CSS Appomattox: A Thomas Devareaux Alternative History Military Adventure (The Thomas Sumter Devareaux Series Book 1)

by Chris Stoesen

  Henderson reached out and grabbed Lopez’s tether. With one arm looped around the working line he hauled up on the man’s tether. It took him ten minutes to pull him up to where he could hold on to the man. By the time he was able to get his first good look at Lopez, he knew it was too late. The man’s neck was broken. Lopez’s eyes were wide open in fear and his head lolled unnaturally to the left, well beyond the normal range of motion. Henderson clutched Lopez to him and began to sob for his fellow marine and his friend.

  Lopez had a girlfriend back in Amarillo, Texas. Lopez could trace his family back to the Alamo where his great grandfather fought alongside Travis, Bowie and Crockett. Henderson defended Lopez in several bar fights where Lopez insisted he was a Texan and not a dirty Mexican. Henderson had served his entire five year career as a marine with Lopez. And now his friend was gone.

  When Henderson recovered, he began to try to figure out how to get back inside the Appomattox with Lopez’s body.

  …

  Devareaux opened the cabinet and was looking for the right map. He knew they were south of Cape Fear. He was trying to determine the fastest route to land. They could not make the Charleston Airfield. That was too much to hope for. There. They could possibly reach someplace near Georgetown. It was North of Charleston and they should just be able to get there.

  He made adjustments to his course and requested more steam.

  …

  In the boiler room the men were scrambling. Mark Applegate’s prone form lay up against the bulkhead completely ignored. They were trying their best to coax life back into the port boiler., but it was taking too long.

  Seneca had the fire relit and was putting fresh, dry coal into the burner. Tiberius was working hard as well, but he could not keep his mouth from moving. The noise of the boiler room prevented him from being heard and both Hinkey and Seneca were ignoring him anyway.

  “I cain’t swim a lick. We better not fall in da water. I jus caint swim.”

  It became his mantra. Each time he repeated it, he seemed to calm some. As if there were power in the words that would keep the Appomattox suspended in the air.

  Hinkey watched the gauges carefully. The Starboard Boiler was being pressed hard. The needle was far into the yellow. If the Port Boiler was not able to relieve the pressure soon, he would not be able to keep up the pressure for fear of a blowout.

  They could feel the adjustments that the captain was making to the ship. The bow was pointed up and that made life a little difficult in the boiler room. Yet he could feel the change of air pressure in his ears. They were descending.

  Hinkey tapped the gauge to see if the needle would change. It did not. It was getting desperate. He checked the port boiler again. The boiler was finally back online, but it was not hot enough to take over any of the load.

  What they needed was a bleed tube to move pressure from one boiler to the other. That way they could equalize the pressure somewhat in a situation like this. If they lived, he would tell that civilian, Whytherspoon about it. They first had to survive.

  …

  Benjamin called in on the repeater to the bridge and informed them of the patch being complete on the inside. It was actually obvious as they had started losing less altitude almost immediately when the patch was applied. Once reporting in, Benjamin and Herlinger moved to the still open door where Lopez and Henderson had gone outside. They still wore their safety gear and immediately clipped in to head outside and check on the others.

  They spotted Henderson holding Lopez. Benjamin scanned the area. Where the hell was Wilson? Benjamin and Herlinger moved quickly and reached the flagging Henderson in five minutes of quick climbing.

  Leaning close to Henderson, Benjamin screamed at his men.

  “Where is Wilson?”

  Henderson’s forehead scrunched as he considered and shook his head to the negative. He did not have the breath to speak. Benjamin and Herlinger took Lopez’s body and the marines began moving back towards the gondola. It took the men over fifteen minutes to get back into the safety of the airship.

  They reverently set Lopez down on the floor of the mess deck. Benjamin and Herlinger, while tired, had more juice left than Henderson. They moved back to the door and pulled it closed. With a twist of the latch, it was locked into place.

  Herlinger sat and leaned up against the bulkhead. Benjamin moved to the repeater.

  “Captain, the repairs are complete. The gondola is secured. Lopez is dead and Wilson is missing. Benjamin out.”

  …

  Devareaux shook his head. Tobias was hurt and two Marines were lost. What could have happened to Wilson? He was noticing that they were starting to get back a little bit of power.

  Something, at least, was looking up.

  Chapter 15: Landfall

  Powell had moved into Tobias’ cabin to figure out the transmitter. He had been there ten minutes before he found it and began to transmit their situation in the clear. He was too high strung to even think about encoding.

  They were low enough that no one had to wear their masks anymore. Everyone had on their goggles. With the lack of glass in the bridge, the wind whipped through the bridge. Occasional pieces of glass still would fly through as more snapped out of its place and flew to the rear bulkhead.

  Almond spotted it before either Devareaux or Hargrave. He called out across the bridge.

  “Land HO!”

  Something inside of Devareux just had to laugh. What were they now, pirates? Well, at least it was applicable.

  They had dropped to a mere three hundred feet above the water below. Relief washed over the bridge crew. They just might make it.

  The beach continued to get closer. They had to be close to the North Inlet Village. Devareaux was not even going to attempt to make it past the beach. He aimed for the closest part of the beach that he could find.

  They continued to drop from the sky, but were making further progress towards the beach.

  Devareaux announced over the repeater to all stations.

  “All hands, brace for impact. We are close to the beach. We may make it. As soon as we crash, make your way out of the airship. We will be very close to the beach. God be with you all.”

  He pointed to Almond and Hargrave to sit back against the rear bulkhead.

  …

  Below in the bow gun, Ramirez had earlier turned off all of the controls that pushed steam to the gun. That allowed the steam to be used elsewhere. Ramirez secured what he could then climbed the ladder to join Almond and Hargrave on the bridge.

  …

  In the mess deck, the marines moved against the interior wall. The furniture was bolted to the floor so it would not likely beat them up. Julian moved and sat next to the marines and sat with them. Each man was lost in their own thoughts. Some prayed silently. Others just sat still.

  …

  In the engine room, the Starboard boiler had not stabilized, but its rate of overheating had slowed. Hinkey had opened two vents in the boiler room that allowed cold air to flow in. Hinkey ordered everyone out of the boiler room and forward to the mess room.

  …

  The rocket batteries had emptied after they had left the German fleet. The two crews were in the crew quarters and had positioned themselves by the rear bulkhead near the marine’s weapons racks.

  They sat and Elijah was leading them in prayer. Jed sat with a relaxed look on his face. Cassius was singing quietly. Julius prayed with Elijah offering an ‘Amen’ in appropriate places.

  …

  Calling out on the repeater, Devareaux called out what was about to happen.

  “Impact in three …. Two ….. One”

  His last word was cut off as they stern of the airship hit the water. This threw the front of the ship forward to slap the water. A bow wave of water was thrown up covering the windows momentarily. Devareaux was thrown forward into his console and flipped over it and landed flat on his back and tumbled forward.

  Hargrave, Almond and Rodriguez were all thrown
forward from the wall, but were able to stop themselves without getting hurt.

  The momentum of the airship carried it forward and the bow of the gondola grated into the sand. They could hear the bow gun below them scrape into the sand and fill the compartment. Groans, pops and cracks reverberated through the whole structure and the airbag’s frame started to collapse. It still was largely full so it just lost some of its shape. In several places it was pierced by broken sections of the framework.

  …

  In the mess deck, the Marines and Julian were thrown forward. They were strong men, one and all. They were able to keep from getting hurt. In the kitchenette behind the counter, the shelves all burst open and supplies, foodstuffs and equipment went flying across the room to complete the mess.

  The marines reacted quickly and ran for the door and opened it. They were above water, but it was only a couple of feet deep at most. The surface of the water was some four feet below them. They jumped one at a time out of the airship. They paused to help Julius down who had wide and frightened eyes.

  Benjamin reassured the man.

  “There is nothing to it. Just jump and we will all make it to shore.”

  It did the trick and Julius jumped. The small group then waded ashore.

  …

  The crew quarters were worse. The personal gear was secured with light line to bolts on the deck. Several had ruptured on impact sending a heavy trunk flying down the length of the room. It destroyed at least two posts that held the men’s hammocks up and spilled Mark Applegate’s gear all over the deck. His trunk had several bottles of liquor in them. They all burst open and contributed broken glass to the mess.

  The two rocket crews went flying as well. Cassius slammed into a support post for the nearest hammock and his collarbone snapped with an audible crunch. He flopped to the deck and slid forward a few more feet. Julius and Elijah flew forward and were able to grab on to the nearest hammock and held on for dear life.

  Jed was not so fortunate. His path sent him following after Applegate’s trunk. He passed through the wreckage of the two posts without issue, but landed in the rubble and broken glass. He earned himself a broken arm with the final impact and a number of cuts. The worst of it was a splinter. Splinter is too mild of a term for the injury. The splinter was a foot and a half long piece of Applegate’s trunk that had been torn into a wedge shape that pierced Jed’s lower back to the left of his spine and the point protruded out of his stomach. The front of his shirt darkened with blood as he gasped from the pain.

  …

  In the central hallway, Seneca and Tiberius sat across the hall from one another. Not willing to leave Hinkey by himself, they wanted to be nearby to help. When the airship crashed, they were thrown down the length of the hallway. Bruised and knocked unconscious, the two men lay at the hatchway to the bridge.

  …

  Hinkey had strapped himself to the wall of the forward bulkhead. There was nothing he could do. When the tail of the airship made contact with water, he was thrown backwards and his head snapped back against the bulkhead. He was blinded by stars in his vision for a moment, but he was not knocked out. He then lurched forward and was restrained by the strap that he used to hold himself to the bulkhead.

  Mark Applegate’s body was moaning in the moments before impact. But when the airship crashed, Mark was thrown directly into the Port Boiler that he had so nearly disabled. He hit with bone breaking force.

  When the boiler room made contact with the water, the rear wall of the boiler room was just light material. It was designed that way to allow more airflow to cool off the extreme heat of the boilers. What it also let in was water. The chamber began to fill.

  Hinkey regained his senses and began to undo the ties that kept him against the wall and allowed him to survive to this point. The chamber was filling rapidly. He glanced at the gauge for the starboard boiler. It had reached the red. His eyes darted down and saw that the water reached the boiler.

  The cold water reacted with the shimmering surface of the super-heated boiler. The contact with such vastly different temperatures was too much for the starboard boiler to handle and the fragile boiler tank exploded outwards. It exploded out away from Hinkey and destroyed the rear wall of the boiler room.

  Temporarily, it forced the water away from the boiler room, but it came rushing back in. Hinkey’s ears were bleeding from the noise of the explosion. He pulled a small knife from his pocket and cut away the strap holding him in place. He fell to his knees with a splash. The water was rising fast. He jumped for the hatch and opened it to stumble into the dry hallway beyond. He quickly turned and closed the hatch before the water entered the hallway. Hinkey saw the limp forms of his two mates laying on the floor at the end of the hallway.

  “Oh shit. Get up fellers we need to get out of here.”

  He lurched forward to check on them when he heard the cries of the men in the crew quarters. He unlatched the door and forced his way past the debris. He saw the destruction of the crew quarters and the men sprawled across the floor of the tilting cabin.

  He helped Elijah and Julius to their feet. They in turn picked up Cassius.

  The airship began to list not only backwards but now to starboard as well.

  “What happened back there Hinkey? Did something go wrong with the boilers?”

  Hinkey just pointed to his bleeding ears and shook his head in incomprehension. With a bound, Hinkey moved to the hatch to the outside and opened it. The water was only two feet below the door. He waived Elijah and Julius over. They carried the unconscious form of Cassius with them. Elijah jumped first and landed up to his waist in the water. He looked up and saw the airbag start wavering above them. Elijah waived his arms and Julius lowered Cassius to them.

  Hinkey moved to Jed. When he reached him, Hinkey nearly threw up. Jed was a dead man who did not know it yet. Jed grasped Hinkey’s hand. He picked Jed up and carried him to the doorway. Hinkey sat down in the doorway. Blood was soaking Hinkey’s right arm as he held him. The Appomattox shifted again and tumbled both out of the doorway and into the water.

  Jed screamed in pain until it was cut off by being submerged under the water. He passed out almost immediately. Hinkey quickly got Jed’s head above water. Jed coughed up a mouthful of water and was still breathing. But the breathing was ragged. The four rocket gunners and Hinkey made their way to the beach.

  …

  Almond was the first on the bridge to get to his feet. He rushed over to the captain. Devareaux was breathing. His left arm was bent behind his back. The captain groaned, but was conscious.

  Hargrave and Rodriguez joined Almond. Almond and Hargrave picked the captain up. Almond turned his head to the marine.

  “Check on the rest of the crew. We need to get out of here. Captain, how are you doing?”

  “I think I did something to my shoulder. Everything works but it sure does hurt at the moment. All in all, we were lucky.”

  Almond nodded his agreement.

  Rodriguez moved to the hatchway and opened the door to find Seneca and Tiberius laying at his feet. Kneeling down, he checked both men. They were breathing. That was good. Rodriguez slapped the first one on the face, causing him to stir.

  Seneca shook his head and looked up at the marine Rodriguez. The marine was holding his hand down to him to help him up. Gripping the offered hand, he pulled himself up. Seneca and Rodriguez grabbed Tiberius and picked him up and carried him towards the crew quarters. The leaning of the airship made them favor that side and they thought that they could escape that way.

  Then entered the crew quarters and saw the devastation. They pushed their way across the room and saw the blood. It left a slimy trail to the now open door. Carefully, they began to get out of the open door. Seneca and Rodriguez jumped out first.

  Seneca and Rodriguez reached up and attempted to take Tiberius. Tiberius lay on the floor of the crew cabin with his feet hanging out of the hatchway. Almond and Hargrave showed up and picked up the unconscious
man and attempted to hand Tiberius down to Seneca and Rodriguez. They slipped and dropped Tiberius. Rodriguez tried to grab him, but missed. Tiberius’ head plunged under the water. Tiberius popped up spluttering and began thrashing wildly. Seneca was still holding Tiberius’ legs. This put Tiberius back underwater for a moment until Seneca let go of his legs.

  Shaking his head, Rodriguez let go and then grabbed Tiberius by the hair and pulled his head above water. Almost at once, Tiberius’ feet found the bottom and he realized he was not going to drown.

  Next to the door was Devareaux. Almond and Hargrave were ready to lower him out of the hatchway, but Devareaux waved them off.

  Devareaux touched Almond’s arm.

  “We need to go back for Tobias. He is still in there.”

  “Captain, let us get him. You go ahead and get on shore.”

  Both men turned and went back for the engineer without another word.

  Devareaux jumped into the water. As he surfaced, he took in the sight of Jed’s wound and how the water around him was tinted red. He waved the group on towards the shore. The crew moved out of the shadow of the airbag they saw the other marines and Julius standing in a group on the beach. They took the captain into the shade of the trees beyond the beach and Rodriquez and Benjamin headed back to help in finding Tobias. By the time they reached the door, Almond and Hargrave were back. They lowered Tobias down to the two men then jumped down themselves.

  The four men carried Tobias to the beach and set him in the shade of a palm tree. Rodriguez saw the pained look on the captain’s face and he looked at Tobias’ still form.

  “I had him secured in his cabin. The crash did not hurt him at all. We all probably need a doctor, sir, but it could have been much worse.”

  “Thank you. Is there anything we can do for Jed?”

  Chapter 17: Death of the Appomattox

  The crew stood on the beach and watched the airbag partially collapse. The inner frame continued to crack and break. Additional helium air cells inside the airbag would pop as the inner frame broke and pierced those bags. The hot air from the boilers cooled and it settled lower.