Grimsby has some questions he badly wants answered, but first he stays calm and quiet to give Brie a chance to use her powers. He removes his hand from the boy's shoulder and tries to look unthreatening.

In reply to Grimsby H. Baskerville (msg # 894):

     Joseph speaks up, his Southern American accent clearly distinguishing him as non-European.

     "Settle down, there..." Joseph catches himself before he calls the young man Boy, "...young fella.  You've nothing to fear from that rat, Herr Shilling, any more.  We, uh *chuckle* we got him put on ice for a while, so to speak.  We're just here on--did you say your ship?  Well, we're here with Doctor Solar, looking to get some recompense for Shilling trying to kidnap him."

     "What's your name, by the way?  Mine's Joseph.  If you haven't figured it out, yet, I'm from M--Texas.  In...the United States." Joseph smiles

     Joseph pauses to see if the youth is fully composed, now, or still a little anxious.

As Petras looks around, he realizes that there are others up above, but, since no one is threatening him, he's not too concerned.

"Pleased to meet you, Joseph," Petras replies, offering a hand. "I am Petras Valois. From Lithuania."

That identified his accent.

"Schilling is a pig! So are his friends!"

"What is this... 'on ice' of which you speak? Did this have to do with the freeze ray that Dr. Solar invented? They were going into town to get it. They did not tell me this, but they think because I am young that I cannot hear them! I also speak German, but I did not tell them this."

"I believe he has a strong box in his room. It has gold coins in it. Unless he took it with him. I was shackled down here when they left, so I do not know."

Grimsby remarks, "Yes, Herr Schilling has learned more about the effects of the freeze ray --personally-- than he expected. You need not worry about him for the time being. I doubt he took the gold with him --we saw no strong box when we met him. It might be useful to compensate you for your apparent captivity."

In reply to Grimsby H. Baskerville (msg # 897):

     Joseph nods in agreement with the young man's statements,

     "Yep, we left Herr Shilling and his thugs as frozen lumps, hidden away back in town.  Take'em days to thaw out." Joseph confirms, "Doctor Solar is with us, here.  Schilling had mentioned the airship waiting, out around here, so we thought that that rat, Shilling, at least owed the good Doctor one free trip away from Herr Shilling, after all the trouble that sidewinder made for the Doctor.  And so--here we are."

     "But now--you say this is your airship?  How's that work?" Joseph asks, then looks to Grimsby--pointing towards the shackles that hold young Petras.

     "You gonna be able to take care of those shackles, there, Grimsby?  Or you want I should shoot'em off the young fellow?" Joseph asks jovially, lightly slapping the large pistol holstered on his right thigh.

"It's my ship because I designed it and built it!" Petras says a bit vehemently. "Schilling and his associates said they were interested in backing a trip to Mars, but as soon as they got aboard, they took me prisoner!"

"When they went into town, they shackled me to this bunk so that I wouldn't fly away with the ship!"

In reply to Petras Valois (msg # 899):

     Joseph does a double-take, and gawks wide-eyed at young Petras,

     "This ship can fly to Mars?!" Joseph exclaims--loud enough that the folks waiting on the deck, abouve, can probably hear him!

Grimsby responds "I believe I can work these shackle off without your assistance, Mr. Hunnisett". On the matter of mars, he jerks his head up sharply and simply says "Mars?!"Then he looks at Brie and says, "Is this credible, Miss O'Malley?" hoping her talent can evaluate the truth of the claim or at least whether Petras believes it.

Brie had been trying to monitor Petras's thoughts however superficially, and was only a little bit surprised at how open his thoughts were. Ah, the innocence of youth!

"You are correct, Grimsby," she says. "He definitely believes the ship is capable of flying to Mars. Whether it really can or not, that I cannot say."

"Likewise, he believes he designed and built the ship. I'm pretty sure that he actually did. It took him a year."

When he'd made that statement, she caught a few memory glimpses of him doing the design work and then doing the building.

In reply to Brie O'Malley (msg # 902):

     "Mars!" Joseph whispers, incredulously, as he tips his leather slouch hat back on his head.

     "Son, I know a little about naval architecture," Joseph continues, as Grimsby works on the shackles, "And the fact that anybody figgered out how to make naval vessels fly, to begin with, just impresses the..." with a quick, embarrassed glance at Brie, Joseph suddenly stops speaking before he can finish that sentence.

     "Well, it's just really impressive, is what it is.  But if you've gone and built yourself one of those interplanetary flyers--well--that's just about the slickest thing I've ever heard of, this side of the Rio Bravo Fortification works!  You must be some kinda engineer, young man."

     "However, that does present us with a small....difficulty." Joseph grins, looking to both Brie and Grimsby, before again catching Petra's eye,

     "After all, we did come out here to, ah....borrow....this ship.  Thinking it belonged to Shilling, of course!  Our need to quickly get as far away from here as we can, before Schilling and his thugs defrost, is still upon us.  But if this vessel belongs to you...."

"Schilling wasn't wrong, probably," Petras responds. "If he had left me here alone and free, I most likely would have flown away."

"I don't know where I would have gone, but I would have gone somewhere."

"You are correct. I am an engineer, just not a licensed one. Or a university-educated one. As you can imagine, no university would admit someone of my age as a bona fide student. I am what is called a prodigy. Too smart for my age some say."

"I was able to attend a few classes surreptitiously. As I was smarter than the older students, they... were intimidated by my presence. Most of the professors viewed me as unnatural, as they called it. Wouldn't have anything to do with me. Told me to grow up first."

"Professor Varnas, however, saw me as another Mozart, just in another field. I was fascinated with mechanical things. I had to learn from books. And then by trial and error."

"Now that you've heard my life story, where would you like to go?" he asked, as he lifted his leg with the shackle on it.

From above-decks comes Felicity's long drawl. "No matter if y'all plan on takin' us to Mars or the Rio, we ain't makin' either on what we got supplied now. But Shillin-" Felicity's mouth never quite ever got around 'Schilling' -"ain't gonna be too keen on givin' time to navigate. Maybe we get this crate in the air 'fore we spend too much time on tale tellin'?"

She knocked a gloved hand on the frame of the door leading down the quarters. "Let's take it up and then decide where our hearts do wander. While I am positive I could drop any one of them men before they inside a hundred paces, I don't look keenly on the prospect."

Gtimsvy continues to work on the shackles, but comments "Possession is nine points of the law, as they say. I am glad to know that this ship rightfully belongs to Mr. Valois, but it might well be best if he could take us elsewhere before we had to explain the fate of Herr Schilling and his allies to the local authorities.'

"Those men are frozen," Dr. Solar responds to Felicity's comment.

"It takes about 24 hours for a person to thaw out enough that they could actually move and speak. That's not to say that it might go faster if you stuffed them in an oven or hung them over an open fire."

"I'm still convinced that they can't do anything inside of 12 hours. They'd have to have other henchmen around somewhere and I didn't see any sign of such. They might be able to hire local talent to come after us, but we're not in the heart of a major city here. Oh, Sidonia is nice enough, but it's hardly cosmopolitan yet."

"I'll keep watch on the main deck while I try to figure out how to get my wagon on board. At least there's enough open deck space to hold it."

It takes a few minutes, but Grimsby is able to unlock the shackles. The older style could be jimmied open with a dagger, but the newer designs required finer tools and more finesse.

Once the shackles are off, Petras rubs his ankles a bit before standing up and stretching, walking around the crowded deck a bit.

Grimsby remarks, "I am glad I was able to free you, though I regret it took so long. I hope once you have walked off the effects of your imprisonment you will consider taking us with you --somewhere well away from Her Schilling."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:26, Wed 15 Jan 2020.

"Well, ain't that clever," Felicity whistles softly to herself. "Get on up here and I'll tryin' help with that cart but I don't think I can make much in the way of a promise." She stepped back toward the edge of the deck. Looking out and trying to figure out a way to get the cart up onto the deck without just unloading the thing.

"Well, I don't see any reason we need stay down here in these cramped quarters," Brie says and begins climbing back up the ladder.

"I think the problem with Dr. Solar's wagon depends entirely on where we go," she says as she climbs. "Wherever we go, he's still going to need some horses to pull it, isn't he? Unless... he can convert it to a horseless carriage!"

     "That hadn't, quite, been decided, Petras." Joseph replies, as Grimsby removes the shackle, "Beyond agreeing that wherever we went, it needed to be far away from Shilling."

     "I guess, since it's Doctor Solar who is the focus of Herr Schilling's attentions--the rest of us, here, just annoyed him by helping the Doctor--I guess where we go from here would be the Doctor's choice."



     Joseph nods acknowledgement to Brie as she climbs up the ladder.

     "But, last we all talked," Joseph continues to Petras, "I think that we were thinking of going to England.  But we should ask the Doctor...."

"Miss Brie, is everything all right?" Catherine asks Brie.

"In what sense do you mean, Catherine?" Brie responds to Catherine. "I am fine, thank you."

"Oh, you mean down below? Yes. We found Petras. He is the builder and owner of this ship. He was shackled below by Herr Schilling."

"We are trying to decide where to go. Petras built the ship so that he could go to Mars. I must say, that sounds like an exciting idea!"

In reply to Joseph Rudyard Hunnisett (msg # 912):

Grimsby remarked, "I have always intended to return to Mars, once my earthly obligations were fulfilled, but I hardly think I could abandon my ward Catherine in Spain, nor would I feel sure she would be be safe to Mars, though in the end it is her choice whether to risk such a great journey."

In reply to Grimsby H. Baskerville (msg # 915):

     Joseph pushes his hat back on his head as he issues a short whistle of amazement.

     "The Good Lord knows that Mars would likely be far enough away to get out from under any threat by Shilling." Joseph says in follow-up, "I hadn't considered a whole other planet.  Now that it's come up, though, I can't say as it sounds like a bad idea."

     Joseph looks over at Grimsby,

     "It's none of my business, my friend, being as it's your family business, but--if you always planned on returning to Mars, then, ultimately, what were your plans for Miss Catherine when you did go back?  Seeing as she's your Ward, and all.  Couldn't you look after her interests just as easily on Mars, as here?"

"Mars'd make one hellova- er-" Felicity cuts herself off a bit late, "Awful cunnin' safari. Better'n Africa, at least." She joins in to the conversation mostly through raised voice. Calling back from the deck of the ship.

In reply to Joseph Rudyard Hunnisett (msg # 916):

Grimsby replied, "I must confess my duties as guardian have been  assumed so recently I have not thought through how they might be reconciled with my obligations as a member of Her Majesty's Martian colonial administration. That is a matter Catherine and I must settle eventually, but I had not expected to have to decide it so soon."Turning to Catherine he added,"What are your feelings on the matter, my dear ward?" 
This message was last edited by the player at 04:02, Sun 19 Jan 2020.