Betelgeuse kept looking at the two men.
General McKinley stood below with his sword resting against one shoulder and his long pipe between his teeth. Across the ruined training island, Major Principium still stared at the smoking hole where Almighty had vanished.
What are you two going to do in the future?
The question had barely formed when the sky began to change.
The rolling thunder stretched into a steady metallic groan. The white cloud beneath Betelgeuse darkened, flattened and became a floor of iron plates. Straight seams appeared under his boots. Rivets pushed through the surface one after another.
The wind died, and the open sky closed around him.
Walls rose through the clouds, grey and windowless. Pipes crawled across the ceiling. A heavy desk formed in front of him beneath scattered maps, reports and an ash-filled tray. It looked like an office built inside a warship.
His gaze dropped without any command from him.
The hands resting on the desk were not his.
They were larger, bare and rough with old calluses. One held the stem of a long pipe. The other lay beside a pair of binoculars.
They were McKinley's hands.
Betelgeuse tried to move one finger.
Nothing happened.
He tried to turn his head towards the door.
McKinley continued staring at the Tone Dial sitting on the desk.
Of course.
He never controlled the bodies he entered during these visions. He never had. Whatever happened here would happen with or without him, no matter how badly he wanted to interfere.
Static crackled from the Tone Dial.
A voice broke through, faint and badly distorted.
"Hallo, hallo? Does anyone still hear us? Our transmitter is heavily damaged. This is our last free broadcast."
"When this station speaks again, it will tell lies. Do not listen to it!"
"We send brotherly greetings to every Waford Beret and every citizen still fighting. Please, do not lose hope. Keep faith in the USSR. The United States of the Sky Realm will come and help us break this horrible siege!"
"Waford is still not lost!"
"Long live Waford! HESO!"
...
...
The transmission ended.
Static filled the office for several seconds before the Tone Dial went silent.
McKinley's thumb pressed hard against the pipe stem.
His thoughts followed the dying static.
Waford lay far too close to Marineford and the Red Line, where the route into the New World began. Now that its location had been discovered, occupation was only a matter of time.
The metal door flew open.
A White Beret rushed inside, breathing hard. One side of his uniform was smeared with black grease.
"Heso! General! Enemy patrol airships!"
McKinley was already rising.
Betelgeuse rose with him.
"Let's go!"
The General crossed the office and entered a narrow metal corridor. Red lamps burned behind wire cages along the ceiling. White Berets hurried past in both directions, carrying ammunition crates, rolled charts and bundles of Dial cables.
McKinley shoved through a pair of steel doors.
The headquarters room beyond them was crowded. Officers stood around a long map table bolted to the floor. Others sat before banks of Tone Dials and black Den Den Mushi, listening through headsets while needles trembled across glass gauges.
A White Beret tore one earpiece away and turned.
"General! We analyzed their coded Den Den Mushi signal. They already reported our position!"
Another officer leaned over a circular display.
"Three patrol airships! Ten clicks away and closing!"
McKinley took the pipe from his mouth.
"Go to general quarters! Deactivate the smoke screen! It is obscuring our view too! We are going to battle!"
An officer slammed his palm onto a red switch.
A siren roared through the metal walls.
"GENERAL QUARTERS! GENERAL QUARTERS! ALL HANDS, MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!"
The announcement repeated through every corridor.
Boots hammered against iron. Locks turned. Cannons moved along hidden rails. Somewhere far below, hundreds of Dials answered with a rising howl.
Ten clicks away, the lead Government patrol airship pushed through the upper clouds.
Its command deck held both Marines and Government agents, but none of them wore uniforms Betelgeuse would have recognized.
Several Rear Admirals stood near the forward windows. Two Vice Admirals waited behind them, already fastening their gloves. Both stood ready to go at any moment.
Ahead of the airship, a sky island was barely visible through a bank of thick cloud.
At least, it looked like an island.
Pieces of metal showed between the clouds. A straight wall. The curve of something far too large to be a building. Shadows moved behind the cover, but not with the wind.
One of the agents pressed his face closer to the glass.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
The cloudbank collapsed.
Great vents hidden within it opened at once, pulling the smoke screen inward. White cover poured away from the structure in twisting rivers.
Metal replaced the sky.
A fortress nearly one thousand metres long emerged from the clouds. Armour covered its sides in overlapping plates. Cannon ports opened across several levels. Towers, hangars and reinforced decks rose from its back like the buildings of a steel city.
Beneath the fortress rested a foundation of dense, artificial Imperial Cumulus, compressed into a single enormous platform.
At its rear, rows of massive, supercharged Flame Dials ignited.
Fire erupted across the sky.
The metal fortress moved forward.
"Fire! Fire!" another agent shouted.
The Rear Admirals drew their weapons. One of the Vice Admirals seized the speaking tube beside the command chair.
"All ships, open fire!"
The three patrol airships turned broadside.
Their cannons fired first.
Dozens of cannonballs crossed the distance and struck the fortress almost together.
The first explosion rolled across its forward hull.
Inside the headquarters room, the floor jumped beneath McKinley's boots.
The lights flickered. Dust fell from the joints in the ceiling. A metal cup slid across the map table and struck the floor.
Betelgeuse felt the impact through McKinley's legs.
McKinley did not move.
A White Beret watched a row of Dial gauges climb, shudder and settle.
"Impact Dials covering the Proto-Carrier's hull are intact, General! Damage is minimal!"
McKinley removed his pipe from his mouth.
"Return that favour of theirs! Open fire!"
The Proto-Carrier's batteries answered.
Cannonballs and explosive shells crossed the sky in both directions. Bursts of fire surrounded the three patrol airships as their crews hurried to reload.
McKinley lifted the binoculars from the desk officer's station and looked through the forward observation slit.
Marines crowded the decks of the enemy vessels. Government agents pointed towards the Proto-Carrier while every officer capable of using Geppo launched into the sky to intercept the incoming fire.
Several shells slipped past them and exploded against the airships. The vessels shook beneath the impacts, but the thick iron armour surrounding their gas cells prevented them from rupturing.
The doors slammed open behind McKinley.
Major Principium entered the headquarters room at a run.
"We are still too far away, General! They found our position too soon!"
McKinley lowered the binoculars.
Principium's eyes widened.
"Change of plans! They will be waiting with their full force at Waford. We will destroy the threat here and advance slowly!"
Another salvo struck the hull.
The headquarters room shook again.
McKinley pointed the stem of his pipe at Principium.
"Major, you will go elsewhere!"
Principium blinked.
"Where?!"
McKinley turned towards the world map covering the central table.
His pipe moved over Waford, crossed the Blue Sea and stopped upon the Red Line.
The bowl touched a single marked point.
Mary Geoise.
McKinley smiled around the pipe.
"There!"
The officer standing beside the map went pale.
"Sir! That is too much! Parliament and the President never approved an operation against Mary Geoise! They will..."
McKinley did not listen.
He planted both hands on the table and shouted over the alarms.
"CLOUDFISH PILOTS, READY YOURSELVES! YOU WILL FLY A BOMBING RAID AGAINST MARY GEOISE AND DRAW THE ENEMY AWAY FROM WAFORD!"