The City of Gothia
One degree is not a large distance.
On a compass it is scarcely
the thickness of a finger nail.
But in certain conditions...
...one degree can be a very large distance.
Enough to unmake a man.
Jasper!
Jasper, a letter!
The Mysterious Geographical
Explorations of Jasper Morello
It had been three months
since my last voyage.
And I had begun to believe
that I'll never fly again.
Thus when my embarkation order
arrived from the authority...
...I felt like a condemned man
reprieved from the gallows.
I hoped that captain Griswald
had seen fit to pardon me as well.
Get off my ship!
I see the authority has
given me little choice.
But I'm not tolerate
another mistake, do ye ken?
Yes, sir!
Some assistence, gentlemen?
It's an honour to have you with us, sir.
Though I had not been informed
that we were carrying a passanger...
...I was delighted to see
it was Dr. Claude Belgon.
Controversial Biologist from the Academy.
Get away!
Help me!
- It's sickness!
- He's infected!
Come away, child!
Help me!
Morello!
Coils and oils, Mr. Kemp?
Charged and hot, sir!
Mr. Kemp, airscrew
to 100 revolutions.
One hundred, sir.
Morello, we are in your hands.
Is there a difficulty, sir?
Mr. Morello?
No, captain.
Revolutions stabilise.
Ready to lift.
Buoyancy is regular.
- Pressure steady.
- Lines away!
Up ship!
As the airship lifted
so did my heart.
But my joy at leaving was tampered
by the knowledge that Amelia was not.
- Get them inside, there are others coming.
- Yes, matron.
Administer sulphur, saline drip
and to ward 12.
- Yes, what is it?
- Surgery's clear.
Our city was ravaged by a sickness
of appalling virulence.
In my absence I prayed
that my darling would stay safe.
Through the horizontal and
the vertical we draw faith.
Their bodies shall become ash and they will
become the air itself until once more...
August 10th.
A new traderoute has opened up
with the republic of Lawrentia...
...allowing supply ships
to reach our beleaguered realm.
Our task was to lay beacons
to enable wireless communication.
The doctor's task was to study us.
That man.
As Airmen rarely contracted the sickness...
...he had convinced the Academy
to fund a study...
...in the belief, that some quality
of elevation might lead to a cure.
Yes, Doctor.
His critics thought it unlikely.
So did the crew.
The ant has a marvellous society...
Though the doctor was more than
a decade my senior, we got on famously.
The formicidae are remarkable.
Each can lift ten times its own weight.
Indeed!
Perhaps we should fashion
our diet after theirs.
Many pleasant hours were spent
in hypothesis and postulation.
Morello!
- Get back to yer chart!
- Aye-aye, sir!
You're a patient man, Morello.
I could not bear that oaf hounding me.
He was captain on my last voyage.
I made an error.
- Starboard 2 degrees.
- Are you certain, Mr. Morello?
No, it's starboard 3 degrees!
But it was enough to kill a man.
As with the ant every man has a purpose.
He must serve that purpose,
no matter the cost.
When this voyage is over,
we will never again be parted.
Then we can begin our family.
Yes.
Fly safely home,
my handsome navigator.
- Women...
- Doctor?!
They can carry themselves into the future
through their ability to procreate.
But a man can only do so
through his work!
We, men of science, should stick together.
August 12th.
A violent tempest came upon us.
Increase buoyancy!
Full absorb!
Steam and iron were useless
in the face of nature's onslaught.
For 14 hours we ran before the wind
far from the trade route.
Triple revolutions!
- Burn the bearings if ya have to.
- Aye-aye!
Position, Mr. Morello.
Momentarily, sir.
- Ship ahead!
- Starboard turn, full reverse!
What the hell's devil?
- Kemp, lumen!
- Lumen, sir.
Hieronymous
The envelope's ruptured! We're sinking!
Abandon ship, abandon ship!
In one fell stroke,
the resolution was destroyed.
And with it, my career.
Ahoy, the Hieronymous!
Ahoy!
Ahoy, the Hieronymous!
I'll teach these damned fishermen
to run without lights.
Ahoy!
Morello.
Get off ya cots, ya laggards!
What the blazes?!
Attacked by pirates is my guess.
Genus Lepidoptera?
Surely not...
Inside the refrigeration chamber
the fetour struck me like a blow.
But apart from putrefying piscine
carcasses the place was empty.
Did ya think ya find
something fishy here, sir?
My God!
We cannot ignore what has occurred,
I must insist!
We have a duty to science
to discover exactly what happened!
Science be damned!
I'm taking her back.
- Captain!
- Mr. Morello?
They were fishing in uncharted air.
Perhaps they caught something unexpected.
The Academy would compensate us
generously for a new species.
Do ya not understand?!
I've lost my ship!
I'm ruined!
The laws of salvage will give you this ship.
If you take me to the Island, I'll make sure,
the Academy doubles your fee.
I'll remind ye we have nae compass.
But we have a navigator.
Do we not, Mr. Morello?
August 13th.
Without a compass, I set our course
by dead reckoning.
Our new direction would take us deep
into unknown air.
Out of transmitter range and
any possibility of rescue.
A week longer, my darling,
no more, I'm certain.
Take what time you need.
Your welcome will be all the warmer.
Amelia!
A cold, nothing more.
Amelia!
She has the sickness.
- Please captain, take me back!
- She is beyond your help, lad.
Take me back!
Careful, man!
Kemp, stay your level.
Resume heading.
Amelia.
Borealis.
No, souls of the dead, that is.
That evening, Lebrun came down
with the sickness.
To my great relief, the captain
announced he was turning for home.
The Academy will issue
an ongoing contract...
Then purse overcame compassion.
- Kemp, resume heading.
- I began to believe that...
...the next time I saw Amelia
would be in the hereafter.
- Course, Mr. Morello?
- Maintain course and speed.
Are you certain?
Port 3 metres.
Starboard 2 metres.
Port 2. Port 1!
Zero clearance!
Ah you've killed us all this time.
Steer to five-five degrees.
Well done, navigator.
Yes, yes, a triumph.
Captain, will you give the order to land?
Take heart, lad.
You'll soon be with your wife.
Kemp?
- I'll stand watch.
- Fine.
Kovacs, let's see what victuals
this mudheap has to offer, ej?
The volcano, my boy!
Heat is a great begetter of life.
As we foraged...
...the air rang with a sound
like none I had ever heard.
It drew me with such power
that I wondered...
...if we had stumbled upon the abode
of the fabled Sirens.
It seemed impossible...
...that such an unremarkable thing
could create such euphony.
Captain!
Captain!
Help me!
No!
Are ye injured, lad?
A dead specimen
is useless to the Academy!
One of these did for the men
on the Hieronymous.
I'll not give another
the same opportunity.
Though dead, the monstrosity
did not go to waste.
No-one was skilled in the culinary arts.
So the flesh was charred
on the outside and bloody inside.
Lebrun was too weak to eat
so I made him a broth.
There was nothing more
anyone could do.
- A miracle!
- No, you fool.
The creature is the cure!
We must obtain a specimen.
I told ya before
you'll not bring a monster on board!
I won't have to.
Claude insisted that we secure
six cocoons...
...in order to begin a breeding colony
for production of the cure.
Like heroes of myth,
we snatched our prize.
Then took to the air flying home...
...to free our land
from the microbial invader.
Come out, little one.
There's my beauty!
For god's sake, man!
Cast it overboard!
Then what remedy will you bring
to your wife?
I tried to feed them,
but they would take nothing I offered.
Then a slip with my knife
provides the answer.
Jasper!
Jasper!
Morello!
Morello!
Morello!
Do you wish to see... a miracle?
Extraordinary, is it not?
The captain must know.
The Academy will send me back to the Island.
I will insist,
that you command the voyage.
No.
Morello!
The crew will panic.
They'll kill it.
If the creature died, so did Amelia.
I could not allow that to pass.
August 23rd.
Kovacs caught a porkfish.
The crew saw this delicacy
as an excuse to celebrate.
Kovacs king of the porkfishers!
Claude joined in, though I had
never before seen him take a drink.
That night, everyone staggered back
to their bunks to fall into a drunken sleep.
Good evening!
Next morning, Kovacs was gone.
Kovacs!
Doctor?!
He is not here.
When the search proved fruitless...
...the captain concluded that
Kovacs had fallen overboard.
Two days later, Lebrun was gone.
I could no longer ignore my feeling that
Claude was somehow responsible.
Doctor!
A fascinating creature, is she not?
It would have been a crime to let her die
for lack of sustenance.
Where are the others?
Sedated.
Awaiting her need.
For pity's sake, Claude, don't do this.
Every man has his purpose.
Yours is to get us home.
Your wife is waiting.
Had Claude been the devil himself...
...he could not have devised
a more feindish torment.
My darling.
You'll burn in hell, Belgon!
No, no!
- Is our voyage nearly ended, my friend?
- If I'm right...
...the trade routes lie just beyond the ice,
the beacons will guide us home.
I've become rather fond of you, Morello.
I'll miss our conversations.
Be of good cheer, however...
One degree had changed my life,
it might do so again.
No!
Morello!
Help me!
Please, Jasper, please!
- I beg you!
- I can't!
Do you wish to have more deaths
on your conscience?
No!
Help me!
If you are reading this...
...you know that the creature is
a treasure beyond price.
Much blood has been spilt to acquire it.
I pray that mine will be the last.
With our temperatures lowered...
...it is my hope that my blood will sustain
the creature until rescue arrives.
If I do not survive, my darling Amelia,
know that my last thoughts are of you.
Live and do not grieve.
For I will be with the great
company of souls...
...riding the borealis to eternity.
Perhaps they will require a navigator.
EngSub by / Comments to
overclockedgrrl@yahoo.co.uk
Timing, slight editing: DimDimCh