1899- Journey to Mars

“Eddie,” Pat said. “Wake up.”

“Yes, my darling,” Edgar said, still obviously asleep and talking through a dream.

Pat kicked his bunk and Edgar’s eyes flew open.

“What? What?”

“We have to get busy. There’s about to be a big battle up above. Billy sent me back to help you get this ship running. It’ll be needed.”

“Battle? What battle?”

“All those morts and corts are coming. If we don’t do something, it’s gonna be like Travis and Crockett trying to hold back five thousand Mexicans at the Alamo.”

“Dejah?” Edgar asked.

“I expect she’ll be leading the charge. I expect Carter and Ian are gonna be by her side, though. What needs to be done?”

“Cripes!” Edgar Burroughs rubbed the sleep from his eyes, stood abruptly and swayed on his feet. Pat put out his hand to steady him.

“Whoa there. Just whoa. Tell me what needs to get done.”

“Big welding job. The keel is cracked. We could maybe move the ship about slowly, since I did get the transmog working, but we can’t do anything fancy, and we sure as hell can’t fly ourselves off this planet.”

“That doesn’t sound good. How long to effect repairs?”

“Well, we can’t generate power to the welding rig by hooking it to the transmog. It’ll fry the welder.”

Pat took his hat off, examined it, dusted it off by slapping his side with it and scratched his head. “What options are there?”

“I’m glad you’re here. It takes two of us. One to weld, and the other to...”

“What? The other to what?”

Edgar paused for a long moment. “Say,” he said, “you wouldn’t shoot a fellow for giving you bad news, now would you?”

“Maybe not. What’s the news?”

“Well, you remember that bicycle contraption of Tesla’s that Dakota uses to pump up Guthrie’s power?”

“Yep.”

Edgar didn’t say another word.

“Oh hell,” Pat said. “I think I know what you want me to do.”

[ 85 ]

“Are you two warriors ready to fly?” Tardos Mors asked.

“I can fly a spaceship from the Moon back to Earth and another one from Earth to Mars,” Billy said, “and you’re telling me that Avi will be better at flying than I am? I don’t see how you figure.”

“The control surfaces,” Tardos said. “They respond to his mind better than your own.”

“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Avi shrugged from the front saddle.