1889: Journey To The Moon (The Far Journey Chronicles) (26 page)

The pounding on the ship’s exterior was increasing, and creaks and groans came from the cargo hold’s door. Tesla said, “We have no choice, we must ascend, even without enough oxygen to return alive. I would rather die attempting a return than have these things tear me to pieces.”

“Can you work the transmogrifier?” Billy asked Tesla.

“Yes, but these vibrations worry me. Something is irregular in the alignment.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Billy said, “We have to go. Now.”

Tesla said, “Are we agreed?”

The others said, “Yes,” in unison.

“So be it.” Nikola limped toward the bloody engine room.

Ekka looked out the glass where aliens crawled over the ship. Billy noticed it and said, “Like ants on a sugar hill.”

“Not ants. Owl-eye people in bug suits,” Two Hats said.

“And we are going to shake them off pretty soon. I’m looking forward to it.”

“Me too,” Two Hats said.

Ekka said, “Tesla is in the engine room. We should take our places.”

Tesla’s tinny voice came through the talking tubes, “I will do one extra thing before we lift off. Please do not touch anything metal until I give the okay.”

“What does he have up his sleeve?”

They found out ten seconds later, when the lights dimmed and jagged blue bolts of lightning jumped and arced from every metal surface. The smell of ozone was strong. Suddenly it stopped inside and the entire hull of the
Arcadia
erupted in thousands of lightning bolts striking anything and everything on or near the ship.

Aliens fell from the ship as if they were scraped off with a knife. Tesla’s voice returned, “Take us up.”

They ascended in a shaking, shuddering, vibrating bluish light and at a speed that gradually increased. Ekka had a chance to look out the glass as the ship rotated. She saw the aliens carrying off their dead, and carrying off the remains of the giant robot and the
Ares
, which had slipped from the hold on takeoff. In short order they were in the ether, but the vibrations did not lessen. An hour later, Ekka discovered a leak in the hull.

[ 99 ]

They met on the command deck and talked it over. Someone would have to go outside and repair the leak. Tesla said, “The ship’s irregular vibrations will make it difficult to repair.”

Two Hats ended the discussion early. “I go fix.” He pointed at each of them, “You hurt, you hurt, you too smart. I go.”

Billy left Ekka at the controls and went to help Two Hats don his space suit, although with only one good arm he wasn’t sure how much help he would be. When he was ready, Billy said, “Be careful out there. Anything can happen in the ether.”

Two Hats said, “I fix. You fly us home.”

“Deal.”

Two Hats exited the smaller undamaged entry hatch and worked his way across the hull in magnetic boots. The ship vibrated so strongly that it tickled the bottoms of Two Hats’ feet. The moon was huge and bright, for they were not far from it. The earth, on the other hand, looked like a blue ball streaked with white. The sight made Two Hats take a deep, slow breath.

He eased across the dented hull in slow, precise movements, and found the puncture ten minutes later. Repairing the small hole took another half hour. He stood up, satisfied. He looked at the moon and earth again, and felt happy. He walked to the glass windows on the command deck and peered inside. Billy and Ekka saw him, and Tesla was there, too. He waved at them and they waved back. Billy used sign language to ask if he repaired the hole, and Two Hats said yes. Billy motioned him to come back inside, and Two Hats nodded. He stood and looked at the small blue planet and smiled.

Something hit him hard and shot a bolt of burning cold though his body. His boots clicked loose from the ship and he drifted backward, stunned. He saw Ekka looking at him through the glass. Her mouth was open in a scream, but he could not hear it. Billy and Tesla pressed their faces to the glass beside her and mouthed words he could not hear.

He moved both hands to his stomach, and even through the gloves felt the air pressure blowing out of the small hole. He knew his stomach was wet, too. Two Hats twisted his arm so the back of his hand rubbed against his back and he felt the air there, too. When he pulled the glove back, frozen red blood smeared it.

There was no pain. Two Hats was grateful for that. He was tired, and didn’t feel like showing his bravery by ignoring pain. He continued to drift away from the
Arcadia
, and his friends’ faces were small dark shadows on the glass. He waved his arms and legs and his body turned, ever so slowly, until he could see the blue planet. He was very tired now, and only wanted to watch the beautiful thing before him. He closed his eyes for a moment then reopened them. Things were blurring, but then he saw something else.

His wife and children stood before the family teepee and smiled at him. His wife, so young and beautiful, beckoned him to them. The children did the same. Things became clearer around them. It was summer, the grass was lush and green. Behind the teepee, The Powder River ran clear, and buffalo grazed beside it. His wife was closer now, and more beautiful than he ever remembered. His heart felt so full of warmth and happiness he could not breathe. She put her arms around his neck and pulled Two Hats to her, resting her head on his shoulder. The smell of her hair was like honey and fragrant summer flowers.

Two Hats turned her so he could look at her face. Her eyes took him in and he felt love so deep that nothing else mattered. She took his hand and the children followed as they walked through the green grass, into a warm, diffuse light that became all there was…

[ 100 ]

The three survivors aboard the
Arcadia
were devastated. Billy felt as though he lost a close brother, and something more: a last part of the old West. His sense of loss was so deep he could not cry, and he did not talk. Ekka and Tesla cried openly. Billy and Ekka had been witness to much death, but Tesla had not, and he was grief-stricken almost to the point of incoherence. They consoled each other as the
Arcadia
drifted in the ether. After an hour, Tesla said, “So much death, so many good ones killed, how do we go on? I do not know if I can. The pain is so near my heart I can scarcely breathe.”

Ekka placed her hand on his shoulder, “We are here because of the sacrifices of those good men. We cannot let their gift to us become chaff in the wind.”

Tesla replied, “We are on a battered ship in the ether, with a shaking engine that may slip its pins at any time and destroy us. We are hoping to return to earth with only half as much oxygen as is needed. I see no way to be cheerful about the gift we have, much less how we will be alive in three days.”

Billy said, “That you can think at all is a gift, Nikola. Your mind, your brilliant mind, can figure all this out and get us home. I know it can. I have faith in you.” He walked to the window and stared into the ether.

Tesla wasn’t expecting praise. “I can think as long as we are alive. I can do that.”

Ekka said, “Concentrate on whichever dilemma you see fit. If nothing else it will keep your mind off more maudlin things.”

Billy motioned for Ekka and she joined him at the window. He said, “I didn’t want to add to his plate, but look there.”

Coming from the moon towards the
Arcadia
were three ships with wide, translucent sails shaped like the wings of a dragonfly. Prism- colored lights glowed along the edges and danced across the surface in irregular patterns. The body of the ship was long and slender, with two barrels extending forward below the nose.

“Do we have anything left with which to fight?”

Billy held up his hands, “Only these. My guns are empty.”

Ekka said, “Bring Tesla here. Let him see.”

“Are you sure?”

“He deserves to know.”

Billy brought Nikola to the window and showed him the ships. He studied them in silence before saying, “Their power is from solar sails. The sails derive all needed energy from the sun.”

Billy said, “So we can’t outrun them.”

“No.”

“And we have no weapons except a few firearms and swords. Do you have any ideas?”

Tesla said, “Scour the ship for anything useful. Leave out nothing. Bring it all back here and we will see what we have.”

“That’s it?”

Tesla said, “You will be surprised what we may come up with in such a search. I am right on this. Now go. I want to study their ships.”

PART VI:

THE RETURN

[ 101 ]

The
Arcadia
shimmied with each thump of the transmogrifier. Tendrils of blue smoke emerged from the machine. Billy regarded it for a moment and then looked to Ekka, who shook her head. They were in the engine room of the ill-fated craft, floating in the air before Merkam’s monstrous machine. Its hundreds of gears resembled that of an overblown Swiss timepiece. The glass casing covering it was shattered. Bits of cloth, tiny pieces of human flesh, bone and hair stuck to the turning gears, adhered there with the burnt umber of pureed and dried human blood. They dared not turn the machine off. It was their only hope of making it to Earth alive. And yet, it must be repaired.

Billy scratched his head.

Ekka put out her hand and touched his shoulder. “I must take Denys’s diamonds back to Tesla. For some reason, I feel they are important. Can you manage here?”

“Oh, I don’t know about ‘manage’, but I will do something. I don’t know what, but I’ll think of something.”

With Ekka’s departure, Billy was alone with the machine. He removed Ross’s body from the engine room and placed it in the horror chamber that was his late wife’s stateroom. At least the two were together in death. Billy wracked his mind to think of something, anything that Ross or Merkam had said about the transmogrifier—
anything
that would give him a clue as to how to proceed. No doubt up on the bridge, Tesla was grappling with the dilemma of the approaching alien ships.

Billy closed his eyes and conjured images from the past.

They had been in Colorado Springs. He was taking his first tours of the
Arcadia
, his eyes wide and feet uncertain on the metal decks.

He remembered a moment when Ross asked him to calibrate one of the small drive mechanisms at the base of the machine because Billy’s hands were smaller and more agile, and Billy was far more limber than the steam engineer. But that wouldn’t help. The problem was something else!

Then, with his eyes closed, Billy allowed himself to move his mind outward, into the machine itself. To pervade it.

Conklin had fought with Ross in the engine room. Even as he was dying, Ross forced Conklin’s body into the transmogrifier and it turned the Ripper’s body into so much grist. Billy understood, quite abruptly.

“Yes!” he said aloud. He kicked off from the ceiling and grasped the speaker cone. “Tesla! Are you there?”

“I’m here,” the tired voice came back. “What is it?”

“I’m in the engine room. I think I know how to get the transmogrifier running properly again. I’m surprised it hasn’t completely blown thus far, but I think I know the answer as to why.”

“Can you fix it?”

“It’s not a problem of fixing it. It’s a problem of cleaning it. But we can’t shut it down or the moon will grab us and pull us back and the aliens will catch us with our pants down.”

“Cleaning it. Hmph. Mr. Gostman, you may proceed and spare me the details. But be careful.”

“Don’t worry. It’s always easier to clean the crud off the wagon wheels when they’re turning than when they’re stationary.”

“Very good. I’m studying these alien ships. Alert me if there’s any trouble down there. I feel that it’s getting rather close in here. We’ll have to solve the oxygen problem and the carbon dioxide build-up problem soon enough.”

“I’ve just thought of that one as well. As a stop-gap, tell Ekka to start opening all of the spare suit tanks in the cargo hold and to close off the stateroom ring.”

“Very good, Billy,” Tesla replied. “I told you’d we’d manage. Carry on.”

“I’ll come up there when I’m done.”

Billy pushed himself down to the floor and opened the base of the transmogrifier. Sure enough, he found a fifth of whisky, three-quarters full.

“God Bless you, Steam Ross,” he said.

[ 102 ]

Nikola Tesla regarded the three dragonflies converging on the
Arcadia
. He pulled his monocle from his vest pocket and placed it before his stronger right eye, then peered into the telescope. The lead craft leapt into view after a brief moment of adjustment. For all of its shimmering beauty, its body did closely resemble that of the insect. Numerous black protuberances stuck out from the thorax like the hairs of an insect. The craft’s ribbed body was reminiscent of the wasp. And at the aft, almost hidden from view was the stinger that told him the rest of the tale. A steady blue flame emanated from the craft’s wasp-like tail, which meant that the craft’s main propulsion was that of thrusters of some kind. The light from the sail somehow fed power down the body of the ship and to the engines in the aft. An idea struck him like a bolt from the blue.