The Long Haul

The Long Haul

From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009

By Ken Liu

It was easy to see the zeppelins moored half a mile away from the terminal. They were a motley collection of about forty Peterbilts, Aereons, Macks, Zeppelins (both the real thing and the ones from Goodyear – Zeppelin), and Dongfengs, arranged around and with their noses tied to ten mooring masts, like crouching cats having tête-à-tête tea parties.

I went through customs at Lanzhou's Yantan Airport, and found Barry Icke's long-hauler, a gleaming silver Dongfeng Feimaoutui – the model usually known in America, among the less-than-politically-correct society of zeppeliners, as the Flying Chinaman – at the farthest mooring mast. As soon as I saw it, I understood why he called it the American Dragon.

White clouds drifted in the dark mirror of the polished solar panels covering the upper half of the zeppelin like a turtle's shell. Large, waving American fags trailing red and blue flames and white stars were airbrushed onto each side of the elongated silver teardrop hull, which gradually tapered towards the back, ending in a cruciform tail striped in red, white, and blue. A pair of predatory, reptilian eyes were painted above the nose cone and a grinnig mouth full of sharp teeth under it. A petite Chinese woman was suspended by ropes below the nose cone, painting over the blood-red tongue in the mouth with a brush.

Long Haul. Photo by Elena.

Icke stood on the tarmac near the control cab, a small, round, glasswindowed bumb protruding from the belly of the giant teardrop. Tall and broad-shouldered, his square face featured a tall, Roman nose and steady, brown eyes that stared out from under the visor of a Red Sox cap. He watched me approach, flicked his cigarette away, and nodded at me.

Icke had been one of the few to respond to my Internet forum ad asking if any of the long-haulers would be willing to take a writer for the Pacific Monthly on a haul. «I've read some of your articles,» he had said. «You didn't sound too stupid». And then he invited me to come to Lanzhou.

Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Horton, Prime Books, 2015.