Chapter XVII 12/27/2007 12:49 PM

[WHICH TREATS THE GREAT QUESTION OF THE RETURN TO THE EARTH] AND OF THE BOLD PROPOSAL WHICH WAS MADE BY LIEUTENANT PROCOPE

On his return, Hector Servadac made known to Count Timascheff the result of his visit to the English. He did not hide from him that Ceuta had been sold by the Spaniards, who, moreover, did not have any right to sell it, and he concealed only his personal projects.

It was thus agreed that, since the English did not want to come to the "Hot-Land", one would do without their assistance. They were warned. Let them manage as they wish.

It thus remained to treat this serious question of the repeat encounter which was to take place between the comet and the terrestrial spheroid.

On principle, it was necessary to consider it a true miracle that, at the time of the first shock, Captain Servadac, his companions, the animals, in a word all the beings removed from the earth, had survived. That undoubtedly was due to the fact that the movement had slowly changed in consequence of unknown circumstances. If the earth had counted some victims already, that would be known later. In any case it was an unquestionable fact, that none of those who had been carried away had personally suffered from the collision, --those on Gourbi Island as well as on Gibraltar, Ceuta, Madalena and Formentera.

Would it be the same on the return? Most probably one could not count on it.

It was during the day of November 10th that this important question was discussed. Count Timascheff, Captain Servadac and Lieutenant Procope met in the excavation which served them as a communal hall. Ben-Zouf was naturally admitted to the meeting. As for Palmyrin Rosette, formally invited, he had refused to come, this question not interesting him in any manner. Since the disappearance of his dear Nérina, he could not console himself. Threatened with the loss of his comet, as he had lost his satellite, he desired nothing but to be left alone. That is what was done.

Captain Servadac and Count Timascheff, showing increasing coldness one for the other, did not let anything appear of their secret thoughts and discussed the question in the interest of all.

Captain Servadac spoke initially in these terms:

"Messieurs," he said, "today we are at the 10th of November. If the calculations of my ex-professor are right -- and they must be--, it is thus in exactly fifty one days that a new meeting will take place between the comet and the earth. In preparation for this possibility, do we have some precautions to take?"

"Obviously, Captain," answered Count Timascheff; "but is it in our capacity to take them, and are we not absolutely at the mercy of Providence?"

"It is not forbidden to help ourselves, Count," responded Captain Servadac. "On the contrary."

"Do you have some idea of what one can do, Captain Servadac ?"

"No, in truth."

"How is it, messieurs," said Ben-Zouf then, "that scientists like you, with all the respect that I owe you, are not able to direct this satanic comet where you want and how you want?"

"Now, we are not scientists, Ben-Zouf," answered Captain Servadac, "and, were we (scientists), we could do nothing there. See whether Palmyrin Rosette, who really is a scientist..."

"Foul mouthed," said Ben-Zouf.

"Very well, but a scientist, whether he can prevent his Gallia from returning to the earth!"

"But for what use is science then?"

"To know, most of the time, that we still do not know all!" Count Timascheff answered.

"Messieurs," said Lieutenant Procope, it is certain that, in this new shock, various dangers threaten us. If you would like it, well, I will enumerate them, and we shall see whether it is possible to combat them, or, at least, to mitigate their effects."

" Speak, Procope", answered Count Timascheff.

Everyone chatted so calmly about those things that really one could say that they did not care.

"Messieurs," responded Lieutenant Procope, "it is initially necessary to ask in what way this new meeting between the comet and the terrestrial sphere will occur. We will see then what there is to fear or to hope for in each possible case."

"Nothing more logical," answered Captain Servadac; "but let us not forget that the two stars are moving one towards the other, and that their speed, at the time of the shock, will be ninety thousand leagues per hour!"

"Two jolly trains!" Ben-Zouf allowed himself to add.

"Thus let us see how the shock will be carried out," Lieutenant Procope began again. The two stars will meet or obliquely or normally. In the first case, it can happen that Gallia makes only a glancing contact with the earth, like the first time, after having torn off again a few pieces of it, and then return to revolve in space. But its orbit would undoubtedly be disturbed, and we would have few chances, if we had survived, of ever seeing again our fellow human beings.

"That would suit the interests of Mr. Palmyrin Rosette, but not ours," observed the judicious Ben-Zouf..

"Then let us leave aside these assumptions," answered Count Timascheff. "We know sufficiently their advantages and disadvantages. Let us arrive at the direct shock, that is to say if, after having collided with the earth, Gallia would remain there attached to it.

"Like a wart on a face," said Ben-Zouf.

"Silence, Ben-Zouf," responded Hector Servadac..

"Yes, my captain."

"Thus let us see," replied Lieutenant Procope, what the assumptions are that a direct shock presents. Above all, it should be admitted that the mass of the earth being much higher than that of Gallia, its speed will not be delayed in this meeting and that it will carry the comet with it.

"That is admitted," answered Captain Servadac.

"Very well, Messrs, on the assumption of a direct shock, Gallia will approach the earth either by the part of its surface which we occupy at the equator, or by the part located at our antipodes, or, finally, by one or the other of its poles. However, in these various cases, the chances are so that not one of the living beings that it carries would be able to survive.

"Explain yourself, Lieutenant," said Captain Servadac.

"If we are, at the time of the meeting, at the colliding part of the equator, we will be crushed."

"That goes without saying," answered Ben-Zouf.

"If we are at the antipodes of this place, in addition to the certainty still to be crushed , since the speed which will animate us will be suddenly destroyed - -which will be equivalent to a shock --, we have still the certainty to be asphyxiated. Indeed, the Gallien atmosphere will mix with the Earth's atmosphere, and there will be no more respirable air on the top of this mountain, one hundred leagues high, which Gallia will form on the earth."

"And if Gallia collides with the earth at one or the other of its poles?..." asked Count Timascheff.

"In this case," Lieutenant Procope answered, "we will be inevitably ejected and broken in a dreadful fall.

"Very well," said Ben-Zouf.

"I add, in the impossible case where none of these assumptions would occur, that we will be infallibly burned up."

"Burned?" said Hector Servadac.

"Yes, because, when the speed of Gallia, suddenly destroyed by the obstacle, is transformed into heat, the comet will be all or partially burnt under the influence of a temperature which will rise to several [thousand] {millions} degrees!"

All that Lieutenant Procope said was rigorously exact. His audience watched and listened to the development of these various assumptions without being otherwise astonished.

"But, Mr. Procope," said Ben-Zouf, "one question. If Gallia falls into the sea?..."

"However deep the Atlantic or the Pacific may be," answered Lieutenant Procope -- and their depth does not exceed a few leagues --, the water cushion will always be insufficient to deaden the shock. Therefore, all the effects which I indicated a few moments ago would reproduce..."

"And even more with the addition of drowning!..." answered Ben-Zouf.

"Thus, messieurs," said Captain Servadac, "broken, drowned, crushed, asphyxiated or roasted, such is the fate which awaits us, whatever the way in which the encounter will be accomplished!’

"Yes, Captain Servadac," answered Lieutenant Procope without hesitating.

"Eh well," said Ben-Zouf, "since it is thus, I see absolutely only one thing to be done!"

"Which is?" asked Hector Servadac.

"It is to leave Gallia before the shock."

"And the means?"

"Oh! the means are quite simple!" Ben-Zouf answered quietly. "There is not!"

"Perhaps!" said Lieutenant Procope.

All the glances went on the Lieutenant, who, the head in the hands, reflected on some audacious project.

"Perhaps," he repeated, "and, as extravagant as my plan might appear to you, I believe that it will have to be carried out."

"Speak, Procope", answered Count Timascheff.

The Lieutenant remained for a few moments in a mode of deep reflection. Then:

"Ben-Zouf," he replied, " has indicated the only path that there is to take: to leave Gallia before the shock."

"Then it is possible?" asked Count Timascheff..

"Yes... perhaps... yes!"

"And how?"

"By means of a balloon!...

"A balloon!" exclaimed Captain Servadac. "But it is quite worn, your balloon! Even in the novels, one does not dare any more to make use of it!

"Please listen to me, Messieurs," replied Lieutenant Procope, wrinkling his eyebrow slightly. "On condition of knowing exactly the moment when the shock will be carried out, we can, one hour before, lift ourselves up into the atmosphere of Gallia. This atmosphere will necessarily carry us with its acquired speed; but, before the meeting, it will be able to merge with the Earth's atmosphere, and it is possible that, by a kind of slipping, the balloon might pass from the one to the other, by avoiding the direct shock, and that it will be maintained in the air, during the time of the collision."

"Well, Procope," answered Count Timascheff, "we understand you... and what you have just said, we will do it!"

"Of a hundred chances," began again Lieutenant Procope, "we have ninety nine of them against us !"

" Ninety nine!"

"At least, because it is certain that at the time when its translatory movement will stop, the balloon will be on fire."

"It as well?" Ben-Zouf exclaimed.

"It as well as the comet," answered Procope... "unless in this fusion between the two atmospheres... I do not know too much... it would be difficult for me to say... but it would be better , it seems to me, at the moment of the shock, to have left the ground of Gallia."

"Yes! yes!" said Captain Servadac. "if there is but one good chance in a hundred thousand, we will take it! {trusting in the divine Goodness!}"

"But we do not have hydrogen to inflate a balloon..." said Count Timascheff.

"The hot air will be enough for us," answered Procope, "because it will not be necessary to remain more than one hour in the air."

"Well," said Captain Servadac... a montgolfier... it is primitive and easier to manufacture... But the envelope?..."

"We will cut it from the sails of the "Dobryna", which are a light and resistant fabric..."

" Well spoken, Procope," answered Count Timascheff. "You really have a response to everything."

"Hurrah! Bravo! " Ben-Zouf shouted, to conclude.

It was, in truth, a bold plan which Lieutenant Procope had just proposed. However, the loss of the colonists being ensured on any other assumption, it was necessary to attempt the adventure and resolutely too. For that, it was important to know exactly, not only the hour, but the minute, and, if it were possible, the second at which the collision would occur.

Captain Servadac undertook to request this from Palmyrin Rosette, by taking all kinds of cares. Therefore, at this time, under the direction of the Lieutenant, they began the construction of the montgolfier. It was to be of rather large dimension to lift all the inhabitants of the "Hot-Land", who numbered twenty-three, --because, after their refusal, there was no need to be concerned any more with the English of Gibraltar and Ceuta.

Moreover, Lieutenant Procope resolved to increase his chances by giving himself the possibility of hovering longer in the atmosphere, if after the shock, the balloon should have survived. It could happen that they had to seek a suitable place to land, and it was necessary that his vehicle did not fail. Hence, this resolution which he took to carry a certain quantity of fuel, grass or dry straw, to heat the interior air of the montgolfier. This way the first balloon pilots proceeded in earlier times.

The sails of the "Dobryna" had been stored at Nina-Hive. They were made of a very tight fabric, which it would be easy to make even tighter by means of a varnish. All these ingredients were in the cargo of the tartan, and consequently at the disposal of the Lieutenant. He traced carefully the template of the sections to cut out. This work was done under good conditions, and everyone got busy with the sewing of these sections, -- all, including the little Nina. The Russian sailors, very used to this kind of work, showed the Spaniards how they ought to go about it, and the new workshop was not unemployed.

One says all, -- but excepting the Jew, whose absence nobody regretted, and Palmyrin Rosette, who did not even want to know that they were building a montgolfier!

One month transpired in this work. Captain Servadac had not found the occasion yet to put to his ex-professor the question relative to the new meeting of the two stellar objects. Palmyrin Rosette was inaccessible. Days went by without him being seen. As the temperature during the day had become again almost bearable, he shut himself in his observatory, of which he had again taken possession, and he did not allow anyone to penetrate there. To a first overture of Captain Servadac, he had responded extremely badly. More than ever despaired of returning to earth, he did not want to be concerned with the dangers of the return, nor do anything for the common safety.

And, however, it was an essential thing to know with an extreme exactitude, this moment when the two stars would meet one with the other with a speed of twenty-seven leagues at the [second] {minute}.

Captain Servadac thus must have patience, and he had patience.

Meanwhile, Gallia continued to approach the sun gradually. The terrestrial disc grew visibly bigger to the eyes of Galliens. The comet, during November, had crossed fifty-nine million leagues, and, on the 1st of December, it had been not more than seventy-eight million leagues from of the sun.

The temperature rose considerably and caused the debacle with the thaw. It was a splendid spectacle, that of this sea which was dislocating and dissolving. One heard this "great voice of the ices", as the whalers say. On the slopes of the volcano and littoral, the first filaments of water curved capriciously. Torrents, then cascades were improvised in a few days. High snow banks melted everywhere.

At the same time, the vapors started to rise on the horizon. Little by little clouds were formed and moved quickly under the action of the winds, which had been quiet during the long Gallien winter. One could expect forthcoming atmospheric disorders, but, all things considered, it was life which returned with heat and light on the surface of the comet.

However, the two predicted accidents occurred then and caused the destruction of the Gallien navy.

At the time of the thaw of the sea, the schooner and the tartan were still one hundred feet high above the sea level. Their enormous pedestal had slightly bent and was inclined with the thaw. Its base, undermined by hotter water, as it happens with the icebergs of the Arctic sea, threatened to disappear. It was impossible to save both ships, and it was up to the montgolfier to replace them.

It was during the night from the 12th to the 13th of December that the collapse occurred. In consequence of a rupture of balance, the solid mass of ice collapsed in a solid block. It was the end of the "Hansa" and "Dobryna", which broke up on the reefs of the littoral.

This misfortune, which they were waiting for and they could not prevent, did not impress the colonists painfully. One could say something from the Earth had just gotten lost.

To say what the lamentations were of Isaac Hakhabut facing this instantaneous destruction of his tartan, the curses which he launched against the bad race, that is impossible. He accused Captain Servadac and his accomplicesżlot?. If they had not compelled him to take the "Hansa" to this cove of the "Hot-Land", if they had left it at the port of Gourbi Island, all this would not have happened! They had acted against his will, they were responsible, and, on return to the earth, he could take legal action against those who had caused him such damage!

"Mordioux!" exclaimed Captain Servadac, "stop that, [Master Isaac ]{}, or I will put you in irons! "

Isaac Hakhabut kept silent and returned to his hole.

On the 14th of December the montgolfier was completed. Carefully sewn and varnished, it was of a remarkable solidity. The net had been manufactured with the light ropes of the "Dobryna". The balloon basket, made from trays of wicker which formed the compartments of the hold on board the "Hansa", was sufficient to contain twenty-three people. It was, after all, but one short ascension, -- time to slide with the atmosphere of Gallia into the Earth's atmosphere. They needed not look for comforts.

There remained always this question of the hour, minute and of second, concerning which the off-putting, stubborn Palmyrin Rosette had not yet pronounced.

At that time, Gallia recut the orbit of Mars, which was at a distance of fifty-six million leagues, approximately. There was thus nothing to fear.

However, this day, December 15, during the night, Galliens could believe that their last hour had arrived. A kind of "earth" tremor occurred. The volcano was agitated as if it had been shaken by some subterranean convulsion. Captain Servadac and his companions believed that the comet was dislocating, and they left the shaking massif in all haste.

At the same time, cries were heard in the observatory, and the unfortunate professor was seen appearing on the rocks, a piece of his broken telescope in his hand.

But they did not occupy themselves with comforting him. On this dark night, a second satellite appeared revolving around Gallia.

It was a piece of their own comet!

Under the action of an interior expansion, it had split in two, as the comet Gambart had done formerly. An enormous fragment, detached from itself, had been launched into space, and it carried with it the English of Ceuta and the English of Gibraltar!

Chapter XVIII

In which one will see that the Galliens prepare to contemplate of a little high the whole from their asteroid