Dawn of Steam: Gods of the Sun (16 page)

More ready for this disaster now, the Captain was straightaway lashing himself to the wheel, just in case, while I scrambled forward to the windows and tied myself off there as best I was able, for while my arm is much better, violent movement still pains it, and I have occasional bouts of numbness in my hand. Halfway through securing myself was one such time, so when the ship pitched violently again, I was sent toppling backwards, tied to the ship's railing by a rope not yet pulled tight enough. Somehow, the rope ended up tied around one leg, and with my hand gone numb and shoulder jarred by my fall, I was unable to easily right myself. I spent some minutes trying to fight my way back up the rope with one arm, dangling from the single thread and being tossed about as the ship pitched to and fro.

By the time I had righted myself, I was able to observe that most of the crew had fared better than I, thankfully. There was great concern, however, for Miss Coltrane and Miss Wright, who were in the workshop when the storm began, and afterward were nowhere to be seen. I understand that war experience had taught them to keep everything therein tightly secured when not in use, but any manner of heavy objects and sharp edged equipment might be loose back there while work was progressing, to say nothing of the suit itself. Eddy had come to the front to help as best he could, but not seeing them, and hearing where the women were, he untied himself
and stumbled and fought his way towards the back of the ship.

Miss Bowe has always had better balance than the lot of us and had relatively little trouble in navigation, even in these circumstances. She went across the hallway somewhere in the midst of everything, going outside to make sure the ropes were secure. The only other time I would see her during the storm, she was out in the rigging, ropes lashed about one arm and her waist, fighting to secure one of the sails that had broken loose and would not pull back to the ship at the Captain's controls. Though it certainly aided the Captain's efforts, I can only offer it as more proof that the woman is entirely insane.

Miss Penn had a most unfortunate time of it, for while she found a secure handhold in the room where she'd gone to make sure Miss Bowe was awake, the root locker also came open during her time there, and as she has reported since in order to explain the bruises, she spent most of the trip shielding her face with one arm, holding tight with the other, and being pelted with loose potatoes. She seems to have no luck whatsoever with storms.

After his injuries last time, Mr. Franzini managed to take hold of a rail this time at the first sign of the difficult weather. On one hand, he came out of it quite safely and unharmed, but he was also of no use to anyone throughout the struggle. I cannot claim that I was at all surprised, then or now.

Eddy and Miss Wright would eventually struggle forward to safer ground, with Eddy carrying Miss Coltrane. According to Miss Wright, the suit had partially collapsed on Miss Coltrane when the ship pitched backwards. Her injuries were not nearly so severe as they might have easily been, but she did receive a nasty blow to the head, and one of the work gloves she was wearing was in shreds, though it protected her left hand sufficiently that it only suffered small scratches and one broken finger, which we later set as best we were able. Thankfully, it seems to be healing nicely.

One of the engineers was also injured, suffering significant burns to his chest, neck, and upper arms, though he too is healing well. The others were able to keep the systems running without more than superficial injuries, though in hearing again how dangerous the engines are during a storm, I marvel at the bravery of these men who get put to such work without any of the glory the rest of us enjoy. I am grateful that we did not lose any of them this time.

Untroubled by his previous brush with disaster, Matthew was right back about the ship during this storm, fetching all the rope he could before finding his own handhold, in case quick repairs were needed or anyone needed to secure themselves better. We all came through that storm rattled, but grateful that it had not been worse.

Our second disaster, less dramatic but equally severe, came two days later. Whether it had been the storm, or smaller patches of difficult weather, something had torn lose some of the stitches patching the balloon section of our ship. We were slowly losing altitude, no matter how the engineers worked at it. By the time this was discovered, they'd already woken the people off shift to help man all the stations and check everything they could.

Eddy, using his goggles, was finally able to find the point where the tear had been made, but the concept of trying to repair an inflated dirigible in flight when over nothing but rough seas, with no platforms, safety ropes or the rest had much of the ship quite worked up. Worse, one person would not be capable of the feat, for in order to complete such a patching job, even a small one, the loose section would have to be held tightly, while someone else worked the stitching.

Finally, our best climbers volunteered for the job. Surprisingly, while she certainly objected, Mrs. Fisher agreed that Matthew was one of the best suited. And so, with Miss Bowe leading the way, she, Eddy and Matthew climbed the single rope that would take them close to the damage. She moved up it with ease, even while we were in motion. Eddy struggled more, but certainly had the strength needed to complete the difficult venture. Matthew had great difficulty on the way up, tiring out when exposed to the winds outside the ship, but he heroically struggled through, and all three made it, leading to the secondary difficulty of how to go about the patch job. Miss Bowe finally wound her leg under the ropes, eventually hanging upside down (wearing pants, thankfully, as Mrs. Fisher has mostly given up on requiring split skirts of her when we are not near any
sign of civilization).

Hanging like that, while being buffeted by the winds, she still managed to free both hands for the work ahead. Eddy was carrying most of the materials needed for the repairs, gathered from our dwindling supplies inside the ship's stores, making his climb no less precarious. I'm still not certain how Miss Bowe managed to fish out the needle and heavy stitching thread without dumping out her packs, but she had it ready by the time Eddy was in place. He found as firm a hold as he could and struggled mightily to hold the damaged section in place while Miss Bowe fought to stitch the old patch and new material in place. There were not enough hands dedicated to the task. Finally, Matthew had to climb partially up the rope and
partially up Eddy until, from a precarious position, he could hand over materials from Eddy’s pack.

When the precise work had been done, he fished out the gloves they'd fortunately thought to bring along, perhaps with some memory in Eddy or Miss Bowe's mind of the mercenary back in Peru who had met his death of rope burn. Matthew slid down first, quite exhausted by the time we helped to pull him back into the ship. Eddy followed, tired, but flushed with exertion and victory. Miss Bowe came down the rope last in a similar state. The patch only recently began leaking again, but it is believed we can make it to land before it becomes a complete disaster, so that we need not risk anyone's lives a second time in order to complete basic repairs.

Though I agree that this is for the best, it is quite worrisome that for the first part of this new adventure, we will not have the benefit of quick escape, or being able to drop Miss Coltrane down upon the enemy at our convenience. At least she is recovering quickly enough from her head injury that she might again be able to pilot the battle suit. This limits our tactical options considerably, but we are all doing our best not to dwell upon that for the time being.

From the journals of Gregory Conan Watts,

May 7th, 1816

37º03' S 175º53' E

Seen from above, this land is a wonder. Majestic mountains, sheer cliffs, lush forests, wide sand beaches, and only the barest signs of habitation. We have not seen our enemy's craft, but we are certain that we shall, given enough time to explore. Indeed, from the tales of this land and Miss Bowe's cautions, we are equipping ourselves to be ready to treat everything here as hostile, for there is no doubt that our approach has to have been seen.

The Captain landed the craft out on the highest point of an open beach. With one of the world's finest snipers on our side, we decided our best advantage, in comparison to the likely numbers gathered against us, would be ability to see our enemy coming from as far away as possible. Ever since our landing, Eddy and Matthew have been taking turns at watch, using Eddy's goggles, while the other slept.

There was some thought put towards seeking as much cover from the weather as possible. In its damaged state, the airship is not the best cover, and being out in the open only exposes it to suffering more wear and tear. However, for the moment, threat of human dangers, both native and York alike, have outdone the natural world in holding our concern. As it is, we are still left closer to wooded land than we would have liked, but at least we would have some time to get first shots off.

We can only hope it was the correct decision, for there is no longer hope of our dirigible going anywhere until we have refilled the water tanks, done extensive repairs, and rested the very overworked engineering crew. The latter concern will also keep us longer, for some of the loading and repairs will not be able to go forward until they are recovered from the strain of the past few days. According to both their assessment and the Captain's, we might have lasted another day, but it would have been a near thing.

Wishing to save her suit's power for a time of need, Miss Coltrane has kept to her bedchambers since our landing.
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She rests, reads, and lists what supplies we might be able to obtain here in order to best repair the ship as close to fully functional as possible. We can ill afford another trip like this last one.
Miss Wright has taken to doing all of the smaller jobs of maintenance, openly going about trying to effect what repairs she can without being in the way. I think the work, with free movement, helps to settle her nerves.

Miss Bowe is not scouting so far afield as she might like, for Miss Penn has asked to go with her to have a look at the land around us. While this is dangerous, she seems well aware of the risk. Perhaps she is even more worried about Mr. Franzini than the natives, for ever since our landing, whenever she has been about, he is within easy line of sight unless Miss Bowe's attention falls upon him. I do not know what his argument or concern is, but I can say for certain that I don't like it in the least.

Eddy has been likewise limited. He has gone on a couple of short trips into the wilderness near us, but the need for his eyes outweighs everything else he might be doing for us just now. At least it keeps him within sight of Matthew. I think in the boy's excitement at reaching Earth at last, he might well wander away and never be seen again, if he were given a chance and did not take helping his personal hero quite so seriously. I may underestimate him, for he has grown considerably, in mind as well as body since I first met him more than a year ago. Even so, I'd rather be cautious when it regards the curiosity and spirit of children. I am certain that at his age, I would long since have been in the wilderness here –either investigating, or about two minutes behind a young Cordelia, who would have been off running the moment we touched down.

The Fishers, Matthew aside, are showing their experience as ship's people. The Captain has been strained from need for constant vigilance – and frequent need for our most veteran pilot to be behind the wheel, whether he had more than two hours of sleep or no. But we were not down ten minutes before he was up and going over the ship in visual detail, making a list of his own, in case we had previously missed anything.

Mrs. Fisher began with ensuring we had tea and a hot meal as soon as it could be managed, to at least have some feel of civilization instead of being trapped aboard the craft. When everyone's comfort was assured and people were at their work, she was back aboard, straightening rooms, fixing the very few decorations, and otherwise trying to put the Coltranes' ship back just so. Even if the outside is still damaged, I admit it will be nice to travel aboard a ship which does not appear in all quarters to have been through the endeavors we have survived. It seems somehow easier to weather a new storm when one is not still trying to fix things up from the last one.

Once again, I feel somewhat useless. I can take my turn at watch and will certainly do so. Likewise, I have been the runner between the Captain and Miss Coltrane and back a dozen times already, one making sure the other is aware of the damages, the other making lists of what will be needed to fix it. I have not yet determined precisely how they intend to see those repairs effected, but I am quickly learning to have faith in this odd crew once they have set their minds to something.

In the meanwhile, the simmering conflicts which seem to keep cropping up have eased somewhat, not so much for any solution or easing of minds, but because of some mixture of too much else to do and the feeling of space. Whatever grudges they may hold, Mr. Franzini aside, these are the sorts who can focus most times upon the problem at hand. I am sure that, when there are no immediate problems to deal with, some of these will arise again. For the moment, however, a dearth of concerns is the last thing I think we need to worry about.

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Or hammock chambers, as it were. While the engine crew had plain hammocks, the passengers’ quarters had pipe berths. Rope was strung tightly between the wall              and a pipe, with crossings here and there, and a thin mattress laid over. This was much lighter weight than any wood or brass bed, an essential fact for airship furniture. -C B-W