Journey to the Heart of Luna - Andy Frankham-Allen [26]
He smiled to himself. Perhaps, deep down, there was an adventurer in him after all. Captain Folkard would be most pleased. He turned to look at the captain, who was busy giving orders to the bosun, who in turn was piping them down to the engine room. Why was it that he felt this desire to please the captain? Nathanial was not sure. He surely felt no such desire with his own father, and Folkard was much younger.
Folkard looked away from the bosun and noticed Nathanial looking at him. Giving a final order, he walked across the bridge and joined Nathanial once again.
“Tell me, Professor, how much do you know of Luna?”
“Very little, Captain. Mostly unexplored, although it has been visited over the years, chiefly by the Russians as we discussed previously. I believe the first man to visit Luna was Sir William Otterbein in an aether flyer designed by himself. He was assisted by an Italian called Luigi Piachetti, funded by industrialists in London, correct?”
“As you say. Although the particulars of such missions are not the purview of this mission, I took the liberty to obtain further information before meeting you at Dover. Sir William hoped to find cheap sources of iron on Luna, and although they discovered that Luna is prone to ‘moonquakes’ and that the surface, in particular that of the so-called ‘seas’, is very difficult to traverse on foot, he found on his return to Earth that the samples proved Luna to be barren of useful material. His backing was thusly removed.”
“But still others continued to visit the moon, despite this,” Nathanial pointed out, looking down at the captain, who he felt sure was leading this conversation somewhere.
Folkard nodded. “Yes, curious, would you not agree?”
“Very. I have heard rumours, of course, of a native life form.”
“Ah, yes, the moon men. An unsubstantiated rumour, spread by space mariners hoping to drum up interest from the wealthy who wish to fund trips to Luna. Treasures, a wealth of diamonds, the usual talk of a great bounty. None of which has ever been found, of course, you understand, Professor?”
Nathanial smiled. “People often prefer the romances to the truth, Captain Folkard, sir.”
“This they do, Professor, this they do. I assume you have heard of ‘the glow’?”
Once again Nathanial was reminded of the missives he had previously received from Annabelle. He closed his eyes briefly, an image of her twisted body lying in the wreckage filling his vision. His heart caught in his chest.
“Are you quite all right, Professor? You seem a trifle off colour.”
Nathanial took a deep breath and opened his eyes. “I will pass muster, Captain.”
Folkard narrowed his eyes, clearly unconvinced. Then, abruptly, he reached up and gave Nathanial a hearty slap on the back. “Dash-fire, Professor, we will make a Navy man of you yet.”
Nathanial smiled grimly, forcing the image of Annabelle away. He would deal with that later, for now he had to focus. He was in the company of stout men, and he had to be one of them.
“So, Captain, this ‘glow’…Miss Somerset did mention it in one of her letters, but I suspect that Doctor Grant, no doubt chasing the dragon at the time, revealed such information to one of our government’s increasingly clever spies?”
At this Folkard laughed. Nathanial looked around the bridge, as heads were raised, some smiling, most in surprise. “That sums it up rather aptly. Indeed, indeed. I have read the documentation on the ‘glow’, and very little is known. It seems that if one is in the right position a faint glow can be seen from a very particular part of Luna’s far side. The glow is barely a pinprick when seen with the naked eye, but when seen through a telescope the glow would appear to be almost a mile across. To the best of our spies understanding