1889: Journey To The Moon (The Far Journey Chronicles) (16 page)

The Captain thought,
Custer’s Luck be damned! Custer’s Luck resulted in us losing three-quarters of our men!
But he said, “Yes sir.” He was a soldier, after all, and knew the penalty for not following orders.

Spence steered the ship to the far side of a long, east-west running swell and stayed below the
Arcadia
’s line of sight. He occasionally wheeled the ship higher, to keep the moon ship’s position close, but not too close. Spence worried, too, because their vessel was sailing at maximum speed. If the
Arcadia
sped up, there would be no way to keep it in sight, and that would mean Custer’s wrath, not Custer’s luck for him. He wiped sweaty palms on his breeches and said a little prayer.

When the
Arcadia
approached the outskirts of San Antonio, Spence couldn’t hide the ship any longer and still expect to keep up, so he took a deep breath and approached Custer, explaining the situation.

Custer said, “Stay off their flank, but stay above and behind them. The moon ship’s destination is here in San Antonio. While they concentrate on where the
Arcadia
will land, we are going to attack from the sky. Have the men and ropes ready.”

“Aye, Sir.”

[ 37 ]

Ekka saw the
Arcadia
a half-mile ahead, maybe only a hundred yards or so above the earth and speeding as fast as a runaway horse toward the downtown area where the Alamo and its Plaza area were centerpieces. She had to be careful driving, because children and even some adults ran out into the street to look up and stare at the moon ship, amazed at its luminescent aura and that it had no dirigible to hold it aloft. She turned to Billy and Pat and said, “I think we will make it.”

Billy was looking up at an angle through a porthole when she spoke. He said, “Not without a fight.”

“What do you see?”

“A single ship, with Custer and lots of guns coming fast toward the
Arcadia
.”

Ekka pushed the throttle to Full Open and the increase in speed rocked Billy back against the wall.

Pat steadied him and said, “This’ll be pistol and knife work up close, I’m thinking.”

“Me too.”

Ekka said, “Are they ready to attack now?”

Billy said, “Looks like they’re waiting. Maybe until it lands, then they launch.”

Ekka dodged another child in the street and said, “They will attack as the
Ares
enters its cage. Custer’s ego will make him want both the
Arcadia
and the
Ares
as prizes.”

Pat said, “That’ll give us some extra time to prepare, but when things start, it will be close and frantic.”

“Like we’re trapped in a one-hole outhouse with a grizzly bear,” Billy said. “That’s how it will be.”

Ekka said, “Only one grizzly?” Pat and Billy looked at her. Then she winked. She said, “We have it to do, so we will carry the fight to them.”

Billy thought, The Goddess Athena has nothing on this woman. He said, “Do you have a pistol?”

“Yes, and two knives. I will come out of the
Ares
last and anchor it to the ship. one of you must cover me, while the other brings help from inside the
Arcadia
. Then we will lay waste among them.”

Pat said, “If I was a younger man…” He grinned at Billy and said, “You cover her, I’ll knock on the ship’s door and commandeer a few astron-nautes to help us.”

Billy said, “What in blazes are astron-nautes?”

Pat said, “I been doing a little reading and found some Greek words that sort of summed it up, you know, summed up what you will be when you travel through the ether to another planet. Astron-nautes means “star-sailors”.

“That is by-God perfect, Pat.”

“I thought you might like it.”

Ekka dodged a horse and buggy and entered the south end of Alamo Plaza as the
Arcadia
descended as lightly as a piece of eiderdown. It settled the cage to the earth in front of the Alamo as gentle as a baby’s kiss. Ekka pointed the nose of the
Ares
at the cage and decelerated to a speed slower than a walk so she could safely enter the opening.

Ropes dropped from the sky and draped across the
Arcadia
and the cage as men slid down them, armed with sabers and pistols. First among them was Custer, and he raced to the
Arcadia
’s cargo hatch as it opened.

Billy and Pat opened the door on the
Ares
and Pat immediately engaged a Sergeant who swung a saber that whistled by Garret’s head so close an inch-long lock of black hair fell to the ground. Billy leaned beyond Pat Garret and shot the Sergeant, then turned to cover Ekka as she emerged and hurried to the front of the cage. She worked several butterfly screws and tie-down locks, then moved to the next set several feet further on the cage.

Billy could see the cage adjusting to the shape of the
Ares
and realized the armored wagon would fit skin-tight on the moon ship’s hull when they finished. He shot another soldier who swung toward Ekka, dropping the man with a bullet to the chest. After that, he was too busy keeping Ekka safe to see what was happening on the rest of the
Arcadia
. When he heard Jack Ross yell, Billy chanced a glance over his shoulder and saw Custer jerk open the cargo hatch door and enter, sword flashing against some unseen foe.

Ross was at the second, smaller entrance into the ship, fighting like an iron-clawed bear at the entry hatch. He exited the entryway and ran across the
Arcadia
’s hull to attack a small group of men intent on drilling a hole in the metal skin of the moon ship. Jack ran into their midst, beating soldiers senseless with his metal arm and blocking saber slashes that sent showers of sparks into the air like those off a blacksmith’s forge.

Teach emerged from the smaller hatch and looked around, then above. He looked fierce and dark, wearing his black hat and long, black coat. He wore three pistols and two knives and the cutlass. A rope dropped in front of him and as a soldier slid down it, Teach ran the man through with the cutlass, then he re-sheathed the weapon and grasped the rope, climbing up it to the airship. The last Billy saw of him was when the pirate reached the ship and flipped onto the deck with the cutlass in one hand, swinging the blade left and right in deadly arcs, then he disappeared from sight as he moved further onto the ship.

Billy bared his teeth and shook his head as he saw more and more soldiers dropping to the
Arcadia
from the still-lowering airship. It was like ants pouring out of an anthill. There were too many. He fired the matched Colts until they were empty, then used one to slam against a man’s head so hard that Billy felt something internal give in the Peacemaker. As the man fell, Billy tried the pistol and found it inoperable.  He holstered it and continued reloading and shooting with the remaining beautiful, shining, deadly Colt.

“Billy!” Ekka struggled with a burly soldier who had her from behind, pulling her hair to expose her throat for the knife in his other hand. Billy cursed himself and ran to the side for a better shot, but Ekka raised her knee to her chest and pulled a knife from the top of her boot. She stabbed backward under her arm several times very fast, then pulled away from him.

The instant the soldier was visible, Billy shot him six times. He reloaded his pistol, saying, “Ekka, I’m sorry.”

Ekka rolled her head to loosen her neck, then said, “It is okay, Billy. We are almost through here.” She knelt by the next tie-down assembly and went to work as if nothing happened.

Above them was chaos.

Denys backed Custer from the hatch and to the top of the
Arcadia
. Their sabers rang off each other with a fury, and Denys was sorely matched to keep his skin intact, for Custer was a phenomenal swordsman, far superior to Teach.

Soldiers continued to rain down on the moon ship, and ropes were so thick and tangled they resembled spider webs.

Garret shot and slashed and parried his way through a group of bluecoats to help Merkam at the entry hatch.

Two soldiers overpowered Ross and forced him down on his back on the steel hull. One of them readied to bash out Jack’s brains with a rifle butt. Billy aimed and shot the man, causing him to drop his rifle. The man grabbed his shoulder, then reached for the pistol in his holster. Billy pulled the trigger again and his pistol snapped. He was empty!

Ross bellowed, “Cyclops!”

The
Arcadia
shook with a visible tremor and the giant robot crawled from the cargo hatch like an enormous metal spider. It swung a huge arm that swept the soldier from the
Arcadia
like a gnat. The robot lifted Jack from the hull so he could stand, then the robot’s metal arm exploded as a two-pound shell from the floating airship struck it. The robot flailed and fell from the
Arcadia
, entangling itself in the ropes hanging everywhere. It caught the severed arm as the still-jerking appendage slid off the ship and clanged into the robot’s chest.

The robot’s sudden tonnage jerked the floating airship downward as if it weighed nothing. It crashed on the
Arcadia
with a massive splintering of wood and timbers, crushing those too slow to evade it. Fire whooshed up through the breaks in the wooden ship’s deck and out the ruptured sides. The smell of spreading petrol and strong chemicals was powerful, and growing flames danced higher and higher in whirlwind-like hellfire colors of red and green and yellow, spreading as if they were alive. The dirigible above it dissolved into tatters in the heat.

Denys dodged a falling spar and slid on his stomach across the
Arcadia
’s hull, going over the side headfirst. He managed to grasp a line and stop his momentum six inches short of breaking his neck on the iron cage. Ekka and Billy reached his side and helped him disentangle from the ropes.

Black ash fell so thick it was hard to see five feet, and the red embers in them winked like fireflies. Screams filled the air. Smoke swirled and billowed. Denys looked at the inferno above them and said, “Where is the swordsman?”

Custer felt as if his destiny must be God’s will. When the falling ship crashed, timbers rained down  around him and flames erupted on both sides, but nothing touched his person. His nemesis, the fierce swashbuckler with the flashing blade had disappeared, and now, directly in front of him, was a flame-free path to the large, open cargo hatch. He also had fire protecting him on all sides. Custer entered the big opening, leading with the tip of the saber.

Garret and Merkam stood a foot inside the higher, smaller entry hatch and ducked as burning timbers dropped in front of the opening and thudded off the threshold in showers of sparks before falling through heavy smoke to the ground. Pat said, “Do you think the crash damaged—”

A huge soldier, with a torso as big as a rain barrel swung into the opening and kicked Garret against the far wall, where his head hit a sconce and he collapsed to the floor. Merkam swung at the soldier, but the man dodged his attempt, then raised his fist like a tomahawk and brought it down, clubbing Jude mercilessly. Merkam fell to the floor, battered and unconscious. Koothrappally saw it all from the hallway and started forward, then watched Dr. Conklin come from out of nowhere. The Doctor stepped in front of the soldier and appeared to flit his fingers across the huge man’s face.

The soldier grabbed his face and gurgled a scream as he staggered backward. Blood poured from between his fingers and under his hands. He took another backward step and fell out of the hatchway. Conklin reached for him and said, “No, wait!” Koothrappally thought it sounded as if the Doctor wanted the soldier to stay longer, like a child wanting another child not to leave, so he could continue playing the game.

Conklin wiped a small scalpel clean with his handkerchief, slipped the slender silver instrument up his sleeve, and kneeled to check Merkam. After a second, he said to Koothrappally, “Get the
Arcadia
off the ground before we are overrun.”

“But Sir Doctor, I am very, very, very unable to maneuver the flying of this machine.”

Conklin looked out the opening at the flames and smoke. He heard the groaning of the
Arcadia
’s hull as the fire’s heat warped her metal plates. The sounds of battle were still strong, and there were more military shouts than voices from the
Arcadia
’s crew. He said, “If you don’t find a way to ascend us into the skies, we will all be in front of a firing squad by tomorrow morning.”

Koothrappally raised a forefinger as if to make a point and said, “In that case…”

The burning airship continued to collapse in large and small pieces, especially with the robot’s movements pulling on the lines. Jack grasped one of the ropes with his metal arm to help the mechanical giant right itself, but when he pulled, another section of the burning ship above him collapsed. The top half of the mizzenmast snapped off and plummeted down like a blazing javelin. The burning tip smashed into Jack’s metal arm and pinned it against the side of the
Arcadia
as the inertia and momentum screeched the tip along the metal side like fingernails on a chalkboard. In less than a quarter-second, two-hundred pounds of burning hardwood ripped Jack’s metal arm completely off where it attached to living flesh.