20 Million Leagues Over the Sea (16 page)

"And call me Caroline," the other Boolean
said with a nod.

"Fair enough," she replied, "but only if you
call me Gemma. Let us reserve the 'Miss' for when Mr. Wallace
graces us with his presence."

"Fair enough," Nigel replied with the
slightest hint of a smile. "We only had time to add a few globes.
Mostly we wished to display our destination, so we stopped with
Mars. There's room to add one or two more, but it may be a later
Victory Class vessel that gets to add Jupiter. Assuming they leave
enough room for the proper gearage underneath."

"Gearage?"

"Yes. That's what keeps it all moving. It's
just like the smaller models, where the planets orbit the sun on
rotating poles. They are still connected here, but underneath the
floor. The gearage takes up an entire chamber on the deck beneath
us."

The planets were turning, turning, turning.
The entire works had been polished to a blinding brightness. The
Earth's globe was a stunning blue and green sphere with a silvery
moon ambling around it. The satellite itself was mounted on its own
pole and driven by its own gearage, visible above Earth's orbital
track. Any observer would have to mind those gears when taking a
closer peek at Earth.

Mars was decorated with various shades of
red, from scarlet to cinnabar to crimson, with splotches of coffee
colour here and there to indicate topographical features -- ones
she had seen on Pugh's maps. She recognized this globe as the twin
of the one she had seen in the conference room earlier that day,
only less dusty. The icy poles were highlighted in hues of stark
bright white and light blue.

Nigel looked over his mechanical wonder as if
it were his firstborn. For once, she was able to listen to someone
speak about technology without having to plot some way of filching
it from them. She found the sensation refreshing.

"You'll notice that Mars and Earth are close
together in their grooves at the moment," Nigel continued. "They
are in opposition this year. That's what determined our launch
window, you know. Otherwise, the trip would take much longer.
You'll be able to watch them move apart over time. The Earth moves
much faster than Mars, as it's closer to the Sun. The folks back
home will see Mars go backwards in the sky, but that's just because
Earth is passing it by."

"Do Venus and Mercury outpace us, in turn?"
Gemma asked. "They are closer to the Sun than we are."

Nigel gave her an approving nod. "Good
observation. Yes, indeed."

The other planets moved slowly, but they kept
churning along, just the same. They rotated as they moved along in
their tracks, circles within circles. She could feel the gearage
below them, the sound of it just within range of her hearing,
almost like a great clock ticking beneath her feet.

"Is Venus broken?" she asked. "It's moving
along the track, but I don't believe it is revolving." She squinted
at the sphere again, comparing its revolutions to those of the
Earth's sphere. "Half a moment! It's revolving backwards,
Nigel."

Caroline giggled as Nigel nodded at Gemma
again. "You have keen eyes," he said. "I assure you that it is not
broken. We discovered in the past year that Venus revolves in the
opposite direction as Earth. We've been watching that planet rather
closely. We observed several Martian cylinders heading there not
long after our own Invasion. Ironic that they are the ones that
improved our technology to the point where we could watch
them!"

"Imagine how odd it would be," Caroline said,
"with the sun rising in the West!"

Gemma frowned. She had heard of the Martian
launch to Venus -- it was in the
Invasion Chronicle
, after
all -- but something about it bothered her.

"If they flew to Venus, then why are we going
to Mars?"

"The consensus is that it was just a small
Invasion force," Nigel replied. "Our mission is to destroy the main
nest, to prevent any more such forces from going out. The
Venusians, if there are any, are on their own, unfortunately. We
only have the one ship, so far. We're not even certain that Venus
is inhabited beneath those roiling clouds. We know that Mars
is."

"Besides," Caroline said, "it's more likely
there'll be technology on Mars."

"One of the purposes of the orrery is to keep
up morale," Nigel said. "It displays our current location." He
pointed at the space between the globes of Earth and Mars. "It's
difficult to see, but it is there."

There it was, a tiny model of a ship floating
between the Earth and the Moon, suspended from a much smaller
gearage system hidden in the dome above them.

"You can go in and get a closer look," Nigel
said. "The globes move slowly enough that you can avoid them. Mind
the gap in the track, though. Wouldn't want you falling in."

Gemma stepped beyond the rail barrier. She
crossed the gleaming brass tracks of the orbit of Mars and its two
circling moons and wandered between it and the Earth. The wire from
which the ship was suspended was so thin it was nearly invisible.
She had to stand on her toes to get a good look at it. Like the
ship on her shoulder patch, the model was a tiny steamship.

Caroline laughed at her expression. "Cap'n
has a sense of humour," she said. "It was his idea to use a model
of the original
Thunder Child
. I think it's brilliant!"

"I am glad you approve, Mr. McLure," a voice
called out from the door.

They all turned to see the captain standing
just inside the chamber. Nigel and Caroline snapped to attention
with a sharp salute. Gemma squared her shoulders and hid her hands
in the folds of her skirt. The reticule hanging from her wrist
bounced off her leg and reminded her of its incriminating contents.
She felt a renewed sense of urgency to destroy it, but she did not
feel safe exiting too quickly.

"As you were. Oh, don't mind me, Miss
Llewellyn," the captain said. Moreau had planted his feet as if he
were on the deck of a boat on the rolling main instead of on a ship
with manufactured gravity. Perhaps he still had his sea legs.

"Pray continue your examination. I'd like to
hear your observations, as a natural philosopher, of our little
treasure here. What else do you notice?"

Gemma bit the inside of her lip, trying to
think of something clever to say. This was all so new to her. It
was time to bring her powers of observation to bear. She looked at
the tiny model again and mentally traced its course.

"The ship is not aimed at Mars, Captain. It
is heading for empty space."

"Ah, perhaps I can clear that mystery up for
you, my lady. We cannot drive straight there, as if we were in a
motor car. We are riding the currents and the winds on the sea of
space, except now it is gravity and orbits with which we must
contend. We are not so much driving there as sailing there, jumping
from orbit to orbit rather than following a road. Like a whaler
chasing its prey, we are aiming for a moving target. We're used to
destinations standing still when we are on Earth. But we are not on
Earth any more. We have to change our frame of reference when we
think about movement out here in the wilds of space."

"I agree," Nigel said. "We are aiming for
where it will be when we are in the vicinity, rather than where it
is now. As you can see here, everything in the universe is always
in motion."

Moreau picked up the thread again. "We're
plodding along now at a paltry kilometre per second, so we'll reach
the orbit of the moon on the fourth day of our journey. We won't
actually pass by the moon, though, as it is waning crescent now. It
will be new moon by then, and on the other side of the planet from
us. We will simply cross the line of its orbit. A good milestone,
nonetheless, as we will accelerate from there. Just giving the
engines a good shakedown. Then we'll speed up until Braking Day and
take our time decelerating to our destination. Mr. Davies, have you
shown Miss Llewellyn the other feature of the orrery yet? May
I?"

The captain sauntered over to a large switch
on the wall just inside the chamber door. As he flipped it down,
the chamber went dark, except for the sun in the middle. It painted
the room in a soft warm twilight. The others moved past the railing
and stood with her. The tallest figure stopped beside her and
pointed to the ceiling.

"Look up," he said gently.

She gasped. In a day so full of wonders, it
was difficult to imagine one more. Above the spheres that marched
so serenely around the tracks of brass was a series of glowing
stars. The North Star shone brightly above them. She didn't know
the names of the other stars, but she did recognize the
constellations they formed. The Zodiac glittered in a great circle
across the ceiling. Next to Taurus the Bull was Orion, the Hunter
himself. Gemma stared at it, the distinctive pattern holding his
ground in front of the Bull.

"Luminescent paint," Moreau continued,
keeping his voice low, as if he were whispering in a library. He
pointed to a crimson star in Orion. "Betelgeuse is even the correct
shade of red."

He wasn't standing as close to Gemma as he
had during the Flare Drill, but he was close enough to make her
uncomfortable. The two Booleans stood just beyond him. Even in the
darkness, she could feel that Caroline's eyes were full of her own
close-up view of the captain. The young lady hadn't made a peep
since Moreau had entered the room.

The rendering of Orion reminded her of
Brightman's message, and she wondered if this tableau, as beautiful
as it was, concealed any of the secrets that she was to uncover. At
the moment, she could not see how. If she did have free access to
this room, though, then she would have plenty of time to
search.

The four of them stood in silence, with only
the grinding of the gears below them to break the stillness. She
turned slowly, looking at each of the constellations in turn,
trying to ignore the cloud of Men-T-Fresh Tonic that enveloped the
man beside her.

She stepped away from the group, making a
great show of studying Virgo. For now, it was better to maintain
her distance, even if that did have the effect of attracting him
even more, as it did some men. She stopped beside Caroline.

"It feels like night is all around us," Gemma
whispered to Caroline.

"Oh, it just seems that way, Miss Llewellyn,"
she replied. She was still whispering, but Gemma noticed the subtle
slip back into formality. "But if you think about it, it's always
daytime, too."

"All the universe is in motion, all the
time," Moreau said.

His sudden interjection into their private
conversation made Gemma narrow her eyes in annoyance, even though
she knew her expression could not be seen in the darkness. She
could hear Caroline fidgeting next to her as the captain continued
to speak.

"Over the course of a day on Earth, it feels
like we are sitting still and the sun is moving, but really it is
the planet's rotation that creates night and day. Now that you are
out in space, Miss Llewellyn, you will have to think differently
about the world. You are out in the great blue yonder, where the
sun never sets."

He paused. There was hopefulness in his
words, some expectation in them that begged for some poetic reply
from her. Gemma maintained her steely silence.

"Well." Moreau broke the silence with a
single clap of his hands. "I must be on my way. I thought I would
check in on my way back to the bridge. I need to join the next
watch since it's our first day out. If you'll pardon me, Miss
Llewellyn. Mr. Davies, Mr. McLure, carry on!"

The two Booleans saluted him in the shadows.
When he left, Caroline silently walked to the door and turned the
lights back on. She slipped out the door without another word,
leaving Gemma and Nigel blinking at each other in the harsh
light.

Gemma raised her eyebrows and looked at him,
but he did not seem as surprised as she was.

"Interesting," he observed.

Gemma answered him with an expectant
look.

Nigel took a deep breath before he responded
to her unspoken question. "You're new to the ship, so you may not
have noticed. The orrery is nowhere near the shortest path from the
bridge to the parlour."

"Oh," Gemma replied softly.

"I'd like to show you something else, if you
have the time," he said. When she nodded, he said, "Please, follow
me."

He dimmed the lights again and led her to one
of the smaller bubbles off the main chamber. He pulled a lever. The
wall rolled back the same way the wall at the station had,
revealing the deep black of space beyond. The stars twinkled in the
far distance, much farther and colder than the ones on the ceiling.
It gave her the feeling that she could just step through the window
and dive into the night.

"I thought I would show you the real thing,"
Nigel said softly. He stared out at the darkness with a far-away
look behind his spectacles. "I think of my wife every time I come
here. She would love this view. She loves the stars so. Last year,
the plan was for her to come with us as part of Frau Knopf's staff.
But then we found out she was with child. I told her perhaps next
time a ship launches, but not for War--"

"But if we were not going to War, Nigel,"
Gemma pointed out, "we might not be going at all. Bureaucracies
love to waste money internally, but they require extraordinary
circumstances and rewards to explore. They don't just toddle off to
see something just because it's there. Even the original explorers
searched for gold for their kings and souls for their pope. Surely
you've seen this in your time in the TIA."

"I believe you are correct. If we find
resources on Mars, the Railroad Barons will find a way to bring
them home." He lowered his voice to a whisper and glanced towards
the still-open door. "I also wanted to make a private request of
you, outside of Caroline's hearing."