~
Eventually after Tnie had slowed the craft to a stop and taken a compass bearing to the next waypoint, we left the blue waters of the Trad behind us and flew over the red cliffs across dry land once again. The cliffs were high, for it seemed like we had lost many metres in altitude from being over the Trad Ocean to then flying above the Rust Desert, it was as if the land rose upwards to meet us.
At first I found my interest heightened, I spent many hours looking over the side of our vessel at the immensity of the red sands beneath us. It seemed to me we had swapped the vast blue expanse for an equally large red one. But as we flew on, the view became increasingly monotonous, never changing, always the same featureless red sands day after day. There was nothing here but an endless wasteland. At least over the blue ocean I could look out for strange sea creatures or watch the white tops of the waves in continuous motion, even smile at the frolics of the sea birds as they dove and wheeled about. In stark contrast no life existed here, it was just featureless red sand, unmoving and completely sterile.
But just as I was about to give up I spied something below that looked odd. As we drew closer I began to see a peculiar looking structure. More appeared every now and again. Some large, some smaller but all looking like giant metal skeletons sticking out of the dust. Some reminded me of hands stretched upward reaching out of the dust in an attempt to grab hold of anything that may be able to pull the rest of the body from the clinging sands. One I saw looked remarkably like the one forming the main part of the body of the machine in which we flew, but far, far larger and somewhat more complex. I was going to mention this to Tnie but as I turned to ask him a strong gust of wind buffeted against us and the flying machine groaned under the force as it was blown sideways one way, then back the other way. I was getting quite frightened by the violent movement and my stomach was starting to seriously consider discharging this morning’s meal. I looked around at Tnie; he was fighting the controls of his infernal machine obviously trying to keep us on a steady course. Jondris was already at his side attempting to help keep the controls on a level, but even his strength was not winning against the natural force. It was not a single force applying pressure in any one constant direction, but many separate forces all chaotically shifting about, left, right, up, down and in every other direction in between. Eventually after what seemed like hours, the winds, for that is what they were, seemed to die away and we were again left in peace to fly in straight level flight again.
Tnie sighed and sat back in the control chair wiping sweat for his brow.
As we travelled we encountered many such violent winds, some worse than others. After flying out of a particularly bad one Serinae finally releasing her grasp of the side of the machine asked if it was possible to avoid such winds in the future. Perhaps if we flew higher?
Tnie responded, “unfortunately to fly any higher would bring us into the even stronger winds that blow constantly a few hundred metres above the desert. The dark sands heat up during the day and react with the cold ocean currents travelling south along the coast. The result is a turmoil of winds, luckily they stay above the desert, but sometimes pockets of changing air pressure force them downwards and the compressed air tries to escape in any direction it can. I’m sorry but to fly higher would invite far more danger.
I thought of the wrecked craft I had seen earlier decaying in the sands.
But Tnie seemed to brighten and said with a smile, “we are getting close.”
Jondris asked the question on all our lips saying, “close to what?”
“Why my home city of course, to Scienocropolis the city of the Pnook,” said Tnie with a smile.
I looked out over the parapet and glanced all around trying to see a city or any kind of structure that would look like a building, but I could see none, just the endless red desert interspersed with those skeletal metal sculptures. I asked where the city could be.
“All will become plain,” said Tnie.
Łĩnwéé threw up his arms in response to this and uttered, “gagh!”
“I’m sorry,” said Tnie, “but all will be explained soon enough, you will see, it is easier for the eyes to explain than the ears to hear a confusing explanation, believe me.”
As we travelled forward a sound could be heard, faint at first but ever present. But what began as a whisper became a persistent but still quiet roaring sound. It could be heard from every point on the flying machine. The roaring sound got louder that day and into the night. I, like all my companions, were troubled by this, but Tnie repeatedly kept telling us that we should not worry. Sometime during my slumber I slowly became vaguely aware of something nagging at my brain, some sense was trying to get through to me, to warn me of impending danger, slowly I became aware that it was my hearing trying to shake me into consciousness, and I awoke with a start. The first thing I became aware of was an unmistakable roaring noise, not deafening but certainly loud enough to give me some concern. The next thing I was aware of was Serinae's eyes on me and I turned to see her holding out her hand to help me get up and stand, “you have to come and see this Mini.”
I reached out my hand and grasped hers, and as she pulled me to my feet she turned and looked out across the desert, she pointed forward of our craft. Once I was standing next to her I followed her gaze, I gasped in some surprise, for in the low morning light, ahead of the craft all I could see was a cliff wall, red and high and looking very similar to the one we flew over on coming across the continent from out over the ocean. I surmised we were still some distance from the impenetrable mass as it didn’t look to be becoming any closer as we sped along. I glanced at Tnie still at the controls of the craft with his goggles pulled down over his eyes. He was humming some kind of tune and I turned back to look at the view in front of us.
I went below for some breakfast, when I came back on deck the morning light was somewhat brighter, the sun had risen and was shining brightly upon the cliff face in front of us. Serinae gave me the spy glass through which I had seen the other gnome flying ship earlier and I brought this up to my right eye and stared through the lens at the cliff face that so clearly now rose in front of us. The view was very hazy and I thought to adjust the instrument as I had been shown, so I could make out the cliffs more clearly, but no amount of adjustment seemed to bring the cliff wall into sharp focus. I thought maybe some dust had built up on the lenses of the instrument and tapped it sharply on the parapet of our vessel. Trying again to see with some clarity I was dismayed to find that the view was no better. But then I saw something that made me start, I could see movement, rapid movement against the wall of the cliffs, it seemed that the cliff walls were all moving in one direction horizontally. At first I could not fathom this out, but then I realised that what I was seeing was a gigantic sand storm. It was vast, seemingly stretching from horizon to horizon clear across the path on which we were flying, the sand was moving at an enormous speed and there must be billions upon billions of tons of the stuff all flying about. I couldn’t imagine the power of the wind that could result in such a phenomenon. It was as if the wind had whipped up a wall of sand purposely barring our progress. I could not see where this wall started or ended and it was obviously extending thousands of metres into the air.
“Observe,” shouted Tnie suddenly, “the Great Eternal Maelstrom.”
“Yes,” I shouted back, “but what is it?”
Laughing he shouted back, “it is the most fantastic thing, a circular wind a thousand kilometres across, constant in speed and direction, it is caused by the great engines of Scienocropolis and provides an impenetrable barrier to all those that would seek to assail the home of the Pnook. Quite a defensive structure don’t you think?”
“Engines? What great engines?”
Tnie laughed gleefully, “you will see, oh yes m’lady, you will see.”
“But it is directly in our way; surely we cannot fly through it we will be torn to shreds in seconds.”
“Ah yes you are right M
ini, and we will not be flying through it, for there is only one way to the other side. We will have to fly over it!”
“Over it?” exclaimed Łĩnwéé a look of horror on his face.
“Why yes, we must, to reach the city. To fly over that is the only way, the city lies within.”
“Oh great.” I thought the city of our destination is the other side of that storm, I vowed never to eat on this craft again, I could already feel the gut wrenching spasms of my stomach complaining at the violent and unnatural movements we must endure if we flew anywhere near to that storm.
“Can’t we fly around? What about the winds you spoke about earlier that blow higher above the desert?” Jondris asked, already I suspect knowing the answer.
“No, if we were to fly around we would just end up back here again, there is no gateway, no entrance through the storm, it is a circular wind and the city lies in the centre. Over is the only way. Oh and don’t worry there are special features that will allow safe passage and protection from the strong winds that you describe. Do not fear it is a journey I have made many times before.”
We were much closer to the maelstrom now, so close in fact that I could perceive the movement of dust and air with the naked eye.
“How close are we?” I shouted.
“Oh about thirty kilometres I would say,” was the answer. “We don’t have to get much closer, in fact we can’t get much closer without risking the safety of the flying ship and our own life and limb.”
What then was the plan I wondered, if we couldn’t get any closer than thirty kilometres how were we ever going to get over? I felt sure we would be destroyed, yet Tnie did not seem to worry in the slightest, so I resolved to place my trust in his experience and expertise.
Just at that moment Tnie changed our course to run parallel with the wall of wind and dust and it was obvious he was starting to look out for something, what I could not imagine. We continued this flight for a few hours, the wall of wind and dust to our right the red desert to our left, and then suddenly Tnie gave an excited shout and pointed toward the prow of the craft. Everyone came to look forward. At first I could not make anything out. But then ahead I saw it. There, some distance away was another maelstrom, much smaller than the one to our right but never the less still a fast-moving wind whipping up numerous tons of sand and dust from the desert below. It looked like a funnel, completely separate from the massive wall of sand to our right. It too though was sucking the sands into the sky and dispersing them as a red cloud high above our heads. I glanced questioningly at Tnie who gleefully smiled at me in reply for our course took us directly towards the smaller maelstrom.
“There yes, you see it, the smaller funnel of wind, the tornado? That is a side wind, they form naturally when the wind speed on the outside of the big maelstrom drops slightly. It is caused by the air flowing around the outside warming up in the sun. The air on the inside stays cooler but flows faster, so a spinning effect occurs. These maelstroms are formed and are squeezed out of the side.”
But before I could utter any kind of concern Tnie shouted to all of us to get dressed in the protective leather coats and helmets he had given us before we took flight from Amentura. We retrieved the gear from below decks and all started to don the gear on the deck above. By now we were getting quite close to the Tornado, the sound of the rushing wind and the colliding grains of sand were quite deafening. I had on the leather cloak which covered me from head to foot along with the face mask and I instinctively put up the hood of the cloak and drew upon a cord that tightened it around my chin. The sound of the winds diminished dramatically, and for this I was thankful. But my nose wrinkled at the smell that assaulted it for the inside of the suit smelled of tanned lather, a bit like stale urine, mixed with just as stale sweat and the sickly acidic smell of vomit. My stomach churned. Tnie pointed at his back and it became apparent that each cloak had a large pocket at the rear and on investigation I found a stout pair of gauntlets of the same material as the cloak, these I placed over my hands. I glanced at my companions; we all sat there looking like so many sacks of grain. No sooner had we all sat back down along the sides of the machine, Tnie shouted a warning for us to hold on tight. We were plunged into darkness as we entered the smaller but still mighty sandstorm that was the Tornado.
All hell broke loose. Protected by the heavy overalls I could safely look out at the storm as it engulfed us. I could barely see my hand in front of me for the wind contained so much sand and grit it was like looking through the haze of a murky silt laden river. Remarkably I could not feel the full power of the wind, I later assumed this was because we were moving at the same speed and direction as the wind or at least nearly the same speed, the remainder of the force was taken out by the heavy cloaks we were wearing. The most horrible part of the whole experience was the feeling in the pit of my stomach, I had felt this before when we rose out of the hanger in Amentura, but this was far worse, it was obvious we were rapidly rising.
I don’t know how long we were in the wind but all of a sudden Tnie pulled a large lever at his side and a slatted metal vane appeared to rise on the opposite side of the vessel like a silver sail, as it rose higher and higher the machine started to buck around violently, then I could feel the vessel starting to tip as the slatted sail caught the flow of wind on that side. Obviously the metal vane as it rose was changing the way that the wind was affecting the flight path of the vessel, for once the vane stopped moving and I assumed therefore was extended fully, we seemed to slip sideways and all of a sudden were plunged into brilliant daylight, again I thanked the tinted glass of the face mask for the sudden increase in sunlight did not hurt my eyes and my vision remained good.
But in hindsight, perhaps it would have been better if my vision was impaired, because on looking over the side of the vessel I gasped and gripped the gunwale until my fingers must have turned white for we have increased our height tenfold. We were now far above the desert, thousands of metres above everything, indeed a short distance away the maelstrom in which we had travelled looked like a dark tunnel for we were higher than the gapping open mouth at its apex. From this height we could look down inside the tubular structure of wind, sand and grit in which we had just travelled as it snaked down towards the ground. Looking across the desert I then realised we were also much higher than the lip of the massive circular maelstrom that surrounded the city. It was like looking down on a black billowing cloud of moving smoke. But we were right above the curved moving wall and moving across it! The smaller maelstrom had taken us up and right over the great maelstrom! Then we started to descend rapidly and I closed my eyes.
We must have only fallen for a few seconds but it was enough, as soon as we felt stable once again I tore off the hood and face mask and turning I knelt on the bench and vomited over the side of the machine. I was not the only one either. Jon who seemed to be the only one apart from Tnie to remain unaffected busied himself by gathering up as much of the gear as he could and made to stow it away again in the lockers below. When I started to feel better I noticed a glint of sunlight reflecting on something and for the first time saw an ornate brass fitting upon the lip of the rail that ran around the ships side. Jon had obviously seen this to because he hesitated for a moment and then ran his fingers over this fitting. I suddenly realised that actually it was the same clasp I had noticed once before but where as originally it had appeared dull and discoloured it was now shining like a new pin. I looked around our vessel and suddenly realised that it looked shining and new, lots of ornate fittings, metal shapes that before had just faded into the general grubby look of the vessel could now be seen all shining and new looking. I marvelled at this and then it dawned on me the whole vessel and everything in it had been blasted by such force by those tiny fragments of sand and grit that it had taken all the tarnish off the metal fittings and fixtures which all now shone as new.
I laughed, it was remarkable. “Well,” I said to Tnie, “at least you will not have to clean the ve
ssel before returning it to its owner.”
He gave an awkward smile in return.