Behemoth

He owed the Darwinists for saving him, and for trusting his men to run these engines.

  “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, Otto.”

  “As you say, sir.”

  “Anything wrong?” Mr. Hirst asked.

  Alek switched to English. “Not at all. Master Klopp says she’s running smoothly. I believe Count Volger is assigned to the starboard engine crew. Shall I stay here and translate for you two?”

  The chief engineer handed Alek a pair of goggles to protect his eyes from sparks and wind. “Please do. We wouldn’t want any … misunderstandings in the heat of battle.”

  “Of course not.” Alek pulled on the goggles, wondering if Mr. Hirst had noticed Klopp’s hesitation. As the airship’s chief engineer, Hirst was a rare Darwinist with an understanding of machines. He always watched Klopp’s work on the Clanker engines with admiration, even though the two didn’t share a language. There was no point in arousing his suspicions now.

  Hopefully this battle would be over quickly, and they could head on to Constantinople without delay.

  As night fell, two dark slivers came into view on the horizon.

  “The little one’s not much to look at,” Klopp said, lowering his field glasses.

  Alek took the glasses and peered through them. The smaller ironclad was already damaged. One of its gun turrets had been blackened by a fire, and an oil slick spread in the ship’s wake, a shimmering black rainbow in the setting sun.

  “They’ve been in a fight already?” he asked Mr. Hirst.

  “Aye, the navy’s been hunting them all over the Mediterranean. They’ve been shelled a few times from a distance, but they keep slipping away.” The man smiled. “But they won’t escape this time.”

  “They certainly can’t outrun us,” Alek said. The Leviathan had closed a gap of sixty kilometers in a few hours.

  “And they can’t fight back either,” Mr. Hirst said. “We’re too high for them to hit. All we have to do is slow them down. The navy’s already on its way.”

  A boom rang out on the spine above, and a swarm of black wings lifted from the front of the airship.

  “They’re sending in fléchette bats first,” Alek said to Klopp.

  “What sort of godless creature is that?”

  “They eat spikes,” was all Alek could say. A shudder passed through him.

  The swarm began to muster, forming a black cloud in the air. Searchlights sprang to life on the gondola, and as the sunlight faded, the bats gathered in the beams like moths.

  The Leviathan had lost countless beasts in her recent battles, but the airship was slowly repairing itself. More bats were already breeding, like a forest recovering after a long hunting season. The Darwinists called the ship an “ecosystem.”

  From a distance there was something mesmerizing about the way the dark swarm swirled in the searchlights. It coiled toward the smaller ironclad, ready to unleash its rain of metal spikes. Most of the crew would be safe beneath armor plating, but the men at the smaller deck guns would be torn to pieces.

  “Why start with bats?” Alek asked Hirst. “Fléchettes won’t sink an ironclad.”

  “No, but they’ll shred her signal flags and wireless aerials. If we can keep the two ships from communicating, they’re less likely to split up and make a run for it.”

  Alek translated for Klopp, who pointed a finger into the distance. “The big one’s coming about.”

  Alek raised the field glasses again, taking a moment to find the larger ship’s silhouette against the darkening horizon. He could just read the name on her side—the Goeben looked far more formidable than her companion. She had three big gun turrets and a pair of gyrothopter catapults, and the shape of her wake revealed a set of kraken-fighting arms beneath the surface.

  On her aft deck stood something strange—a tall tower that bristled with metal rigging, like a dozen wireless transmitters crammed together.

  “What’s that on her back side?” Alek asked.

  Klopp took the glasses and stared. He’d worked with German forces for years, and usually had a lively opinion on military matters. But now he frowned, his voice hesitant.

  “I’m not sure. Reminds me of a toy I once saw …” Klopp squeezed the glasses tighter. “She’s launching a gyrothopter!”

  A small shape hurtled into the air from one of the catapults. It banked hard and came whirring toward the bats.

  “What’s he up to?” Klopp asked softly.

  Alek watched with a frown on his face. Gyrothopters were fragile machines, barely strong enough to lift a pilot. They were designed for scouting, not attack. But the little aircraft was headed straight at the cloud of bats, its twin rotors spinning wildly.

  As it neared the fluttering swarm, the gyrothopter suddenly kindled in the darkness. Bolts of flame shot from its front end, a spray of brilliant crimson fireworks that stretched across the sky.

  Alek remembered something that Dylan had said about the bats—they were deathly afraid of red light; it scared the spikes right out of them.

  The stream of fire tore through the swarm, scattering bats in all directions. Seconds later the cloud had disappeared, like a black dandelion in a puff of wind.

  The gyrothopter tried to veer away, but was caught beneath a wave of fleeing bats. Alek could see fléchettes falling, glittering in the searchlights, and the gyrothopter began to shudder in midair. The blades of its rotors tore and crumpled, their remaining energy twisting the delicate frame into wreckage.

  Alek watched as the flying machine tumbled from the sky, disappearing in a small white splash on the ocean’s dark surface. He wondered if its unlucky pilot had survived the fléchettes long enough to feel the water’s cold.

  The Leviathan’s searchlights

  still swept across the sky, but the swarm was too scattered to resume the attack. Small fluttering shapes were already streaming back toward the airship.

  Klopp lowered his glasses. “The Germans have some new tricks, it seems.”

  “They always do,” Alek managed, staring at the ripples spreading out from where the gyrothopter had crashed.

  “Orders coming in,” Mr. Hirst said, pointing at the signal patch. It had turned blue, the sign to slow the engine. Klopp adjusted the controls, giving Alek a questioning look.

  “Are we giving up the attack?” Alek asked in English.

  “Of course not,” Mr. Hirst said. “Just changing course. I reckon we’ll ignore the Breslau for now and go after the big one. Just to make sure that other gyrothopter doesn’t trouble us with those sparklers.”

  Alek listened to the thrum of the ship for a moment. The starboard engine was still running high, pushing the Leviathan into a slow turn toward the Goeben. The battle wasn’t over yet. More men would die tonight.

  He looked back at the whirling gears of the engine. Klopp could halt them in a dozen subtle ways. One word from Alek would be enough to stop this battle.

  But he’d promised Dylan to fight loyally. And after throwing away his hiding place, his Stormwalker, and his father’s gold to make these Darwinists allies, it seemed absurd to betray them now.

  He knew Count Volger would agree. As heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Alek had a duty to survive. And survival in an enemy camp didn’t start with mutiny.

  “What happens next?” he asked Hirst.

  The chief engineer took the field glasses from Klopp. “We won’t waste any more time tearing up their signal flags, that’s for certain. We’ll probably go straight in with aerial bombs. A gyrothopter can’t stop those.”

  “We’re going to bomb them,” Alek translated for Klopp. “They’re defenseless.”

  The man just nodded, adjusting the controls. The signal patch was turning red again. The Leviathan had found her course.

  It took long minutes to close the final distance to the Goeben.

  The ship’s big guns boomed once, spilling fire and smoke into the night sky. But Mr. Hirst was right—the shells flew well beneath the Leviathan, erupting into white columns of
water kilometers away.

  As the Leviathan drew closer, Alek watched the German ship through the field glasses. Men scrambled across the ironclad’s decks, hiding her small guns under what looked like heavy black tarps. The coverings shone dully in the last flickers of sunset, like plastic or leather. Alek wondered if they were made of some new material strong enough to stop fléchettes.

  But no plastic could stop high explosives.

  The men on the ironclad hardly seemed worried, though. No lifeboats were readied, and the second gyrothopter stayed on its catapult, the rotors strapped down against the wind. Soon it too was veiled with a glossy black covering.

  “Young master,” Klopp said, “what’s happening on her aft deck?”

  Alek swung the field glasses, and saw lights flickering atop the ironclad’s strange metal tower.

  He squinted harder. There were men working at the tower’s base, dressed in uniforms made from the same shiny black that covered the deck guns. They moved slowly, as if encased in a fresh layer of tar.

  Alek frowned. “Take a look, Master Klopp. Quickly, please.”

  As the old man took the field glasses, the flickering lights grew brighter—Alek could see them with his naked eyes now. Shimmers slid along the struts of the tower, like nervous snakes made of lightning.…

  “Rubber,” Alek said softly. “They’re protecting everything with rubber. That whole tower must be charged with electriks.”

  Klopp swore. “I should have realized. But they only showed us toys and demonstration models, never one that huge!”

  “Models of what?”

  The old man lowered the glasses. “It’s a Tesla cannon. A real one.”

  Alek shook his head. “As in Mr. Tesla, the man who invented wireless? You mean that’s a transmitting tower?”

  “The same Mr. Tesla, young master, but it’s not a transmitter.” Klopp’s face was pale. “It’s a weapon, a lightning generator.”

  Alek stared in horror at the shimmering tower. As Dylan often said, lightning was an airship’s natural enemy. If raw electriks flowed across the airship’s skin, even the tiniest hydrogen leak could burst into flame.

  “Are we in range yet?”

  “The ones I’ve seen could hardly shoot across a room,” Klopp said. “They only tickled your fingers or made your hair stand on end. But that one’s huge, and it’s got the boilers of a dreadnought to power it!”

  Alek turned to Mr. Hirst, who was watching their conversation with an air of disinterest, and said in English, “We have to come about! That tower on the aft deck is some kind of … lightning cannon.”

  Mr. Hirst raised an eyebrow. “A lightning cannon?”

  “Yes! Klopp has worked with the German land forces. He’s seen these things before.” Alek sighed. “Well, toy ones, anyway.”

  The chief engineer peered down at the Goeben. The electriks were sparkling brighter now, unfolding into spidery forms that danced along the tower’s struts.

  “Can’t you see?” Alek cried.

  “It is rather odd.” Mr. Hirst smiled. “But lightning? I doubt your Clanker friends have mastered the forces of nature just yet.”

  “You have to tell the bridge!”

  “I’m sure the bridge can see it well enough.” Hirst pulled a command whistle from his pocket and blew a short tune. “But I shall inform them of your theory.”

  “My theory?” Alek shouted. “We don’t have time for a debate! We have to turn around!”

  “What we’ll do is wait for orders,” Mr. Hirst said, dropping the whistle into his pocket.

  Alek swallowed a groan of frustration, then turned back to Klopp.

  “How long do we have?” he said in German.

  “Everyone’s cleared the deck, except for those men in protective suits. So it could be any moment.” Klopp lowered the glasses. “Full reverse on this engine will turn us around fastest.”

  “Full reverse from full ahead?” Alek shook his head. “You’ll never make that look like an accident.”

  “No, but I can make it look like my own idea,” Klopp said, then grabbed Alek by the collar and shoved him hard to the floor. As Alek’s head cracked against the metal deck of the engine pod, the world went starry for a moment.

  “Klopp! What in blazes are you—”

  The shriek of gears drowned out Alek’s words, the whole pod shuddering in its frame around him. The air suddenly stilled as the propeller sputtered to a halt.

  “What’s the meaning of this!” cried Hirst.

  Alek’s vision cleared, and he saw Klopp brandishing a wrench at the chief engineer. With his free hand the old man deftly shifted the engine into reverse, then pushed the foot pedal down.

  The propeller sputtered back to life, drawing air backward across the pod.

  “Klopp, wait!” Alek began. He tried to stand, but his head spun, and he fell back to one knee.

  Blazes! The man had actually hurt him!

  Hirst was blowing on his whistle again—a high-pitched squeak—and Alek heard a hydrogen sniffer howling in response. Soon a pack of the ugly creatures would be thundering down upon them.

  Alek pulled himself up, reaching out for the wrench. “Klopp, what are you doing?”

  The man swung at him, yelling, “Got to make this convincing!”

  The wrench whistled over Alek’s head. He ducked and fell back onto one knee again, cursing. Had Klopp gone mad?

  Mr. Hirst reached into a pocket and pulled out a compressed air pistol.

  “No!” Alek cried, leaping for the gun. As his fingers wrapped around Hirst’s wrist, the pistol exploded with a deafening crack. The shot missed Klopp, but the bullet rang like an alarm bell as it ricocheted around the engine pod.

  Something kicked Alek in the ribs, hard, and searing pain blossomed in his side.

  He fell backward, his fingers slipping from Hirst’s wrist, but the man didn’t raise the gun again. Hirst and Klopp both gaped, dumbstruck, at the Leviathan’s flank.

  Alek blinked away pain and followed their stares. The cilia were in furious motion, rippling like leaves in a storm. The airbeast’s vast length was bending, twisting harder than he’d ever seen. The great harness groaned around them as it stretched, joined by the pop of ropes snapping in the ratlines.

  “The beast knows it’s in danger,” Klopp said.

  Alek watched in wonder as the airship seemed to curl around them in the air. The stars spun overhead, and soon the huge animal had turned itself entirely around.

  “Back to full …,” Alek began, but it hurt too much to speak. Every word was another kick in the ribs. He looked down at his hand pressed against his left side, and saw blood between the fingers.

  Klopp was already working, reversing the engine once more. Mr. Hirst clutched his pistol tight, still staring in wonder at the airbeast’s flank.

  “Get out of the pod, young master,” Klopp yelled as the propeller’s gears caught again. “It’s metal. The lightning will jump to it.”

  “I don’t think I can.”

  Klopp turned. “What … ?”

  “I’m shot.”

  The old man dropped the controls and bent beside him, eyes wide. “I’ll lift you.”

  “Mind your engine, man!” Alek managed.

  “Young master—,” Klopp began, but his words were drowned out by a crackling in the air.

  With a painful heave Alek pulled himself up to look backward. The Goeben was falling behind them, but the Tesla cannon was blindingly bright. It flickered like a welding lamp, sending jittering shadows across the dark sea.

  Beside him the airship’s cilia still seethed and billowed, pushing at the air like a million tiny oars.

  Faster, Alek prayed to the giant airbeast.

  A great fireball formed at the tower’s base, then swiftly rose, dancing and shimmering as it climbed. When it reached the top, a thunderous boom rang out.

  Fingers of lightning, jagged and colossal, shot up from the Tesla cannon. They stretched across the whole sky at first,
a tree of white fire, then leapt toward the Leviathan as if drawn by scent. The lightning spread a fiery web across the airbeast’s skin, a dazzling wave that surged down its length. In an instant the electricity flowed three hundred meters from tail to head, leaping eagerly across the metal struts that supported the engine pod.

  The whole pod began to crackle, the gears and pistons flinging out radiant spokes of fire. Alek was seized by an invisible force; every muscle in his body tightened. For a long moment the lightning squeezed the breath from him. Finally its power wilted, and he slipped back to the metal deck.

  The engine sputtered to a halt again.

  Alek smelled smoke, and felt an awful pounding in his chest. His ribs ached with every heartbeat.

  “Young master? Can you hear me?”

  Alek forced his eyes open. “I’m all right, Klopp.”

  “No, you aren’t,” the man said. “I’ll get you to the gondola.”

  Klopp wrapped one big arm around Alek and pulled him up, sending a wave of fresh agony through him.

  “God’s wounds, man! That hurts!”

  Alek wavered on his feet, dumbstruck by the pain. Mr. Hirst didn’t lend a hand, his nervous eyes scanning the length of the Leviathan beside them.

  Somehow, the airship was not aflame.

  “The engine?” Alek asked Klopp.

  The man sniffed the air and shook his head. “All the electrikals are cooked, and the starboard side is silent as well.”

  Alek turned to Hirst and said, “We’ve lost the engines. Perhaps you could put that gun away.”

  The chief engineer stared at the air pistol in his hand, then slipped it into his pocket and pulled out a whistle. “I’ll call a surgeon for you. Tell your mutinous friend to set you down.”

  “My ‘mutinous friend’ just saved your—,” Alek started, but a fresh wave of dizziness passed over him. “Let me sit,” he muttered to Klopp. “He says he can get a doctor up here.”

  “But he’s the one who shot you!”

  “Yes, but he was aiming at you. Now please put me down.”

  With an unkindly look at Hirst, Klopp leaned Alek gently against the controls. As Alek caught his breath, he glanced up at the airship’s flank. The cilia were still rippling like windblown grass. Even without the engines to motivate it, the great beast was still headed away from the ironclads.