A Test Flight To The Funeral

"We haven't actually figured out a lot of the important details of how a flight might go, but we have been training the crew on the full-scale test vehicle. Also, I am not sure if you know this, but we haven't even named it yet. So far we just call it the Project. There is one more thing I think might be important. The Project is also a weapons testing platform. What I mean by that, is that the Project is actually a warship." The Project's head mentioned while rubbing the back of his head, "Err and there is maybe one other slight problem, you see we actually don't know how far it can go, we did decide to give it sails the same as a ship meant for water, but we have no idea if they will work or even if the weather at greater heights works the same as ground or water level. Um, we may not even be able to breathe above the height that birds fly."

Emily nodded, "If I go by wagon, on a one month trip, will I be safer than going by Dirigible Aircraft?"

"You will be safer in my Airship, I'd bet my life on it." He responded immediately.

She smiled, "With that being the case, when do you think you could have it ready to fly?"

"I can take you out on her maiden flight as early as tomorrow. I just have to remind you, it will be the maiden flight so we might be forced to abort the trip short of the Holy Chadtom Empire if something unexpected comes up. Also, it's a tradition for a new ship to having a naming celebration before it is launched, I wish to continue this tradition for the airships. So I request that before we set sail for the Holy Chadtom Empire we hold the naming ceremony for our first official Airship." he replied confidently.

Emily nodded and then said, "Very well, where shall we hold the ceremony, Mr. Hudsucker?"

"Without the Dirigible Aircraft port, all we are left with is here at the factory. I'll make all of the arrangements, invite the newspaper and the local dignitaries. You'll probably want to invite the Ambassadors from Fursia and the Windsor Kingdom as well." He replied, "We have a name planned for the ship, but I would first like to ask if you have a preferred naming convention for your warship fleet?"

Emily thought for a moment pacing back and forth, "Are you going to use the model naming convention used by sailing ships, such as Frigate, Ship of the Line and Corvette?"

Mr. Hudsucker shook his head no, he laid out a size comparison chart, "This first type of ship we call a Destroyer. It's a fast attack ship similar to a Corvette. We envision them as antipersonnel vehicles meant to get ahead of our forces and wipe out enemy troops. We are going to build five in total before the next class of airship is built, that will be the Dreadnaught. A ship that is designed to end wars. Its sole purpose is city bombardment. Our fleet will have two of them. The final type of ship in our fleet will be the fast troop transport we call the mothership. We'll build one of these at first, but as our military needs to expand, we will build one of these per two Dreadnaughts."

"A destroyer, well then, I would like to name our first destroyer, 'Zealous'." She smiled.

Mr. Hudsucker's eyebrows rose, "That's... Actually a very fine name for our first Destroyer."

"What were you thinking of naming it?" She tilted her head.

Mr. Hudsucker shook his head, "That name really doesn't matter, it was nothing important."

"You were thinking of naming it after your wife then?" She giggled.

Mr. Hudsucker blushed and coughed into his hand, "My mother if you must know, but your name choice will be much more appreciated by the crew than the Gladys."

*****

A team of one hundred men pulled on a set of three hundred-foot long ropes pulling the massive Airship out of the factory for the very first time. Even those who knew about the project were staring open-mouthed at the massive Airship as it left the building. It hung in the air seemingly as if it were weightless. The top of the ship looked almost like a normal sailing ship with its tall masts and rigging that rose up high into the sky as it left the building. the bottom looked very much like a giant Whale with the same Obsidian like glass as the City Hall forming a dome on the front. The bottom of the airship was tied down to a sleigh that rolled on huge greased logs until it was completely clear of the massive factory building. Mr. Hudsucker spoke into a speaking trumpet, "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for coming out here today for our City's very first Airship naming celebration. On the count of three, our very own Lady Connaissance will name our ship and give it a Champagne bath for good luck! One! Two!, " He paused for dramatic effect, "Three!"

Emily took the big bottle of Champagne and shattered it against a reinforced portion of the hull. As the bottle broke the crowd broke out into a huge cheer, Mr. Hudsucker motioned for the band to play and a powerful victory march sounded out. Some of the men started to gamble on what would happen once they cut it free from the moorings, "I bet it will just float away like a balloon."

"I bet you it'll float for a few minutes and then crash down to Hanston!"

"There's no way they can steer it, I see they have some sails on it, but how do they get it back down again? How do they keep something lighter than the air from just being pushed around by the wind?"

"Did you see Princess Teslaimia up there? I heard she is dating Captain Alexander now."

The crowd watched as Lady Connaissance and Princess Teslaimia and a few soldiers climbed into a gondola which was then hoisted up twenty feet into the bottom of the Airship before a panel slid into place under the hull. Mr. Hudsucker called out to the Crowd again and said, "Lady Connaissance has named her CCAS Zealous!" He pulled a rope and a tarp pulled away displaying its name in black lettering. with the number zero one painted just past the obsidian nose and on one the giant tail fins. Moments later ropes began to drop away from the airship until the crowd could see that the ship was completely free-floating. The sound of a steam engine sounded as the great sails began to unfurl one after another. The could see men on the deck moving around and then a great steam horn sounded three blasts and the ship began to move forward and up.

The men and women watching had their hands bunched into fists, many people openly wept as they saw one of man's oldest and greatest dreams become reality right before their eyes. Men were flying.

A roguishly handsome man in a white uniform with a black jacket walked over to Emily and Teslaimia and smiled, "Welcome aboard the Zealous Lady Connaissance and Princess Teslaimia, I am the captain of this ship, Charles Gibbs, my first officer Nate Butler. I would like to say with confidence you are in good hands as you are riding with the finest Airship crew in the fleet, but being as we are the only Airship crew in the fleet that also makes us the worst."

Nate Butler facepalmed behind the captain as the two ladies giggled at the Captain's joke. The Captain smiled and then said, "I'll give you the grand tour. Nate, you have the Bridge."

Nate Butler watched as the two women left the Bridge he said partially to himself, "Gentlemen I think we must have died when we took off because I just saw two angels."

The Captain explained as they walked, "Our crew was all former sailors, so getting used to the new terminology and equipment has taken a lot of time. We started working with Mr. Hudsucker back in the Windsor Kingdom three years ago. We spent over a year pretending to use the controls to fly a ship in a mock-up. The last few months have been the best, we helped build the ship so that we could fix the problems that might occur while in flight. This ship is like our baby."

He took the ladies down a set of ladder-like staircases into a long high ceilinged room that was stacked from floor to ceiling with gray boxes. The Princess asked, "Are we carrying cargo?"

The Captain smiled, "This is a ship of war, Princess, those crates you see there are all munitions called Bees. This ship has the Murray Beehive as its main armament. We are capable of killing several armies."

The walked forward until the came to a wide-open room Where several men were using huge spyglasses to take navigation measurements and watch for ground activity. This was the area behind the Massive Glass nose cone. The Captain pointed up, "You see that ledge there? That's our Bridge where we met earlier. These men down here are our forward spotters. We have above deck spotters as well who run the ship's sails. Those men wear special clothing because of the cold weather. We don't let any of those men stay on deck long. for this leg of the trip, we are keeping them to one-hour shifts. After we see how things went, we will adjust that on the leg home.

I won't bring you back to the coal room as it is dirty and smokey, but we have two boilers on the ship, they are behind what we call the airlock because this ship is held in the air by twelve Hydrogen gas bags that must never come in contact with an open flame. That's also why you saw we had all those no smoking signs on the ship. In fact, one of the things that will keep you from serving aboard an airship is the vice of smoking. All of our crew can not smoke."

Teslaimia asked, "How long will the trip to the Holy Chadtom Empire take this ship?"

The Captain shrugged as he smiled, "I wish I could tell you honestly. We believe the ship will travel close to three hundred miles per day, but almost all of that is a guess. The builders were able to send a one-man air vehicle ten miles in one hour. But it was using a human-powered propulsion system. Much like a high wheel."

Emily asked, "How high up in the air are we? It feels like the air is very thin here."

The Captain nodded, "Part of our instruction for this shakedown flight was to fly at different altitudes and speeds to look for anomalies. Our normal cruising height will be five hundred feet above the ground which we will hold steady at for the majority of the trip."

"Once we get to the Holy Chadtom Empire, how do we disembark?" Princess Teslaimia asked nervously.

The Captain gave her a sheepish grin, "Well, in theory, we lower you down to the ground by using that basket. I am not sure though if we can keep in steady. So you'll most likely have to make a jump for it once our landing crew gives you the go signal. Getting back up here will be the really tricky part."

A steam whistle sounded through the ship causing the Captain to frown, "Ladies come with me, we are heading to the Bridge."

A few moments later they came up to the Bridge and Nate Butler was shaking his head, "Well, we made it there."

The Captain Frowned, "There? Where do you mean?"

Nate handed the captain his spyglass and then pointed to his right and said, "Look at down there, you see that city? Our spotters have identified that as the Holy Chadtom Empire capital city. I have already started our descent. We are about ten miles off course, but we seem to have made the trip in about eight hours total."

The Captain shook his head, "This can't be right, how many ground miles is it from the city to here?"

Nate smiled and said, "I think it's close to eight hundred miles. Now, in fairness, we didn't follow the road, we flew straight as the crow flies. If I am not mistaken though, we should have picked up a lot of speed thanks to a tailwind. We had to bring down the sails because the topside crew said they were going to break loose."

The Captain called out, "Take us down to one hundred feet, we are going to scare the crap out of them so let's make sure to have the signal flag crew run out our identity before they start flinging projectiles at us. Nate, take the ladies down to the basket and prepare them to disembark. Have the crew bring their luggage as well."

Emily asked, "Captain will you be heading back, we arrived so early that you'd have to wait here more than a week, will your fuel and rations hold out?"

The Captain smiled and said, "We will take the ship back by a roundabout course and review the data. Mr. Hudsucker will want to make changes to the ship and our operating procedures I am sure. We will prepare the ship to return for you in three weeks."