Chapter 3: Th Roasted Quail
Captain’s Report, WEV Spirit, July Seven, 290. Approximate location, 075/344
0600: Daylight watch relieves morning watch. Duty officer, Ensign McGraw, wakes crew, breakfast served as per usual.
0700: Bridge crew in place, first attempt to start engine fails. Lead mechanic, Ensign Love, initiates vaporized ethanol priming, second attempt conducted approximately 0705, engine starts with rough idle, smooths out after reaching operating temp.
0720: Spirit continues primary mission: mapping mountainous area to the extreme south, southwest of known region/ searching for crossing of the Thousand River, with refueler WEV Jay in position behind.
0945: Spirit descends sharply out of mountains, into wide valley. Encountered high accumulations of dust/ash on road. Roadway not visible, requiring crew to confirm the vessie is still on course by stopping and digging down to the asphalt every mile. Progress severely hampered.
1200: Lunch served, as per norm.
1330: Jay reports low tire pressure on right rear tire. Spirit holds position while tire is re-inflated.
1445: Spirit and Jay resume.
1545: Spirit rolls onto unsupported ground, front tires fall into hidden ravine, vessie rendered immobile.
1600: Rain clouds observed in distance, estimated rainfall likely in nearby mountains.
1620: Jay secures chain to Spirit, attempts to pull the vessie out of the ravine. Recovery severely hampered due to loose dust’s effect on Jay’s traction.
1650: Downpour in nearby mountains causes dry creek in the ravine to flow. Flash flooding and dangerous erosion observed. Spirit further slips into ravine, front half unsupported.
1700: Further erosion observed, Spirit slips deeper into ravine, resting just in front of rear wheels. Water level in creek increases by approximately 100%. Non-essential personnel ordered to egress vessies. Jay unable to un-hook chain due to tension from holding Spirit in place.
1705: May-day call made to Explorer’s Hq via shortwave communication.
1710: May-day acknowledged by Explorer’s Hq via shortwave radio, all personnel ordered to egress Spirit and rendezvous with personnel egressed from Jay.
1720: Spirit and Jay are washed into ravine and pulled out of sight by rushing water.
1750: Personnel from both vessies rendezvous and proceed on foot away from ravine. Three explorer’s, Ensign Samuel Love, Petty Officer Alfred Heinz, and Explorer First Class Daniel Jacobson, unaccounted for and presumed lost. Course is set for nearby ancient and abandoned vessie in hopes of avoiding predators.
1800: No dinner served.
Every train car in Cauls looked different and the Silver Kangaroo stood out as one of the oldest still in service. The car sported a solid silver paint job, save its name and a stylized kangaroo rat emblazoned on the nose. Cauls' guardsmen served as both police and transit workers and this cop’s age matched the train’s. He still wore his long grey winter whiskers and while he kept his uniform neat and clean, his belly stuck out more than most cops. He shouted “All aboard!” and depressed the line brake lever. The Silver Kangaroo showed how it got its name as the whole car leaped into the air, lightly bouncing before leaping into the air again, over and over, a little more smoothly every time, until the ride smoothed out, just in time for the first stop.
“Does every car provide such an...exciting ride, Aunt Beth?” A few drops of sweat could be seen on Will’s boyish forehead and he looked a little anxious, a comical expression on such a tall young man.
She grinned at him. “No, only the really fun ones. There aren’t any springs on the brake on this car, so every jolt in the line comes through, but for someone who’s only ever seen the palace and the silos, there’s no better way to get the lay of the land.” Her comment rang true. As the cart slowly rose, Will could see the hills that encircled Cauls as they lead up to the skylight-lined roof of the cavernous building. With another lurch, away from another station, the rooftops of the buildings around them became visible. “Can you see what all those beautiful homes up on Water Hill are made of?”
Will looked, but couldn’t tell any distinct similarity, other than all of them being roughly the same size. “Are they some sort of plastic boxes?”
“No, at the heart of every one of those fancy homes, there’s a giant’s chair, where they used to sit and watch the spectacle down here on the floor.”
“Oh, I see it now, half of them have the backs exposed, and you can see, oh!” The Kangaroo hopped onto the platform at the Valentina Street station, knocking Will off his seat. He picked himself up. “You can see the brackets that held the seat on some.”
The princess better handled the hopping of a passenger car. “That’s right. Look here, there are only three straight roads in downtown Cauls, and we’re sitting over two of them right now.” Will looked out in every direction at the wide boulevards stretching to the walls around Caul’s main floor. He had been too busy looking at the houses and shops to notice the tangle of the cross streets until Elizabeth pointed it out. “Before the fire, the city was much more orderly, with a grid of streets, and wide diagonals cutting across town. Your great-grandfather was too busy making sure no one starved or invaded or revolted to lay out an intricate street plan in the aftermath of the pretender’s reign. The only reason these scant streets are straight is that he ordered buildings in their path removed in order to build fire blocks throughout the town.”
The first several blocks they passed were all government and institutional buildings, Will named them off. "There's the Guard headquarters, the King’s School for Arms, and the charity house."
"The Royal Order of the Charitable," Aunt Beth clarified. While the streets were a tangle of curves and dead ends, the buildings were well built, orderly and a few even aspired to beauty. "But here, as we pull out of the North Crossroad Station, is a more residential area."
"And there are shops too." Will pointed down at a cobbler's workshop, then a carpenter's store. "And a corner store."
Aunt Beth nodded. "Yes, but most of the buildings here are domiciles. They are not like the farms near Pound, here homes are made from all sorts of materials: cardboard and canvas, wood and brick, aluminum and mud, and a dozen other media, but they are all homes."
Will looked out the window of the train as all manner of building stretched across the town, with wide avenues and blind alleys and little footpaths running to and fro. Electric lines and water pipes leaped over the sewage ditches and through the paths, twisting around some buildings, going over or under, or even through others.
“They call this neighborhood Crispy. A bit of gallows humor. They say the fire burned the hottest here.” Her face showed she didn’t find the same humor that many in the city did. “A nasty joke.”
“How was the pretender related to us? They taught us about the coup and the fire, but it was always hard for me to realize that those people were my relatives.” Everyone knew that Will’s family, the Farmers of Pound, were related to the king. However, they rarely acted like royalty, and the people that lived and worked in the farms almost never treated them like royalty.
The princess thought a moment. “Let’s see, you’re Isaac the First’s great-grandson, and Raymond the pretender was his uncle, so that makes him your great, great…great uncle? Yes, that’s right, he would be my great great uncle, so he would be your great great great uncle. And did they teach you that most of the people who died in the fire were not burned? It’s true, Michael, the King Father, ordered the gates closed to smother the fires before they spread. But thousands were still inside. The fire sucked up all the air, and all those people suffocated. Not a burn on them, not even singed clothing, simply strangled by a lack of air. Many, including his son, the future King Isaac, were furious with Michael. But he died in the battle to overthrow the pretender, and so the people loved him. Look there, to the northwest, you can see Hero’s park and his statue chief amongst the monuments.”
Will looked toward where Water Hill met Government Hill, then down. In the distance, an aluminum effigy of one of his forefathers stood defiantly gazing over the city. “All this happened a hundred years ago?”
“Ninety actually, but in most ways, the wounds the pretender left are as healed as they will ever be.” She gestured across the city. “Just look at this marvelous town.” The neighborhoods were giving way to markets as they headed south, selling every ware you could think of. Farmers, hunters, scavengers, and even manufacturers would sell their goods to the merchants, who would bring them into the city proper to sell at their shops or use in their products. Aunt Beth beamed at Cauls' largest shopping area. "In South Market, you can buy all sorts of foods and almost anything the giants ever made small enough for a man to carry."
Aunt Beth’s gaze passed to the east. “Look, there’s the backbone of Cauls.” She sat comfortably on the bouncing car, casually pointing. Will could not stay so casual. Clutching his seat for dear life, he glanced back. Contorting his lanky frame, he saw huge machines lurking along the entrance to the city’s main floor. A wisp of smoke hung amongst them, and he could tell that a good portion of the city's din came from that direction. “That’s the Works, see, the tall machine is a drill press, it puts perfect holes straight through anything, even steel. There, see all those sparks, they’re from the chop saw, it cuts through any metal. And there are welding machines and torches, grinders, sanders, all sorts of tools. That’s what sets Cauls apart. No other city has so much heavy industry.” A sense of pride sprang from the princess, almost as if she put those machines there and worked them, making the goods Whybarr needed.
A sudden wind blew Elizabeth’s grey-gold hair, tangling her curls around themselves. To the south, beyond the markets, Will could barely make out a huge door opening and the second of two vessies pulling into their bays. “Is it true that every giant had a vessie?”
“Cars.” Elizabeth turned to look, “they called them cars, and yes; nearly every family had at least one or two, some many more. And there were all manner of specialty cars; farmers kept many different kinds, one for plowing and one for reaping, another for hauling their crops to market. There were special ones for going to see the doctor and for children going to school. There were cars for going to war and even a little electric one for a sport called golf. There you can see a battle vessie and a transport.” The vessie on the right could barely be seen behind the smoke and skyline of Cauls' south side, but the one on the left loomed up over the city, guns protruding from the top, antennas, and structures poking up all over. “The smaller one is some merchant, offloading goods from her travels and loading up supplies for the next voyage, but next to it is His Majesty’s Queen Bee. One hundred fifty guns and two thousand men, half of them marines. It’s a force to be reckoned with.”
Will started to wish they had walked, the bouncing of the Silver Kangaroo did not agree with his stomach. “Do the explorers have one like that?”
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“They have two street class battle vessies, a refueler, and two transports. They once kept more, but exploring can be hard on vessies. Most of the battle vessies' guns were removed and retained by the navy. Explorers aren’t meant to fight wars, they say, but see we’re nearly to the Bay Station and I still owe you an answer.” Elizabeth showed the faintest hint of a smile on her lips.
Will stared at his shoes, intently focused on keeping his breakfast in his stomach. “What’s that?”
“In case one brakes….That’s why there are two lines in the train system we’re riding on, so that if one brakes, we won’t go plunging to the ground.” The words struck a chord of terror in Will, but as he began to contemplate the safety of mass transit in Cauls, the conductor released the line brake and gently pulled up to the platform at the Bay Station.
“Last stop, everyone off, please!!” Will happily obliged. Instead of heading down to street level, they climbed stairs up and up to a platform above the vessie bays. They walked along the platform, with offices, shops, and pubs lining either side until they came to a large metal box, made from a giant’s orange tool chest. Above the cut-out door, a sign read “Royal Order of Explores. Hq.”
Elizabeth led Will inside a high-ceilinged lobby, with polished wood floors and comfortable leather chairs. Windows lined the far wall of the explorer’s offices and allowed a view down onto the vessies. “Elizabeth, how are you?” A man roughly her age approached them from an office doorway off the lobby. He stood stocky but short, with mouse brown hair. He wore a suit of old leather, and his eyes darted to Aunt Beth with an anxious look “and who have you brought with you?”
She bowed ever so slightly and waved her hand at Will, “Luke, this is William Farmer, a student at the university and my nephew. Willie, this is Luke Edwards, President of the Royal Order of Explorers and a longtime friend to me and the library.”
“It’s nice to meet you, William. I trust your Aunt has given you the grand tour of Cauls.” They shook hands as Luke gave Elizabeth a sly grin.
Will nodded, “It is a fascinating city, Mr. Edwards.” Both Elizabeth and Luke turned toward a set of couches near a window, Will following close behind.
Elizabeth sat nearest the window. “How have you been, Luke?”
“I’m good. I’ve been keeping an eye on that radio issue we talked about. It seems to be getting worse. I’m afraid it may affect the King’s fleet on its current patrol.” His voice flowed, deep and soothing, but it sounded to Will like a hidden urgency distorted his tone. The inflection did not match the words.
Elizabeth’s reply sounded cool by comparison, “I’ll have our radio experts look into it. Perhaps the giants CB’s are finally wearing out.”
“I would appreciate their attention to it, our uhm, well…you know the importance of it.” Luke tripped so violently over his words he nearly tripped over an ottoman as well. “Please sit, William, I’ll fetch a picture of water.”
Will sat and looked out the window. “What was that all about?”
She patted his tweed-covered knee as if he were still eight years old. “When I lost Christopher, the radios were down. Some sort of interference. Luke wanted to make a point about the importance of radios just now, then halfway through he remembered who he was talking to. Do you remember your Uncle Christopher?” She spoke with an unwavering tone, but moved the conversation on a little more quickly than normal.
“I do, I always liked seeing him. He was one of my favorites.” Will couldn’t remember much about his uncle, just that he was an explorer, that he spent most of the time away, and that his disappearance, while heartbreaking to most of the adults in the family, surprised no one.
She looked him dead in the face, “Is Willie, he is one of your favorites; he’s still out there today.” Will got a cold chill and wanted to know more, but Luke returned with a tray, three mugs, and a steaming pot.
Luke beamed, “A pot of the finest mountain tea, brought back by Captain Maddox from his last voyage south.” Luke sat and filled the mugs. “So, what brings you to our offices today, Elizabeth?” Through the window, Will could see the open bay doors and out into the naval yard. It stopped raining while they sat there, but water still dripped off the roof of Cauls.
“Willie here wants to learn about airplanes.” She took a glass and leaned back in her chair.
Will cleared his throat, it seemed odd the way she put it. “That’s right, my physics professor, Professor Kincaid, he says that flight is a myth, that man cannot fly. Aunt Beth says you have seen otherwise.”
Luke looked around and leaned in. “I’ve never seen a man fly, no explorer has, but I’ve seen airplanes by the thousand. The giants built roads solely for airplanes so that they would have room to leap up into the sky and come sliding back down. They called them airports, and they’re marked on…well sometimes you can find them using a map.” He paused and took a drink. “Occasionally, you’ll still see a sign pointing the way to one.” He pulled a pad and pen from a drawer inside the long drink table in front of them. “They look like this, and were originally blue and white, though all except the rare exception have faded to a point you can only make them out if you look closely.” He drew a funny little cross, with both ends of the crossbar sloping down and out turned feet at the bottom of the upright. Will could not see how that could symbolize an airplane.
He put the pen and pad down on the table. “At these airports, you can find all sorts of things, all sorts of vessies, and parts for them. Wires and pipes running through the ground, and occasionally some oil that hasn’t gone bad. And of course, airplanes lined up. There are all shapes and sizes, thousands of them spread all across the land. Flight is no myth, but there is some secret to it. The giants knew it, and we don’t.” He leaned back on the couch and seemed to measure Will with his eyes.
Will averted his eyes, then looked back. “So, you don’t know how they flew, but it took oil and a lot of space?”
Luke paused a moment. “That’s right, a long, straight, level road. Oil, by the drum, and fuel too. Something similar to gasoline. It has many of the same markings they put on gasoline tanks. We’ve found tanks of it still full, but it’s all gone bad now. It has all sorts of sludge floating in it and smells like someone burnt something sweet. Flying took a lot of fuel. The storage tanks are large beyond your wildest dreams. As big as the lake between here and Pound, filled with fuel.” He took another sip.
So, why are so many professors convinced the giants didn’t fly?” Silence hung in the air a moment, as Luke looked at Elizabeth. She stared out the window, not completely paying attention, but the silence brought her back.
“Ah...Well, some, most in fact, genuinely believe that giants never flew. Others know they did, but believe that the physics of our world shifted at The Change. Still others see the evidence that giants flew, but cannot figure out how, so they insist the evidence must be flawed. They make arguments concerning falsifiability and the curse of empirical proofs, though I’m not sure they understand their own points.” She looked back at Luke, then out the window again.
Luke shifted in his seat, putting all his focus on Will “But listen, if you intend to try to learn the secrets of flight, learn this first. Flight is dangerous. It must be, and I can tell you, the giants didn’t come by those secrets easy. Every one of those airports has a vessie, twice the size of any you’ve ever seen, just for putting out fires. Some have a whole fleet of transports, only meant to carry around water to extinguish wrecked airplanes. Explorers have even found monuments erected to the giants that lost their lives trying to fly. It must have cost them many, many brave people. Exploring is dangerous work, and you never even leave the ground. Flying would be much more dangerous. And if you ever figured it out, every scientist in the university would want you and your invention swept away. You need good, powerful friends to make such an ambitious invention work out well for you.” Will hadn't even mentioned wanting to fly, only expressed curiosity as to if it was a myth. Did Luke know something Will didn't?
Aunt Beth had nodded along as Luke spoke, but suddenly leaned forward. “Have you heard from Meriam yet, Luke?” She paused, and so did he, looking a bit lost. “I’m so sorry, please excuse the interruption, but I must be leaving soon for lunch and I would like to hear any news from him before I go.”
“Ah well, that’s no problem. I haven’t, not since the last time we spoke, but I expect to hear from him soon, provided the radio issue doesn’t cause us any headaches. His last message seemed to indicate he might be back soon.” The puzzled look on Luke's face didn't faze Aunt Beth.
“Well, let me know the minute you hear from him. I think Willie and I will go down to the Roasted Quail to eat. Would you care to join us, Luke?”
“No, I’m afraid I took an early lunch, met with some travelers, merchants, actually, from Gemesea. They are an excellent source of information for explorers.” His broad smile reminded Will of a drawing he’d seen in his school lessons.
“I can’t wait to hear all about it.” Elizabeth turned to Will. “Well Willie, it’s time I left. Won’t you walk me down to the train?” She smiled pleasantly, and Will chalked up the odd shifts in the conversation to a touch of grief coming back, all these years later. He stood and turned with her toward the door.
“I’ll walk you to it Auntie, but I don’t think I’ll be climbing back on that thing.” She laughed out loud and both he and Luke joined in.
“Fine, fine, we’ll walk to lunch, you scaredy-mouse. Thank you for letting us bother you for a minute, Luke.” They paused at the door.
“No bother at all, glad to share a few of the things I’ve seen in this wide world.” He turned to Will. “Nice to meet you; drop by anytime, it’s good to see a younger face around here.” The two shook hands, and Luke and Aunt Beth bowed to each other.
Will and Elizabeth headed back down the lane, down several stairs, and returned to the floor of Cauls. She led him toward Water Hill, stopping here and there to look over the produce being sold in the markets. Most fresh foods still grew unripe on the vine, but the vendors discounted their dried fruit, trying to exhaust their stock before the fresh fruit came in. Aunt Beth managed to get a gram of dried apple for half its regular price, plus a healthy sample for her and Will.
They sat down in a nice, upscale café at the base of Water Hill. “Have you ever tried dried beefy, Willie?” Aunt Beth looked over a menu at him, excited about the idea of introducing him to something new. People knew the Roasted Quail for its namesake dish, but both Will and Elizabeth were well familiar with roasted quail.
Will, in fact, ate dried beefy regularly at the farm near Pound, and he even tried fresh beef two or three times. Hunters would often stop in Pound on their way to Caul, and from time to time, they would have beef with them. “I tried it once; I’d actually like to try some fish. We never get any fish in Pound. How does it taste?”
Elizabeth thought over her response. “Well, it’s fishy.” She smiled and they both laughed. “It’s a very strong flavor, some people greatly dislike it. I think all they have here is smoked, so it will have the wood’s flavor added, which usually improves the taste.” She looked down at the pulp paper sheet with its handwritten items. “Here, smoked bass from the lakes of Rawlledge. That should be good.” The waiter came with a pitcher of water and Elizabeth ordered a bottle of pear wine for them to share.
“Rawlledge has the greatest giant library I’ve ever seen, we often get books from them to transcribe.” She sipped a little water and they discussed the Rawlledge library, then as the wine came, she asked Will about pears and if he ever saw a pear tree.
"I worked one summer on the cherry tree south of Pound, but I've never even seen a pear before, let alone the tree they come from." He sipped the wine as their meals arrived.
They chatted on, the talk turning to how different members of their family were doing. Soon, Aunt Beth wiped her mouth after finishing her dried beefy. “Have you heard from your cousin Gladys?”
Will squirmed a little in his seat, then shoved a bite of fish in his mouth. This would be tricky. After he swallowed the mouthful of bass, he responded, “I have, she was in high spirits.”
Elizabeth looked over at him. “That’s good; I guess her contraption is coming along well then?”
“I didn’t really ask, but I’m sure that whatever she’s working on now is going well.” Will didn’t like where she steered the conversation. His Aunt puzzled things out a little too well.
“Will, you know she would be in deep trouble if the guard caught her inside Cauls' walls, right? I mean, after what happened last time, it’s probably best she stay outside the city, don’t you think?” Will nodded, wide-eyed. “Good. Now, I’m afraid I truly must go. Thank you for joining me, you made it a lovely lunch. I’ll see you tomorrow, Willie.” With that, Elizabeth gracefully stood, leaned down to kiss him on the forehead, left a handful of beads on the table, and went on her way.