“Look, you crazy ghost, this is important! There are two Sky Lords right behind the Sky Angel! Tell Carl! He’s got to do something!”
“Jesus, there’s no need to be rude, Jan!”
“Mother God, help me,” Jan groaned. “Look, you talk to Carl. Tell him about the Sky Lords.”
A brief silence, and then Ashley said, “Carl knows about the Sky Lords. He says that the Sky Angel will arrive here a full twelve minutes before the first of the pursuers. That will give you plenty of time to get on board. With us, of course.”
Jan didn’t share Ashley’s or Carl’s confidence. How long would it take for the Sky Angel to link up with the Tower? And then she would have to get all the way from the nose to the control room. How long would that take? She wasn’t even sure she would know the way to the control room. She ran back out on to the observation deck. The Sky Angel was close enough to look intimidating in its vastness. Its shadow was beginning to fall across the outskirts of the city.
She saw that the Sky Lord behind it was the Lord Pangloth, which the warlord had taken over. She gazed at the third airship, the Perfumed Breeze—was Ceri on board? Was she even still alive?
She drew a deep breath and returned inside. “Ashley, I must talk to Carl!” she cried loudly.
“Oh, all right.”
“Carl?”
“I’m here.”
“What do I do when the Sky Angel arrives?”
“When it links up to the tower I will give the on-board computer the command to open the entrance and authorize your entry. Then you will take our software from this computer and take it on to the Sky Angel. You will then insert it into the onboard computer.”
“Yes, but will I have time to do all that before the warlord gets here?”
“That is doubtful,” admitted Carl. “But what can the warlord do even when he arrives? The Sky Angel is protected by its automatic defence system.”
“Oh, he’ll do something—don’t worry about that,” she said grimly. She went and began to gather up her belongings—her back-pack, weapons harness, canteen, remaining food … She froze when she heard someone coming up the spiral staircase, then relaxed when she saw it was Frusa.
The panther looked at her and said, “You smell of fear.”
“I’m not surprised,” Jan said. “Look, I’m going to be leaving here very soon. You can come with me if you like.”
“Where go?”
“In a big, er, thing that flies through the air.”
“A Sky Lord?”
“Well, yes.” Damn panther. “A Sky Angel, actually. Will you come?”
“What cat eat?”
“Eat?” Jan frowned. That was a good question. “Well, I’m sure there will be supplies on board.” She hoped there would be supplies on board.
“Fresh meat?” asked the panther.
“Uh, I doubt it,” admitted Jan.
“Cat stay here.”
Jan was secretly relieved. As much as she owed a debt of gratitude to the panther she still felt she couldn’t trust her completely. “Very well. Thank you for everything. Take care, Frusa.”
The panther made a noise in the back of its throat, then turned and abruptly left. Strange animal, thought Jan.
“Jan, the Sky Angel is about to link up with the Tower,” announced Carl. “There will be some vibration.”
Jan waited. The floor shuddered and she heard a distant clang. The Sky Angel was here.
“I have authorized your boarding of the Sky Angel,” said Carl. “I will shut down. Remove the software now.”
Jan went to the computer. She pressed the button that ejected the software tubes. They emerged with painful slowness. She had to wait for the other five to emerge before she could get the one containing Carl and Ashley’s programs. But in her eagerness to take hold of it as it came out of the machine it slipped through her sweaty fingers and fell with a heart-stopping clunk on the floor. Jan stared down at it in dismay, expecting to see it slowly disintegrate. But it looked to be still intact. She bent down, gingerly picked it up and scrutinized it closely. Was it her imagination, or was there now a hairline crack running down its length?
No time to worry about it now. She slipped the tube in her pocket and ran for the door leading into the tunnel.
As the door opened she saw that the tunnel now extended much further. The circular door had disappeared and she realized she could see all the way into the Sky Angel.
She rushed down the tunnel and found herself in a round room with a dais in its centre and three tiers of comfortable seats surrounding it. There was soft music playing. A pleasant, sexually neutral voice said, “Welcome. You are on board Sky Angel A810 JLX. I have been authorized to admit you, but I have not been informed whether you are part of the delegation that will be attending the christening ceremony or a maintenance technician.”
“I’m here to christen you,” Jan said quickly. “Your name is now Alsa of Minerva.”
“It is?” The voice sounded puzzled. “But the normal procedure hasn’t been followed. By what authority do you—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jan interrupted. “I have to get to the control room. What’s the quickest way?”
“I’ll have an escort take you there,” the voice told her.
“What? An escort?” said Jan, surprised. Surely there were no living beings on board.
A door slid open on the opposite side of the circular room and a large metal spider scuttled in on its six metal legs. Jan started to back away from it, drawing her long sword as she did. “There’s no need for alarm,” said the spider in the same sort of pleasant and reassuring voice as the room. “I’m your escort. Please follow me.” It began to retrace its steps towards the open door. After a few seconds hesitation Jan followed it. She guessed it was a machine like Ezekiel, though she hoped it didn’t contain a human brain.
She followed the spider, whose body consisted of a shiny metal sphere about a foot and a half in diameter, down a long corridor and then into an elevator. Jan noticed that there was music playing in the elevator as well. As the elevator began to descend the spider said pleasantly, “Beautiful day for the christening ceremony, isn’t it?”
Jan, who had been regarding the creature with some nervousness, started to laugh.
“Did I say something funny?” asked the spider, sounding pleased with itself.
Still overcome with laughter, Jan couldn’t answer.
The elevator doors opened on to another corridor. The same music played here as well. Jan couldn’t get over how unfamiliar everything looked on the Sky Angel—without all the alterations, deteriorations and grime accumulated over the centuries in the Sky Lords it was a whole different world. The corridor that stretched ahead of her had a light blue ceiling, white walls and a thickly carpeted floor. There were murals on the walls and the lighting was soft and pleasant on the eyes.
“This way,” said the spider, scuttling off.
The doors opened on to a more familiar scene. She recognized the control room, even though it was very different from the one on the Lord Pangloth. “Here you are,” announced the spider. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No. Just wait here,” Jan answered distractedly. She hurried to the rear of the control room and peered out through the curving glass, trying to see how close the Lord Pangloth was, but the great expanse of the Sky Angel’s hull obscured her view. She looked down and then saw, to her alarm, another huge shadow lying across the city beside the shadow of the Sky Angel. The Lord Pangloth had to be very close indeed. She groaned.