The Log of the HMAS Marigold: Parts I-V

[Evelyn Adler]

Her eyes grew wide in surprise as she looked at him; then she smiled, almost shy. "Thank you... Alex." She seemed to taste the unfamiliar name, like one would taste a good wine. A slight blush suffused her cheeks. Suddenly, she looked very young and almost fragile.

"I've been thinking... and I believe, you should call me Issa."
She smiled. "That was the name my little brother gave me, when he couldn't pronounce my name right - and somehow it stuck. My family calls me so. And I would be honored, if you would too."

[Private Weasel]

Hawthorne returned a rare genuine smile and practised the name as if trying it on for size.

"Issa," he said and for once the pause not to add weight to his words but simply because he didn't quite know what to say,

"I believe, Issa, they are playing our song."

"Shall we dance?"

[Evelyn Adler]

Suddenly the "Nirgalian Dagger" lurched beneath their feet, the steel cables that bound her to the LZ-7 tensioning and groaning like in agony. For a second, Issa almost lost her footing, but regained it quickly, shifting her weight.
"I believe," she smiled "this is our cue to waltz off this vessel as fast as we can."

[MWBailey]

The Dagger suddenly lurched like a drunken whale on a weekend bender. The party of Rourke, Starling, Redburn and Joe had seen the harpoon lines arcing upward and burying themselves into the skin of the LZ-7, and it became clear that neither that ship nor the Dagger would be viable options for escape. Rourke turned, and ran like the devil was biting his posterior, toward a cavernous void left in the airfield by another of the gasbags' collapse. "THERE's NO TOIME, LETS GO! THESE THINGS 'AVE TER GLIDE AFORE THEY CAN FLY," he shouted to the others while frantically yanking the pullcord and thus Whupping the tiny petrol motor into full-bore operation; he then literally leaped out into the airy nothingness, and prayed like a vicar as he, the tablet, and the wingpack plummetted like a loud-voiced stone into the void...

...And rose again like a fat, ungainly phoenix at the far side of the void, streaking toward the Marigold.

[walkthebassline]

The harpoons were in place, the LZ-7's engines were literally shot, and it was time to go. Rourke was already on his way to the Marigold with Rooney, and Starling would be following soon. Redburn took off at a staggering run to where he had seen Handthorpe; the man was broken and dying, but his anger drove him on and he half-stood, leaning against a pile of crates. Redburn reached for him, intending to pick him up, but Handthorpe raised a pistol.

"Don't try it, you yellow pipsqueak. Don't you dare."

The ship was being destroyed around them, but neither one cared; baser instincts had taken over. The pistol fired, but a jerk of the ship threw off the shot. Redburn was tossed sideways, and could barely keep his feet. Handthorpe had even worse luck; the crates shifted a moment later and threw him forward just as Redburn drew his sword. Handthorpe was propelled into the blade, grunting as it pierced his chest. Redburn snarled as he pulled the sword out, smacked Handthorpe over the head with the heavy basket hilt, and took the limp body in his arms. He snatched at the pullcord on his wings, breathed a quick sigh of relief as the motor revved, and then took a jump of his own. Once he was flying his cares melted away; his passion and anger faded and he sped upward towards the Marigold.

"I'm a-coming Rourke! I'm a-coming! Couldn't leave this one behind though; he and I had unfinished business."

[Private Weasel]

"I hope you can run really fast - and you didn't lie about that luck of yours!"

Her words echoed in his mind as they sped down the corridor, they ran as if the devil himself was chasing them and Hawthorne was as true as his word;  As fast as his wits, as agile as his mind and as quick as his tongue.

They ran

The corridor fell behind them as they reached the observation deck, a vast open space, windows gleaming on all sides. From somewhere Hawthorne found a reserve of speed and moved ahead, putting his Revolver as he did so and squeezing the trigger until the chambers were empty, leaving three cracking holes in the glass in front of them, ast the last moment, Hawthorne lept, his shoulder braced as it hit the window, pulling his ripcord as he emerging through the glass causing him to twist and fall from sight into the clean ocean air.

[Stella Gaslight]

Starling had decided that being born without wings was a horrible thing.  Spinning through the sky was the best way to travel.   She saw Rourke struggling with his load.  Joe was waking up.  "Let me lend a hand."  Marigold was in front of them a little worn from the storm but there.  Starling crowed they had all made it, they ware coming home.

[Evelyn Adler]

When that moment comes, do not hesitate, to leap. It is only when you fall, that you learn, whether you can fly.

She leaped. Following Hawthorne she did not hesitate for a second, before she flung herself out into the abyss. And then she fell.

Seconds that seemed to stretch into hours, before finally that little engine sputtered to life. She flew! She was feeling sick and shaking all over, but she flew! She had no idea where she was going but at least it was not down!

Somewhere above her she could see Hawthorne. Maybe it was a good idea to follow him. If she could figure out, how to steer this contraption...

[walkthebassline]

Redburn landed on the Marigold just as Rourke and Starling wrangled Rooney inside. He dropped Handthorpe's body and drug it inside as well, sparing a glance back at Adler and Hawthorne.

Come on the both of you! You've got to hurry!

"Get a move on you two! We're leaving as soon as I get to the bridge!"

[MWBailey]

Deep within the Nirgalian Dagger's thronehall, a hand moved, spasmodically. It dragged itself, and the person it was attached to, up one side of the altar, across the front, smearing the white and ivory surface with blood as it made its transit, and finally felt and pressed a concealed stud that had once been hidden by the stand upon which the Tablet had stood. The hand dragged itself up as a console flipped up out of the altar, and became an arm, then a shoulder, and then the shoulder came to be proven to support a head.  A head with two of Rourke's Webley's slugs in it -- but it functioned anyway, and directed the arm and hand to press a sequence of buttons, and finally grip the lever that rose up dramatically beside the panel, and with a heave, and a gasp of unimaginable pain, drag the lever toward the floor.

Within the Main Enginehall, explosions racked the ship, and elsewhere aboard, similar things occurred as the boiler relief valves were compromised and mechanically rendered nonfunctional, the pressure within building to a monstrous level. Mines and charges throughout the Dagger responded as well, taking the remaining Prussians and the flying city's denizens as well by surprise as the ship began to literally blow itself to smithereens around them.

Down in the thronehall, the face of a madman on a ruined skull grinned a grin of absolute malice, megalomania, and murderous spite, as said hall was engulfed in a sea of flame and a storm born of dynamite and gunpowder, as the Nirgalian Dagger sank into firey ruin...

[Evelyn Adler]

From the cloud of smoke billowing around the "Nirgalian Dagger", Issa emerged like a lopsided phoenix, swaying towards the Marigold and finally crashing onto the landing deck. There she lay in a heap and did not move, while the wings on her back gave out with an ugly creaking sound.

[MWBailey]

The Nirgalian Dagger sank toward the waiting waves, burning and still exploding in several places as it began to fall. Throughout its stricken hallways, the unlucky screamed and the Prussians left behind along with them, as they began to jump from windows, portholes, balconies, even holes rent in her sides by the explosions. A sense of urgency drove the escapees onward. Some, undoubtedly, knew that the Final Sequence had been activated; most just had a very, very bad feeling that even worse was yet to befall the stricken giant craft.

And then it happened; too much pressure, built up too quickly, proved to be too much (as its designers had intended, no doubt), and the giant main boiler suddenly burst like a very violent water balloon full of superheated steam Outwardly, it was as if the three gigantic main envelopes expanded away from one another, and then, there came the sudden appearance of a cloud of scalding hot steam, so white it had to be beyond scalding -- and the disappearance of much of the center of the massive ship. there followed a series of explosions in slow motion as her outer hydrogen gas cells ignited, somehow, and then the entire mass sank like a crumbling ziggurat into the embrace of the ocean. The Nirgalian Dagger was no more.

[Stella Gaslight]

Starling had not removed her wings and would most likely be doing so any time soon.  She heard Issa fall and went to help her.  "You got a few things all bent up let me ease you out of it."

[walkthebassline]

Redburn stripped Handthorpe of his jacket, pulled some trinkets from his waistcoat, and patted down his legs. The holster was empty; the gun long gone on the Dagger. One boot held a knife. On a whim, Redburn pulled them both off. Blood gurgled out of the chest wound; Redburn wasn't sure if he'd hit any vitals though. The strike hadn't been unintentional, but neither had it been carefully executed. The whole conflict had been over before it began and Redburn's first thought had been survival.

His eyes stinging from the wind, Redburn swept the contents of Handthorpe's pockets into his empty boots, dropped the boots and his coat into the ship, and heaved Handthorpe's body over board.

"I suppose I ought to get to the helm" He said to no one in particular.

He bustled through the ship until he reached the bridge. He dropped Handthorpe's belongings just inside the doorway and stepped up to the helm. He gave the wheel a spin and the Marigold lurched underneath him.

"Hold onto your bonnets, ladies! Rourke, what is our course?"

[Private Weasel]

Hawthorne's landing was not as graceful as he later described in his report, but he managed to find airship beneath his feet and remove his wings without any major injury. Glancing back at the stricken Zeppelin with concern we weighed up the odds of mounting a rescue mission. Impossible. There was nothing that they could do for the ailing vessel and hoped that the ship would hand relatively safely before the British could arrive to mount a rescue mission.

He shook his head dismissing the notion and vanquishing the blame my his mind. There were people here that could be helped, people here who he could still save. Sliding to a halt by the still from of Issa he knelt beside Starling, concern playing across his face.

"We better get her undercover before Redburn get's to the bridge"

As he spoke the ship lurched beneath him signifying that he was too late,

Putting his arm underneath his fallen companion, he lifted her from the ground and staggered towards the open hatchway leaning again an intercom made it undercover.

"Medical team to the bridge" he announced sending an echoing and inhuman mockery of his voice across the ship, satisfied, and with his Issa in his arms, he made his way towards the prow.

[The Corsair]

His carbine sat now in his hands, ready to be swung up and fired. He drew up his feet and found some new purchase from which he launched forth and fired off two shots. Each met a Prussian torso and two of the one, two, thee, four, five, six... seven men dropped blandly to the ground. The rest were now aware of Joe's admittedly quite alarming presence and began to react. Unfortunately for them, the beginnings of a reaction were insufficient in combating the threat of Joe, a full reaction would have been necessary and even then perhaps not entirely enough. He snapped off a further 3 shots, this time with one going just wide of its target.

He now dropped backwards, lying down where he had been just seconds before. He rolled sideways and popped up a metre or so from where he had been, which was of course where the Prussians were looking for him. They now fired back and he had only time for one shot, which landed home comfortably iliciting a short cry from the soldier.

The last two now moved to where Joe was and he found his admittedly bare and loose plan didn't extend this far. He decided to unceremoniously spring back up, firing off another shot, only to find the Prussians were right upon him and about to shoot directly down at him. He rammed his carbine upwards, slamming them in to the right-hand soldier's testicles. His keeling over caused him to fall forward right into the path of the bullet fired by the left-hand soldier, who Joe now shot back at calmly.

At that, he sprinted off across the deflated envelope, glad for his shoes for the surface was slicked over from rain and chemicals in the gas. With the Marigold only metres away he felt the ship's skin shake beneath him and a dulled version of the boom which earlier had momentarily crippled him rang out. His speed increased again, not that he would have believed it could, and he found himself at the edge of the Dagger with the Marigold twenty or so metres away. With no better choices, he pushed himself off and fell through the air.

[Stella Gaslight]

Starling ran along side giving Issa a quick look over. There was no blood shat she could see but there was a bump on the back of her head that Starling decided must be the culprit. "Hold still for a moment Hawthorne she has a knot on the back of her head.  I can use a salve to ease the headache she will surly have when she wakes up.  She had a pretty hard landing."

[Evelyn Adler]

The walls were moving. A face swam into focus. It was probably a dream.
"Are you for real?" Issa whispered drowsily.
To find out, she gently touched his cheek. He felt real enough. Also he was smiling now. And he seemed to be carrying her!

Suddenly all came back. The flight. How scared she had been. The explosion...

They were on the Marigold! They were still alive!

"You can set me down now... Alex. I believe I can walk! I'm ok, really!"

In fact, she hurt all over, as if she had been hit by a steamtrain. And it was a good thing, she couldn't see herself, completely disheveled, covered in soot, with white streaks where tears had run down her face. When her feet touched the ground again, she winced.

"Never in my entire life do I want to use one of these winged contraptions again! Never!" she murmured, swaying precariously.

[Private Weasel]

Hawthorne held her steady as Starling administered to Issa. As Issa woke, he set her down but held her steady, ensuring that she kept the swaying to a minimum.

"Is that all?" he questioned, just voice full of warmth and tinged with relief, "I think we can manage that."

"Miss Scott, you are in charge. Mary..." he used her name carefully, unsure what to call her in company, "...Starling will take care of you, you've taken rather nasty blow to the head. Miss Scott, I am your orderly. What are your orders?"

[Stella Gaslight]

The green was fading from her skin and Starling was rather glad but it would take a lot of tea to remove that taste from her mouth.  Smiling she handed Hawthorne a small glass vial that smelled pleasant. "Get her to drink this. it is a liquid pain killer and use this on her head."  Starling handed him a cloth soaked it a golden fluid.  "That should take the swelling down."  She saw Rooney fall and shook her head. That boy seemed to have a death wish.  Starling frowned turned to Hawthorne. "Get her to the bridge then make sure she sits down for a bit but don't let her sleep unless I have widely missed my mark she has a concussion.  I will be back to treat her in depth as soon as I stop that winged kid from falling to his doom.  Tell Redburn to pick me up I don't think i have very much gas left to get back."  And then she ran down the hall and launched herself off the ship.  "Rooney Give me your hand!" She yelled against the wind.

[The Corsair]

As he fell past the body of the Marigold, only 10 or so metres away from him, he called and waved his limbs about madly. He could have sworn he passed by the bridge window but the ship blurred its way past him at such a speed he had no clue what was where on her body.

He checked the air around him for anything that might save him. Behind him the Prussian Zeppelin was slowly going down and the few figures still on the top of the Dagger were dropping into hatches, clearly in the hope that they could survive on board long enough to be rescued.

He caught himself grinning. Why on earth he was grinning was something of a mystery to him. As much as he enjoyed such dangerous situations he generally had a plan for surviving them, or at least the possibility of surviving. Right now, he was falling hopelessly through a storm, soon to be lost in the clouds, with no-one looking for him.

A memory of someone, a teacher perhaps, floated into his mind. He didn;t know why or what he had done but the lady was talking sternly to him. "Rooney give me your hand!"
A hand appeared in his vision. A physical hand... He dumbly grabbed it, glad for the comforting hallucination.

[Stella Gaslight]

The addition of his weight to hers caused both shoulders to protest harshly.  Starling would have to dose herself with pain killer when she got back.  "Come on now don't pass out on me.  I cant lug you back up that way."  The way the wings were protesting she wasn't sure if of she could do it at all but damned if she wasn't going to try. They rose slowly sputtering as the engine tried its best against their combined weight. "Come on, come on, just a little more." She urged.

[The Corsair]

He figured out what was going on fairly promptly. With the odd fixed wings of Starling's back counteracting the force of his descent he came to and immediately went in to think mode. He let go of her hand and climbed over her, positioning himself just above her wings. From his pack he then took the propulsion system for his own wings. He figured that with the combined power there would be enough thrust to compensate for the extra weight. The unit was attached loosely to the wings by the straps of the backpack and he set it running. Soon, the two of them, one above and one below the wings, were flying comfortably. He would be back aboard the Marigold in seconds.

[Stella Gaslight]

Starling refused to acknowledge how scared she was until they landed on the deck of the Marigold.  Her legs promptly turned to jelly after Rooney climbed off her back and her shoulders ached. Wincing she took the wing pack off and found a bottle of pain killer.  Happy she downed  half of it it in one gulp and wanted impatiently for it to kick in.  Rooney looked at her with confusion.  "I haven't turned greenie.  We were trying to scare those Prussians and it worked."  She looked at her hand the green was almost gone.  "I will be back to normal in a bit.  You look like you have been through the wringer. Do you want a sip?  It is willow extract with honey and a few other natural boosters.  It works quicker than aspirin."

[MWBailey]

"Course?!" Rourke answered, euphoria from his narrow escape from a plummeting death and the vestiges of an adrenaline rush making him slightly cocky. "Pick anythin' perpendicular to th' Dagger and go loik 'ell, she's fallin' to fast ter be a circlin' collision threat. Worry 'bout a course home when we're well away!" He looked out through the starboard bay window and saw Starling's rescue of Rooney, and their subsequent ascent. it looked like they'd be alright...but they were beginning to slow. "Bloody hell," Rourke said, "Looks loik they might need a 'and after all. You kin obviously 'andle 'er from 'ere, Redburn, I'm goin' aft!"

Rourke sprinted through the ship, trying to get to the landing deck in time to help Starling bring Rooney aboard. Somehow, neither the Captain nor the Bosun were in evidence. What'd they do, go play 'ooky? he thought and finally reached the deck just as Rooney and Starling skidded to a halt. HE stepped sideways to the speaking tube array, blew into the bridge tube, and shouted, "REDBURN! THEY'RE ABOARD! GO, MAN, GO! The ship leapt forward then, and Rourke grabbed the two teammembers and hustled them toward the hatchway. "It's gonna get too hairy to stay out 'ere, let's go insoid," he said against the growing gale of the ship's passage.