Eliana caught his arm and said, “I mean to take Broni to Einsamberg. I don’t trust Ian. He intends something he knows I will oppose. I intend to take the Starman, too. And I will have a promise from Clavius that when the Goldenwing and its syndicate arrive, he will assist me to demand their help for Broni. I came here tonight to ask you for your loyalty, Cousin. Will you give it?”
Osbertus felt as though he were suffocating. He could feel the manacles locking on his wrists, hear the whir of the airship motors transporting him to the Southern Ice. “But what about The Voerster, mynheera? What about Ian?”
“Ian now allows me a single visit with Broni each day. It will be enough.” She paused, drew a breath. “If he tries to stop me I will kill him, Cousin.”
“Eliana! My God, be careful what you say!”
“The Ehrengrafs were not always so docile as now, Osbertus. In the Rebellion they fought with the kaffirs.”
“And lost their Civil Rights for a hundred years. Remember who you are. You are the
wife
of
The Voerster
. You terrify me when you talk of killing.”
“Let Ian beware, Cousin.”
“And Broni?”
“What Clavius said is so, Cousin. Broni’s heart is damaged. Without help from the men of the Goldenwing, she will surely die.”
In the bright starlight, Osbertus could see that Eliana’s cheeks glistened with tears.
“Ian has always known that Broni’s sickness is not tuberculosis. He is convincing himself--or the public. Ian Voerster is like that. What he thinks he must do, he will do. He is bred for it,” Eliana said.
“As you are, mynheera,” Osbertus Kloster said.
“As I am,” Eliana whispered in agreement.
In the starlight the aging man could see the winglike arch of Eliana’s dark brows, the reflective depth of her eyes. She had more than beauty, he thought. She had the strength of a fine blade.
If I had been better born, if I were thirty years younger, if-- But what did it matter, after all? She needs me, my beautiful, treasonous cousin
. And with a single word the Astronomer-Select sighed and threw his career, his comfort, and very possibly his life into the balance. “Yes,” he said. “Whatever I can do for you, I will do, Cousin.”
I may end my days nobly alone
, Osbertus Kloster thought fearfully,
in a very cold place
.
Luftkapitan Otto Klemmer was a man with a well-developed sense of his position in life. He and his family took great pride in the fact that of all the dirigible commanders of the Staadluftflot--the government air service of Voerster--it was Otto Klemmer who had been selected to fly
Volkenreiter
, the personal transport of the Voertrekker-Praesident’s family.
Cloud Rider
was the latest and finest of the air fleet, with a lifting body design and a length of fifty-nine meters. The gondola was furnished with the comfort of the first family of Voerster in mind, with a forward viewing salon, above which the crew operated on a flight deck equipped with the latest in magnetic navigational and wireless communication devices. The wireless had a range, under optimal conditions, of nine hundred kilometers. The navigational devices included a magnetic compass and a rather fragile and primitive directional gyroscope.
Far better devices than these were built before the Rebellion, but aviation was no longer a government priority on Voerster. Travel, except on government business, was slightly disreputable on Planet Voerster.
Carrying a nominal load the ship was capable of a nonstop flight of one thousand six hundred kilometers. For longer flights it could be refueled in midair by one of the service’s tanker dirigibles. If the flight was made when the Nachtebrise blew steadily west to east across the Sea of Grass,
Volkenreiter
was capable of flying from Voersterstaad to Pretoria without refueling. Of course, Klemmer would never make such a closely measured flight with any of the first family aboard. Luftkapitan Klemmer was a careful man.
On this gusty morning, however, the airshipman who was responsible for the traveling comfort and safety of the Voertrekker-Praesident’s family found himself with a problem. On the day following Allegiance Tuesday (Voerster’s calendar was laden with celebration days--none of which, save First Landers’ and Deorbit Days, were true holidays.), Klemmer was notified that he would be required to fly the mynheera Eliana, the Voertrekkersdatter, and a number of others from Voertrekkerhoem to Einsamberg, a distance of nine hundred kilometers.
A rest in the mountain climate of Einsamberg had been prescribed for the mynheera Broni, and a rest in the mountains she had to have, regardless of the weather or the logistical difficulty such a flight presented.
Unconfirmed orders made the Luftkapitan uneasy. And the orders for today’s flight had come, not from the office of the Voertrekker-Praesident, who was away from Voertrekkerhoem on an inspection of the fisheries on Windhoek Gulf, but from the staff of the Astronomer-Select Osbertus Kloster, whom Klemmer regarded as a pompous old fool.
Early in the morning Healer Tiegen Roark presented himself at the airship shed and informed Klemmer that the
Volkenreiter
would transport not only the mynheera and the Voertrekkersdatter, but several members of her household, the Astronomer-Select and his young half-witted assistant Buele, Roark himself and the kaffir Starman, who for some time now had been at Voertrekkerhoem as a “guest” of the Voertrekker-Praesident.
It was intended, Roark said, to set up a small observatory at Einsamberg so that the mynheera Broni could observe the approach to orbit of the Goldenwing
Gloria Coelis
. All told, the traveling party would consist of twelve people and they would present themselves at Lufthavan airship field at noon.
By ten in the morning the shed was cluttered with the enormous amount of luggage the mynheera Eliana felt essential for comfort at the mountain kraal. It became immediately apparent to Klemmer that Cloud Rider could not carry the entire traveling party, the full crew, the baggage, and enough fuel to fly to Einsamberg and return to Voertrekkerhoem. The
Volkenreiter
was normally flown with the captain and four airmen, plus four kaffir stewards. Clearly this could not be done on this flight.
Klemmer first used the Lufthavan wireless to ask the airship sheds north of Voersterstaad for a tanker to accompany his airship. The tanker fleet was otherwise engaged. Every year at this time, the dirigible fleet made “ceremonial” overflights of kaffir townships across the Sea of Grass. It was traditional. It was also a show of force to remind the kaffirs that misbehavior would bring a rain of ordnance down on their heads from the Voertrekker-owned skies of Planet Voerster.
Klemmer next put on his best uniform and called on the Voertrekkerschatz. She was gracious, but iron-willed. He was told that neither the timing nor the load to be carried to Einsamberg could be changed. “I am confident, Luftkapitan,” the mynheera Eliana said, smiling at him ingenuously, “that an airshipman of your skill and experience can devise a solution to our dilemma. Do so, Luftkapitan.”
Klemmer was a willing thrall to Eliana Ehrengraf. He was married to a typically blonde and plump Voertrekker wife; Eliana Ehrengraf s dark beauty opened up fields of dreams in Otto Klemmer’s subconscious.
He returned to the airship shed and sat down with navigational calculator, paper, and pencil. At an average weight of 72 kilograms per passenger (high in the case of Eliana and Broni, low for Osbertus Kloster and the Healer) and estimating all other payload, the elimination of all but one of his flight crew and the entire cabin staff would save 576 kilograms. This could be spent on 164 liters of fuel. This meant that
Volkenreiter
could carry enough hydrogen to deposit the mynheera’s party at Einsamberg and, if carefully handled, return to the presidential kraal without replenishment.
A near thing, but it could be done. It was important to Otto Klemmer that he and his vessel be at Voertrekkerhoem when the Voetrekker-Praesident returned from Windhoek. Actually, The Voerster disliked flying, but it was Klemmer’s duty to have himself and
Volkenreiter
available at all times.
The news that Black Clavius would be a member of the traveling party touched a nerve. Ever since Clavius had appeared on Voerster, the presence of a kaffir who was also a Wired Starman made the airshipman uneasy. Of course, one did not attain rank as a member of the household at Voertrekkerhoem by succumbing to anti-kaffir prejudice.
The kaffirs, the Voertrekker-Praesident often said, were a vital part of the society of Voerster. “If I can accept the idea of a kaffir Starman,” he once had said to the Kraalheeren in the Kongresshalle, “who are you to show prejudice?” and if Kraalheeren were not supposed to show prejudice, who was Otto Klemmer to be exclusive than his betters?
But the fact was that Otto Klemmer, though no Kraalheer, was uncomfortable with kaffirs, foreign or native-born. For three hundred years after Landing, the Klemmers had been
lumpen
. Before the Rebellion the Klemmers had been of “uncertain ancestry.” Which meant mixed
lumpen
and kaffir blood. After the Rebellion, in which they gave good service to the state, a Jong process of gentrification began. Early Klemmers served as commando troopers, then as commando .officers. Now, after a very long and cautious testing period, Klemmers were allowed to seek university degrees, and in the case of Otto Klemmer, training at the Luftacademie.
Klemmer felt no ill will toward kaffirs; they simply reminded him that he was slightly tainted.
The Rebellion being the axiological event of Voertrekker history, most Voertrekkers believed that their color prejudice was born in that bloody cauldron of civil war. But planetary historians were well aware that Voertrekker prejudice predated the Great Trek to the Luyten system. The Exodus to Luyten had been driven by far more ancient Boer prejudices and by resentment of Earth’s refusal to “understand.”
In the ancient days before the uprising no Klemmer owned anything valuable enough to be stolen by rioting kaffirs. But since the Klemmer family’s elevation to mynheeren status, attitudes had changed. Voertrekker families who succeeded in escaping the bondage of class tended to regard their elevation as heaven-ordained. In the case of the Klemmers, the cause was more earthy. Otto’s ancestor Erich Klemmer, who had led the family out of
lumpenheit
, managed it simply by being accommodating to a Kraalheer provincial governor when that gentleman developed a lust for Erich’s quarter-kaffir wife, Mbelli.
Mbelli Klemmer was said to have been one of the great mixed-race beauties of her day. Whether or not she was that, she most certainly was the making of the Klemmers. Thanks to her, a Klemmer, in the person of the Luftkapitan Otto, was now a personal servant of the Voertrekker-Praesident. Klemmer, a rigidly righteous man, accepted slights and whispers about his ancestry with disciplined silence. But his relationships with all kaffirs, even those who served as stewards aboard
Volkenreiter
, were kept cold and formal. Otto Klemmer ran a tight ship and no one could ever say that he was slack in his dealings with kaffirs. The ghost of Mbelli Klemmer bedevilled the airshipman.
Volkenreiter
lifted at thirty minutes after noon on a gusty, threatening day. Weather on the Sea of Grass was always uncertain. Seasons changed but little on Voerster. The planet’s inclination from the ecliptic was a mere one-and-one-half degrees. Every season brought days of bright sunshine capable of suddenly changing to squalls and tornadoes. Airshipmen and their passengers knew that dirigible travel under the Tropic of Luyten and near the Shieldwall, at the base of which Einsamberg was located, was risky.
Under a sky filled with racing cumulus clouds growing veils of ice crystals to form the familiar anvilheads,
Volkenreiter
lifted off from Lufthaven at Voertrekkerhoem. Airships had been lost on such days, as Otto Klemmer well knew, and the airshipman was not happy at needing to fly
Volkenreiter
shorthanded. Even in good weather, the elevator control required the attention of two strong men. On this flight it had one, the mate, a
lumpe
named Blier from Joburg. The man was burly and strong enough, but the .airship’s new style-lifting body design tended to make it porpoise in the air even in calm weather. This had to be prevented for comfort as well as safety. Klemmer did not want his passengers frightened or made uncomfortable. He had a reputation for airmanship to uphold and he told Blier so.
As the airship rose into the gusty winds, Klemmer, standing at the helm and throttles, headed her east, away from Voertrekkerhoem, and advanced the engine speed. Ahead, at some fifty kilometers, Klemmer could make out a pod of thunderstorms. Individuals now, they were swiftly being marshalled into a line of squalls by the winds that blew unopposed across the Sea of Grass.
Klemmer turned to a more northerly heading, hoping to flank the storm line.
“Nasty looking buggers,” Blier said from his post at the elevator wheel. “Can we get round them, Luftkapitan?”
“Certainly. Watch your height, Blier.”
Klemmer measured the distance to the parturient squall line with his practiced eye and then studied the airspeed indicator.
Volkenreiter
was making about ninety kilometers per hour and her speed was slowly rising. Her best cruise was 105 KPH, but it would take her fifteen minutes to reach it. It seemed unlikely that it was going to be possible to avoid all of the turbulence and rain ahead. As if to emphasize that point,
Volkenreiter
shouldered into several severe downdrafts that staggered captain and mate. He hoped his passengers were not frightened by the turbulence, but he could not leave the helm to make his customary tour of the main salon. This was a damnable journey in the making, Klemmer thought.
But, his
hohen schule
tutors had taught him, if there were two characteristics that set Voertrekkers apart from all other colonials, it was respect for one’s betters and a dogged devotion to duty. Otto Klemmer gripped the helm with hands impeccably gloved in gray leather and drove his ship toward the distant storms.
Volkenreiter
climbed steadily into the windy, cloud-dappled sky.