1899- Journey to Mars

The ship continued to crumble under the onslaught of the ripping, tearing tentacles, and more orange-haired men dropped from the belly of the black ship. Bixie touched Ian’s arm and pointed at the fanged, violet-eyed enemies all around them, “You be needin’ tah take off dem heads. That be

dah weakness in ‘em.”

Ian didn’t hesitate and attacked with his sword, decapitating one after another. They fell to the deck and did not move. Bixie pulled herself along the slanting deck, stopping once to dry heave as the throbbing sound poisoned the air, then continuing until she was close to John Carter. “Captain, shoot dah eyes of dah sea monster!”

John braced himself, threw up, then lined both Tiger Pistols on one large circular glass window of the black ship and fired as fast as he could pull the triggers. The glass spiderwebbed, then the cracks became finer and stretched all the way to the edge as Carter continued to fire. Then the glass collapsed and they could see inside. A figure sat in a tall chair. It wore what looked like a diving suit, but not a bulky one, and with a smaller helmet. The figure’s head turned toward them and John saw that it was fitted with a glass face cover, and a man’s face peered at them.

John fired his last two pulses at the figure, but immediately two orange-haired creatures jumped in front to take the blasts. Both fell backwards to the floor, then slowly rose to stand again. Smoking holes the size of teacups showed through both of them.

The black ship began to glow along its full length with rolling waves of various reds, from blood to pink and back again. The figure in the diving suit raised a hand to a large lever and pulled it. The tentacles moved in unison toward Avi. They extended and John knew neither he nor Ian could get there in time. Bixie screamed, “Avi!”

Avi readied the boat-hook for a throw into the center of the tentacles, knowing it would be his last effort. The long, fluked tentacle went ahead of the others and rose in front of him, hovering like a cobra spreading its hood before attack.

[ 19 ]

The Argent crossed the lower tip of India and descended below the clouds as it sped through the sky and crossed over Ceylon at just under eighteen hundred miles per hour. In the distance they could make out the city of Colombo, where the prison waited with Avi.

Guthrie noticed something below that was outside the city and in the jungle. He zoomed his eyes to see what it was. A huge, cylindrical ship was attacking a steam airship, a frigate, Guthrie noted, and several of the frigate crew were on the listing deck, fighting what looked like tentacles emanating from the black and red pulsing ship. He magnified the situation below and realized what he saw. “Billy, Avanish Rathmandu Joseph is in peril. He is on the ship below us, under attack from a much larger vessel.”

Billy looked down, grabbed a nearby telescope to view what was happening, then tossed it aside and said, “Hang on to something!” He accelerated and put the Argent in a dive so steep and fast it reminded Ekka of a peregrine falcon flashing downward after a rabbit.

[ 20 ]

Avi cocked the boat-hook for the throw, and then a shadow blinked overhead and a blast of wind knocked him to the ground. He looked up and saw that most of the tentacles of the black ship were severed and the stumps writhed furiously as they withdrew into the dark maw of the vessel. Only the two long, fluke-tipped arms escaped damage, and one of them still held the Wraith.

At the same moment, John Carter caught a glimpse of something saucer-like and then he was downed by a blast of wind. He heard a familiar sound when the huge thing passed, like that of a bullet passing close to the ear: thupp.

He saw the object again, already impossibly far in the distance making a hard arc in the sky to come back, and he stood once more and this time held to the rail. “Come to me, all of you! We will stand together against whatever comes!”

The other three joined him and they watched the black ship glow as red as a ruby in the sunlight and turn toward the fast approaching vessel. The vibrating air grew worse, and it was all the four of them could do to stand upright and not pass out from nausea.

The saucer-like ship closed toward them so fast it didn’t seem possible, but the ship that glowed red did not back off, in fact it eased toward the approaching enemy.

The Wraith continued to list and was held aloft by the single tentacle, but it was done. As soon as the tentacle released its grip, they would fall to Earth some hundred feet below. No ropes longer than twenty feet were left on the frigate, and John knew the four of them would fall with the ship.

The red ship suddenly shot out a huge, black, billowing cloud that seemed to continue to grow and spread as it flew toward the saucer-shaped ship. Then the glowing red ship’s hull returned to an oily black. It reversed direction and rocketed away, releasing the Wraith as it departed.

The four people held to the rail as the mangled frigate fell from the sky and they saw an impossible thing as the large saucer-shaped ship suddenly appeared under them and caught the Wraith on its upper hull. It hovered motionless in the air. John read large black letters embossed on the red-bronze colored surface of the ship that spelled ARGENT. Ian continued to hold his claymore and said, “Whatever it is, I’m happy not to be tossin’ me breakfast because of the black ship.”

A hatch opened on the Argent. It had been so well fitted that John wasn’t able to see the seams. A head appeared, and Avi shouted, “Billy!”

“Ye know this fella, do ye, laddy?”

“He is my great friend from Texas, in the United States of America. Billy Gostman.”

Billy climbed out of the hatch and said, “You folks might want to come inside. I believe that black rascal might try coming back around for you.”

Ian looked at Bixie and said, “What’s yer read on this one, lass.”

Bixie put her hand on his forearm and said, “Dey are good. We be safe wit dem...for now.” She went to the burlap sack tied to the gunwale and worked the slipknot to retrieve it, then tossed it over her shoulder and rejoined Ian and the others.

[ 21 ]

Everyone made introductions as they sat in the great room of the Argent. John said, “Thanks for the rescue. If you can set us down somewhere safer, the four of us will be out of your hair.”

Billy said, “We can do that for you three, but we came to take Avi with us.”

Something changed in John, and in Ian. It was subtle, but Billy, Pat, and Ekka recognized it: These two were dangerous men and they had just pushed their readiness level for violence to the edge, like shootists right before the draw. John said, “We came here for Avi. The Maharaja sent us. Avi is important to India. He has information that’s urgently needed. He will have to go with us.” Ian tickled his fingers on the hilt of the claymore.