The Secrets of Caelcelium [Kaybee & Lord Havelock]

The skies this high were frigid, and although clear, much dew condensed and collected especially on anything which did not rapidly cool to the ambient temperature, or else sizzle away the offending moisture in sizzling steam. Cloth and skin, warmed by the body was the most vulnerable victim when exposed to the air, and the chill that accompanied it, but no pilot or air-crew worth their salt was about to complain. Not with the promise of fortune and rewards on the horizon, and as the sun rose a little higher in the sky, it was clear just what a promising fortune that was. Caelcelium, the legendary air-ship had been considered lost for generations, but there it was, floating with more languid grace than any legend (or anything so large) had a right to. Even at this height, only the keel of the massive fortress-airship was visible, as had been the intention of the mad tycoon, Baron Haerkenfeld who had commissioned it. A high-altitude, hybrid carrier and colony ship, designed to sail in the extreme limits of the upper atmosphere on the most theoretical of principles, as a haven for the greatest minds of the past and repository of their combined knowledge. Of course, given Haerkenfeld’s reputation, he attracted all the manner of unsavory characters as well as more legitimate fortune-seekers looking to get in on the ground floor of a modern marvel. The exact circumstances under which contact with Caelcilum was lost were not known, scarce enough was contact following the launch of the initial superstructure and shipments of raw supplies (by experimental unmanned balloon) fell off. Most presumed some sort of disastrous error in the design or flaw in it’s construction doomed Haerkenfeld’s legacy and all those aboard, but now, looking up into the belly of the beast, the scope of his dream seemed nearly too big to fail.

All gunmetal and bronze, the keel of the great airship itself was ridged and dappled with the amazing apparatus which still kept it aloft, and even the most reckless of pilots would know to avoid the bizarre outputs of whatever lost technology now kept Caelcelium afloat. Their were maintenance hatches and docking ports, still clearly marked thought their luminous signals had since been shut off, apparent in the rising light, but any seeker who knew what they were doing would know to fly higher, to the main docking areas, for a more full survey rather than risk mucking about in decades old engineering sections and works. Besides, how could anyone who’d flown so high or so far lose out on the chance to view the legend in it’s fullness, and what a sight it was: A great sweeping skyscape, with a quintet of towers set in a slightly offset star presented itself, towering over smaller turrets, spires, minarets, and whole raised platforms. Skyways of steel and glass connected and intertwined the buildings in a network of adjoining passages about the upper portion of the sky-ship, and similar sections of honeycombing provided light to the upper decks to form what looked like atriums, open assembly areas and centres, and even gardens and greenhouses.

Despite the glittering majesty of the Caelcelium, resplendent like a bronzed work of art in the morning light, as the eye dwelt upon it, the picture became more . . . unsettling. No pickets or sentry ships were aloft around it, no lanterns or signals illuminated docking areas or even hazards, and not a single sign of visible life could be made from without.

"I wonder how we could ever have lost something so damn big..." Muttered the blonde as she slowly guided her craft towards the outdated docking ports. To call the thing a ship almost seemed like a disservice for the thing was the size of a small city but a ship it was, a massive feat of engineering that hung in the sky too high for the naked eye to see more than a speck of it's majesty. On the side in great brass letters was writ the name Caelcelium but in truth, the ship could hardly be anything else. The old baron had built something one of a kind when he created it and few people had managed to replicate even half of it's inner workings.

The marvel of the mechanisms behind the craft was somewhat lost on Eileen however. Every adventuress and adventurer searched the skies for Caelcelium at some point or another in their careers, be it at the behest of another or for themselves, and all of them had different reasons. The baron had spent a fortune in the creation but there had been much more to his fortune and all of it had disappeared into the ship, withdrawn from banks and taken from private coffers and all of it loaded aboard. Hardly a fraction of it had ever returned in the form of payments for supplies and materials and the rest was somewhere aboard. It was that promise of riches she'd come for, that she'd searched the currents of the wind for so long to find. Her heartbeat hastened as she donned her coat, checking the pockets for the tools of her trade before she pulled fur-lined leather gloves over her hands and buttoned up the front of the garment against the cold of the upper atmosphere.

She stepped out of her ship and onto a walkway, metal guardrails rimed with frost beneath her hands as the wind struck her, whistling in her ears and undercut by a faint buzzing. She stopped... Her first thought being an automated defense of some sort, or a trap, but the buzzing was maddeningly familiar, and a moment later she leapt forwards, away from her ship as a rattle of gunfire sounded harsh in the frozen air, great holes that spilled the lifting gas of the balloon with ease appearing in the envelope as a raucous laugh reached the soldier's ears, a two-engine plane speeding over her head with a roar.

It had been too easy for Romana to sneak up and render the other woman's airship into an unflyable cabin and engines and as she hurtled overhead she saw that she hadn't managed to catch Eileen inside as a familiar head of blonde hair scrambled for the doors. The soldier would be inside before she could come around for another pass but she had been planning on entering the mad baron's sanctuary herself, intent on both the riches and the technology to be found within. She circled again, looking for a runway or a hangar she could make a landing in only to hear a 'thunk from the right wing as Eileen's grappling hook dug into the plane. The soldier couldn't hope that the cord would hold for very long but it would drag Romana's beloved craft off course and into the side of the larger ship.

Of course things were never that easy, and a moment later an ejector seat crashed through the pilot's canopy. Above the Caelcelium Romana deployed a parachute, shaped by her own design to have rudimentary steering. She swooped in towards the larger ship, diving as best she could to avoid the fickle winds that blew in these high places and unstrapped herself as she swung in, rolling to a rest just inside the same entrance as Eileen had stepped through.

The two of them stared at each other a moment and then both exclaimed. "You blew up my ship!"