Titans of Chaos

"Wait, wait," said Quentin, who was halfway up the wall to my left. "Amelia, I mean, um, Leader,were you proposing we sail to Mars in a wooden boat for eight and a half months?"

Colin said, "And we don't have a bathroom aboard."

"Head," I said. "Aboard a ship, it's called a 'head.'"

"Fine, we don't have one."

Victor said, "I assume we can use our special powers to overcome the need for oxygen atsea-level pressure, or do without food or water. But what about radiation from solar activity? Thewalls of this vessel are made of wood. I should not even mention the fuel supply, except Vanity,what does this ship use for fuel, anyhow? What makes it go?"

Vanity was lying with both hands behind her red curls, one leg bent, the other crossed over it, soshe could bounce her foot idly in the air. It was the kind of posture one would assume forwatching clouds passing by, but in this case she was looking up (her "up," my "down") at herfriends. "I dunno. The ship goes where I tell her. I did not think she could fly into space."

Quentin said, "If the vessel is moved by a spirit, there may be limitations on where the spirit hasleave to go. Is it lawful for a Phaeacian ship to sail beyond the circles of the Earth? The laws ofmagic may differ in the superlunary realms."

Colin said, "I am not living in a coffin one hundred twenty feet long and twelve feet wide for eightmonths. And then how long on Mars to wait for the planets to move back to the right positions?"

I said, "No, no, no! That figure was for a fuel-flightpath efficient orbit. We are supernaturalcreatures in a supernatural boat. We can cheat. If the Nautilus can achieve and maintain a one-gacceleration throughout the trip, it should only take about two days."

Victor said, "Actually, Leader, we don't know if this ship can even achieve escape velocity."

"Then that will be the first thing to test!" I declared.

Victor said, "Very good, Leader. How do we measure our velocity?"

I said, "We don't We measure acceleration. Vanity, ask your ship to maintain an accelerationequal to one gravity as measured at sea level on Earth. Victor, can you measure the fall of anobject in seconds per second? You go up on deck, get a tin cup or something out of the knapsacks,and we drop it from the bow to the stern."