Agatha H. and the Airship City

“Yes, it’s a balance arm.”

Agatha glared at him. “A balance arm? You’re wasting space in a flying machine with a balance arm?”

“Well… yes, you still need—”

Agatha pushed him aside and reached into the engine compartment. A quick wrench and the small device was flung out into space, where it hung in front of Gil’s face.

“And this!” Another part was ripped loose. “This is a heat pump! Superfluous!”

Gil eyed the slowly spinning device with regret. “Nicely designed though, eh?”

Agatha reached back, grabbed his shirt front and hauled him beside her. “Look—”she commanded. “With more room you can enlarge this flywheel and it will act as a balance! Add coolant lines here and here and then it will also act as a heat dump!”

The light dawned on Gil’s face. “I see! Then we can also get rid of these here if we add more vents!”

The two of them grinned in accord and began ripping various pieces of engine out and tossing the mover the side. A gleam came into Gil’s eye, and his voice began to match Agatha’s in intensity. “That’ll fix our heat problem and tighten up these linkages! I see! Yes! There’s a whole bunch of stuff we can get rid of!” He grabbed a large wrench. “Help me unbolt the engine!”

At this Agatha heard a strangled noise from behind, and felt an urgent tapping on her shoulder. Turning, she saw Zoing hanging upside down from the steering wheel. The small creature looked at her beseechingly and pointed over the side. A glance downward revealed the ground rushing upwards at an alarming rate. She in turn tapped Gil on the shoulder. “Um… of course, we are still falling.”

Gil looked at her blankly for a second. Then he rolled his eyes. “Oh, that.” He reached into the engine compartment. “This wire was loose. Let’s try it now.”

So saying, he turned to the controls, and threw a lever. Instantly the engine caught with a roar. The odd fenders unfolded with a snap to reveal themselves as a pair of large green wings, and with a massive jolt, the machine’s fall turned into a graceful dive that swung forward and the machine gently began to climb back up into the sky, barely clearing several of the taller treetops.

With a squeak, Zoing toppled forward onto the floor and twitched. Agatha decided not to disturb him. She looked around, but failed to see any buildings at all, let alone one tall enough to have fallen from.

“So,” she asked, “How did we get so high in the first place?”

Gil grinned. “We started higher. Look up.”

Agatha did so and gasped.

“We started from Castle Wulfenbach.”

And indeed, above them loomed the greatest symbol of the Baron’s authority. Castle Wulfenbach was a vast dirigible, almost a kilometer in length. The surface was encrusted with engines, viewpoints, and complex structures that would have dwarfed entire earthbound castles. Massive gun turrets bristled along its length. A row of windmills turned slowly along its keel. Perched atop its spine, minarets, domes and towers filled every square foot. Gardens were visible, as were the three great smokestacks venting steam.

Surrounding it on every side, above and below, was an armada of hundreds of smaller airships, although, Agatha realized with a shock, that several of these “smaller” ships were themselves dreadnoughts in the Baron’s fleet, made small only by the presence of the larger ship they escorted. Even at a glance one could see an order in the seeming chaos, as ships arrived and departed to and from the wide-spread empire.

The Baron had begun construction of the giant airship almost sixteen years ago, and had continually enlarged it until it had reached its current size. As his base of operations, it was unique as the only capital that was able to patrol its own empire. Onboard was the bureaucracy that allowed the Baron’s Empire to function, and many a local warlord had awoken to discover that the master’s crack teams of accountants and inspectors had landed in the night and were anxious to question him about irregularities in the books or that peculiar smell coming from the hidden laboratory. Its support crew numbered in the thousands, and rumor had it that vast numbers of them had not touched the earth in years. Many things were whispered about what went on aboard the gigantic airship, but surprisingly few townsfolk had been there. Sightings always caused the local population to pour out into the streets to stare until it had passed by. The panic started when it stopped overhead.

Agatha sat down as she stared upwards. She had traveled with Dr. Beetle several times on airships. They had been cramped, utilitarian vehicles. “I didn’t know… it didn’t feel like we were aboard a…”

“Really? I wouldn’t know. I grew up there.”

This brought Agatha back. “Oh yes. Sleipnir O’Hara said to say ‘Welcome back.’”

Gil’s face hardened. “Oh, she did, did she? Nice of her to remember me.”

Agatha was surprised at his reaction. “She seemed very fond of you, actually.”

“She has a funny way of showing it. I never heard from her, or any of the others once I left for Paris.” It was obvious despite his light tone, that this was something that bothered Gil quite a bit.

Agatha frowned. “Now wait a minute. She said that you never responded to any of their letters.”

“I never got any letters, and they never bothered to come see me when I returned.”

“Did you try to see them?”

“No,” Gil said coldly, “I thought they’d made their feelings clear enough—”

“Guess they felt the same way.”

“But I didn’t—” Gil paused. His eyes narrowed. He continued slowly, “Or rather, I had been led to believe…”

The engine gave a sudden cough and both of them looked at it. It hiccoughed and then roared back to full power. Gil nodded. “You had some interesting ideas regarding the engine.” He paused. “Build many?”

Agatha slumped down into her seat. “None that work. I can’t concentrate. Nothing I do ever works. It’s so frustrating! I can see it in my head, but everything I build explodes or falls apart.”

The engine burped again. A worried look flitted across Gil’s face. “Um… Maybe I’d better check that engine again…”

Agatha ignored him. “And when I do try to concentrate, I get these terrible headaches that prevent me from doing anything! It’s so—”

Gil broke in. “You were working pretty intensely a minute ago and you didn’t get a headache then.”

Agatha looked at him owlishly. “Why, you’re right.” She thought, “Maybe it was because I was interrupted by your…” She looked at the little construct who had been waving at her frantically, but gave up, “Zoing?”

Gil studied her. “But if you’ve never been able to concentrate, how could you have—?” At this point Zoing grabbed the front of Gil’s coverall and began to furiously shake it. Annoyed, Gil turned. “What is it, Zoing? I—”

It was then that they saw the enormous gallery of windows set into the side of Castle Wulfenbach looming scant yards before them. All three had time to see the reflection of their stricken faces before they plowed straight through them in an explosion of glass and metal. Agatha found herself clutching Gil for dear life as the flyer burst into a causeway and continued through the walls on the opposite side. Wood paneling and various weapons flew about. The machine crashed to the ground and began to skid upon an ornate oriental carpet as debris bounced through the room, smashing furniture and knocking what appeared to be hunting trophies to the floor. In an enormous chair in the center of the room, a large creature looked up, startled at the intrusion. He had a large ornate teacup halfway to his mouth, and a book clumsily held in his oversized hand. They were heading straight for him when the creature calmly dropped his book, stuck out his arm, and with no apparent effort, halted the skidding machine dead.

Agatha, Gil and Zoing were thrown forward. Agatha flew through the air and suddenly found herself gently cradled in the crook of an enormous arm, while a pair of curious eyes beneath furry white eyebrows peered down at