The First Day over the Terel Sea

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 45022

With a combination of the use of her wings and increased heating of the air in the balloon, Astra drove them upwards to the great height where the jet stream should be found. As they ascended, it got steadily colder, but that did not greatly affect Astra, and the others were well wrapped up in warm clothing.

The air also got thinner. This was not much of a problem for those in the gondola who were not exerting themselves. However Astra found that, not only was she finding it rather harder to take in enough air to breathe, but her wings were becoming less effective in providing lift. However once they had reached the level of the jet stream, this became less of a problem, since in level flight she did not need to exert herself because the balloon was providing all the lift necessary. She quickly became quite expert in noticing when the tug from the balloon above her diminished. That meant that it was providing less lift and they were beginning to descend, so that it was time to heat up the air in it again.

They were hoping to find one or two uninhabited islands en route to allow them some rest stops. Otherwise Astra would have to remain awake for the whole four or five days as they crossed the ocean, since she needed to heat up the air in the balloon every ten minutes or so if they were not to start losing height and thus drop out of the jet stream. She would also be unable to eat whilst they were in the air. Though dragons could go considerably longer without either sleep or food than humans could, for her to do so for so long would be asking rather a lot of her stamina. Their great fear was that they would run into persistent cloud cover, not at their high altitude - for they were above most of the clouds - but beneath them. That would make navigation difficult and make it impossible to see any islands that there might be.

From this great height, Astra's vision - which was superior to anyone else's - would not be limited by the horizon, which would be some sixty leagues away. The limiting factor would be the visibility, which even when there was no cloud cover was reduced by the microscopic dust that was always present in even the cleanest of air. In the absence of cloud, she would normally expect to see any islands that there might be for up to ten leagues or so on either side of their track.

After some eight hours of flight over an empty sea, fortunately in clear weather, Astra saw a large tree-covered island ahead, right on their current course. I can see a large island, I'd guess about eight leagues ahead, she projected to Sartoma. It seems to be tree covered, judging by the dark green colour. At this range I can't tell any more than that. If we are going to rest there, we probably need to start descending ummediately or we might risk overrunning it

Sartoma relayed what Astra had said to the others. Thirty seconds later she replied: We're all agreed that it would be sensible to land there.

So Astra took them down out of the jet stream. The wind underneath it was still from the west, but a comparatively gentle ten leagues an hour. As they approached, Astra saw that, though it extended about ten leagues across their path, that is from north to south, it was no more than two leagues wide at its widest point. Their gentle descent from their great height, as the air in the balloon gradually cooled, took the best part of half an hour, so that at one point Astra thought that she might have to use her wings, either to accelerate that descent or to brake their forward progress, if they were not to overshoot their mark.

In the event that did not prove necessary. By the time that they were down to a few thousand feet, it was clear that they would be able to land on the island without Astra needing to exert herself.

  1. As they got lower and closer, Astra could see no sign that the island was inhabited. That was reassuring.
  2. As they got lower and closer, Astra could make out small fishing vessels and villages. That was worrying. She communicated what she saw to Sartoma, and asked whether they should give up on the idea of landing.

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JH

8/29/2004 12:20:23 PM

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