think of that will assure me that we will not all succumb to those lesser servants, let alone become like Lord Hadley?” Tesla's shoulders sagged as if all the air had gone out of him.
“There is not a way,” he admitted. Will nodded grimly.
“Cannon reports target in sights,” Naomi said.
Will looked down at the small entrance. He pulled up his goggles.
“Fire,” the Capitan of the Wind Dancer ordered. The bolt of man-made lightning zapped from the nose of the cannon to strike at the entrance to the Invader vessel. The entrance was a small opening in the leviathan, but it was large enough.
Finding nothing to ground to in the outer hull, the hellish charge moved down the ghostly hallway and through the open doorway of the engine room. Here it found something to ground to in the giant ball. Piercing the skin of the ball caused all the energy stored inside it to be released at once.
Back on the Wind Dancer, it appeared for a moment that the bolt had done nothing. Will stared at the opening defiantly. Then the entire hill slowly shook and the top of it seemed to collapse into itself, leaving it several feet shorter. An exhaust of something very bright and very hot came from the where the entrance had been. The molten stuff wiped away the remains of the camp, together with the dead bodies of the 'lesser servants'. Will let out his breath, and turned to Rogers.
“Well, I think that takes care of it,” Will said. He looked at Tesla. “I believe that Lady Hadley could use your presence right about now. Please tell her that I shall pay my respects as soon as I can leave here.” Tesla bowed towards Will.
“Of course, Capitan Hunting Owl. I shall do as you ask,” Tesla said. His mustache twitched as his lips tightened. Tesla looked out at the collapsed hill that had hidden the alien vessel for so long.
“We are all very lucky,” the Savant said. “You do know that, theoretically at least, the explosion could have ignited the very atmosphere around us, destroying the entire world.” Will startled at his extraordinary statement.
“You never said anything about that,” Will accused the Savant. Tesla shrugged.
“I did say 'theoretically',” Tesla said. “My own calculations showed that the outcome was much more likely to be what actually did happen, I am pleased to say.”
“Well, that is good,” Will said. “Next time that I am about to destroy the whole world, I would like to know that is a possibility!” Will frowned and waved his hand in negation. “Strike that. On second thought, Tesla, I do not want to know.”
“Very good, Captain Hunting Owl,” Tesla replied with a shallow, punctilious little bow. “With your permission, I shall go to Lady Hadley now.”
“Permission granted,” Will said. He watched as the tall, gangly man left the Bridge. Rogers joined Will as he watched the Savant depart.
“What exactly was 'it' Captain?” Rogers asked seriously. “Was it really an Invader?”
“Aiya,” Will replied. “and the Invader was still at home, or so it appears.” He started to say more when Naomi's light soprano voice carried crisply across the Bridge.
“Crow's Nest reports sighting air ship, starboard ten by eight. Silhouette indicates possibly armed.” Her words galvanized the Bridge Lookouts to train their electronic lenses at the coordinates she had given.
“I have her,” one of the lookouts announced while peering through his lens, “Ten miles out, ten by eight starboard true.” Will moved to the Lookout’s elbow before he had finished speaking. All Will needed now was some local bandit to happen by just as they caused an explosion that practically shouted 'look at me!'
Besides Hong Kong itself, China was in almost as bad a shape as Europe after the War. Outside of the swaths of Smoke-ruined cities and farmlands, the green areas that had been spared were precious. They had been taken over by a shadowy patchwork of petty warlords. The bandits and warlords were mostly as bad as raiders themselves. Some of the thugs had obtained modern weapons, left over from the War including, it was said, the occasional air warship. Legitimate traders gave the interior of China as wide a berth as they could.
“Good eyes, Yoshi,” Will said, praising the lookout. “let's see.”
Yoshi turned aside. Will twisted the electric lenses for a moment, then pursed his lips at what he saw. The ship bore no ensign; that was a bad sign. Like Dancer, and most warships, she was colored a light blue-grey all over, to help her blend into the background of most sky conditions. Will could make out that she was built on the lines of a battleship. The bulges of coil cannons at her nose, and rocket turrets along her flanks, were visible even from this far away. He frowned. She seemed better-maintained than most warlord balloons did. There was no sign that she'd seen them, and Will would as soon keep it that way. If the Wind Dancer was a shark, yon ship was a killer whale.
“Lawrence, come have a look at this,” Will said. “We might have a live one here. She appears to be a Bounty-Class-battle-cruiser with no colors flyin'.” He stepped back as the First Officer came up to the viewer stand.
“Hmm, closer to a Russian Basilisk, I would say,” Rogers murmured as he peered through the lens. “That dorsal turret wasn't part of the original design; she probably goes all the way back to the War” He clucked his tongue as he gazed through the lens. “She seems cleaner than most warlord toys. What response shall we give, Captain?”
“Well,” Will mused, “If we are real lucky, she didn't see the big fireworks we just lit. Hopefully it is some tin-plated warlord showing the flag to somebody, and not a fighter. I'd rather not get into another fight if we can avoid it. I'm hoping that we saw the devil before he saw us, and we can just move on by each other.” He turned to McGuire at the 'wave station. “Michael, any chatter from them?”
“Nary a peep that seems to be coming from them Cap'n,” Michael McGuire answered. His brogue thickened as he focused on the faint signals he was tuning to. McGuire shook his head while frowning in concentration, his fingers constantly turning dials. “They must be running silent, else I'd have heard something from them.”
“Or they do not have a working Aetherwave,” Will concluded. “Maybe we are that lucky.” After the last few days, Will would take some luck. The other ship was a good thirty miles away. If they had lazy lookouts, the Dancer should be over the horizon before their Lookouts blinked.
“The latter is more likely than n
ot,” Rogers said with a snort. “These back country warlords are always short of material and trained people, as well as professionalism. Some of them simply think that owning an airship brings them 'good joss' as they say. Mostly they use them to capture any merchant traffic coming through their area, when they aren't terrorizing their own people with them.”
“Still, that is a lot of terror out there.” Will opined, pulling on one of his braids as he thought. “I would as soon go wide around him.” Rogers eyed the distant dot of the other ship.
“Agreed,” he finally allowed sourly. “We've no business dealing with a battleship, however much it pains me to let a 'warlord' pass.
“Jarro,” Will ordered, while keeping his eyes on the stranger’s ship, “Come to one nine seven, steady on. Let us see if we can just slip away from her, shall we? Naomi, sound prepare-for-air-assault if you would be so kind.” Naomi's voice echoed through the ship speakers, as did the alarm bells.
“Captain,” Abigail's voice cried out behind him, “is the ship under attack?” Abigail, followed closely by Tesla, burst on to the Bridge, both of them breathless. Saira followed behind them, waving her arms at Will, as if to say their presence was not her fault. Will reminded himself that he would have to have a talk with both Abigail and Tesla, about what 'action stations' meant for non-crew members. Little things like 'don't storm onto the Bridge in the middle of a possible battle' came to mind. Taking a calming breath, he smiled as he turned to face them.
“Abigail, Tesla,” he walked away from the window to greet them. “I'm sorry about your Da Abigail,” Will said seriously. “For what it's worth, we just torched the whole nest of them.” He saw Abigail swallow, and stand a little straighter.
“Thank you for that, Captain. Wu maintains that there is nothing more that may be done. In fact,” she said voice raising slightly higher, “he is not even sure why he is dead.” She swallowed again, and continued in a lower voice, “but he is. When Tesla and I heard the alarm, we ran to see if we could help.”
“We have spotted a mean-looking brute of an air ship a bit away from us.” Will waved a hand in dismissal of the threat. “He is not being unfriendly though, so we are just being careful. Likely as not, we will just pass each other by.”
“Cannon discharge,” Rogers warned from where he still stood at the lookout station. The bridge was suddenly filled with a white light that spilled through the window. Everyone staggered to stay upright. The ship shuddered as the air around it was super-heated by the enemy's coil-cannon discharge. Will looked at the two of them, apology on his mahogany face.
“Then again, maybe we will not,” Will said shortly. “Jarro!” Will ordered, spinning back around. “Turn to two three zero! Naomi! Tell Devi all power to the engines!” There was another flash and the ship shuddered again Abigail and Tesla made their way to stand by Will.
“Who are they?” Abigail asked as they all clustered around the chart table.
“No idea,” Will said shortly. “They do not have any colors. My guess would be some local warlord wants us for his collection. He is too big to fight, so we are running. Either we will outrun him, or we will trick him, or something.” Tesla's mouth tightened.
“You are not going to fight them?” Tesla protested. “We cannot allow the Invader energy source to be captured by villains, Captain.”
“I know that, your wizardness,” Will shot back. “However, that is a battleship out there. He has got three times our tonnage, four times our energy magazine. Likely as not, guided rockets as well. Being a law-abiding ship, we do not! I would like nothing better than to fry him where he floats, but I cannot out-spark him and I cannot close on him without getting pounded by his rockets. If you have any brilliant ideas, I would be glad to hear them.” There was another flash, and the ship shuddered again.
“Damn those double-coil cannons,” Will muttered looking up at the ceiling. Bigger warships mounted extra cannons and engines. While one cannon was firing, the others would be charging. This gave them the advantage of firing twice as often as a ship the Wind Dancer's size could manage.
“They have turned to pursue, Captain,” Rogers reported. “We have a good head start though. The question of course. . .” Rogers looked at the two passengers and abruptly stopped talking.
“The question is,” Abigail finished for him, “can we get away before he achieves electrical resonance with this ship and burns through our hull?” The others turned to look at her in surprise.
“I do have a degree in Energetics you know,” Abigail said in exasperation, pushing the loose strands of hair back from her face.
“Quite so, Milady,” Rogers gave a nod of acknowledgement to her. “We may not have to entertain such an outcome for a while. Dancer is tougher than most of her class. Even a ship of that size will have a hard time maintaining both speed and firing double coils for any period of time.”
“There are mountains away to the north,” Will said confidently. “They are covered in nice, thick clouds. We are making for them now. When we get there, we will try to lose the ship in the clouds.” What Will didn’t say was that they would likely have at least one burn-through before they reached the mountains. Dancer had been through worse, but it would not be fun.
The odds were some of them were going to die. Will needed to figure out how to make that number as few as possible. First thing was to arrange for Abigail and Tesla to abandon the ship by parachuting down on air foils. Once on the ground the enemy ship would ignore them. That would see them safe.
Once Dancer made it to the mountains, the ship could hide among the clouds. Hopefully they could ambush the battle cruiser and cripple their props or something. Then they could swing back to pick up the scholarly-types. Will's planning was interrupted by Tesla.
“Captain,” the Savant said quietly. “If you are sure that these 'warlords' cannot be talked out of their attack, I believe that I know how we may destroy them quickly. I assume that your coil cannon uses the standard coherent light transmission system for the discharge?”
“They are Warlords, Tesla.” William Hunting Owl looked at the savant in surprise.
“The main difference between Warlords and your ordinary raider,” Will explained, “is that Warlords tend to stay in one place. Yon ship attacked us without so much as a ‘how do you do’. I doubt that they are interested in anything except the ship. If they cannot get her intact they will take what they can by salvaging the wreck. They will sell as slaves those of us they don’t kill. That is, even if we surrendered, which I do not aim to do.”
“And yeah,” Will looked at Tesla wearily. “We have a double horn coil cannon with the two guide beams, like most everyone else. What do you have in mind?”
“Terrible things that we humans do to each other,” Tesla lamented, shaking his head while stroking his mustache. He shook himself like a large terrier, and then looked at Will eagerly.
“I beg your pardon for asking about the cannon, Captain, but it is always good to make certain of these things.” Tesla turned decisively to Abigail. “We will attach the Aether pump to the ships cannon,” he said.
“The wiring is not built to take that level of power,” Abigail objected.
“Now that we know how to modulate the pump, it will only be a small trickle of power,” Tesla responded. “Well within the tolerances of the systems. I designed the originals, I would remind you.”
“What are you two blathering about?” Will demanded crossly. Tesla turned back to face him.
“I should like your permission to modify the cannon to accept power from the Aether pump, which, I believe you call 'the thingamajig',” Tesla said. “I believe that it would increase the destructive power of the cannon enough to enable you to defeat the enemy ship.”
Will looked at Rogers at this extraordinary announcement. Rogers shook his head in negation. Will turned back to Tesla.
“What would we need to do?” Will asked skeptically.
“Upon returning to the workshop, Lady Hadley
and I should be able to make the connections rather swiftly,” Tesla said. “Once we have done so, fire your cannon at them as you normally would.”
Will did not look back at Rogers. This would be his decision alone. He would prefer to fight than run, but he was not going to be stupid about it.
“It will increase our wattage to the cannon?” Will pressed Tesla, “By how much?” Tesla's body quivered at the question, while he looked off into the distance calculating. He blinked, then refocused on Hunting Owl.
“More than sufficient, Captain I assure you,” Tesla promised.
The ship shuddered again from another strike. There was no way that they would make the mountains, Will despaired. Well, he had done crazier things than try to fight a battle cruiser head on.
“Go,” Will said with a wave at the two of them. “Interphone the instant that you are ready,” He ordered. He then looked at Abigail. “And both of you stay down there!” He ordered.
“Very good, Captain,” Tesla literally rubbed his hands together in glee. “Come Lady Hadley!”
Abigail paused, looked at Will as if as if she would protest for a moment, then swallowed and nodded at Tesla. Pushing her hair back, she looked at Will solemnly.
“Good luck, Captain Hunting Owl,” Abigail said. She turned and followed Tesla. Abigail and Tesla left the Bridge at a brisk trot. His First Officer leaned in close to Will.
“Do you know what you are doing, letting him tinker with that alien thing on the ship?” Rogers demanded. Will barked a laugh at this.
“No,” Will replied. “But I doubt that we will be any worse off than we are now. Besides, if he is right, then we might at least give them a black eye.” The ship shuddered from another strike. Rogers grabbed the viewer stanchion as the ship dodged and slewed around in the super-heated air.
“Well, amen to that, at least,” Rogers said grimly.
Reaching the workshop, Tesla ran over to the scrap heap in the corner. Flinging flotsam about as he searched, he held up two copper rods, as long as his forearm, in triumph.
