The bow of the Lord Pangloth finally made contact with the surface of the sea. It was a brief encounter; nothing more than a kiss, though it shattered windows and ruptured the hull in several places. The next encounter was longer; the third one was for keeps.
Very slowly, the Lord Pangloth settled the length of its mile-long body upon the ocean. Its space-born girders screamed at having to endure strains they were not designed to take. Water rushed in through shattered windows and hatches that had not been designed to resist the weight of the sea.
Within its honeycombed lower hull, the Japanese fled the rising waters, which carried not only the threat of death by drowning but other dangers as well, as the first sighting of a long and sinewy tentacle probing its way down a corridor had made only too clear. …
The surface of the sea was slowly creeping up along the great windows of the throne room. Water began to spill along the floor, but the warlord still remained oblivious of everything. Even when one of the windows behind him imploded to admit a mass of water, he didn’t react. His throne, and his body, were sent hurtling forward. Then the shock of the icy water dragged him, screaming, out of his mental refuge. Automatic survival responses were too strong to resist; he fought and struggled in the churning black water. Then something below its surface took hold of him.
Jan woke early again, and lay there feeling the weight of the future pressing down on her. So much to do; so many responsibilities. … Her plans were still vague but the basic idea, which she had discussed with Ceri, Ashley and Carl, was to defeat all the other Sky Lords and bring them under her control in the same way as she had with the Perfumed Breeze. Carl had produced a copy of his and Ashley’s programs which had been introduced into the Perfumed Breeze’s computer system. Carl had already brought the other airship’s system back up to full working capacity using the robots and spare electronic parts stored in the Sky Angel. The Americanos and the Japanese on board had no way at all of regaining control of the airship.
She had told the two groups they had the choice of living together in peace on the Perfumed Breeze or being deposited on the ground. The Americanos, who outnumbered the Japanese, naturally wanted their revenge on their former tormentors, and Jan had been obliged to leave many of the spiders on board as a temporary measure to keep the two sides apart. A delegation of Americanos had asked why they couldn’t move on board the Sky Angel, where there was plenty of living space. Jan told them that she would accept some of the women and their children, to relieve the pressure in the crowded Perfumed Breeze, but no men would be permitted on board the Sky Angel, with the exception of the two Minervan men she had discovered, to her surprise and joy, still alive on the Japanese airship.
Conquering all the Sky Lords would probably take years, and after that Jan’s plans became even vaguer. She had hopes of somehow harnessing the laser power of the whole fleet of tamed Sky Lords to scour the blight lands surrounding the remaining ground settlements. The Sky Angel contained stores of frozen seeds and animal embryos—it might be possible, with the sky people and the ground dwellers working together under Jan’s control, aided by the invaluable Carl, to start reclaiming large areas of land back from the blight.
Her other central concern was how to re-establish a Minervan society. It was vital to preserve and pass on the precious Minervan genes. She would have a baby each from the two Minervan men, but then what? Have the men breed with ordinary women? It would dilute the Minervan genetic mix, but perhaps it would be better than nothing. Minervan genes would be spread.
She was abruptly seized with a feeling of nausea. Taking care not to disturb Ceri she hurried out of bed and went into the bathroom. She was sick in the basin. When it was over she washed her mouth out, then splashed water on her face. She saw Ceri appear in the mirror beside her, an expression of concern on her beautiful face. Ceri was almost back to her old self, physically anyway—though her frequent nightmares, and her vehement expressions of hatred towards all men, told Jan that the emotional scars of what she went through at the hands of the Japanese men would take a long time to fade.
Ceri put her arm around Jan’s shoulders. “This is the third time in a row you’ve been sick in the morning,” she said worriedly.
Jan gave her a reassuring smile in the mirror. “I’m okay. I feel fine most of the time. I think it’s just reaction to all my worries and problems.”
“Even so, I think you should have yourself checked out by one of those medic machines.”
“I will, when I have the time.”
“Do it right away, for my sake,” Ceri pleaded.
Jan turned and kissed her on the lips. “For you, anything.”
She looked at the screen in disbelief. “I can’t be pregnant! It’s impossible! My breeding time is still almost a year away!” Carl said, “There is no mistake. The machine is in perfect working order.”
Jan turned desperately to Ceri. “How can I be pregnant? It’s crazy! Even if it were possible for me to be impregnated I haven’t made love to any man since Prince Caspar … and according to this machine fertilization occurred exactly seven weeks ago. …” She stopped. She remembered what Milo had done to her. On that horrible night in the blight lands.
It was his child. She knew it.
“Milo,” she said dazedly. “He did it. He wasn’t human. Who knows how his seed had been altered by his genegineers, or what it was capable of doing to my own reproduction system.” She clutched at Ceri and stared with panic into her eyes. “What am I going to do?”
Without a pause Ceri said coldly, “Kill it.”
Jan shook her head. “No. No, I can’t do that. I’ll have to have it. Mother God, please may it be a girl!”
An hour later Jan had calmed down considerably. She was in the control room, alone. With Carl and Ashley flying the Sky Angel there was no need for any crew. She stared across the desert towards the strange, flat-topped hills on the horizon. The Sky Angel was searching for the Lord Matamoros, the Sky Lord which ruled the area immediately to the south of the Lord Pangloth’s territories. Carl predicted that interception would occur any day now, and Jan wanted to be in a capable state of mind when the encounter occurred.
She was coming to terms with the knowledge of what she carried within her. Even if the baby turned out to be male, all would not be lost. He would be carrying her genes as well as Milo’s. That meant there was a good chance he wouldn’t be anything at all like Milo.
She thought of Milo’s skull, which she kept stored in a locker in her quarters. She could see the grinning jaws, sense the arrogance that Milo displayed even in death, and it made her feel even more determined.
She was going to beat him.
She had to, for Minerva.