Dawn of Steam: First Light

by Jeffrey Cook

  We encountered some part of our pursuit today, and have seen their airship again. While we were resting, there was some noise from the higher grounds around us. Though we have been told to keep as quiet as we are able when at rest, some noise startled Miss Wright, and she screamed. This brought a flurry of motion higher up, and forced us to react quickly.

  Though we were certain we had not been seen, the sound was enough to catch someone's attention, and soon there was a round of musket fire all about us, one shot striking a tree within my line of sight. We scrambled for greater cover. Miss Wright and I traveled deeper into a wooded area while Eddy and Miss Bowe split to either direction, seeking some vantage point from which to bring the fight to our enemies. We soon lost sight of them. Some time passed before anyone fired again, each side not wishing to give away their position. When I did at last hear a new round of gunfire, it was Eddy's rifle, followed by a man's scream, a different man shouting, a second shot, and silence. I almost shouted to him for a report, but remembered that we have not seen these people traveling in any group smaller than five yet.

  There was a shout in another direction, and then the sound of footsteps coming our way. The steps turned into a run, and a shot struck a tree only just to my side. Close enough, in fact, I was struck in the face with wood splintering from the impact of the musket ball, and it was something of a small miracle that I was not made half blind. I was quite startled, of course, reacting slowly as three men emerged from the woods near us. One stopped to reload his musket while the others, coming from behind us, tried to move to where they could get a clear shot. I managed to be faster, some part of my old training coming to the fore, and lifted my gun, shooting one man in the center of his chest as he was lifting his gun. I attempted to turn the pepper-box to bring around another chamber, only to find, as I had suspected in less hurried times, that the mechanism was quite frozen solid and would not turn.

  I thought I was a dead man, but before he could fire, a knife buried itself in the side of his neck. He dropped to his knees in the snow without firing a shot, as the first was still struggling to load his gun with gloved hands. Miss Bowe was upon him, and had cut his throat a second later, as he was turning to face the way the knife had come from. He fell, and then she made certain the other two were dead before approaching us. Eddy came a few minutes after while we collected ourselves, once we had gone a bit deeper into wooded areas. Miss Bowe reported that she had seen a larger company, but most had gone another way while the group of three had been sent directly towards us. I am just grateful she came back.

  Eddy had a similar report, having found a scouting group of three. He was able to shoot down two of them before the third had disappeared. Eddy had followed for a time, but heard more voices than he had bullets, and ventured back to locate us once more. He has been able to confirm that there was a deep Irish voice among those he overheard. In time, they elected that we should track them a way, and when we come close enough, Miss Wright and I should stay back. They do not wish the inexperienced among us moving alone or straying too far from the other pair. We found their tracks easily enough, enough men that I could not have missed them. We followed for a long time, before we came around a bend to see the dirigible in the distance. Eddy, with his lenses, was able to make out men climbing a rope ladder to it.

  Not wishing to see too many reinforcements, and believing the group that had gone away from us was likely going back to their ship to report, we changed course, and began once more to try to get out of the foothills entirely before they could catch up with us again. We are covering our tracks more now so that they cannot track us so easily, though it slows us down. Still, it seemed a wise suggestion.

  Now that we have seen areas where a dirigible may leave and pick up its troops, we can only hope to find some sign of our own soon. I should be glad to leave these murderers and the terrible cold behind for my quarters and easy travel once again, and I know Miss Wright feels much the same. At least we can be fairly certain that once we travel only a short distance further we should be able to keep track of the other dirigible if it pursues us, and should be able to see it before it could see us. There is also the risk, of course, that they may be able to see our company. I am trying not to consider that they might already have found them.

  December 11th, 1815

  46º25'N 117º01'W

  Dear Sir,

  We have at last emerged from the hills and found ourselves in more level territory once again. Despite the change in terrain, it is no warmer here, and now we are more exposed to the wind. We have sighted the opposition's vehicle three times now, but it seems to be keeping to the mountains, probably believing that there is no means by which we could have evaded their notice without doubling back into that greater cover. Eddy has been able to determine, with his goggles, that they occasionally pause to bring men up or down their rope ladder. If it has been combing the mountains so long as it seems to have in search of us, then it must have some kind of source of fuel here. Dr. Mitchell's work on our dirigible has made it much more efficient for this, but all others still should have similar range, unless it is turning back soon – or they have some similar developments.

  The other possibility is that they have some sort of agreement with the Spanish. After all, they did seem to once number a Spaniard among their company. While the Spanish have no dirigibles of their own, what fuels we use to power them might not be entirely a secret. I cannot imagine that any Englishman would risk our national secrets in such a fashion, but it is possible that the Europeans among their number may have mutinied, or your opponent does not know what the opportunists he has hired have done.

  This is a matter of emergency enough that I will be attempting to get this report back to you as soon as is at all possible. We have evidence enough, certainly, of our travels that we can confirm that Dr. Bowe has come this way in the past, and his daughter, no doubt, knows this land well, so if we must turn back, then we shall do so that English forces might be aware of the risks, unless some greater information presents itself.

  For the time, we still wonder what has happened to our own company, for we have seen no sign of them. While we wait, I have not been entirely idle, or forgetful in the attempt to watch our own backs. I have continued to map our progress, now a complete route through the mountains from east to west. I can only imagine that in a warmer time, the land ahead of us would be well suited to settlement and some manner of farming, though Miss Bowe has stated that there are a number of tribes of varying temperament and society in this region, depending on which way one travels.

  We are currently paused to try to wait for our ship, to keep track of the other, and to determine how best to proceed in the current situation. If we are to reach the west coast north of Spanish land, we must make our way westward, without turning south at all, but if we do not meet our dirigible sometime soon, and leave it too far behind, it could be some time before we could possibly chance to find one another again, and we dare not send up a signal rocket until we are certain our enemy would not see it and our own people would. Currently we are sure of neither.

  Yours,

  Gregory Conan Watts

  From the journals of Gregory Conan Watts,

  December 14th, 1815

  46º15'N 117º25'W

  Christmas approaches, but today I am simply grateful for the gift of our lives. We emerged from most cover into flatter land yesterday, and while we had hoped we were far enough ahead of pursuit to avoid notice – and were focused at last on making good time – they must have both a sharp-eyed scout and a telescope, for we saw the opposing dirigible coming in our direction. Though we disappeared again into wooded ground, going well out of the way of the path we had hoped to take, it did not break off its pursuit. Eddy was able to sight it deploying more men some miles behind us after it had made up a great deal of ground. It then moved beyond us to drop others. We traveled into deep country, where we would be hard to follow, and worked for a time on carefully making certain both
my pistol and Eddy's rifle were in as best of operating condition as we could want. Then Miss Bowe decided that we were unlikely to do well with too large a group trapping us here. She and Eddy argued briefly, but at last it was agreed she would lead one of the groups away. She disappeared into the wood, heading for the people behind us to cut them off before they found our trail.

  Though I do not know for certain what occurred while she was away, I have her account of it. She came upon a group of men, sighting them before they spotted her. Had she a company of men with guns, she might have killed them then, but alone, would not engage so many. She crossed their path ahead of where they would travel, leaving a path they might easily follow to lead them off. Moving back in her own footsteps, she found a place she might watch them from. She reported that their company had easily found the trail, and there a fierce argument erupted. A man with a Spanish accent arguing that it was some trap or trick, for there was only one set of tracks, and they were clearer than those he had found nearer the mountains, while the other fellow, seeming in charge of the company, an American by his voice, she has reported, argued that it was the best sign they had, and they should follow it. In the end, their number was divided, with four or five men traveling with each of them. The American followed her false trail into the wood, while the Spaniard tracked it back the other way until the point she had covered her tracks.

  She followed the Spaniard, for she was more concerned for someone showing his skills than the other, to overhear him confirming to those men who had proven loyal to him that it was a trick, and to keep close, lest they be picked off one by one. Showing more sense than I've come to expect of her, she elected not to challenge five men with guns at once. They began to circle in the snow, intentionally leaving themselves a wide path to make passage back through the area easier. They spent considerable time seeking new tracks from Miss Bowe, in hopes of either tracking her down or driving her towards their other group.

  While she evaded him, she reported it was a close thing, and throughout the experience, he was taunting her in English and Spanish alike – it seems she also knows something of the Spanish tongue, though I do not know yet how much. Though he attempted to get some reaction out of her, obviously, and kept his men quite on alert, she was at last able to get behind him by leaving a trail to direct them, and moving back by going through the trees in a wide circle. Some few times they paused, perhaps believing they had heard something, but it was not enough for them to change course. Still, she seems to have some respect for the tracking skills of this Spaniard, which is high praise indeed coming from our guide.

  After delaying and misdirecting them, she came back to our location, and we moved throughout the rest of the day to put as much ground between us and them as we were able without moving toward the area in which the other dirigible dropped troops off. It circled for much of the day, but we made certain it would not see us. Still, it was a nervous day for all of us indeed.

  Late in the evening, by climbing a tree, Eddy was able to see two campfires in opposite directions, one closer to us than we might have liked. Built high, these were used for signals, and the other airship picked up most of its men and moved further to the south, where it will likely drop these scouting parties off again tomorrow. Unless we can find some way to throw them off our trail entirely, the next days will be long ones indeed. Miss Bowe is talking of spending a portion of the night leaving another false trail leading south, since though they have one tracker among them who has seen through her ruse once, it divided their number before. While I am still making a map of our journey, I fear that it shall not be nearly so efficient a route as it might be were we not being pursued. I hope I can be forgiven this necessity when our final route is turned in as proof of Dr. Bowe's previous travel through this region. For that matter, I am even more concerned right now with having the opportunity to turn this in at all. Civilization seems further away each day.

  From the journals of Gregory Conan Watts,

  December 15th, 1815

  46º19'N 117º34'W

  Miss Bowe returned after her trip last night with report that they had left scouts behind to continue tracking us while the airship continued south. She had managed to hear them before they found her, and was able to separate the group. She stated that she was able to dispatch the men, one by one, and one time surprising three of them. I still have no reason to doubt her account, and she was in one of her deadly serious moods, with her hands and clothes alike stained with blood, when she returned to us. She believes there are others out there but made certain that they would track a false trail south by leaving those footprints directly away from a group of bodies.

  She is concerned that the Spaniard or his equal is among their woodsmen, however, and no matter how determined they are to avenge their scouts, they will sooner or later see through the deception. As such, when she returned, she bade us move, even in the middle of the night, and keep to her footprints so we did not leave the path she forged for us, for we had to put all the ground we could between their men on the ground and ourselves while the airship was not searching for us as well.

  We traveled through the night and well into the day with no concern now for cover, just haste and making up ground moving north and west. For now, while they are about, we cannot hope to meet our own company again, so we will travel to where Miss Bowe believes we might avoid them or have a more defensible position. There is some concern for the local tribes, and Miss Bowe has many times checked the trees about cleared areas.

  We have also taken a terrible risk, especially recalling our encounter with the buffalo in the great plains. Finding a massive herd of elk, she led us between some of their number, though we kept as far away from any single one of them as we could. She cautioned us especially to avoid those which looked smaller than the rest, for while the calves would not be terribly obvious, some of the herd might still be defensive of the youngest. Though it seemed crazy at first, not only would our trail be covered over by the herd for quite some way should someone follow us back north, but she was challenging any of their trackers, whether her newest nemesis or any natives with whom they might have made a compact, to dare follow us through the middle of a herd of elk. By keeping quiet and following her advice, somehow we were able to navigate across the land without incident, and only a few nervous glances from some parts of the herd.

  We have since found regions with greater protection from being sighted, and not having seen any sign of their ship or people, we have resumed covering our trail after us as we move. As I write this, Miss Bowe has agreed that we should spend four or five hours at rest, but no more than that, and she and Eddy are trading watches that Miss Wright and I may sleep the entire time, at least once I finish this account. I am exhausted after the best part of two days awake and walking, occasionally running, but I found I could not sleep until this account was completed, lest I forget some detail.

  From the journals of Gregory Conan Watts,

  December 18th, 1815

  46º14'N 117º53'W

  We are no longer being pursued. We have reached new cover and higher ground from which we have been able to observe the way behind us. Eventually, pursuit reached the herd, of that much we are certain, for eventually we sighted a rocket fired from near that region, and the airship traveled to their location. With his lenses, Eddy was able to determine more men were being picked up, and from there, the ship would travel north a time before heading south once again. We have supposed that there were simply too many possible routes we could have taken for them to adequately trail us over open country once they lost our trail and did not pick it up again quickly.

  Though this is a relief, we still have seen no sign of our company. There is some thought that they may either have seen the other ship, and made no effort to cross the mountains in the regions we were in, or they missed whatever areas the other ship traveled through and they may have headed northward. We are moving that way now, cautious for any sign that we may still be being followed
. Given the past evidence, it is hoped those who were previously following us are either giving up, and going back to some other plan, or have decided we traveled south instead for more easily crossed and warmer lands once we hid our trail. In any case, we are certain the enemy have lost enough men that they will not spread their numbers too thin in trailing us. Additionally, from our current vantage point, we should be able to notice their dirigible anywhere in the region. For now, for the first time in far too long, we are safe.

  Miss Bowe is now less worried for direct pursuit, and more for the local tribes, for not all are certain to welcome our group. She continues to look for signs of their camps, usually built to follow the local prey animals, though she believes many will try to select locations to best protect them from the winter weather. The days here are not so much shorter than they should be for the time of year as in more eastern regions, but it is still unusually dark, and very cold for this region, according to Miss Bowe. We have elected, on her advice, to try to give the local tribes as much space as possible to help prevent any hostilities. But in giving the tribes as much space as possible, we cannot go too far into some of those regions likely to give us the greatest cover from the weather ourselves.

  Despite the cold, following the pursuit by many times our number of armed men, constant chance of ambush, and still facing the worst of the winter weather, the weather alone does not seem so terrible for the moment. I am certain I will think differently when we have a day or two more between us and the threat and I am more aware of lack of feeling in my hands and feet, but for the moment, this is a distinct improvement.

  December 20th, 1815

  46º01'N 118º29'W

  Dear Sir,