Free The Japanese Devil Fish Girl by Robert Rankin Page B

shall cross the Channel,’ said George, ‘work our way through Europe, then traverse Russia, then China, then down the Korean Peninsula to Japan.’
     
    ‘Your knowledge of geography is profound,’ said the professor.
     
    ‘It was one of my favourite subjects at school.’
     
    ‘And arithmetic?’ Professor Coffin asked.
     
    ‘I have some skills in that discipline, yes.’
     
    ‘Then perhaps you would care to calculate how many days it would take a traction engine with a top speed of five miles per hour to span the continent of Europe, cross Russia, China and Korea and fetch up in Tokyo?’
     
    George attempted certain mental calculations. He folded his brow with the effort.
     
    ‘Let me spare you a banjoing of the brain, George,’ said the professor. ‘A very, very, very long time would be the answer to that. And whether the engine would even hold up past Calais, I would not care to wager upon.’
     
    ‘Then we are lost,’ said George. ‘It cannot be done.’
     
    ‘There are other modes of transport,’ the professor said. ‘We live in the Modern Age, remember. There are steam trains now that can travel at sixty miles an hour. And other vessels faster still than that.’
     
    ‘Ah,’ said George. ‘You speak of course of spaceships. They may take the wealthy upon the Grand Tour, but there are no spaceports in Japan.’
     
    ‘True,’ said Professor Coffin. ‘There are no spaceports anywhere upon this Earth but London. But there are other craft that fly in the sky and one that is bound for Japan.’
     
    George lifted his bowler hat and gave a scratch to his head.
     
    ‘You marvelled at it only two days back, young George.’ Professor Coffin fished into his waistcoat pocket and pulled out a printed flysheet. ‘I saw this a-blowing along the road. I do not know why I picked it up, but I did. This, young George, is how we will reach Japan.’
     
    George took the crumpled paper, unfolded same and put his gaze upon it.
     
    AROUND THE WORLD IN SEVENTY-NINE DAYS
     
    he read.
     
     
     
    GREAT FLIGHT OF WONDER
SEVENTEEN CAPITAL CITIES TO BE VISITED
UPON THIS STUPENDOUS
AERIAL PERAMBULATION OF THE PLANET
PARIS – ROME – MOSCOW – TOKYO ETC.
     
     
    THE EMPRESS OF MARS
THE WORLD’S MOST MODERN AIRSHIP
TAKES FLIGHTS FROM
THE ROYAL LONDON SPACEPORT AT SYDENHAM
27TH JULY 1895
     
     
    Tickets from 200 gns
     
    George looked up at Professor Coffin. ‘The Empress of Mars ?’ he said.
     
    ‘And she takes flight three days from now.’
     
    ‘But two hundred guineas a ticket,’ George said. ‘How could we come by such wealth?’
     
    ‘Ah,’ said the professor. ‘It might be done. In such a noble and adventurous cause, we might sell the wagon and its contents.’
     
    ‘The Martian?’ said George, with relish in his voice.
     
    ‘And the traction engine. Mandible Haxan would willingly purchase it back.’
     
    ‘But four hundred guineas?’
     
    ‘It will require enterprise on both our parts. This is a huge commitment for me, young George. I will be parting with everything. We will have to live entirely on our wits alone. Does that thrill you, or fill you full of fear?’
     
    ‘A little of both, as it happens,’ said George.
     
    ‘So, shall we do it, my boy?’
     
    ‘The Empress of Mars ,’ said George, wistfully. ‘To fly on the Empress of Mars .’
     
    ‘To seek the Japanese Devil Fish Girl,’ said Professor Coffin.
     

11
     
    F rom its very genesis, Earth’s first spaceport gave cause for concern and controversy. The British Empire’s back-engineering of crashed Martian spaceships and subsequent annihilation of the Martian race brought forth worldwide rejoicings. And the arrival of emissaries from Venus and Jupiter, to welcome Earth into the fellowship of planets (a fellowship from which Mars had been notably excluded due to its people’s warlike nature and expansionist policies), with the emissaries presenting themselves before the court of Queen Victoria, gave