Saints, Angels, and the Red Chariot

The heat from the ship made it easier for Astra to stay up in the air. Observe the flight of a crow or hawk. They rarely flap their wings, taking advantage of the fact that warm air rises. Their large wings allow them to use the warm gusts to soar, and stay aloft for long periods of time. The process has been described by one philosopher as "falling upwards," as the lift from the force of the warm air is more powerful than their burden of their weight. With the additional lift of the balloon, Astra found it difficult to descend.

It was now night. She scanned the sea around the ship for movement. There was a false alarm, as a fish leapt across the surface of the water. Now she saw a cask bobbing up and down on the sea. It was either empty, or filled with some material lighter than water. A clean- shaven, exhausted, dark looking man clutched the cask feebly. Astra could see his arms quivering, and his mouth open.

She called out, using the silent speech, "Checkers, there is someone down there, clutching a barrel. We need to save him if we can. He might be able to tell us where there is some land." Checkers thought for a bit. Although her wing was still healing, she knew that taking off from the barrel would be easy due to the firey winds. She would risk making a landing and tie to golden rope to the man.

Later, in the balloon, these thoughts raced through the head of a man who lay fast asleep.

"I, Jan of Coperton, died today, on the sixteenth day after the start of autumn. My old life on Earth has passed like a dream, and my current death has seemed to also be much like a dream. I have now seen saints and angels. As I lay thirsty, weary, and clinging to a barrel bobbing on the surface of the sea, I saw a great red ball coming toward me. I at first ignored it as a false sun that one sometimes sees in strange weather, but it grew larger, and started to circle the remains of the ship. I saw a great demon harnessed by the spirits in the gondola. I cried out, and my prayers were answered. An angel flew down to me with a golden rope. She had a shy freckled face that one might see on a young peasant girl, but she had great black wings. I had always thought of an angel's wings as being white, but dead men tell no tales, and so I learned something that the living do not know. She tied the rope under my arms, and it was cold to the touch. I swear it was stranded gold. I then saw a great strong man, with the angular, hard look of a warrior, pull me by the rope out of the water, and into the heavens. I concluded that he was one of the saints that accompany dead men to heaven.