Chapter 1

James Davidson looked at his reflection in the mirror hanging above the china wash basin in his room. He was debating on whether to shave himself, or to pay the two bits to go get it professionally done. Of course, Mrs. Meynard, who ran the boarding house, would volunteer to do it for free, and she would do a very handsome job of it too. But then he would have to listen to her list the many virtues of one of her unwed daughters. Although he was a recent newcomer to the Raritan township of New Jersey, the fact the he was working directly for the "Wizard of Menlo Park" made James something of an up-and-comer in the township.

James decided he would go ahead and pay to have his face professionally cleaned and spare himself both his own amateur efforts at the job and Mrs. Meynard's incessant matchmaking. With a look at his pocket watch, James decided he definitely had time for the barber shop before his visit

James bought a paper and whistled. The headlines announced the death of Horace Greeley, the Liberal Republican presidential candidate who General Grant had easily defeated for his second term in the Oval Office. That'll put the Electoral College in a spin, James thought to himself.

James walked into his favorite barbershop and waved at Mr. Fioravanzo. Mr. Fioravanzo waved back. "How's my favorite ethernaut doing?"

James grinned. "It's not official yet, Mr. Fioravanzo. Edison hasn't picked the first man to go up in his contraption yet."

Mr. Fioravanzo just grinned and waved James to an empty chair. "With the way I'm going to make you look, you'll be the first man in space for sure!"

James Davidson had led an interesting life. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the eighth of eleven children, and the youngest of six brothers. At the age of six, one of James's older brothers, returning from a long sea journey, brought him a book containing Leonardo Da Vinci's sketches. From that moment on, James dreamed of nothing but becoming a great inventor. At the age of twelve, he read of the exploits of Armen Firmen and his attempt at controlled flight of the Mount of the Bride in the Rusafa Area, near Córdoba. James attempted to emanate Firmen's adventures with a homemade balloon, and actually managed to fly some distance before an uncontrolled landing. The injuries he sustained from his father's belt were more significant than the ones he sustained from the crash itself. Undaunted, James would continue seeking a life of adventure until he turned sixteen. In that same year, the U.S. Civil War broke out.

Maryland, like the nation at large, was divided. James's family was split, with three of his brothers joining the U.S. Navy, and the other two joining the Confederate one. James himself ran away from home, and within a matter of months (and a series of misadventures), was a proud member of Colonel Mosby's Raiders. James was a source of the Colonel's more unusual inspirations, including devising a semi-controlled gunpowder rocket that took out a Union observation balloon.

In 1864, James was captured and sent to the notorious Union prison at Camp Douglas, Illinois, where he, along with other Union Prisoners, were given the choice of remaining in prison, or being paroled to the Western Territories, where they would fight Indians while Union Soldiers were pulled back to the Confederate Front.

It was here that James was fortunate enough to fall under the command of the scholarly Colonel John Patterson, who discovered a burgeoning inventor and scholar in the young James Davidson, and gave James access to his extensive private library. In 1868, when the Colonel gave John a copy of Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, James knew that one day he wanted to go to the moon.

In 1870, Thomas Edison, the celebrated inventor, announced his attentions to put a man on the moon before the end of the century.

Even though the war had been over for some time, Confederate soldiers serving in the Western territories were not released from their parole until the seventies. Even then, Colonel Patterson had offered James a commission in the Army, with the full blessing of the military. James had made several small technical innovations that had filtered themselves through the United States Army. A number had even made their way into the private sector, including several that were incorporated in the Consolidate 2-8-0 railroad engine. In short, the military wanted to hang on to its own "Thomas Edison."

If James had never read From Earth to the Moon, he might have stayed in the Army. Or if the government had launched its own ether program, he might have stayed. But it was Thomas Edison who had declared he would put a man on the moon by the end of the century. And if any one man had the innovativeness and the sheer force of willpower to put a man on the moon, it was Edison.

And the fact that Edison had sent him a telegram inviting him to join the Ether Program as soon as his commitment to the army was over had clinched the deal.

Edison was everything and nothing like James thought he would be. He was mercurial, brilliant, controversial, innovative ... any and every adjective that James could use.

And late 1872 found 27 year old James Davidson as one of three of the final candidates for the first manned launch of the suborbital Edisonian rocket. On paper, James was a lock. Of course, his Confederate service was used as a selling point on why he shouldn't go into the ether by his detractors. But outside of Edison himself, James was the most brilliant of the Ethreal Engineers on the Moon Project. He was in the best shape of any in the ethernaut corps, and outside of the Prussian aviator Otto Lilienthal, was the most accomplished glider in the world.

Even if he wasn't the first man to touch the ether, James would consider his time working on Edison's moon project as absolutely perfect. Except for one thing.

Or one person, rather.

And that one person was Emily Waggoner, the seventeen year old daughter of the mayor of the Raritan Township.

Emily Waggoner. James couldn't remember ever meeting a more frustrating person.

Not that she didn't have her qualities. She was a beautiful, active seventeen year old, with a fit, statuesque build, light brown curly hair that she wore to the small of her back, fair skin, laughing blue eyes and the cutest dimple on her right cheek when she smiled. The youngest child of her widowed father, she played the hostess for the numerous dinners and gatherings that her father the mayor held. And as mayor of the city that hosted Thomas Edison, that was quite a few. Bankers, rail barons, politicians, generals ... all made their way to Raritan.

And for some reason, Emily had made James her personal cause. And that cause was to thwart all his ethreal ambitions.

Perhaps it was the fact that she was a suffragist. Or a prohibitionist. Or the fact that James had been a Confederate at one time. Or the fact that James was immune to her charms.

It didn't matter. Emily had actively campaigned with the visitors to Edison's Moon Project to make sure that James never left his earthly ties.

Not that the visitors to Raritan agreed with her radical politics. Most were taken aback when Emily's heroine, Susan B. Anthony, had been arrested for illegally voting in this year's presidential election. However, Emily had such a charming way about her, that none of the visitors took her political posturings seriously, or at least didn't hold it against her.

And those laughing blue eyes and the dimple on her right cheek didn't hurt her charm either.

Emily had been sitting on the observer's platform at the launch of Edison's first manned rocket, which he had called the Wan Hu, at James's insistence. The launch was a success, with the estimated height being two thousand feet. As the rest of the observers discussed Edison's plan to move the Moon Project to Florida, to take advantage of the Earth's rotation, Emily sidled up to James. It was only when they were standing together that James realized just how much shorter than he was. James had always been something of a giant among his peers, standing at nearly six foot tall. Emily was a more petite five foot one. But she always just felt taller to James, as forceful as her personality was.

While the rest of the observers excitedly discussed the successful test, Emily and James stood there in silence. Then very quietly, so that no one else could hear, Emily told James, "Too bad you'll never get to ride one."