1889: Journey To The Moon (The Far Journey Chronicles) (19 page)

Koothrappally nodded. “I think I understand now. That is you. You
want
to go on this quest to the Moon.”

“I would give my right arm, like Mr. Ross, to be able to do so.”

“I would give the same.” Koothrappally sighed and handed the jug back to the pirate.

“And now, good sir, I believe we understand each other.”

[ 44 ]

The moon steadily increased in size. From the bridge viewing port, it filled half the sky. The mountains along the moon’s horizon became jagged pinpricks against the blackness beyond. The stars, though, as would have been seen from Earth, were oddly absent.

“Why do we not see the stars?” Tesla asked Judah Merkham, who reclined in his pilot’s seat.

“I have wondered that since my last one-man jaunt away from the Earth. I believe it has to do with light and atmosphere. The atmosphere is like a prism of sorts, the ocular on a telescope. It focuses the light. Out here there is no atmosphere to focus it, so we see nothing.”

“What about the moon, then?” Tesla asked. “And for that matter, the Earth and the Sun?”

“Inverse square law,” Merkam replied.

“Ah. I see what you mean. For the other stars, the distances are too vast. I had erroneously thought we’d see the stars better, and far many more of them, once we left the planet behind.”

“I once thought so too. No. This is what we see,” Merkam passed his hand across the window. “The great void.”

“It is lonely. Disturbingly so.”

“Yes.”

Koothrappally entered the cabin.

“Will the Captain be requiring the estimation of the current readings?”

“We’re fine for a little while yet, John,” Merkam stated. Merkham then shook in his chair. He brought his hand up to his head and groaned.

“I say, Jude,” Tesla said, “are you quite all right?”

“It...it will...pass.”

“We must be relating of these events with the physician,” Koothrappally said.

“No,” Merkam stated. The fit appeared to have passed. “I now regret bringing him along. I don’t want him touching me. He quite unsettles me.”

Tesla nodded. “I feel the same.”

“If it’s all the same to you, gentlemen, I believe I shall retire for a bit. Rouse me in an hour and we’ll see how far we’ve come.” Judah Merkham rose from the chair. “John, please summon Billy. I want him at the pilot’s station while I am resting.”

Koothrappally nodded, then darted outside the cabin.

“You don’t look well at all, Jude. Your pallor is becoming... somewhat verdant.”

“I don’t feel well. It’s this lack of gravity, perhaps. At least my bed will be under gravity. One hour, please. No more.”

“Rest well.”

[ 45 ]

Will Quinlan had survived for ten days in the metal container in the cargo hold of the
Arcadia
. He was blindfolded, his hands and feet were bound. Not that it mattered. He couldn’t bring himself to move any part of his body. He could feel nothing below his neck. Once every day the gag was taken from his mouth and liquid was forced into it. He tried to scream, but the voice whispered to him, telling him that if he screamed his life would end abruptly without further fanfare.

He had been the surest and fleetest of the three brothers who set out to join Blackbeard’s sky pirates. He had risen above trusty to become an ensign. He was twenty-one years old and all of his life should be ahead of him. Vast vistas, blue skies, plenty of whiskey, loot and ladies waiting for him in any Colorado town.

But this future was not to be. He would die here in this strange sky ship, at the powerful hands of the demon who snatched him up as easily as a farmer pulling a carrot from the earth.

Will could only whimper in the dark, and dream of the days of light that lay behind him. Ahead of him, only hell awaited.

[ 46 ]

Abigail Ross squirmed in her bed. Her husband had not come to her, and for this she was glad. Still, she missed him, or at least, she missed the man he once had been. That man seemed long gone from her.

She ached for Billy. Her loins ached. Her body was swollen all over and she could do little else but cry into her pillow. When she sobbed, her body quaked with shudders. She was unsure whether the knot in her stomach was from the incessant vertigo of being in space, or from the utter
lostness
of unrequited love.

Abby cried until she dozed. Even when dreaming, she dreamed of Billy. In this dream, he came to her. He took her into his powerful arms and pinned her to him. His hard lips kissed her with animal brutality, as if he hungered for her, and she was his prey.

In the dream she heard a tapping sound. At first it was distant, and then as Billy kissed her, it became louder, more insistent.

She awoke abruptly, and the tapping was still there.

“Who is it?” she called to the door.

“Billy,” the voice said. She would never get used to these metal doorways and their hollow echoes.

Abigail flew to the door and opened it. Her eyes flashed.

It wasn’t Billy.

[ 47 ]

Judah Merkam was lost in the oddest of dreams, or perhaps it was memory. It was powerfully real. It felt real, and yet it could not be real.

He was nine years old and his dog had come down with the distemper. There was no treatment except the bullet.

His old man walked behind him as he lead the dog into the woods with a rope.

“That’s far enough, Jude,” his father said.

He turned to his father and saw the butt of the rifle held out to him.

“Now, son. Kill the bitch.”

“Kill the bitch,” Merkam repeated.

“It’s the only way,” his father said. “It’s unkind to let her suffer. It is a...mercy.”

“Kill the bitch,” Merkam said again. “It is a mercy. A mercy. Kill the bitch...”

[ 48 ]

When Koothrappally came to rouse Judah Merkam, he found him lying on the floor beside his bed. His head lolled to the side and spittle ran from his mouth. His eyes were open and staring and would recognize no entreaty to awaken.

Instead, Merkam said the same thing over and over again, as if it were a litany.

“Kill the bitch. It is a mercy. Kill the bitch.”

[ 49 ]

“Ross!” Tesla’s voice came through the loudspeaker in the engine room.

At the moment Jack Ross was trying to turn one of the pressure valves in the boiler to let off a little steam. They were running hot.

“A minute!” He shouted.

The wheel would not easily turn. He swore at it, hefted one of the large wrenches, and then applied it through the valve wheel for torque, and put his weight behind it. When that didn’t work he swung his right robotic arm at the wrench. Sparks flew and the wheel turned abruptly, but not before throwing his left arm into his right, leaving a five inch gash in this arm that began bleeding immediately.

“Dammit!” Ross yelled.

“Mr. Ross, I need a reading from the transmogrifier.”

“Where is Koothrappally?”

“Gone to rouse Mr. Merkam.”

Billy Gostman’s voice came over the speaker, “You need some help down there, Jack?”

“I don’t need no help from nobody!” Ross shouted. He was semi-drunk, angry, frustrated, and now wounded, yet again. Ross grabbed up a greasy rag and wrapped it around his left arm with his robotic right. He couldn’t easily tie it off, so he tucked the end under the wrapping and left it at that. He peered over at the mass gauge.

“Relative mass, one thousand eight niner niner!” He shouted. “You got that?”

“Message received, Mr. Ross,” Tesla intoned, as if unbothered. “Thank you, sir.”

Up on the bridge, Billy turned to Tesla.

“The moon is looking awfully large. It fills the biggest part of the sky. Do we have a time estimate?”

“Twenty minutes, or thereabouts,” Tesla replied. “Where the hell is Jude?”

“You and Dr. Merkam been friends long?” Billy asked.

“We are not what you would call friends,” Tesla stated. “I suppose I have only one or two true friends, and those are my hoteliers in New York.”

“You mean, your friends charge you to stay at their hotel? Those are your only friends?”

“They are the only people who understand me. No one else does.”

“What about that Westinghouse fellow?” Billy asked. “He handles all of your patent stuff, right?”

“Where did you hear that?”

“I read the papers,” Billy said. “I read everything, nowadays. It might surprise you that I can do more than fire rifles and six-shooters.”

“Indeed. No, George is not my friend. George Westinghouse buys and sells people. I doubt he has any friends at all, apart from his accountants. Remind me never to become so rich that I forget about the little people, would you do that for me, Mr. Gostman?”

“I’d be more than happy to oblige.”

The moon perceptibly grew larger.

“Do we know where we’re landing?” Billy asked.

“Yes. Course change coming up in...” Tesla consulted his watch, then glanced at the card Koothrappally had filled out before leaving. “I say.” Tesla looked over at Billy with some concern etched into his features.

“What?” Billy asked. “What?”

“Course change in two minutes.”

Billy’s eyes grew wide. He reached over, pulled the cone of the speaker before his mouth and shouted, “MERKAM!”

PART IV:

[ 50 ]

John Koothrappally heard Gostman shout “MERKAM!” over the loudspeakers, and then ran to the door of Merkam’s stateroom. He flew out the room and down the hall, then climbed the ladder into the main capsule chamber. His weight decreased as he climbed. At the top of the ladder, he was weightless and sailing through the air. In his headlong plunge he miscalculated and found himself thumping hard into the wood paneling on the opposite side of the craft, having narrowly missed coming into contact with the Tesla coil. While Tesla himself had assured each of them that contact with it would mean nothing, Koothrappally was not so sure. When the transmogrifier was running full tilt like this, there were literally trillions of volts running through the thing. Instead he checked his fall with his hands, and felt something give way in his right wrist.

“Help!” he cried.

There was no other person in the main chamber to hear him.

[ 51 ]

Ekka Gagarin heard Billy’s shout from her stateroom. She hastily donned her leather harness over her house dress and ran toward the ladder around the curved deck.

She stopped abruptly when she realized that Abigail Ross’s stateroom door was ajar.

“Abby!” she called.

Nothing.

Ekka walked to the closed door.

“Abby?” she asked softly. She looked down while awaiting a response, and noticed the drops of blood at her feet.

[ 52 ]

Ekka knew that the horror of what she had seen in Abigail Ross’s stateroom would haunt her the remainder of her life. Nothing she had seen on the steppes of the Ukraine while fighting for the Tsar, in Russian Georgia while fighting against the Turks, nor in the carnage of Mexico could have prepared her for the sight.

The power fled from her legs and she slid along the corridor wall around the broad wheel of the spinning stateroom ring toward Judah Merkam’s room.

His door as well was ajar.

She almost fell inside. She found Merkam on the floor repeating his ghastly litany.

Ekka then vomited the contents of her stomach.

[ 53 ]

Denys Jay-Patten awoke abruptly from a drunken stupor to find Edward Teach lying atop him, snoring away.

He’d heard a voice, of this he was almost certain. But there was no other sound but Teach’s unquiet droning.

There was a loud thump on his stateroom door.

“Yes?” Denys called.

The door opened. It was Two Hats.

“You two make like man and woman,” Two Hats said. “Maybe do so later. Now, big problem.”

“What big problem?” He shoved Edward Teach’s inert frame aside.

“Come,” Two Hats commanded. “You come now.”

[ 54 ]

“All right,” Billy said. He took an iron grip on the two sticks. “Call the numbers,” he said calmly.

“Right fifteen degrees. Zee minus eight degrees.

Billy counted seven tiny clicks forward with the right stick, four clicks back with the left.

“Good,” Tesla said. “Now drop ten point two percent power.”

Billy bent forward to the cone. “Ross, decrease power ten point two.”

“Ten point two. Got it.” Ross’s voice came back. There was a bad echo from down there.

The ship lurched to the right and down, it’s nose now aimed at the edge of the dark gray sea that filled the viewport.

“Mare Tranquilitatis,” Tesla stated.

“The only mares I know are brood mares”

“ ‘Mare’ is French for ‘sea’. ”

“I knew that.”

“The Sea of Tranquility,” Tesla said.

“I wonder what’s happened to Merkam.”

“I do not know. I am wondering about Koothrappally as well.”

Billy placed his mouth to the cone again and called out, “Ekka Gagarin to the bridge. Ekka to the bridge.”

“Let’s hope that everyone is alright. There are eleven of us on board, Mr. Gostman. Someone will come.”

“Maybe you’re right.” He bent to the cone again. “For that matter, anyone who can hear my voice, come to the bridge now!”

“Except Jack Ross,” Tesla corrected him.

“Anyone except Jack Ross!” Billy said into the cone.

“I’m staying put,” Ross’s voice came back. “I think I hear Koothrappally whimpering out there somewhere, though.”

Billy’s eyes were fixed on the moon. It now filled the entire viewing port.

“It’s...it’s—” Billy began.

“What?” Tesla asked.

“It’s a whole other world!”

“Yes. Very almost. Another course change coming up in thirty seconds.”

It dawned on Billy with sudden horror. “We’re doing this
without Koothrappally!
” he shouted. “We’re doing this from a damned
card!
”

“If the first numbers are right,” Tesla said calmly, “then it stands to reason the numbers following it will be correct. Trust Koothrappally. He knows what he’s doing. You’re doing fine, Mr. Gostman.”

“It’s Billy,” he said. “Billy The Kid.”

[ 55 ]

John Koothrappally floated in space for several minutes holding his swelling wrist. The pain was nearly intolerable. He wiped the tears from his eyes, gritted his teeth, and took stock of his surroundings.

The Tesla coil, the central shaft running from the bridge down to the engine room, perceptibly dimmed. Someone on the bridge had called for the power to be lessened, which meant that he had missed the course change. The card he had filled out would have been used.

He quickly reviewed the calculations in his head to make certain he had missed nothing. If they were off by so much as a hundredth, the
Arcadia
could very well crash into the moon with devastating impact.

Koothrappally made contact with the railing of one of the upper decks and latched onto it with his right hand for dear life.

At that moment Jack Ross stuck his head up from the engine room and shouted up to him from two floors below, “Koothrappally! Get your ass to the bridge!”

“I’m going!” he shouted back, having forgotten to embellish his speech with his usual thick accent.

He oriented his body such that the top of his head pointed to the bridge hatchway, and launched himself once more into space.

[ 56 ]

“Course change,” Tesla said. “Thirty seconds on my mark: zee minus six. Barrel roll one-eighty degrees right, eight point four cut in power.”

Billy’s hand tensed on the left stick. He spoke into the tube, “Jack, prepare to cut power by eight point four, on Tesla’s mark.”

“Got it!” Steam Ross’s voice came back.

“At least he’s on the job,” Tesla stated. “All right. Five, four, three, two, one, mark!”

Billy shifted back three ticks on the left stick and moved the right stick one notch to the right. The moon swung around dizzily and was suddenly below them, with the horizon and a distant Earth beyond. Billy moved the right stick back into position and the roll ceased. They flew along at a terrifying clip toward the mountains, which quickly grew in size.

“Oh my God,” Koothrappally stated as he floated into the cabin.

“Where the hell have you been?” Billy asked, craning his neck backward.

“Eyes forward,” Tesla said. Then to Koothrappally, “Yes, old chap. What’s going on back there?”

They dropped in altitude as the hum of the Tesla coil diminished beneath them.

“Judah Merkam is talking out of his head. It is the old injury. My wrist is broken.”

“Where’d your accent go?” Billy asked.

“One minute until gradual power up to full,” Tesla said calmly. “That is, if these numbers are right,” he flopped the card before Koothrappally’s face.

“Yes,” Koothrappally said. “For our sake, I hope they are perfect.”

“All right, then,” Billy said.

“Make it a ten second gradual increase in power.”

“You get that, Ross?”

“I heard!”

“What about the accent, Mr. Koothrappally?” Billy asked. “That broken wrist didn’t make you learn English, did it?”

“Nevermind about my
damned
accent,” Koothrappally said. “Land this unholy thing, Mr. Gostman. Don’t crash it.”

“I have every intention of doing so,” Billy stated.

[ 57 ]

Ekka met Two Hats and Denys Jay-Patten in the main chamber.

“Are you ill, Ekka?” Denys asked.

“Not anymore. Abigail Ross is dead. Butchered. Mr. Merkam is talking out of his head in his stateroom. I strapped him into his bunk. They’ll cut power to the stateroom ring soon, and anything loose is going to go flying.”

“Iron Hand Jack does not know of his woman,” Two Hats stated.

“He’s doing his job,” Ekka said. “I think we’re landing on the moon.”

The three glanced out the main bay window and saw grayish landscape blurring by them. The Tesla coil hum had decreased markedly.

“Where is Teach?” Ekka asked.

“Sleeping off his drunk, which is what I should be doing,” Denys said, rubbing his head.

“What about Conklin?”

“Snake Spirit,” Two Hats said. “It is my name for him. Him sometimes...
nowhere
.”

“A fitting name,” Denys agreed. “I haven’t seen him either.”

“We have to find him,” Ekka said. “But watch out. I don’t know who...did that to her. It
could have
been Conklin. I have to get to the bridge. Find Conklin. If he’s covered in blood, then you’ll know. Check on Jude first, then, if you dare, have a look at what’s left of Mrs. Ross.”

Denys’s face moved back from Ekka. A communication of a kind passed between them. Denys nodded.

[ 58 ]

“Ah!” Koothrappally said. “You have to cut power to the stateroom ring. We’re under the moon’s gravity now. The spin can damage the ship.”

“Where?” Billy asked.

Tesla pointed. “You’d better announce it. We wouldn’t want people thrown from their bunks.

Billy spoke into the speaker. “Cutting power to the staterooms! The spinning will stop. You are warned!” He thumbed the switch.

“Begin power increase in five, four, three, two, one, mark!”

“Power increasing,” Jack Ross’s voice came back to them.

The
Arcadia’s
forward momentum slowed markedly.

The blackness of the mountains of the moon filled the forward viewing port.

“Maybe we won’t crash,” Tesla stated. He glanced at the card, then at his watch. “Two degrees down in five, four...”

Billy gripped the left stick and waited.

“One, mark!”

He slid the stick back a notch and the nose of the ship dropped. They flew as fast as a horse could run parallel to the surface of the moon. As he watched, their pace slowed.

Ekka Gagarin floated onto the bridge.

“Good God, Ekka,” Billy said. “I’ve been worried about you. What’s going on?”

“First, turn off the speaker.”

Tesla pointed to the proper knob. Billy switched it to the OFF position.

“Jude is strapped in his bunk. He’s talking out of his head, not making any sense. Jay-Patten and Two Hats are going to check on him.”

“Why keep that from Ross?” Billy asked.

“There’s more. Abigail Ross is dead.”

“What?” “How?” “My God!” The three men began talking at once.

“Someone carved her into a few hundred pieces. The last I saw of her head, it was on her bureau. With the power cut to the ring, she’s probably all over the floors, ceilings and walls. You don’t want to see it.”

“Who did it?” Billy asked.

“I don’t know. Land us. We have to find out before any other action is taken.”

Ekka’s feet lightly touched the floor. “At least it appears we have some gravity. Movement through the ship will be difficult.” She turned to go.

“Wait a minute?” Billy asked. “Where are you going?”

“To see to Judah. Possibly he will need...protection.”

“From whom?” it was Tesla’s turn to inquire.

“From God knows who. Are we landed yet?”

Billy leaned forward in his seat. “We’re not moving. I think so. The ground is hard to see, but it’s not that far down.”

“Then congratulations, Billy Gostman. You are the first pilot to land on the moon.”

Despite the recent bad news, Billy smiled.

“We did it!” He pulled the cone of the speaking tube before his face. “Jack! We did it!”