Sairi [1] is sad that no-one seems to be listening. Or maybe they're listening, but they sure ain't responding. Is the pipe even working? No way to check.
Jameson [4] quickly pops open a port and sweeps up the coal dust carefully, then throws it out the window. The interior of the coal room is now 75% less dusty. [1] He leaves the port open and heads towards the deck. [6]+2 He quickly sets to work lifting out the old, hole-punched planks and starts replacing them with newer planks, though working in the night with just a lantern has something to it.
Arden [5,5] immediately holds his breath and throws it overboard into the ocean. Hopefully not too many fish will die from it. A brisk wind whips up and whisks the remnants of the poison cloud away.
He heads down, but the diligent Jameson has already cleared away all of the coal dust. Only thin streaks are left here and there. A possibility would be swiping a lump of coal from the hopper and just grinding it up.
Luther [5] drops off all the tools and looks around. [6] He finds a manual named A Crash Course In Not Crashing A Steamship—Especially Geared Towards Idiots. The title is a bit insulting, but it does seem like it's what he wants.
Roland [6]+1 quickly and efficiently loads his cannons, making his complaints seem false. Oh, Roland just got inspired then. His old skills took over, with him sitting in his body like a passenger with no say. Slide back, clean, load, stow. A set of simple actions. He is almost as good as a robot, he might say. And really, there ain't no better compliment than that.
[6] He sees a thick bank of grey clouds out of some of the flaps. He isn't sure what they are, though Sari, their pilot, spoke about sailor's tales of it. Go into there, they said, and you are a goner.
They seem to be rolling closer.
Sairi:
He remembers a time a long, long time ago. It was when he was younger. Just a little pup. The fireplace was as tall as a mountain, and the wood inside was burning higher than a funeral bonfire. Or so he remembers. Kids don't have proper sense of size. Comes with their height. His mama was in a rocking chair, the good, dark wood kind, the one like Vicky has, well oiled and crafted with the hands of a master. She says, why, when your father was a young man, he was the best sailor around. Worked on his own boat. He was captain of a proud caravan of ten, and he say, with his own two eyes, that he lost a ship or two in rolling grey mist in the First Ocean. It sneaks up on you, just like a snake or a tiger. More snake than tiger, mind you. Then it pounces. Things come out of the dark, monsters like you thought only lived under furniture. Dark, horrid shapes that burned with fire and smoke. It only took a couple minutes for the whole fleet to break ranks and flee, but one was already lost.
A creak.
The click-click of knitting.
The crackle of fire.
Sairi hears something more, but she can't remember it well enough. It's like hearing through a tunnel full of the sea. Something warm, a high-pitched reply. Feels good. Feels like home.
Eunh [6] lazes towards his observation post again, feeling like a sack of bones inside a meat, or what? A ... set of bones inside a meat sack, more like. He climbs up the ladder and huddles inside the sheltered, relatively warm observation post. Looking to the left, he can see a long, horizontal bank of grey clouds, looking like someone took a carpet and rolled it up all the way over the sky, and the pair of magic moons rising. There is no white moon today. It's one of the kind of nights where he won his best winnings and lost his worst losses. Sometimes the gods must like to play, too, he might have thought.
[4] Over the cutting wind rattling the crystal windows, he thinks he can hear a gnashing of sorts. Whoever it is, he must be gnashing really hard.
Doc [color#448cbe][6,6,3]+2[/color] looks around the warehouse. He thinks back on his prior work with brainboxes. They kinda need to be connected to their bodies to work, but ... he is very sure he can make a wireless interface. He sits on the floor, takes out a box of random parts he has picked up over the years, and sets to work.
A quick thirty minutes later, he has a fake brainbox ready. All it does is accept orders from a brainbox that has a certain type of sync crystal attached to it. It sends orders back, too. The real brainbox will be slotted into a control panel spot. He thinks the brainbox can accept simple verbal commands, so no problems controlling it.
He saunters to the bridge and proudly connects the brainbox to the socket. [6] Nothing less than perfection. The pilot can now order the firing robot and use it to extend his range of vision, while the crew can still command the robot using the sync crystal pairs.
On the sad side, he doesn't have any magic tools left. Only good old hydraulics. Never really liked magic anyways.
The night ages. The grey clouds silently close onto the starboard side of the ship. Unaware save for a few, Vicky makes her way silently across the Second Ocean's atmosphere, headed towards the continent where the cure for the famine can be found.
Sairi estimates they are halfway towards Gateway, the entrance to the highly controlled Heavy Magic Zone, where ships are restricted to sailing in "lanes," strips of airspace that extend from the top of the Second Ocean all the way to the bottom of the Third Ocean. Going up and down in a lane is permitted, but switching lanes can only be done in emergencies and in cities.
Sairi [5] is feeling more and more tired, but he stays awake. One alarming thing is that those clouds are now less than half a tick away. Any closer and they might touch with a hard wind.
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Topic: Steam Ship Vicky—Compensation Thrusters Optional (Read 11427 times)