Patchwork Earth Book 1: Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Chapter 16

Bose knew he had a stupid grin on his face, but he didn’t care a lick. Since he’d been a boy, his favorite dreams had involved flying somehow. Well, either flying or French women, but he wasn’t going to admit those quite as readily. His only complaint about the flying contraption was that he had to hold his hat in place so it wouldn’t blow off. But, it was worth it to feel the wind blowing in his face. The sense of speed was like nothing he’d ever experienced before.

Goto seemed less enthused as he clung to his seat so hard his knuckles were white. Bose wasn’t going to let the samurai’s bad mood get him down.

“You’re awful good with this machine, Ms. Klai.”

“Why thank you,” she said, her voice a little shaky. “I’m a little bit out of practice, but it’s like riding a saurian.”

“Human beings were not meant to fly,” said Goto. “Otherwise, we would have wings.”

“You didn’t seem worried on the ship,” said Bose.

“If the ship can plummet, so can this dingy,” replied Goto. “We are over the jungle now, Klai. We should land.”

“Landing. Yes.” The delphen eyed the controls, and Bose thought her clicks sounded decidedly worried. “Too many takeoffs and landings might use up more energy than simply floating. In fact…” She put her webbed foot on a contraption on the floor near the yoke, and they came to a standstill over the jungle. “Before we get too far in, we should figure out a plan.”

Bose thoughtfully scratched his moustache. He had been due for a trim before arriving in San Francisco, and it itched something fierce. He shoved the thought aside. He doubted they even knew what a barber was in Klai’s homeland. Maybe Nathalie had a point about the Blessed Oasis being a savage place.

He shoved that line of thinking aside. “I guess we fly until we see something interesting. We can go a hundred miles, after all.”

“A hundred miles is not as much as it seems. We could easily be stranded if we are not careful.” Goto had let out a sigh of relief when they stopped, but he was right back to sounding anxious. Bose couldn’t blame him, he supposed. He realized he thought of the samurai as high strung, but when had they ever known each other without some crisis weighing on them.

The cowboy checked around the small craft and found himself a spyglass. “Exactly what I was hopin’ for. Seems to me if that ship crashed somewhere, we might be able to see some sign of it. Klai, can you get us higher?”

“Yes, of course.”

Goto cursed under his breath as the delphen tilted the yoke back and clung to his seat like a lifeboat. Bose decided to be careful and sit down himself.

He couldn’t be sure how far up they were when Klai declared it wasn’t safe to go higher, but he barely stifled a curse of his own as his guts twisted. “Goto, you might have a point about humans not being made for these heights.”

“I always have a point about everything I say,” replied the samurai. “See what you can see and let’s get back to ground level.”

Bose almost expected Klai to say something teasing to Goto, but she kept her mouth shut. Bose noticed that the delphen’s webbed hands were trembling a little too, and the almost imperceptible whine of the dingy’s engine seemed a little more insistent than before.

“Well, let’s get to it.” From above, Bose was struck by how small the jungle was compared to the vast desert that surrounded it. The Blessed Oasis lived up to its name, though, with dense trees in every direction he could see. He couldn’t spy any signs of civilization, which told him they were best off not using their fuel to get aid from the delphens.

He had to correct himself; the tree line wasn’t completely unbroken. To their north was a thin line of bare dirt that started and stopped suddenly. He would never have spotted it from their original vantage point, but it didn’t match the rest of the terrain.

Bose turned his spyglass on the empty space and let out a triumphant whoop. “There’s paydirt! Right over there.”

Klai let out a relieved whistle as the boat began its descent. “Oh thank goodness. I’ve never taken one of these so far up before.”

Bose felt the blood leave his face. “But you knew it could handle it, right?”

Klai didn’t answer the question. Instead, she twisted a dial on a small compass near the control yoke, pointing an arrow in the direction of the missing trees.

“Wait, you weren’t sure?” Goto stood again once they were closer to ground level. “You insane woman, I thought…”

She accelerated, knocking Goto back into his seat. It was a brief journey to what Bose had assumed was a crash site. “Land us here, Klai. If there’s trouble, I’d rather be able to face it head on.”

“Not right in the opening,” added Goto. “I see a small clearing over there. This vessel is very quiet; we might be able to sneak up on them if we approach on foot.”

“Agreed.” She deployed the landing gear with the flip of a switch and they came to a halt near the bank of a small stream.

Goto hopped out, and Bose couldn’t help but smirk. The samurai looked as overjoyed to be back on terra firma as the cowboy had been to experience flight.

Bose followed suit. Klai was fussing with something he couldn’t see up in the boat, and he offered a hand to help her down once she was ready. She took it with a grateful nod.

“Ms. Klai, you ought to hang back. We don’t know what we’ll find out there.”

“What for? She’s a warrior, as you will recall.” Goto dusted himself off and checked his weapon. “She very nearly slew us the first time we met.”

“That was before I knew you,” she protested.

“I did not mean it as an insult,” replied Goto. “Quite the opposite. You can handle yourself.”

“She doesn’t have a weapon,” countered Bose. “What’s she going to do if there’s bandits out there?”

“I took care of that.” She held up a curved blade that reminded Bose of a Bowie knife. He hadn’t noticed the sheath around her waist until just then.

“Where’d that come from?” asked Bose.

“That spyglass wasn’t the only useful tool they left us.”

“And to think that y’all don’t like Nathalie,” said Bose. He held up his hands to forestall the others’ objections. “And I get it, I do. I’m not lookin’ for a fight. Let’s get along.”

“I’ll go first,” said Klai. “I know the Oasis best.”

Bose tipped his hat to her. “Ladies first, then.”

This section of the Blessed Oasis resembled the mixed swampland where Bose and Goto had fought the shoveltusker. The bamboo grew tall and thick, and Bose was impressed by how easily Klai was able to navigate the tight spaces. She even used her knife to try and widen the path for them, which the burly cowboy was glad for.

Finally, they reached the newly made clearing. Bose had been astounded that La Récompense Éternel had been able to fly, but ruined airship was easily twice as long and three times as broad. At least, it had been. The wooden airship lay on its side like a beached whale, and the exposed sections were pockmarked with holes. He wondered if it had been the cannons of another airship.

Goto pointed at the vessel. “It’s already covered in vines. Just how fast do the plants grow around here?”

Klai puffed out her chest with obvious pride. “There’s a reason we call this place blessed. The soil is amazingly fertile.”

Bose couldn’t disagree with her. The crash couldn’t have been more than a day old, but already the Blessed Oasis had claimed the vessel. Small creatures that didn’t quite look like bats or birds were making their way along the hull, chasing unseen insects. He checked with the spyglass and he could make out bamboo shoots regrowing where their parents had been demolished.

“Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, that crash must’ve been a sight. That thing went through the bamboo like a scythe through wheat.” Bose removed his hat and put it over his heart. “Poor devils. I don’t see how anybody could’ve walked away from that.”

“It wasn’t easy, Romish,” gurgled a voice from behind them. “Your people saw to that.”

He spun on his heel, and an octopus-like Tralingan emerged, leveling an unfamiliar rifle at them. The bizarre weapon didn’t have a tube that Bose could see. Instead, it ended in something that looked like a metal dish with a long pin extending from it. He didn’t know how the gun would work without a proper barrel, but he knew a weapon when he saw one.

Whatever mirth had been in Septus’ rectangular eyes was completely absent in this stranger. Where Septus had been entirely nude, this creature wore torn khakis designed for their extra limbs and a wide brimmed hat.

“Bose, we’re surrounded,” cried out Klai.

If Bose narrowed his eyes, he could see more of the strange weapons glinting in the bamboo stands.

“We knew you scavengers would come eventually,” continued the Tralingan. “You have much to answer for.”

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Thanks for reading!

Chapters 17 & 18: https://www.patreon.com/posts/42977608