Journey to the Heart of Luna - Andy Frankham-Allen [13]
Captain Folkard was the latest. As Nathanial stood there, his mind going over what Folkard had told him, waiting for his tour guide (whom he hoped would be Lieutenant Bedford; more constructive discipline from Folkard), Nathanial wished he was still none the wiser. The mission ahead sounded dangerous, and despite Folkard’s asseveration that Nathanial was up to the task, Nathanial himself was full of doubt. He was not an adventurer, he was a scientist. He agreed to come on this mission so he could see his design work as a practical part of this great ship, and, of course, he wanted to know what had happened to Annabelle first hand, not be stuck on Earth awaiting a telegram from the Admiralty.
Ever since he had known her, Annabelle Somerset was getting herself into some sort of trouble. It always seemed to Nathanial that she actively sought such things, so to learn of the potential danger she was in now came as no surprise to him.
Once Bedford had departed the room Folkard explained to Nathanial the particulars about nastavnik Vladimir Tereshkov, and just how his work on precision modulation pertained to the mission ahead.
Late in 1887 Tereshkov and a team of Russian scientists piloted a flyer to Luna, now equipped with Tereshkov’s prototype governing device, a precursor to the propeller governor design that now sat in the engine room of the Sovereign. The tests must have been successful since Tereshkov and his team returned to Luna several times over the following year; these frequent visits started to attract the attention of the major powers, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Confederate States of America, the Democratic and Social Republic of France, and Germany. None of these powers made any great moves to find out what Tereshkov was up to; as far as they were concerned if Russia was really that interested in the lifeless ball in Earth’s orbit, then it left the more important territories open for them. So their attentions soon returned to the inner planets.
However, despite this, certain people in the British government continued to observe, secreted on the Harbinger, and concern grew towards the end of 1888 when the Russians failed to return from Luna. This was when Nathanial found himself brought to Chatham.
Nathanial already knew that the original governor design was a success, as he had received a missive from Annabelle to that effect, telling him of her uncle’s first successful journey to Luna in September. Since then, though, it seemed that Grant had returned to Luna, this time with his niece. The British government was now concerned that Grant had teamed up with Tereshkov, helping the Russians in whatever was keeping them on Luna.
Just over a week ago Annabelle herself had sent a heliograph message from Luna, but that message was incomplete, the only words that were picked up by the Harbinger had been “insane…scientist found…Doctor Grant…Russians holding…enslaved natives…threat to Earth”. Certain voices in the House of Lords expressed a theory that perhaps Doctor Grant’s niece had discovered a secret plot between her uncle and Tereshkov. The biggest supporter of that notion was Lord Chillingham, but the Admiralty remained unconvinced.
The HMAS Sovereign was thusly rushed off the assembly line, the new aether propeller governor still untested. She had a shakedown cruise for a week, taking her out into the aether, while Folkard was briefed on the full scope of the mission, but still he was worried. She was a new ship, theoretically the most powerful and capable flyer in Her Majesty’s Navy, but they had no