Kenneth Oppel - Airborn

Kenneth Oppel

Airborn

For Philippa, Sophia, and Nate

Contents

Ships Eyes

Up Ship!

Kate

Hot Chocolate for Two

The Log of the Endurance

Szpirglas

Sinking

The Island

Bones

Shipshape

The One That Fell

Shipwrecked

Hydrium

Nest

The Cloud Cat

Rescue

The Pit

Ship Taken

Airborne

Airborn

At Anchor

SHIPS EYES

Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crows nest, being the ships eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and thered been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud.

The sky pulsed with stars. Some people say it makes them lonesome when they stare up at the night sky. I cant imagine why. Theres no shortage of company. By now theres not a constellation I cant name. Orion. Lupus. Serpens. Hercules. Draco. My father taught me all their stories. So when I look up I see a galaxy of adventures and heroes and villains, all jostling together and trying to outdo one another, and I sometimes want to tell them to hush up and not distract me with their chatter. Ive glimpsed all the stars ever discovered by astronomers, and plenty that havent been. Therere the planets to look at too, depending on the time of year. Venus. Mercury. Mars. And dont forget Old Man Moon. I know every crease and pockmark on that face of his.

My watch was almost at an end, and I was looking forward to climbing into my bunk, sliding under warm blankets and into a deep sleep. Even though it was only September and we were crossing the equator, it was still cool at night up in the crows nest, parting the winds at seventy-five miles an hour. I was grateful for my fleece-lined coat.

Spyglass to my face, I slowly swept the heavens. Here at the Aurora s summit, shielded by a glass observation dome, I had a three-sixty view of the sky around and above the ship. The lookouts job was to watch for weather changes and for other ships. Over the Pacificus, you didnt see much traffic, though earlier Id caught the distant flicker of a freighter, plowing the waves toward the Orient. But boats were no concern of ours. We sailed eight hundred feet above them.

The smell of fresh-baked bread wafted up to me. Far below, in the ships kitchens, they were taking out the first loaves and rolls and cinnamon buns and croissants and Danishes. I inhaled deeply. A better smell than this I couldnt imagine, and my stomach gave a hungry twist. In a few minutes, Mr. Riddihoff would be climbing the ladder to take the watch, and I could swing past the kitchen and see if the ships baker was willing to part with a bun or two. He almost always was.

A shooting star slit the sky. That made one hundred and six Id seen this season; Id been keeping track. Baz and I had a little contest going, and I was in the lead by twelve stars.

Then I saw it.

Or didnt see it. Because at first all I noticed was a blackness where stars should have been. I raised my spyglass again and, with the help of the moon, caught a glimpse.

It was a hot air balloon, hanging there in the night sky.

Its running lights werent on, which was odd. The balloon was higher than us by about a hundred feet, drifting off our starboard bow. The burner came on suddenly, jetting blue flame to heat the air in the balloons envelope for a few seconds. But I couldnt see anyone at the controls. They must have been set on a clockwork timer. Nobody was moving around in the gondola. It was deep and wide, big enough for a kind of sleeping cabin on one side, and plenty of storage underneath. I couldnt ever recall seeing a balloon this far out. I lifted the speaking tube to my mouth.

Crows nest reporting.

I waited a moment as my voice hurtled down through the tube, one hundred fifty feet to the control car suspended from the Aurora s belly.

Go ahead, Mr. Cruse.

It was Captain Walken on watch tonight, and I was glad, for I much preferred him to the other officers. Some of them just called me Cruse or boy, figuring I wasnt worth a mister on account of my age. But never the captain. To him I was always Mr. Cruse, and it got so that Id almost started to think of myself as a mister. Whenever I was back in Lionsgate City on shore leave and my mother or sisters called me Matt, my own name sounded strange to me at first.

Hot air balloon at one oclock, maybe a half mile off, one hundred feet up.

Thank you, Mr. Cruse. There was a pause, and I knew the captain would be looking out the enormous wraparound windows of the control car. Because it was set well back from the bow, its view of anything high overhead was limited. Thats why there was always a watch posted in the forward crows nest. The Aurora needed a set of eyes up top.

Yes, I see it now. Well spotted, Mr. Cruse. Can you make out its markings? Well train the light on it.

Mounted at the front of the control car was a powerful spotlight. Its beam cut a blazing swath through the night and struck the balloon. It was in a sorry state, withered and puckered. It was leaking, or maybe the burner wasnt working properly.

The Endurance , I read into the speaking tube.

She looked like shed endured a bit too much. Maybe a storm had punctured her envelope or bashed her about some.

And still no sign of the pilot in the gondola.

Along the length of the speaking tube I heard tinny murmurings from the control car as the captain conferred with the bridge officers.

Its not on the flight plan, I heard Mr. Torbay, the navigator, say.

Every airship had to register its flight plan before departing. If this vessel wasnt on the plan it was either a rogue or had drifted off course for some reason.

Any sign of the pilot yet, Mr. Cruse? asked the captain.

No, sir.

Well try to raise him on the wireless.

I waited. The balloon was not really moving as the wind was so light. We were rapidly gaining. There was something eerie about it, just hanging there like a dead thing, all dark and listless in the sky. After a few moments, the captains voice sounded over the speaking tube.

We cant raise anyone on the Endurance , Mr. Cruse. No signs of life?

None, sir.

I felt the slightest heaviness in my heels and knew that we were climbing, the Aurora angling gently heavenward to meet the Endurance. I lost sight of the gondola and after a moment could only see the balloons very top as the captain took us closer. Through the crows nest platform I felt the ships pulse slow as the propellers cut back. When youve been aloft a long time you can almost predict the ships every movement through your own skin and sinew, like youre joined together.

I heard the captain shouting out the control car window through a bullhorn, Endurance , this is the Aurora . Please respond, again and again.

If the pilot had been asleep, this should have roused him, but after a minute with no response, the captain gave up. Through the speaking tube I overheard him talking to his rudder man.

Come around, Mr. Kahlo. Well bring her as close as we can and try to take the gondola on board. Likely someones injured or abandoned shipeither way the Endurance is in distress. We cant leave her drifting like flotsam through the sky lanes.

Bring it on board? Now, that would be a feat. A midair rescue would surely be tricky. But it was Skyways Law to help another vessel in distress.