Ganymede (The Clockwork Century 3)

“All right, kid,” he said, and he worked his foot to change their depth until everything—including the oscillating scope—was withdrawn back under the waves. “What’s going on up there? Talk to me, Huey. ”

“Dirigible, incoming. Coming down fast, hard, and on fire,” he announced.

“Coming down on top of us?”

“Close enough as makes no difference!”

Deaderick stiffened in alarm. “What about Rucker and Wally?”

“Last I saw, they pulled a hard reverse and they’re getting out of the way. I don’t think they’ll be cut off from us, but we might have to lose them for a few minutes. ”

A splashing crash shook the liquid volume of the canal, throwing Ganymede to the right and shoving it upward. The top of the window briefly breached the surface again, before diving back below in a sudden sinking that Cly struggled to control.

“Goddamn!” Deaderick Early cursed, pointing out the window where the wreckage of something huge was coming down in pieces, still burning and bubbling, and giving the whole canal the brilliant flickering glow of a fishbowl in front of a candle.

“Troost?”

“Rev it up and gun it, sir. That’s my advice!”

“I like the way you think,” Cly said gruffly, and pushed hard on the lever that powered the propulsion screws. “I just wish we could see where the damn thing above us was crashing, exactly. ”

The engineer clutched the sides of his console as Ganymede surged and wobbled forward, quivering in its path. Eventually Fang got a handle on the new speed and could keep it steady once more.

Troost was not quite shrill when he barked a sudden complaint, “It’s right on top of us!”

“Settle down, Kirby. We’re almost past it, I think. ”

Something huge squashed down on top of Ganymede’s hull. The resulting ruckus threw Deaderick to the floor, cast Troost out of his seat and sent him careening into the wall, and elicited a pained shout from the bays where the charges were being prepared and loaded.

Houjin fell off his seat and spun around, holding the scope for support, then clamored back into position.

“Huey, get a grip on something! Hang on!”

“Sir, we need to see outside!” he shouted, and turned the crank to raise it. “I can help, if I can see!”

Cly’s knuckles were white and going numb from his death grip on the levers, but he hadn’t lost his seat yet. “Everyone all right?” he cried. “Everyone?” he said again when no one responded fast enough.

“I’ll live,” Troost groused as he crawled back over to his chair. Cly gave him a quick look and saw no blood, and no broken bones.

Houjin announced, “I’m fine, sir—and I can see it. Part of it hit us. ”

“Are we high enough for you to get that scope out of the water? How can you see a damn thing?”

“No, sir, it’s underwater, but I can see the hull of something big—it landed halfway on us, and halfway on the canal’s edge. We scooted out from under it. We’re fine. Just get us up and moving. ”

“I’ll take you at your word, kid. ”

“I’m not saying there isn’t more debris, because there is. ”

“I’ll take that under advisement. Hey, ladies? You all right in there? I heard a scream?”

Josephine replied, “We’ll be fine, I’m sure—you just get us to the Gulf. ”

Cly didn’t like the sound of that. Deaderick didn’t either, but Cly barked, “Early, you know how to keep this in a straight line, for a few minutes?”

“I can if I have to. I think—?”

“Get over here and take my seat,” he said. As Deaderick approached, Cly cut the thrust to the screws and Ganymede’s progress slowed to the proverbial crawl. “Hold her steady, will you? We’ll give your men up top a chance to catch up. ”