“Something far less rickety.”
“It’s a solid craft.”
“Mate, that looks like an advertisement for alternate-world tetanus.”
“We did get our shots,” Kahurangi said.
“There are no shots for that,” Niamh countered.
“The Shobijin is totally safe,” Tom said. “In fact, it’s the safest airship you’ll ever be in.”
“Convince me,” Niamh said. “It looks like it will go up Hindenburg-style if I stare at it too hard.”
“One, it uses helium, not hydrogen,” Tom said. “A hydrogen airship would be a bad idea here. So it won’t explode. Two”—he pointed to the frame of airship—“it’s mostly made of two local elements that we have in abundance here, bell wood and kaiju hide. Bell wood grows fast like bamboo, is both incredibly light and strong, and is fire-resistant.”
“How fire-resistant?”
“If you put a log of it on a fire, the fire would die. And as for the kaiju hide—well, not much gets through that. Keeps helium in. Keeps things on the outside out. So, yeah. The Shobijin looks like bad handicrafts. But around here, if you’re going long distances, that’s what you want to be in.”
“Still not convinced,” Niamh said, then started walking toward the airship anyway.
“How do you get the helium?” Kahurangi asked Tom, as we walked. “Are you getting it from natural gas?”
“We mostly use an air distillation process.”
“That’s not very efficient.”
Tom waved at the thick air. “It’s more efficient here. There’s more atmosphere, and helium occurs here more than back home.”
“And the kaiju hide?” Aparna said. “How do you get that?”
“Are you asking if we hunt the kaiju?”
“I was wondering that, yes.”
“Hunting a kaiju would be a very ambitious undertaking,” Tom said, “to use the mildest euphemisms possible. So, no. Kaiju die like anything else does. When they do, we scavenge the body.”
“How does that happen?”
“Very carefully.” We walked up the gangplank into the passenger area of the airship.
* * *
For all that the outside of the Shobijin looked like rotted steampunk, the passenger cabin was nicely appointed. Modern lounger-style airline seats were placed in wide rows facing each other, with enough space between to move around and look out through broad windows. There were small lounge areas fore and aft, with bathroom facilities and snacks, not in the same place. I glanced at Niamh, who seemed slightly more reassured at the interior than the exterior. We found ourselves seats and plopped our stuff down, and stored our carry-ons in cubbyholes in the baseboard.
“Welcome back, fellow Tanaka Base Gold Team members,” said the voice over the Shobijin’s speakers. “This is your pilot, Roderigo Perez-Schmidt, and with me as always is my copilot, Mattias Perez-Schmidt. We’re not related, we’re just married.” This got a low groan of familiarity; I had a feeling Roderigo used this line with every announcement. “Today is a lovely day to travel, and we are delighted to travel with you. Our destination is the delightful Tanaka Base, located in the scenic and lovely Labrador Peninsula, almost straight south from us, a mere two thousand six hundred fifty kilometers’ distant. For you Americans, that’s about one thousand six hundred fifty miles, and also, this is the last time you will hear imperial measures used because like the rest of the civilized universe, Kaiju Earth uses measurements that make logical sense.”
Another low groan, but very low, as the number of Americans appeared relatively small, and also, they were scientists, so they used metric anyway.
“Once aloft and barring any bad weather or kaiju attack”—we newbies looked at each other with some concern, but no one else seemed to break what they were doing—“we will be cruising at a comfortable one hundred twenty klicks per hour. Honda Base tells me Betsy is to the northeast, so we’ll cruise at between two hundred and three hundred meters until we reach the sea. For you new members, welcome, and also, the majority of our voyage will be over Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea, so it will not be as scenic as you would like. Nevertheless I hope you will enjoy your time on the Shobijin. We will be at Tanaka Base in roughly twenty-two hours.” Perez-Schmidt made some comments to the Shobijin crew and then signed off.
“Betsy?” Kahurangi asked Tom, who sat with us.
“That’s the local kaiju,” Tom said. “You saw her when you got here. She was the one that looked like a small mountain.”