The Volcano Lady by T.E. MacArthur

Author:T.E. MacArthur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: steampunk, volcanoes, jules verne, steampunk romance, captain nemo, robur the conqueror, adventure 1880s, victorian science fiction
Publisher: T.E. MacArthur

Chapter 31

September 25, 1882

Drifting above the Netherlands

Robur grasped the debris which had lodged itself in the exposed rotor of the fore-screw and yanked it out. The violent action caused the gigantic propeller to vibrate out to its tips. Sitting back on the rotor shaft, he rested his shoulders and head against the hull and held up the offending clump of grass. “We are capable of flight, Tom, when the rest of humanity must trudge along in the dirt. I’ve designed the ship to maneuver at the highest speeds, to survive in extraordinary circumstances. Yet the clippings from a farmstead have nearly brought us down out of the sky.” He sounded more frustrated and amused than angry, to Turner’s relief.

Turner, straddling the rail and holding onto a secure line around Robur’s waist, tried not to laugh, just in case he was misinterpreting his commander’s mood. “Mix a North Sea storm with Dutch farmland and we were bound to come out of it wearing a piece of Holland. Could have been worse sir.”

Tossing the clump overboard without a care for who might be far below them or how they might explain dirt clods falling from the air, Robur climbed off the fore-screw and up over the rail. He didn’t even attempt to dust himself off but set about untying Turner’s knot in the line. “So,” he said, much quieter, “They’ll be working together now. That’s superior, you know. Their genius put together. We can use that once we’ve returned from America.”

Turner couldn’t help smiling. The brief but potentially satisfying detour to the States would be a welcome respite. It might ultimately distract Robur. Once he was in a better mood, Robur would be more amenable to his suggestions.

A visit to Philadelphia for the launch of the Weldon Institute’s big balloon wasn’t the very best of ideas. They might be discovered. Yet Turner believed that a mysterious nighttime raid would put an end to the constant public bragging by the Institute’s President, Prudent. Not that Prudent or the Vice President, Evans, had given particulars to the press that came close to describing the Albatross accurately: to do so would put the balloon’s technology into question and therefore, its investment worthiness into doubt. But they had told the world that a madman and his faulty flying ship existed. Whether they were laughed at or not, it planted in the minds of many the notion that such a flying ship was out there. If the Go Ahead failed, the story would be doubted even more.

Turner’s wartime skills would find good use again. Sabotage was in fact a very interesting exercise in planning, stealth, and timing. While he hadn’t discussed with his captain what would be done, Turner had already designed a triple method of causing the balloon, the Go Ahead, to fail before leaving the ground. Prudent and Evans, and all the others, were fools and braggarts, but not deserving of death. The Go Ahead would not leave the ground.

The Albatross crew would have to be careful, of course.

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