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.