The Atlantic Via Bathtub CH 16

An hour later, only Charles and Ericsson were left in the cockpit, looking out for Le Charlotte.1

'Thar she blows!' called Charles, pointing out front window of the cockpit.2

'I can see her...' said Ericsson testily, 'So no need to shout in my ear.'3

Before Charles could reply, Pete stuck his head through the door. 'You found her?' he asked.4

'Yup, dead ahead,' Charles told him.5

'Ah good, I'll try the radio again,' Pete said, as he stepped through the door and over to the radio. Picking the mic up, and pressing transmit, he spoke through it, 'Calling Le Charlotte, this is Peter Hayward, do you read? Over.'6

Almost instantly a voice replied, 'This is Doupree, what happened back there? Over.'7

'We ran out of range. Been looking for you for days. Over.'8

'Ah. Looking for me? Why? Don't say it was just to catch up. Over.' asked Doupree jokingly.9

'Haha. No, it wasn't. Tell me, do you have two passengers aboard, by the name of Rendrige? Over.'10

'Rendrige... Funny you ask, I do actually. Why? Over.'11

' 'Cause I got John Rendrige with me, his parents forgot him it seems. Over.'12

'You have John with you? Over,' Doupree sounded incredulous. 13

'Aye, got John, and coming straight for you. Found meself a zeppelin. Over.'14

'A zeppelin? ... So I see, which one are you? Over.'15

Pete's smile faded, 'What do you mean, which one? Over.'16

'There are two of you. One following the other. Over,' Doupree's voice sounded slightly puzzled by Pete's question.17

Pete felt his blood run cold. 'Sir Eric...' he breathed. Snapping to action he pressed transmit button. 'Call you back, this could be rough. Over.' He slammed the mix down and yelled, 'Battle stations!'18

Charles and Ericsson took a moment to register what was happening. 'Father didn't die,' said Ericsson, more to himself then anyone.19

Pete heard him and replied, 'Aye, he's alive, and behind us, to evasive action if you please.' To Charles he said, 'Follow me, we man the guns.' He turned and strode to the sleeping quarters, Baldwin had just emerged from the kitchen.20

'Vat'z happening?' he asked, a worried look on his face. 21

'Sir Eric. Can you man a gun?' asked Pete curtly, his old fighting skills were coming back in flood, years of piracy, and fighting, sticks with you, might get buried beneath a load of other stuff, but never leaves.22

'Yez, I can use a gun. Well,' said Baldwin, looking somewhat annoyed at the thought of Sir Eric being back.23

'Good, you take the rear guns, with Charles, I'll man the hull turret.24

'Aye aye cap'n!' said Charles enthusiastically. He and Baldwin hastily made their way into the kitchen, to get the guns ready.25

Pete turned to go back into the assault room, just as John stuck his head out from behind the curtain on his bunk. 'What's happening?' he asked somewhat blearily.26

'Sir Eric is back, now stay in your bunk, and hold on.' Pete walked quickly into the assault room, cursing himself for not thinking that Sir Eric might have lived, and followed them.27

He bent down, and slid open the door for lower turret, the lying on his stomach, he pulled himself down the slope, till he his shoulders came to rest against two rests.28

Now, how to operate this? Pete saw a joy stick in front of him, he gripped it, feeling the trigger under his finger, he moved the joystick, movement caught his eye, and he looked up. In front of him, was a clear panel, almost a globe. Out side, he saw a multi-barrled gun sticking out in front of him. When he moved the joystick left, the gun turned left, when he moved the joystick forward, the gun moved down, etc. He experimented a bit, to get the feel, and then searched for his target.29

He saw it. One of the other attack zeppelins from the Sutherway. It was slowly catching up, but still a few hundred metres behind. Pete's keen eyes picked up another thing, every single gun turret he could see was moving, there were people for every gun, unlike them, they only had enough people for three guns. 30

Looking around his little turret, Pete saw what looked like the intercom system Sir Eric had on the Sutherway. It had a row of buttons marked: Cockpit. Hull Turret 1. Assault Room. Sleeping Quarters. Kitchen. and: All.31

Pete pressed Cockpit. 'Ericsson, can you hear me?'32

'Yes.' came Ericssons voice clearly through speakers somewhere in the turret.33

'Good. Their zeppelin is loaded down with people, so we'll be able to out manoeuvre them, plus I'm sure you're one heck of a pilot, so we gotta use that to our advantage. 'Cause they got every gun manned. Also, climb, let them catch up, but make it seem like it's their flying that's doing it, not us going slow.34

'Yes Sir,' said Ericsson.35

Pete then pressed the button for the Kitchen. 'Charles and Baldwin. As I'm sure you can see, they are loaded to the brim with people, which means two things; their guns are fully manned, and they'll be slower. As you can feel, we're climbing, Ericsson's doing so to make them think we are running away, but we're letting them catch up. No point running, they'll catch us sometime, we should finish it now.'36

There was silence for a minute, and then Charles voice came through the hatch up the top, 'Danged intercom is dead, we can hear you, but can't reply.'37

Pete swung his head to look up at the sound of the voice above, 'Dang, well that makes things harder.'38

'Aye,' Charles said as he pulled his head back, and disappeared back to the kitchen and its read guns. Which fortunately didn't shoot spam, or potatoes, but shot lead instead.39

Pete watch as Sir Eric's zeppelin slowly started to overhaul them. He hit the switch to talk to everyone on board. 'Ericsson, on my mark, dive. Charles and Baldwin, be ready for that, as soon as we start to dive, open fire on their zeppelin, aim for the balloon.'40

'Roger that,' said Ericsson over the intercom.41

On the deck of Le Charlotte, Doupree stood staring up at the two zeppelins. The front one had just started to climb, almost to stalling point, if a zeppelin could stall, Doupree wasn't sure. But he did know that it had slowed down, and the one behind it was catching it up.42

The two zeppelins grew closer together, till they were no more then fifty metres away.43

'Oh crap! exclaimed Doupree. The rear zeppelin had just opened fire. He could just make out the flash from it's guns, and a few seconds later the sound of them could be heard clearly over the water. No sooner had it opened fire, then the lead airships nose tipped down and it fell, it's rear guns blazing. Doupree stared in amazement at them both, one thought stuck in his mind, which one was Pete in?44

The sound of the gunshots had disturbed some of the passengers, and they were starting to line the railings, staring up at the airships, pointing and talking loudly to one another.45

'Argh, stupid people, don't they know it could get dangerous out here?' he muttered to himself, as he strode into the bridge and picked the mic for the loudspeaker up. 'Attention passengers, this is Captain Doupree speaking, I know it's interesting watching to blimps having it out, but it is not safe, and I must ask you all to please remain indoors, and away from the walls. Thank you.' He hung the mic up and walked back outside.46

The people below were looking a bit annoyed at having to go back inside, and making their thoughts on the matter audible. 47

Slowly, one by one they started to go indoors, but still a few remained outside to watch.48

He raised his hands to the sky and muttered darkly under his breath as he returned to the mic inside and picked it up again and said, 'Everyone please go inside now. If you don't I must ask my crew to escort you inside. Well you are aboard my ship, I am responsible for your safety, and I deem it unsafe to remain outside, so please...' He hung the mix up with a bang and returned outside.49

The last of the people on the deck below finally started to wander inside, still looking somewhat disgruntled.50

Doupree returned his attention to the zeppelins.51

Charles aimed at the attacking zeppelins balloon and squeezed the trigger, the line of tracers marking the flight of the bullets, and showing him just where to aim. He adjusted his aim slightly, the bullets slammed into the side of Sir Eric's zeppelin, but besides the torn material, there was no sign of damage to it. Likewise to their zeppelin, it'd been hit aplenty, but didn't seem to be being damaged.52

'Why aren't they bullets hurting them?' Charles yelled to Baldwin, pausing in his shooting.53

'I don't know. Zir Eric might have put zome zort of protective cazing round zem. I've heard he'z managed to do ztuff like zat, but I have never zeen any of it,' Baldwin yelled back.54

'Hmm...' Charles seemed to drift into thought. 'Ah-hah!' he exclaimed as he snapped out of it. 'I have an idea,' he turned and dashed from the kitchen, leaving a slightly confused Baldwin behind him. 55

On reaching the turret in which Pete lay, he shoved his head through the hole and yelled, 'Hey Pete! I got an idea to stop them!'56

Pete turned slightly to look up at him. 'Well? What is it?'57

Charles told him.58

A slow smile cracked Pete weathered face. 'You know, that just might work.' He started to wriggle back up the slope, but paused. 'Ah... Charles, give me a pull would you?' he asked somewhat embarrassedly. 59

Grinning Charles grabbed his legs and heaved.60

Pete almost flew out of the hole, and onto the deck, he clambered quickly to his feet and dashed to the cockpit.61

'Ericsson, what do you know about the shielding these things have?' Pete asked as he entered.62

Ericsson thought a moment, well keeping his attention on his flying. The zeppelins were large things to manoeuvre, but under a skilled hand, like his, he could make them rather more nimble then one would first think.63

Charles and Pete both grabbed something for support as Ericsson displayed this fact by throwing it into a sharp turn, one which almost seemed like it'd tear the balloon off the crew section.64

'If I remember rightly, my father found some way of making the outer shells repel ordinary bullets, something like a super powerful magnet, not sure just what. But it seems to be working from the sounds of things,' he commented dryly.65

'Mmm...' Charles thought a moment. 'Do you think there is anyway you could reverse the magnets?'66

Ericsson looked surprised at the question. 'I don't know... I could have a look, but someone else would have to fly.'67

'Yeah, that's 'K, I think I should be able to manage,' said Charles, 'Not as well as you, of course.'68

'Heh. Ok then.' Ericsson clambered out of the seat, well holding the joystick like device for steering. He indicated for Charles to get in. Once Charles had, he gave him a quick run down of controls. 'Up, down, left, right, throttle,' he said pointing to the respective controls.69

'Righto.'70

Ericsson turned to Pete. 'Follow me.' he walked past him and into the assault room.71

Inside, he stared at the roof a moment, before spotting what he was after, 'Ah-hah, here we go...' He walked to a spot in the middle of the room and pointed up. 'Need that cover off.'72

Pete looked up, noticing the hatch for the first time. 'No problem.' There were two screws holding it in place. He fished a screwdriver from one of his many pockets, and quickly undid them. Then pulling the handle swung the hatch down.73

On the inside of the door, there was a ladder, he quickly unhooked that, and slid it down.74

'Good good.' Ericsson clambered as swiftly as he could up the ladder, and disappeared into the darkness. After a moment his head reappeared. 'You got a light?'75

'I know where one is, I'll get it.'76

'Good, hurry.'77

Pete dashed into the sleeping quarter, and fished around one of the small cupboards in there. Soon he found what he was looking for, and hastily returned to Ericsson.78

'Here you go.' He held up the lamp he'd found.79

'It'll do.' Ericsson took the lamp, and lit it. 'Come on up, I'll need you.80

Pete followed him up the ladder, and into the area above.81

It was a long room, but not much headroom. Above them was the rows of balloons filled with whatever substance Sir Eric used to keep his zeppelins in the air.82

All along one side of the area was wires, and electronic devices. Pete had no idea what they were for, besides steering and the like.83

'Come on, stop dawdling,' Ericsson said, he was already halfway down the room.84

Pete quickly followed him.85

Ericsson stopped beside one section of wires. 'Here we go, I think this is it. At least, it isn't steering, or anything else I know of, so it must be it.' He handed the lamp to Pete, who took it 'Hold it steady,' Ericsson told him.86

Pete watched as Ericsson fiddled around with the wires, staring at them for long seconds, before making satisfactory noises, and tracing his finger along one bundle, to another.87

After a few minutes of this, he smiled. 'Here we go, change these two wires around, and it'll reverse the magnet.'88

'That easy?' asked Pete incredulously.89

'Hah... No. I don't know what will happen when I unplug both wires.'90

'Oh, I see.'91

'What are you planing on doing anyway?'92

Pete's grin looked decidedly eerie in the flickering light of the lamp, as he told him.93

In the cockpit, Charles was having the time of his life. The zeppelin was far easier, and more nimble then any ship he had ever sailed, it almost seemed a shame that it'd have to be destroyed.94

He yanked the joystick left, and sent the zeppelin into a sharp turn. 'Woohoo!' I have got to get me one of these.' he whooped happily.95

Charles was somewhat disappointed when Ericsson returned, and kicked him out of the seat.96

'Can you reverse the magnet?' Charles asked apprehensively.97

'Indeed I can. There was a slight problem, but nothing that I couldn't work out. Pete is standing by, ready to change the wires.'98

'Aye, that's good,' Charles said, nodding. 'Now for phase two of my genius plan. Whahaha!' He slapped his hands together and rubbed them enthusiastically as he turned heel and strode out of the room.99

John stuck his head through the curtain, he could hear the gunfire, but he had no idea other then that just what was going on, and he was getting scared.100

Charles appeared in front of him suddenly. 'Ah, just who I wanted to see,' he said.101

'What's happening?' asked John, ignoring Charles comment.102

'Oh, nothing much. Sir Eric is back, and shooting at us, so the same ol' same ol'.' He winked at John. 'Now, we have things to do, so come on.' He continued on his way to the kitchen, as John scrambled out of his bunk. Before John could follow him into the kitchen, he was back out again, and shooing John into the attack room.103

'Now,' Charles began, 'Somewhere round here is supposedly a door in the floor that leads to the storage room below, and Bootle...' Charles spun in a full circle gazing at the floor. 'I don't see any door.' he muttered.104

Suddenly John remembered something. He walked hurriedly back into the sleeping quarters, on the floor was the outline of a door. 'Charles!' he yelled, 'I found it.'105

Charles appeared over his shoulder. 'Ah, there we go. Smart lad.' He patted John on the head before stepping around him, and bending down, and hefting the trapdoor up.106

A smile lit Charles face as he gazed a moment through the door, Bootle lay directly below them, nice and easy to board. 'Ok, get in kid, we'll join you as soon as we're ready.' 107

'But what's happening?' John asked, reluctant to get into Bootle without finding out.108

'No time kid,' said Charles, as he gave John a gentle but firm hand into Bootle.109

Once John was safely in Bootle, Charles set about preparing a bang.110

Pete finished arranging the everything so he could quickly change the wires, and returned as quickly as he could to the bridge.111

Once in, he picked up the intercom. 'You ready?' he asked Ericsson112

'Ready as ever I will be.'113

He hit the button marked: All. and said 'Ok everyone, you know your places, next time we're hit, be prepared to move fast.'114

Pete exhaled slowly, and waited. He didn't have to wait long, the thuds of the enemy zeppelins bullets on the side could be felt even though they hat hit the magnet.115

'Now!' he bellowed.116

Slamming the joystick forward, and pulling one of the throttles back, Ericsson sent the airship spinning down toward the ocean.117

Grabbing onto something to keep himself from falling, Pete picked up the radio with his other hand. 'Hope Sir Eric is a sucker,' he muttered half to himself as he squeezed transmit button and yelled. 'Help! We've been hit! We are going to crash!'118

On cue Ericsson screamed, it was a pained unearthly sounding scream, that sent goose-bumps up Pete's back.119

'Our pilots been hit... Losing control! Somebody... Come i...' Pete quickly flicked a switch which sent the signal to static. 'Bounce us off the water if you can, make it look like we almost crashed. And then keep us kinda steady just above the water, but in a damaged way if you can. Sir Eric, I hope will know we have Bootle, and want to keep it intact, so hopefully he doesn't blow as out of the water.' Without waiting for a reply, Pete climbed up the downwards pointing zeppelin, into the attack room, then up the ladder, to the magnet wires, were he braced himself against the metal supports on the side, and waited.120

In the kitchen, Baldwin clambered down to the right hand side gun turret. Looking out the view slots, he saw Sir Eric's zeppelin. As their zeppelin was spinning Sir Eric's disappeared from view quickly. Baldwin took careful aim at one of the side propellers, and waited, he saw Sir Eric's zeppelin come into view, then go. He squeezed the trigger slightly, one shot burst from the gun and smacked into the propeller.121

A huge chunk blew off the side of it, rendering it useless. But that effect their flying, Ericsson had already cut the throttle to it.122

His job now done, Baldwin staggered down into the sleeping quarters, and swung himself through the floor and joined John in Bootle.123

Charles rummaged through the lockers the sleeping quarters, looking for the ammo stashes. A feat which was rather hard as the ship was tilting on rather a steep angle.124

He looked up as Baldwin dived past him and through the hole and into Bootle.125

Charles found the ammo, and started pulling the containers out and rolling them down the floor into the assault room.126

After he emptied the locked he carefully made his way into the assault room. Where he started shoving the ammo under the seats, and into any place he could store it.127

He felt the zeppelin start to level out.128

Splash!129

The Zeppelin smacked into the water as Ericsson timed his pull up perfectly. From outside it would have looked like a crash. From inside it felt like one too, except they were still flying, just. 130

Now they were limping along slowly, with on propeller dead, they were left with only one working.131

Charles finished arranging the ammo, then walked into the cockpit.132

'How's it going? Sir Eric taken the bait yet?' he asked.133

'Yes, he's following us down. Somewhat slower though.'134

'Heh. Good good, ammo is ready to blow, as soon as Pete flicks the switch.'135

'That's good.'136

Five minutes later the moment came.137

Sir Eric's zeppelin levelled out next to theirs. It drew closer till almost touching. Charles didn't wait to see what they did next, he ducked back into the assault room, and shouted up the ladder, 'Now!'138

He then took two swift steps and knelt down by his little bundle of ammo, bombs, and other bangy stuff he'd found.139

Whump!140

With no warning the two zeppelins slammed together. Their magnetic propulsion fields drawing them together, till they were stuck to each other like Siamese.141

A moment later Pete slid down the ladder. 'All good?' he asked, as he dashed into the sleeping quarters, to Bootle.142

'Aye, that it is.' 143

Next Ericsson dashed by, pausing to say, 'Be quick, I've aimed it for the ocean. Don't have to long.' He hastily made his way into the sleeping quarters, and through the hatch in the floor to Bootle.144

'Ok, lets blow this thing!' Charles said as he set the timer on the bomb he had, then dashed into the sleeping quarters, and dived through the hatch into Bootle.145

'Go go go! She's gonna blow!' exclaimed Charles as he hit the deck.146

Baldwin leapt to action, and hit the switch which opened the loading doors, below them.147

The doors swung open, and the crane started to lower them out.148

'No time!' Charles snatched the control off Baldwin, and before anyone could do anything, hit the realise button.149

They fell.150

Splash!151

They hit the water so hard they almost sank, but Bootle bobbed back up, and just left the wet, not drowning.152

As one, they stared up at the two zeppelins. The pilot of Sir Eric's was trying in vain to get them apart, but theirs was dragging it down to the ocean. 153

'Doesn't look like you set the bo–' started Pete, but was interrupted.154

Boom!155

The explosion echoed out over the ocean.156

'Take cover!' yelled Pete, diving for the deck, dragging John with him.157

Everyone else hit the deck, moments before bits of the zeppelins flew over head, thudding into deck around them, miraculously none of them were hit.158

After a moment, Pete lifted his head up, staring at the place the two zeppelins had been. 'Oh no...' he breathed, his face falling. Instead of a blank space in the sky, there was still a zeppelin, damaged, a hole blown in it's side, but still flying. The remains of Pete and the others zeppelin was raining to the ocean, it's magnet field destroyed it no longer clung to the side of Sir Eric's zeppelin.159

As he watched, the zeppelin turned, and slowly, like a predator stalking its prey, it approached the helpless bathtub.