Journey to the Heart of Luna - Andy Frankham-Allen [18]
“My baby,” he whispered.
“Which we shall be putting into practice very soon, I should think,” Boswell said at his shoulder.
Nathanial glanced at him. “Is that so? We are approaching Luna?”
“Close, that’s for sure. Close enough for most ships to try and navigate the Earth’s orbital wake.”
Nathanial’s eyes lit up. “An aether vortex?”
“You know your stuff, Prof. Yes, an aether vortex. Venus and Earth’s wakes are about to merge.”
“Oh Lor’!” The excitement Nathanial had briefly experienced was now giving way to dread. He knew all about aether vortices.
As the planets orbit the sun their aether wakes, the slipstream of their movement around the sun, are pressed outwards. When the wakes of more than one planet overlap, violent aether vortices are produced; gravitational disturbances in space, quite capable of tearing apart aether flyers. Horror stories of the worst kind of vortex miscalculations had reached even Nathanial. There was no doubt in Nathanial’s mind that the Sovereign was manned by the best navigators Her Majesty’s Navy had to offer, highly trained men who knew how to avoid the lee of the planets, very capable of predicting the convergence of planetary turbulence, but they were on a direct approach for Luna, and the Earth’s orbital wake was unusually turbulent due to the interference of the moon. There really was very little way to avoid a vortex when the Earth’s wake was about to converge with that of another planet.
It was one of many things he had been mindful of when re-designing the aether propeller governor. On the one hand it was designed to carefully modulate the performance of the aether propeller when in Luna’s dense gravity, but it had also been designed to provide an efficient way to navigate through an aether vortex. It had, of course, yet to be tested in a practical way, and if Nathanial knew anything of Captain Folkard from their short time together, it was that he liked to test the mettle of his people. Nathanial doubted Folkard would treat his ship any different.
As if to prove his estimation right the pipe whistled a short distance away. Boswell grinned, turned, and walked away, leaving Stevenson looking up at Nathanial. The fear in his blue eyes was felt acutely by Nathanial.
“Sir, can the Sovereign withstand such a vortex?”
Nathanial had almost forgotten that Stevenson was only in his second year as a seaman. Certainly he had never served with Captain Folkard before. Nathanial placed a reassuring hand on the ordinary seaman’s shoulder, and winced as the cold cloth pressed against his skin. “It shall if my governor has anything to do with it, Stevenson,” he said, offering what he hoped was an affirming smile.
Stevenson swallowed, and gathered himself to attention. He saluted Nathanial. “Yes, sir!”
Boswell returned, an excited grin on his face. “This is it, Professor! Would you care to work the governor?”
Nathanial did not know what to say at first. Instead he stood there, looking at Boswell, thinking off all the lives on the ship. How could he be responsible for all of them! He was a scientist; he did not belong on a battleship. Being in the engine room, in the company of Boswell and Stevenson had disarmed him, made him lower his defences. He had almost forgotten who he was. What he was. He should be at home, wherever that was…it was most certainly not aboard a Navy ship venturing on a mission into unknown territory, navigating its way through an aether vortex that would almost…
“Professor?”
Nathanial was dragged out of his thoughts by a plaintive voice. He looked down at the imploring features of Ordinary Seaman Stevenson. So young, so innocent. A boy, really, hardly a man at all. Stevenson blinked, his eyelids seeming to move in slow motion.
“What is your name, Stevenson?” Nathanial found himself asking.
“Erasmus, sir,” Stevenson said, puzzled.
“Erasmus! A superb name! And you have a mother, a father?”
Still it was clear Stevenson had no idea why Nathanial was asking such things. “Yes, sir, and a