Dullthuds came from the hatch as whoever it was realised they couldn’topen it and started beating their hands upon it infrustration.
I drew awell-earned breath. Now we had to prevent the state visit to HerMajesty.
Five
SirPercival reached into one of his pockets and brought out a pair ofleather and brass goggles. Why he always had some pairs handy was amystery to me; probably some obscure childhood incident. I smiledmy thanks and wiped the tears caused by fright and the cold windfrom my face before putting them on.
Agunshot sounded and a piece of the metal surface around the hatchburst upwards. We both jumped backwards away from the hatch and SirPercival quickly put his own goggles on. They were shooting at us!But what about the balloons above? Were they so desperate to killus that they didn’t care if they hit them?
“The propellers, Sir Percival!” I cried, indicating above usand trying to make myself heard against their noise and the wind.If we stopped the propellers then the airship couldn’t go anywhere.Unfortunately It also meant that we’d need to climb higher. SirPercival also looked upwards, his white hair blowing wildly aroundhis head, but it was now not able to get in his eyes.
Anothershot from below quite dramatically focused our thoughts and weheaded for the closest metal ladder up into the balloon and enginesection of the ship.
I foughtthe knowledge that the only thing preventing me falling to my deathfar below was human ingenuity. Cold air swirled around me again asI made sure to grip the railing around the ladder and headedupwards, with Sir Percival following behind.
Theladder ended on a metal catwalk that led underneath the balloonsand had further short ladders leading up into the long metalcontainers where the engines were housed. To my dismay I saw therewas a crewman in blue overalls attending to one of the propellers.It would only be a matter of moments before he turned and saw us.There was no chance he’d believe we were part of the crew or theRussian royal family. Perhaps if we disabled the propellers on theside furthest from him?
Unfortunately he chose that moment to turn round. Spying ushe gave a surprised shout. With no further ado I ran towards theclosest propellers. With a quick apology for what I was about to doto such a life-saving device I leant over and thrust my umbrelladeep into its workings, letting go before my hand was rippedoff.
With thesound of a squealing pig the propeller ground to halt and theairship tipped alarmingly to one side. If Sir Percival hadn’talready been holding onto the rail and grabbed me we’d’ve beendashed down to the top of the airship or flungoverboard!
Thecrewman wasn’t so lucky and gave another surprised cry before helanded heavily upon the rail surrounding the recessed area belowand ceased moving.
Theairship swung back the other way and we held on while it continuedto pendulum. It’s forward motion was now arrested but the otherpropellers could be put to use to make up for the damaged one. Toreally stop it we had to destroy the steam engines, and I was justthe girl for the purpose.
“We must destroy the engines, Sir Percival!”
“My thoughts exactly, Miss Lovelady!”
Grippingonto the metal railing we headed back to the short ladders leadingup into the engine rooms.
Iglanced downwards and saw that more shots had been fired creatingan uneven circle of holes around the hatch. It wouldn’t be longbefore the holes were close enough so it could be pried opened likea tin of beans. We had but a short time to do our worst.
Six
A roundhatch faced me at the top of the short ladder. I didn’t believethat they’d think to lock it against someone already on board, butthere was always the possibility of a crewmember being inside.Carefully I turned the central wheel and pushed it up a smidgen.No-one was in evidence. I thrust it the rest of the way open andstormed up inside ready to use the element of surprise in anassault against any crew present.
Myadrenaline rush was for naught as I was the only person there. Iwas once again struck by the fact that there were surprisingly fewcrew for such a large airship.
The longroom was hot, noisy, and smelt of soot; though it was pleasantbeing out of the swirling cold wind and within four strong walls.Bright sunlight came through a large skylight in the ceiling aboveus. Several unlit lanterns hanging from the walls were probably putto use at night.
A large water tank and bags of coke lay to one end of theroom close to the steam engine, which was roughly the size of thecarriage we’d arrived in that morning. To the other end of the roomwas a storage and workshop area with several tables. But whatstopped myself and Sir Percival in our tracks was the presence of alarge white box about the same size as the steam engine next to it.The white material it was made from was nothing I was familiar withand when we got closer we noticed it seemed to give off anutmeg-like odour. Pistons from the steam engine led out throughone wall to the propellers, but some, currently idle, also led intothe white box next to it. On the opposite side of the whitebox to where the pistons entered it was astrange glass contraption that had traces of purple aetheric gasinside and similarly led out through the walls and into theballoons on either side.
Theywere using aether? The steam engines, as well as driving thepropellers were also being used as a power source to draw aetherinto this world? Perhaps that was how such a massive airship wasable to be constructed – they’d discovered a method that created avery light type of aether? Then it burst upon me – this was howthey knew about Sir Percival! They knew of his experiments withaether and thought to invite him, somehow get him aboard and, withthe aid of the cover model of Cossack Horserider
