Emerald Sea

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

There was a wooden block on the top of the landing platform and a slot running down the middle.

“The steam generator can be used to pressurize air,” Evan said. “There’s a piston underneath. We’ll rig a sliding platform, since you’re so large. It will accelerate you off the platform and give you immediate airspeed.”

“I can run off the platform and get that,” Joanna temporized. “How much airspeed?”

“An estimated forty klicks,” Evan burbled. “More than enough for you to start flying immediately. No need for a run-up or dropping off a cliff!”

“Accelerate to forty clicks in, what? Twenty meters?” Joanna snarled. “Blow that!”

“Really, you just hold on, lean forward and spring up about halfway through.”

“Easy enough for you to say,” Jerry interjected. “I’m not sure how to explain it to the wyverns.”

“We were thinking maybe an automatic release harness or something,” Evan replied. “But the wyverns should be able to take off, with one rider, without it. Greater dragons will have problems.”

“Bloody right,” Joanna said. “One of them being to get them to use this thing.”

“I think it looks like fun,” Herzer said. “But I’m not the one using it.”

“Fun? I just crashed in the drink once, Herzer!”

“Think about it,” Herzer said. “You lean forward and spring off almost immediately. And you’re already going thirty, forty klicks. Sounds like fun to me. I’ll be surprised if people don’t start using it for kicks by the time the voyage is done.”

“I suppose you want me to go ‘yee-haw’ or something,” Joanna grumped.

“Well, only if you want to,” Herzer replied. “Daylight is wasting.”

“I need something to eat before I try this,” Joanna said. “I can tell most of my grumpiness is low blood sugar.”

“It’s time for lunch anyway,” Jerry replied.

Herzer was surprised to find that he was right; it was past noon. The day had passed in a blur since dawn.

Lunch was… interesting. So that Joanna wouldn’t feel left out, the skipper had a table set up on the flight deck and Edmund’s party joined her for lunch. There was still fresh meat and vegetables available but to give them an inkling of what the voyage would be like the skipper ordered “ship’s food” to be served alongside.

The ship food wasn’t nearly as bad as Herzer had expected. He’d read about early sailing vessels and the poor quality of the food, but the “ship biscuit” that were served, for example, were rather light and slightly sweet.

“This isn’t hardtack,” Herzer commented, nibbling one of the biscuits. “I’ve had hardtack.”

“No,” Skipper Chang said. “We know a bit more about food storage than the early ships. Those are what used to be called ‘captain’s biscuits.’ They’d go bad in a month or so if you stored them in bags, but they’re stored in vacuum-packed steel barrels. The dwarves are able to make them in quantity.”

“We need access to some of this tech,” Edmund said. “For field rations. Current field rations aren’t very good.”

“We’re working up some food service regulations,” Mbeki commented. “I’ll make sure you get copies.”

“Ships used to be hard pressed for water,” Herzer commented.

“Again, the dwarves came through for us,” the skipper replied with a smile. “The ship is supplied with two rather large water tanks, located in the bilges. Potable water is pumped in and out. They have to be cleaned from time to time, which is a chore and a half, but they carry more than enough water for the voyage and are easily refilled. We also chlorinate the water so that it doesn’t go bad. We pack dried corn, beans, wheat and rice in steel barrels as well, all of them vacuum packed. Then there’s canned beets, turnip greens, tomatoes, what have you. Dried fruit, also vacuum packed. Storing it all is, of course, difficult. But the worst part is meats. We’re working on oversized canning processes for those, but for the time being we’re stuck with salting.”

Herzer had tried the salt beef and wasn’t impressed.

“Better than monkey on a stick,” he said.

“And that is?” Commander Mbeki inquired.

“Field rations,” Edmund interjected. “A form of jerked and dried meat mixed with fruit. Together with parched corn it’s the standard field rations on the march.”

“You haven’t lived, Colonel, until you’ve lived for a month on fried monkey on a stick.” Herzer grinned.

“I’ll take your word for it,” the skipper replied. “Well, this has been a pleasant interlude, but I think we should get back to work. Commander Gramlich, have you concluded whether you’re willing to risk the catapult? This is not something where I’m prepared to give you an order.”

“I’ll do it,” Joanna said. She’d finished off half a cow’s carcass while the others had been having their more limited meal and now looked in a far better mood. “Like Herzer said, it might be a blast.”

“Very well,” the skipper said. “Chief Brooks!”

“Sir,” the NCO said, climbing up onto the landing platform.

“Have this knocked down and prepare the launching and recovery teams. Commander Gramlich is going to be giving the first demonstration of the launching catapult.”

The table was knocked down, the riding harnesses were attached to the dragon, the longboat with the recovery team onboard was launched and the catapult was prepared. This mostly consisted of ensuring there was pressure, drawing back the launching platform and cocking it.

“All hands, make sail,” Chang ordered, to be repeated by bellows all down the ship. “Helm, come to heading zero-one-three.”

“Zero-one-three, aye.”

“Prepare for launching.”

The ship came around until the wind was blowing directly onto the launching platform with the ship sailing towards it to maximize the effect. As the sails were unfurled and tightened the lively ship picked up speed until she seemed to be flying over the light waves, even given the gentleness of the breeze.

“She’s a tidy ship,” Chang said, smiling for the first time in a long time. “Commander Mbeki, launch when ready!”

The catapult had been modified for the dragon. Now there were two separated perches for her feet. She gingerly got on them and gripped tightly.

“Commander,” Chief Brooks said. “When the lead perch reaches the edge it’s going to detach and fly away. We’d like you to have let go before then, but if you haven’t, let go of both of them right after or you’re going to be trying to lift them as well as the riders.”

“Got it, Chief,” the dragon replied. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Lieutenant Herrick?” the chief said, pointing to a large lever to one side of the platform. “If you’ll do the honors.”

“Everyone ready?” Herzer asked, putting his hand on the lever.

Jerry and Koo gave him a thumbs up and Joanna just growled.

“Okay, on three…”

“Wait!” Jerry said. “Does that mean…?”

“That means when I say three I’m going to fire you,” Herzer replied. “Now get ready. One, two, THREE.”

Herzer pushed forward, hard, on the lever and was rewarded by a high-pitched whistling noise. Then the catapult engaged and the dragon flew forward with a bellowed “Oh, shiiit!”

The catapult accelerated fast, but not excessively so, and Herzer could clearly see that Joanna had let go before the end of the launch. She pushed forward with her own strength as her wings flipped open and she soared upward, instantly in full flight.

“That was COOL!” she bellowed. “Let’s do that AGAIN!”

“First get the men on shore,” Mbeki yelled. “Then you have to land. Then you get to try out the catapult again.”

Joanna waved an assent, then headed for the rapidly receding shore.

“Prepare to come about,” the skipper said. “Might as well be in closer when we try to recover them.”

In no more than thirty minutes, two wyverns and a dragon could be seen approaching. As they got closer it was clear that there were only two riders.

“Lieutenant Herzer,” Commander Mbeki said. “Get aloft and prepare to land the dragons. Skipper, recommend we come into the wind and reduce speed.”

“Sir,” Herzer interjected. “The last time Joanna seemed to have more problems with us being really slow than not. Recommend… well I’m not sure what I recommend, but Joanna needed a higher speed.”

“What about the wyverns?” the skipper asked, testily.

“Either we increase speed for Joanna, sir, or we see if they can land at a higher speed.”

“Prepare to come about!”

The ship tacked back into the wind and left all its jib sails flying.

“Speed twelve klicks, sir,” the officer of the deck said. The speed of the ship was measured by a small propeller at the rear that carried the information to a readout via a complicated set of cables and gears.

“We’ll see how they do at this clip,” Mbeki said. “We were barely doing six before. Up you go, Herzer.”

Herzer climbed up on the landing platform, picked up his flags and pointed at Jerry. This time he maintained a good entry and there was barely a thump when the wyvern landed.

He climbed down and walked over to Herzer, shaking his head.

“When I saw how fast it was going I thought you were nuts,” Riadou said. “But I think it’s easier. More speed means we have more control on the way in.”

“Makes sense,” Herzer said, pointing at Koo. Koo’s landing, too, was much easier. Finally there was only Joanna to land.

Joanna also had an easier time on the glide path but she had more of a tendency to drift to the side. The ship could not point directly into the wind and the wind across her was pushing the larger dragon sideways. As she got on final approach the disturbance in the air from the ship’s sails threw her off path and it was clear she wasn’t going to hit the platform so Herzer waved her off. She had enough airspeed to recover and flapped back up to altitude. On the second try she figured out how to correct for drift and came in straight as an arrow. At the last moment she backwinged and then dropped, heavily, onto the platform as the two humans hit the deck. The entire ship shuddered at the impact of the multiton dragon but the platform held.

“That was… interesting,” Joanna said. “But I did it!” she added with a grin.

“Meeting in the wardroom,” Duke Edmund said, from the stairs. “There’s a skylight so Joanna can stick her nose into things.”

Everyone had some point that they felt could be improved on the dragon landing and launching system. And they hadn’t even tested the launching on the wyverns or seen if they were willing to land a second time.

“Tomorrow for that,” Skipper Chang said. “General Talbot, with your permission I’d like to spend one more day in the bay doing work-ups. I know that puts you behind schedule but…”

“Better a functioning dragon-carrier when we get to the Isles.” Edmund sighed. “Agreed. But just one more day.”

“Most of the changes aren’t crucial,” Evan said, looking up from his notes. “The biggest one is some place for the flag guy to hide.”

“We’re going to need a better term than ‘flag guy’ as well,” Commander Mbeki said.

“How about landing orders officer?” Jerry said.

“ ‘Keep your eye on the loo!’ ” Joanna chuckled. “ ‘Follow the loo!’ No, just doesn’t have that ring to it.”

“Okay, landing signal officer then,” Jerry said. “We’ve also got the problem of five dragons and three riders.”

“Do you think you can work Herzer up on-board?” the duke asked.

“I don’t know, sir,” the warrant officer replied, seriously. “Training usually takes several hundred hours, not just a few hours in the air. And then there’s landing. I’d rather he learned that on land, if possible.”

“And keep in mind that once we get to sea it just gets harder,” the XO pointed out. “This is a mill-pond. Out in the Atlantis it’s solid rollers, even if we’re not having a storm.”

“We won’t launch in foul weather,” the skipper said. “But storms do come up suddenly. It’s something to keep in mind. Think about a good foul weather recovery system.”

“Other than going for a swim?” Herzer asked.

“In the North Atlantis, which is where we’ll be engaging the invasion fleet, that’s not going to be possible,” the XO pointed out. “The water will kill a person before we can get them out. It will be on the deck or nothing.”

“I think that’s about it,” the skipper said, rapping his knuckles on the table. “Unless you have something to add, General?”

“No, nothing,” Edmund replied. “I think today went quite well.”

“Better than I anticipated, frankly,” Chang replied. “General, I’ll see your party at dinner?”

“Of course, Skipper.”

“Very well, people, good work today. Flight operations commence at dawn tomorrow.”