Каарон Уоррен - The Lowest Heaven

It seem’d to me that, as the Poet says, tho’ this was folly, yet was some wisdom in it. For the Patien do act most peculiar, eccentric to common sense; and it is true both that we outnumber they, and that they are as sensible to hurt and corporeal death as we. But still I could not credit they would permit us to lay our hands upon their devices, without some attempt to restore them to themselves, if their intent were hostile.

But why, Kindermann press’d me, have they come hither at all?

As to that, I reply’d (though all the time judging my moment) it was idle to speculate, since we lack’d all evidential circumstance. And whist the plan of amity amongst all nations was both noble and prudent, it would be more directly accomplish’d by Charles of Spain suing for peace than in struggling on with a battel beyond his powers to win.

At this Kindermann began a pompous speech, and thereby elaborated a precarious stratagem; that we would steal ordnance from the Patien camp on the Tranquil Sea, and return heroes to Spain; that the blame for the destruction of the Casa Cristala would be thrown on the Patiens, and humanity unite in outrage against these alien creatures, aided by the fact that His Catholick Majesty would be newly arm’d with a Propulse (plus whatsoever else we obtain’d from our current raid). That a new alliance of all the world’s people would unite to return to the Moon and vanquish the Patien. They ly’d, he repeated, by way of refrain or slogan, when they claim’d to have come from the Star Sirius (such a provenance being a patent impossibility); what else have they ly’d about?

I judged my moment to have come. Moulville, I am sorry to say, had stopp’d breathing some minutes previous; and as I hope to stand straight before CHRIST after my last day so I do swear I intended no disrespect to that brave fellow in how I used him. But needs must when the Devil drives us, as the proverb goes &c., and the fate of nations was weigh’d in the balance, against only my meager purposiveness. So I lifted him (easy to do, since the Selenic charm upon his corpus had rendered it littel more than a small Child’s in weight) and toss’d him at Kindermann.

This naturally surpriz’d the Pilot, for he did not expect to have a human adult thrown as one might throw an apple at a beggar. The collision startl’d him from his position and press’d him against the wall, tho’ he took no serious hurt. Luck did not wait upon me, however; for I hop’d to rush him and wrangle him down (for tho’ he was younger and larger than I, yet the thinness of the ayr must incommode him) before he could discharge his pistol; but I found my limbs ineager and rebellious to my commands, and only with great weariness could I move across the floor towards him. I know not how to excuse my sluggishness in prosecuting my attack, save only that the thinness of ayr may have debilitated me more than I knew.

My heart lollop’d, if truth be told, when I saw Kindermann aym his pistol direct in at my face. A moment stood between me and death; but then the trigger tripp’d the hammer, and the weapon did not discharge. For fire, even when bundl’d so small as a Spark, needs ayr, and there was an insufficiency thereof in that place, then.

I am sorry to say my grappling with the Pilot was but a poor fistfight; and I panted and strain’d for ayr like any asthmatick. Kindermann threw me off, and I flew further than I thought to. But Cano recover’d his courage (and perhaps it was only that the pistol had affright’d him, and it being remov’d from consideration his courage return’d) and joy’nd the struggle. To make brief, tho’ Kindermann clubb’d him with the buttress end of his gun, yet did Cano overwhelm him; and tho’ the Pilot brought up a knife, with which he certainly intended to do great hurt to us both, in the struggle he sheath’d it again in his own side, and fell away yelping like a puppy. Alas that he fell near the Propulse, for in his grief and hurt, and the bitterness of defeat, the demon of Suicide seiz’d him and he grasp’d the device; and plung’d the Cometes straight at the ground. This happen’d so quick, indeed, that I could do naught to ameliorate our flight, and fell struck my head painfully against the wall, hard enough to loose a stream of blood. And almost at once, it seemed, we were dashed upon the Selenic ground.

Mere chance dictat’d the site of our collision, and it so happen’d that GOD threw a handful of dust under our tiller, or we would have been broke open and chok’d to death in moments. But though we surviv’d the first impact, yet the Vessel bounc’d and leapt back in the air, and came down again athwart a ridge-peak. The fabrick of the walls gave, at this blow, somewhat, and air hiss’d loudly. We tumbl’d down the far side, and roll’d the compleat circumference of the Vessel thrice, before we came to rest on the plain. But though this brought cessation to our fall, yet it damag’d the hull further, and the whole Cometes groan’d pitifully, and shook and jerk’d with the discharge of its air into the Lunar night like a live thing. I, by chance, had fall’n near the spigot, and somehow gather’d myself to turn this enough to let the air flow; and in truth there was now such a breeze blowing, that the air was suck’d hard from the balon and blown out upon the Moon. But I breath’d easier, and brought Cano to the spigot also, for he was turning blue. So we refresh’d our lungs, and being daz’d with the blow to my head and somewhat shaken out of comfort by the crash, I did not for a time realize that the whole balon was deflating at a accelerated rate. Only when it ran dry—many days’ supply of breathable, gone in a few minutes—did I realize our danger.

We had but one other full balon, and before I released the spigot on that I order’d Cano to assist me in making such repairs as we could to the breaches in our hull. This was no easy matter. Three or four we found soon, and they patch’d them as best we could; but the worst was the corner, which was stov’d in quite. Kindermann’s body was here, and the draught of air had suck’d his body half outside, such that tho’ we pull’d him back in (and we were gagging and coughing on the thinness of ayr) his face was white with frost, and strands of his beard broke away like icicles, and his eyes so blackened it look’d as though they were fill’d with black ink. So perish’d this traitor, tho’ it was pitiful to see him in such a state for all that.

By stuffing his body back into the breach and cramming around it with what came to hand we in some measure seal’d our breach; and I was compell’d to open the second spigot or we would both have choak’d to death. But our situation, in honesty, was parlous; for we were marooned on the Moon; and it was hard to see how we should shift ourselves, or survive another twenty-four hours.

Our attempt’d flight

We arrang’d the interior of the Cometes into as good an Order as we could, and laid out Purser Moulville as best we could, with respect for his sacrifice and his bravery in life; and as Captain I said a prayer for his soul. To hold a hand near Kindermann’s boddy was to feel a draught of air, which stood in proof of the insufficiency of the seal at that place where the fabrick of the Vessel was breach’d. This was my severest anxiety; for it would devour our ayr more quickly than we could afford; and swiftly I revolv’d the possibilities before us. In short, words cannot express the wretched condition we were in, or the surprize we were under of being so unfortunately wreck’d at a place more distant than the furthest South Sea island.

I discuss’d with Cano what options lay before us; they being, 1, that we attempt flight, and the Navigation by means of the Propulse, with the hope that the Cometes could be caulk’d or otherwise made tight sufficient to the journey (except that it was many days flight, and that it was most uncertain whether moving the wreck might not reveal greater damage to the Fabrick of the whole); or, 2, one or other of us strike out wearing the indiarubber suit in the hope of finding succour; or, 3, we abided where we were in the hope of rescue. As for this latter, it was surely a forlorn hope that any so much as knew of our predicament, and we might wait until the breathable was used up and so drown in dead air. My thoughts inclin’d to the second option, but from whom might we expect help, in this distant place, the Cristal House being destroy’d? Naught but the Patiens themselves. At this juncture Cano very gravely made a proposal to me, that tho’ he was a traitor, yet might Kindermann have had some merit in his suspicions of these beasts, and he declar’d himself disinclined to encounter them, calling them Very Devils and other such appellations. As for Kindermann, we both agreed, tho’ his treachery was wicked, he had been sufficiently recompens’d for it with ignominious death.