Flyboys, Part Twenty-Four
Apr. 8th, 2008 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalThe story continues
Two Years Later
WORLD’S LARGEST AIRSHIP, QUEEN OF THE SKIES, TO LAUNCH TOMORROW.
The Queen of the Skies, the largest passenger airship ever constructed, is to launch tomorrow from Trans Oceanic’s Greenfield airshipyards. This massive vessel is over one thousand arms long, possessing a unique triple hull design with two separate envelopes for lifting gasses and the passenger and control section slung between them. Propelled by sixteen of Greycoat Industries’ new airship engines, it will carry over three hundred passengers in unparalleled luxury in a pressurized cabin for maximum comfort. Tomorrow’s flight however, will only be a test of the great ship’s mechanics, followed by an attempt to break the current altitude record, set fifteen years ago by the noted balloonist…
“Look at that, Sammy. Do you see Daddy’s airship?” Rolas cooed, raising his daughter up to his shoulders.
“A’shi’!” little Samula repeated, smiling. There was a brass band playing heartily at the edge of the field in front of the viewing stand, as a quartet of heavy-duty tractors carefully pulled the gigantic craft out of its equally massive hanger. The little vixen waved cheerfully at the great grey and white hull as it emerged, then laughed as a pair of mail aeroplanes in Trans Oceanic’s livery zoomed overhead, colored smoke trailing from their tails
“Holy Den Mother bless us all, it’s huge!” Bellander exclaimed, balancing one of their infant twins in her arms, while Rulfen held the other.
“Lord Greycoat’s folly,” Count Brushtail agreed cheerfully.
“Hardly that! It’s a remarkable technical achievement,” Bellander said. Her face darkened. “I wish Father could see it right now.”
“He’ll be fine, dear,” Rolas tried to reassure her. “I’m sure he’ll be out of hospital before we land next week.” The elder Sharpears had been admitted with pneumonia two days before, a consequence of overwork, his physician had determined. The old male had worked himself into a state, trying to complete the final checks for the high-altitude engines the Queen sported.
“I wish I was going with you,” Rulfen said, hefting the baby in his arms. “I’m the technical man, I should be the one looking after the engines.”
Rolas glanced at the crowd surrounding their private booth, making sure none of them were in earshot. “We’ve been over this already, Rulf. I need you to keep working on the design for that turbocharger. If the Queen succeeds in getting photographs of the You-Know-What, the government is going to want to try to go even higher. That means we’ll need engines that can work at that sort of altitude. I’ll need to be going up as our company’s representative in your place.”
“It just seems a bit silly,” Bel said. “You’ve put so much work in your aeroplane and here we are back to airships again.”
“The aeroplanes’ engines vibrate too much for what we’re going to be doing, I’m afraid.” Rolas sighed. “Though I think the Queen will be the last of her kind. The world is speeding up. No one is going to want to spend three days crossing the ocean when they could spend twelve hours instead.”
“You will be careful, won’t you, dear?”
“Of course I will, I’ve got you four to come back to,” he said, then kissed her while Samula giggled.
It was it was mid-afternoon by the time the ceremonies were done and he was able to board the Queen. He came up through the passenger gangway, which led into a surprisingly bare boarding lounge, the luxurious fittings that would eventually fill the room still on the ground, the better to save weight for the altitude record. There he found a dark furred male in a lieutenant’s uniform waiting for him, along with a ship’s mate.
“Lord Rolas?” he asked, holding out his hand. “I’m Lt. Sam Sharpears. Captain Lakewalker’s complements and she asks that you join her in the control cabin as soon as you were aboard. The mate here can take your bag to your cabin.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Rolas said, handing his bag over to the ensign and shaking his hand. “You’re not any relation to my father-in-law, Yorrie Sharpears, are you?”
Sam grinned. “My uncle, sir. He helped me get hired by Trans Oceanic last year. I just completed my flight officer training and this is my first assignment.”
He followed the young lieutenant down a steep flight of stairs into the crew section underneath the passenger deck, heading towards the control cabin. Every few feet they had to press themselves against the corridor wall, as crewfolk moved back and forth on hurried errands that needed completion before take off. “I have to admit I’m very curious about our flight, if you don’t mind me saying so, milord,” Sam went on. “I know we’re going for an altitude record right after we finish the shakedown checks, but it seems like there’s some very hush-hush stuff going on. There’s an old vixen in our hold who refuses to step away from all the crates of hers that we loaded aboard, and she has armed guards protecting them as well!”
“That would be the Professor. As a word of advice, the less you worried about why she was here, the better for your future career, I think.”
Sam raised his eyebrows. “I see, milord.”
“No, you don’t. The Goddess willing you never will.”
He was led by Sam forward into a spacious control cabin, twice again as large as any he’d seen for other airships, the walls in front and to either side made completely of safety glass, with wires embedded within them for strength. Captain Lakewalker was a vixen in her early fifties, her fur a startling, stark white, in contrast to her dark blue uniform. When Rolas entered she was kneeling beside the ship’s pilot in his seat, dealing with a communication problem with the aft control cabin at the other end of the great ship.
“Blasted electragram obviously isn’t working,” she was saying to him. “You’ll have to use the speaking tubes until they can get it fixed, and they had better get it fixed before we’re at altitude and the air is too thin to carry your voice. Otherwise we’ll have to use runners to relay orders. Ah, Lord Greycoat, a pleasure to have you aboard.” She stood up to take his hand.
“Good afternoon, Captain Lakewalker. I hope our launch won’t be delayed,” he said to her.
“Not at all, my lord. We’ll launch on schedule, rest assured. I just wanted to offer you the opportunity to observe from here as we go up.”
“Thank you, Captain. I’ll just take the jump seat towards the back and get out of your way.”
“Actually, I wanted to offer you the opportunity to man the forward lift planes.” She gestured towards the seat next to the pilot, to right of which was a great wheel connected to the cables that controlled the hug lift planes mounted on the noses of the port and starboard envelopes. “After all, milord, this ship wouldn’t even exist without your company’s engines.”
Startled, he could only agree. “It would be my honor, Captain.” Rolas sat down in the seat, which was mounted on an aluminum frame that extended past the edge of the cabin’s floor, allowing him to look down through more safety glass directly to the ground below. Off in the reviewing stand, he could see the distant figures of his family, waiting patiently for the launch to begin beside Count Brushtail. He waved and saw Bel, who had been observing with a pair of opera glasses, wave back at him while little Samula jumped up and down in excitement beside her.
“Signal from the control tower, Captain,” the ship’s exec reported, looking through a pair of binoculars at the flashing signal lights in the distance. “We are cleared for launch.”
“Very well,” Captain Lakewalker said sharply. “Signal Officer, flash to the ground crew that we’re starting our engines.”
Rolas felt an electric spark run through the room as the crew responded to the captain’s orders.
“Signal received, Captain.”
“Flight Engineer, start engine number one. Maintain propeller angle at neutral.”
“Engine One start, propeller at neutral.” The flight engineer pressed a button on his massive control board and then came the surprisingly distant sound of the first engine turning over, then coming to life with a roar. From the reviewing stand, he heard the crowd let out a loud cheer.
The rest of the engines were brought to life in sequence, then the captain gave the order, “Signal Officer, flash ground crew to release all lines.”
“Signal received, all lines released, Captain. We are floating free.”
Free, he thought.
“Retract lines. Pump two hundred units of ballast from fore to aft tanks. Engineer, set propellers at 20% pitch. Pilot, increase power to 10%. Co-pilot, pitch up to 15%.”
Slowly the great ship began to move forward. Rolas turned the wheel and the lift planes angled up, catching the air and pushing the airship's nose upward. They rose majestically upward, reaching towards the sky. He turned his head, trying to catch sight of Bel and the others, but they were out of sight now.
They flew on, into the growing darkness. Rising up towards the stars.
Two Years Later
WORLD’S LARGEST AIRSHIP, QUEEN OF THE SKIES, TO LAUNCH TOMORROW.
The Queen of the Skies, the largest passenger airship ever constructed, is to launch tomorrow from Trans Oceanic’s Greenfield airshipyards. This massive vessel is over one thousand arms long, possessing a unique triple hull design with two separate envelopes for lifting gasses and the passenger and control section slung between them. Propelled by sixteen of Greycoat Industries’ new airship engines, it will carry over three hundred passengers in unparalleled luxury in a pressurized cabin for maximum comfort. Tomorrow’s flight however, will only be a test of the great ship’s mechanics, followed by an attempt to break the current altitude record, set fifteen years ago by the noted balloonist…
“Look at that, Sammy. Do you see Daddy’s airship?” Rolas cooed, raising his daughter up to his shoulders.
“A’shi’!” little Samula repeated, smiling. There was a brass band playing heartily at the edge of the field in front of the viewing stand, as a quartet of heavy-duty tractors carefully pulled the gigantic craft out of its equally massive hanger. The little vixen waved cheerfully at the great grey and white hull as it emerged, then laughed as a pair of mail aeroplanes in Trans Oceanic’s livery zoomed overhead, colored smoke trailing from their tails
“Holy Den Mother bless us all, it’s huge!” Bellander exclaimed, balancing one of their infant twins in her arms, while Rulfen held the other.
“Lord Greycoat’s folly,” Count Brushtail agreed cheerfully.
“Hardly that! It’s a remarkable technical achievement,” Bellander said. Her face darkened. “I wish Father could see it right now.”
“He’ll be fine, dear,” Rolas tried to reassure her. “I’m sure he’ll be out of hospital before we land next week.” The elder Sharpears had been admitted with pneumonia two days before, a consequence of overwork, his physician had determined. The old male had worked himself into a state, trying to complete the final checks for the high-altitude engines the Queen sported.
“I wish I was going with you,” Rulfen said, hefting the baby in his arms. “I’m the technical man, I should be the one looking after the engines.”
Rolas glanced at the crowd surrounding their private booth, making sure none of them were in earshot. “We’ve been over this already, Rulf. I need you to keep working on the design for that turbocharger. If the Queen succeeds in getting photographs of the You-Know-What, the government is going to want to try to go even higher. That means we’ll need engines that can work at that sort of altitude. I’ll need to be going up as our company’s representative in your place.”
“It just seems a bit silly,” Bel said. “You’ve put so much work in your aeroplane and here we are back to airships again.”
“The aeroplanes’ engines vibrate too much for what we’re going to be doing, I’m afraid.” Rolas sighed. “Though I think the Queen will be the last of her kind. The world is speeding up. No one is going to want to spend three days crossing the ocean when they could spend twelve hours instead.”
“You will be careful, won’t you, dear?”
“Of course I will, I’ve got you four to come back to,” he said, then kissed her while Samula giggled.
It was it was mid-afternoon by the time the ceremonies were done and he was able to board the Queen. He came up through the passenger gangway, which led into a surprisingly bare boarding lounge, the luxurious fittings that would eventually fill the room still on the ground, the better to save weight for the altitude record. There he found a dark furred male in a lieutenant’s uniform waiting for him, along with a ship’s mate.
“Lord Rolas?” he asked, holding out his hand. “I’m Lt. Sam Sharpears. Captain Lakewalker’s complements and she asks that you join her in the control cabin as soon as you were aboard. The mate here can take your bag to your cabin.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Rolas said, handing his bag over to the ensign and shaking his hand. “You’re not any relation to my father-in-law, Yorrie Sharpears, are you?”
Sam grinned. “My uncle, sir. He helped me get hired by Trans Oceanic last year. I just completed my flight officer training and this is my first assignment.”
He followed the young lieutenant down a steep flight of stairs into the crew section underneath the passenger deck, heading towards the control cabin. Every few feet they had to press themselves against the corridor wall, as crewfolk moved back and forth on hurried errands that needed completion before take off. “I have to admit I’m very curious about our flight, if you don’t mind me saying so, milord,” Sam went on. “I know we’re going for an altitude record right after we finish the shakedown checks, but it seems like there’s some very hush-hush stuff going on. There’s an old vixen in our hold who refuses to step away from all the crates of hers that we loaded aboard, and she has armed guards protecting them as well!”
“That would be the Professor. As a word of advice, the less you worried about why she was here, the better for your future career, I think.”
Sam raised his eyebrows. “I see, milord.”
“No, you don’t. The Goddess willing you never will.”
He was led by Sam forward into a spacious control cabin, twice again as large as any he’d seen for other airships, the walls in front and to either side made completely of safety glass, with wires embedded within them for strength. Captain Lakewalker was a vixen in her early fifties, her fur a startling, stark white, in contrast to her dark blue uniform. When Rolas entered she was kneeling beside the ship’s pilot in his seat, dealing with a communication problem with the aft control cabin at the other end of the great ship.
“Blasted electragram obviously isn’t working,” she was saying to him. “You’ll have to use the speaking tubes until they can get it fixed, and they had better get it fixed before we’re at altitude and the air is too thin to carry your voice. Otherwise we’ll have to use runners to relay orders. Ah, Lord Greycoat, a pleasure to have you aboard.” She stood up to take his hand.
“Good afternoon, Captain Lakewalker. I hope our launch won’t be delayed,” he said to her.
“Not at all, my lord. We’ll launch on schedule, rest assured. I just wanted to offer you the opportunity to observe from here as we go up.”
“Thank you, Captain. I’ll just take the jump seat towards the back and get out of your way.”
“Actually, I wanted to offer you the opportunity to man the forward lift planes.” She gestured towards the seat next to the pilot, to right of which was a great wheel connected to the cables that controlled the hug lift planes mounted on the noses of the port and starboard envelopes. “After all, milord, this ship wouldn’t even exist without your company’s engines.”
Startled, he could only agree. “It would be my honor, Captain.” Rolas sat down in the seat, which was mounted on an aluminum frame that extended past the edge of the cabin’s floor, allowing him to look down through more safety glass directly to the ground below. Off in the reviewing stand, he could see the distant figures of his family, waiting patiently for the launch to begin beside Count Brushtail. He waved and saw Bel, who had been observing with a pair of opera glasses, wave back at him while little Samula jumped up and down in excitement beside her.
“Signal from the control tower, Captain,” the ship’s exec reported, looking through a pair of binoculars at the flashing signal lights in the distance. “We are cleared for launch.”
“Very well,” Captain Lakewalker said sharply. “Signal Officer, flash to the ground crew that we’re starting our engines.”
Rolas felt an electric spark run through the room as the crew responded to the captain’s orders.
“Signal received, Captain.”
“Flight Engineer, start engine number one. Maintain propeller angle at neutral.”
“Engine One start, propeller at neutral.” The flight engineer pressed a button on his massive control board and then came the surprisingly distant sound of the first engine turning over, then coming to life with a roar. From the reviewing stand, he heard the crowd let out a loud cheer.
The rest of the engines were brought to life in sequence, then the captain gave the order, “Signal Officer, flash ground crew to release all lines.”
“Signal received, all lines released, Captain. We are floating free.”
Free, he thought.
“Retract lines. Pump two hundred units of ballast from fore to aft tanks. Engineer, set propellers at 20% pitch. Pilot, increase power to 10%. Co-pilot, pitch up to 15%.”
Slowly the great ship began to move forward. Rolas turned the wheel and the lift planes angled up, catching the air and pushing the airship's nose upward. They rose majestically upward, reaching towards the sky. He turned his head, trying to catch sight of Bel and the others, but they were out of sight now.
They flew on, into the growing darkness. Rising up towards the stars.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 11:16 am (UTC)Flyboys =)
Great, thank you.
mjkj