Ekka banked hard and three glowing rockets shot past their bow. She dropped the nose in a dive. A rocket hit the Argent under the left edge of the ship and flipped it upside down. The ship fell, slowly flipping over and over, leaving a black plume of smoke shaped like a loose coil of black hair.
[ 69 ]
Ekka fought the controls as people behind her yelled and rolled from the floor across the walls and ceiling and back down to the floor as the ship spun. Billy held tight to the second command seat, and Bixie held to the seat and Dakota. As the ground spun closer to them, Ekka stabilized the ship. A hundred feet above the red soil, she leveled the craft and the Argent settled to the ground. They all disembarked the ship in suits and surveyed the damage. A fire-blackened hole the size of a fist was a foot in from the edge of the Argent. Eddie said, “It missed the vitals, but we will lose oxygen until we repair it.”
Pat said, “This just keeps going from bad to worse. We got company.”
Billy looked where Pat pointed and saw a dozen armed people riding toward them on white horses. Pat and John aimed at the approaching riders when Eddie jumped in front of them and waved his arms, “No, no!” He turned and ran toward the riders. The one in the lead, they noticed, was a young woman.
Eddie stopped and waited for her. He even took a deep breath and took off his helmet so she could see his face, even though he knew the air was too thin to keep him alive. He held his breath as she stopped and dismounted, then walked to him. He let out his breath, saying, “I am Edgar. I have waited so long to meet you.”
She smiled at him and said, “I am Dejah Thoris.”
Edgar used the last of his air and said, “I knew it was you,” then fainted from lack of oxygen.
PART IV: GOLD
(January 22, 1899)
[ 70 ]
Having placed the helmet back on Edgar Burroughs head, and seeing that the young man breathed easily, Billy and the crew of the Argent conferred with Dejah Thoris. It was apparent from her men-at-arms that they were not trusted to draw too closely to her. She was a woman of some importance among the red-skinned Martians.
“How is it that you speak our language?” Billy asked her.
“That is my question,” she stated. “What strange craft is that, and how have you come here? We know of people of your color, but they are evil men and are not tolerated upon Barsoon. They are enemies of the People.”
“Hold on a minute, there, Miss,” Pat Garrett interjected. “None of you people have shot at me yet, and I’ve had no cause to shoot at you. That must mean we’re not enemies, merely friends who have but just now met.”
Dejah laughed. “I like how you talk, smooth one.”
“And I like how you look, fair lady.” Pat doffed his hat and gave a curt bow.
“That’s enough of that, Pat,” Billy said. “I thought you had a girlfriend back home.”
“I do. Just making conversation.”
“My friend,” Billy said, “can’t seem to get over your looks. What I mean is...”
“Are all of your women like you?” Ekka asked, and elbowed Billy gently.
Dejah laughed again, but more loudly.
“The old ones are not, for the most part. But most young women on Barsoom are comely. As you are.”
“What’s with the battle?” Billy asked, and gestured to the canyon walls high above them.
“We fight for control of the Atmosphere Factory. Legend holds it that there are but ten such upon the face of Barsoom. Few, however, are believed to be working. He who controls the air, controls life.”
At that moment a cannonade of shells arced across the canyon and exploded on the other side.
“Your people are firing,” John Carter stated, and stepped forward.
“Who...are you?” Dejah asked. It was apparent that she immediately lost interest in all of the others.
Carter knelt and bowed as if he were a Teutonic Knight. He spoke to her beautiful feet. “Captain John Carter, formerly of the Army of Northern Virginia, Confederate States of America. That’s on Earth.”
“Earth?” She asked. “I do not know this kingdom. It must be from the far side of Barsoom.”