Mechanicals by Jordan Stratford

Author:Jordan Stratford [Stratford, Jordan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-10-16T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

Even aboard the Celerity, the trek to the Russian American capital on Berenof would take longer than the voyage from New York to California. Not only was it a greater distance, but the airship was to be buffetted by Northern Pacific winds slamming into the volcanic Cascade mountains practically the whole route. The ship’s engines droned against the incessant bombardment.

Feeling more confident, and more at home on board, Billings dared venture to the bridge, fore and above the library to which he’d largely contained his explorations. The deck seemed palatial, a panorama of canted windows mullioned in brass. There was great oak wheel like that of a sailing vessel, and the nautical theme extended to other details. A great map table stood behind the wheel, and above it like a bizarre candelabra was suspended a system of brass trumpets, speaking tubes to different parts of the ship. Billings was given freedom of the bridge, and spent most of his time looking at the impressive collection of charts. They were prepared, cartographically at least, to embark on any course in the world, as far as he could tell.

He gathered that they were making, at best, fifty knots, less than a mile a minute. While this would have seemed to him a dizzying velocity a week ago, it now seemed labored by comparison to their westward trip, and he began to realize how impossibly fortunate they had been with their time.

The weather had, once leaving the grey of San Francisco, cooperated so far as sunshine was concerned all the way to the California border. Once reaching Oregon country, though, dark clouds menaced constantly to port. Not clouds, technically, but one leaden sheet that squatted above the coast and seemed determined not to budge. It only deepened in its conviction the farther north they flew.

It had taken a full day to reach the Willamette River, where they touched down for the boiler’s water. This showed to Billings a weakness in the whole affair of air travel–fresh water was required, and the more the wind was against them, the harder the engines worked and the thirstier they became. Crossing the ocean was instantly problematic, as descending for water would be perilous, besides which, salt water would corrupt the boilers as quickly as any acid, leaving them without propulsion and at the mercy of any tempest.

But here, at least, over Oregon, fresh water was abundant, as evidenced by the lushness of evergreens and the surge of the river fed by melting snow. Her tanks full, the Celerity rose again to compete with the steady eastward belligerence of the atmosphere. They saw no sign of anyone–trader or native settlement–the land seeming abandoned to giant conifers and rocky crag.

Another full day had passed, with no change to the landscape or weather save for a kind of disintegration of the coastline as it yielded to the growing number of broken islands. Rather than maintain their bearing of true north, they veered with the splintering coast northeast, at times over open ocean, and being well-punished for it.

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