E. Chris Garrison

Here’s the next chapter in my new novel, Trans-Continental: Cannon Belle Run! This is the third book in the Trans-Continental series, which can be read independently of Girl in the Gears and Mississippi Queen if you’re curious.

This book is being written as a serial, published and collected on this site and on Royal Road, if you want to read ahead.

Note: Reality Check, Trans-Continental, and The Multiverse Blues all occur in the same multiverse, in that chronological order.

Chapter Eight – Thomas and Goldie

Chapter Nine – Tin Man

Friday rode astride a giant mechanical albatross, screeching as she swooped down out of the sky toward me. She carried a metal staff, topped with four blunt tines, which she used to prod her mount into action. Violet flames erupted from her eye sockets.

I turned and ran, my feet sinking into sticky, spongy mud, and each step pulled at my boots with a sickening sucking sound. I moved at a snail’s pace past a glistening yellow lump the size of a haystack. A huge cluster of dark purple spheres greeted me on the far side of the lump. The avian machine struck me across the shoulders and knocked me face first into the sticky ground—not mud at all, but thick maple syrup, covering pancakes wider than the Clair de Lune.

As I rolled over, Friday stood over me, and she raised her hand to slap me across the face.

“Ida!” she cried, but her voice was that of Captain Levi. “Ida, wake up, ye lazy girl! We’re under attack!”

I blinked as his face became Levi, his face backlit by sunlight streaming in through gauzy curtains behind him. “What? Huh? Levi?”

“Of course it’s me! Get up, we gotta go. Now!”

I turned out not to be covered with syrup, so I rubbed my face with my hands and sat up on the sofa where I’d been napping. “Attack? What’s going on?”

Levi pulled me to my feet. “Dionne spotted Friday’s warship, it’s hoverin’ a couple miles away to the west. Won’t come any closer, for some reason, but it dropped off a coupla babayagas. They’re gonna be here soon!”

I let him lead me out of the house and onto the porch, where Thomas and Goldie stood, looking off to the east, where the dark mass of Friday’s massive airship loomed like bad weather.

“Thomas, are we still safe here?” I asked our bearded host.

He adjusted his hat and didn’t turn to look at me. “She wouldn’t dare. I retired.”

Levi cleared his throat. “You don’t know her, she’s more’n a little moonstruck, if you know what I’m sayin’.”

Thomas whirled, his eyebrows gathering like storm clouds over the dangerous blue flash of his eyes. “You’re mistaken. I do know Friday Melancon. She has the ear of the Emperor, but she deals in unnatural technologies. She was the final straw for me, the reason I retired. Come, I have urgent business to attend to!”

Levi and I trotted along behind Thomas, accompanied by Goldie, who delighted in the fast pace. I glanced at the barn, where I could see Duffy and Dionne leading horses to drag the Clair de Lune out of the massive barn. I pressed Thomas for more information. “Where are we going? How are you going to stop her?”

Our host gave me no reply, and I was left staring at his back as he broke into a long-gaited run toward a tall silo.

Sooty steam poured from an opening near the domed peak of the silo, and as Thomas reached it, the corrugated tin side of the structure split vertically as enormous doors swung wide to reveal something that stopped me in my tracks.

When I was little, I had a tin toy, a little metal man with a key in his back. If you turned the key and wound it up, it would walk across the floor, waving its stiff arms up and down like an angry sleepwalker. The little man had a grinning, inhuman face, with windows set into its chest. Painted in the windows were the tiny faces of two serious-looking men.

When I asked my father why there were people inside the metal man, he told me of a war out west where the enemy used iron giants as monstrous foot soldiers, with people inside to pilot them. I asked him whether the iron giants were still out there, ready to stomp us all, and he just laughed. He told me that no one used the iron giants anymore, not now that we have great airships.

Inside Thomas Dillard’s silo stood an iron giant, steam and smoke curling from its grinning metal teeth. A rickety wooden ladder led up its leg and waist, and the giant’s chest stood open and ready for a pilot to board. I now believed that a locomotive could stand up and walk like a man.

Thomas began to climb the ladder with purpose. Halfway up, he called down to us, “Get to your ship and depart immediately. I can no longer guarantee your safety here. But I shall buy you time. And Friday will regret trespassing on my property.”

I stood there in awe of the massive war machine from the past. “I didn’t believe the stories! Why do you have an iron giant, Thomas?”

He snapped off a salute with a grimace as he climbed into the chest cockpit. “This is the Henrietta Cosgrove, a Colossus-class juggernaut! I retired along with it before you were born, I reckon. No time for war stories now! It’s been a pleasure, but now go to your ship! Goldie, mind the house!”

His dog barked twice and loped off back the way we’d come.

“Bejabbers!” cursed Levi as the juggernaut clanged shut and its engines began to chug. “I don’t believe my eyes!”

The goggled face of Thomas Dillard appeared in one of the windows, and he flicked gloved fingers at us in a shooing motion. Groans of old gears accompanied a shower of powdery rust from the juggernaut’s shoulders as its arms flexed to the side, then forward and back.

“We better go,” I said, backing away from the iron giant. “We need to be gone before the babayagas get here. And I don’t want to get stepped on!”

As we walked away from the silo, another mechanical racket reached my ears. Levi shouted, “The babayagas are coming up the road!”

The thud of a colossal iron foot shook the ground beneath our feet, followed by another, and another.

Levi and I broke into a run. Up ahead, the Clair de Lune floated free of the barn. Dionne held the reins of the horses, their yoke laying in the grass behind them. She stood, mouth open and eyes nearly popping out of her head. “Holy crap. Is that a steampunk mecha?”

“A whatpunk whata?” said Duffy, her face split into a delighted smile. “That there is a juggernaut! A legendary war machine from the Great War of the Republics! I’ve never seen one that still worked! I have to go check it out!”

I grabbed her wrist to stop her. “No, Duffy! We’ve got to make our escape while we can! Is the ship airworthy?”

“Yeah, she needs more work, but she’ll fly.” Duffy’s eyes still fixed on the fifty-foot tall metal man in adoration. “But Ida, that’s the most beautiful machine I’ve ever seen! No one even knows how they were made anymore!”

“It’s gorgeous,” breathed Dionne. “It seems impossible. But look at it walk! It could squash a Volkswagen with those feet!”

“Lady, I don’t know what a Volkswagen is,” said Levi. “But I wouldn’t want to be in that thing’s way. Let’s fly!”

Levi climbed up into his ship without another word. Neither Duffy nor Dionne made any move to follow him, so I steered Dionne by her shoulders to the ladder and blocked her view of the juggernaut. With a sigh, she began to climb.

Next, was Duffy. “Duff, come on,” I said, taking her hand.

She tore her gaze from the Henrietta Cosgrove to look me in the eyes. “Are you tellin’ me, you don’t wanna see that thing in action? I gotta see it kick Friday’s babayagas into next week!”

“If we get a head start now, Friday might not be able to catch up. If we stay for the fight, she might get off some missiles. Maybe she’s got a rocket fighter on board? We just don’t know, and I’m definitely not going to make the mistake of underestimating Friday!”

Duffy scowled and shook her hand free of mine so she could start up the ladder after Dionne. “Fine, let’s go. I figure we’ll get a better view of the fight from above, hey?”

I matched her grin and soon we were all in the forward cockpit of the Clair de Lune. Levi threw switches one after another, and pulled back on a heavy lever. The zephyr fans whooshed to life, and the ground fell away below us. He cried out, “Let’s hope spit and twine is enough to hold ‘er together for now! Battle stations!”

Duffy disappeared aft toward the tail gunner’s nest. Dionne and I looked at each other and shrugged and followed her.

The ship thrummed with power, and I had to catch myself on railings more than once as I lost balance with Levi maneuvering the airship this way and that as we climbed up into the sky.

As we reached the aft compartment, I beheld a fantastical sight; the Juggernaut stood, arms straight out to its sides, striding toward two incoming babayagas. The metal chicken-legged steam coaches fired upon the iron giant from turret guns on top of their carriages. The shells, which would wreak terrible damage upon an airship like ours, failed to have any effect on Thomas’ iron giant.

The Henrietta Cosgrove turned out to be armed. One arm spun around and fired like a cannon at the right-hand babayaga, removing one of its legs and causing the steam carriage to fall sideways with a crash.

The juggernaut’s other arm extended into a sword fit for Paul Bunyan, menacing the remaining babayaga like a matador facing a rather small bull. The driver of that vehicle found the presence of mind to turn his babayaga around and began to flee.

“Ball bearings! That thing’s devastating!” crowed Duffy, as she swiveled the rear turret guns in that direction. “I’d help, but we’re out of range.”

“Let’s hope we keep it that way, their guns are nothing to sneeze at either.”

“Oh, I’d say they’re busy enough right now,” said Dionne, pointing. “Look, Thomas is about to skewer that second one!”

I peered past the mechanical melee toward the horizon, where the warship remained stationary. “Why isn’t Friday pursuing us in her warship? It’s not like her to give up so easily.”

“Look!” cried Duffy. “There she is! She just leaped out of the babayaga! She’s on foot! Wait, no, she’s rocketing into the sky!”

I watched in disbelief. “She was the pilot of that babayaga? This, after invading our ship on a glider? This must be personal for her! Why’s she waving like that?”

As I watched, a fine line extended from the massive warship, arcing over the farm and in our direction. At its head was what looked like an arrow with barbs. The scale was such that I knew it couldn’t be a regular arrow, it was too big.

On the ground, the juggernaut pivoted and brought its cannon to track the missile. I saw it fire, but the arrow continued its path, so Thomas must have missed.

Over the speaking tube, Captain Levi called, “Incoming!”

I had just enough time to grab onto a handhold when the ship rocked with the impact, its warhead detonated somewhere above, in the mechanical heart of the Clair de Lune.

The engines stopped and we began to fall.

Here’s the next chapter in my new novel, Trans-Continental: Cannon Belle Run! This is the third book in the Trans-Continental series, which can be read independently of Girl in the Gears and Mississippi Queen if you’re curious.

This book is being written as a serial, published and collected on this site and on Royal Road, if you want to read ahead.

Note: Reality Check, Trans-Continental, and The Multiverse Blues all occur in the same multiverse, in that chronological order.

Chapter Seven – Bat and Rattlesnake

Chapter Eight – Thomas and Goldie

“She actually said ‘home free’,”cried Captain Levi. “Is she daft, temptin’ fate like that? An’ look where we are now!”

I had to admit, I didn’t know where we were now. The Clair de Lune rested on a knob of a hill, lit by the sleepy rays of predawn. The ship’s camouflage remained locked in night mode, black as tar. The hill overlooked silos, barns, and a farmhouse nearby. An older, bearded man with a long rifle and a golden retriever strode towards us at an unhurried pace, still a quarter of a mile away.

“We had no idea the airship would break down,” I began. “And I didn’t see Friday tamper with anything up in the—”

“Yer friend’s such a mechanical expert, hmph! An’ she’s been up there with the weird genius lady for what, a half an hour now? An’ we’re still grounded. How long till Dixie or that batshit crazy Friday an’ her Knobbers catch up ta us? Huh? Mebbe we should jes’ turn blondie over? Save our skins!”

I drew breath to shout at him, but reconsidered and let it out in a gust of frustration. “Levi, we have to talk about that. She’s obviously a dangerous asset. Mags said she couldn’t let Dionne fall into her own country’s hands.”

“That so? Seems like a dingbat, if’n ye ask me. Nobody did, eh? I’m jes’ the pilot, not part of the crew, eh?”

I sighed. “It’s not like that—“

His glare made me take a step backwards. He shook a finger at me. “Yes. It’s exactly like that. Ye don’t see me as part of yer team, an’ I get it. You two are thick as thieves. Thicker. An’ we got history, I know it. But we all work for the Queen now, right? Only, I’m not so sure the two of you do!”

“What? You’re questioning our loyalty? We owe Melony so much. New Orleans is our only home!”

He narrowed his eyes. “An’ yet, yer off dealin’ with yer sister, ain’tcha? An’ pickin’ up a pretty asset, eh? An’ not once have ye said a word about goin’ back to New Orleans. Duffy’s tried to convince me to go further west, more’n once. Don’t think I didn’t notice. Now. Out wit’ it. What’s yer real plan.”

I glanced at the man with the gun and his dog, now nearly in shouting range, certainly in shooting range. “I promise you, Levi, we’ll talk later. But not in front of the farmer.”

Levi shook his finger once more. “I’ll hold ye ta that!”

“Hey! Hello!” cried the farmer, his rifle aimed at the ground in front of him as he approached. “Having some trouble with your ship?”

Levi and I tried to answer him at the same time, but I realized now wasn’t the time to sort out who was in charge, so I let him talk.

“Hey y’all!” said Levi, approaching the man with his empty hands held out in front of him. “Yeah, we were out for a cruise, and a bird got in our fans, so we’re workin’ on it. We’ll be on our way soon.”

The man stopped a dozen paces from us. He wore a long denim coat and a tall hat with a wide brim. His dog circled him once, then sat by his side, eyes on Levi and me, ears perked forward. “I’m Thomas, and this here’s Goldie. Why don’t the two of you come on back to my place, and we’ll have breakfast.”

Levi and I exchanged a look, and I spoke. “I’m Ida, and this is Captain Levi. The rest of the crew’s inside the ship. We shouldn’t stray far.”

“An’ we need ta be on our way,” added Levi, glancing at the Clair de Lune. “Thank ye for yer offer o’ hospitality!”

Thomas favored us with a lazy smile and scanned the skies. “But you’ve got to eat. Everyone’s got to eat. Your crew’ll work smarter on a full stomach. I can whip up some pancakes with butter and syrup! Got some fresh apple butter if you prefer. Sorry, I’m out of coffee, but I have plenty of dandelion root for tea!”

Goldie barked twice and stood, aimed at the ship.

Duffy stuck her head out of the airship hatch. “That bitch left something corrosive that messed up the main wiring harness! Gonna need a serious rewirin’!” She stopped when she noticed our company.

Thomas’s rifle never so much as twitched, so unsurprised was he. His blue eyes sparkled in the first rays of sunlight. “Thomas Dillard, ma’am. And you might be?”

Duffy flushed and grinned. “Beggin’ your pardon, hey? I’m Duffy, I’m the ship’s mechanic.”

“Nice ship you all have there,” drawled Thomas. “Be a shame if your journey were cut short. I’ve got a big barn that might just fit her. Used to be a hangar, during the War.”

“Which war were that?” asked Levi. “We got a few goin’ on right now.”

Thomas smiled and waved a hand vaguely in the air. “The big one, a while back. Wars are such nasty affairs. Breakfast is much more civilized, don’t you think? I can get a team of horses to pull your ship into the barn, and we’ll sit down together. Sound good?”

“Duffy? What’s taking you so long? I need that heterodyne converter—oh.” Dionne appeared in the hatchway behind Duffy and pressed her lips into a line, eyes taking in the scene.

“On second thought,” said Levi, “Breakfast would be de-lightful, sir.”

“No, it’s just ‘Thomas’. No ‘sir’, no rank, no title. Not anymore. Not for my guests!” His smile was as warm as the rising sun behind us. “Come, let’s get your ship into shelter. I fear there’s a storm on the way, and it wouldn’t do to leave such a thing out exposed to the weather.”

I peered up at the wisps of cloud, lit pink by the sunrise. I sniffed the still morning air, and though I detected no sign of bad weather, I decided a farmer knew such things best.

True to his word, Thomas and his plow horses helped us tow the Clair de Lune into the old hangar. The ship was too long to shut the giant barn doors, and it scraped the rafters, but it was better shelter than standing out in the open.

Captain Levi visibly relaxed. “It’ll do. Thank you, Thomas.”

Thomas smiled and waved for us to follow him.

Once inside, he removed his yellow leather boots, and had us remove ours as well. He showed us a basin to wash up. As he stood and waited for us to all complete our ablutions, it seemed that it wasn’t an optional request. Duffy tried to apologize for the soot she left on his old towels, but Thomas wouldn’t hear it.

And then we each found ourselves put to work, beating eggs, churning butter, sifting flour, fetching milk, honey, and blackberry syrup. Dionne took charge of making the tea.

When we all sat down to breakfast, Thomas broke out a harmonica and began to play a merry tune. It struck me as odd to eat while he played, but afterwards he sat and tucked in with the rest of us.

“Tastes better this way, doesn’t it?” said Thomas, sipping his tea.

Dionne smiled. “What, with honey?”

He shook his head. “Certainly, but I meant everything is better if you’ve put in the work yourself. I appreciate the help, of course, but the point was to do something together so we enjoy the result even more.”

Captain Levi chuckled. “Sound like my ol’ memaw. Yer not wrong, though.”

Thomas just smiled, took a forkful of syrupy pancake, and watched the rest of us.

“Thank you for breakfast,” said Dionne. “You’re very kind, and a perfect host.”

Goldie barked twice and sat down next to Thomas. He reached down and touched her nose and laughed. “Seems Goldie likes you. Otherwise, she’d be on her guard. So, where are you all headed in such a hurry?”

I looked at Duffy, and we both looked at Levi.

“California,” said Dionne.

“Is that so?” said Levi, eyes fixed on Dionne.

“That’s something we should discuss with our captain,” I said, the calm of breakfast burned away by rising panic.

“Well,” said Duffy, “It’s clear we can’t go back to New Orleans right away. That’s exactly where Dixie—and Friday—expect us to go.”

“Ain’t California about as out of the way as anything?”

“That’s why they’ll least expect it!”

I coughed. “We shouldn’t trouble Thomas—”

Goldie barked once, and wagged her tail.

“That is, we shouldn’t trouble Thomas and Goldie with this debate.”

Thomas smiled and nodded. “No trouble at all. Not from ol’ Thomas and his Goldie, at least.”

Goldie barked twice and I would swear she winked at me.

“I should think you’d worry more about the storm that’s comin’,” he said, gesturing at the kitchen window behind him, which showed a blue sky with no visible clouds. A willow tree swayed in the gentlest of breezes.

Dionne’s forehead creased. “I don’t see—”

A familiar low growl reached our ears just then, and a shadow passed over the willow tree.

“Dixie!” hissed Duffy. “They’ve found us!”

Levi stood so abruptly that his chair fell over behind him.

Thomas put up both hands and laughed. “No, my friends. You are safe, while you are my guests. No one will bother you here. Let the storm roll past. Have some rest. You look tired. So tired. Please rest a while.”

“We gotta go!” said Duffy, stifling a sudden yawn.

“How ya gonna do that?” asked Levi. “You said she needs rewirin’. An’ even if she were air-worthy, we can’t outrun that aeroplane, ‘specially not in broad daylight.”

The drone of the Dixie aircraft grew softer, then louder, and the iron pans hanging from the walls clanked a nervous ditty in its wake.

Duffy stood and drew her revolver. “I’m not resting with them buzzin’ around up there!”

Thomas shook with laughter, his eyes bright. “Think you’ll shoot ‘em down with that? Even if you could, I won’t have it. There are no wars here. Not on my property. Stay. Rest. Let the storm pass. You are safe here, all of you.”

For a moment, the suspicious part of my mind wondered if he’d slipped something into the syrup, or the tea, because I wanted nothing more than to put my head down and sleep right there at the table. I struggled against it and stood, holding myself up by leaning on the heavy wooden table. “Duffy, we’ve been going for the past 24 hours, with little sleep before that. I don’t know about you, but it’s all catching up to me. If Thomas says we’re safe, this might be the only respite we get for days. I say we take him up on it.”

The growl of the Dixie aeroplane grew softer and further away, until we could hear it no more.

And then, a thunderclap. Clouds rolled in, as if in pursuit of the aircraft.

“Yeah, okay. You win. But I’ll take first watch.”

Here’s the next chapter in my new novel, Trans-Continental: Cannon Belle Run! This is the third book in the Trans-Continental series, which can be read independently of Girl in the Gears and Mississippi Queen if you’re curious.

This book is being written as a serial, published and collected on this site and on Royal Road, if you want to read ahead.

Note: Reality Check, Trans-Continental, and The Multiverse Blues all occur in the same multiverse, in that chronological order.

Chapter Six – Thar She Blows

Chapter Seven – Bat and Rattlesnake

“What happens on Friday?” asked Dionne, her forehead creased, barely visible in the red emergency lighting.

I shook my head. “Friday’s a person, not a date, in this case.”

“A gear-grindin’ bonkers person,” growled Duffy.

“Dangerous as a rattlesnake, too,” said Levi.

Dionne looked to me to continue. I nodded and said, “She’s all that and worse. She’s our source for your weather machine. She has power, and she uses it to ends that are hard to guess.”

“My weather machine?”

I shrugged. “It had your name on it. It makes a mean tornado, if you hook it up to powerful electricity.”

“Fascinating,” she said. “And this Friday, is she also a scientist?”

I nodded. “Of sorts. More like a sorceress. It seems she’s a polymath, dabbling in many sciences, finding bizarre uses for others’ work. She’s also the Queen of New Orleans’ father.”

Dionne laughed, but stopped when no one joined her. “She is her father? That isn’t even quite possible in—that is, I have never heard of such science.”

I studied her a moment, then went on. “I think I can trust you. Friday is like me, Dionne. Not quite what she seems. For that matter, the Queen of New Orleans is a symbolic title. She sometimes appears less formally as Melvin, Friday’s son.”

A light dawned behind Dionne’s eyes. “Oh. Oh! I see! You, and they, are transgender?”

It was my turn to be confused. “I don’t know that word, but I can guess your meaning. I am, and Friday is, but I think Melvin just likes to dress the part. New Orleans needs a Queen, and Melvin loves the attention. Friday lives as she pleases, and so do I. Only, I think there’s a lot more ‘sorcery’ involved to help Friday live as herself. She hasn’t shared much of that with me so far, but I know more is possible.”

Dionne nodded, smiling. “Oh, it is, most definitely!”

Duffy turned in her seat to look at Dionne in shock. “What d’you know about it? More Sutton genius? Gonna tell us you can snap your fingers, presto-change-o, hey?”

“What? Me? No, that’s not my area of specialty. Math, physical science, some engineering, that’s me. Biology and whatnot, that’s other people.” She seemed to shrink at the scrutiny, her eyes more guarded than before.

“Queen’s gonna love this one,” said Levi. “Maybe this trip was worth the risk after all.”

I exchanged glances with Duffy and Dionne.

“What’ll we do about him?” whispered Duffy.

I shook my head and held a finger to my lips.

Dionne’s head turned as she tracked something out in the darkness. “What’s that?”

I saw nothing. “What’s what?”

Duffy peered into the viewfinder. “All I see is that damned warship on the horizon. Don’t see any more explosions or rocket tracks, though.”

“No, no, much closer! A huge bat!”

I squinted out the aft windows. For a moment, I could see nothing but darkness, stars, and moonlit cloud wisps. And then, I noticed some stars winking at me, and something dark eclipsed a bit of cloud. If it was a bat, it was a man-sized bat, with a triangular frame, its flight silent but erratic. “There! At seven-o-clock! Gaining on us!”

“Should I shoot it down?” asked Duffy.

At the same instant that I shouted “no!”, Levi shouted “yes!”, and Dionne just shook her head.

“Gotta be an enemy. We got no friends out here,” hissed Levi.

“It could be Maggie!” I gripped the railing. “She could be defecting!”

Duffy glanced at me. “You sure? She coulda defected earlier.”

“She didn’t have to tip us off at all! She didn’t have to let us take Dionne!”

Levi shouted, “Fire! Fire damn you!”

Duffy’s eyes left mine to focus on the interloper. Her hands grasped the rear gun and swiveled it to aim, her finger on the trigger. “Sorry, love, I just can’t take that—”

Splat!

Something like a watermelon hit the back windows and spread a thick opaque substance across it.

Duffy cried out in surprise, and the guns fired several bursts.

Something thudded against the skin of the Clair de Lune, like we’d been hit with a pile of sandbags. Levi shouted over the speaking tube, while Dionne sank to the deck, her eyes wild.

Something scurried above, followed by a terrible rending, and the clatter of metal on metal.

Without making sense of anything Levi or Duffy said, I leaped from the observation deck into the main body of the airship and found the hatch up into the upper compartment, where I knew the batteries and lifting coils could be found.

Unfortunately, it was quite dark, not even lit by emergency lights. All I had to orient myself was the occasional indicator light on machinery, and the ghost light of the lift coils along the interior of the airship body.

I held still, drawing my little holdout Derringer pistol from within my skirts. I wished I’d kept a flare or even a pack of lucifer matches on my person, but this was all I had. I did my best to control my breathing, hoping that the intruder could see no better in the dark than I could.

As my eyes began to adjust, some motion high up in the chamber caught my attention; the skin of the ship, where it had been torn open, allowed me a glimpse of the night sky. A sudden noise turned my head toward the nose of the ship, where I caught a fleeting glimpse of a silhouette before the greenish foxfire of the lifting coils winked out. My weight against the floor diminished as the ship began to drop.

Levi’s shrill shouts barked from somewhere in the direction I faced, no doubt another voice tube somewhere in the darkness ahead. I felt, rather than saw or heard, movement in that direction. I took a couple of slow and careful steps to my left, my steps lighter due to Clair de Lune’s descent. I grabbed onto one of the interior ribs of the ship’s frame to anchor myself.

The scent of orchids and leather came upon me, much closer than I expected, along with a voice like velvet. “Ida Stillwell. You have something I want. And someone I need. I trust we can come to an understanding?”

I couldn’t find my voice for a long, terrible moment. Her nearness had a paralyzing effect on me, very much like a rattlesnake in the dark, within striking distance. I had just two shots in my tiny pistol; I could fire toward the voice if I dared. I pulled back the hammer on the Derringer and decided to draw her out more. “An understanding? Friday, you may be a sorceress, but you’re all alone on my ship, outnumbered.”

“Yes, outnumbered and outgunned no doubt. Yet I still have the upper hand. Your ship will impact the cornfields below in roughly a minute, probably less. Promise me the woman and her possessions, and I’ll consider turning the power back on.”

Not that I needed confirmation, but the growing panic in Levi’s shouts gave substance to her threat. I replied, as cool as I could manage, “What a stupid threat. You’d die with us, and your prize would be destroyed as well!”

“Stupid? Stupid!” she spat. “How dare you. Perhaps I should let it happen, just to spite you, hmm? I might die, but at least I won’t lose.”

Time ticked by, and I had to think fast. “Fine. I’m sorry. You’re the last person I’d think of as stupid. Turn the engines back on, and we’ll talk like civilized folk, okay?”

A low whistle gained steam all around us as the air rushed past the falling ship, faster and faster.

Just then, the interior lights came on, dazzling my eyes. A moment later, my full weight returned, and then some, as the lifting coils hummed to life and the zephyr fans outside whirred once again. A large scrap of darkness rushed up to me as I blinked in the light; a black-clad, opera-cloaked Friday held a revolver pointed right at my head.

“I do hate to be so uncivilized, Ida. Should have let me turn the power back on,” she whispered. “That was a stupid stunt. We could have negotiated.”

I kept my Derringer aimed in her general direction. I thought about shooting her before she could shoot me, but I didn’t give myself very good odds. So, I stalled. “At least we’re not splattered all over the fields. No thanks to you.”

She laughed. “A ship like this would hit hard, but we’d walk away. I did the math.”

“What if your math was wrong?”

“Sugah, my math is never wrong. And now it’s time for me to go. This isn’t over.”

A rope or cable, leading from her to the opening overhead, went taut, dragging Friday backwards and away from me, out into the night once again.

Duffy’s curly head popped up through the hatch near my feet. “Did I just see—?”

“If you think you saw Friday turn into a bat and fly away, you’re not far off.”

“Huh. Didn’t get a chance to shoot her, hey?”

I shook my head. “If I did, she’d have blown a bigger hole in me. I don’t know how you got the power back on, but thanks for that. Couldn’t have cut it much closer, by Friday’s reckoning.”

“You’re not kiddin’, sweetie! Corn tassles musta tickled our belly right before Dionne bypassed the main power. Which reminds me, I gotta turn main power back on from here, the auxiliary power ain’t gonna last long.”

I helped her up into the main enclosure, and watched as she traced cables to find the main breaker.

“Ready for cut-over?” she yelled toward the speaking tube.

Levi replied, “Ready. On three! One. Two.”

“Three!” cried Duffy. The lights blinked off, then sprang back on. Relays clicked all around the chamber, and the hum of the lifting coils intensified.

I sighed relief. “Captain, is there any sign of Friday?”

“Yeah, something flew off just after we got the auxiliary power online.”

“She made her escape, then. And she found us despite our camouflage. Levi, can you change course and get us out of here?”

“Already on it, lass. I’m stayin’ low. Lower than I’d like, I’ll be fightin’ turbulence the whole way. But the auto camouflage’ll work better down here. Lucky fer us, that warship’s not built fer speed, and we’re already out of range of their missiles.”

“What about rocket fighters?” I said, thinking of another time we’d been pursued by a Kansan airship.

Levi snorted. “If they had any of those, they’d already be here.”

“I dunno,” said Duffy. “Like the missiles, those are lethal, but it seems they want Dionne alive. No way Friday coulda used one of those to land on top of Clair de Lune, either.”

On cue, Dionne popped up in the hatch. “Oh my, isn’t all this gorgeous! Those cylinders, they actually turn electricity into lift? How’s that even possible?”

“I thought you were the genius,” scoffed Duffy.

Dionne grinned. “Even geniuses can’t know everything.”

“If yer done up there, why don’t y’all come back down into the cabin now? We gotta shut the interior lights off, if we don’t want to advertise our location.”

I followed the others down the ladder and shut the hatch. “Think we’ll get away this time, Duffy?”

“Count on it, sweetie,” she said, touching the brim of her bowler. “We’re home free.”

Here’s the next chapter in my new novel, Trans-Continental: Cannon Belle Run! This is the third book in the Trans-Continental series, which can be read independently of Girl in the Gears and Mississippi Queen if you’re curious.

This book is being written as a serial, published and collected on this site and on Royal Road, if you want to read ahead.

Note: Reality Check, Trans-Continental, and The Multiverse Blues all occur in the same multiverse, in that chronological order.

Chapter Five – Shark and Jellyfish

Chapter Six – Thar She Blows

Levi swore less delicately, then said, “We can’t outrun that thing, so if we can’t hide, I think we’re outta options! Ready the tail guns, fire on my command!”

“Tail guns ready!” cried Duffy, sitting up in her seat.

My eyes strained, struggling to pick out the slightest bit of light or movement behind the Clair de Lune. My ears picked up the low drone of the aeroplane, and a deepening rumble in my gut told me it was gaining on us.

“Our only shot is to take ‘em out before they can take us out!” shouted Levi.

“That’s a tall order, Cap’n. Even with the night scope, I can’t hardly see anything, and they move so fast.”

With a pang, I realized that not only was my overbearing fascistic father pursuing us, but probably also Maggie. Would Mags allow him to kill us? Would she follow his orders if it meant my death? She’d called us here to take Dionne away from him, didn’t she?

“Shoot to damage,” I murmured to Duffy. “Not to kill.”

“Are you nuts?” asked Duffy. “They’re gunnin’ for us, Ida. Levi’s right, this is our only shot, and you’re askin’ me to pull my punches?”

“It’s Mags, Duffy.”

Duffy pressed her lips together, her brow furrowed. “You think your dad’s gonna cut us a break just ‘cause she’s on board?”

“Maybe. I hope so.”

“You’re thinking about this all wrong,” said Dionne, “If I’m the prize, I wonder whether they’d shoot us down in flames, regardless of family feelings?”

Duffy spared her a glance, but wouldn’t look at me. “So what’s their play, then?”

Dionne shrugged and gestured vaguely at the windows. “Force us down? Damage us to where we have to land? Or perhaps put on a show of force, then retreat, hoping to follow us?”

The growl of our pursuers’ engines rose to a muffled roar. I said, “Seems it would be too difficult to follow us when we can hear them from far away. They’ll shoot the lifting body and we’ll have to land.”

Duffy grunted. “Either way, here they come!”

Rapid gunfire rattled behind us. Something pinged off our hull. Flashes from their guns showed me their position, and lit up the sides of the aeroplane’s main body. Somewhere between those lethal lights were Father and Maggie. What are you planning? Can you really kill your youngest child?

Duffy leaned forward, her fingers tight on the trigger. She drew in a breath and aimed.

“Hold yer fire!” cried Levi. “Not till I say so!”

Through gritted teeth, Duffy hissed, “Not gonna get much better chance than right now!”

Something whistled past the Clair de Lune and exploded between us and the aeroplane. Something like a grenade. Bits of debris spattered off our hull and one of the aft observation windows cracked into a star pattern.

With a lurch, the ship jerked upwards. The stuttering orange light of the aeroplane’s guns dropped down and passed below us. Dionne and I sat down hard on the deck.

My ears popped, and I found myself panting to catch my breath. Duffy and Dionne gasped like fish caught in a net.

“Can’t breathe!” I wheezed in the direction of the speaking tube. “Levi—”

Levi’s voice croaked, “Hang on tight! Goin’ dark!”

The zephyr engines stopped. The emergency lights flickered and died.

Duffy spoke in gasps. “I can’t. Even. See. Scope’s off!”

From somewhere below and ahead came another whistle, followed by the thud of an explosion.

Levi’s voice, even weaker, came over the tube. “Goin’ down!”

Before I could puzzle out what he meant, the ship began to spin front to back, and the dim landscape turned circles below us. I picked the wrong time to try to get to my feet to grab onto the railing; as the ship dropped, I practically floated, and banged my head into the metal ceiling.

I can’t tell you whether the stars I saw were more from the impact, or from the lack of air pressure, but I lost consciousness for a minute or so.

I found myself resting lightly on the deck once more, tangled up with Dionne, who seemed to have also landed in a heap. My head ached and swam, and my guts had no idea which way was up.

Duffy shouted, “Are you tryin’ to do their job for ‘em, Cap’n? Cornfields comin’ up fast!”

“Trust me, will ya?”

And then I saw it. If the aeroplane were a shark, and the Clair de Lune was a jellyfish, I saw a whale swim by the cracked rear windows. It blotted out the stars and the moon as it passed, and it shed flaming streaks which burst into fireballs all around it.

“What was that?” breathed Dionne.

“It’s an air warship of some kind. At least as big as Rafael,” I said, breathing a little easier as we plummeted to lower altitudes.

“It can’t be Rafael,” said Duffy. “We’re too far from Dixie. They wouldn’t dare. It’s got to be Kansan.”

“We’re hours from the Kansan border, even at best speed,” said Levi over the tube. “The Empire’d be crazy to send a warship this far into the D.R.C.!”

I had a sudden gut feeling, but I dared not speak it aloud at that moment. “Crazy or not, Kansan or not, this might be the break we’ve been looking for! If they’re busy with father, and vice-versa, we can try to make our escape!”

“What a wonderful idea,” said Levi, a sour tinge to his voice. “Why evah didn’t I think of that? Why do you think we’re falling with power off?”

Duffy cleared her throat. “Um, how long d’ya plan to fall? Much farther, and I’ll be able to count the cornstalks. They’re comin’ up fast, Cap’n!”

“I’m on it,” said Levi.

The lights remained off, but the floor pushed into my bottom more and more as Levi brought the Clair de Lune’s systems back online one at a time. The zephyr engines hummed, and the ship’s spin slowed and stopped. We pushed forward through the night once more.

Behind us, explosions lit ragged wisps of clouds and lines from the aeroplane’s exhaust. The moon lit one side of the whale-like warship, which remained relatively stationary behind us. I couldn’t see where the aeroplane had gone. Listening, I could only make out the dull bass drone of the warship.

“I don’t think we have to worry about pursuit right now,” said Duffy. “We got lucky.”

The red interior lights blinked back on.

“Lucky,” mused Dionne, standing at the rail next to me. “I wonder at the astronomical odds that a warship of that size just happened to be in the right place at the right time, in the middle of an Indiana cornfield at night, when we and our pursuers passed by. Amazing, really.”

I looked at her. “You think they were waiting for us? How would they even know we’d be here? They definitely can’t move as fast as that aeroplane, maybe not even as fast as Clair de Lune. Even if they knew we were here. Did someone wire ahead and take out an ad in the Ouitenon Courier to announce our arrival?”

She shrugged. “Your sister had some way of detecting my portal ahead of time. Perhaps the warship has such equipment as well?”

Duffy snorted. “Sure. They just happened to tune in on weird vibes with a radio aerial and triangulated to intercept. Simple.”

“Doesn’t seem likely, but it’s at least possible,” I said. “If that’s so, we’re talking super science. And I can only think of one Kansan that fits that job description.”

Duffy looked at me, eyes wide. “You don’t think?”

I nodded, but still didn’t want to say it out loud.

“What? What?” said Dionne, looking back and forth between us.

Levi coughed, and said, “You’re not gonna believe this, but a telegram just came in over the wireless. It just says, ‘Greetings, my friends. We’ll be in touch soon.’ and it’s signed—”

“Friday!” Duffy and I cried in unison.

Here’s the next chapter in my new novel, Trans-Continental: Cannon Belle Run! This is the third book in the Trans-Continental series, which can be read independently of Girl in the Gears and Mississippi Queen if you’re curious.

This book is being written as a serial, published and collected on this site and on Royal Road, if you want to read ahead.

Note: Reality Check, Trans-Continental, and The Multiverse Blues all occur in the same multiverse, in that chronological order.

Chapter Four – Albatross Eggs

Chapter 5 – Shark and Jellyfish

“I don’t think you realize how difficult it is to climb a rope ladder in this suit,” complained Dionne Sutton as Duffy and I hauled her up through the hatch and deposited her on the interior deck of the Clair de Lune. The crack of gunfire somewhere in the distance worried me.

“Never mind that now,” I said. I raised my voice. “Captain Levi, let’s make haste away from this place!”

“I’m on it, girl!” came the reply. “Seems we might need a tail gunner!”

“Got it,” declared Duffy, who disappeared aft, leaving me alone with our new passenger.

I slid the hatch shut and regarded Miss Sutton. “We’ve got a problem,” I said.

“Problem? You mean other than the Southerner firing at us?” She began undoing fastenings on the suit, each of which made a curious ripping sound, though I could see no torn cloth.

I smiled. “Well, our pilot is occupied at the moment, but I doubt he’ll be interested in any destination but home in the Free City.”

“The ‘Free City’?” asked Dionne, as she struggled her top half out of the suit. Underneath, she appeared to wear a whole body garment made of light blue cotton. Like the diving suit, this garment had a patch with the word NASA stitched onto it. It also had the name “Sutton” embroidered on another patch, affixed to the upper left side of her shirt, above a pocket. Her attention turned to pushing the diving suit down below her waist.

“Yes, the Free City of New Orleans, of course. Home. We shall have to keep our plan secret from him until we can figure out our next step. But yes, that comes after making our escape from my father, without alerting the local authorities to our unauthorized presence in their territory.”

She paused her struggles long enough to look up at me. “Home. So this Captain Levi, he’s more loyal to the Queen than you and Duffy are?”

“More loyal? Duffy and I are loyal, just not blindly so. Levi’s loyal to money, and the Queen pays him more than enough. He’s not going to risk that for you or me.”

I helped her pull first one, then the other of her heavy boots off. She let out a squeal of delight and said, “Free at last! Thanks for your help, Ida. Now, do you happen to have anything for me to wear on my feet? Tennis shoes? Sandals? Slippers?”

“Tennis?” I asked. “Oh, is that an athletic outfit? It looks somewhat military in nature.”

She grinned. “Military? Not me!” Several emotions crossed her face and then she added, “Well, I suppose that all depends on how you look at it. Let’s just say I never enlisted.”

The ack-ack report of the airship’s tail guns startled us both.

“Hmm, enlisted or not, I dare say you’re in the thick of it now. Let’s see what we have for shoes for you.” I led her to the ship’s locker, which contained several duffel bags and a crate. Inside the crate, I found a spare pair of boots that looked like the ones Duffy wore. I handed them to her. “Try these? They might be a little large.”

As she tried the boots on, the interior lights flickered and switched off, replaced by the dim red glow of emergency lighting.

From the cockpit, Levi cursed and shouted. “Hellfire! Pushed it too far and blew a circuit. Someone get on that! We’re dead if they get in the air while we’ve got our pants down!”

“Perfect!” cried Dionne.

“How do you figure?” I said, leading her aft and up a ladder to the engine room. Calling it a ‘room’ is quite generous, since only Levi could have stood up straight without banging his head on the conduits along the ceiling.

Dionne pushed her hair behind her ears and stared at the banks of cables, lights, fuses, and dials on the engineering panel. Many of the lights shone an angry red. “Hmm, what do you mean?” she murmured in a distant voice, her attention fully on the electrical devices.

I pressed the matter. “You said, ‘perfect’ after the lights went out, and it didn’t sound sarcastic.”

A line appeared in her forehead, and she glanced sideways at me as though she had forgotten I was there. “Hmm? What? Oh. Nothing, it’s just that the boots fit me perfectly. It’s a nice surprise. Now this is cool!”

I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand and shook off the sweat. “Cool? Hardly.”

She gestured at the panel. “It’s more advanced than I expected. Do you have a schematic?”

The ship tilted at an alarming angle all of a sudden, and the sound of the wind whistling past penetrated even into the interior of the engine room. I scanned the room for papers that might be blueprints or electrical diagrams. “Can’t say it’s handy, this is more Duffy’s area than mine.”

“Funny,” she said. “I was going to say I wish Lee were here. He’s a real MacGyver!”

“A what?”

“He can fix anything. A real whiz. But it seems this one’s simple enough even for a scientist; do you have any blue fuses in that box?”

I hadn’t noticed the box until she pointed it out. It had the word “fuses” painted right on it. Not wanting to appear dull, I opened it and rummaged around. I pulled out a blue glass bulb and handed it to her without a word.

“Yeah, just like that,” she said, taking it from me. “Wow, two hundred amps? Is that all?”

I watched as she unscrewed a much darker blue bulb and replaced it with the new one. She tossed the old bulb to me. It was too hot to hold for long, so I shoved it into one of the pockets in my skirt. “So, you have this kind of thing back home?”

She studied the panel, tracing invisible lines in front of it with her fingertips. “Hmm? Well, sort of. Like I said, this was a simple fix. Oh, here it is!”

She threw a switch, and the red lights winked off one by one, as green ones sprang on in their place. A high pitched whine filled the small room, and I heard both Levi and Duffy cheer below.

“Looks like you did it!” I cried.

“Yep! Looks like I’m putting the old PhD to use, even here.”

We left the engine room and joined Duffy in the tail section.

“Great work, gals!” cried Duffy, peering into the dual eyepieces of the rear guns, out into the night. “We were flyin’ blind for a bit there, hey?”

“Thank our new guest, she did all the work,” I said.

Dionne laughed. “Changing a fuse is hardly genius level work, but thank you. Fascinating technology on this ship, it’s exciting!”

Duffy grinned at her. “You’re tellin’ me! Never seen anythin’ like it. And the zephyr engines, they’re just spooky. Nothing that powerful can be that quiet, ya know?”

Dionne shrugged and leaned on the railing, searching the darkness behind us. “You fired shots. Were we pursued?”

“Yeah. Looks like we’re not done with the Brigadier-General just yet, he followed along the river road on that motorized tricycle of his, takin’ shots at us. I needed to explain to him that it’s time to let go.”

My throat was dry. “Did you—”

She shook her head. “Couldn’t see clearly, but last I saw, he turned around to head back to Ouiatenon. I expect that aeroplane to come howling up the river any minute now.”

“Oh, an airplane!” cried Dionne, her eyes full of excitement. “This place is much more advanced than I thought!”

Duffy shot her a puzzled look.

“We need to be anywhere but on the river,” I said. I spoke into the tube on the wall. “Captain, can we leave the Wabash? They’re going to expect us to follow it.”

“Thought of that, yeah. We’re still pretty close to town, might get spotted. Harder ta navigate at night over cornfields, too.”

“I don’t know about that. Seems like a good time to get lost as any,” said Duffy. “C’mon Captain, let’s be unpredictable!”

The silence stretched out uncomfortably, then Levi sighed and said, “Yer right, we can’t afford much of a fight. Better to go dark and low. But if they figure us out, we’ll have noplace to hide!”

House lights along the river shrank, receding from us the Clair de Lune rose into the moonlit sky above the Wabash. The airship’s walls thrummed as the zephyr fans spun up and turned the ship toward the plains to the west of the river.

A familiar growl from outside rose even above Clair de Lune’s engines.

“Too late!” cried Duffy, swiveling the guns to peer back up the river.

“Too late!” echoed Levi. “Shoulda stayed down. I’m gonna make a run for it, maybe they’ll get lost too!”

The thrumming of the engines rose to a higher-pitched whine, and the emergency lights flickered. I worried Levi might blow another fuse, but said nothing.

“You know,” said Dionne, “the trouble with airplanes is that they’re like sharks.”

“What was that about sharks?” said Levi over the speaking tube.

Dionne continued, tucking her hair behind her ears, eyes unfocused. “Well, sharks, you know, can only ever move forwards. If they stop, they run out of oxygen and die. If airplanes stop, they lose lift and fall out of the sky. A dirigible like this can just float like a jellyfish. I suggest you play to our strength.”

After a long pause, Levi said, “Jellyfish. Huh. Better hope y’all can take it, but we’re goin’ up!”

The whine stepped down to a hum, and the hum deepened and died. The red emergency lights dimmed and winked out, leaving us in darkness thick enough to spread on toast.

“What’s he doin’? Is he crazy?” cried Duffy. “We’re dead in the air!”

Peering out the back windows, the only light came from the glint of moonlight on the water as the Wabash fell behind us. I had a sense of buoyancy and light-headed dizziness as the airship followed the whim of the winds.

I put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Not dead, but floating upwards, like a bobber. Feel that? My ears just popped!”

The growl of the aeroplane’s engines grew louder and closer. I prayed that the Clair de Lune’s active camouflage was enough to conceal us up here among the wispiest of clouds.

Though I couldn’t see Duffy, I felt her shift, and knew she looked up at me. “I’d feel better if the moon weren’t so bright and full. As it is, we’re cooked if we pass between them and the moon or high clouds. We’ll stand out no matter how good this ship is at hidin’.”

The deck vibrated under my boots, and I knew that the Dixie aeroplane had passed underneath us. I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. “There, you see?”

“We’re not out o’ th’ woods just yet!” said Levi. “They’re turnin’ or circlin’. Searchin’ fer us.”

My ears popped again, and I found I had to take deeper breaths. The Wabash behind us now just a silver thread of moonlight, I wondered whether I’d ever been this high in the sky ever before. A faint glint of something traced a path across my view.

“They’re behind us now, but far below,” said Duffy, eyes back on the viewfinder.

Dionne piped up, “You have night vision? Remarkable! I hope they don’t have it too!”

I hadn’t thought of that.

Levi said, “Seems unlikely. Th’ Queen bought these at a hefty price from a military dealer from New England. An’ New England’s no fan of the U.S. of D.”

“Still,” I said, “they’re flying that thing at night, so they’ve got to be able to see somehow.”

“Or they’re just that desperate,” Duffy murmured under her breath.

We continued like that for long minutes, the shark-like aeroplane circling the fields below us in ever wider arcs.

“All right,” wheezed Levi. “This is as high…as I can take ‘er safely. Much higher… an’ we’ll be… gaspin’ fer breath.”

The zephyr engines kicked on, and the Clair de Lune pushed forward into the uncharted night. My stomach tingled with butterflies even as fairy lights danced in my peripheral vision. I leaned on the rail, squinting into the night, at Duffy’s side. Dionne fumbled her way to join me and we three kept a silent watch together.

And then, the circling glint of light seemed to halt.

I whispered, “What’s happened? I thought sharks and aeroplanes couldn’t stop.”

Dionne’s elbow brushed mine as she shrugged. “Shouldn’t be possible, not at this level of technology, but—”

Duffy swore. “Blasted gaskets! They haven’t stopped at all.” She raised her voice to be heard by Levi up front. “The shark might just be on to the jellyfish, Cap’n! They’re flyin’ straight at us! Crank ‘er up, we need to get outta here!”

Here’s the third chapter in my new novel, Trans-Continental: Cannon Belle Run! This is the third book in the Trans-Continental series, which can be read independently of Girl in the Gears and Mississippi Queen if you’re curious.

This book is being written as a serial, published and collected on this site and on Royal Road, if you want to read ahead.

Note: Reality Check, Trans-Continental, and The Multiverse Blues all occur in the same multiverse, in that chronological order.

Chapter Two – Night Cruise

Chapter Three – The Visitor

“It’s a good thing I packed spare clothes,” I said as I beat road dust off of my skirts. “That tree tore my good travel dress! And despite having all day, we’re running late for dusk!”

Duffy smirked at me, her face cast in the ruddy light of the sinking sun. “Been a while since we’ve been out on a mission outdoors, hey?”

I tried not to smile, but failed. “Well, I didn’t think about climbing trees or hiding airships, did you?”

Duffy shrugged and stared at the bridge up ahead as we approached. “Never know what you’re gonna get into on one of these trips, love. It’s good practice!”

I laughed. “Practice? For what?”

She took off her bowler hat to make a grand gesture, arms wide. “Why, it’s practice for the next adventure! There’s always another one for folks like us, Ida!”

“What sort of folks are we, then?”

She grinned and replaced her hat. “Rapscallions, I’d say!”

I shook my head. “I wasn’t brought up to be a rapscallion, Duffy.”

She looked me up and down. “You weren’t raised to be a lot of things, my dear, but look at how you’ve turned out!”

My heart skipped a beat, thinking of my past, and how I’d failed to be the soldier my father had expected.

Duffy stopped walking and touched my arm to stop me as well. “What’s with that face? I wouldn’t have you any other way! A grand actress, one with fighting skills as well as loads of charm!”

I couldn’t meet her eyes for a moment. “Duffy—”

She touched my chin and tilted my face up to look at hers. “Ida, you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone so sure of who she was. I know hearing from Mags has you thinkin’ about yer dad, but that life’s behind you, like you told June. Right to her face! Didn’t ya?”

I sighed and let my shoulders sag. “Well, yes, I did. But while that life is behind me, it’s still part of who I am.”

Duffy’s eyes twinkled. “And ya know what? That soldierin’ and actin’ makes you a fantastic rapscallion!”

“Is that a good thing?”

“Of course it is! For one thing, rapscallions like us make great spies, which is how we’ve fallen in as Queen Melony’s go-to gals!”

I pulled her to me and hugged her tight. “What would I ever do without you, Duffy?”

She kissed my cheek and broke the embrace, resuming an enthusiastic trot towards the Levee. “I shudder to think!”

“Duffy!”

She turned her head to favor me with a wink. “Without me to hold ya back, you’d probably be on time for things! Maybe even rule half of North America by now!”

I was about to give her a tart reply, when a flash of light caught my eye up ahead. “Did you see that?”

Duffy answered by grabbing my hand as she ran in that direction.

A second flash came from around the bend, as though from localized lightning, revealing a figure in silhouette nearby.

A figure that waved its arms wildly. The voice that reached us as we ran headlong toward it couldn’t belong to anyone else.

“Ida! Duffy! Come quickly!” cried my big sister Maggie. She wore a sharp gray dress with shiny brass buttons, the uniform of a U.S.D. army officer. A second lieutenant, according to her insignia.

We reached her, out of breath, and though I hesitated because of her attire, the army officer embraced me as my sister. She murmured in my ear, “We have precious little time, my dear. Father shall be along at any moment, and you should be gone by then.”

I pulled back and stared at her, still gasping to catch my breath. “He’s here? Why did you—”

Another flicker of intense light cut me off, this time only ten feet away, in the middle of the road. An afterimage swam in my vision. Was that an oval? Was there a person in the oval?

“Be ready!” cried Maggie. “She’s coming!”

Duffy panted, “Who’s coming, Mags?”

Maggie regarded her with a wild look in her eyes. “A visitor! A traveler from beyond our world!”

Duffy stared at the empty air in front of us. “What kind of visitor?” Her eyes trailed to an open steel case, which held an incomprehensible device with flashing lights and metal webbing that swiveled from side to side, as though a mad metal spider intended to capture mechanical flies by scooping them from the air.

Maggie shook her head and redirected our attention to the empty space where the flash had been. “Just watch, and get ready to grab her and run!”

“Run?” I asked, as the air began to crackle with unseen energy. “To where?”

Maggie grabbed my shoulder with a surprising grip. “Take her where she needs to go! Far from here, as far from Dixie as you can! You heah?”

“Yes, I hear you, but—”

“No time! Here she comes!”

This time the flash crackled outward to form an oval portal of some sort, ringed in purple lightning. A fierce wind sprang up out of nowhere and I watched as autumn leaves blew into the oval.

The oval was full of night, full of stars. The ground on the other side was a gray wasteland, pockmarked with craters, boulders, harsh sunlight, and deep shadows. But mostly, it was filled with a strange puffy figure, dressed entirely in an orange diving suit. The leaves glanced off the suit’s curved mirrored faceplate and the figure reached out a gloved hand towards us. Its other hand held a case similar to Maggie’s, this one made of a matte gray metal I couldn’t immediately identify. On its side was painted the word “NASA” in strange red lettering.

The growing pressure of the wind at my back pulled me toward the portal and I struggled to keep my footing. I found myself reaching out toward the gloved hand, which grasped mine in a tight grip. I feared the figure might pull me into the barren landscape beyond the portal. Maggie grabbed my other hand to hold me back, and we both dug in our feet to pull the suited figure against the howling gale.

As soon as the visitor had stepped past the electrical threshold onto the road, the portal shrank to a ball of lightning, which evaporated before our eyes with a bang. The tornadic wind ceased as the portal slammed shut, leaving smoldering leaves to fall in its wake.

The figure let go of my hand, then stumbled and fell, sitting down hard on the gravel roadway. Duffy, Maggie, and I all exchanged glances, then watched as the figure put its hands to its helmet, fumbling with latches and clasps to release the half globe with a hiss of escaping air pressure.

Inside was a woman of similar age to Duffy and myself. That is to say, just on the far side of thirty. Strands of her honey-blonde hair stuck to her face with sweat, while the rest was drawn into an efficient bun behind her head. After a moment, her hazel eyes came into focus upon Maggie. She drew a breath and said, “It’s you! It worked!”

Maggie nodded, face as serious as a funeral. “It did. And now you must go. Quickly. With my sister and her companion.”

The visitor’s brow furrowed. “Leave? But I just got here!”

Maggie scanned the road. The low growl of an engine approached. “You don’t understand what a threat you and your technology represent to my world, do you? Miss Sutton, this land is at war, and though that’s terrible enough, you could change the course of our future. You could be used to perpetrate terrible violence and death. Please, stand up, and let Ida and Duffy take you someplace safe!”

Duffy helped Miss Sutton to her feet. “Gonna be hard to hide in that diving suit.”

“Diving suit?” said the perplexed Miss Sutton. “Oh right, it does look like that, doesn’t it? Do you have a car, or a hopper?”

Duffy looked confused. “A hopper?”

Frustrated, the visitor said, “A conveyance, a vehicle. Surely you don’t walk everywhere here? I’m afraid I can’t ride horseback, at least not until I get a chance to get out of this suit!”

The engine growled louder, and a cloud of dust appeared, with a figure on something too small to be a trackless steam engine. A man rode something not even horse-sized, with an engine that sounded like a smaller version of the aeroplane we’d nearly collided with early in the morning.

“Quickly!” hissed Maggie.

Duffy and I exchanged a glance, and each of us grabbed one of Miss Sutton’s arms and marched her towards the nearby bridge. With my free hand, I drew the flare gun and fired it up and over the river. Stealth was no longer on our side. I glanced over my shoulder to say goodbye, but Maggie had already made herself scarce.

The only thing that I could see in the deepening gloom was the mounted rider, bearing down on us with great speed.

“Who are you people?” asked Miss Sutton, struggling to keep up in her clunky boots.

“Just a couple of rapscallions,” I replied, hoping Levi had seen the flare.

Chapter 4 – Albatross Eggs