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The flyer slowly rose upward. They were within mere yards from the Argent. For a moment it appeared they were going to crash into the forward viewscreen. Billy could see Pat Garrett, Ekka and Edgar Burroughs looking out at them—but the flyer rose the last few feet they needed and the flyer shrieked to a grinding metal halt on the upper surface of the spaceship.
The upper hatch popped open a few feet away and the three men hurriedly abandoned Dejah’s personal flyer for the safe confines of the ship.
“Billy!” Ekka called as he entered the bridge. She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.
Avinash Rathmandu and John Koothrappally followed him and Ekka’s eyes widened as she recognized John.
“Oh my God! John!”
“My lady Ekka,” Koothrappally said.
Ekka released Billy and hugged Koothrappally, who seemed somewhat overwhelmed at the show of affection.
At that moment the ship lurched, and Billy held out a steadying hand to his friends.
“What was that?” he asked.
“We’re being fired upon,” Pat Garrett stated.
“The Golden Man?” Ekka asked.
“It came from directly below,” Edgar said. “It must be him.”
There was a red flashing light and somewhere below the unmistakeable hiss of released steam.
“The Golden Man just took out something. I think it was our water storage tank.”
“Get this thing in the air!” Billy commanded.
Edgar looked at Ekka briefly, and a silent communication passed between them. Edgar resumed to his seat and pulled back on the stick.
The Argent lifted into the sky.
[ 102 ]
Below the fleeing Argent, on the Martian surface, Dejah Thoris watched the rising craft until it was lost from view.
“Goodbye, my friends,” she whispered.
PART V: TO JASOOM
(January 24, 1899)
[ 103 ]
The Argent lifted fast into the reddish sky as the bloody passengers looked through viewing portals at the planet’s surface. The ongoing battle still raged. Silent explosions bloomed below them like rose-colored puffballs, and the armies were tiny ants on the surface.
As Ekka doctored the wounds from the glass shards on Billy’s back, Billy said, “Edgar, use the telescope and see if you can make out what’s happening.”
Edgar set it up and scanned the battleground for several minutes. “Dejah and her army are beating them back.” He looked at Billy and the others with wide eyes, “They’re outnumbered ten to one, but they are beating them back.”
Pat finished wrapping the deep cut in his forearm, “Having John and Ian on their side will help.”
Edgar said, “You can say that again. I can pick out where they are and the enemy is falling left and right around them. It’s like the enemies are wheat and our two friends are mowing them down like they were swinging scythes and piling up straw.”
As the ship increased speed and rose higher, they could see the curvature of the planet. Koothrappally stepped to Billy’s side and said, “Will we be able to reach Earth while it is still close enough? My calculations show us going much, much too slow, which will be causing our home planet to speed beyond our reach. That is, unless our fuel supply is unlimited.”
Billy said, “It’s not. We’ll continually increase our speed as we leave the red planet, and calculations made by us before the initial trip showed we will complete the trip home in fourteen days.”
