Firebrass had shouted for silence. The loud chatter and singing had finally stopped. Then he had said that he was announcing the roster of officers, and he had grinned at her. She had felt sick. His grin was malicious, she was sure of that. He was going to pay her back for all the cutting remarks she had made to him. Justified remarks, because she was not going to allow anyone to run over her just because she was a woman. But he was in a position to get revenge.
Yet, he had done the right thing, and he seemed to be happy about doing it.
Jill, smiling, made her way through the crowd, threw her arms around Firebrass and burst into tears. He thrust his tongue deep into her mouth and then patted her fanny. This time, she did not resent unasked-for familiarities. He wasn't taking advantage of her emotions or being condescending. He was, after all, fond of her, and perhaps he was sexually attracted to her. Or perhaps he was just being ornery.
Anna, still smiling, held out her hand and said, "My sincerest congratulations, Jill." Jill took the delicate and cool hand, felt an irrational, almost overpowering impulse to yank her arm out of its socket, and said, "Thank you very much, Anna."
Thorn waved to her and shouted something, congratulations, probably. He did, however, make no effort to come to her.
A moment later, she stumbled weeping out of the ballroom. Before she had gotten home, she hated herself for having shown how strongly she felt. She had never cried in public, not even at the funerals of her parents.
The tears dried as she thought of her father and mother. Where were they? What were they doing? It would be nice if she could see them. That was alclass="underline" nice. She did not want to live in the same area with them. They were not her old mother and father, grey baked, wrinkling, and fat, their main concerns their grandchildren. They would look as young as she, and they would have little in common with her except some shared experiences. They would bore her and vice versa. It would be a strain to pretend that the child-parent relationship had not died.
Besides, she thought of her mother as a cipher, a passive appendage to her father, who was a violent, loud, domineering man. She did not really like him, though she had grieved somewhat when he had died. But that was because of what might have been, not because of what had been.
For all she knew, they might be dead again.
What did it matter now?
It did not matter. Then why the second flood of tears?
43
"Well, folks, here we are again. this time it's the big one.
The final take-off. Heigh-ho for the Big Grail, the Misty Tower, the house of the Santa Claus at the North Pole, the Saint Nick who gave us the gifts of resurrection, eternal youth, free food, booze, and tobacco.
"There must be at least a million people here. The stands are full, the hills are crowded, people are falling out of the trees. The police are having a hell of a time keeping order. It's a beautiful day, isn't it always? The uproar is really something, and I don't think you can hear a word I'm saying even through this PA system. So, folks, up yours!
"Aha! Some of you heard that. Just kidding, folks, just trying to get your attention. Let me tell you again about the Parseval. I know that you have pamphlets describing this colossal airship, but most of you are illiterates. Not that it's your fault. You speak Esperanto, but you've never had an opportunity to learn to read it. So here goes. Only, wait a moment while I moisten my parched throat with some skull-bloom.
"Ah! That was smoo-oo-ooth! The only trouble is that I've been quenching my thirst since before dawn, and I'm having trouble seeing straight. I hate to think of tomorrow morning, but what the hell. You have to pay for everything good in this world, not to mention the others.
"There she is, folks, though it's hardly necessary to point her out to you. The Parseval. Named by Firebrass for the man who first suggested that the airship be built though there was a lot of argument at first about what name'd be painted on her silver sides.
"Third mate Metzing wanted to name her the Graf Zeppelin III, after the man who was responsible for the first airship commercial line and chiefly responsible for the military Zeppelins.
"First Mate Gulbirra thought that she ought to be called Adam and Eve, after the whole human race, since she represents all of us. She also suggested Queen of the Skies and Titania. A little bit of female chauvinism there. Titania sounds too much like Titanic, anyway, and you know what happened to that ship.
"No, you don't. I forgot most of you never heard of her.
"One of the engineers, I forget his name at the moment, he was a crewman on the ill-fated Shenandoah, wanted to name her Silver Cloud. That was the name of the airship in a book called Tom Swift and His Big Dirigible.
"Another wanted to name her the Henri Giffard after the Frenchman who flew the first self-propelled lighter-than-air craft. Too bad old Henri couldn't be here to see the culmination of the airship, the acme of dirigible art, the last and the best and the greatest of all aerial vessels. Too bad the whole human race can't be here to witness this challenge to the gods, the flying gauntlet flung against the face of the powers on high!
"Pardon me a moment, folks. Time for another libation to the gods to be poured down this dry throat instead of being wasted by pouring on the ground.
'' Aaah! Mighty good, folks! Drink up! The liquor's free, compliments of the house, which is the nation of Parolando.
"So, folks, our esteemed ex-president, Milton Firebrass, ex-American, ex-astronaut, decided to call this colossus the Parseval. Since he's the chief honcho, the big enchilada, the boss, that's what she's titled.
"So ... oh, yeah, I started to give you her statistics. Captain Firebrass wanted to build the biggest dirigible ever built, and he did. She's also the biggest that will ever be built, since, there won't be any more. Maybe he should have called her The Loft Is the Best.
"Anyway, the Parseval is 2680 feet or 820 meters long. Its widest diameter is 1112 feet or 328 meters. Its gas capacity is 120,000,000 cubic feet or 6,360,000 cubic meters.
"The skin is of stressed duraluminum| and it contains eight large gas cells with smaller cells in the nose and tail fairings. Originally, she was to have thirteen gondolas suspended outside the hull, the control gondola and twelve motor gondolas, each containing two motors. This exterior mounting was required because of danger from the highly flammable hydrogen. But tests of the gas-cell material, the Riverdragon intestinal layers, showed that it did pass some gas-that's a joke, folks!-and so Firebrass ordered his scientists to make a plastic material that wouldn't-in a manner of speaking-break wind.
"They did so-when Firebrass says jump, everybody sets a new record-and... ? What? My assistant, Randy, says everybody can't set a record at once. Who cares? Anyway, the hydrogen leakage is nil.
"So, the control room and all the motors are inside the hull except for those in the nose and tail gondolas.
"The hydrogen, by the way, is 99.999 percent pure.
"In addition to the crew of ninety-eight men and two women, the Parseval will carry two helicopters, each with a thirty-two person capacity, and a two-man glider.
"But there won't be any parachutes. One hundred parachutes makes a heavy load, so it was decided not to carry any. That's sheer confidence for you. More than I have.
"Look at her, folks! Ain't she something! The sun shines on her as if she's the glory of God herself! Beautiful, beautiful, and magnificent!