Falling

Chapter One: An Interview and An Encounter

At last, someone with a brain.

Belle stood on the balcony of her bedroom in the great castle. She couldn't be more excited that Mary, her very best friend ever, was coming for an extended visit.

Belle knew that her friend had been growing increasingly unhappy in her own home. Since her father's remarriage to a woman not so much older than herself, things had become increasingly tense.

The marriage had started off well enough for this type of thing. The older king marrying a young woman in the hopes of producing a male heir. The young woman was said to be quite beautiful; although there were plenty village wags who shared that, despite the resemblance, she was not a beautiful as Mary's mother had been, as Mary would be.

After a couple of years, and no offspring, the rumors had begun. The rumors had reached even sheltered Belle's ears. The pretty, young wife had grown weary of the paltry, ineffective attentions of an old man. Now the wags told of infidelity, consorting with low-lifes, long weekend parties at the summer palace - parties fueled by drugs, alcohol and sex.

The relationship between step-mother and step-daughter had become strained. Mary had shared with Belle that she had become concerned that her step-mother might actually try to hurt her father. And once, she had told Belle, she had even tried to share her concerns with her father, but he had laughed them off.

Belle figured that this latest visit had been precipitated by Mary catching her step-mother in an illicit embrace (or something worse) with one of her guards or one of her father's courtiers or some criminal thuggee. The step-mother was said to have actually encouraged the air pirates to seek refuge in Mary's country. It was a mutually advantageous system for her step-mother, getting a percentage of loot as a pay-off from the pirates and, for the pirates, having a safe harbor in easy flying distance.

Belle hated what was going on in Mary's life but admitted to herself that she was glad Mary had some excuse for coming to see her. She adored Mary. She could talk with Mary. Mary understood her. Mary had a brain in her head and could converse about more than just which shade of silk was popular this season and which hair frou-frou was the most flattering for her face shape. Mary could talk about books and ideas. She had traveled more than Belle who had never been more than fifty miles from her father's castle. Mary was able to shoot a bow and arrow and saddle a horse, but she could also embroider a buillon stitch and play the pianoforte. Belle could do none of that, well none of that well. Her best talent, perhaps only talent, was her artistic ability. She could draw lifelike pictures of her friends and often did small renditions that would fit in lavalieres. Her friends would then give the tiny likenesses of themselves to would-be suitors.

Mary's visit was going to be so much fun.

000-000-000

"Talk to me. What do you know?"

Captain James Nolan-Spencer, the Marquees of Abernathy, illegitimate, but acknowledged son and heir of his Grace, the Lord Duke George Spencer of North Wickham, shifted in his chair. He wasn't at his most comfortable talking with the intellectual type. And this man was certainly brilliant. There were enough diplomas on the walls. Schools that James recognized: Yale, Cambridge, Sorbonne. How many degrees did the man have? His office was plush without being ostentatious. Comfortable. Designed to be restful, to relax visitors. So they would let down their guard. The receptionist had offered him tea, a brandy, water or coffee. He'd taken the brandy. This was not going to be easy.

The man, the doctor, was nice. Not threatening like some of the other interviewers had been. He seemed to genuinely want to hear what James had to say. James supposed this was part of his method. What was it? Good cop. Bad cop. He was the good cop.

"Where do I start?" James asked him. How many times would he have to go over this?

"That first time might be a good place. When did you first encounter him?"

James scratched his head. It was a long time ago. He had been just a newly assigned ensign. His first gambit out. The Luftschiff Terzi. They had intercepted The Dark Wind and his idiot captain had decided to take it on. The Terzi could have left, but his captain had decided to go after the pirate ship and The Dark Wind had immediately fired a volley that shredded their wards and exploded into their canopy, ripping it open, rendering it useless. They started dropping like a stone. There were explosions and things burst into flames. The crew was panicking.

James had held to his post and had begun to try to deploy the emergency parachutes but they were falling too fast and he realized even if he got his open, the other crew members weren't staying at their posts and even, if by some miracle, they had time to get them all up and out, the parachutes would likely catch fire from the hot blaze from the canopy over their heads. This was it. His life cut short.

He remembered seeing The Dark Man, dressed entirely in black. He was standing on a platform on top of The Dark Wind's canopy (a feat that would have required him to pull himself up hand over hand). He was watching them drop.

James remembered the man stretching out one arm towards them and, thinking he must be confused by smoke inhalation, James remembered feeling that their rate of falling had slowed. They were still sinking but slowly, without the sense of loss of control. He watched the man stretch out his other arm and the fires extinguished. James was able to get his chutes ready for deployment and ran to help with one other set. Apparently there were still a few crewmen on the other side who had kept, or at least regained their heads, to deploy the other two sets. They loosed them together and the ship began to float back down to ground.

"You didn't see anything coming out of the man's hands?" the interviewer, the doctor asked him.

"No, Dr. Hopper. And I can't say for sure that he did something, anything, to slow us down. But the events coincided and I have no other explanation for why our descent slowed and the fires went out."

Dr. Hopper sat back reading through the top sheet of a tall stack of papers. "Captain Nolan, yours is the most complete, detailed accounting of the Terzi Incident."

James shook his head. "I can only tell you my perceptions that I had at the time. I was in a falling airship, on fire, so who knows how much of what I remember is real, how much actually happened, and how much is something I put together to make sense of it."

"Well from all the other accounts, we do know that you were one of the few to keep your head and get your job done," Dr. Hopper sat back in his chair, "Now, is there anything, anything at all that you can remember from the event? Even something that might seem silly to someone else? Even something that seems minor?"

James hesitated, just a moment. He had hesitated and he knew that he had given himself away. The good doctor had seen the split moment of indecision. He knew there was something more that James had not shared.

James did not like talking about the Terzi Incident, had never liked talking about it. It always had made him feel that he had become unhinged. He had been afraid that it might hold his career back, but, as luck would have it, the citations he had gotten for bravery and commendations from some of the other officers had done nothing but help him along. But he had always been careful at how he described things. But, in his heart, he knew The Dark Man had slowed the ship's fall and had put out the fire. He didn't know how, he just knew he had done it.

How it might have happened was one thing. And why he would have done it, that was something else. They were The Enemy. If the situation had been reversed, his captain would have let The Dark Wind fall and done nothing to go after survivors.

He began slowly, "There was a point that I had gotten the second parachute ready and had heard from the other side of the ship that theirs were ready too, I. . .I. . . made a tenuous wave at The Dark Man." James sat quietly. Dr. Hopper said nothing, just waited. James took a couple of deep breaths and finally continued, "I don't know why I did that, waving I mean, but I did. Although there were several hundred meters between the ships, I could feel the creature's eyes on me and I felt sure I saw him smile and nod. The creature then slowly dropped his hands and the ship began to plummet, allowing the parachutes to deploy."

"I've never told anyone that," he finished.

Dr. Hopper sat quietly, "Interesting. You felt connected with him?"

"I guess. I don't really know. I felt something. It was probably nothing. Just the stress of the situation."

Dr. Hopper nodded, "I'm sure. You were under a lot of stress." The doctor pushed his chair back and stood up. "I've got one other thing for you to do and then I think I'd like to introduce you to a couple of other officers who've have similar experiences. Come with me."

James followed the young psychiatrist. They were already deep inside one of the oldest buildings in town; probably the original structure had been built in the 1500's. It was now a government building and now they were going deeper, far below the original building. There were long halls, long windowless halls. Closed doors along the hallways. The gas lamps lining the halls were bright, but cast off a dark yellowish red hue, increasing the sense they were entering the bowels of a large animal. James couldn't help but feel that he had done just that, been swallowed up by a great beast.

They stopped at a non-descript door, like all the other non-descript doors in the hallway. Dr. Hopper opened it and led Captain Nolan into a room. "This is the final step we need you to go through." It was a physician's office. There was an examination table and equipment set up.

"Please, Captain Nolan. I'm going to have to ask you to lie down on the table. We are going to do a quick body scan."

Nolan complied, removing his weapons, his belt, his watch, even his shoes. "Anything else metal on you?" There was another doctor, Dr. Steiner, who was conducting this examination.

"I don't think so," James had told him. "What is this about?"

"Just making absolutely sure of some things here," Steiner explained but not explained.

Drs. Steiner and Hopper stepped behind a screen while the machine passed over Nolan, humming, periodically stopping, going up and down, around and under. It took about twenty minutes.

Dr. Steiner was watching the progression of the scanner. "Give me about thirty minutes. I'll let you know," he was talking with Dr. Hopper.

"Captain Nolan, I'm going to take you to the cafeteria and make sure you get a good meal. I haven't had anything to eat myself." Nolan allowed himself to be led off through a second maze of tunnels. He still was not sure exactly what was going on, but thought back to the early morning, when his commanding officer had told him to report to Dr. Hopper, cooperate with him in every way possible and expect it to take all day. Hopper led him to a company cafeteria.

James managed to go through the cafeteria line and sat down in a corner with the psychiatrist. Nolen was a confirmed observer of people and took note of the types of people who were eating lunch in this building. Military types, for sure. Some air navy, like himself, but other branches of service were also represented. Quite a few individuals in white coats, probably this group included doctors, maybe nurses, lab people, sundry medical support staff. There were a few civilians, dressed very formally, in dark clothes. Many of these individuals, Nolan noticed, took care to seat themselves with their backs to the wall and off to the side where they wouldn't be readily noticed. Reminded him of espionage agents. He didn't make small talk, still not entirely comfortable with the psychiatrist. He was startled to notice that the doctor was watching him as he watched people.

"I like to watch people also," Dr. Hopper told him. "I can usually tell a lot about them by just watching."

He didn't say anything else. They were still sitting at the table when Dr. Steiner came in and after briefly scanning the seating area, located them and came over to join them.

"He's clean," was all Whale said.

"Thanks. That's always good to know," replied Hopper. He then smiled at Nolan. "There's one more place I need to take you and some people I want you to meet."

So once again, navigating the underground labyrinth of corridors and passages, Dr. Hopper led him to yet another non-descript door in a corridor of other non-descript doors. Hopper tapped on the door and without waiting for an answer, opened it. Inside was a table and six chairs. Two of the chairs were occupied by two men.

"Gentlemen, may I introduce Captain James Nolan-Spencer. Captain Nolan, Lieutenant Commander Neal Cassidy and Lieutenant Commander August Booth." Dr. Hopper made the introductions. The junior officers rose and saluted the captain.

Booth looked over at Nolan from the table at which he and Cassidy had been seated. "Captain Nolan?. You were aboard the Terzi?" He spoke with a touch of awe in his voice.

"It was a long time ago," James waved him off.

Dr. Hopper continued. "You three have all had, uh, interesting experiences with The Dark Man." He waited until they had all sat back down. " And, more importantly, you survived your contact with the man. And even more importantly, none of you have ever been physically touched by him."

"So what do you want with us?" Booth went right to the heart of the question.

Dr. Hopper hesitated. "We're forming a task force to go after him. We want people who have experience with him, who have some idea of what they are up against."

"A task force?" Cassidy reiterated.

"We going to try to take him in, bring him to justice."

"How?" James asked him. "I mean, I see two problems here. How are you planning to incapacitate him enough to take him in and what kind of cell will you put him in, when and if you do manage to take him down? You can't use ordinary methods with the man."

"Excellent questions," a short, attracctive dark-haired woman had entered the room. Nolan glanced at her insignia.

Crap, a vice-admiral. The men had all risen to salute her.

She smiled at the men and motioned them to sit back down. She then looked at Hopper. "These are the best?"

"Yes, ma'am," he answered. "All three have shown they can keep cool under pressure and they've all seen some things they can't explain. They know The Dark Man is not an ordinary human."

"And they're all clean?" she asked Hopper.

"Dr. Steiner assures me so."

"Well, then, Let's tell them just what Dark Man might be," she suggested, her voice soft and pleasant..

-ooo-000-ooo-

Her royal highness, Miss Belle French was sunning herself in the solarium of her father's private sail barge. With her pale skin, she was careful to never get direct sun on herself, but she enjoyed the warmth as it splintered through the tinted glass of this end of the gondola. She was sitting with her friends, all daughters of high-ranking officials, a couple of them princesses in their own right. They had been sitting, sipping lemonade, reading silly novels and talking about prospective husbands. Idle, innocuous talk, everything quite suitable for young, unmarried women from their upper social status. Belle had thought it all so very, very boring, but had stayed with them, knowing her father would appreciate her trying to fit in. Plus she liked the warmth coming in through the windows. And she liked the view from the airship. And Mary was there. Mary found the idle chatter as boring as Belle but would often manage to make little side comments that made Belle laugh.

Belle sighed. Right now, most of her acquaintances were actually napping. They had been up late the night before and would almost certainly have another late night this evening. Belle was wide awake.

She was gazing out over the horizon when she saw it.

A dark dirigible moving impossibly fast was bearing down on them. It had come out of nowhere. There were no markings. She immediately felt the threat incarnate in the dark ship. She got up, not wanting to alarm her friends and slipped out of the solarium to find the captain.

Captain Gaston, one of her childhood friends, had already seen the ship.

"Princess Belle," he addressed her as soon as he saw her. "Yes, it's a pirate ship. We are going to be boarded."

"We can't outrun her?" she asked. She did not like the idea of just rolling over and giving in.

"She's too fast. If I'm not mistaken that's The Dark Wind, the fastest ship on the planet. They will board us, take our jewelry and money, any drugs we have, our guns and then leave. They usually don't harm passengers or crew."

"Usually?" Belle asked acerbically. "We aren't going to try to fight them off?"

Gaston looked at her and, with a worried look on his face, told her, "Princess, we don't have the speed, the fire power, the experienced crew. I have passengers that have to be protected and allowing these brigands to take a few baubles is the best way to assure that the passangers will stay safe."

Belle was unimpressed, "Why don't we have speed, fire power, the crew? Why should we give in to this. . .to this. . .extortion?"

Gaston turned away. "Because we have to. It's what we've always done. If we try to fight them off, they're likely to scuttle the ship, take the passengers for ransom, even kill the crew. We don't have good choices, Princess, we don't have good choices."

Belle took a deep breath. What kind of cowardly thieves preyed on unarmed women? And why hadn't her father done more to stop this kind of thing? Sometimes, she wished she had been born a man, a prince, who could have helped her father with these types of problems. Well, there was nothing to be done but deal with it.

She went back with her friends, roused them, silenced their screams and poured the cold water of sensibility on their fainting spells.

"I don't know what to expect. We are just going to have to do what they say and not make trouble. Captain Gaston assures me that they don't take prisoners and they don't hurt crew members unless someone tries to be a hero or refuses to cooperate."

Several of her friends were close to hysteria but fortunately Mary, being both a princess herself and a pragmatist had stepped up to the emergency. She was a bit older than Belle and the other girls. If they didn't respect her, they were, at least, a little afraid of her.

"Get up, adjust your clothes, look them in the eye and give them your jewelry," she directed them.

"But this is an emerald and diamond watch," one of the girls protested.

"Is it worth your life?" Mary asked her

The other girl blanched and shook her head.

"Then be prepared to give it to them."

They could hear sounds near them. The pirates had sent grappling hooks over and anchored the two vessels together. They were coming in on the higher deck where the Captain and crew spent most of the time. The solarium was on the lowest deck. It was a matter of time.

Belle was listening but she did not hear any pistol fire. Everyone appeared to be behaving. She could hear the sound of nailed boots on the floor and steady, sure steps above their heads. The women were all sitting, quietly, listening.

They were expecting that the door was to be slammed open so they were surprised when there was a discrete knock on the door.

Belle looked at Mary who was looking back at her. Mary was closest to the door, so she got up and opened it slightly.

They could hear a man's voice.

"Forgive what must be an unexpected and unwelcomed intrusion into your morning routine. But I must insist on entry."

Mary stepped back and allowed the man to come in.

There was an audible gasp from her silly friends. The young man, and it was a young man, was tall, very handsome with curly hair and large kindly eyes. He was dressed outlandishly in a dark purple frock coat, a frilly lace jabot and a tall dark hat. Belle noticed his polished black boots that well outlined the lower half of his long legs. Quite a handsome specimen. Not what they were expecting. Not what they were expecting at all.

He bowed to the ensemble, causing several of the women to titter. Not very threatening, thought Belle. The gentleman pirate.

"My lovely ladies, I have the sad responsibility to tell you that your ship has been boarded by privateers and we are here to relieve you of your, well, let's say your second most valuable personal possessions. Your jewelry." He smiled at them, making him even more handsome, if possible.

Good grief, Belle thought. Much more time in his company and some of her sillier friends are going to be throwing their undergarments at him.

Mary leaned over to her and whispered, "I didn't anticipate being charmed out of my earrings,"

"I guess it's better than being frightened to near death," responded Belle, whispering back to her.

"If you please." The gentleman pirate started at the opposite end of the room from Belle and held out his hat for the girl to drop her necklace and bracelet into. He went down the line collecting necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings from her friends, often offering compliments and fair statements to the young women.

No one else noticed him coming into the room.

Only Belle.

She felt his presence, rather than heard him, her attention being inexorably drawn away from the charming gentleman thief. The room seemed to get extraordinarily quiet and her vision narrowed.

She started at his feet, plain black boots. Her eyes went up, plain black pants and the bottom of a black flared leather coat. She raised her eyes a bit more to see a black vest on top of a black shirt. There was a black scarf around his neck. He even had on black gloves.

He wasn't nearly as tall as the first intruder and certainly not dressed as flamboyantly. Her eyes had gone slowly up his form and finally, she met his eyes. At first she thought they were black, but then realized the light had tricked her. They were a dark brown. He had been looking at her, watching her as she had looked him over. She managed to maintain her stare, not flinching or dropping her eyes like some demure maiden like she was supposed to.

He gave her a very, very slow smile and then she could see his eyes moving down her body, carefully assessing and examining her. It was a moment before their eyes met again and this time, he just barely nodded.

Next: Belle Barters a Kiss

The Nanomites

The Shadowlover

A Change in the Pattern