1889: Journey To The Moon (The Far Journey Chronicles) (15 page)

Except losing the wife he loves
, Billy thought. “We have to skedaddle to another location and load up there.”

“Where? There’s no place open and level around these parts for fifteen, twenty miles. This is it.” Pat said.

Ekka almost threw them to the floor with another wicked turn. “Sorry,” she said.

Billy said, “I can think of one place level enough and easy to maneuver the moon ship in and out fast.”

“Where?” Pat asked for the second time.

“Back into San Antone. We need to get word to Ross to have them meet us at the Alamo, right there in the plaza.”

“What is Alamo?” Two Hats asked.

“The mission, the church where Crockett and Bowie and all those others died fighting the Mexicans under Santa Anna.”

Two Hats wasn’t sure he understood, but nodded and said, “Yes. Okay.”

Billy continued talking to Ekka, “We have to tell Ross they need to come fast and outrun their enemies or we won’t have time to load our vehicle on the
Arcadia
. And Ekka, You will need to steer the
Ares
that direction like our tails are on fire, or we’ll miss them.”

Ekka said, “How can we tell Jack? Someone is going to shoot him off the
Arcadia
before we have a chance. He’s standing up there in plain view!”

Before anyone could move, Two Hats snatched up a pair of goggles, opened the door and yelled as he jumped out, “Go to Alamo! I tell Ross!”

And he was gone.

Billy reached out to grab the door and pull it closed. He looked through a porthole and watched Two Hats covering ground like an antelope, straight for the
Arcadia
and the heat of battle. “Let’s do what we can to lessen the odds for him.”

“You work the cannon,” Pat said. “I’ll see what I can do with this funny looking rifle I found back there. Thing’s as light as a kid’s popgun.” He held up a 6.5 JPM.

Billy smiled and said, “You’re getting ready to have some fun, Pat.”

“You’ve shot this before?” Garrett asked.

“Nope, but the man who did told me all you have to do is hold true.”

“That’s a long way out there not to figure in some elevation, Billy”

“Trust me.”

“All right.” Pat said, and smoothed his big moustache down with a thumb and forefinger, “Let’s commence.”

Ekka said, “I will make it easier for you to shoot at them.” She dropped her speed in half and took the straightest, smoothest path she could find that still angled them nearer the
Arcadia
. As she drove, Ekka looked at Merkam’s ship and worried about the ones inside.

[ 34 ]

Edward Teach made his way to the bridge, and was balked by Koothrappally.

“Get out of my way, little man!” Teach roared at him.

“The answer is being most positive ‘no’! The room of the pilot you may not entered. I will be defending it against your person.”

Teach made as if to grab Koothrappally and the man suddenly wasn’t there. There was a blur and to Teach’s right, and then there was a pain in his side. The man had jabbed him with his hands.

“Ow!” Teach nearly crumpled. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“In the monastery of the people who are the Koreans. It is most important that in order to provoke me less that you cease in your forward plunge.”

“Christ, that hurts. I need to tell Merkam to signal...my men.”

“Most certainly he will not be doing so.”

“You’re not the Captain of this ship. If I can’t go through, please bring him here.”

At that moment the ship rocked under an explosion from one of Custer’s guns.

“The estimable Mister Merkam is at this juncture attempting to engage the transmogrifier. Something may have occurred with Mister Ross in the room of the engine. Would you be being knowing about this dilemma?”

“Ross is drunk, goddamn you. At least tell Merkam we can deflect my sky pirates. All I need is to signal. I would have had Ekka or Billy do it, but they’re not here.”

Koothrappally regarded the man, weighing the expression on his pained face. Abruptly he made a decision.

“I will attempt to summon Mister Merkam.”

“Hey, what’s going on here?” Jay-Patten called from behind them.

“This bloody Punjabi hit me,” Teach replied.

Jay-Patten laughed. “The little fellow is somewhat more than he appears. I believe everyone on this ship is that way.”

“You gentlemen please to remain in the waiting,” Koothrappally said, and turned to the bridge. He turned the handle on the door and it opened.

“I’ll wait with you,” Jay-Patten replied. “How does it feel to be under attack? That is, for one who usually does the attacking?”

“It feels like...I don’t like it.”

“Good. Then you are learning something today.”

Koothrappally returned with Merkam in tow.

“What’s this about?” Merkam asked the pirate.

“Besides your clerk hitting me,” he gestured at Koothrappally, “First, I can signal my pirates to leave this vessel alone. And you’d better hurry, or they’ll be crawling all over this ship like flies on a corpse. Second, I maybe can get them to attack Custer’s positions, take some of the heat off of us.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“You can’t. You can never trust me. But you can trust one thing, and that is I do want to save my own hide. And you can trust that I do want to travel with you to the Moon. What adventurer wouldn’t?”

Merkam turned to Jay-Patten, who nodded curtly.

“All right. The semaphore flags are packed in the hold. They’re in a crate next to the robots, appropriately labeled. Someone will have to climb outside and rig it up.”

“Teach and I will do it,” Jay-Patten said.

“Good. Where the hell’s Ross. I can’t do a damned thing without him?”

“Last I saw him he was drunk and saying horrible things about his wife,” Jay-Patten said. “I think he’s up on top right now. Anybody that tries to fish him off in his current condition may find themselves airborne. That is, without the advantage of a ship beneath them.”

“If you can coax him inside, that would be a good thing,” Merkam said with a sigh. “This looks bad. We can’t withstand too many more hits. We’ve almost got the transmogrifier up to enough speed for Gear One, then we can float away as we did in Colorado. But I'm worried about Ekka, Billy, and that damned Indian friend of theirs.”

“Hey!” Tesla called back to them from the bridge.

“Yeah?”

“I can see them! I think that’s them. They’re in the armored buggy about a mile away and seem to be engaged in a running firefight.”

“Denys,” Merkam whipped around toward the bridge while calling over his shoulder, “get those semaphores going and get Ross back at his post. If you can’t get him there, then you’ll have to get to the engine room and do as I tell you to. At least the speakers still work.”

“I am most apologetic for thrusting my hand against the delicate organs of your abdomen,” Koothrappally stated, then turned to follow Merkam.

“That,” Teach said to Denys, “is one odd duck.”

[ 35 ]

Two Hats used the terrain and the brush to conceal himself as much as possible as he sprinted toward the
Arcadia
. One soldier who had dismounted saw him for an instant before the Sioux used the butt of a Bowie knife to club him to the ground and steal his horse. He rode the remaining four hundred yards to the ship without so much as a shout at him and dismounted, then climbed up the outside of the moon rocket until he was near Ross.

“Iron Hand Jack!” He yelled.

Ross jerked his head in surprise. “Two Hats! What are you doing here?”

“You hurry inside, tell Merkam we go fast to Crockett dying place! We go fast!”

Ross shook his head to clear the alcohol fog, “Crockett?”

“Yes!” A bullet
whanged
off the
Arcadia
near Jack’s head, and Two Hats grabbed the drunk man’s good arm to pull him toward the open hatch. “We go!” Jack pulled back for a moment, then relented and allowed Two Hats to lead him inside the ship and out of the gunfire.

Abby met them as they came in and she checked Jack’s eyes. “Oh Jack, you’re deep in the sauce again.”

Jack subdued his ranting and calmed at her touch. “My Abby.”

Two Hats didn’t want to push the woman away, but he knew time was critical. He said, “Missy Ross, we need go fast-fast to Crockett dying place.”

Abby looked at the Sioux, “Do you mean the Alamo?”

Two Hats’ face brightened, “Yes! Alamo! We go fast!”

Denys joined them, “Why the Alamo, old chap? We are receiving quite enough of the barrage here without returning to the city.”

Two Hats said, “Ekka bring big wagon there, she say we pick up there. Much room there for both, but must go fast.”

“A splendid idea, but first we should wait for Mr. Teach to work his flags on the pirate ships above us.”

Two Hats understood that the man with the wild black hair and beard was able to work some sort of magic with the small pieces of cloth attached to sticks that would cause the airships to stop firing at them. “Good. I take Iron Hand to engine so he make us like bird in air.”

“That would be most helpful,” Denys replied.

After Two Hats and Ross left, Teach returned and motioned for Denys to join him as he exited the hatch. Teach positioned himself near the top, and smelled the still fragrant rum that Jack had sloshed from his bottle while ranting at the sky. Edward said, “I’ll need the use of both hands, so hold me as tight as a lover, Jay-Patten. I have no desire to imitate the last moments of Icarus today.”

Denys grinned and said, “You know just what to say, you beautiful scoundrel, don’t you?” He hooked one arm around the pirate’s waist and grasped the brass handhold on the
Arcadia
, and said, “Signal away.”

Edward worked his arms in quick, precise patterns, and in a matter of seconds, the pirate ships gracefully changed course and stopped firing at the moon ship. Teach signaled again and the pirates turned their sides toward Custer’s airships and the cavalrymen on the ground.

Before the ships fired, a bright red line of light appeared and disappeared as quick as a flash of lightning. It came from the
Ares
, some thousand yards distant, and went straight into the keel of the lowest Custer airship. The light struck between the two steaming exhausts, and suddenly the ship lifted in the back as if a great invisible tidal wave had slipped underneath it.

A second later, yellow flames and smoke rose from the keel area, and the ship stopped moving forward, floating in the air like a child’s balloon. Men yelled and tossed ropes over the side, sliding down to terra firma to avoid the fires that moved through the wooden hull like a storm of smoke and light.

Denys smiled. He knew they couldn’t hear him, but he waved in the direction of the
Ares
, saying, “Jolly good shooting!”

Teach said, “We’re done here, hurry inside before these airships start dropping like hailstones on our heads.”

The pirate ships fired in volley. Two of Custer’s dirigibles crumpled and fell from the sky. Only Custer’s airship escaped the withering fire, turning instead into full retreat, leaving the battle as fast as the ship could sail.

The pirates continued to rain bullets and cannonballs on the horsemen below, and they, too, soon departed the battle, racing into the oaks for cover under the trees.

Teach closed and locked the hatch door, and felt the
Arcadia
lift from the earth. He smiled, “We be off.”

[ 36 ]

Custer was so mad he was crying. His goggles fogged from the tears, and he pulled them down below his chin to stare at the scene before them. The pirates, those turncoat swine, drifted on the high breeze and pointed their ships toward the northwest and Colorado. The
Arcadia
, the prize that gave him fevered dreams of glory, rose into the air and sailed east, steady as she goes. The
Arcadia
’s attached cage reminded him of a carbuncle on a forearm. His great prize was escaping again. George’s teeth gritted as he said, “It is not
fair.
”

Captain Spence touched his arm and said, “Your orders, General?”

Custer saw the
Ares
speeding across pasturelands in the same direction as the
Arcadia
. His eyes narrowed in thought. “They proceed to the same location.”

“Yes, sir, I believe so.”

“I wasn’t asking a question, Captain.”

“Yes sir.”

George pulled a kerchief from his pocket and wiped his eyes, then the insides of his goggles. He replaced the goggles over his eyes and said, “Use stealth and follow them. Stay behind, but close enough to attack when I give the order. Custer’s Luck will out this day for us after all.”