Tom Fleet was a bit of a misfit as the second son of a minor English noble in the 1880s. Once he finished his schooling he had little to do. His grandfathers had left him adequate finances for his needs and with his elder brother set to take the title, he gave in to his fascination with gadgets and began to tinker and invent. His goal was to create a sky craft to go to the moon. Surely if Jules Verne’s characters could go there and many other places, he could do as well.<br><br>Rowan Farrell followed in his Uncle Gordon’s footsteps, joining the UniFleet, but went a step farther and became an officer. Assigned to his first command level post, he takes a small patrol ship out to scout a region of interest to the Council and report if any signs of the enemy Angevirian Empire in the area. When one of his crew spots a strange, tiny craft, he decides to capture and study it. After all it could be an Angevirian Trojan horse. But the odd cylindrical vessel holds only one man, unconscious and suffering from hypothermia and lack of oxygen. When the man comes to, he claims to come from the earth ... five centuries in the past!

Tom Fleet’s Machine

Besides his steam-powered sky-ship, he had a few more adjuncts to tinker with such as the development of the suction device, a small by-pass off the main engine for tea making, and perhaps even some kind of steam-driven light source. Trying to carry gas into the air to fuel a lamp seemed a risky affair at best. Once he had them done and connected, he’d get his craft airborne, unfurl the gossamer wings, and ride the currents of the ether wherever they might take him. Surely to the moon, if not farther…


Listlessly shoving food around on his plate, he focused on a scrap of paper he dragged from a pocket and scribbled a new idea with a stub of graphite while he ate. He barely noticed his father’s frown or his mother’s small head shake, a gentle, wordless rebuke to her spouse to leave the lad alone.


Chapter 2