by L. C. Mawson
Ruth folded her arms. “Well, if you were made of flesh and your heart skipped a beat every time you saw a specific person, I would suggest that you might have romantic feelings towards the person.”
Michel looked decidedly like a man who had been told something he already knew and was trying to avoid.
Ruth smiled, though she couldn’t help the hollow feeling in her chest. She had never particularly wanted romantic feelings towards anyone, but knowing that Michel also wouldn’t have those feelings had always made her feel less alone.
“You’re in love with Ivy,” she said, hoping to prompt him into talking about it. It was clearly bothering him a great deal.
“Yes,” he eventually managed, his voice barely more than a whisper. “I think that I am.”
“Well, that’s wonderful. Have you told her?”
“Of course not! I’m just made of metal and she... She should have someone real.”
“You are real,” Ruth countered. “You’re as real as any flesh and blood man. It is perfectly possible that she returns your feelings.”
“Possible, but highly improbable, and I would rather not put her in the awkward position of rejecting me.”
“Michel...”
“You’re using the mothering tone.”
Ruth folded her arms at that. The damn mech always knew how to shut her up. “Fine. Be like that. I just want you to be happy.”
“I know, Ruth, but being rejected by Ivy won’t make me happy.” He took out his pocket-watch. “I’m afraid, if that is all, I have to go. Some friends accompanied me to London and we’re going out.”
“Well, you’re fine as far as I can see, but feel free to pop back if you experience any difficulties between now and next month, or if your core problems get any worse.”
He nodded. “Thank you.”
“It’s no trouble. Have fun with your friends.”
“You are, of course, free to come with me,” he said. “I’m sure my friend would love to meet the legendary Owl.”
Ruth smirked at the old name. “Perhaps, but I think I’m a little old to be out at the pub with students.”
“Nonsense.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, well, I suppose you’re right. I’m just worried about you. You’re here all alone now that Ivy’s gone.”
She smiled. “Michel, I am perfectly fine. Now, go on. You’ll be late.”
As soon as the door shut behind him, Ruth found herself greeted by the oppressive silence once more.
She made her way to the kitchen and let the kettle boil as she read through a new paper on the potential applications of mechanical minds (which, as usual, made a few snide remarks about her for keeping the information to herself). She brewed herself some tea and drank as she continued to read.
Once the kettle was empty, she decided to call it a night, making her way to bed, despite the relatively early hour.
2
Ruth was awoken much earlier than she would have liked by the sound of someone knocking on her door.
She pulled on her dressing gown, cursing the lack of servants. Of course, she would hate them the rest of the time, but for callers before she was decent, they would have been a blessing.
She yanked the door open, hoping that it was someone she knew, only to be surprised to see Michel and Ivy standing there.
“Oh, I didn’t think about you not being up yet,” Ivy said as she noted Ruth’s state of undress.
Ruth shook her head, simply glad to see her former student. “It’s no trouble. Come on in. What can I do for you two?”
“Well, we thought we would see if you were free for lunch,” Ivy explained as she and Michel entered the house. “It is almost noon...”
Ruth nodded. “Of course. Just give me a moment to change.”
Ruth hurried to put on her easiest dress, wanting to make herself look presentable without making Ivy and Michel wait for too long.
As she left her room, she ran straight into Michel.
“Where’s Ivy?” Ruth asked.
“She’s still downstairs. I wanted to talk to you about, well, about what we talked about yesterday,” he said in a hushed voice.
“Oh, yes. Have you told her how you feel?”
“No. No, no, not at all. But I was thinking... Perhaps if, instead of these ceramic plates, I had something that looked more like real skin, so that I looked far more like a human man, I think I might have an easier time confessing my feelings.”
Ruth sighed, folding her arms. “I suppose such a thing may be possible but, Michel, I do want you to think about this. It would be a drastic change and would most likely change how you function on a day-to-day basis.”
“But you think it can be done?”
“I’m really not sure.”
“If anyone can figure it out, it’s you.”
“Michel, you’re not listening to me.”
“I have perfect hearing.”
“Then you are choosing to ignore my point. Michel, if you make such a drastic change, you have to be sure that you’re doing it for you, not for Ivy or anyone else.”
“But you make upgrades to me all the time. Why is this different?”
“Michel, have I ever made an upgrade to you that I didn’t ask you about before?”
“No, I suppose not.”
“And I have never pursued an upgrade that you thought was irrelevant. So, I want to know that you want this for you before I do it, not that you think it will impress Ivy. Not least because I am not convinced of that fact.”
“But if I still want it after thinking about it, you’ll do it?”
“Yes. Come back to me with your decision in a few days and, in the meantime, I will look into how viable it is.”
“Thank you.”
“Come on, Ivy has been waiting long enough.”
RUTH DEFINITELY GOT the feeling that Ivy and Michel had only visited her out of pity but, as they finished up their lunch, she decided that she was happier about having seen them than she was annoyed.
“So,” her former student said as they headed back to Ruth’s, “what projects have you been working on?”
“Nothing too exciting, I suppose. Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time making sure that no one else is close to replicating Michel. Other than that, all I’ve done is improve upon the spider designs for better mobility.”
“Would you mind showing me? I miss talking to you about your designs.”
Ruth sighed, looking to see that Michel was walking quite a way ahead of them. “Of course you can, but I have to ask, this visit of yours was rather unexpected...”
Ivy looked sheepish. “That obvious, huh?”
“A little.”
“Okay, well, I was out with Michel and a few of his student friends last night and Michel mentioned that he was a little worried about you. He said that you don’t get many visitors and you don’t leave the house much.”
“If I wanted to leave the house, I would.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t miss people.”
Ruth sighed as they reached her house. “I suppose it has been a little lonely as of late.”
“I’m sorry I’ve not been around more,” Ivy said as they entered the house. “I haven’t been avoiding you. I’ve just been busy.”
“Ivy, I don’t expect you to keep me company. You have your own life to be getting on with.”
Almost as soon as the door shut behind them, there was a knock.
Ruth frowned as she opened it, only to reveal Thomas and Captain Hall standing on the other side.
She sighed, turning to Ivy. “You know, if you were going to organise a party, it would have been nice to know ahead of time.”
“Ruth, we need to talk,” Captain Hall said as she turned back to him, his serious tone telling her that he wasn’t there at Ivy’s request at all.
“Come on in,” Ruth said, letting them through.
It felt odd to have Captain Hall in her house.
When Thomas had still lived there, he had refrained from bringing him home. Captain Hall and Ruth’s relationship had never quite got past the brief time she was considered a potential traitor and he had been in charge of watching over her.
“What can I do for you?” she asked once they joined the others.
“I have received some troubling news from a friend of mine,” Thomas said as he folded his arms. “It seems that more mechanical men have surfaced in America.”
“More mechanical men? But no one has the plans; we made sure of that,” Ruth protested.
“We know,” Captain Hall said, “but we suspect Mr Banks is up to his old tricks again.”
“So he’s trying to frame me once more?”
“I doubt framing you was his original intent, but we do suspect that he is the one building the mechanical men.”
“Does anyone else know?”
Thomas shook his head. “The Queen hasn’t been informed, if that’s what you’re asking. I think I’m one of the few with the information in the country, and I came straight to you.”
Ruth couldn’t help but wonder if Hall had protested that, but she pushed the thought aside. “So, what do we do?”
“We can take my airship to investigate,” Captain Hall told her. “I have license to act of my own discretion on occasion, so we needn’t tell anyone.”
Ruth nodded. “When do we leave?”
“At dawn tomorrow. I do not wish to dally. If the Queen finds out that we knew and kept it from her...”
“If she finds out at all, I’m a dead woman.”
Ivy stepped forward. “We’ll come too. Won’t we, Michel?”
“Of course. I want to stop them from using my brothers for nefarious purposes as much as anyone.”
“And I could use some time in the air to see my designs in action.”
“You don’t have to-” Ruth started, but Ivy cut her off.
“We know that, but we have our own reasons.”
Ruth nodded, deciding to just accept that they were coming along. “Then I suppose we leave at dawn.”
3
Ruth couldn’t help but give a disgruntled groan as she boarded the airship. She hadn’t been back in the air since their trip to France and was of the opinion that getting back aboard an airship at any point before she died would be too soon.
And yet, here she was, being assured that it was faster than travelling by sea. She knew that. Her designs had been the ones to make that the case. But it still didn’t mean that she had to like travelling in such a nausea-inducing way.
“Are you alright? You look a little pale,” Michel said.
“I’m fine,” Ruth told him firmly, having had quite enough of his fussing over her. “Where’s the rest of the crew?” she asked as they made their way onto the empty bridge. “What have they been told about our voyage?”
“There is no crew,” Captain Hall informed her. “Thanks to Ivy here, the ship is entirely automated.”
Ruth grinned, examining the instruments. “Truly?”
Ivy nodded, proceeding to show her all of the ways she had got the instruments to work in harmony with very little human input.
Ruth faded in and out of what she was saying, a little too distracted by the upsetting feeling of not being on the ground, but she was proud of Ivy regardless. The young girl had truly found her place in the world.
“I’m sorry,” Ivy said, halting herself. “Here I am prattling on and you look positively ill.”
Ruth shook her head. “I shall be fine. We will be in the air for a long time yet, after all.”
“Actually, there’s medicine for that.”
“For illness caused by travel?”
“Well, sort of. Captain Hall has it.”
“Ah yes,” Hall said, passing over a small vial. “It is designed to keep you in a deep sleep for the entire journey. You will go to sleep in London and wake up when we reach America.”
Ruth gave the vial a dubious look. “I don’t know, Captain. This sounds like nothing more than a way for you to get me out of your hair.” She remembered to smile to indicate that she was joking.
“Two birds with one stone,” he replied with a smile of his own.
She sighed. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, Captain, but thank you for the offer.”
She downed the contents of the vial not more than five minutes later.
RUTH AWOKE, WONDERING if the vial had worked. Were they truly in America already?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud screeching noise, quickly followed by an explosion that rocked the ship.
Just as she pulled herself over the side of her bed, Michel and Ivy hurried into her room.
“Oh good!” Ivy said. “You’re already up. And dressed. How long have you been up?”
“She took the medication while still clothed,” Michel reminded her.
Ruth grumbled a little at that decision as her dress had poked into various points, leaving them quite sore.
“What’s going on?” Ruth asked.
“Well, we reached America, but we were immediately accosted by pirates not more than a mile from shore,” Ivy informed her.
“Pirates? You mean in sea-faring ships?”
“No, airships. We have to get off the ship. It won’t be able to take much more damage.”
“Lead the way,” Ruth said.
Ivy took them out into the corridor and around the corner, only to run straight into the pirates in question.
The pirates trapped them in place, sneering at them.
“That the only crew?” one of the pirates asked.
Another shook their head. “These don’t look like crew. Passengers, I’d reckon.”
The first one took their pistol and aimed it at Ivy. “Where’s the crew?”
“There aren’t any. The ship is automated.”
“Auto-what?”
“It doesn’t need a crew. It runs itself.”
The pirate looked at her as if she had told him that it ran on magic, but Ruth soon realised that the shocked expression had less to do with what Ivy had said, and more with the bullet wound in his chest.
He dropped to the floor, quickly followed by his crewmates, to reveal Thomas standing behind him with a gun.
“When did you get so good with that thing?” Captain Hall asked with a sly grin.
“Amazingly, I do sometimes listen when you try and teach me things.”
“I should give you a gun more often...”
Thomas replied with a grin and Ruth decided that time was too short not to interrupt them.
“Now that we’re all together, how are we getting off this thing?” she asked them.
“There’s a small scouting craft,” Hall told her. “If we can get to it, we can make it to the mainland.”
Ruth nodded as Hall led the way down to the scout craft.
They only saw a few more of the pirates on their way, which Hall and Thomas made quick work of, but the way the ship continued to shake with explosions told them that there were many more outside.
“Once we’re in the scout craft, what’s to stop the pirates from simply shooting us down?” Ruth asked. “Surely it’s less able to withstand bombardment than this ship.”
Hall shook his head. “Perhaps, but it’s a much smaller target. Chances are, they won’t be able to hit it.”
Ruth gave a hum of agreement, though she wasn’t completely onboard with that reasoning. Nonetheless, it was either the scout craft or go down with the ship.
They quickly made it to the scout craft and all piled in, squishing up against each other as Hall struggled to reach the controls. The craft was clearly not designed for more than three people.
They managed to launch the craft, however, gliding down and away from the airship, just in time to see it rocked by another explosion and losing altitude.
Ruth watched, waiting for the pirate ships to realise that they had escaped, but she instead saw a handful of smaller craft arriving, all with the American flag on
the side of them.
“Looks like the authorities finally saw fit to intervene,” Thomas said as they landed the ship on the beach.
They scrambled out of it, Ruth thanking God for her return to solid land. After that ordeal, she felt that she needed a cup of tea and a long sleep, but she steeled herself, knowing that neither were likely.
One of the American ships followed them down within a minute or two, for which Ruth was glad. She wasn’t exactly sure how they were supposed to go about their mission without their ship. Or anything else, for that matter, besides the clothes on their backs. And the escape craft, she supposed, as her mind tried to suppress everything that had happened by focusing on practicality. She wondered just how much they could get for it. Would it be enough to get passage back to England?
Captain Hall straightened his uniform jacket as the pilot got out of the American craft and made his way to them.
“Looks like you lot got yourselves into quite the mess,” the pilot said as he approached with a smile. “Are you the only survivors?”
“The only passengers,” Captain Hall said. “We were flying a Thames V7. It was all fully automated.”
“That’s a British ship, is it not?”
“Correct. I’m Captain Hall and this is my crew.”
“Here on the Queen’s orders?”
“I’m not at liberty to discuss that with anyone but your higher-ups.”
The pilot seemed a little put-out by that, but quickly perked back up. “Well, we were on our way to the capital when we noticed your predicament. We’d be happy enough to bring you along.”
“That would be much appreciated.”
Ruth raised an eyebrow as they went to follow the pilot, wondering just what exactly Hall was playing at, but she kept her mouth shut for fear of shattering their ruse.
4
They arrived at the American capital within a few hours, which Ruth was quite impressed by. She knew that her designs had been worked into smaller, faster craft, but she had yet to see one in person. It was quite a bit kinder on her stomach as well.
“There it is,” the pilot said, puffing his chest out with pride. “The White House. I bet you folks don’t have anything like that in England.”
