I awoke feeling remarkably refreshed, a gentle feeling of motion along with the thrumming I recognized as the engine sound from the airship informed me that we had made our escape. From the cushioned bed where I lay, I looked out into blue sky with billowy white clouds drifting gently by. Smiling briefly, I sat up in the bed.
A tightness around my chest reminded me of the last thing I remembered before passing out, I had been shot. I looked down and saw a white bandage wrapped around my torso, some of it bloody. Curious, I touched the red area, feeling for the wound, as I felt no pain inside my body. Only a slight tenderness near the center was present, yet my thoughts were not muddled as if I had been given some sort of pain killing drug.
I unwrapped the bandage, growing more confident as I continued. The final layer revealed slightly blood soiled, but otherwise intact skin, with the slightest dimple in the middle. I found a small basin of water and was washing off this blood carefully with a clean section of the bandage when the door opened suddenly and Layla walked in.
Whether she was surprised to see me in my state of semi-undress or simply at my standing apparently unhurt in the middle of the room, I was unable to ascertain by the brief widening of her eyes, but in any case the bowl she carried clattered to the deck, shattering and splashing its contents along the floor.
“John,” she said, her surprise rapidly turning to chagrin, “you shouldn’t be out of bed, your wound.” I looked down as if studying my chest, then looked back up at her and shrugged my shoulders, “It must have looked worse than it was, I feel tip top.” While my colloquialism was lost on her, as evidenced by the puzzled look which crossed her face as I uttered it, she stepped closer and examined the wound site gently, shaking her head as she did so. “No, you were punctured here,” she touched the dimple in my skin for illustration “and that was only yesterday. How did you heal so quickly?”
I answered her honestly, seeing no reason not to. “I do not know how, I only know that I heal faster than is normal. It may be related to the way I can move at such a high rate of speed, but that also is a mystery to me.” I was about to go into my entire knowledge of what I could do, starting with my battlefield hospital experience of seemingly so long ago when I was interrupted by a whistle from a speaking tube near the door. Layla reached over and flipped up the hinged cap before speaking back into it. “What?” she asked, her face full of consternation. The echoing voice from the other end could be none other than Threm’s “Princess, we have company. How is Jahn?” Layla answered back, “John is awake and apparently fine, we are on our way up.”
Layla started out of the room and then paused. Crossing to a low dressing table, she picked up a white shirt and tossed it to me. “Here, put this on. It is cold up there.” I pulled on the soft woven garment. While I slept, someone had replaced Threm’s baggy and somewhat damaged leather pants with a set of thick yet soft canvas trousers, and it was into those that I tucked the tails of loose fitting shirt. I also located and pulled onto my feet a pair of soft black boots which had been positioned near the side of my bed.
My thoughts already pondering this “company” Threm was referring to, I conjured up an almost casual pursuit of a single airship of a similar type to the one we rode. At most I envisioned two or three smaller ‘fast pursuit’ craft. In any case I was completely taken aback when Layla and I reached the deck near Threm to see a veritable flotilla of no less than thirty craft.
They were of varying sizes, some small, some close to the same size as our vessel, but a disconcerting number of the airships were indeed larger than our own, and showed no slowness due to that greater bulk. It was quite a disheartening sight, but the expression Threm held, grim yet determined, gave me a glimmer of hope that the outcome might yet sway in our favor.
I spent several seconds contemplating possible reasons for so many ships to be following us, but gave it up as irrelevant. I paced from one side of the deck to the other, examining the landscape below but without any deep concentration as my thoughts turned towards our options. I must admit that at this juncture they seemed limited. Even my strange powers to alter the flow of time around me could not allow me to defeat thirty airships before they sent this one plunging to the ground, taking us with it to our dooms, or at least I thought so at the time.
I looked to Threm and Layla, who were both watching the approaching ships. “I do not suppose we can outfly them?” Threm shook his head, “The princess knows more about the engines than I, and she could not coax any more speed from them. If we could wake the airship pilot, he might know of something. But he fell fast asleep as soon as we boarded and will not awaken to any of our prompting.”
Layla shook her head “He is still very frail, and I fear that using any medicine to stimulate him into wakefulness might kill him. Even in our peril I hesitate to use such measures, there must be something else we can do. If it were night, we might be able to jump ship, if we could get low enough, but with the daylight, nothing is hidden.
To punctuate the seriousness of our situation, the ship dropped a foot or so quite rapidly before readjusting in its harness. The deck now leaned slightly to one side. I looked up and saw one of the supporting balloons above had deflated and was now drifting downward on its tether towards the ship. I heard the crack of an explosion from the direction of the following airships, and saw another of the balloons begin to deflate rapidly. They were targeting our support bags, and I knew it would not be much longer, or many more bags, before our ship was no longer airworthy.
But, as my mind worked quickly around the situation, I realized that we had also been given an opportunity. I ran to the side of the airship, pointing to a feature I had noticed before, but had paid little attention to. A river meandered through the forest below, but at some distance, what looked like a small cloud hung along the rivers’ path. “Is that a waterfall?” I asked.
Threm shielded his eyes from the sun with one hand and looked in the direction I had indicated. He stared briefly, then answered, “It is as likely as anything else, I have not spent much time looking at things from this altitude. Mak might know better.”
Layla stepped to my side, “I think so, John. What do you have in mind?” She said, while resting her hand on my arm, standing very close as if for reassurance, or to reassure me. I thought quickly, as the other airships closed their distance and continued their barrage. “If we can dive towards that mist rapidly enough, then jettison ballast, we may be able to abandon ship without being noticed, and make our way along the river to somewhere safe. That is as long as those airships chase this craft while it rises out of control.”
Mak, who had come upon me from behind unnoticed, said “Yes, that may be our only chance. As long as they don’t notice us for long enough, a ground chase might prove over burdensome to them in this terrain. They might let us go as long as they recover the airship. In any case, we will be harder to find in the forest. I say we follow John’s plan.”
Threm nodded and Layla squeezed my arm in assent. I looked towards her and she smiled at me, then dropped her eyes briefly before speaking. “I cannot think of anything better, and I have no wish to return to the captivity of those pirates. But we will need supplies if we are to trek cross country to somewhere safe. Threm and I will gather stores from the ship while you and Mak pilot us towards the falls.” She added another sentence, praising me and avowing her confidence in my abilities, but I shall not repeat it here. Suffice it to say that she and Threm were able to acquire a substantial amount of food and other necessities while Mak and I piloted the vessel.
Several times during our descent, I must admit that the constant battering from the guns of the following airships, both upon our buoyancy balloons and indeed, upon the very hull of the airship itself, shook my resolve that we would come through this ordeal unscathed. However, we eventually reached the mist covering the waterfall without lethal damage to either ourselves or to the airship.
My plan to drop from undern
eath and leave the airship to skyrocket upwards in a final appearance of attempting to flee was somewhat thwarted. As we neared the churning waters below, enough of the airbags had been punctured that Mak assured me no rapid ascent was possible, even if all available ballast were to be dumped. Mak and I made our way, nonetheless to the cargo hatch, to meet Layla and Threm as we had discussed previously.
By this time, the view below was obscured by near constant mist from the giant falls. Only occasionally was the churning water below visible, which was not heartening. But by this time, the only alternative was to remain with the airship and be recaptured, an alternative none of us wanted to take.
Explosions echoed through the hull, along with vibrations indicating their nearness to our location. Some tipped the deck to a most uncomfortable angle, necessitating that all of our pitiful party grasp various superstructure items in order to stay afoot. Layla grasped my arm, grasping me instead of the ship, for support.
When we were a mere five feet from the water, a particularly strong burst shook the vessel, not only slowing it by a substantial amount, but causing the cargo opening to submerge briefly into the water, and wetting all of us with a forceful splash. Layla fell into my arms, and grabbed me tightly.
I realized that if my plan were to have any chance of success, the airship would have to climb as rapidly as possible from its current location, to one of some elevation, and from there be boarded, causing enough of a delay to allow us to make good our escape into the countryside.
Then I realized that someone was going to have to stay behind, at least long enough to jettison all the ballast. I refused to think of asking any of my friends to sacrifice themselves, and somewhat halfheartedly told myself that I had a better chance than any of them at executing the ballast release and then surviving the farther fall.
I grasped Layla by the shoulders and spoke in a loud enough voice for all of them to hear. “You must jump now. I will lead them away, and then make good my escape once you are safe.” Layla shook her head, and for some reason, her eyes moistened as she spoke. “No John, stay with us! You do not need to risk yourself so.”
Threm was stone faced, and Mak merely nodded towards me. They saw the practicality of the matter, and would do as I asked. Something in my chest ached as I looked towards Layla again. I had to save her, whatever the cost. “Threm and Mak will look after you. I will return, I promise.” I saw a tear run down her cheek as she nodded. Unable to bear more, I turned and ran from the compartment.
The trip to each of the ballast chambers took an inexplicably long time. Perhaps I ran through an altered time rate, perhaps I was merely overly focused on the now painful separation from Layla. Why I felt this way, I cannot explain, I can only relate that it was indeed more painful than anything I had experienced in my short life thus far. If I had considered any other option viable to save Layla, and my companions, I would have taken it gladly, if it would have allowed me to remain.
But I could conceive of nothing, so I made my way as quickly as possible to the sections of the ship containing the harness securing the weighted metal plating to the outside of the hull.
No sooner had I cut the bindings securing the ballast, than the airship surged upwards with a speed that nearly flung me to the deck. Apparently, Mak had been incorrect in his assumption that the airship could no longer climb rapidly. Maintaining my balance shakily, I made my way towards the quarterdeck.
John Smith, World Jumper Book One: Portal to Adventure Page 13