Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Airfleets Over Ostend (a steampunk short story): Clockwork Imperium, #3
    Airfleets Over Ostend (a steampunk short story): Clockwork Imperium, #3
    Airfleets Over Ostend (a steampunk short story): Clockwork Imperium, #3
    Ebook64 pages49 minutes

    Airfleets Over Ostend (a steampunk short story): Clockwork Imperium, #3

    By J.P. Medved

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The third short story in the Clockwork Imperium series.

    The mysterious and alluring Myra Abernathy has disappeared without a trace, and Henry Emerson is left wondering just who she really was, and who she really worked for.

    But dark events in Europe soon overtake him, cutting short his search for the American woman.  A Flemish rebellion in Belgium threatens King Leopold II, and Henry's airship, the Bellerophon, with the rest of the British Air Navy's Second Squadron, is sent to help.

    With his friends James and Raheem aboard, Henry and the squadron are tasked with retaking the Belgian aerodrome by the coastal town of Ostend.

    But as Henry steers the Bellerophon into position, he can't help but wonder at the letter Myra left for him.  A letter that warns things are not as they seem on the European continent and that someone behind the scenes is secretly maneuvering the great powers like pieces on a chessboard, for reasons unknown and sinister.

    Airfleets Over Ostend is a 13,000 word (50 pages) steampunk novella.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJ.P. Medved
    Release dateNov 12, 2014
    ISBN9781502213105
    Airfleets Over Ostend (a steampunk short story): Clockwork Imperium, #3

    Read more from J.P. Medved

    Related to Airfleets Over Ostend (a steampunk short story)

    Titles in the series (2)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Time Out

      Jun 5, 2020

      Time Out
      5 min read

    • Article

      Time Out

      Jun 5, 2020

      Time Out
      5 min read

    • Article

      Toasting Trafalgar

      Sep 19, 2019

      Toasting Trafalgar
      5 min read

    • Article

      Bleeping Frustration

      Sep 8, 2023

      Bleeping Frustration
      2 min read

    • Article

      War Of The Wager

      Jul 2, 2023

      War Of The Wager
      3 min read

    • Article

      Nemesis Of The Normans

      Oct 28, 2021

      Nemesis Of The Normans
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Inshore Squadron

      Jan 5, 2021

      The Inshore Squadron
      1 min read

    • Article

      Top Ten Sea Books

      Jun 5, 2020

      SJ AND SMH In the October of 1991, a storm of rare wickedness hit the North Atlantic. Caught up in it was the sword-fishing boat Andrea Gail, which went down with the loss of all hands. At that time, the author was working as a tree surgeon in the bo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Write Of Passage

      Dec 8, 2022

      Write Of Passage
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Monarch Of All I Survey

      Nov 22, 2019

      The Monarch Of All I Survey
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Last Of The English

      Aug 19, 2021

      The Last Of The English
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Loyal rebel

      Feb 8, 2020

      The Loyal rebel
      17 min read

    • Article

      Right Royal Blunders

      Apr 5, 2023

      Right Royal Blunders
      4 min read

    • Article

      What Doomed The Mary Rose?

      Sep 29, 2022

      What Doomed The Mary Rose?
      11 min read

    • Article

      Æthelred the Unready

      Dec 15, 2021

      Æthelred the Unready
      3 min read

    • Article

      Cry God for Harry

      Oct 18, 2023

      Agincourt: Battle of the Scarred King By Michael Livingston Osprey £20 The tale is a familiar one – of a beleaguered and outnumbered English army, led by the heroic Henry V, trouncing the ‘flower of French chivalry’ through bulldog tenacity and withe

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Sailor King

      Jan 5, 2024

      The Sailor King
      3 min read

    • Article

      From Ballroom To Battlefield

      Feb 20, 2020

      From Ballroom To Battlefield
      5 min read

    • Article

      Time Out

      May 1, 2020

      Time Out
      6 min read

    • Article

      Time Out

      May 1, 2020

      Hemingway: a real man’s man; red wine, bulls and wrestling with fish were all central themes of a life of unremitting machismo. Having read a bit of Ernest in my time, I generally find that he spends a good deal of time droning on about death, impote

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Shedful Of Adventure

      Jul 14, 2023

      A Shedful Of Adventure
      5 min read

    • Article

      A TALE OF TWO STERNS SEEN IN ROTTERDAM letter of the month

      Feb 23, 2024

      In response to Bill Keene’s excellent article on SS Rotterdam (SM, Jan), I thought I would share a couple of photographs I took during a recent stay on the iconic ship. During my stay, my attention was drawn to moored to the old Holland America Pier,

      6 min read

    • Article

      Fighting Dirty

      Nov 24, 2022

      Military leaders pulled off some outrageous stunts to outfox their enemies in the Middle Ages. But the one that the Norman leader Bohemond of Taranto deployed at the beginning of the 12th century - pretending he was dead - surely takes some beating.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Crapshoot In Cassino

      Dec 29, 2020

      Crapshoot In Cassino
      16 min read

    • Article

      New World Marauder

      Dec 12, 2017

      Gangsters aside, pirates are perhaps the most romanticised outlaws of them all. And yet the annals of fiction are packed with larcenous sea dogs whose rakish flair is not so much heavily compromised as non-existent. Robert Louis Stevenson’s anti-hero

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Airfleets Over Ostend (a steampunk short story)

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Airfleets Over Ostend (a steampunk short story) - J.P. Medved

      Airfleets Over Ostend

      A Clockwork Imperium Short Story

      J.P. Medved

      Copyright 2014 by J.P. Medved

      Also by J.P. Medved

      The Clockwork Imperium Series

      The Great Curry Contest (free prequel)

      To Rescue General Gordon (Clockwork Imperium #1)

      Queen Victoria's Ball (Clockwork Imperium #2)

      Airfleets Over Ostend (Clockwork Imperium #3)

      The First Venus War

      In the Shade of the Ishtar Trees

      Visit J.P. Medved's official website

      www.jpmedved.com

      for news, free stories, and updates on upcoming books

      I

      As the little Belgian continued talking, his thin mustache twitching above his mouth like a nervous insect, Henry Emerson imagined how it would feel to throw the man overboard. The three hundred foot fall through the air to the gray water of the English Channel below might kill him, but the thought of his rapidly diminishing screams provided a considerable counterpoint in Henry's mind. The idea of finally getting some silence on his bridge caused Emerson to smile just a little too broadly.

      Arnaud took this as agreement and, smiling himself, added, And zee best part of eet eez zee land eetself eez practically free! Zose dirty savages 'ave no idea 'ow much zee ivory eez worth.

      As the Belgian took a breath, Henry finally found space to interject, Mr. Pouliot, that doesn't sound, strictly speaking, like the benign trusteeship of the Congo Free State promised by your King.

      Arnaud Pouliot, Vice Under-Secretary of the Belgian Royal Air Service, narrowed his eyes in Henry's direction and pursed his lips. The expression made him look not unlike a large, hairless rat, thought Emerson. The man was short, shorter even than Henry, who had what he liked to think of as 'an airman's build.' Pouliot's knee-high boots, midnight black below the dark blue of his uniform, were impeccably polished.

      Finally, his brain seeming to have come to some conclusion, the Belgian smiled again and winked. "But 'av course we are taking every precaution to ensure zee comfort, honor, and Christian education of zee sav- ah, natives, Monsieur Captain Emerson."

      Emerson nodded curtly, surveying the deck behind for someone to save him.

      The stout wooden surface was crowded with airmen in royal blue uniforms, navigating the tight quarters while carrying boxes of ammunition, rope, and stacks of silk patches, or performing last-minute enhancements to the thin, nickel-plated armor around the gun casemates. A pair of quick-firing three-pounders sat on either side of the hull, with two Gatlings, fore and aft, and four, four-barreled Nordenfelt one-inchers in the spaces between rounding out the airship's compliment of weaponry.

      Raheem Aranjapour was aft, making a show of inspecting one of the mounted Nordenfelts and very studiously not looking in Henry's direction. The ship's newest Master Gunner, despite Henry's hand in his promotion and transfer, was decidedly less-than-grateful to his friend for the reassignment.

      As he'd reminded Henry upon hearing the news, his deep baritone rumbling unhappily, I do not like heights. And the last time I was on one of those contraptions you crashed it into the desert.

      Henry thought the big Sikh was being remarkably unjust in his assessment of the Sudanese affair, but decided not to press the issue. Aranjapour had barely spoken a word to him since.

      James Billingsworth took his promotion to First Lieutenant and subsequent assignment to Henry's new ship in an entirely different manner. His night-long, gin-fueled celebration, spent as far away from the finer London establishments as possible, and including a reluctant Henry until the pair were thrown out of a Whitechapel pub, ended with a stone cell, iron bars, and the payment of a tidy sum of his family's money to an angry constable with a rather large welt on his forehead.

      Billingsworth, significantly more sober since that evening four weeks ago, popped into view from belowdecks. His wide, ruddy face was split with a grin and Henry waved him over.

      Sir, the magazine is made secure as you ordered, and the marines are kitted out. He leaned in and his grin grew wider, "Though some of the boys are a little green in the face after that wind over

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1