Werner stepped forward. “No, he stays,” he said, appealing to his two chatt attendants. “He stays. He flies – like me.” He stuck his arms out like wings and mimed flying, as you might to a child.
The scentirrii waved its antennae towards the chatt attendants, then shoved Tulliver out of the pack toward him, causing the flying officer to stumble.
“Hey!” Tulliver brought his arm back, preparing to swing for the chatts.
As the others were being herded out of the chamber, Everson stepped forward, appearing to help Tulliver, although it was more to gently restrain him from fighting back.
“No,” he said in a low voice, looking over Tulliver’s shoulder to where Werner stood. “Stay here. Find out what you can. And if you get a chance, escape. Get back to camp, let them know what’s happened.”
Tulliver’s eyes flashed at the chatt that stood over them, but he nodded imperceptibly. He stood up and swept back his fringe as Everson allowed himself to be taken from the chamber with the others.
WERNER CLAPPED TULLIVER on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, my friend. They’ll be taken back to their cell,” he said. “But come. We have so much to talk about, you and I.”
At first Tulliver had been elated to find another flyer, someone who understood what it was like to be up there. He’d longed to talk shop, as if he were back in the officer’s mess, but now the feeling had soured.
“I should very much like to see your machine. A Sopwith 1½ Strutter. Yes? With synchronised gears for your forward machine gun. You finally caught up with us.”
“Maybe I’ll take you for a spin,” said Tulliver bitterly.
They moved round the chamber, unconsciously circling each other as if they were two thousand feet over the Somme, looking for the advantage. The chatt attendants watched, conferring with each other.
Tulliver looked up with a dawning realisation. “Your aeroplane,” he said. “It still flies, doesn’t it?”
Werner’s broad smile was all the answer the pilot needed. It hadn’t been his imagination. There had been something up there. Not a creature at all. It had been Werner keeping an eye on him all this time. He must be a damn good pilot.
“Yes. I have been watching your progress for months,” admitted Werner. “Flying high over your trenches, catching glimpses between the clouds. And I shadowed you of course, discreetly. Tell me, with your squadron, did you ever play hide-and-seek in the clouds?”
Tulliver knew the game well. Every flyer did. It was good practice for dog fighting. “You’re not too good at it,” said Tulliver. “You became careless.”
Werner shook his head. “Careless? No. I got lonely. I think part of me wanted to be spotted.”
He wandered back to the window, and stepped out onto the balcony beyond, beckoning Tulliver to join him
It was easy to believe, standing high on the side of the Zohtakarrii edifice and looking out over the forests and the plains beyond, that you were Master of the World. It felt like you were flying, until you looked down.
“Magnificent view, isn’t it?” said Werner with a sigh. But he wasn’t looking at the landscape. He was looking up. “A whole new sky, new horizons.” For a moment he seemed lost in melancholy. When he spoke again, he had recovered his bravado. “My Albatros is far superior in speed and performance to your heavy Sopwith, Tulliver. Had I not been so disorientated when we appeared here, then the story might have been very different, no?” He mimed planes with his hands, his right swooping up under his left, towards its palm, illustrating some manoeuvre. “I think you took advantage of the situation, my friend. After you shot me down, Herr Tulliver, I barely managed to pull out of the spin and make a safe landing.
“At first I was furious. I couldn’t understand what had happened. Can you imagine my amazement to find that I was no longer in France? Yes, what am I saying? Of course you can. But you had men and defences at your disposal. I was a downed airman in a foreign land.” He made a sweeping gesture at the forest surrounding them. “A foreign world.
“A patrol of insekt menschen found me. They saved my life and I repaid them with the only thing I had to offer.”
“Your Albatros.”
“They had never seen a flying machine before. They were amazed. And they have been able to produce a passable petrol substitute. Not long after, they found the kite balloon and I was able to direct their repair of it. They have done a fine job, do you not think?”
“It’s hardly an air force, old chum,” said Tulliver. “If that’s what you promised them, then they’re in for a surprise.”
Werner turned and appealed to the pilot. “Ah, but they have constructed their own; and now they have your machine, too.”
“Maybe, but they don’t have me,” said Tulliver.
“Pity. I should have liked to fly with you.”
“You could leave them at any time,” challenged Tulliver. “Why stay?”
“Why does the falcon not leave the falconer? Certainly I may leave, Lieutenant, but where to, and to what? I have seen you in your trenches. I have watched your vain attempts to tame this planet, watched your little huts go up, seen you grub fields and grow crops. And I have seen it all ruined. Here at least, I am safe. Here, I am–”
“Kaiser?”
Werner clucked his tongue in reprimand. “Able to fly. Able to fly, Tulliver! And I have flown high and far.” He lowered his voice and stepped closer. “And I have seen things, Tulliver, up there where the air is thin and cold. There is a mystery to this planet.” Werner stepped back and examined Tulliver’s face. “You have seen it also, I think, have you not? It is what the insekt menschen search for. You and I might be the only people on this world to have seen it.”
“Seen what?” asked Tulliver. He remembered his own brief glimpse of the world spread out below him, before his engine cut out.
“Marks. Marks on the landscape. Intersecting lines, miles long.” He waved a hand towards the watching chatts. “You can tell them this, you can confirm what I have seen.”
Tulliver wasn’t sure what he had seen, it had been so brief, but his reaction now was one of scepticism. Markings on a geographical scale? And then he was struck by a thought. Wasn’t that how Jeffries was supposed to have performed his Somme ritual, within a pentagram scored across the front lines by artillery fire? Tulliver should know. It was he who unknowingly took Jeffries up artillery spotting for it. He’d just been another anonymous spotter at the time.
Tulliver shook his head “I’m not sure what I saw. It was only for a brief moment. I couldn’t confirm anything.”
“The insekt menschen are searching for proof of their god’s existence. I think I might have seen it. They believe it created this world for them, and that its mark upon it might be visible. The Albatros is only a single-seater. I cannot show them what I have seen. I have been trying to use a camera salvaged from the observation balloon, along with a number of unexposed plates, but I can’t develop them.”
“Then why on earth did you take them?”
“I thought perhaps someday…” He waved a hand. “That’s why I need your help. You are the answer to my prayers, Tulliver. You can verify my findings.” Werner paused, searching Tulliver’s face. “You don’t believe me.” Werner shook his head. “You should see for yourself.”
“Why, what was it, what did you see?” urged Tulliver.
“Fly with me. I will show you.”
Tulliver was almost taken in by his earnest plea. “Free my friends and I’ll consider it.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Those are my terms. You have influence with these chatts. Let the Fusiliers go free and I’ll help.”