"Uh, Helen, are you sure this is a good idea?" Alek asked uncertainly. She'd called him to help seeing as Dylan and Newkirk were unavailable, both tending to their midshipman duties. Alek actually knew how to perform the test she required, seeing as he'd been taught by the blond middie.
"Trust me," she grinned at him through her goggles, "It'll be fine. I haven't had the opportunity to test this out yet." She pulled on a pair of leather gloves, squinting out at the sky.
Alek gave Phillip a nervous look. Helen had brought the bird out and put a different set of reins and saddle on him. These were lightweight, like usual, but thicker and stronger than usual. The saddle's leg straps were more than usual, and the way the reins were arranged on the bird was very different.
As Helen tugged on her dark brown leather jacket, she asked Alek once more, "You do remember exactly how we're doing this, right?"
"Yes," Alek replied cautiously.
She nodded. "Good." Standing with her hands on her hips and a dead pig behind her, she told him, "Repeat how we're going to do this for me."
"I'm going to shove this pig over the side and, after waiting fifteen seconds, you're going to go after it."
"Precisely," she replied, smirking.
Mr. Tesla was watching the exchange. "Helen, be careful," he told her.
She waved away his comment. "I'll be fine," she reassured him. A thought occurred to her. "Oh, right, and Alek, what will you do the instant we go after the pig?"
"Start timing how long it takes you to get to the pig."
"Good. Now, I think it's time for the experiment, correct?" When no one said anything, she trotted over to her gargantuan bird. Making low cooing sounds to him, she mounted him and fed her legs through the straps, tightening them to keep her firmly there. A chest harness Alek hadn't seen was put on as well and attached to another strap of the complex harness.
Taking the reins, she glanced at Alek, the sunlight glinting off her goggles, and said, "Ready!"
"Where's Helen?" Dr. Barlow asked suddenly, looking up from where she was giving a sulky loris a bath.
Deryn frowned. "I have no barking idea. I thought you knew where she was."
"No…" Dr. Barlow straightened up slowly, thinking to herself. She opened the door to her cabin and caught the arm of a crew member passing by. "Do you happen to know where my sister is?" she asked him.
He shrugged. "No. I have no bloody idea where either she or a pig I was going to feed to the hawks is."
Realization dawned on Dr. Barlow's face, followed quickly by exasperation and a hint of fear. "Can't she stay out of trouble for one moment?" she exclaimed before quickly heading out, pushing the crew member aside as she hurried towards topside.
Dylan scurried after her, startled by the change in her behavior. "Dr. Barlow? What's going on?"
(meanwhile, in the room, the male loris took the opportunity to flee the bath with a cry of, "Free!")
Dr. Barlow huffed as she reached the latch to the outside of the gondola. As she went through it, she explained, "Helen's been wondering about the top speed of her bird for a while now. She's been curious as to whether or not it can beat the terminal velocity of a falling human, since she put peregrine falcon into it."
Deryn frowned as she followed the boffin that was climbing out. "Terminal velocity?"
"The top speed a falling object can reach. It's when gravity's pull matches air resistance."
"And her bird can beat that?"
"She thinks so. This is why she has the pig. It should have similar mass to a human, and the surface area should be sufficient for her needs as well," Dr. Barlow continued, climbing towards the top of the Leviathan, "Knowing her, she's going to shove it off the ship and go diving after it with her bird. That's why she's performing this when on the ship, not on her own time- it's easier for Phillip, as climbing can be tiring for the bird, and hovering isn't its strong suit."
Dr. Barlow kept climbing at a rapid pace. "I don't know what she's planning, but I don't think this test is a good idea. I never did. I told her it was far too dangerous!"
"Go!" Helen commanded atop her feathered steed.
Alek nudged the pig forward until it plummeted off the Leviathan, falling, falling, falling. It would keep falling for a long time; the ship was cruising at a solid five thousand feet.
He watched the time on the watch Helen had provided him. When fifteen seconds had passed, he raised his arm, giving her the signal. With a loud, birdlike shriek, she and her bird dove off the ship.
Alek honestly didn't know what to think of Helen Barlow, especially at times like this. She was a woman, yes, but… to be honest, she scared Alek a little. That fact was partially helped by the fact that Phillip obeyed her every order without a single second of hesitation. She walked with as much swagger as Dylan and had as much skill with beasts as Dr. Barlow. And she trusted her raptor to catch her when she jumped off the ship. Very, very unusual.
Almost immediately after she plunged off the flying whale, her sister let out a vocal cry of, "No!"
He was surprised- he hadn't expected Dr. Barlow to be up here. Even stranger, a very confused Dylan was here as well.
Dr. Barlow pressed her hands to her forehead. "I told her not to do this, the forces will be immense, she could get knocked out," she hissed.
Dylan was peering over. Alek joined him in looking over as Mr. Tesla and Dr. Barlow expressed their frustrations over Helen deliberately doing incredible stupid things "For science!"
Far below, a reddish smudge was all that they could see of the hawk. "How fast does the pig have to go for it to reach terminal velocity?" Dylan asked Dr. Barlow.
She broke away from her worried ranting to reply, "About 125 miles per hour, which means it'll take about fifteen seconds to reach that."
"How fast do peregrine falcons go?"
"At least 200 miles per hour, sometimes more."
Alek watched in awe as the hawk's shape suddenly changed as his wings unfurled. "I think she's got the pig," he said.
Dr. Barlow hugged her extremely windswept sister tightly, saying fiercely, "Don't ever do that again! The straps could've broken with those speeds, or you could've gotten knocked out, or-"
Helen rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a worrywart," she complained, although she was smiling.
Dr. Barlow stepped back, holding her sister by the shoulders. "You could've died. The forces at that speed are immense."
"I know, but I had to prove-"
"Helen, you don't have to prove anything," Tesla stepped in. Deryn and Alek watched with wide eyes as Tesla and Dr. Barlow talked to Helen. "You're an incredible woman, and, honestly, if you think that you're bird can beat terminal velocity, it probably can."
Something flashed in Helen's eyes. "Sometimes saying it isn't enough," she replied, "And with people like me, they don't believe you until you prove it."
Dr. Barlow watched her sister-in-law. "Just don't do that again, please."
Helen grinned from ear-to-ear. "Are you kidding? That was incredible!"
AN: Sorry for not uploading in a while, but I'm going to a genetics camp for a week starting tomorrow (whoo-hoo, starting my career as a boffin!) and I'm not going to be able to write on Collin (my computer), much less upload, during that time. So... yeah.
Do not try what Helen did at home. Peregrine falcons can, in a dive, reach 242 mph, but they, unlike you, can fly out of it. Dr. Barlow was right in being worried about Helen- the forces at that speed when you pull up and such can knock you out.
Oh, and funny fact- I kept trying to write "Velociraptor" instead of "velocity".