jeriendhal | Fic: Flyboys, Part 23

For those of you who weren't reading my journal a year ago, Flyboys is yet another Terinu fanfic, this one set in Vulpine Prime's historical past, starring the vulpine equivilent to the Wright Brothers. I got sidetracked doing other stuff and the story lay fallow for the longest time. But I think I've got an angle on how to end it, so I'm starting work on it once again.

Character Summary

Lord Rolas "Rollie" Greycoat - Mid-level vulpine farm noble, who helped invent heavier than air flight with his brother. Married recently to his lovely wife, Bellander.

Lord Rulfen "Rulf" Greycoat - Rollie's brother, the technical half to complement Rollie's more adventuresome side.

Count Bomeril Brushtail - Rufus' several generations removed ancestor. A major mover & shaker in the vulpien government.

Artineth "Artie" Scrabbleclaw - Rollie and Rulf's manservant, who has been the subject of an apparent alien abudction.

Professor Lili - A noted astronomer.

“What we know is this,” Bomeril told them, after they had left the Professor to her observations and decamped to a heated break room at the base of the observation tower. “That thing in the sky is artificial. Lili is convinced that it’s from another world in our solar system. One that’s like our world, but inhabited by creatures wholly unlike what the Holy Den Mother placed here. Somehow it traveled our world and it’s been watching us ever since.”

“But how do you know it’s connected with those spy-eye things you mentioned?” Bel asked.

“We don’t, not directly. But the amount of sheer knowledge required to build a vessel capable of flying between worlds would also know how to make the spy-eyes. Or at least that’s what Lili and other very learned folk assure me is true.”

“So they’re watching us,” Rolas said.

“Watching us, cubnapping us, as your man Artineth learned. They’re taking samples, of that I’m convinced, like a geologist samples rocks to see if there are valuable minerals in them. That spy-eye you smashed up was only the fifth we’ve ever been able to find. The first was discovered by dumb luck. The Minister of Agriculture was trying to catch a bird that had flown through her office window. She’d tried to grab the bird where it was fluttering in a corner of her ceiling, but instead she grabbed onto the spy-eye that had been watching her. Only held it for a few moments before it began to melt and destroy itself. She said it seemed to her like the thing was trying to fly out of her hand. At first we though they were invented by some bright fellow across the sea, but our scientists said the technology implied was far beyond the limits of vulpine knowledge.”

“Has anyone else been examined like Artineth has?”

“Several, that we’ve been able to determine. One defining aspect is that seem to be servants, friends or colleagues of individuals that are involved in breakthroughs in science or engineering. We managed to recruit Lili, who is not only a top notch astronomer, but also the designer of that fine telescope you saw, to the Visitor Project after she tried to find help for her granddaughter, who began behaving in a similar manner to your man.”

Rolas felt a chill settle over him that had nothing to do with the frightful temperature outside. “So Artineth was taken because they were interested in the aeroplane my brother and I were working on?”

“I’m not a betting man, Rolas, but that’s what I’d put money on,” Bomeril agreed. “I would be very careful about what you say in his presence from now on. Other ears might be listening.”

“But what do they want?” Bellander asked.

“You heard the words that your man, Artineth reported. ‘Your race will find honor in serving our Dominion.’ I don’t know what a Varn is, or what their Dominion is like, but judging from their behavior they seem a damnably underhanded sort. There are some members of the Visitor Project that conjecture that any species intelligent enough to cross the vastness of space would have given up on the idea of war, but I’m afraid I can’t be so sanguine. What you’ve told us convinces me that they’re a genuine threat.”

“Well if we are a threat, what are we to do about it? We can’t defend ourselves against people with invisible flying machines,” Rolas pointed out.

“Maybe we can, maybe we can’t. But we won’t know unless we get more information.”

“How do you propose to do that?”

“Lili is designing a new cradle for that telescope of hers. It’s going to have some form of stabilization, using electrically powered gyroscopes. In short, we’ll be able to mount it on a moving platform.”

“Well what’s the point in that?” Bel asked. “Wouldn’t it be easier just to place it on a higher mountain?”

Bomeril smiled. “There’s no mountain as high as where we’re going to be putting it.”

TBC