“So I’ll be able to enter the Sky Angel that way?”
“Yes.”
“Why was the connection built in the first place? Why did the Sky Angels come here?”
“This was where they were officially commissioned into service. A christening ceremony was held here in the Sky Tower each time a Sky Angel arrived from space.”
“Christening ceremony?”
“They would be given names.”
“Oh, I see.”
Since then she had been wondering what to call her Sky Angel when it arrived. The obvious choice was to call it the Minerva, but she also wanted to name it after her dead friend and lover, Alsa.
She mentioned the name problem to Ashley. Ashley said, “Oh, that’s easy. You can just name it after me! Call it the Ashley Vee. After all, I will be the Sky Angel.”
Jan was not impressed with this suggestion. “In that case I might as well call it the Carl, because he’ll be controlling the Sky Angel as well.”
“Oh, he doesn’t count. I’m the one who’s really in charge.”
“Yes, I know.” Jan remembered the situation in the shelter. She had carefully avoided mentioning the sudden turnabout in ‘Carl’s’ policy regarding visitors to the shelter. It occurred to her that establishing and maintaining control of the Sky Angel once Ashley’s program was in its computer might be more difficult than she had anticipated.
She spent an uncomfortable first night in the summit room. The cold and the hard floor made it difficult for her to get to sleep and when she did finally drift off she had a bad dream. She was back in her mother’s house in Minerva. There was a knock at the door. She opened it and there was Ceri, unharmed and smiling at her. Jan happily went to embrace her, but as she got closer Ceri’s face began to change … it became horribly seamed, like the faces of Ezekiel’s followers. Ceri cried out for Jan to help her, but Jan could only back away in revulsion. Then the seamed and sagging flesh had begun to fall away from Ceri’s face until finally there was only a grinning skull. …
Jan had woken up at that point. As she lay there shivering she wondered if the dream meant that Ceri was now dead.
“Jan. Wake up.”
“Um … What?” she opened her eyes. Everything looked unfamiliar for a few moments, then her memory supplied the necessary information to her consciousness that made the interior of the summit room seem once again all-too-familiar. “Carl … what is it?”
“The Sky Angel has just appeared over the horizon. You should be able to see it from here. It’s coming from a southwesterly direction.”
Jan bounded up from her sleeping roll and ran for the door that led out to the observation deck. The sun had just risen and the sky was clear of clouds. Eagerly, she scanned the horizon. There! Something glinting in the sunlight. It had to be her! The Sky Angel. At last. …
Four days ago it had seemed that everything was going to end in disaster. Carl had been describing the Sky Angel’s descent into the upper atmosphere: “It’s entering the exosphere now. Retro-rockets still firing … Speed reducing to four thousand, eight hundred and forty miles per hour.”
“Why is it moving so fast?” Jan had asked. “Why doesn’t it just float down through the air?”
“It has a mass of several thousand tons. Slowing an object with such a mass involves the expenditure of a lot of energy which the rockets are not capable of providing. They do not have sufficient fuel. They will slow the Sky Angel down and the atmosphere itself will be used as the actual brake.”
“But I still don’t understand why it can’t float down,” persisted Jan. “It’s full of gas, isn’t it.”
“No,” said Carl. “The helium is still in liquid form. There would be no point in starting to fill the gas cells until the Sky Angel enters the lower levels of the atmosphere. Without air density there is no lift … Speed now four thousand two hundred miles per hour. Retro-rockets still firing. The Sky Angel will start skimming the upper levels of the ionosphere at any moment. …
“Temperature of outer hull is starting to rise … Heat shield functioning. …”
“Heat shield?” Jan asked.
“A temporary covering on the outer hull. Ceramic interlocking scales. Like glass. To protect the Sky Angel from the effects of the friction. Will be automatically discarded when … MALFUNCTION! MALFUNCTION!”
The sudden increase in volume in Carl’s voice gave Jan a fright. “What’s wrong?” she cried.
“Two of the rocket motors have shut down prematurely,” said Carl, his voice back to normal. “The Sky Angel will enter denser atmosphere at too high a velocity.”
“But you said the atmosphere itself was going to be used to slow it down.”
“The rockets are still needed at this stage. There has been a malfunction in the fuel supply. Blocked line. Or the fuel has leaked from the tanks. Information not available to me yet … Speed is still four thousand miles per hour … too fast … remaining functioning rocket motors not sufficient in power. …”
“What will happen?” Jan asked worriedly.
“Heat shield may be burnt off … or the intense buffeting may destroy integrity of the hull and the Sky Angel will disintegrate. …”
“Oh no!” she cried, dismayed. “Can’t you do anything?”
“No. The program in the on-board computer is attempting a compensatory manoeuvre, but I have no control over its actions … the Sky Angel is now at an altitude of 350 miles—well within the ionosphere. Hull temperature still rising … I have now lost contact with Sky Angel A810 JLX. …”
“What do you mean? What’s happened? Has it blown up?”
“Condition of Sky Angel unknown. I have lost all radio contact with it. Cause may be intense ionization around the Sky Angel, due to friction, which is interfering with signals.”
“What’s ioni … Oh, it doesn’t matter … just tell me what’s going on!”
“I can tell you nothing.”
A minute went by. Another and another. Jan was in an agony of anxiety. To have got this far and then to have lost everything at the last moment. …
“I have re-established contact with the Sky Angel,” Carl announced, as blandly as ever. “Heat shield is still secure. Speed down to eight hundred miles per hour. Just entering stratosphere. No serious damage has been sustained. Rocket motors being ejected now. Liquid helium being converted to gas. Gas cells being inflated … Thrusters activated. …”
Jan had given a whoop of delight and wished she had someone to hug.
That had been four days ago. And now the Sky Angel was at last in sight.
Yes, it was clearly visible now and heading straight for the tower. Unlike the Sky Lords it wasn’t covered with markings, patterns or giant eyes; apart from where the sun-gatherers glinted in the early morning sunshine its hull was white. Pure white.
Then she saw the other airship. It was well behind the Sky Angel but obviously following it.
A Sky Lord.
And it wasn’t alone. There was another one, even more distant.
Her stomach began to churn. The two Sky Lords could only be the Lord Pangloth and the Perfumed Breeze. The warlord was coming.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Carl!” she cried in panic as she ran back into the summit room. But it was Ashley who answered. “Hi! Isn’t it great? In a few minutes we’ll be on the Sky Angel.”
“Where’s Carl?” Jan demanded. “I must talk to him.”
“Well, you can’t,” said Ashley petulantly. “It’s my turn to have the voice now. You two talked together long enough.”