NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: Ok, this is a little semi story Im doing to chronicle the continuing attempts of my Steam Punk Nation to get into space, they are meant to be fun and in keeping with their genre, no real science was used here! if you want to pop in and light RP, please do so! but no major sidelining of the plot please!)


Lord Grenville sat in his leather bound chair, reviewing the list of digniteries that were to attend the following days firing of the Great Cannon, name after name of the social elite were listed to the point that Lord Grenville presumed even the Queen herself was going to attend. He chuckled, knowing exactly how the meeting between the straight laced monarch, and the vivacious, flamboyant scientist, Le Poald, would go.
"Probably end in the firing squad or deportation"
he mused to himself as he shut the book and ambled over to the great bay window overlooking the test plains. ven from six miles away the cannon looked huge in its cradle, and across the distance he swore he could just hear the clanking of the giant cranes as they loaded it with its explosive charge.
http://mysite.freeserve.com/totalrandom/biggun.jpg

Still. something niggled at the back of his mind, something he'd learnt in this great age of steam, The Lord shook his head, nable to put his finger on it. He walked to the door of his office and politely inquired of his aid to the location of Le Poald, the answer was as he expected, the scientist was down with the Great Cannon.
Lord Grenville mused to himself, that allthough he did not like the man, he had to admit a grudging respect of the scientist.
"he is, after all, quite thorough."
Grenville muttered to himself , as for the hundredth time he cast his eyes over the plans for the Space Cannon, everything was thought of, from making it smooth bore, so the firing did not make Le Poald dizzy, to the construction of giant made to measure matresses for the base of the shell the Scientist was going to travel in, to cusion the impact of firing.
"let us hope there are no more incidents"
The Lord mumbled as he filed the letters of complaints from the engineers, the tempremental scientist's want to mount his old family mantle clock on the wall of the shell having offended them.
Still, everything seemed to be in order, tomorrow morning at eleven, the Shell, with the scientist in it, as well as his pet lemur, would be loaded into the Cannon, (Grenville still couldn't understand why they couldn't make it one of those new-fangled breech loaders. he guessed the scentist was to much of a traditionalist) Exactly a day later, after his time in orbit around the planet had been judged by his clock, the scientist would leap fro mthe shell and use a parachute to descend to earth, hopefully not far from the spot he was fired from, if his calculations were correct..
Lord Grenville looked out onto the darkening sky, the glow of gas lamps being lit in the distance reminding him it was home time, after all an early night would not do any harm...

The following day, Lorg grenvill was up early, he and all his lackies had the un-enviable job of making sure the well to do were catered for, Le Poald had seen to that, a public snubbing had resulted in the fued that exists between the two great minds of the college, and the flamboyant forigner wanted Grenville to be the lowest of the low in his triumph..

"Damnable upstart"

he muttered under his breath as for what seemed like the hundredth time that hour he bowed and greeted a dignatry allighting from his newfangled steam carriage. His eyes traveled up to the pavilion that had been set up a good mile behind the cannon, the bustle of ladies in their best dress, men in top hat and trails, and amongst them all, revelling in his glory, Le Poald. Lord Grenville's teeth ground together, yet still he kept the poite smile, something still niggled at the back of his mind, something that made him feel that maybe the day wasn't so bad, still not able to put his finger on it, Grenville donned hist hat and ushered the last guest up into the waiting stands.

"Friends!"

Le Poald stood at a podium constructed in front of the great tent.

"And yes, I am happy to call you all such! for in this great age of steam, we reach together for our goals, and this moment, this.. success! "
his eyes breifly met Lord Grenvilles and smiled.
"we share amongst us equally! without the support of you all, my benefactors, this great step in the evoloution of man, could not take place! For i wil tell you now, in one hour, I shall be fired like a soaring starburst into the history books, as the first of us to make that bold step into the unknown, to explore the vastness of the eather!"

Le Poald got down fro mthe podium and made his way to a steam car, slowely smoking away to the side, stepping onto its mantle he once more turned to the crowd.

"Now, I bid you all farewell! I will see you in a day! and I will hold the stars in my hands!"

The crowd were on their feet, rapturous applause echoing through the stands as the scientist was driven to the great Cannon, looming off in the distance.
Lord Grenville also politely clapped, but an idea, an understanding was forming in his mind, something unquiting.

Allmost an hour had past, Lord Grenville was at the back of the tent leaning against the bar there, in conversation with one of his highbrow friends, when a young lad ran in and announced to all.

"Hes in!! Le Poald is inside his shell and inside the great Gun!! they are going to fire it in ten minutes!"

As one the crowd surged back to their seats, and waited expectantly, eyes fixed on the giant flags that flapped down every ten seconds, marking the time until the automatic clockwork mechanism fired the Cannon. SUddenly with a great report, the Cannon recoiled back in its cradle, smoke billowing around, even though it was a mile away, the noise was enough to make the gentle ladies of the crowd cover their ears, several screamed and at least one feinted, but, the firing had gone off smoothly, according the Le Poald's calculations, he should be winging his way into the heavens. Lord Grenville shook his head called for his carriage, while making his apologies to his friend.

"Im sorry Sir George, but I am going to retire to my chambers, there is an idea that has been bothering me, Im going ot see if I can work it out."

"Oh Grenville old chap! your just jelous of the fop!"

intoned his well to do blue blooded friend

"Come out tonight! enjoy hitting the card tables with me and Caruthers! we've had the devilish bad luck don't you know, and we have come ot the opinion that a man of the mind such as yourself would set us right!"

Lord Grenvill laughed and made his apologies again

"Sorry george, Ireally must cry off this time, but I promise, I promise one night soon"

Still with a wry smile on his face, The Lordly scientist made his way back to his labratory at the College, to await the news of Le Poald's return.

It wasn't until a week later, and all the furore about Le Poald not returning had died down a little that they found the crater, it was the insistence of a farmer on the far reaches of the Norfolk broads that the Government pay compensation for 'Acts of God' since his prime beef herd had been destroyed. The men sent out to investigate found a crater fully a hundred and forty feet across, well ,anturaly a meteor was suspected and so a group from the institute of science was sent out, and as fate would have it, this team was headed by Lord Grenville.

A first glance was all he needed to tell him that this was no ordinary impact crater, it was to deep, to regular.

"James, I dont think this meteor broke up.. I think its still solid down there,"

he said, while the rest of the team set up their equipment in a barn rented from the now compensated farmer.

His assistant rasied eyebrows and put a monacle to his right eye.

"Dear God Grenville, something of that size must be extrodinarily sturdy to survive impact, are you going to try and recover it?"

Lord Grenville was doing something a little odd, he had a frown of concetration on his face and a look of slight puzzlement, then he got out his compass and looked at it, then down into the crater, which sloped of at an angle.

"James, I think I will"

he smiled a long satisfied smile

"I think i will"

So, with a will, the hired navies and hob booted scientist got to the task of digging to the deeply buried object.

It took them all of three days of hard work to getdown to the object, at first it looked natural, some of the scientists even expressing suprise and awe at the fact the object appeared to be made of pure battle plate iron. This merely confirmed Lord Grenvilles suspicion, who, happier than hed been for quite some time, set to unearthing the object.

"Come on lads, we are pretty much down the sides of it, see if you can get a sling around it, we'll have the steam crane up in a day, I want to try and drag it out."

Then it began to dawn on the scientis that this was not natural, the objects sides were to smooth, even in their distorted shape, as they dug down, one thing confirmed this..

"My Lord Grenville! come! look at this!"

said Ronald Farnham, an upperclass youth, aspiring to the mantle of science.

Lord Grenville made his way into the crater where the youth was and peered at the side of the object.

"I can't make it out, Samson, bing me some water.."

With the water the Lord cleaned some of the encrusted dirt away, revealing what looked like a plaque.

"What is it My Lord?"
the exited Farnham leaned in close, Grenville gently pushed him back so he could have more light. After a few minutes he sat back on his haunches, the science group and their workers standing around in expectant silence.

"Its the Coat of arms of the Armouries Workshop, this was made by her Majesties Military.."

As one the group backed away, fearing an undetonated weapon, but Lord Grenvill knew better.

"No, no, I dont think it is explosive, nothing military has ever been made in this caliblre, only one thing i can think of matches this..."

He stands up and looks up into the faces of the scientists, for a moment he fixes each of them with a sorrowful glance, grasping ther attention.

"This, I believe, s the space shell of the late lamented scientist Le Poald"

A range of emotions ran through the scientist, disbelief, sorrow, exitement, but Lord Grenville would not let them dwell on it.

"Com people, we must get this out, if hes in there, we must,.. give him a proper burial..."

Over the next few days, in a more sombre mood, the group struggled to release the shell fro mthe grip of the muddy earth, finaly, with the clanking of a great steam winch, they managed to get it onto a huge carriage for transport to the nearby rail station.

It had been a year since the ill fated attempt of Le Poald to reach the stars with his great cannon. Lord Grenville had been made the Head professor of all Space Based projects after his recovery of Le Poald's crumpled shell, and now, he sat at his desk, arguing with a younger student about some of the complexities of gaining a foothold in space.

"No! listen to me young Greenford! there are many problems of surviving in space, its not just getting up there! You've got the problem of breathable air, heat, and so on!"

The young bespectacled man across from him was slightly taken aback.

"But my Lord, once you know you can get up there, then you can start working on those problems! the air up there might be breathable!"

Grenville od not answer with words, he just got out a chart of air preasure readings from the many expeditions that the College had sent out and pushed it across to Greenford.

"There.. look at the reading for air preasure at sea level, the average at the side of the column, now look down the list to the average preasure at 2000 feet.. see the drop? slight I know, but the higher you go, the more the preasure drops, in theory, there is a vacume up there in space.. no air, nothing."

The conversation was cut short by Farnham, now Lord Grenville's head assistant knocking at the door, glancing behind him the Lord saw two gentlemen with upright bearing and the unmistakable uniforms of the military.

"Go back to your studies Greenford, and think on what I have told you, and remember, Le Poald financed his own work, it costs a lot of money for that kind of experimentation, funding we dont have."

As the dejected student was lead out, the two gentlemen were shown in, Lord Grenville stood and shook hands with them, the forst one, tall with a shock of white hair spoke.

"Lord Grenville, I am Vice Marshall Huggo Smythe, and this is my assistant Corporal Jones, we are with Her Majesties Artillery Corp."

Lord Grenville raised an eyebrow and gestured for the gentlemen to sit

"Artillery? well, welcome, can I get you gentlemen a drink?"

Both men shok their heads.

"So, what can her Majesties College of Science do for you? and what is your intrest here?"

The Vice Marshall answered.

"Well Lord Grenville, to put it quite frankly.. that.."

He points out the window into the far distance where Le Poald's Great Cannon, now known as 'Le Poald's Folly' stands, folorn and abandoned.

"We've take a great intrest in it since your recovery of the shell, the range that weapon has is quite.. fascinating.."

Lord Grenville got the inkling they had been showing a little more than just intrest, he spoke guardedly.

"I see, and what is your proposition?"

This time the younger assistant spoke, with a heavy gravely voice that spoke of many expensive cigars.

"We propose to buy the Cannon off of you, the college,"

with which he slides some papers over the desk, Lord Grenville picks them up and scans through them, some of the figures marked on the sheet making him suck in his breath wis suprise.

"This is a lot of money Vice Marshall, what are you going to do with the Cannon?"

Both of the Millitary men relaxed, now that the fear of Lord Grenville making some overblown gesture had gone. The Vice Marshall looks thoughtful for a minute.

"Well, we intend to dismantle it and take it to our test ranges along the south coast, where we intend to ee how effective it is, we are quite confident we can get the accuracy down to within a quarter of a mile.."

Lord Grenville looked up

"A quarter of a mile? thats still quite a large margin.."

Corporal Jones spoke.

It really depends on what you intend using it for, a shell 30 feet across and 50 feet long packed with high explosive is going to cause a lot of problems anywhere in that quarter of a mile, and the boffins at the Arms centre have had a few .. ideas.. one was to pack the shell with 12 inch naval shells and have a crude altimeter scatter them at hieght over the target, Ive no need to tell you, what that could do to an invading fleet...

Seeing that his assistant had gone a little to much into the bloody details, the Vice Marshall leans foreward and appeals to Lord Grenvilles patriotism.

"This could keep outr great country secure from invasion! our homes, safe.."

He neglected to mention the range meant it could also drop a shell in the middle of a neighbouring countries city, or even reach ornit with the right shell type.

Lord Grenville's mind was racing, the potential was scaring him a little, but ther possabilities were springing to mind, with a slow motion he reached up to one of his files and flicked through the papers, stopping at the Great Space Cannons design specifics, a note made in the corner made him smile.

"So gentlemen, if this Cannon works, are you going to build more of them?"

The two military men looked at each other, this was something they did not really want to discuss, a slight hard note in his voice, the Vice Marshall answered.

"Yes, there is that possability, in case one fails, ore we need more on different borders."

Lord Grenville smiled, the note had informed him the College had the patent on the great Cannon.

"Very well gentlemen! with previsio on a few small items, you have yourself a bargain!"

Corporal Jones looks slightly ascance at Grenville,

"And what might those items be?"

Leaning back in his chair Grenville smiled and steepled his fingers.

"That the College can on occasion use the Cannon to launch shells of our own for purely experimental reasons of course!"

Both Military men nod.

"Ah! good! then we have ourselfs a bargain?"

Grenville reaches across to shake hands with the Vice Marshall, who, with great relief accepts.

"Excellent! Ill have my assistant draw up the papers, we can have our signing on,.. say. .tomorrow? "

The Vice Marshall nods and smiles.

"Yes Lord Grenville, that would be ideal, we shal lsee you tomorrow, say ten o' clock?"

Grenville nods, and the two men are led out, turning in his seat he stares out at the great Cannon for a good hour, his mind racing with ideas.

"Well, it seems we wont be short of funds after all.."

Furrowing his brow, Lord Grenville got up, he had several other Heads of College he had to bring round to thinking, some would agree, some he could bribe, and some he could bully, but eventually, they would see it his way.

-TAG-

It had been a good while since the army had purchased Lea Pould's cannon, and times had been good for the college, money from both the Military sector and civilian side had been flowing in, and the premises of the old college buildings had been greatly expanded, now covering a huge area with workshops, hangars, laboratories and all manner of science orientated things. The conquest of space, was always there, in front of everyone, like a Holy Grail, whispering promise of glory for the empire and for the individual.

Lord Grenville had seen many students come and go, and it was while he was reflecting on a paper requesting that female students be allowed to attend the college that his assistant Farnham entered, Grateful for a break from what he delicately considered a risky decision, he looked up.

“Farnham, I trust you have something of interest for me?”

His assistant a strapping lad, smiled.

“Oh yes Sir, do you remember that student several years ago you dragged over the coals for not thinking properly about the need for air in space??”

Grenville pinched the bridge of his nose

“Lord God Farnham, there’s been countless idiots through hose doors, you don’t expect me to remember every one do you?”

Farnham raised an eyebrow.

“His name was Greenford?”

Grenville nodded, his mind remembering, not the student, but the moments after him with the army men.

“Oh yes, I remember.. what of him?”

“Well Sir, since you put him in his place, he’s kind of made it his life work.. and I actually think he might have come up with something…”

Grenville, got up from his seat, the paper lay on his desk, looking down he suddenly relished a few hours out of the office..

“Ok then Farnham, take me to this new improved student, let us see how he has come on..”

Only slightly taken aback by his masters sudden interest Farnham led the Professor down the stairs and across several compounds towards the new laboratory complex.

After several minutes of making their way through corridors and down stairs, past labs that buzzed and hummed with al manner of instruments, they came to one of the smaller labs, secreted deep in the bowels of the basement. Lord Grenville noted a somewhat pond like smell to the air, and it was a tad humid for his tastes.
Going through the door they were confronted by one tiled wall that had several large glass canisters attached to it, inside each was a frothing bubbling green liquid, from them copper pipes with brass fittings led into a series of pipes.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/totalrandom/bbble.jpg

“Good God, what on earth is this?”

exclaimed Grenville
from behind him a chirpy voice said.

“Spirulina platensis ! it’s a form of pond algae!”

The Professor turned to face Greenford. And raised his quizzing glass to one eye to look him up and down.

“And why would that interest me?”

Greenford tilted his head and tucked a small notebook into the pocket of his lab coat.

“Well Sir, it answers the air problem you were so kind to point out to me..”

This DID interest Grenville, and he motioned for the man to continue

“This algae reproduces and expands at phenomenal rate! Needing nothing more than water, waste air and *ahem* waste matter to reproduce.. I have been running some experiments with rats of course, and for the last few weeks volunteers.”

Grenville winced slightly, the one thing he did not like was other students getting hurt in their mad quests.. Lea Poulds lesson had been burnt deep..

“It does however need a special kind of light..”

With a motion of his head an assistant flicked a switch and arcing electricity hummed and crackled through some impressive looking equipment, finally four large lamps glowed a faint dark blue.

“We’ve er.. also been making experiments into its viability as a food source, since it reproduces at such a rate, and only needs waste from crews….”

Grenville raised an eyebrow, this didn’t sound very palatable to him..

In fact those test subj… volunteers have been eating it almost exclusively with salt beef. They seem fine, apart from boredom with what can only be termed an ‘edible’ if not palatable diet, they have shown slight signs of scurvy.. but the inclusion of limes into the diet has negated this..”

Grenville was impressed, if what this young man had said was true, then a major stumbling block had been overcome..

“Good work my lad! Keep it up and refine those things… and I want a report drafted for me within a week, don’t forget to include all you findings…”

Grenville and Greenford talked for a good hour more before the professor left, feeling a lot more confident than hen he started the day.. in fact Farnham could swear there was a spring in his step as he hopped back to the office, halfway there he looked over his shoulder at his aid.

“You know what this place needs Farnham? Prettying up a little, I think a feminine touch wouldn’t go amiss..”

Farnham gave his professor an odd look as they entered their office.

It had been a good year since Doctor Greenford had made the breakthrough with the algae tanks, yes, it was not palatable, but it made air, used the waste that the people who used it created, and grew at an exceptional rate. The Greenford Closed Life Apparatus was judged by all to be the breakthrough to the stars that the College needed, and after the sealed room experiments, most of the detractors were silenced.
The problem now remained how to actually get into space, many designs had crossed Lord Grenvilles desk, and most of them had been blatantly idiotic designs, from Giant Balloons, to a huge tower, but a few had shown promise, one had been a larger cannon than the one Le aPould had used, but it had slower burning propellant that accelerated the shell slower, this had been scrapped due to infeasibility, but the other one, using a firework or rocket to get into space had started pulling ahead of the other experimental methods, and it was this that had Grenville in the old test range where Le aPoulds cannon had been, looking up at a giant needle of a rocket, standing well over 60 feet high.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/totalrandom/rocket_launc.jpg

“So, your saying this should go to the lower limits of space and back?”

The young Scientist Kaleson didn’t look up from the big mahogany desk they had lifted out to the range, the many dials haphazardly bolted to its surface showing all manner of pressures and quantities.

“Yes Sir, the automatic air pressure apparatus should take readings every few minutes, that will let us know..”

Grenville squinted as he looked up at the rocket again, test instruments that had been made to withstand the firing of a space cannon should have no problems with rockets.

“Do you have an accelratoscope? “

This did make Kaleson turn around

“A what, Sir?”

“A piece of apparatus used for measuring acceleration, we need to know if a rocket has slow enough acceleration to keep a human alive.”

Kaleson blinked then looked up at the rocket and back at Lord Grenville.

“Right you are Sir.”

Grenville allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction as Kaleson, waving his arms, stopped his underlings from commencing any more work on the launch, he new it wouldn’t take them long to fit such a device, but it did good to show the students he was still as sharp as a razor.
It wasn’t until he had made the long journey back to his office, and Farnham had handed him his customary cup of tea that a muted roar rolled in from the test range, looking out the window, a bright pillar of light reached skywards, slow enough, to Grenvilles eye, to offer that remote chance they had been grasping for.

“Now we just need a fuel good enough to push a big enough rocket..” he said to himself.

Susan Remington was a bright girl, brought up by what some could term as enightened parents, they had encouraged her to follow her joy of science, and had not forced her into the shool rooms of most ladies establishments that encouraged needlework, music and any manner of skill that would be nescessary for the young girl when she got married. Susan had graduated with full honours, if not the approval of the male scientific community. Following the only path now open to her she came to Her Majesties College of Technology, where ensconced in her lab, she tried to keep out the way of the beligerent males, and contiue her research into noble gasses.

"It might not be the al important 'Space Conquest' science they all seem to be raving about"

She muttered to herself

"But one must not let other research slide in the single minded persuit of a goal."

She sniffed delicately and tucked her hair into a loose bun to keep it out of the way. For the last hour or so, she had been subjecting certain gasses to high powered electrostatic charges, and she did not want to suffer a fatal shock.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/totalrandom/gassbit1.jpg

A glimmer caught from the corner of her eye made her stop writing her report and glance through the thick glass tube of the arcing chamber, where crackles of energy ran up and down copper pinions.

"Hello, what have we here..."

A small area of gas within the arcing chamber glowed a bright pinkish red everytime an arc shot through it.

"Hmm... must be some left over gas from the previous test that has contaminated this one.."

She leaned in close, and by the removal of several copper clips, isolated the charges so they only flowed from the effected pinion, soon the bright glowing patch of gas was getting brighter..

"Dear God, could this be, Phlogiston? I thought that gas was only a theory, existing in another ralm..."

The bright arcs of electricity became more and more frequent, soon slices of bright glowing light were opening up, around them, flowwing in tiny edies and currents was a redish gas that Susan gazed at in awe, having completely forgotten about her notes now. The arcs of glowing light soon came together in one glowing mass, that pulsed once, twice, then with a bright crack and flash, the interior of the arc chamber dissapeared, al lthe copper pinions, the braces, everything simply vanished, Susan herself was thrown back onto her behind, bruising it severly.

"Gods aloft, the suffering I go through for science.."

She winced as she climbed back to her feet, and staggered over to the apperatus.. now nothing more than a hollow glass tube, filled with a thick red gas..

"Phlogiston... from the eather.."

Susan whispered as she caressed the tube...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

A few seconds later in Scarborough docks several hundred miles away a rather suprised inventory man from the HMS Danger looked down at the consignment of crates due to be loaded onto his ship.. for some reason out of thin air a twisted mass of copper pins and pipes had appeared in a bright flash and flattened the barrels of pickled fish due to be loaded into the supply hold..

Lord Grenville looked troubled, he sat at his desk, on hand pinching the bridge of his nose, the other holding a report. It wasn't so much the report which bothered him, that was fine, it was the fact he would have to aknowledge Susan Remington as the academic who made the discovery, allready some of the bewiskered old guard were grumbling at having women in the University, something Lord Grenville had campaigned hard for. To aknowledge Susan for this major discovery would pretty much knock all their arguements into a cocked hat, and women would Have to be admitted..
He'd allready been made aware in no uncertain terms what would be the consequences, several of his friends from the two clubs he frequented had made a point of not aknowledging him on the street. Grenville winced, he liked those clubs, staid big buildings, where one could smoke a cigar, or read the tabloids in peace, safe, unchanged for years..
Unchanged..

Grenville looked out his bay windows, far across to the testing grounds where another bright rocket was reaching skywards.. he squinted his eyes and cocked his head to oneside in thought.

"what the devil am i thinking? let them stay unchanged, we must look to the future! for goodness sake! its my duty, as head of the College of Science!"

he grumbled to himself, then sat down to pen two letters, one to Whites, and the other to Bollingbrokes, cancelling his memberships,

"This will show them" he thought with a grim smile, "I'll head them off before they act themselves!"

Several minutes later he sat back, well satisified, the letters were allready on their way, carried by his faithful student Farnham, so now his mind turned back to matters at hand, once more he picked up the report and scanned through it thoroughly..

He chuckled at the many attempts most students had gone through to understand or even make use of Susan Remingtons 'Phlogiston' gas, it was her own work in electomagnets and his own work in steam compression that had broke the barrier.

The unrefined gas that Susan had created (or 'harvested' from the eather), was now refered to as Eather Fulminar, and when injected into a cloud of steam it reacted quite violently, the steam took something out of the Eather Fulminar that Susan called phlogiston proper, making the steam so heavy as to actually sink, the remaining Fulminar expanded so rapidly and to such a great amount before it dispersed, that a small amount in a test tube shattered all the windows in the lab.

The true breakthrough had come when Lord Grenville had injected the eather fulminar into the centre of a steam turbine, the heavier steam being thrown to the outside allowing the fresh steam to react smoothly. This had created a rocket jet of quite some potency, Grenville rubbed his chin remembering with a smile as the students had hurridly left the lab, fearful the small turbine would break free from its clamps.

"Well, young Kaleson and his rocket boys have the basics now.."

Allready the small group of enthusiastic lads had got to grips with their drawing boards, designing a new rocket that would make use of this gas.

Susan Remington had gone off, to study further the effects of the new purified phlogiston, she was intruiged by its ability to make things dissapear when subjected to the right amount of current, she had theorized that the matter had actaully been taken int othe Eather proper.

Lord Grenville's thoughts turned to Susan, and wondered if she would be free the next day to join him for lunch... to discuss her findings, of course..

From far above with devices and radiations, objects with a greater colder intellects than the minds of men watched with interest the actions of what they considered blundering savages, watching, waiting, and planning in the darkness between worlds.


-TAG-

Lord Grenville sighed and looked up from his morning paper at Susan, the two had taken to having breakfast together in the campus's small garden, not often frequented by students it gave then some peace and quite before the days start.

"Susan, .."

Grenville checked his words a little, he still felt awkward calling the lady by her first name, since they were not married or family, it wasn't considered a gentlemanly thing to do, but Susan had insisted..

"Must you play with those things so early in the morning? its a time for reflection on the day ahead,.. and one of the last bastions of tranquillity in our world!"

Grenville complained as he watched Susan tinker with a selection of metal plates, al of which had writing etched on them. Susan looked at him from under thick eyelashes and pouted, she might be different in her thinking, but she knew a woman’s tricks.

"But My Lord, what is a lady to do? I had such a good idea, of putting the college's address on these disks, before I send them into the Eather.. but, "

Susan lowered her eyes and breathed heavily and over dramatically..

"I have but a frail woman’s mind, and thought I had better put the idea into practice before I forgot.."

Grenville raised an eyebrow and used the stem of his pipe, held now in his hand, to punctuate each word.

"Susan... That prompts me to say, I believe you could out think most men, on this campus, so don’t pull that .. "

He struggled to think of a non offensive word.

"hash with me"

Still serious faced he went back to reading the paper, but there was no mistaking the twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

.oO(If only she knew what I have given up for this place and its science..)

He thought.

Susan did indeed know, a friend of hers who was on friendly terms with the wife of one of societies Beau's had told her all about how Grenville had been ostracized by his friends and clubs, because of his views. Susan was touched, but did not feel she could talk freely with him on the matter.

"That will come in time"

She sighed to herself

"What was that, Susan?"

"Nothing Grenville, I was wondering how long it would be before we put a person into space"

Lord Grenville Harrumphed

"Well, if this paper is anything to go by, it wont be long now.. Dear God disgraceful, some idiot recommended the queen knight that Chimpanzee the College sent into space, I tell you, a monkey! a MONKEY!, I’m glad her majesty turned it down."

"An ape My Lord, an ape.. and it was quite an achievement, sending it into space and recovering ten hours later, think about it.."

Susan also noted the newspaper failed to list the multitudes of animals the rocket students had flung into space with joyous abandon, thanks to the Fulminary Rocket Engine, a list including several pigs, goats, chickens, frogs, fish, parrots, and a stick insect.
It was only after a student by the name of Babbage had developed a simple punch card analytical engine to guide the rockets travels that they had actually managed to recover any of the creatures, after all, bringing them back down to earth safely was more difficult than recovering some instrument readings from a rocket crater.

Grenville looked up suspiciously; Susan only used 'My Lord' if she was making fun of him, telling him off, or wanted something.

"Be that as it may, its not far off, its just a matter of that blasted student, Greenford, can make an air manufacturing apparatus small enough to fit in one of the MK 1 Fulminary Rockets, I’m sure we could have a man up there indefinitely."

Susan smiled and went back to polishing her metal disks, she wouldn't ask further, but she knew in her heart, Lord Grenville was right, but once up there, what is there to do? Once the barrier is broken, what then? So with a determined frown she doubled her polishing efforts. From behind his paper, Grenville watched her, and was worried.