Free 1889: Journey To The Moon (The Far Journey Chronicles) by George Wier, Billy Kring

animal, or wood.
    Merkam House instantly became a cauldron of hellfire The flaming Petrol Gel launched by the blast sailed over the compound wall to ignite hundreds of fires on buildings, liveries, and houses in the town. In less than two minutes, a third of Colorado Springs burned as bright as torches.
    Fire engines clanged their bells, people screamed and cried, and the town burned with a hellish fury. Most eyes turned malevolent glares towards the area of Merkam House.
    The giant robot pushed the felled robots into the cargo hatch and stooped to enter with them. The other robots walked into the hatchway as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Ekka shouted orders and they moved faster, but no more concerned.
    Fire raced everywhere in the compound and some of the blue coats screamed in agony when the Petrol Gel fell on them and they couldn’t wipe off the flames. Billy dismounted and slapped his gelding on the rump to send it to safety, then hopped into the cargo hold beside Ekka.
    Other robots came in, and even more lay among the fire and debris, unmoving, broken. Ekka said, “It is time we left.”
    “Agreed,” Billy said.
    When they turned to enter the hatch, Custer rose from the ground behind them and slashed with his saber.
    Ekka heard something at the last instant and turned with her kinzhal in her hand. She partially blocked the blow, but the blade rode over her knife handle and cut a deep gash in her wrist. She dropped the kinzhal as Custer drew back for another blow.
    Billy jumped between Ekka and Custer just as the end of a long wooden staff as thick as a man’s wrist whistled through the air. The end of the staff scorched across Billy’s temple under his hat and it felt to Billy like someone ignited a gallon of kerosene on the side of his head. The staff continued its arc and landed, hard, into the forehead of George Armstrong Custer, who flipped backward so hard his shoulders and neck hit before his butt and heels.
    Another explosion shook the entire compound and walls crumbled. Horses screamed and ran away, men moaned, and clanging fire bells and the angry yells of townspeople sounded in the night.
    The Arcadia shivered and began a dragging motion along the ground, then the front lifted off the earth. Two Hats came at a staggering run to grab the edge of the cargo door where Billy and Ekka stood guard.
    Billy rubbed his temple as he looked at the Lakota and said, “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”
    As the Arcadia lurched clear of the ground and Two Hats’ feet dangled over open air, he said the only thing that came to mind. “I good cook.”
    Billy reached down and grasped Two Hats’ hand. “That’s good enough for me, pard.”

     
     
     
     
     
    PART II:
    TEST
     
     
     

     
    [ 17 ]
     
    From a distance the Arcadia shimmered with the heat of the surrounding fires and the coruscating lights of the enveloping electromagnetic field. When it was a hundred feet above the inferno, the massive ship paused as adjustments were made inside, then began to drift slowly to the south.
    A cold wind blew from the north, and with it, the black hulks of a hundred skypirate dirigibles converged on the spaceship.
    Inside the lead dirigible, Edward Teach IV, known infamously as “Blackbeard”, looked up from his Harper’s Bazaar magazine over a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. The Arcadia appeared at first to be afire, but it separated from the fire and began moving in a line that would intersect his own. If it gained in speed by very much, the strange craft would outrun both flanks of his armada.
    “Prepare grappling hooks,” Teach said quietly, as if he were making conversation. “Ahead full. When in range, fire ballistas. After that, swarm her. Bring her down.”
    “Aye, sorr!” Percy LeJeune snapped. Percy was Edward’s second in command. Teach had saved LeJeune eight years before from an appointment with the yardarm of Her Britannic Majesty’s Steam Ship Enforcer off the coast