Uchronic Tales: The Zeppelin

By W. Peter Miller

Welcome to Uchronic Tales

THE ZEPPELIN
This first Uchronic Tale features a young American airman caught up in a conspiracy that threatens to turn the tide of the Great War. Reich Zeppelins have been bombing London mercilessly, but the night one of them takes a strange detour could turn the tide of the war. The Germans have kidnapped a mysterious passenger and it is up to Clark Tyler and a band of elite commandos to stop the massive airship Eisern Feist from returning her secrets to the Fatherland.

The Zeppelin is the debut release from The Uchronic Press. This action-packed 18,000 word novella features the premiere appearance of Clark Tyler, a man that trouble seems to find. Or perhaps he is just good at finding it.

In the months ahead, danger will put Clark in a number of Uchronic Tales. Look for tales of old Hollywood, earth-shattering danger, lost civilizations, and bizarre visitors from the unknown aether.

• Language: English
• Publisher: W. Peter Miller
• Release date: Apr 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476098753

W. Peter Miller

W. Peter Miller is a film editor and author living in Southern California. Recent works include "Uchronic Tales: The Horn", "Uchronic Tales: The Zeppelin", “The Studio Specter” in Green Lama Vol. One - available from Airship 27 and through Amazon and Indy Planet. Ancient work includes “The AADA Road Atlas and Survival Guide: The West Coast” from Steve Jackson Games.

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Uchronic Tales: The Zeppelin

W. Peter Miller

Copyright W. Peter Miller 2012

Published by The Uchronic Press Publishing at Smashwords

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UCHRONIC TALES:

THE ZEPPELIN

by

W. Peter Miller

The Uchronic Press — Burbank, California

Uchronic Tales:

The Zeppelin

Featuring Clark Tyler

This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, places, organizations, and events portrayed in this book are fictional, or used in a fictitious manner.

Published by the Uchronic Press

Visit us at: www.UchronicTales.com

and docsavagetales.com

The Zeppelin is © 2012 W. Peter Miller

Cover Art is © 2012 Mike Fyles

Copy Edited by Erica Snow

Typeset by Matt Drake

All Rights Reserved

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http://www.newpulpfiction.com/

Uchronic Tales – Stories that exist in a timeline that is almost like our own—except for the people and events that never existed in our world—events that forced changes to our chronology. Here you will find heroic adventures, outlandish science, ferocious alchemy, mystic forces, and an alternate history just slightly larger than our own.

THE ZEPPELIN

Chapter One

The Mission

June 17, 1917 - England

The fierce wind whipped at Clark Tyler's sandy hair when he unbuckled the straps that held him to the lower wing of a brand new Sopwith Triplane. The plane was climbing in pursuit of the German Empire's Zeppelin Eiserne Faust. An airship fleet had bombed London overnight and flown off, except for one that took a detour to the North East coast of Scotland, and hovered for a few minutes along the beach at Coldingham Bay.

Clark's leather rucksack flapped wildly in the wind. He clenched the wing's struts and looked into the moonlit night at the enormous airship. They were gaining.

Word had gone out that a person of vital national importance had been taken aboard the Empire's airship. Clark and a few others in the Forward Covert Operations Division were to be ferried by the Royal Flying Corps to get that person back. A few days before the bombing, a scientist named Kemp was kidnapped by German spies and taken north along the coast. The spies had evaded their pursuers, but were finally spotted near Coldingham Bay.

The Triplanes had only been in the field a few weeks, but they were the only ones that could climb fast enough to catch the Zeppelin. Clark hung onto the strut lines and waited for the moment when he could jump.

He couldn't believe it, but that was the plan. They would launch ten planes. Ten men would hang onto an aeroplane wing, climb to 20,000 feet, and jump onto a Zeppelin flying at 75 miles an hour.

That's crazy! Clark said to the commanding officer at the briefing not two hours before.

No. That's an order, the commander said.

The pilot said he hoped he could keep it steady.

Clark looked around the room and realized that they were dead serious. There were ten RFC pilots and ten FCO commandos. Clark was the youngest person in the room and the only American. His pals Trip and Kingford were making the jump, too. Clark didn't know the others. It was his first time on an aeroplane and he didn't even get a seat.

Clark was out on the wing, waiting for his moment. He looked across the moonlit sky and saw Trip lying on the wing of another Triplane. Trip gave a thumbs up. The huge enemy airship loomed above them, maybe a mile off, shining in the moonlight. Its silvery color came from aluminum powder in the dope that coated the airship’s fabric skin. The Sopwiths were faster than the Zeppelin by a good 20 miles per hour, but that was without a Yankee on the wing. As it was, they were gaining on the airship.

Clark looked down and saw the reflection of the moon in the seawater far below. He had a brief feeling of vertigo. He tightened his grip on the struts. In a few more minutes, the planes would be within the Zeppelin's range and the shooting would begin. That's why they were trying to come in as high as possible: to avoid the airship's machine guns. The Triplanes could climb higher and faster than any other plane available. Clark hoped it would be enough.

The Zeppelin’s tail-gunner fired off a few shots. Magnesium tracer bullets were mixed in with the regular ammo. Hot lines zipped by Clark's plane. The pilot yanked the stick back and the throttle forward and the plane rose a little faster. The tail fins of the airship soon blocked the line of sight to Clark's plane.

Trip's plane was not so lucky. The tracers seemed to be drawn to it like moths to a light and suddenly the plane exploded in a fireball of wood and metal. Clark hoped the Huns on the airship didn't wonder why the Sopwith wasn't returning fire.

Machinegun fire took out two more Sopwith Triplanes before they could gain enough altitude. The Zeppelin was rising,