Chapter 3

The marine captain looks Nathaniel up and down carefully, "I honestly can't see the Kaiser's men doing something like this, but there's a lot of little nations inside those borders still arguing it out looking for some kind of advantage, some kind of leverage to use over their fellow countrymen."

Napoleon looks at the damaged drive shaft, it does not appear to have fallen victim to any kind of foul play but rather it looks like a structural failure. Like the shaft itself failed from within.

"Technically the Kaiser's men are on our side, allied against the Commune, but I wouldn't put it past them to stir something up. Politics and all that bloody rot." The officer thinks a moment, "What kind of weapon did they use to take out the train? Explosives under the tracks or something?"

Napoleon knows it was definitely not explosives at least nothing conventional if it was an explosive. The colored lightening racing down the train was something the likes of which he's never seen before. Nathaniel is pretty sure it wasn't either, but he's not 100%.

"It's not my airship," the man replies, "belongs to Her Royal Majesty and I'm just a Marine anyway."

He grins looking back up the the ship simply hanging in space a few dozen feet above their heads, "However, Captain Williams might be interested in your story."

He snaps his finger and a young man, barely able to grow hair on his chin runs up and a navy blue uniform, "Yessir!" The man says coming quickly to attention.

"Tell Captain Williams I have a couple lads on the ground here he might be interested in having a word with, Tell him it has something to do with the train and our lost drive shaft." The lad nods and rushes to the far side of the landing area and quickly scampers up a rope ladder.

A few minutes later there's a sudden changed in pressure where you're standing at the Dauntless begins to lower itself slowly towards the ground.

Nathaniel and Napoleon notices that the flat wooden planks that form the belly of the ship are slowly reconfiguring themselves, changing their angle and attitude towards the ground as the ship comes in for a landing. The massive keel stops barely a foot off the ground and a heavy iron door set into the keel opens up. An older man with grey black hair and thick sideburns steps out of the door and marches over to where you're standing.

The marine captain salutes him crisply, "Captain Williams."

"Captain McAdams."

"These lads claim to have been aboard the train with our drive shaft when it was attacked."

Captain Williams eyebrow goes up as he looks Nathaniel and Napoleon over carefully, "Oh they were were they?"

McAdams nods.

"Well then, what's your story lads?"

Nathaniel quickly repeats his story to Captain Williams.

"Interesting, do you have any thoughts on where it might be headed?" Captain Williams asks, "The sky, not unlike the ocean, is a rather large place to be looking."

Captain Williams nods, "We're not far from San Francisco, and it is along our general fight path. We could give you a ride, perhaps if you spot the airship we could inform the Americans." He turns to look at a young man standing just inside the hatch, "Tell Mr. Caruthers to make haste with his repairs, I want to be ready to depart within the hour."

"Aye sir," the young man replies disappearing back into the ships keel and up a latter into the superstructure.

"If you have any business to attend to lad, I'd be on with it." Captain William's says.

Captain McAdams of the Royal Marine Corps looks at the two of you with a smirk, "Best grab your luggage and be snappy about it lads."

The others gather their belongings and head in the direction of the air field and the armored British warship.

Mariette looks at the craft suspiciously where as Helen and Buford appear to be in awe of the ship. Ruby on the other hand has apparently seen ships like this before and barely bats and eyelid at it.

"What's the problem Madam D'Nimes?" Buford asks with a broad grin on his face.

Mariette glances at Buford, "It is Mademoiselle but, I am concerned. My government and the British government have been not on the best of terms for a few years." She sighs, "I am concerned about what they will think of my presence."

A concerned expression crosses Ruby's face as she looks at the ship, "British Navel ships are not known for welcoming female passengers with open arms."

"It's because in navel tradition women are considered bad luck," Helen replies, "I think your heritage is likely to be less of an issue than your gender."

The head of the Marines, Captain McAdams looks at your group as you cross the field, there's a concerned expression on his face.

"Was not expecting quite so many of you," He smiles at the ladies and shrugs. "Oh well, it's a short trip to San Francisco, I'll have a word with the lads, make sure they're on their best behavior. You lot are all British or Americans correct?"

Everyone nods and McAdams seems to take you all at face value, "Leave your bags here and I'll have Johnson escort you topside."

One of his marines nods and heads in through the hatch in the keel, he stands there offering everyone a head up inside the vessel and then proceeds to escort you up through the keel. "Mind your heads and try not to touch the pipes," the marine says as he leads you through an oval shaped opening made of black reinforced iron. Beyond the opening there's a narrow ladder that leads up to a small landing with two more oval doors on either side and another ladder proceed up to another landing above that.

There's a bit of a kerfuffle as the ladies figure out who's going up the ladder and in what order and why the men should both be above them to help them up and below them incase they fall and not below them so they can't look up their skirts.

Heading up the ladder you notice that the temperature increases steeply, the boiler must be somewhere close by, he indicates that everyone should head up to the second landing where there's an open door leading to a short hall and the open deck.

The deck is made of teak wood surrounded by more black riveted iron, immediately outside of the hatch there's a hotchkiss revolving cannon mounted on a large metal post. The rails are black and sturdy looking above your heads are the walking rails of a flying bridge with a spotlight a fitting for some manner of light mounted weapon, a Maxim gun you'd imagine.

Captain Williams greats you all from the flying bridge above. "Gentlemen, Ladies, welcome aboard the Dauntless. My chief engineer assures me that we can be underway within the hour." He looks further back the deck, "Millar! Please take our guests to the mess and see that they are fed." He looks back at your group, "Mess hall or upper decks only if you please."

About forty minutes and several mugs of tea later there's a lurch and you feel your stomachs drop as a whistle sounds and the ironclad's steam engine kicks in.

"We're lifting off," Ruby says with a grin.

Buford stands up, "Wouldn't mind seeing this," he nods towards the door to the deck. Helen gets up and follows him and Mariette stands as well.

The large man turns the wheel to the door and you all step out onto a sun lit teak deck slowly rising up above the zeppelin field and town below. The buildings slowly shrinking as you rise up, there's a groan behind you as the giant engine comes to life and the ships propellers begin to rotate.

McAdams comes over and leans against the black iron rail surrounding the deck. "Pretty impressive what?" He says with a smile, "Captain figures we'll be in San Francisco by noon, we'll fly a circuit of the harbour before landing at the zeppelin field in Oakland." He packs a pipe he produces from his uniform jacket with tobacco and lights it with a Lucifer match that sparks and spits. "Give those bloody Yanks a bit of a show of the pride of Her Royal Highnesses fleet. The circuit should also give you time to get the lay of the land, see if we can't find your mystery airship while it's still on the ground. Hopefully it's not to bloody foggy or this could all be for naught."