Dawn of Steam: Gods of the Sun (11 page)

It was no help at all to anyone's fraying nerves that some few hours past, we struck a storm. While far from the massive storm we faced in our return to New York some months past, it was a reminder of that tragic day, and forced us to lower altitudes than we would have liked. I cannot imagine that lighting rockets or sighting our ship was at all easy for the men on the ground below, but they kept managing. Captain Fisher proved worth whatever Sir James is paying him, as he moved between the worst of the storm clouds, weaving and dodging as much as these craft can while red lights blazed all around us.

Eddy took a great risk and moved out onto the rails, bracing himself and slowly picking off one rocket crew after another. Even after witnessing American riflemen in action, I cannot imagine anyone else who might have been capable of such a feat with a single rifle amidst the buffeting of a storm and explosion of rockets. The constant shifts of the wind and movement of the ship meant that between each shot, he had to re-sight his range, but he certainly slowed the rate of fire upon us.

Undaunted by his previous near-death in a storm, Matthew was right there, bearing Eddy's second rifle, and each time one was emptied, he traded rifles with Eddy and set to removing the spent cylinder and replacing it with a new one. The more times I see that pair in action, the more impressed I become. Eddy has finally truly taken to accepting Matthew's help, and I have heard some consideration of beginning to teach him to shoot. Matthew's aunt is still objecting strenuously, though in light of the boy's previous heroism, she seems resigned to Matthew following Eddy and acting as his powder monkey.
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Amidst all of the chaos, the rest of us were mostly helpless. It is an odd feeling after all that so recently transpired, particularly my recent command. With time, I am becoming somewhat less prone to second-guessing my decisions, though the faces of some of the boys who died under my lead still haunt me, and perhaps they always will. At the very least, my fate was in my hands then. Ever since, it has moved further and further from my grasp. Our rush through danger in need of all possible haste only further highlights how out-of-control all of this seems.

My companions all seem to be handling the chaos our lives have become differently. Eddy has made some attempt to honor his friend and comrade-in-arms by continuing the card games. It is some opportunity to be social, at least, and talk among the gentlemen – and often Miss Bowe, with Miss Penn continuing as her chaperone.

Miss Coltrane keeps to her quarters and socializes primarily with Miss Wright. She hangs about the workshop a good bit while Harriet tries to repair the damage done in New Orleans to the suit. As the room is restricted to the family, we have not seen what progress she has made, but it would seem that many of the repairs are likely beyond her abilities. I do hope that it is not as severe as it appeared, but time will tell. Surely we will need it again, and in as good a condition as Miss Wright can manage.

Miss Penn continues to spend much of her time with Miss Bowe. A part of this, certainly, is that Miss Bowe seems to be the one who gives Miss Penn and her card-reading the most attention. Another is almost certainly that even now, Miss Bowe quite frightens Mr. Franzini, and he is less prone to attempting to pull Miss Penn off for conversation, which invariably turns to argument, when Miss Bowe is around. She has not yet intervened in one of these – and has not been asked to – but Mr. Franzini still avoids her much of the time, and when they are in the same area, he watches his words more carefully than is typical. Even when Miss Bowe simply elects to attend the card games, he often finds an excuse to absent himself soon after.

In the meanwhile, the Larkin woman continues to make a pain of herself. As a nod to propriety, attending to the prisoner is done in pairs. She has nevertheless so far made attempts to seduce every man on the ship multiple times, trying to win her freedom by her preferred means of manipulation. The fact she has not gotten anywhere with any of our number, given that we know she is a treacherous wretch and a poisoner, does not seem to deter her in the least. She has also attempted to offer us some greater information about York and his crew, but we cannot believe this either. If she truly knew something of value to us now, she would have had a better time trading it back in New Orleans.

She is permitted out of her prison for necessities, of course, under careful guard. She was searched thoroughly before being brought aboard, is not allowed near anything she might make a weapon or poison of, and is always under watch by at least two parties when out of her cell. And for all this, she acts quite offended that we do not trust her or allow her more leash. I grow to despise York all the more for his part, inadvertent though it was, in putting her upon our ship.

Save for Matthew, the Fishers have been particularly sullen. Sir James has been very good to this family and rewarded them well for their service. The Captain may be an odd man, but he is almost as skilled a pilot as he believes himself to be, and his wife is a fine governess for the ship, keeping all of us in order and to our manners. The loss of Sir James has clearly hit the both of them quite hard. Most often, the Captain does not even tell his stories to those visiting the bridge when we are not being fired upon. He simply keeps us on course and stares out the windows.

At least we are still making progress.

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3)
Dr. Mitchell had not needed to improve the fire barriers between the envelope and the cabin. After George III's victory cigar, the dangers of a flying, flammable envelope propelled by a fire-and-steam propulsion system were well known indeed. -C B-W

(
4) Our Aeronautically inclined readers might be questioning the lack of running harnesses while out on the decks of the dirigibles. The running lines were not embedded in the railing, nor the clips developed, until the Coltrane Mark 3.5 airships were produced. Remember that Eddy and Matthew are on the deck of a Napoleonic Warship. Those originally came without railings at all, although Sir James certainly had them added to the
Dame Fortuna
.  -C B-W

February 20th, 1816

9º52'N 083º55'W

My Dearest Cordelia,

I do not know just now what to say, so I shall rely again upon my best confidante, and time will tell if this letter is ever sent or not. For now, this is as much for my own mind as any other, but relations aboard the ship have very much shifted, and it feels as if I must talk to someone.

I am not certain now what to think, but that puts me in good company. With the recovery effort coming up, Miss Coltrane felt she finally needed to inform the rest of us of the truth of some matters. I now take refuge, as always, in letters, trying to clear my mind, and will relate events as clearly as I am able.

She asked the lot of us, less the Fishers, who seem to be in the know as regards events in the Coltranes' lives, to gather and sit. Everyone was made as comfortable as we could be, and with much shame and regret, she related events of the times shortly before the war. Sir James had some success at Oxford, certainly, but he truly excelled at the history and techniques of classical and modern warfare. These, however, are not programs with extensive teaching at Oxford, which has over many years been increasingly reserved for advances in the physical sciences. He struggled mightily with his work, entering his second year. He was a popular student, well respected by his peers and liked by his professors. He had managed to talk a couple of notable professors to let him delay a few tests and was marked up a time or two to retain him as a student, as he had showed some promise and held some groups together. He excelled at work in group projects, and many of his friends helped with his own work, sustaining his grades by the narrowest of margins. It was not a lack of intelligence, simply that he was not as technologically adept as had been hoped.

The family, while well off, could ill afford to have him drop out. And so he negotiated his greatest feat. Entering the holiday season of his second year, he convinced his professors and the dean to permit him not simply a holiday, but the ability to take his books and notes home that he might prepare for exams upon his return, in hopes a change of environment would give him some additional inspiration.

While he was no better a scholar at home, though he struggled mightily at trying, his younger sister would provide a solution. Miss Coltrane, then in training to become a darling of the social scene and adept household manager, borrowed her brother's books and notes out of curiosity. When his papers were returned, he found several of the problems vexing him had not only been solved, but several theories put forth as to adaptations and extensions of the work.

He was astounded, of course, and questioned his sister thoroughly. She not only understood the most complex sciences of Oxford as were available to a second-year student, but advanced those ideas and thought of new applications. For her, it was an awakening into a forbidden world, but one she felt very at home in. The world of lords and ladies, dances and fans and polite conversation bored her, and she felt especially sickened at hearing the talk supposedly above her head while having to pretend no understanding of the talk of men. Though she had mastered that setting's arts by studying them as a complex problem to be solved, she longed for learning and the feel of adventure: things her older brother had always represented to her.

They then made a secret pact between the two of them. James, through negotiated visits home and carefully coded letters, provided Jillian with new books, perfect lecture notes, and general documentation of the highest institute of learning in the world. In turn, Jillian provided answers and innovation that James smoothly parroted and turned in with strategic acumen.

His younger sister got James through Oxford, excelling in not only group efforts, but all research, while having to struggle to pass examinations. As some test anxiety is not uncommon in some students, his brilliance elsewhere put him through to the end. In the meanwhile, Miss Coltrane studied, planned, and invested, figuring out how she might put her theories regarding robotic movements and steam power to best effect. With war looming and James's return home from school, they began her greatest project, constructing an exo-suit that mimicked a man's movements, enabling armored protection, vast strength, and heavy armaments to be used by one man. They funded the project by releasing various inventions under James's name. Soon much of England, even his colleagues, marveled at his brilliance, always wondering at what he would come up with next, amidst hints of some great secret project.

They ran into their first real problems in the construction, not the design. While the ideas seemed sound when tested on small scales, few things ever went right in the workshop. Miss Coltrane was regularly overcome by the oppressive heat and coal dust in the stifling surroundings when also required to perform the physical labor involved with construction. Similarly, bolts were always coming undone and she could not lift some of the armaments at all to move things into place. Her brother was more fit and adept at handling the labor, but she could instruct him only so quickly. He had to be guided through every step when it came to more complex work, and even then made numerous small, but significant errors. This is where it became clear that they needed not only a genius and a strong pair of hands, but an actual mechanic. This is what promp
ted their trip to their cousins’ farm in America – letters that included mention of the then-cutting-edge farm machinery always breaking down. It may have replaced the work of numerous men, but required the work of others to keep it moving. Once in Virginia, they discovered Miss Wright's capabilities and allowed her in on the secret.

This, at least,
was no great secret to us by now. Harriet Wright has no great education or capacity for invention, simply an impressive memory for how pieces fit together once she has seen it, and makes a fine mechanic for returning devices to the state they were once in. Even then, Miss Wright had no desire to remain a farmgirl. She dreamed of becoming a lady of England. And so she became Miss Coltrane's lady's companion, working for her cousins as a mechanic in between lessons in etiquette, largely paid in fine dresses and access to the highest parts of English society.

With her assistance, the machine finally came together. Once it was built, they began to practice and test in the privacy of the vast Virginia farm, but something was always wrong. It seemed clumsy and off-balance most of the time, and the indicators that a weapon system should have been triggered were often slow to activate. Eventually, when many repairs and refinements were finished, James made an admission to his sister: the problems were not with the suit. He was capable of retaining the information of some movement, but nothing about activating the more complex sequences of finger levers, triggers and buttons, which worked the suit to its full capacity, came to him intuitively. It did, however, to Jillian. Changing places, it functioned almost perfectly. And so they would begin a ruse that lasted for years. Sir James planned, set up tests and obstacle courses, and otherwise served as the coordinator, while his sister was not only the monster's inventor, but its pilot.

A number of designs had to be built into the suit to help Miss Coltrane deal with the heat and restrictive breathing within the suit, and she could spend only so much time in it before exhausting herself. Many more hours went into working on making these adjustments and including a more extensive breathing apparatus in the suit. After every use, she would require extensive rest and recovery time, somewhat limiting its use. As such, they came to the agreement that she would take the field for combative engagements, while he would pilot it for more social demonstrations, where he could take his time.