Sairi, Roland, and Doc [4] + [1] + [3]
Between the three, they manage to haul the crate on-board.
[3] Sairi looks at the now-dark sky. The stars are starting to peek out, with the bright North Star above the ocean of air. The great emptiness might hide any number of frightening foes, but from here it all looks so serene. [1]
Roland [1] runs out of strength on the main deck and drops the crate, sharply bumping a corner against the wooden floor. He jumps back in surprise, then quickly examines the crate, seeing it isn't damaged. Looking at Doc, [4] he finds a pick from a closet and pries the front panel apart. Inside is a roughly spider-shaped clockwork contraption, with gears and all. It has six legs that widen towards wide feet, a solid body of dull steel, arms that can handle heavy loads, and a trio of glass lenses for it to see. The navy had used firing robots for a while by then. There ain't enough people willing to live a good portion of their lives on a small ship, surrounded by powder, men, and bad food. There ain't no women on navy ships, usually. And of course, there's no ... eh, forget about that one. The point is, the navy made robots to help man the guns. Each one has a 'brain' made from precise magic, imported straight from First Ocean, a city-state named Sol. Kinda ironic, seeing that Sol's under one of First Ocean's floating continents, Wiek, and don't see much sun during the year. These robots shot as well as any good man of the seas. There wasn't never enough of them.
Doc [1+1] immediately sets to pulling the robot apart, to the protest of Roland. The many layers of gears, small pieces, gyroscopes, hydraulics, and of course, the brain-box serve enough to make him unable to put it back together again. He sees that it's more-or-less the same, with the exception that it doesn't use coal anymore. Doc thinks that it has a chunk of ignitite in it, stone that is always hot. Some say that it's a heart of a thousand year old wyvern. Some think that it's made in the heart of the earth, under the First Ocean, deep under the mines. Well, whatever they say, ignitite ain't getting cool any time soon. You drop it into the ocean, the ocean'd sooner dry up than ignitite losing its fiery temper.
Luther [3] flicks the vents off. He frowns, looking at the various buttons around. He jabs a random one, which is marked GAIN. He had this feeling, see? The gauge that measures the pressure in the main air hold starts rising, and Victoria groans, her wooden planks and beams holding her weight again after a long time in the drydocks. She shakes, she shudders, and she wakes up. Takes to the skies. A ship gotta fly to be a ship. A ship's gotta fly.
Slowly, another gauge, a long, vertical one, with a thin red bar comes to life and trembles between the lines of one and zero. Everyone on the ship feels a lurching, gravity forgetting that it's supposed to be constant, not stronger as it whims. Victoria rises.
Eunh [2] worriedly looks around. The almost completely dark night sky finally and lethally hides any ship from sight. Only the dull boom of a signaling cannon is heard. Three short booms, fired immediately after the the other, saying that it is night, and that the fighting is over, for now. Night is the worst time to be in the air. That don't mean people don't fly at night. But they do stop fighting. Even the pirates. Heck, even the savage wyverns go to their rocky, treacherous roosts when the sun goes down. There's something about the time after sunset that unnerves man and beast alike. Old sailor's tale says that when you fly at night, don't ever go into a flat, shelf-shaped bank of clouds. Any ship who go into them clouds don't come out again. The worst scum, the lowliest of the pirates sometimes keep fighting at night. But those are rare. Eunh's hairs raise on the back of his neck. An eerie sense of danger fills his every pore, like just before lightning strikes.
Jameson [4] tugs on a short rope that is tied to a corner of the floor. It opens, and he peeks down to see that there's coal stacked in the bin there. Relieved, he heads to the bridge.
Arden [2] looks around, but he can't make out any detail in the dark sky. Only stars. [2] Only stars.
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Topic: Steam Ship Vicky—Compensation Thrusters Optional (Read 11434 times)