Journey to the Heart of Luna - Andy Frankham-Allen [20]
“Aye, sir!” Stevenson turned swiftly and marched away.
“Welcome to the bridge, Professor,” Captain Folkard said as he stepped towards Nathanial. “Please do enter.”
Nathanial did so. He expected a larger area than the one he was in. Visiting the bridge while the ship was being constructed was not something that had interested him, after all his concern was with what enabled the ship to sail the aether; the heart of the ship, as it were. The brains did not interest him. Until now.
A few men worked at their stations; a navigator sat at his desk, checking over the orrery and astrolabe, the helmsman, or coxswain as the Navy called them, stood at the wheel, a small ratchet-like device that controlled the precise changes in the electromagnetic field of the aether propeller through a system of ropes and pulleys routed throughout the infrastructure of the ship. Others went about their own business, of which Nathanial knew naught. Lieutenant Bedford was nowhere to be seen, Nathanial noted with a brief sensation close to disappointment; he was probably not needed on the bridge while the captain was in charge and was most likely enjoying a banyan of his own.
“I hear you acquitted yourself quite admirably with the propeller governor, Professor, despite your…ah…injuries,” Folkard said as Nathanial walked further onto the bridge. Nathanial glanced down at the now grotty cloth wrapped around his left hand. What a sight he must have appeared! “As I believe I said before, sir,” Folkard continued, “you are quite the bully trap. I suspect old Boswell took you for a coward?”
Nathanial grimaced. “I am not quite sure I would put it like that, Captain, but…” He stopped, seeing the slight lift of Folkard’s lip. Once again he was the source of Folkard’s amusement. “Yes, well, quite, Captain Folkard. I must say, from what I have seen of the Sovereign she is quite the…Oh my!”
Nathanial stopped just past the coxswain and looked at the sight outside the window. As a child he had little interest in stargazing, laying on his back on the wet grass of Putney Parish, looking up at the moon on a dark night. But now he was here, looking at the grey orb, so close and so big, he realised that in some ways he had always wanted to be here.
Luna.
“Quite an awe-inspiring view, would you not agree, Professor?”
Nathanial swallowed and licked his lips. He hadn’t realised just how parched being in the engine room had made him. “It is…spectacular, Captain. Spectacular,” he said once more, the word barely a breath of air.
He remained standing there for a few moments, while the crew busied themselves, bringing the Sovereign ever closer to Luna. He glanced up at the stars behind the moon, and wondered at the vastness of space beyond, and the mystery it must have contained. Secrets lost to the ages, things beyond the reach of current science. For the briefest of heartbeats Nathanial felt a deep desire to uncover those secrets, to discover just what was…out there!
“Very well, then, Professor.” Folkard look over at the bosun. “Mister Dinnick, see that the atmosphere suits are prepared.”
Nathanial slowly emerged from his dreaming as he became aware of a presence beside him. Standing there, now also looking out to Luna, was Captain Folkard. “Do you intend to stand there for the remaining hour, Professor?”
“I beg your pardon, Captain?”
“We have an hour until we attain a lower lunar orbit, then we shall find this ‘glow’ Doctor Grant’s research spoke of.”
Nathanial frowned. Annabelle had mentioned the glow before, in one of her letters, but he had not shared this information with anyone. “You do seem remarkably well-informed, Captain, if I may say so.”
Folkard smiled slightly. “British spies, Professor, remember. We learned a lot more about Grant’s research than just the work you and he did on the governor.”
At first Nathanial did not respond. After all, what more could he say? Instead he looked down at his clothing and grotty makeshift bandage. “I really must freshen up before we land.