Chapter 111: Star Gazing
“So how does this work? Old fashioned refractor lenses?” Tom questioned nervously, looking at the telescope. It looked straight out of a science museum back home, with something like ‘Property of the Royal Society anno 1745’ underneath.
“I would have you know, this is the absolute best in portable optics. The lenses are shaped by hand and magically smoothed to perfection. It’s incredibly hard to do,” Linkosta replied, sounding more than a tad offended. “I couldn’t work out why Ishani insisted I take it with me. I’m guessing she figured out your gods would be a little different.”
“I’m… yeah,” Tom wasn’t really sure if that was good or bad. She had figured out he came from another world, so maybe?
Dakota, Nunuk, and Apuma had also joined them for the night, Saph having ended up too worn out to take part. Jacky had been content to go model for her mother for a bit of evening work on her armor.
They had assembled the delicate instrument in the library, carefully getting it up the stairs and up under the open skies at the top of the guard tower. It was once again a damn near perfect night. It was a little windy, but it was clear and still a little warm, even without the direct sunlight.
“A fine night. Right, first up. Let’s find a gate,” Linkosta started as she put her eye on the finder scope, scanning the sky. Tom guessed she was looking at constellations of stars, trying to find a certain one. Looking up that was certainly all he saw. Some had a little color, to the point where he wondered if they might be another planet. He hadn’t spent much time watching the stars, other than to confirm nothing up there was familiar.
With a slight smile, Linkosta proclaimed to have “found it” as she switched to the proper eyepiece, dialing in the focus.
“There we go. Have a look.”
Tom took a deep breath before looking into the eyepiece, being met with a blurry mess. “Right, different focus. How do I adjust?”
Linkosta showed him the rather simple mechanism of releasing the friction lock then delicately sliding the tube to where it was needed, locking it in place again. It took a little getting used to, but eventually the picture cleared up, revealing what looked distinctly like a ghostly white cloud with a void in the middle.
“A cloud?” Tom had to question. It looked rather nicely round, almost like a planetary ring without the planet.
“Keep looking, see the flashing?”
Tom shrugged to himself a little as he kept looking at the circle of gas, eventually spotting a little dot of light in the center that was gone as quickly as it had arrived. Then another… then one more. He knew jack shit about astronomy, but he had a feeling like this was something he would have heard about if it existed back home.
“I see it. Are those supposed to be…”
“The dead who made it to heaven. Isn’t that cool!” Linkosta cut him off.
“I’m looking at the pearly gates?” Tom had to question, in disbelief.
“Is that your word for them?” Linkosta replied as Tom heard the shuffle of note pages.
“Yup, and we... can’t see them,” Tom went as he kept staring at the odd… sight. This was a good telescope, but still it was hard to make out much beyond gassy clouds and flashes of light in the middle. Then again, that might be all there was to it…
“Really? That is interesting. It’s quite something when someone big or powerful goes. I got to use this when the Green Elder passed away two years ago. That was one hell of a flash. I don’t think you even needed a telescope for that.”
“I was gonna ask how you know it’s the dead, but I guess that settles it.”
“Yeah, the gates are always observed. It’s never good when it suddenly flares up. That usually means we have dire news incoming. You need to come to the academy or maybe the church of Ishan. They have the largest and finest telescopes around.”
“I’ll be sure to swing by.”
“Right, move over. Ishan never comes out anyway, so we won’t get to see her. Lotek might be around though. He’s always busy.” Tom moved out of the way, looking a tad expectantly at Apuma.
“God of travel and trade, he keeps an eye on those away from home,” the elder dragonette replied. That made sort of sense to Tom, since a god like that would have shit to do all the time.
“Wait, nope. Oh what have we here? Well guess it makes sense at this hour.”
“You found Itova, didn’t you?” Dakota questioned with a knowing glance at Linkosta, who stepped away, gesturing at the telescope.
“Well I know about her,” Tom let out as he had a look, resetting the focus for him. “Huh.”
That certainly wasn’t normal, even Tom could figure that out. First off, he had never seen a pink cloud in the sky before. He had to pull back from the telescope to look at where it was pointed using the finder scope to narrow in. It looked like a star to him with his naked eye. Granted, it might be a little big, but still a star. The more he looked at it though, the more the pinkish hue became apparent. ‘Well shit.’
He looked back into the eyepiece to get a closer look. This didn’t really feel like a sufficient tool for the job, but it would do. And that was definitely a face. Well, it was some sort of shape with two glowing orbs where he guessed eyes would roughly go and another wider one where he guessed a mouth should be.
“I take it your silence means you don’t have that either?” Linkosta questioned, sounding rather pleased with herself.
“That is gonna be a most definitive no,” Tom replied.
“Yet you still have gods? Or at least believe in them?”
“Uhm I mean sure, let’s go with ‘we believe in the gods’… it’s complicated. What about the other stars, are they weird too?”
“Careful, she might hear you. We have plenty of stars. They seem to be glowing circles in the sky. Some think they are windows for the gods to peer into the world. Others believe they are portals to the great beyond, gateways out of this world If you could somehow reach them. It’s a touchy subject though.”
“I’m sure it is,” Tom replied, feeling like he really wasn’t in a position to give a lesson on how things worked right now, deciding to let the laptop stay in its bag tonight. As he let go of the telescope the others came over for a turn, Apuma especially being very excited to have a look. ‘Okay gods are real… And the fuckers seem to be in orbit… Maybe I should have Jacky teach me a prayer or two… On second thought, maybe Apuma come to think of it… Yeah, definitely Apuma or just anyone other than Jacky.”
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“So I just pull this?” Ray questioned, faffing around with the different cords. Making the parachute fit had not been that hard, though it looked a little uncomfortable for what was left of her wings. The fact they were mostly gone did help with it quite a bit though.
“Don’t worry, it’s not that hard,” Tom replied as he went over everything again. “Pull this, then use these two to steer. Loosen to go down, pull to go up. You get the idea. Normally we do a tandem jump first, but we don’t really have the harness for that.”
That really helped with Ray’s trepidation as she swallowed. ‘Well done, dude,’ Sapphire cursed to herself.
“We’ll be there to catch you if it doesn’t work, don’t worry.”
“Okay, so I guess... here goes nothing,” Ray replied, taking a deep breath, clearly psyching herself up. She was damn near shaking. Saph guessed it was a mix of fear and anticipation. If she hadn’t flown in a decade, even if it was gonna be more of a glide, she wouldn’t be calm either, that’s for sure.
“Yup giddy-up,” Jacky replied, lowering slightly to make it easier for Ray to get on. “We are not going too high, are we?”
“Higher would be safer, so yeah,” Saph replied, Jacky looking pleadingly towards Tom, who just shrugged with a slight nod.
“Fine… Well, at least you are light.”
“Hehe, it does have its advantages,” Ray cautiously joked before Jacky leaped off the edge, kicking off hard. “Oh shit!” Jacky dived a bit to gain speed before she started the long slow climb, Saph watching to make sure everything was in order.
“Well, that’s them airborne. See ya in a bit. I promise she will be smiling from ear to ear 'till dinner.” They had talked about having Tom do the jump and just having Ray hang on, then letting her steer the thing. But this seemed more… right. She was supposed to fly. Not be carried by someone, fun as that might be.
“I don’t doubt it,” Tom replied with a wave as Sapphire stepped off the edge of the greeting platform, taking to the wing herself.
It wasn’t that Saph didn’t want to carry Ray up as high as possible to give her the most air time. It was just that, she needed to be fresh to follow her all the way down, that was all. And she was in charge of catching too; she couldn’t be worn out for that.
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Jacky, of course, couldn’t resist the urge to do some light aerobatics once she figured out Ray was rather easily startled into letting out a shriek. After a few surprises it turned to laughter as Ray hunkered down on Jacky’s back, the two of them getting more daring by the minute, to the point where Sapphire had to remind them the idea had been to get some altitude.
“You ready?” Saph asked, taking up position next to the panting Jacky. After a few minutes of climbing
“I think so,” Ray replied in a tone that betrayed that she probably wasn’t, but it was a little late now.
“Okay, remember just do a bit of free fall first, then pull it.”
“Okay.”
“Good luck,” Jacky added, rolling over mid-air, Ray letting go with a shriek as she plummeted towards the ground. SAph hanging on the wing looking at her drop. “Shouldn’t you follow her down?”
“There is plenty of time,” Sapphire replied as the scream trailed off into the distance below. She watched intently for a few more seconds, tilting her head a bit before the recognizable chute folded out. “There we go. See you down there.”
“Up down, up down, fly like a clown.”
“Oh come on you love it,” Saph retorted, Jacky grinning wide as they rolled into the dive to chase Ray down.
They found her dangling happily from her borrowed wing, marveling at the intricate construction.
“Quite something, right?” Saph questioned.
“It’s amazing!” Ray replied, mouth hanging open in awe. “I’m flying! Look, I can steer!”
Saph moved away a bit as Ray went about swinging from side to side, very carefully. Laughing like a little girl all the while. They did have quite a bit of altitude, so she had plenty of time to experiment. Though, as Tom had predicted, the lack of weight made her really rather slow, meaning she soon ran out of momentum to do more fancy maneuvers. That didn’t seem to bother Ray though, as she held out her arms wide cheering loudly.
“How do you feel about taking on a passenger?” Saph questioned, hoping that would let Ray have a bit more fun.
“I… can it do that?”
“Oh yeah, don’t worry,” Saph replied as she circled around Ray.
“Okay then… How?”
‘How was it Fengi did it…?’ “Try and dive a bit. Get what speed you can,” Ray did so, though the result was not really much, so it was up to Saph to time this right. She didn’t need to pull Ray through the sky, so a piggyback would do fine. But still, Ray was moving so slowly that Sapphire would stall out if she tried to match speeds.
On her second attempt, Saph was happy with the speed and angle, coming up behind Ray and grabbing onto the big straps that went up to where it all split into the little strings. It wasn’t entirely graceful, but it was better than the smack that Fengi had pulled off before. It wasn’t the most comfortable position to be in, as Saph wrapped her legs around Ray to try and get a bit better purchase. It would do for a bit though.
“There we go, all aboard. Where to?” Saph questioned as she made herself as comfortable as possible.
“Uhm… left,” Ray let out banking into the turn. “Hey, it flies way better now!”
“Yup. Perhaps you should have borrowed Tom’s weights actually. I’m sure Jacky wouldn’t mind.”
“Are you sure? She seemed a little tired.”
“Oh yeah, she loves a challenge,” Saph replied with a snicker. It wasn’t entirely wrong, but hauling weights up to altitude would be a hard sell even with Jacky. Unless they could sell it as part of Tom’s training routine. That had clearly started to interest her. “It’s not bad, right?”
“ ‘Not bad?’ It’s amazing! Weee!!” Ray replied, going into a dive, the chute letting her actually pick up some speed this time before pulling into a hard right turn. It wasn’t much of a maneuver, but it was something. Sapphire giggled all the while, mainly due to Ray’s evident joy.
“I still need to get him to make that thing faster,” Jacky shouted at them as she settled into a banking turn around them. “He said you could put an engine on it. Like the quad bike or something.”
“Good luck with that,” Saph replied with a laugh. “What’s next? You need a push too?” That resulted in a very thoughtful expression from Jacky. A sign that something bad was likely to happen in the near future.
‘Sorry, Tom,’ Saph thought to herself. There was no way Jacky would let that idea slide easily.
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“Right, those are just for cooling. It helps keep the housing cool,” Tom clarified as they were discussing how to insulate the power cell. The easy solution had been to just cast the housing in iron with some cooling fins in it, but having bare metal inside would lead to a risk of sparks between the housing and the electrodes. Tom had used glass thus far for that reason. But if this thing was supposed to run day in and day out in a rough environment, he really didn’t want the explosive gel stuff in a glass container that gets hot.
“Why not just use the housing as one of them, then put one electrode in from above?” Linkosta questioned as Tink pondered the overheating problem.
“Like a control rod… that’s actually... really damn smart. Let’s do that.”
“What is a control rod?” Linkosta questioned, sounding like she smelled new knowledge.
“Let’s leave that one for another day,” Tom replied with a pained expression, hoping she would let that one go for the time being. She didn’t seem pleased, but she didn’t press it further. They still needed the whole spiel on “let’s respect the tech that could ruin the world” after all. For now, though, it was a matter of getting the lathe done ASAP. “Right, then we will use the small fins combined with the water bath, so we can measure the water temperature.”
“That can just be a wooden box that has been waterproofed. I can make that,” Tink added in as Tom set about sketching out the design.
“Actually couldn’t you get started on the mold for the housing? Junior can be responsible for the box. I wanna look at tools.”
“Sure… what kind of tools?”
“Oh hello,” Tom let out as he was assaulted from behind a distinctly lightweight dragonet jumping onto him and hanging on tight.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
“I take it the flight was a success?” Tom knew full well it had been a success. He had stood watching for a while to make sure everything went well. Not that he could have done anything, but hey it was the thought that counted. It had been at least an hour since he had gone to get some work done, so they had done a pretty good job of keeping her going.
“It was amazing!”
“Hey ‘Tom the huggable,’ think you can strap an engine to me?” Jacky interrupted, Tom turning round to look at her, Ray still hanging on.
“I mean, there would be a few problems with that… Firstly, I don’t have one.”
“You said that thing could make one, right?” Jacky cut him off, pointing to the bits of lathe strewn across the table.
“Yeah… it’s gonna be a while.”
“But you could do it?”
“Look, I have no clue,” Tom objected, starting to have a think about it. There were those guys back home who used a flying wing-type contraption with some small jets on it… And even a few horsepower would make quite the difference… “Maybe,” he eventually relented with a cautious shrug. He could literally see Jacky’s pupils dilate in perfect sync with Sapphire’s narrowing to thin slits. Most likely with fear.
“Ha! I told you, yes I told you. I was right, I was right,” Jacky let out triumphantly, doing an odd little dance around Sapphire, who just stood there looking like she had seen a ghost for a second before seemingly deflating.
“He said ‘maybe’, and it’s gonna take a long time.”
“Bwa, how hard can it be? He already has two engines, just make another one. Oh could you borrow the one from the quad bike… maybe the chainsaw?!” Jacky questioned excitedly, looking at him like a kid begging for a puppy, hoping for a yes.
“We kinda need those two…” Tom objected, not sure what else to say.
“For what? Jarix can haul things around… Okay, maybe the chain saw, but still the quad bike has an engine.”
“You want me to strap fifty horsepower to your back? From a single-cylinder petrol engine that vibrates like a… vibrates a lot?”
“It doesn’t have more power than fifty horses, does it?” Jacky questioned in disbelief. It was rare to have her not believe something. This sounded more like someone figuring out they had a whole other tub of ice cream though.
“That sounds rather improbable,” Linkosta added in, getting the notebook out.
“I think you mean incredible!” Tink interjected with childlike glee.
“It’s an old unit of measurement. You can get the history lesson later. It’s a lot, okay? You might have like two or something,” He went pointing to Jacky “I don’t actually have a clue, but possibly”
“Jackalope Furlong, stronger than a horse,” Jacky went, reaching levels of cockiness that might actually be unhealthy.
“No pie brain, he just said it was an old measurement. That means it doesn't mean anything… I think,” Sapphire interjected, seemingly growing unsure of herself half way.
“Yeah, I think a horse has like twelve horsepower. It’s weird. You might have two. The quad bike has fifty.”
“But I’m faster than the quad bike?” Jacky questioned, clearly finding that rather had to believe.
“Look, I don’t understand aerodynamics. I know some small light aircraft have, like, less than twenty, so to give you fifty…”
“Would make me the fastest thing to ever fly!”
“Or the deadest. We need something smaller, perhaps the chainsaw isn’t the worst idea, but we need that thing.”
“Fine… I’m gonna hold you to that though. It can be done, and it will be done.”
“I’m sure you will,” Tom retorted with a nervous smile as he shook his head. ‘ay ay ay’
“What about Jarix?” Zarko questioned, sounding thoughtful.
“Uhm… Bigger maybe?” Tom replied, noticing Tink was already doing sketches for what looked distinctly like a top-down view of Jacky.
“How does the engine push? Like with an invisible hand or...?” the inventor questioned as he gestured to the sketch.
“Right okay, we need to get some work done, and this isn't helping. Tell you what, tomorrow afternoon, after the kids are done in the library, we’ll hold a little lecture on powered flight, so you can all laugh at how little I know about flying. Everybody happy?”
“On one condition,” Jacky replied, Tom looking to the cocky dragonette with a raised eyebrow. “Do you have a movie about it?”
“Duh,” Tom retorted with a grin, Ray shifting uncomfortably on his back. Tom turned his head to try and look at her. “You comfy back there?”
“Sorry... couldn’t find the right time to get off.”
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The rumors of what was going down had spread quickly, to the point that they had to abandon the library idea. Mainly on account of Zarko telling Jarix that Tom might have an idea for how to strap a big engine to him to make him faster.
So the blackboard had, with quite a bit of effort, been moved down to the grand hall, everyone sitting expectantly. Including most of the kids because, well, there wasn’t much else going on right now and the people supposed to watch them were in the audience, so why not? They might learn something.
“Right, so first off the basic principle of an engine, since you all know how wings work and I'¨m a bit lacking on the subject” Tom opened, picking up the chalk.
That got him a few chuckles from the audience before they all shut up. To Saph’s relief, he was definitely going with the beginner’s version today, and it was actually a rather interesting subject for once. In fact everything was interesting right now for some reason. Yesterday she had been allowed to see the gods through Linkostas telescope, they had new huntresses and today was how to make machines fly. So much better than math and doing dishes. Shit, she had to do those tomorrow... 'goddammit. Fuck it planes here we go.'
The idea that all you needed to do to make something like this possible was to turn an axle with enough force was odd, to say the least, but the whole piston idea seemed ingenious. Even Jacky was paying full attention. Linkosta and Tink were of course quick with questions, Tom bringing out the chainsaw to help explain a few things.
The propeller was also a fun one. It made sense; it was pretty much just a much better version of a reverse windmill. His explanations of a wing profile left them all a little baffled as to why it needed to be that shape. Their wings certainly weren’t, and Tom couldn’t come up with a good explanation either beyond “planes don’t flap their wings” and "I think it's more efficient."
“Right, so you kinda get what’s going on now. Anyone want to see what happens when things don’t go according to plan?” Tom questioned, looking as much to the kids who seemingly got the cue getting very excited.
“Fuck yeah,” Jacky replied. “Let’s see some crashes!”
“Is anyone gonna die?” Fengi questioned cautiously.
“Not today, no. Some might get hurt, but mainly because they were idiots.”
“What happens next?” Ray looked nervously to Sapphire.
“Movie time. You are gonna love it,” Saph replied. “It’s like watching a memory.” Ray seemed to go from worried to confused as she looked back to Tom, who had started faffing around with the projector. Apuma and Linkosta moved the blackboard out of the way, and Tom’s cape was brought out and hung up on the far wall.