Seas of Fortune(94)
“When did you—I suppose you told him when we were in Fort Kyk-Over-Al, and I was off buying supplies.”
“That’s right.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“And ruin the surprise? It’s just too bad I couldn’t arrange things so that the first you saw of the airship was it in the air, and me waving from it.”
Henrique watched the airship envelope as it slowly inflated. The nose cap had been hoisted up and attached to Carsten’s alleged watchtower, now revealed to in fact be a short mooring mast. The hind part of the airship was covered with a large net, weighted around the edge, so it wouldn’t rise up too high and place unnecessary strain on the mooring connection. “So how much longer will the fill-up take?”
“Captain Neilsen said, ‘About four hundred hours.’”
Henrique’s face creased as he did a rapid mental calculation. “Sixteen days?”
“Something like that.”
Henrique picked up his walking stick. “Tell me when it’s over.”
* * *
Maria pointed. “There! His Danish Majesty’s Airship Sandterne.” It was an apt name for an exploratory vehicle, as the gull-billed tern wintered in the Caribbean, northern South America, Africa, southern Asia and even New Zealand. The tethered airship, attached to the mooring mast, faced into the steady northeast trades.
“The gondola looks about the size of a Grantville school bus,” Maria commented. “Not much privacy, but fortunately the flight time to Manaus is only about thirty-five hours.”
Henrique executed an exaggerated formal bow. “We will all gallantly look the other way when you use the head, milady.”
“Talking about ladies, you know, most of the female colonists here at Gustavus are already married. And none of them are Jewish.”
“Ahem.” Henrique wasn’t sure he liked where this was going.
“Has it occurred to you that the pickings might be better in Amsterdam? Or Grantville? Or Prague? Or even,” she added slyly, “Copenhagen.”
“Ahem.”
“You’re just going to be infuriatingly reticent about your plans, aren’t you?”
“Yep.”
* * *
With the envelope inflated, and the air in the ballonets adjusted to level it off, it was time to attach the gondola. This had been disassembled for shipping, and had been reassembled in the meantime.
“Fuck! We need it about a foot to my left,” yelled Lars. He and his ground crew had come over on the Valdemar. “Lift on my command. Three . . . two . . . one . . . LIFT!” The gondola lurched into place, and the ground crew climbed up and attached it to the suspension cables that secured it to the envelope of the airship.
Nearby, in a makeshift roofed shed, the engineer was testing the engines that had been brought over on the Valdemar.
* * *
There was a knock on the door, which Henrique answered.
“Maurício!” The two half-brothers embraced.
“Follow me,” commanded Henrique. Maria and I were just going over the route. Looking for landmarks that should be visible from the air.
Maurício peered over Henrique’s shoulder. “Do you have time to talk, Maria?”
Maria looked at him. “I’ll make the time, Maurício. What’s up?”
Maurício shuddered. “Another Americanism . . . Language as we know it is doomed. . . .”
Maria sighed. “Get to the point, Maurício.”
“That’s King Maurício, chief of chiefs, don’t forget. And now that I am involved in politics, I have discovered the cardinal rule of being a successful politician.”
“Finding someone else to blame if something goes wrong?” asked Henrique.
“That’s rule number two. Rule number one is, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
Maurício pointed toward the mooring mast. “And what I think would really enhance my status is to ride that airship of yours.”
Henrique snorted. “‘He Who Flies’ makes a better epithet than ‘He Who Talks,’ you think?”
Maria fingered her chin. “I’d have to ask the captain, but I suppose that he might let you do a quick tethered ascent, if it can be managed without wasting any gas.”
“Tethered ascent? I had in mind that Kasiri and I could join you for your little flight. We do a little air show over my villages, to remind them of how awesome I am, and then we fly to Manao so she can visit her family.”
“I am surprised that someone who deplores Americanisms would seek to bring the political junket to the New World.”
“Seriously—”
“Seriously, it’s not going to happen, Maurício. Let me explain the facts. It takes a thousand cubic feet of ninety percent pure hydrogen to provide about sixty-four pounds of lift. Our total lift is less than three hundred times that. That lift, at a minimum, has to support the envelope, the ballonets inside, the gondola, the fins and rudder, the engines, the fuel, and the crew. What’s left—less than half of the gross lift—is what carries the passengers and cargo into the air. Henrique and I have to go; we know how to tap rubber, we know if a rubber tree is healthy or sickly. We can tell whether a seed is from a rubber tree or not. The airship doesn’t have room for tourists. Not even a royal one.”