1899- Journey to Mars

Billy nodded. “Come on, let’s get to the bridge.”

Ekka turned to Dakota. “You did well, son.”

Dakota beamed, then followed his parents upward.

[ 48 ]

“We’ve got full power,” Edgar Burroughs called from the Engine Room.

Billy pulled the yoke upwards and the Argent lifted up from the hangar floor. He spun her about to face the massive doors they had entered while captive of the Kraken.

“You know how to shoot now?” Billy asked Carter.

“Yeah. Let me show you.”

A barrage of fire leapt from the Argent and blasted a large hole in the hangar door. A dozen corts and half a hundred morts flew past them and into the ether.

After another barrage, this time into the large winches that held the doors closed, both doors flopped opened.

Billy tilted the yoke forward the Argent left the Chinaman’s space station, Ozymandius.

“Ruler of the Ten Hells,” John Carter said. “If I was going to call myself something fancy, I think I’d pick something a little more colorful.”

“For instance?” Billy asked.

“Maybe...Warlord.”

Billy pulled back on the yoke when another ship hove into view.

“The Kraken,” Carter said.

“Guthrie,” Billy replied.

[ 49 ]

Guthrie entered the bridge from the accessway to the outer compartment, the same way he had exited when he went to face the Titan.

“I have scuttled the Kraken,” he said. “We have approximately one thousand two hundred singleships closing on our location. I can only surmise that there is a second space station.”

Billy spun the Argent slowly about. The space station was a complete wreck. One singleship flew from its hulk and darted away.

“I’d say there goes Fu Manchu,” John Carter said.

Billy nodded.

The Argent spun letting the crew take in a view of the bulk of the Earth. From over the horizon came what appeared to be a swarm of wasps.

“I don’t care how many stations or ships they’ve got,” Billy replied. “We’re getting out of here. Now!”

With the Argent secure and yet with the singleships of the corts hot on their tail, Billy Gostman set a course for the distant pinprick of rust red.

“Mr. Burroughs,” he called into the speaking tube.

“Aye. Here.”

“I need the transmogrifier at full.”

“Aye, Captain,” Eddie replied.