"Ah," Alek said softly. "Of course."
This Great War might have stretched across the world, but it had all started with the invasion of Serbia, for which Alek#8217;s family was to blame. His father - heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne - and mother had been killed by a group of Serbian revolutionaries, or so everyone thought. In reality the murders had been plotted by Alek's own granduncle and the Germans. But tiny Serbia had been the first victim of Austria's revenge.
Captain Yegorov's eyes narrowed. "Wait. Is that . . . an Austrian uniform?"
Alek looked down at himself, and realized he was wearing his piloting jacket thrown over grease-stained mechanik's overalls.
"Yes. Hapsburg Guards, to be precise."
"And you're the prince of Hohenberg, you said?" Captain Yegorov shook his head. "The archduke's son, on a British airship? So the newspapers were telling the truth."
Alek wondered how Eddie Malone's ridiculous articles had made it to Siberia. "Some measure of it, anyway. I am Aleksandar."
The man let out a dry laugh. "Well, I suppose if a Clanker inventor can switch sides, why not an Austrian prince?"
Alek nodded, the words finally sinking in. Nikola Tesla - inventor of wireless transmission, the Tesla cannon, and countless other devices - had joined the Darwinists. Count Volger would be fascinated to hear this bit of news.
"What are you two blethering about?" Dylan asked. "Has he told you yet why that Clanker boffin is here?"
"Mr. Tesla appears to have joined the Darwinists," Alek said in English. He turned to the captain again. "But why are you all in Siberia? Mr. Tesla is an inventor, not an explorer."
"He was searching for something in that fallen forest." Captain Yegorov shook his head. "I have no idea what."
Alek remembered the strange device in the ship's belly. "Something metal?"
The man shrugged. "It could be. A few days ago his soldiers excavated a huge hole, and he was quite excited. After that we retreated inside the wire to wait for rescue."
Alek turned to Dylan, roughly translating. "Tesla was looking for something here, something secret. He may have found it a few days ago, whatever it was."
"Blisters. That means it's come aboard." Dylan looked down the crowded corridor, full of men with heavy packs but no Tesla. "They've taken him forward to speak with the officers."
"Do you suppose they'd want to meet Captain Yegorov?" Alek asked.
"Aye, they would." Dylan smiled. "And they might need a translator as well."
A marine guard stood at the entrance to the forward corridor, keeping back the Russians. But he saluted when Dylan approached, and listened as the boy explained who Captain Yegorov was, and how he spoke no English. A few minutes later Alek found himself and the captain being taken forward.
"Watch out for that bum-rag!" Dylan called, then turned away to face the throng.
"I see no reason for this man to be here," Tesla said, giving Captain Yegorov a cold stare. The man said something short and sharp in Russian back at him.
Dr. Barlow spoke in a calming voice. "This is a difficult moment for us all, gentlemen. Our ship is full of men and empty of supplies. The expertise of another airship captain is welcome here."
Tesla gave a snort, which the lady boffin politely ignored.
"If you please," she added to Alek. "My French is a bit rusty."
As he translated her welcome for Yegorov, Alek heard a murmuring overhead, and glanced up to see both Bovril and Dr. Barlow's loris hanging from the message lizard tubes. They were repeating everything, relishing the sounds of a new language.
Captain Yegorov bowed. "You have my thanks for rescuing us, and I appreciate the dire situation you are in. But it's no fault of mine. That madman ordered his soldiers to kill my airship. Food for the bears!"
Alek translated the last part into English haltingly, not quite believing what he was saying. The Leviathan's officers looked horrified as well.
After a moment's silence Dr. Busk cleared his throat. "It is not our place to pass judgment on what has happened here. We are on a rescue mission, nothing more. Perhaps we should all introduce ourselves." He turned to Captain Yegorov and said in slow, untidy French, "I am Dr. Busk, head science officer aboard His Majesty's Airship Leviathan."
As Dr. Barlow introduced herself and the captain, Alek noticed that her French was flawless. He wondered why she really wanted him here.
Mr. Tesla looked bored and irritable, tapping his cane and grimacing as pleasantries went around the table. But when Alek introduced himself, the inventor's eyes lit up.
"The famous prince!" he said in English. "I've been reading about you."
"Ah, you, too," Alek sighed. "I had no idea the New York World was so popular in Siberia."
Mr. Tesla laughed at this. "My laboratory is in New York City, and you were the talk of the town when I left. And by the time I passed through Saint Petersburg, the czar's court was also buzzing about you!"
An unpleasant feeling came over Alek, as always when he thought of thousands of strangers discussing the details of his life. "Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers, Mr. Tesla."
"Indeed. They claim you're pulling strings in the Ottoman Republic, and yet here you are aboard the Leviathan. Are you concealing the fact that you've become a Darwinist?"
"A Darwinist?" Alek dropped his eyes to the table, suddenly aware of the Leviathan's officers in the room. "I don't know if you could say that. But if you've read about me, you know that the Clanker Powers plotted my parents' death. The Germans and my granduncle, the Austrian emperor, are to blame for this war. I only want to end it."
Mr. Tesla nodded slowly. "We are both servants of peace, then."
"A noble sentiment, gentlemen," Captain Hobbes said. "But at the moment we are at war. We have twenty-eight extra mouths to feed, and we have dropped most of our supplies onto the tundra to make room for them."
"Airships certainly have their limitations," Mr. Tesla said.
Alek ignored the man, quickly translating Captain Hobbes's words into French.
"If we head straight toward the airfield at Vladivostok, we'll all survive," Captain Yegorov said. "It's two days away. We won't starve, and for water we can scoop up snow without landing, as Russian airships have done for years."
Alek translated, and Captain Hobbes gave a firm nod.
"We're grateful that you have joined our side in this conflict, Mr. Tesla, and the czar has asked us to offer any assistance we can. But I'm afraid Captain Yegorov is right. We can't take you back to Saint Petersburg just yet. We'll have to keep heading east."
The inventor waved his hand. "It doesn't matter. I haven't decided yet where I wish to go."
"Thank heaven for small favors," Dr. Barlow said quietly.
"After we resupply in Vladivostok, we may have to complete our mission in Japan," Captain Hobbes said. "But I won't be sure until the Admiralty's orders reach us from London."
"If you only had wireless," Tesla muttered. "Instead of those ridiculous birds."
Captain Hobbes ignored this. "In the meantime we shall have to ration our food carefully." He looked at Captain Yegorov, and Alek repeated his words in French.
"We are airmen. Of course we understand," Yegorov said. "We've all missed a few meals since arriving in Tunguska."
"Tunguska," said Bovril from the ceiling.
Dr. Barlow glanced up at the beast, then asked in French, "Is that the name of this place?"
Captain Yegorov shrugged. "The Tunguska River passes through this forest, but it hardly has a name."
"Not yet," Tesla muttered. "But soon everyone will know what happened here."
Dr. Barlow turned to him, switching to English. "If I may ask, Mr. Tesla, what did happen here?"
"To put it simply, the greatest explosion in our planet's history," the man said softly. "The sound bke windows hundreds of miles away. It flattened the forest in all directions, and threw such dust into the air that the skies went red for months around the world."
"Around the world?" Dr. Barlow asked. "When was this exactly?"
"The early morning of June 30, 1908. Back in the civilized world the atmospheric effects were barely noticed. But if it had happened anywhere except Siberia, the event would have filled all mankind with astonishment."
"Astonishment," Bovril whispered softly, and Tesla paused to give the beast an irritated stare. Alek glanced out the navigation room's slanted windows. Even at this height, he could see that the fallen trees stretched out endlessly.
"I came here to study what happened, and soon I shall report my results." As the inventor continued, he placed a heavy hand on Alek's shoulder and turned his gaze to him. "When I do, the world will shudder, and perhaps at last find peace."
"Peace? Because of an explosion?" Alek asked. "But what caused it, sir?"
Mr. Tesla smiled, and tapped his walking stick three times upon the floor.
"Goliath did."
Chapter Nine
"He is quite mad, of course," Alek said.
Count Volger drummed his fingers on his desk, his eyes still locked on Bovril. Dr. Barlow had handed the creature to Alek as the meeting had broken up, and Alek hadn't stopped to leave it in his own stateroom. The news was simply too extraordinary to wait. But now Volger and the beast were staring at each other, a contest that Bovril appeared to be enjoying.
Alek pulled the creature from his shoulder and placed it on the floor. He stepped closer to the stateroom window. "Mr. Tesla says he did all this from America, with some kind of machine. Six years go."
"In 1908?" Volger asked, his eyes still fixed on the beast. "And he's waited until now to tell the world?"
"The Russians wouldn't allow a Clanker scientist into their country," Alek said. "Not until he switched sides. So he couldn't study the effects firsthand. But now that he's seen what his weapon can do, he says he's going to make the invention public."
Volger finally tore his eyes from Bovril. "Why would he test this weapon on a place he couldn't visit?"
"He says this was an accident, a misfire. He only wanted to 'create some fireworks' and didn't realize how powerful Goliath was." Alek frowned. "But surely you don't believe any of this."
Volger turned to stare out the window. The Leviathan was nearing the edge of the devastation, where only the youngest trees had fallen. But the massive extent of the explosion was still apparent.
"Do you have another explanation for what happere out ere?"
Alek sighed slowly, then pulled out a chair and sat down. "Of course I don't."
"Goliath," Bovril said softly.
Count Volger gave the beast an unfriendly look. "What do the Darwinists think?"
"They don't question Mr. Tesla's claims." Alek shrugged. "Not to his face, at any rate. They seem quite pleased that he's joined their side."
"Of course they are. Even if the man's lost his mind, he can still show them a trick or two. And if he's telling the truth, he could end the war with the flick of a switch."
Alek looked out the window again. The magnitude of the fallen forest, and the fact that Volger wasn't laughing outright at Tesla's absurd claim, made him feel queasy. "I suppose that's true enough. Imagine Berlin after such an explosion."
"Not Berlin," Volger said.
"What do you mean?"
"Tesla is a Serb," Volger explained slowly. "Our country attacked his homeland, not Germany."