Here’s the second 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 One – Sister Trouble

Chapter Two – Night Cruise

Quiet as a whisper, the zephyr ship slipped through the skies over the flat lands of the Democratic Republic of Chicago. I tried not to gasp as Captain Levi guided the ship along the course of the Wabash River—far too close to the trees on its shores for my comfort.

“Relax, love,” murmured Duffy. “This isn’t our Corsair Captain’s first time flying!”

Levi growled, still peering into the navigation eyepiece. “You want ta drive, ma’am?”

“No, but thank you for the offer. I can think of no one I’d rather have as a pilot, Captain! It’s just—”

Levi spared an eye and arched a brow, fixing me with a glare. “Yeah, Miss Ida?”

A shiver went up my spine. I didn’t like him looking away from the eyepiece. I hate being a nervous flier. “—well, that is, I can hardly see more than glints of moonlight off the river surface and flashes of lighting bugs in the trees as we pass ever so close.”

Levi snorted and adjusted the wheel a few degrees. The fans rumbled as the ship climbed and altered course. “The scope lets me see like a bat. It turns echoes visible. Biggest hazard? Clouds of gnats.”

I took the bait. “Gnats?”

“Yeah, gnats draw actual bats. Hear them flappin’ sounds outside? That’s not night birds. That’s hungry bats flyin’ too close ta the Clair de Lune’s skin. Lucky they’re fast, or they might get sucked into the fan blades, an’ we’d have trouble. Not ta mention, bat squeaks throw off th’ scope sometimes. Makes it look like things are there that aren’t. Y’know what that means, ma’am?”

“You don’t have to address me as—”

“It means, shut yer yap so I can concentrate! Ma’am.”

Duffy stood and opened the hatch to the back of the ship and offered me a hand. I took it and let her lead me back to the aft observation area. Not that there was much to see there, either, but at least the trees were receding from us, rather than threatening collisions.

A rasping noise reached my ears as something, perhaps a bat, perhaps a tree branch, scraped along the skin of the small airship. I pretended not to hear it.

We sat in silence and darkness, and I kept Duffy’s hand in mine for comfort. We dared not have more than the dimmest of interior lights on, so that we could continue to be nearly invisible to observers below. After a while, I began to relax, appreciating the starlit beauty of the river rolling out behind us.

Duffy squeezed my hand and said, “Y’know, you could try to get some more sleep. It’ll be hours yet before we get to Ouiatenon.”

“I doubt I could sleep a wink. I suspect the bats would keep me up!” I smiled at her, whether or not she could see. “Besides, Levi’s got to stay awake, so I feel like I should, too, you know?”

She chuckled. “I get that. We’re gonna have to find an out of the way place to set down before dawn.”

“Not too far out of the way, I hope! We’ll have to go by foot to the Levee area. I wish Maggie could have been more specific about where to meet her. Though I’m sure she’ll find us. That’s her way, it seems. As children, she always won at hide-and-seek.”

Duffy straightened in her seat. “Shh! Do you hear that sound?”

I controlled my breath and listened.

At first, I heard nothing but the soft fans of the Clair de Lune guiding us through the night, accompanied by occasional structural creaks when the wind changed direction. Then, just as I was about to speak to confess that I heard nothing out of the ordinary, there came a growling sound that I couldn’t quite place at first.

Then the growling became a deeper, droning roar, growing in volume. Getting closer.

I drew in breath and whispered, “Is that an autogyro, Duffy?”

After a pause, she breathed, “No. It’s something bigger. More than one rotor. Like the fans on this ship but much faster, much more powerful.”

I leaned forward and gasped at the sight out the window. I didn’t believe my eyes. “Duffy! Do you see—”

“A boat with wings? Flying right at us?”

“Yes! We should tell—”

Captain Levi’s voice barked through the speaking tube. “All hands! Hang on! We’re goin’ up, fast!”

The view changed from that of the flying boat bearing down on us to face the river more directly, and I had to let go of Duffy’s hand to grab the railing as the Clair de Lune tilted upwards as her fans roared. Water ballast dumped out of tanks below us, a surprise rain falling on the Wabash as we shot upward into the night sky over the Indiana countryside.

Too close, the boat with wings roared below, past the observation window—so close I thought it might scrape the hull of our airship like a confused bat. The Clair de Lune shuddered and wallowed in the wake of the machine, and I heard our provisions shake loose in the middle of the gondola.

Through the speaking tube, Levi asked, “All right back there?” It might have been my imagination, but I detected a bit of a tremor in his gruff voice.

I called back, “Shaken but uninjured! What was that?”

“Aeroplane, I ‘spect,” said Levi.

“An aeroplane?” said Duffy. “I didn’t think Dixie got past prototypes and crashes with those death traps!”

“If I didn’t see it myself, I wouldn’t believe it,” said Levi.

I said, “Dixie? This far into the D.R.C.?”

Duffy shrugged. “We’re this far into the D.R.C., hey?”

“Good point.”

“Get back up here, ladies. I could use some spotters in a bit.”

I said, “Maybe we should stay back here to look out. What if there’s another—”

Levi scoffed. “Another aeroplane? Even if there were, I saw that one with my scope, it can see everywhere but above us. You want to climb up and ride on top?”

I knew he must be joking, but the very thought made me dizzy. “No, thank you!”

Duffy and I made our way up front, only to find Levi spinning wheels and turning cranks furiously. He pointed at Duffy. “You, take the scope for a bit. I need to get us back down to the trees before we’re spotted. And you,” he pointed at me. “You know the area, start planning where we’ll hide this beast.”

“Hide a blimp? But—”

“This trip wasn’t my idea, sugah. I hear you’re the brains of this outfit.”

Duffy put a hand over her mouth and failed to cover a laugh.

Levi continued, “Don’t forget, this ship has active camouflage. Won’t be invisible, exactly, but she’ll match the background, especially when she’s sitting still.”

“I see. Well, when I was with the Chisolm Carnival, we came in by way of the Sagamore bridge, south of most of Ouiatenon. Near the crossing, there’s a huge cemetery with a lot of trees. You might be able to nestle in the treetops there, with the camouflage on. We’ll climb down and make our way to the river road. It’ll only be a couple mile walk along the river to get to the Levee.”

Duffy peered at me from around the scope. “Mags said there’d be company. You really want to run a couple of miles back here on foot if there’s trouble?”

I shook my head. “We can’t announce our presence in town before we see what she’s up to. But we could take a flare gun with us and call for a ride, if our good Captain is willing!”

Levi growled, taking the scope back from Duffy. “I don’t like any of this.”

Duffy patted him on the shoulder. “It’s a good plan! It’ll be after dusk, and this is the exact kind of thing the Clair de Lune was designed for! Not to mention, we have the best airship captain this side of the Mississippi, hey?”

Levi snorted. “Don’t patronize me, girl. We can give it a go, but I got a bad feeling about this.”

I did too, but Duffy’s enthusiastic grin helped take the edge off. I said, “It’ll be fine!”

“You’re forgetting the aeroplane,” said Levi. “That’s trouble. Goin’ in all hot and bold like that? Says to me they’re in a damned hurry, and either they’re not afraid of anything, or they can’t afford to be. If your sister’s on board? Well, let’s just say I doubt she’s here to catch up on family gossip. Mark my words, this is somethin’ big. They’re riskin’ their lives, breakin’ the truce between Dixie an’ Chicago, and maybe they don’t care. This is the kind of thing we Corsairs used to only do for Dixie as a deliberate provocation, or for a very specific, very important objective. Like the time we all met.”

“I don’t see how that would involve New Orleans or Duffy and me personally. If Maggie was warning us of threat to the Free City, why bring us nearly a thousand miles to Ouiatenon? If it’s about Duffy and me, we’re safer back home than up here in the U.S.D. What could she want with us?”

Levi laughed. “Good questions! I ain’t got answers. But you should think about who she’s workin’ for, and what they’d want with you, in case this is a trap. Or a ruse to lure y’all away from home for a time.”

I glanced at Duffy, and found her peering at me already. She said, “Mags wouldn’t betray you after all this, now would she, Ida?”

I shook my head. “No. I trust my sister. She can be devious, but she wouldn’t put me in harm’s way on purpose. She’s up to something, that’s for sure, and my gut says that Levi’s right, that it’s something big. I wish I knew what it was, but her message made it clear that she couldn’t say openly in a telegram. All we can do for now is trust her.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” said Levi. “You better be right, for your sake. I don’t hear from you by midnight, I’m tuckin’ my tail and flyin’ home.”

“Can’t say I blame you,” said Duffy. “If we haven’t come back or signaled by then, we’ll find another way home.”

I could just make out the outline of the sky and the river ahead of us in the growing gray pre-dawn light. “There! Up ahead, that’s the Sagamore bridge! Let’s find that cemetery and get some sleep if we can. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night tonight.”

Chapter Three – The Visitor