Unobtainium 1: Kate on a Hot Tin Roof (30 page)

There was no response for a second and Antonia was beginning to wonder whether he had heard her. ‘Good God, madam! What are you flying?!’ Apparently the lookouts on the ship had spotted the airship. ‘We are in the harbour. There is an airship dock just inland. Over.’

‘Doctor Barstow-Hall knows it, Captain, and we will explain everything when we are off this horrid thing and aboard your vessel, but we must make all haste. A young woman’s life depends upon it. Over.’

‘I’ll have men waiting with an ambulance. Over and out.’

The Empress of the World.

Of course, it was not going to be as simple as asking. Captain Hemming was, as one would expect of a man in command of the most powerful ship on the planet, a career officer, a gentleman, and a practical man. He fitted the image well too: he was tall with broad shoulders and a handsome face, though his nose had been broken at some point which seemed to indicate that he was not entirely a desk sailor.

‘The reactor?’ Hemming asked.

‘Yes, Captain,’ Charles said, trying his best not to sound like he was explaining the problem to a simpleton. ‘Miss Felix has a unique physiology. I am sure you were briefed on the matter.’ That got a nod. ‘I have formulated a drug which can replace the radiation treatment she needs, but her supply was lost when we were shot down. She has been without for over three days and is weakening rapidly. I need to get her into the reactor room as soon as possible.’

‘That room is extremely dangerous. The shielding is–’

‘I am, perhaps, more aware of the potential dangers than you are, Captain. Miss Felix is highly resistant to the effects and she needs the radiation. You are using Katheros aboard ship now, are you not?’

‘We are?’

‘And how many men have required treatment for radiation sickness since you began using it?’

‘None.’

‘Katheros is derived from Miss Felix’s blood. Without her, your engineering staff would be getting sick and slowly dying.’

Hemming sighed. ‘While I see that there are grounds to consider the charges invalid, Miss Felix is still a wanted criminal.’

‘Then she is under arrest, sir,’ Antonia said from her place beside the chair Kate had been more or less forced into. ‘You are required to bring her in for trial. She will not survive the voyage back to England so if you wish to discharge your duty, I suggest you allow us to treat her.’

Hemming nodded. ‘I need to seek clarification from London anyway. I believe you know the way below decks, Doctor.’

~~~

The reactor room was hidden away deep in the bowels of the aft section of the huge ship. Antonia and Charles assisted Kate to it down several flights of stairs and, finally, a ladder. Someone had provided a large, dark blue coat for her to put on, which was not making things easier, but she was not yet entirely immobile even if she was moving slowly and with some difficulty.

‘This deck seems thick,’ Antonia commented as they descended the ladder.

‘It is, and composed of layers of adamantium and lead,’ Charles replied. ‘At Greenwich we had the luxury of setting the reactor within yards of concrete and could use less plating. Here, even with this amount of shielding, the engineering staff above are subject to an abnormally high exposure to the reactor’s radiation.’

‘You two will leave as soon as I am inside,’ Kate said.

‘We will do no–’

‘Sharles, I can manage the doors and I will not have you exposed longer than necessary. I would be grateful if you could put on a suit and retrieve me after an hour. I feel I may fall asleep in there.’

‘I’ll do it,’ Antonia said immediately.

‘It should really–’ Charles began.

‘Really, Charles, you should be used to us by now. I am, apparently, dead. I suspect the radiation will have less effect upon my body than yours.’

‘Unfortunately, I cannot find a flaw in your assessment, Antonia. Upon our return to England I plan to engage in a brisk exercise regimen in order to return my masculinity to its proper proportions.’

Kate giggled. ‘We
have
seen you with your shirt off, Sharles. We have no doubt of your masculinity.’

‘None at all,’ Antonia agreed.

Wisely, Charles chose to stay silent, instead turning to the large door they had arrived at and turning the wheel. ‘There is only an antechamber here, no two-room system. Once you are through the door on the other side you are within the reactor room.’

Kate nodded and began unbuttoning her coat. ‘Please take these away and return the coat when I am ready to leave.’

‘What do you want me to do with the furs?’ Antonia asked. ‘We could ritually burn them on the foredeck if the Captain will permit it.’

‘Oh no, I’ll keep them. I don’t have any fur and I’m not sure I believe in it for decoration, but the animals are already dead and one never knows when one might be called upon to play a barbarian princess.’

Antonia eyed her suspiciously, but she said, ‘I’m sure the Captain has a cabin for us. I’ll put them there for you.’

‘Thank you.’ Naked, Kate nodded to Charles and he pulled open the door. The heat from the reactor was evident even though there was still a door in the way, but Kate walked in and waited for the outer door to close and be sealed before she tried the wheel of the inner one. It was heavy in her weakened state, but she managed it and the cool blue light of the reactor filled her vision. With a sigh, she walked into it.

~~~

‘I am happy to have an escort, Captain, but I will require a visit to the town.’ Antonia was wearing her best ‘I am serious’ expression to impress upon the man that she was firm in her resolve.

‘You are under arrest, Mrs Wooster,’ Hemming said. ‘I am required, theoretically, to lock you in a cell, not send you out shopping.’

‘But you do not plan to incarcerate me and we will be sailing for England as soon as they have replied to your enquiry, I have no doubt. At that point, incarceration will be moot since jumping overboard is not something I plan to do, and I would prefer not to spend the entire voyage in my cabin. Moreover, when Miss Felix is recovered enough, some exercise will aid in her healing. Unless you wish her to perambulate in a fur loincloth, and me to be seen in this blood-stained, indecorous ensemble, I must purchase some suitable dresses.’

‘Captain,’ Charles said, ‘if I may be so bold, it is generally unwise to argue when a woman wishes to buy a dress. This holds doubly so when her reason for doing so is quite so logically defined as Mrs Wooster’s is.’

Hemming gave a sigh. ‘Very well. When Miss Felix is in the infirmary I’ll have you escorted off the ship. Kindly minimise your activities and return as soon as possible.’

‘Of course, Captain,’ Antonia replied, smiling.

Mombasa.

Antonia’s first purchase was two pairs of sunglasses. Kate would need a new pair to hide her eyes, and Antonia felt distinctly more comfortable once her eyes were shaded from the glare by the almost black lenses.

Not entirely comfortable, however. Her skin had never been especially good in the sun, but now it felt as though she was burning whenever she stood in direct sunlight. In the thirty minutes it took to get to Fitzlawrence’s, the skin on her chest was distinctly reddened and she felt slightly sick. She stopped off on the way through to the ladies’ clothing department to purchase a parasol in the hopes that it would stop the same happening on the way back.

‘Mrs Wooster!’ Mrs Fitzlawrence ran the women’s section and had done since Antonia could remember. Her figure had gone a bit in that time, but she was an advocate of the corset to assist where age tried to undo one’s good works, and she had a bust suggestive of twin mountains under her high-collared dress. She cruised across the floor to meet Antonia and her two guardians, a galleon under full sail. ‘Such a surprise, and in such an… avant-garde ensemble.’

‘It is to replace these rags with something more suitable that I am here, Mrs Fitzlawrence. Unfortunately there was an… incident and all of my party’s clothing was lost. I need two dresses, one for my friend who is currently bed-ridden. As luck would have it, I have purchased garments for her before and know the correct sizes.’

‘Very good. Will your… gentlemen friends be staying?’ Her gaze took in the two men with mild distaste.

Antonia glanced back. ‘We will be needing undergarments… Perhaps you gentlemen would care to wait by the door. I promise not to slip out the back.’ The ratings looked mildly relieved as they threaded their way back through the shop. Antonia could not really blame them. She turned back to Mrs Fitzlawrence. ‘Do you stock gloves?’

The Empress of the World.

‘I admit that the dress
is
an improvement, Mrs Wooster,’ Hemming said.

Antonia favoured him with a smile across the table they were sharing with Charles and Moorbridge in the officer’s mess. ‘It is rather more comfortable than a blouse designed for a man.’ She had discovered that, while she had no appetite, she was still capable of eating solid food. And so far she had developed neither fangs nor a desire to sink them into someone’s neck. The beef they had been served actually tasted rather good.

‘Well, as you will have noticed, we are underway. I got my orders and they remain more or less unchanged. With Mister Moorbridge’s testimony to back your own, and the knowledge that Alfred Cooper was, in fact, alive, you are to be returned for confirmation after which the charges will be formally dropped.’

‘That is good to hear,’ Charles said.

‘As for the issue of the mine you’ve discovered, I was asked to tell you that some ministry or other would be contacting you regarding the matter.’

‘That sounds like it could be less good news. However, I shall reserve judgement until I hear what they have to say.’

‘Probably wise,’ Antonia said. ‘Kate should really be here for this.’

‘She needs rest. You saw her when she came out of the reactor. It will be a few days before she is back on her feet.’

Antonia nodded. She had never seen Kate looking so tired, or weak. The girl, who had such physical power and dynamism normally, had barely been able to stand though she had said that she felt better. ‘I hope it will be soon.’

~~~

Kate looked at the bowl of soup which had been placed before her, a sour expression on her face. It tasted quite good and she had managed half of it without too much difficulty, but now her body was telling her that she had had enough.

‘Nurse?’ The young man on duty looked up at her, giving her a smile. She was getting a lot of those and was not entirely sure whether it was indulgence, or the fact that she was an attractive young woman lying naked in a bed. She would take either at the moment. ‘I think I’ve had enough for now. Thank you.’

‘You should really try to eat some more,’ he said to her, but he lifted the tray from her lap anyway. ‘Your skin is looking a little reddened.’

‘It’s a bit sensitive. I must have…’ She trailed off as a wave of dizziness swept over her. ‘Oh… Uh, I don’t wish to alarm you… Perhaps you should get… I’m going to pass out now.’ Her head fell back onto the pillow and her eyes fluttered closed.

The nurse quickly checked her pulse and then bolted for the intercom.

~~~

‘Radiation burns compounded by the existing organ deterioration,’ the doctor said. He was talking to Charles and Antonia, but Moorbridge and Hemming were standing nearby. ‘Her condition is quite serious.’

Charles gave a nod, but he said, ‘Get her through the next twenty-four hours, Doctor, and she’ll recover faster than you would imagine.’

‘Frankly, sir, given her body mass and the amount of radiation she must have absorbed, she has already amazed me. I’ll keep her alive, but you are looking a little red yourself, Mrs Wooster. You didn’t take damage from the radiation, did you?’

Antonia waved the question away. ‘I was barely in the thing for two minutes and I had a suit on. Horrible contraption. I don’t know how you put up with it, Charles.’

‘It’s better than have parts dropping off,’ Charles replied.

‘There is that. No, this is simply sunburn. Pale-skinned and blonde are not a combination suitable for Africa, in truth. I’m usually more careful. I’d like to stay with her, if I may, until she wakes up.’

‘That could be morning,’ the doctor pointed out.

‘Well, this room is not short of beds if I wish to lie down.’ Which was true; the ship had four, five-bed infirmary units. The doctor gave a nod and walked off towards Hemming.

‘I have not noticed your skin burning so readily prior to this,’ Charles said in a low voice as they moved closer to Kate’s bed.

‘It seems that my skin reacts badly to direct sunlight much as my eyes do. A parasol was sufficient to keep it at bay, however. And I live in England so the sunlight should not be too much of an inconvenience.’

‘You make light of your circumstances, but this new state still worries me.’

‘I make light of it because I do not believe there is anything to be done about it. I shall learn to cope. I shall not attempt to stop you from finding some means of returning me to normal, however. I know that I could not do so even if I were to feel like trying.’

Charles smiled. ‘I believe we are beginning to understand each other quite well, Mrs Wooster.’

‘Indeed. So if you don’t stop calling me that when propriety does not demand it, I shall become quite incensed.’

‘We would not want that, Antonia.’

She smiled and reached out to take Kate’s hand in hers. ‘Always a quick learner, Charles.’

5
^th
September.

Kate regained her senses after little more than an hour, but complained of a headache and spent the remainder of the night drifting in and out of sleep. By morning she was looking healthier, but she was still weak and Antonia decided that she needed to be fed a bowl of cereal. For some reason, the nurse on duty found this quite fascinating.

‘I have not been fed like this since I was… a lot younger,’ Kate said before dutifully opening her mouth for a spoonful of milk and cereal.

‘Cooper actually fed you?’

Kate swallowed and nodded. ‘It was not for long; while my coordination was insufficient to manage it myself.’