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-
- Men Not Afraid
-
- by Jerry Stratton <CRIT@ACUSD.BITNET>
-
- Produce ships and sails which can be used in the air of
- the sky. Then you'll find men to man them, men not afraid
- of the vast emptiness of space.
- -- Johannes Kepler
-
-
- The twins walked aboard their ship, Athena's Horn. It was just
-
- before dawn, the first Friday of May, 1898 AD. The wood groaned as the
-
- ship rocked in the gentle waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
-
- "By the Year of the Gods, that's rubbish. Why you waste your time
- reading this stuff..."
-
- "Have to keep up with the times, Laura. Daltrey's truly impressed
- with this H.G. Wells' stuff, you know."
-
- "Daltrey also believes in Maxwell's Void. I think the spelljamming
- helm has upset his humours. We all, him especially, need a vacation."
-
- "From what? We haven't done anything more dangerous than haul
- spell comps since the goblin wars ended in the Rockies."
- "We need a vacation from ennui. I hear there's still adventure
- down south, in the Indian Nations."
-
- "Yeah, I don't know..."
-
- First Office Roger Mahoney walked out of the cabin towards them.
-
- "Everything's ready, Sam."
-
- "Great, Roger. Tell John to get us underway."
-
- He walked down the stairs, ducking under the ship's starboard wing.
-
- "I don't know, Laura. Running magic doesn't seem exciting
- anymore."
-
- She smiled wryly at the mage and continued: "Maybe we should just
- up and admit we're dinosaurs, and join Cody's western rodeo."
-
- There was a cry to raise the sails, and the starboard and port
-
- wings lifted. As they unfurled, the ship itself lifted out of the
-
- ocean, water dripping in buckets off of its hull, and slowly moved out
-
- of port.
-
- They muttered a short prayer together, under their breath.
-
- "Athena, grant us wisdom."
- "Poseidon, grant us passage."
-
- "Sam, cheer up. If it helps, the oracle said I'd be making a
- dangerous voyage soon."
-
- "Sure, but the oracle believes in Maxwell's Void, too, doesn't
- she?"
- The twins laughed, and walked into the cabin to plan the voyage to
-
- France.
-
-
-
- -----
-
- Athena's Horn settled into the ocean for the night. It'd been two
-
- days since setting out from Florida. Helmsman Daltrey sat in the chair
-
- for ten hours of the day, and slept six. The rest of his time involved
-
- eating, studying magic, and reading fiction. Tonight, he settled into
-
- H.G. Wells' new piece, From the Earth to the Moon.
-
- Twenty pages later, First Officer Mahoney rushed in. Daltrey,
-
- feeling the choppiness of the sea, knew the reason.
-
- "Helmsman, report to Captain Smith. There's a storm coming."
-
- The best way to survive storms was to go around them. Barring
-
- that, it was best to go above them. Flying ships did not fare well in
-
- the high winds of an ocean storm.
-
- Helmsman Daltrey reported to Captain Smith at the wheel.
-
- "Captain."
-
- "Helmsman, yes. We cannot go around the storm. It came up too
-
- fast. Hopefully, that means it will also pass quickly."
-
- If a spelljammer rode above a storm, and the storm didn't pass
-
- quickly, a Helmsman called to a second shift may weaken before the storm
-
- is past. There is no natural danger greater than landing a spelljammer
-
- amidst crashing waves and gale winds.
-
- For the Athena's Horn, the only real danger lie with unnatural ones
-
- -- pirates. If Helmsman Daltrey grew tired, Ship's Mage Smith could
-
- take over. But then, in a pirate attack, Athena's Horn would be lacking
-
- her wizard.
-
- Daltrey looked around. The sails had already been dropped. Only
-
- the 16 Stars & Stripes of the U.S. flag and the swooping owl of the
-
- Athena's flag still flew in the increasing winds.
-
- "Helmsman, the storm is rising unnaturally fast. Report to the
-
- chair immediately, and bring the Horn up."
-
- "Yes, Ma'am."
-
- He rushed beneath the curled port wing down to the Spelljammer
-
- Chair, settling in and feeling the ship around him.
-
- One of the crew cried out.
-
- "Captain, shall we raise the wings?"
-
- "No!" she replied over the wind, "Not until we clear these winds!"
-
- With that that the ship lurched upwards, and then backwards as the
-
- winds grabbed hold of it. Slowly the ship steadied itself and began its
-
- ascent. Everyone moved below deck.
-
- Captain Smith, Mage Smith, First Officer Mahoney, and Navigator
-
- Lyall were in the cabin. Through the porthole everything was black, as
-
- they moved upwards, towards the clouds.
-
- "Sam, what you said is true. This storm truly is rising at an
-
- unnatural speed. I can detect a dim hue of magic in the very wind that
-
- whips by."
-
- "Yes. Any idea who or what could cause this, Laura?"
-
- "No. Although Druidic magic obviously comes to mind."
-
- "Navigator, where did this storm come from?"
-
- "Well, Captain, if it's magical, it's hard to tell. If it followed
-
- standard paths for this time of year, it started somewhere in this
-
- section of the Atlantic."
-
- "Where will it go?"
-
- "Florida. If it's natural, it'll die out by then. It's much too
-
- energetic."
-
- "If it is magical?"
-
- "If it's magical, I guess it can do whatever it wants. That's not
-
- something I've seen before..."
-
- Then he continued:
-
- "It's going too fast for us to outrun it, if you want to warn
-
- them."
-
- "You're right. That is what I was thinking. I do not like the
-
- looks of this at all... Laura, is there anything you can do? To send a
-
- message?"
-
- "No."
-
- "Well, it's probably not important. Florida has survived
-
- hurricanes before. It will have to survive this one."
-
- She stood up.
-
- "Anyone else have anything to say?"
-
- Navigator Lyall spoke up:
-
- "All we can do is wait. I've got the same feeling you do. This
-
- just doesn't sit well."
-
- Captain Smith dismissed them. Laura remained.
-
- A while later, once the ship was above the clouds, they walked out
-
- on deck.
-
- The Athena's Horn sailed swiftly through the upper wisps of
-
- moisture, as the clouds roiled below them. Bright flashes of light
-
- silhouetted the misty mountains, and lit the vast valleys. Through the
-
- fog above, a hazy full moon barely shone through.
-
- The twins were looking over the side. Finally, Sam spoke up.
-
- "Ready to take the Helm if necessary? Laura?"
-
- "Yes."
-
- "You have never liked it, have you?"
-
- "It is... an experience."
-
- "A good one or a bad one?"
-
- "I do not know. I feel, though, that it could be... addicting."
-
- They waited for a while, until Laura broke the silence.
-
- "It is times like these, I wish the novelists and poets were
-
- correct. Sailing out into Mmaxwell's Void. There's where we could find
-
- adventure, Sam."
-
- Sam was startled for a moment, but replied calmly.
-
- "Perhaps..."
-
- "Can you imagine United States colonies on the moon? Naval battles
-
- above the plains and seas there?"
-
- "Now who is being unrealistic? The moon is over two hundred
-
- thousand miles away. That would take weeks to travel. Anyone doing it
-
- would need a permanent Helm. Can you imagine being lost weeks from
-
- land, without a wizard powerful enough to renew the Helm? Even just on
-
- Earth we've been lucky that Anastolis made ours permanent. To create an
-
- entire fleet of permanent Helms? Inconceivable."
-
- Suddenly the moon broke free of the mists and shone down in its
-
- full brightness. The mists below them dropped away like a huge chasm as
-
- they passed the storm's eastern fringe. Sam cried out the order to
-
- bring the ship down, as the lookout cried out that a fleet was below
-
- them.
-
- ========================================================================
-
- Part II -- To the Moon, Laura!
-
- In this model, Gravity is a construct. Gravity does not
- cause the apple to fall down. Down exists for the apple.
- Gravity is Down. Down is towards the dominant plane. If
- the tree grew in empty space, the apple would fall towards
- the tree, for the tree would be the dominant plane. Down
- still exists for the apple, but its force occurs towards
- the tree. If the apple existed alone in empty space,
- itself would be the dominant plane, and the apple would
- fall towards itself, that is, not at all.
- -- Sir Isaac Newton
- Concepts of Gravity
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Sam and Laura looked down at the ant-like fleet, miles below the
-
- Athena's Horn.
-
- "Blast the scurvy bastards!" muttered Sam, and then she yelled
-
- towards midship.
-
- "Straight ahead, Helmsman. Don't drop us until I say the word."
-
- Navigator Lyall came on deck.
-
- "Captain," he said, "What's happening?"
-
- "Be shot in a dead zone if I know. Can we use the cannon? We may
-
- have to fight some."
-
- "We'll be over the Atlantic Dead Zone for the next two hours, hour
-
- and a half at least."
-
- "Well, if we can't shoot them, at least they can't shoot us
-
- either."
-
- "Roc's Nest!" she cried to the watchman, "Who are they?"
-
- "Spanish, Captain Smith! Thirty-two ships, none flying! Thirty of
-
- them warships."
-
- He went back to scanning the ocean below with his spyglass.
-
- "I don't like this, Sam," Laura said. "They're moving faster than
-
- we are! Coming after that hurricane, they'll hit Florida like a dragon
-
- in heat."
-
- "How long, Navigator?" Sam asked, still looking down at the ships.
-
- "Before they reach Florida? I reckon a day -- 20 to 30 hours."
-
- "It's taken us nearly two days!"
-
- "They've got the wind. Mage Smith is right. They are moving a
-
- good clip faster than we are."
-
- "Is there nothing we can do? We have to at least warn Florida."
-
- "We can't outrun them," Laura said. "It's out of our hands, Sam."
-
- "I feel so..."
-
- Sam looked at Laura.
-
- "From the Earth to the Moon!"
-
- "What?"
-
- "The book! In From the Earth to..."
-
- "to the MOON!? Sam, have you completely lost your mind?"
-
- "No, no, we don't go to the moon. We go just high enough to see
-
- the entire Earth. Then, we can come back down again, right at
-
- Florida..."
-
- "And this happened in a book."
-
- "No, it didn't happen, so much, he mentioned it might be possible."
-
- "A WRITER mentions it MIGHT be POSSIBLE? Sam..."
-
- Navigator Lyall spoke up.
-
- "While we stand here, they're moving further and further away."
-
- "Well, according to Sam, we've got all the time in the world..."
-
- Laura threw her hands in the air.
-
- "Fine. It can't hurt. Make sure you call me if Daltrey gets tired.
-
- I'll be in my cabin. Some of us have to sleep to dream."
-
- She left, muttering to herself.
-
- "Well, Navigator," Sam asked, "what do you think?"
-
- "I think... I'd better check my charts..."
-
- He left also.
-
- "Helmsman!" she cried. "Bring us straight up, as fast as you can."
-
-
-
-
-
- Daltrey shivered. He knew she'd been wanting to do this for a
-
- while. He, also. They'd talked about it, organizing a real expedition
-
- to the moon.
-
- Well, he thought, this will make a good test. He started bringing
-
- the ship up. It hovered for a moment in the sky, then shot straight to
-
- the sky. Daltrey felt the planet move away from him, slowly, feeling
-
- the ponderous weight of the ship as his body. He sighted on the moon,
-
- as the best landmark in the sky, and fought off sleep.
-
-
-
-
-
- Sam looked over the side. At first, she didn't think anything was
-
- happening. But as minutes passed, her vision seemed to blur. The
-
- minutes grew, and she realized there were clouds gathering far below
-
- her. Things began to look strange.
-
- After nearly an hour, something happened that almost made her
-
- nauseous.
-
- She could see the edges of the Earth. The entire disk was below
-
- her.
-
- And then, suddenly, the Earth shot away. This time she was sick,
-
- and heaved over the side of the Athena's Horn.
-
- "Stop!" she said, and then yelled it louder. "Daltrey, stop
-
- moving!"
-
- First Officer Mahoney had just come out on deck, and was staring
-
- behind her in horror. She turned around, and almost lost herself to
-
- vertigo.
-
- Gravity was just a concept. She'd read that somewhere. And now,
-
- gravity suddenly, horribly, switched. The ship was upside down, above
-
- the huge and horrible moon. She started falling up, off the ship, and
-
- quickly grabbed hold of the side, trying desperately to get a good hold.
-
- She heard the watchman scream, and she heard the scream fade into the
-
- distance. Mahoney also screamed, but out of the corner of her eye she
-
- saw him grab onto a sail. No one else, fortunately, was above deck.
-
- She heard yelling and cursing below decks. She tried to put the
-
- watchman's scream out of her mind.
-
- "Daltrey! Turn us around! We're upside down!"
-
-
-
-
-
- Daltrey, too, had felt the nauseating twist as down reversed
-
- itself, and he fought to get his bearings.
-
-
-
-
-
- The ship twisted back around, and Sam fell loudly against the side
-
- of the ship, then pulled herself back aboard. Mahoney was still
-
- swinging from the sail, but now was pointed towards the deck. After
-
- opening his eyes, he clambered to the rigging and down the pole. The
-
- crew began to rush above deck. Laura ran to her sister.
-
- "Sam, what's happened? Why is the moon...?"
-
- "I don't know, Laura. As soon as I could see the edges of the
-
- Earth, we sped up. It was incredible! I just don't know. Nobody
-
- predicted... Laura, you've got a nasty bump on your forehead."
-
- "Gods! I woke up falling towards the ceiling! Has anyone been
-
- really hurt?"
-
- "The watchman... by all the golden apples, that was horrible." Sam
-
- looked over the side of the ship, to the dull, pasty white surface of
-
- the moon.
-
- "Gods, how far to fall... Charon guide him."
-
- The Navigator and First Office joined them.
-
- Their cries echoed that of the rest of the crew.
-
- "Look at the Earth! Its so small..."
-
- And they marvelled at the surface of the moon. All the mountains
-
- and craters, the plains and seas.
-
- "We have to land." Sam said.
-
- "Daltrey!" she cried, "Bring us in! Set us down on the Lunar Sea!"
- ========================================================================
-
- Men Not Afraid
- Part III -- It Came From the Side of the Ship
- by Jerry Stratton
- "Light [and heat] are thus demi-etheric, travelling at
- once in the Ethereal and the Material Planes.
- 'This, in fact, is the means by which wizards render
- themselves and other objects invisible. Light is bound
- from entering the Ether, and travels nowhere."
- -- James Clerk Maxwell
- Ethereal Radiations
-
-
-
-
-
-
- There were no clouds on the moon, and the air, when they felt it,
-
- was dry. The Athena's Horn flew miles above the surface, moving slowly
-
- downward.
-
- The surface of the moon was bright, but not quite so bright as seen
-
- from the Earth. It was the familiar Paradox of Flying.
-
- Laura looked at Sam.
-
- "There's an odd smell... Sam, what's that all on your shirt?"
-
- Sam looked down at herself.
-
- "uhh... Nothing. It... came from the side of the ship. I'd better
-
- clean up."
-
- "Whatever it is, it smells like vomit. Where..."
-
- She grinned.
-
- "Ah! Yes, you'd better clean up."
-
- "Don't laugh, I'll put it in your laundries."
-
- "Don't you dare. Hurry up, before we land."
-
- Sam left.
-
- Gods, I feel so giddy, Laura thought. Athena give us wisdom today.
-
- The surface came closer. The air now was incredibly dry. The land
-
- was covered with craters, seas, and mountains. As they drew closer,
-
- smaller craters grew from the larger ones. The mountains were sharp and
-
- craggy. The water in the Great Lunar sea was dull white, like dirty
-
- milk.
-
- Daltrey was bringing them in like madman. He was probably as
-
- overjoyed as her and Sam. Thru Hades, she thought, Sam and Daltrey
-
- probably had the whole thing planned out.
-
- She breathed deeply. It was dry air, even stale, but it was new!
-
- This was the first time anyone had breathed this air.
-
- The ship began to speed up. Daltrey was surfing them down the side
-
- of the mountains surrounding the sea. The dull grey rocks of the
-
- mountainside blurred past, no more than fifty feet below the ship. It
-
- was exhilarating. They skimmed out over the sea, flinging the milky
-
- liquid outward. Daltrey curved around and lifted into the air again,
-
- and came down for another arc.
-
- Suddenly, the Athena's Horn was careening, not flying. It plowed
-
- into the sea, nearly throwing Laura overboard when it rocked starboard.
-
- The Horn slowly righted itself. Laura rushed down to the Helm Room,
-
- to see what had happened to the Helmsman. She was met, halfway, by
-
- Navigator Lyall, and, coming up the stairs, Helmsman Daltrey.
-
- "Gaia's Blood! Sorry about that landing. Is everyone alright?"
-
- "I think so," Laura replied. "What happened?"
-
- "I lost control. This is so overwhelming, I forgot how tired I was.
-
- Am."
-
- "Go to your cabin. Calm down and get some sleep."
-
- She turned to Lyall.
-
- "Navigator, make sure he does. Then come out on deck. We need to
-
- figure out what happened when we left Earth."
-
- "Yes, Ma'am."
-
- She turned and went topside again. Laura was there, in travelling
-
- gear. She wore her leather, her bow was at her back, and her revolver,
-
- dagger, and sword were at her side.
-
- Laura looked again at the sword.
-
- "The Incan! Sam, what are you ready for?"
-
- The Incan sword was magicked, a gift from a friend in the Indian
-
- Nations. Sam only used it when there was a life-threatening problem.
-
- "We have no idea who or what lives here. I suggest you also
-
- prepare."
-
- "But..."
-
- Lyall and Mahoney came above deck.
-
- "Lyall," Sam asked, "do you have any idea what happened? This trip
-
- should have taken weeks."
-
- "I don't know. Maxwell's theory says we should speed up once we
-
- leave the Earth's Newtonian plane, but he predicted only two or three
-
- times as fast, ten at the most. It took us no more than half a minute
-
- to travel nearly three hundred thousand miles. We had to have sped up at
-
- least five orders of magnitude. It's incredible!"
-
- "Then," said First Officer Mahoney, "anyone can do it?"
-
- "If it's repeatable. Any dweomercraft should be able to."
-
- "It had better be repeatable," Sam said. "We need to go back. When
-
- will we need to take off to return to Florida?"
-
- "Well, if we wait until it's directly under us, probably two hours.
-
- But where we are, that's not necessary. Look," he said, pointing to the
-
- Earth in the sky, "Recognize that? Looks just like a map from here. And
-
- Florida's right where it's always been, at the southeastern tip of the
-
- United States."
-
- "Then as long as we can still see it?"
-
- "That's it, Captain."
-
- "Then we are going to investigate this area. I'll need you,
-
- Navigator. Bring your detector. We need to know if gunpowder works."
-
- 'First Officer, take care of the ship, and get me two persons,
-
- outfit them with ship's weapons.
-
- 'Mage, are you coming?"
-
- "Someone's got to keep you out of trouble."
-
- "Thru Hade's, Sam, you have all the fun." the First Officer said.
-
- "Don't worry, Roger. Next time, I'll let you take the team."
-
- Laura and Navigator Lyall left to prepare. In a couple minutes they
-
- returned. Lyall wore a revolver and a large pouch on his belt and a
-
- glass flask and equipment at his side. Laura wore the mage's pouch she
-
- always carried, and a revolver.
-
- Two crewmen were there, with Sam, in leather and wearing shield,
-
- revolver, sword, and bow. The image of a stag jumping a horn was sewn
-
- over the left breast of each.
-
- Lyall took his flask from his side, and a glass rod and piece of
-
- wool from his pouch. He rubbed the wool over the rod many times, and
-
- then touched the rod to the tip of the flask. Inside the flask were two
-
- metal leaves, hanging from a thread. Nothing happened. They all knew
-
- what it meant -- gunpowder doesn't work if the leaves don't spread
-
- apart. They'd used this trick many times, especially in California,
-
- which was riddled with dead zones.
-
- "Well enough, Navigator," Sam said. "Check regularly, and tell us
-
- if we leave the dead zone."
-
- "Yes, Ma'am."
-
- He put the equipment away.
-
-
-
- They boarded a dinghy, which was then lowered into the water. The
-
- two crewmen began rowing towards the shore.
-
- From here, the water looked very strange. It was a dull, pasty
-
- white, and didn't ripple quite the way water was supposed to. Laura
-
- gingerly touched a finger to it.
-
- "What is it, Laura?"
-
- "I don't know, Sam. It feels greasy, almost granular. Whatever it
-
- is, it isn't water."
-
- She pulled an empty vial from her pouch, and dipped it into the
-
- water. She stoppered it, then wiped it and her hands on a rag. She put
-
- everything back into the pouch.
-
- "Let a chemist figure it out."
-
- "Yeah," Sam said. "This whole place is eerie. It's so silent. Look
-
- at the ship! It's motionless in the water."
-
- "Not water. I don't think there's water anywhere. Is your skin
-
- feeling as dry as mine?"
-
- "Yeah," she replied, smiling. "Maybe next time we'll need a vat of
-
- petrol jelly."
-
- The dinghy beached. When it hit the sand, a cloud of dust went up,
-
- covering them, settling only very slowly. They stepped out, coughing.
-
- Wherever they stepped, clouds of white dust flew up a foot off the
-
- ground. Their footsteps made only the slightest noise, and there were no
-
- echoes.
-
- "This whole place is dead." Sam whispered. "There's nothing here."
-
- "Look at our tracks," Laura said. "It can't rain here. And there's
-
- no wind. No air is moving at all."
-
- "If anything lived here," Sam said, "there should be tracks..."
-
- They continued moving, following Sam's lead. The crewmen had bows
-
- ready. They walked up the moderate slope for the better part of an hour,
-
- sending small puffs of dust up with every step.
-
- The stars were amazingly sharp in the sky, and as still as the
-
- landscape. None of the constellations were right for that time of year.
-
- The sun, glanced at quickly, was a bright disk surrounded by blackness.
-
- Venus was at ten of the hour, and Mars at four, on either side of the
-
- sun.
-
- "We're out of the dead zone," Lyall said, putting his equipment
-
- away again.
-
- "Good," Sam replied. "Check every hundred yards or so now. We have
-
- no idea how fast zones appear here."
-
- There was a thud above them. Laura reached into her pouch. The two
-
- crewmen put their bows away, and drew their revolvers.
-
- There was nothing there. They heard the noise again. It was
-
- muffled, like all the noises they made here, but it was coming from
-
- above, further up the mountain. Sam gave the hand signal to hide. They
-
- chose an outcropping and hid from whatever was up there.
-
- The noise repeated, and repeated again. Suddenly it sped up
-
- considerably, moving rapidly towards them, then past. A boulder bounded
-
- past the, human-sized, and the pasty white dust billowed into a huge
-
- cloud, enclosing them in darkness.
-
- When the dust cleared, everyone except Laura held a revolver. Laura
-
- held a folded Chinese fan in her left hand. Her right hand was in her
-
- pouch.
-
- A ring of twenty or thirty tiny grey human-like creatures
-
- surrounded them. Each held a small crossbow.
-
- "Two can play this game," Laura muttered, and fanned in a circle
-
- around here. A great wind blew from the fan, blowing dust back into the
-
- air in a ring, and rolling some of the creatures also. Her right hand
-
- pulled a packet out of her pouch, and emptied the contents into the air.
-
- She muttered some Greek, and the dust from the packet sparkled and
-
- formed a mirror in the air.
-
- "Get inside!"
-
- Laura pushed one of the crewmen into the mirror. He fell through.
-
- She followed him, and the rest followed also. Inside was a small square
-
- room. There was a mirror where they entered. Laura kicked at it once
-
- everyone was in, and it shattered into fine dust. Behind the mirror
-
- they could see the cloud of dust settling on the moon.
-
- The creatures were in a state of confusion. They scrambled about
-
- the path and the rocks. One walked straight at the doorway, but
-
- disappeared when it reached them. The doorway did not exist on the other
-
- side.
-
- "Where did they come from?" Lyall asked.
-
- "I don't know," Sam said. "I think we had better get back to the
-
- Horn, and then to Florida. We are not quite prepared for this."
-
-
-
- The creatures were small, no more than two feet tall, and hairless.
-
- Their skin was a light, white-mottled gray. Their crossbows were tiny,
-
- but looked quite serviceable. There seemed to be an infinite supply of
-
- the creatures, but they soon tired of searching. They all went up the
-
- path, out of sight of the doorway.
-
- Inside the mirror room, they waited a few more minutes. Sam peeked
-
- her head out, around the door.
-
- "They are gone. Let us go also."
-
- laura was last to leave the room. They moved quickly down the
-
- slope, back to the dinghy. From about a hundred yards, they saw a dozen
-
- or so of the creatures climbing in and out of the dinghy.
-
- "Navigator," Sam whispered, "find out if this is a dead zone.
-
- Laura, can you do anything?"
-
- "No problem."
-
- In Greek, she called on Morpheus, and the creatures fell motionless
-
- to the ground.
-
- Lyall spoke up.
-
- "Powder works fine, Captain. Doesn't look like we'll need it."
-
- "Everyone, stay on your guard. We don't know if there are any
-
- more," Sam said.
-
- They moved cautiously down to the dinghy. Nine creatures lay
-
- scattered about the beach. Two were draped over the side of the dinghy.
-
- Sam gingerly picked one up, in disgust, and put it on the ground. They
-
- were uglier up close. Their skin was the same grey as northern fish.
-
- "These things are--"
-
- "Laura had picked one up also, and brought it into the boat.
-
- "Aww... So cute... Can I keep mine?"
-
- "These are the most hideous things I've ever seen."
-
- "I want one. Maybe we can find out what they are."
-
- "Take it. Right now, we need to leave."
-
- Everyone else got into the dinghy, keeping Laura at a clear arm's
-
- length. They pushed off and returned to the Horn.
-
-
-
- "Laura," Sam said, when they were aboard, "we need you to chair the
-
- ship. I can't trust John on so little sleep."
-
- Laura held back her disappointment.
-
- "Sure."
-
-
-
- The First Officer was waiting when they boarded.
-
- "Roger," Sam said in reply to his enthusiastic questioning, "this
-
- is, without a doubt, the most desolate place I've ever been."
-
- "What's that thing Laura has?"
-
- "It's one of the men in the moon." Laura said.
-
- "Laura, you had better get down to the chair." Sam said. "Every
-
- moment we spend here is less time for the United States to prepare for
-
- the Spanish fleet."
-
- "We shouldn't have spent so much time here already." Laura said.
-
- "True. It's just so overwhelming. But, let's go."
-
- Laura put the still sleeping creature and her vial of moon water in
-
- her room, and went down to the Helm Room. She strapped herself in with
-
- huge leather straps. The great wooden chair itself was bolted securely
-
- to the floor.
- =========================================================================
- Received: by UTARLVM1 (Mailer R2.07) id 6523; Wed, 13 Feb 91 20:22:58 CST
- Date: Wed, 13 Feb 91 18:24:00 PDT
- Reply-To: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons discussion list <ADND-L@PUCC>
- Sender: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons discussion list
- <ADND-L@UTARLVM1.BITNET>
- From: JERRY@ACUSD.BITNET
- Subject: Fluff: Men Not Afraid, Chapter IV
- To: Brad Samek <C014BDS@UTARLVM1.BITNET>
-
- Men Not Afraid
- The Voyages of the Athena's Horn
- Part IV -- The Journey Home
- by Jerry Stratton
-
- The Newtonian Plane thus hinders etheric
- reactions. Reactions caused by plane owners
- should be more efficient than what we can
- now produce. The light of a candle, for
- example, should travel further ethereally if
- produced while the candle owns its plane
- then it does while the candle is within the
- plane of the Earth.
- The current state of knowledge does not
- allow us to calculate directly the increase in
- efficiency, but etheric reactions should be
- two to three times as efficent in the void.
- Some reasonable calculations place the
- increase as high as one order of magnitude.
- -- James Clerk Maxwell
- Ethereal Radiations
-
-
- "Raise the wings!" Sam cried.
-
- The crew unfurled the stabilizer wings of the Athena's Horn.
-
- Laura, seated at the heart of the dweomercraft, heard and felt all
-
- that was happening on the ship. She was the ship. Her body and the
-
- ship were simply two appendages.
-
- "Helmswoman!" her sister yelled, standing at the wheel. "To the
-
- skies!"
-
- Laura gingerly reached out, and lifted herself -- the Horn -- out
-
- of the lunar sea. She pushed into the ether, and she moved forward.
-
- The dry air rushed against her side. On her deck, Sam and Roger
-
- watched the ground recede. Someone had awakened Daltrey also. The
-
- crew did their work all over her.
-
- She pushed against the ether, and she moved herself upwards.
-
- She took the round, disk-like Earth as her pole, and pushed herself
-
- towards it. The lunar sea receded, and she saw the mountains
-
- surrounding it.
-
- On the disc of the Earth, she recognized Florida jutting out from
-
- the sourtheastern edge of North America, and used that as her guide.
-
- Stars glared from the sky around the Earth. The dry air continued to
-
- rush past her wooden sides.
-
- Below, the mountains, craters, and seas grew smaller. Sam
-
- ordered everyone below decks. The crew grumbled, but followed
-
- orders.
-
- Her deck was empty. Below, she saw the great expanse of the
-
- lunar surface, while above, at the center of her vision, she still
-
- focussed on the tip of Florida.
-
-
-
- Suddenly, a veil was lifted from her mind. Fog that she had
-
- never seen disappeared, and weights that she had never felt
-
- disappeared. The moon receded to normal size, and the Earth grew to
-
- engulf her vision. She saw the storm east of Florida, and then felt the
-
- horrible shift as she tumbled towards the Earth. Her crew yelled as
-
- they tumbled to the ceiling and walls.
-
- With a light touch at the ether, she righted herself, and sailed
-
- through the damp, twisting air of Earth, to the eastern coast of
-
- Florida.
-
-
-
-
-
- After the ship was righted, Sam returned to the deck, and
-
- breathed the air with a new sense of wonder.
-
- The rest of the crew came out also. They were higher than any
-
- ship had flown before. North America was outlined against the
-
- Atlantic and Pacific. Clouds obscured California, and another set of
-
- clouds covered British Columbia, much of the northeastern United
-
- States, and the Elfin northeast. The hurricane was visible, bright in
-
- the sunlight, nearing the southeastern coast of the United States.
-
- Daltrey walked up besides Sam.
-
- "Thanks for waking me, Captain. This is amazing."
-
- "I can't believe it's so easy." Sam replied. "Pierre measured our
-
- speed -- 18 seconds to travel 240,000 miles. That's completely
-
- unbelievable. A thousand thousand times faster than on Earth. At
-
- that speed, we can even go to Mars or Venus in a matter of days."
-
- "Maybe we should go to Arizona and see if Professor Lowall is
-
- interested in seeing Mars in person."
-
- "I don't know. I never realized how different things could be. On
-
- the moon we were helpless. Nothing was as we knew it. How much
-
- more different will Mars, or Venus, or Jupiter be?"
-
- "You don't want to go?"
-
- "I don't know. There's so much happening here. At home. Spain's
-
- trying to regain her power, probably allied with Ireland. England's
-
- taking Arabia, and is having trouble in Africa. There's so much going
-
- on here.
-
- 'I was thinking we might go downto the Indian Nations, and help
-
- a few of my friends there against the Spanish."
-
- "The Incans?" Daltrey replied, "I've never been there."
-
- "That's what I mean. I've been so many places on Earth, but
-
- there's still so much to explore. The moon, Mars... they'll always be
-
- there. There's a lot to take care of right here at home first."
-
- "Well, Captain..." he yawned, "Hm. I guess I'd better get some
-
- rest."
-
- "True. Tomorrow's going to be a long day. After the hurricane
-
- and the warships, we may not have to worry about going anywhere
-
- anyway."
-