From the rear of the Pegasus Khuwelsa gave two short whistles: Steam’s up. Harry glanced at the pressure gauge and confirmed it was at maximum. The mayor had provided a full load of coal for free as well. Once she had confirmed she would try to return their copper, he was full of cooperation.
The women of the town had provided them with cooked foods that would last a good amount of time, and Bakari’s men had hunted and cooked several animals of their own. The Pegasus had never felt so full, almost bloated. Harry gave a long whistle, paused a moment, and engaged the Faraday.
She unlocked the wings, felt them unfold, and arched them as if she were a hawk readying herself to fly. The cries of amazement from the crowd that filtered through the hull made her smile. Harry knew her bird was beautiful and was pleased when she impressed.
Harry flapped the wings. They were perfect. She engaged the propeller at its lowest gearing and it spun up to speed. For some reason she wanted this to look good. She steadily increased the speed of the rotor until it was screaming. She gave the wings another couple of gentle flaps that would not shift them from the ground.
Finally she gave two long whistles, raised the wings and beat hard, tilting the wings forward as she did so. The front of the Pegasus lifted. The ship leapt upwards, the propeller caught the air and they shot into the sky.
She flattened out and they accelerated. Stroking the wings steadily to gain more height, she brought the Pegasus round until she was facing northeast and let her go. Their airspeed increased. She looked through the lower window of the cockpit at the newly installed mirror. The town was disappearing rapidly into the distance.
With the wings locked off in cruising position she reduced power on the propeller, and they cruised away from the town at a steady one hundred and twenty miles per hour as the day headed towards night.
“What do you think?” Khuwelsa leaned across the rail. She was grinning.
“Good as new,” said Harry.
Khuwelsa’s face fell. “Good as new? Is that the best you can offer?”
Harry laughed. “Better than new?”
Khuwelsa harrumphed. “Too late. I’m upset now. I slaved over our baby night and day for this.”
“Well, if it’s already too late I’ll say no more.”
There was silence between them for a while. The sky darkened and the stars stood out.
“Have you got a plan?” Khuwelsa could no longer stand the quiet.
“If I said yes, would you believe me?”
“Of course, I believe every word you say.”
“Of course you do,” said Harry. “Plan A: Find the German Zeppelin. Follow them to wherever they’re going. Find out what’s going on. Report back to Dad.”
“Good plan.”
“I thought so.”
“It’ll never work.”
“We can try.”
“So,” said Khuwelsa. “Is there a plan B?”
“Improvise.”
“I like plan B better.”
Harry peered out into the deepening gloom. “Better put down before we lose all the light.”
Khuwelsa disappeared into the plane while Harry reduced speed and lost height. There were some big mountains here on the upper plateau, including Kilima-Njaro. She certainly did not want to bump into that.
xxi
To the north the towering peak of Kilima-Njaro dominated the horizon, far taller than any surrounding peak, with its crown of glistening snow. Bakari and his men were glued to the portholes watching as the ship flew west into the setting sun.
“What’s up with them?” she asked Khuwelsa, who spoke to Bakari briefly.
“Local god or something like that,” said Khuwelsa.
Harry paused. “I’ve been thinking that if we get up as high as we can and our passengers can stand as lookouts we stand a better chance of spotting the Zeppelin. We can probably see for a good fifty miles in all directions.”
Khuwelsa discussed it with Bakari. Harry, even lacking understanding of the language, saw he was happy with the idea. She increased power to the propeller and adjusted the attitude of the wings. The needle of the altitude gauge crept up.
Bakari posted two men at each of the port and starboard portholes then stationed himself and the remaining two at the front, leaning over the rail. Harry gestured for the two of them to climb under the rail and position themselves as far forward as possible. They moved forward and sat cross-legged on the deck looking out as the Pegasus continued to climb.
“What sort of speed do you think the Zeppelin will be making?” Harry asked Khuwelsa as they reached ten thousand feet.
“At best they could only manage sixty miles per hour, and with their additional weight it’s difficult to say.”
“But they have a big head start.” Harry screwed up her face in concentration. “I have no idea how to work that out, even assuming they don’t change course.”
“It’s easy,” said Khuwelsa. “We’ll assume they are in the air for the same amount of time as we are, and we’re going the right way, otherwise there’s no point. At worst we have twice their speed. First we have to cover the same distance they did in one day. It will take us half a day. They will have moved on a further half-day’s travel but it will only take us quarter of a day.”
“But they will have moved a further quarter-day’s worth.”
“Which we’ll cover in an eighth.”
“And they’ll have gone a bit further.”
Khuwelsa laughed. “Zeno’s Paradox.”
“What?”
“We can never actually catch them because they will always move forward a little bit in the time we cover the previous distance.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Of course it is, it’s Zeno’s Paradox.”
Harry sighed. “So when will we catch him?”
“No idea.”
“Well, you’re a bloody lot of use.”
The sun was setting. Harry wanted to keep the Pegasus in the air as long as possible but landing in the dark was not ideal.
Just at that moment a beam of light pierced the twilight. It appeared to emanate from the ground, though from their altitude it was difficult to tell. Their passengers gasped in fear and amazement.
The light moved across the sky and came closer.
Harry knew exactly what it was: a searchlight from the Zeppelin. She cursed under her breath. Their quarry must have been going even slower than they thought and set down early. With the airship’s engines off, the sound of the Pegasus would be very obvious. They had heard her coming and were now trying to find her.
There was no telling what sort of armament they might be carrying. If they had a searchlight then it was possible they could blow the Pegasus out of the air at ten thousand feet.
These thoughts flashed through Harry’s mind in no time at all. She whistled five times in quick succession, then angled the wings so they went into a dive. Once they were heading down fast she pulled in the wings, killed the power to the propeller, and cut the Faraday.
Gravity took over.
With so far to fall, Harry had plenty of time for manoeuvring. She watched the airspeed increase until the needle was hard over against the pin. With practiced ease she opened the wings a fraction, just enough to gain some control.
They were diving straight towards the source of the light which had yet to find her, and now the enemy could no longer hear her. Quietly at first but increasing in volume, a whistling built up around the hull. She had no idea what speed they were making now. Probably over two hundred and fifty miles per hour.
With the spotlight as a reference point, she could see the ground was coming at them fast. She adjusted the wings. The Pegasus pulled slowly out of her dive, forcing Harry back into the seat. At the same time she gave them a slight tilt so they steered away from the Zeppelin.
The searchlight found them, lighting up the interior with a blinding glare. Then it went dark again as it lost them. Harry blinked to make her eyes adjust. Thei
r high velocity had confused the crew manning the searchlight. But in that same moment a trail of white magnesium tracer bullets curved up and across the sky towards them.
As their trajectory flattened out the ship’s airspeed fell. The needle moved back from the maximum of two hundred. Harry flipped the controls and they rolled to the right. The tracers flashed past on their port side. The Zeppelin passed beneath them and the searchlight lit them up again.
Harry applied power to the propeller and they shot away scarcely fifty feet above the terrain she could now barely see. Something exploded in light behind them, reflected in the mirror mounted below.
Artillery.
Harry rolled again as a trail of smoke went past the window. They were heading southeast, back the way they had come. There were no valleys she could hide in round here, but there were forests.
In the dying light she powered towards a thick stand of trees, with the wings fully deployed. She was sure the Zeppelin would not waste artillery when it had no chance of hitting its target. The Pegasus passed over a small lake. There was almost no shoreline between the water and the trees but Harry killed the propeller and brought the ‘thopter round in a tight turn.
This landing would have been bumpy but instead they landed with a sticky squelch in the mud.
Khuwelsa went to work banking the furnace while Harry powered down everything. Their only hope was complete silence and no lights.
xxii
The night was filled with the choking grumbles of diesel engines and the penetrating glare of searchlights. It seemed this particular Zeppelin carried its own launch, perhaps more than one, and they searched through the night for Harry.
Bakari had asked to be let out shortly after the first launch went past, though it had missed them. Harry couldn’t blame the warriors if they wanted to get out of the tin can which might come under attack at any moment.
But she was wrong. After less than fifteen minutes a large branch came down over the front of the Pegasus followed by repeated bangs and clangs as the warriors hid the vessel under a blanket of greenery. This process continued for half an hour, but the warriors did not knock on the door to be allowed back in.
“Will water get into the grid?” Harry asked after a significant bubbling noise emanated from beneath them and echoed in the cabin.
“It shouldn’t be a problem,” said Khuwelsa after a moment’s thought. “It is proofed against rain. As long as we don’t submerge it completely.”
Harry sat in the pilot’s chair watching lights crossing the sky. With the furnace banked it would take time to get steam up. She knew she should sleep, but the fact they were sitting ducks if they were spotted preyed on her mind.
She jumped. Daylight filtered through the branches that covered the windows. In spite of herself she had slept and her neck was stiff. At a sound behind her, she turned her head and winced at the pain. Khuwelsa was unbolting the hatch. Bakari climbed in alone and had a long conversation with Khuwelsa which involved a great deal of repetition and hand signals.
“Well?” Harry had little patience, being tired and in pain.
Khuwelsa came over as Bakari exited through the hatch. “Don’t be grumpy, Harriet.”
“Don’t you Harriet me, what’s happened?”
“We’re still here.”
“I noticed,” Harry said and dug her fingers into the muscles of her neck trying to get rid of the ache. “Can you thank Bakari for the disguise?”
“I did that.”
Harry nodded and yawned.
“He says they waited until they were certain the flyers weren’t going to find us, then went over to the Zeppelin for a look-see.”
“And?”
“Not much to report, really,” said Khuwelsa. “He thinks the ship has about thirty men. They tried firing an arrow into the balloon—”
“Well, that’s not going to do anything.”
“He didn’t know that. He asked me if it would burn, I told him it wouldn’t.”
“Pity they stopped using hydrogen.”
Khuwelsa tutted. “Are you going to let me tell you or just keep interrupting?
“Sorry.”
“It’s got two armed launches, five men and two machine guns on each.”
Khuwelsa paused. A question burned in Harry’s throat but she said nothing.
“What?” said Khuwelsa.
Harry shook her head. Khuwelsa laughed. “Spit it out.”
“How do they know what machine guns are?”
“They described them, is that all right?”
“Yes.”
“So anyway, Bakari has a plan.”
“He has a plan?”
“He’s allowed to have plans, Harry. I think it’s quite a good one.”
“What plan?”
“He wanted to know if the iron bird could destroy the enemy.”
“You told him we couldn’t.”
“Harry, you’re doing it again.”
Harry put her hand over her mouth.
“Of course I said we couldn’t, but we might be able to force it to stay on the ground.” Khuwelsa paused, which drove Harry nuts; this wasn’t a plan, it was a joke. “So, he said that he and his men can take care of the launches as they emerge from the ship. They’ll just shoot the pilots. We damage the ship enough that it can’t take off, and then we can follow its route to see where it was going. He and his men will pick off anyone who sticks his head out.”
Harry hesitated before speaking. “Can I say something?”
“Yes.”
“The ship will have lifted before we get there.”
The distant sound of an explosion penetrated the cabin.
“No, they’ll be too busy trying to fix the severed fuel and control lines.”
If Khuwelsa was expecting Harry to be impressed she was out of luck. “In which case they’ll know we’re still around and send out the launches.”
“Bakari’s men are already on the case.”
“Better get moving, then.”
Khuwelsa executed a mock salute and headed back to the furnace. Harry went to the door just as a branch flew over her head and landed in the water. The surface was covered in a green scum which seemed to absorb the ripples. It smelt very bad.
She leaned out and looked up. Bakari was busy stripping the camouflage. Hampered by her dress, Harry did not attempt to follow. Instead, she went back to Khuwelsa who had put on her apron and gauntlets and begun fiddling around with the furnace.
“Maybe we should get a diesel engine,” said Harry.
“It would help us to get going faster, but they don’t have the power of steam.” Khuwelsa’s voice echoed inside the furnace which suddenly lit up. Khuwelsa pulled out and wiped the back of her gloved hand across her forehead.
“What if we had both?”
“That could work,” said Khuwelsa. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to stoke.”
“Stoke away,” said Harry feeling like a cog without anything to mesh with.
She went back to her chair. And waited. Another explosion echoed through the forest. The airship had artillery guns as well, of course. But they shouldn’t be a major worry.
The steam pressure gauge steadily rose. Harry went back to the hatch. “Hey, Bakari!”
She hoped that would be enough to bring him inside. She didn’t want him near the propeller when they ran it up to speed. The propeller. She couldn’t use it if they were sunk into the ground.
The lack of any visibility out of the rear was still a major issue. I need to sort out a list for Sellie, she thought as she hurried towards the hatch. The dark figure of Bakari swung in and bumped into her.
“Oh!” she said. “Sorry.”
Infuriatingly he just grinned and got out of her way. She gathered herself, stalked to the hatch, leaned out for a look at the rear, and muttered a rude word. The propeller was half buried in mud and the roots of a tree. If she tried to spin it, it would either shatter, snap the drive shaft, or strip the gears.
Returning to her chair, she studied the water in more detail: it was little more than a fetid pond and less than fifty feet across. She had never lifted on wings alone and certainly not over water. As Khuwelsa said, they could not afford to immerse the hull; otherwise the grid would get wet and short-circuit, and they would simply sink under their own weight. Just like the Zeppelins she had sunk off Zanzibar.
Her stream of thought was interrupted by two short blasts from Khuwelsa. She glanced at the gauge. Pressure was up. Harry replied with one long whistle, paused, and flipped the Faraday switch. The port side of the Pegasus seemed to rise a little.
Harry flexed the wings. The trees were close on the starboard side. She could not dip the wings in the water, but watching through the open hatch she pressed the tip of the wing against the biggest one and pushed.
There was a scraping sound along the bottom that sounded horribly like stone on metal. Harry cringed. But then the Pegasus glided gently out onto the water. Harry laughed out loud. With the Faraday engaged, she floated.
Still, they could not afford to remain on the water for long just in case there was a leak.
She flapped experimentally. The Pegasus lifted but then dropped back deeper. Harry panicked. She thrashed the wings frantically, trying to keep the bottom of the hull from going too deep.
“Sellie!” she shouted. “Engage the prop, Sellie! Now!”
There was a kerfuffle and Sellie appeared at Harry’s side as she continued the frenzied flapping. Waves were rippling out from the ship as she rose and fell in the water. Sellie reached across and pushed the throttle hard forward.
The propeller whined. Harry lifted the nose fully and give the propeller something to work with. The pitch of the propeller dropped suddenly and the sound of it ripping the air vanished. Harry held her breath. The propeller was under the surface of the water.
But it still worked. If anything the pulse of thrust launched the Pegasus into the air with more violence than usual. Scattering water, the iron bird skimmed the tops of the trees opposite and made it into the air.
Harry in the Wild: Astounding Stories of Adventure (Iron Pegasus Book 2) Page 8