by P. S. Power
This time changed a lot, since within moments a strange man came and gave her a pill to take.
“Engines said to give you something to keep you awake. This'll do it. You won't need coffee after this, but in sixteen hours or so, you'll be out, understand? This will keep you up and working, even feeling alright, 'til it runs out, then you'll have to sleep, no choice in it.”
She took it, hoping it wasn't something too dangerous, something like speed maybe? She'd never had amphetamines back home, but then she'd never tried to produce power for airships like this before either. Hopefully it wasn't instantly addictive or anything.
The rest of the day went by in a haze, even though everything seemed to be incredibly clear at the same time. She managed another two large ships before the pill, whatever it was, wore out. She told the man that the last Engineer had left to watch her, a small wiry man that looked fifty or so, about the pill and what she'd been told, then mentioned she only had about four hours left before it wore off. He suggested that she get home then, since she wouldn't have enough time to do another full crystal and a half charged crystal wouldn't really help anyone right now.
She got home late for her work out, but filled with energy, so she put on her exercise clothes, which looked an awful lot like what she'd worn the day before, slipped her new power conduit into her jacket pocket and went looking for the spikes that Winslow had been putting on her each morning. At the back door she found them already laid out, next to a heavy pack, which seemed heavier than the one from the day before, and put them on.
She jogged slowly for a while, following the regular route, intending to redo what they'd done the day before. On her second trip through, she suddenly came under attack. Snowballs came from the right, one hitting her in the head, she used the force generated by the small red tinted metal piece that found its way into her hand to stop the next three. Then nothing happened for a while as she kept jogging.
An attack from the left hit her. Snowballs fell like rain. She managed to hold them off after she'd seen the first one, with a sustained burst from the weapon, using it to create a kind of anti-snowball force field, while she tried to keep running.
Finally after several more attacks she ran into the house, laughing. Inside she ran into Winslow as she came through the door. Actually impacting with him bodily, she stopped giggling and stared.
“But...” She sputtered, looking at him closely, dressed in his normal work clothes, a dapper black suit with gray vest and shiny black shoes. “Then who was pelting me with snowballs out there?”
He looked concerned until a knock came at the back door. He moved to open it cautiously, his own hand going to his jacket pocket.
When the door opened, she saw her assailants, standing rosy cheeked and dressed in warm looking white outfits.
Kelvin and Heather Westmorland.
Chapter thirty
Kelvin didn't wait for Gwen to say anything, swooping in to give her a hug, while Heather stood laughing and putting her hand out to be shaken toward Gwen, but keeping her eyes trained on Winslow who still had a hand in his pocket. She nodded at him, not really tense, both just waiting to see if the other would do anything.
The Westmorland data guy finally put Gwen down all the way, having pulled her on to her tippy toes for a moment, and held up a hand to keep her from speaking.
“Bethany's fine. She wanted us to let you know that she didn't have a choice about leaving like that. She literally didn't by the way, Darrick came in and handed her a teletransport sphere, whisking her away to training, without telling her what was up. Bit of a dirty trick, but he really doesn't like giving people the option of saying no. Then he brought the note back for her, but didn't warn her about anything either. I know I should have come sooner myself, but things came up. About the, you know...” He looked sideways at Winslow, who nodded and walked away, asking them to follow him to the drawing room.
“Anyway, we can't stay long, but Heather wanted to come and make certain you understood the cryptic messages about training and got specs for the uniforms.” He handed her an envelope.
“This is big, but it's going to be a bit. Political stuff is always slow. So, how are you doing? Did you have a good Yule? What have you been up too?”
Kelvin listened raptly to her answers, and told her that she should keep working with the airships like that for as long as they needed her.
“No one ever went wrong going over the basics, besides, if you ever get into any of the special services armor, you'll need that. It basically runs the same way I hear.”
Heather shook her head and told the man he didn't have a clue with a chuckle.
“It takes special conditioning and training to run the armor, not just raw power production, though it takes that too, at the same time. Kelvin's right though, it sounds like you're getting some good training. The guy at the door, he helping you?”
After a few minutes of explaining what she'd been doing running exercises and weapons, Heather excused herself to go find the butler. Kelvin made small talk and told her that Darren, the one that had found Mathews for Gwen, had told him to tell her hello.
“I don't know, but I think he likes you. If so that would be a first as far as I've ever seen. He barely tolerates most of us. Darned good at his job though. Man can find anything and give you coordinates down to the foot for it. He even found a week off for me once that I didn't have on schedule. I mean that seriously too. Bit of a miracle worker.”
Heather came in then, followed by Winslow. They all shook hands, this time Heather also shook the butler's hand, and seeing this Kelvin followed suit, then spun and gave Gwen another hug.
Then they left, out the front door this time. They had to tramp through the snow which reminded Gwen that she should work on a path if she got the time.
Gwen suddenly felt a little sleepy and told Winslow about the drug or whatever it was she'd been given. He stiffened briefly, looking a bit angry, then directed her to the shower, getting one of the maids to lay out some sleepwear for her. She started to tell him she could do it herself, but then yawned, a wave of tiredness coming over her. Her eyes closing suddenly of their own accord.
“Or maybe that would be a good idea.”
She managed to get a shower, the water sloughing off of her, since no one in this world had ever invented a decent shower head, not even for the rich, apparently. Or maybe they had and people here just didn't like them? Regardless, showers here were a purely functional thing, at least for her. She noticed the shower head thing every time still. She washed quickly and got herself ready for bed just in time to get under the covers when everything went away.
She woke up about nine hours later, crawling out of bed and getting dressed in the warm room. She worked her way down to the kitchen, hoping she could grab a bite of food before going in to work. Taking stock she realized that she felt... fine really. Better than she had in a while, knowing that the Westmorlands hadn't forgotten about her yet. Ethyl saw her and started to raise a fuss, worried that the work had been too much for her the day before.
“I mean, I'm exhausted and I barely charged two of those thruster packs. They said you did four main drive crystal packs yourself. That's insane dear. We won't go hungry if a few airships can't leave for a few months...”
This got Gwen to nod.
“Good to know, but what about the loaders and their families? They make good money, but some of them need to keep working to stay ahead, right? Then there's the delivery people, they don't get paid if they don't work, I bet. The cooks on the airships and so on. Can't just leave them hanging, right? Something this large goes down for too long and thousands end up being affected.” She yawned and laughed about it, so that Mrs. Vernor wouldn't worry about her.
The same sledge driver came as had taken them the day before, giving his name as Leopold. He took in her shabby clothing and sniffed slightly, but didn't say anything about it. He asked her when she'd need to be picked up.
“Do you think that
someone could meet me here at seven tomorrow? I know that these things don't have lights, is that safe? I mean for the driver coming in do you think?”
He told her that eight would be better for the morning man, if she held concerns for safety. He seemed happy that she'd mentioned the need for light, almost like no one had ever brought it up before. He pulled out a small notebook and made a note of her desired pick up time, telling her that someone would meet her in the main office, if that suited her.
Since she didn't know which airship needed to go out next, she headed to the main office to check as soon as they got to the airfield. She couldn't find anyone she knew, so she asked the clerk sitting behind a low desk if he knew. He wasn't great looking, but had a young and healthy appearance anyway, smiling big when he saw her.
“Oh? You're that new girl then? The one doing all the charging? Let's see... I think that the Griffin should be next, then the Peregrine. The rest need to load still, so that should be all for the day. Do you need directions to the Griffin? I could walk you over if you want.”
It was only two hangars over from the small office building, so she had no trouble finding it. A group of men, dressed for work, hung out near the back of the ship, one of them whistled at her as she walked up.
“Hey! You looking for a good time? I think we might be able to help you out there, since we're going to be here for a while.” This came from a thick looking man, not fat really, but that kind of ex-athlete look some men got as they aged. Muscle still there, but a little padding creeping over it. He had a shaved head and an earring in his right ear, a silver hoop with a bit of what looked like turquoise on it. So basically like a gay biker pretending to be a loader.
Cool.
“Well, right now I have to see that your main crystal pack gets charged, then see to the Peregrine. After that you'll be gone for a while... Maybe we can work on that good time you mentioned after that? I mean, if “hey, you looking for a good time” isn't your best line. I do have standards.” She smiled at the man, who looked shocked in return. At first she thought that she might have offended him, but it turned out he just hadn't expected her to talk to him at all. Gwen felt glad about that, since his offer, even if in jest, was the very first time anyone had asked her out on a date in her whole life. Unless he meant sex specifically. In that case, it was still the first time. So really, win-win for her.
“Normally women just keep walking. Heh... So you're the charger they got? Do good work I hear. Um, since I guess I've already made a fool of myself, let me take you to our Engineer to get set up. This way.”
He walked ahead of her. Well ahead she realized. Keeping a proper distance now that she'd actually talked to him? Or had her awkward attempt at being flirtatious actually done something? She'd tried to sound confident.
The Engineer turned out to be a fairly young, decent looking man, whose first words to her were an apology for whatever Givens had done and his assurance that he'd be punished as severely as the law allowed. He glared at the man for good measure, a genuinely surly look as if he really wanted an excuse to kick the man off of his boat.
“You'd think, eh? But no, this one's actually here for the crystal.” The bald man went on to explain the whole thing, even leaving in his unusual greeting and her response.
“So, as you can see, other than me having found what may be the perfect girl, there's no problem here at all.” He spread his hands, a gesture that tried to convey his innocence and turned to wink at Gwen.
The Engineer barked at him to get out. When the other man had left, he stood laughing for a bit. Then took her to the crystal to get set up.
“Forgive Givens. He's alright, but grew up on the docks – wet docks – and never served in the military. His idea of discipline seems to involve being yelled at regularly for some reason. I heard from the office; coffee each hour or so and sandwiches every few? We can make that happen. Please, let us know if you need anything else, we'll send Givens for it.”
The charge went smoothly after that, Givens bringing her coffee and sandwiches regularly. He apparently knew enough not to talk to her while she worked, just handing things to her and taking away the empties like everyone else had. At the four hour mark she felt the crystal push back and called the Engineer in to double check, since she very well could just be tired or imagining things. Four hours seemed fast, but maybe they'd had a partial charge already. No dials meant that they needed to be careful that way.
“Hey! Great job, thank you. I'll get the loaders in to set this up and we can finally be on our way. Do you know who's next? We can send someone to check if you need.” He glanced at Givens then. For all the man kept yelling at the bald guy, he also seemed to be his go to person for getting things done. Not just the dirty work either, Gwen was willing to bet. Kind of like Groundling? The boat's enforcer? Interesting if it turned out to be the case.
“The Peregrine should be up next. I know where it is as long as it's in its regular hangar. I've worked as a loader on her before.”
Both men blinked at that. Givens nodded at her a bit.
“I see. Well, good crew over there. Makes sense I guess. If someone like you is going to be a loader anywhere, it would be the Admiral flagship, wouldn't it?”
They didn't talk much more, but were suddenly more polite to her, formal, even the larger man that had been playful before.
No one was out when she got to the hangar for the smaller ship, tiny only compared to the others in their giant hangars. She walked to the port side hatch and pounded with her fist as she'd seen others do. The wood made a solid bang, but the ship had enough room inside that a few extra noises might be missed.
After repeating this again twice, about two minutes apart, the hatch opened and Groundling popped his head out.
“Curly! Come on in, girl. Finally decided to take another trip with us? You know, we still don't have anyone to replace you. Well, the Admiral let Darnell come back, but he doesn't really count as a replacement. Green as you are, you're twice, maybe three times, the worker he is. We can just ditch him at a port somewhere and claim he jumped ship. That or push him over the side. Everyone will buy it.” He shook her hand as she explained the deal with the crystals.
“So I'm just here to get you all underway, then I turn around tomorrow and do the next ones to go out. Not a lot of fun, but it keeps things moving. For now at least. I just hope people are taking it easy with their thruster charges, because it's going to be a pain trying to do everything all at once, you know? Those still have to go to the chargers.”
The quiet man bowed toward her and led her to engineering, where Gloria barked at her for being late.
“You want a job on my boat, you better show your ass up each day ready to work. No taking Yule off like some princess or shit like that. Left me stuck with that shitheel Darnell... No charge left in the main crystal either, which is the only reason I'm not ordering you off right now. That and the fact that I really, really want to get rid of Darnell.” Gloria grinned at the end, but shook her head. “Serious about that last part. Can I tell the Captain that you've signed up so we can shuffle that headache off to some other berth?”
“Nope. Sorry, I'm here for other reasons, though I'll keep an eye open just in case I find anyone that might work for you.”
Gwen sat on the floor in front of the crystal and started charging it then. Hoping that someone would bring food soon. Smitty did, actual food, if portable stuff, bread, cheese, and fruit, along with beef sandwiches and hot chocolate instead of coffee part of the time, since he knew she liked it from her time following him around a few weeks before. The way Sue made hot chocolate impressed her, though she figured it probably had about six hundred calories per cup. Gwen had a guess that Sue's special ingredient was heavy cream, but it tasted fantastic.
She'd almost finished when she heard the yelling from the back of the hangar. A clatter came, more screaming and yelling. Finally, she finished, wondering what the distraction had been about and walked toward the noise,
which continued.
Outside, Katherine's uncle, the Admiral, stood ringed by loaders, many of them with wrenches and pieces of timber or pipe in their hands. Facing them seemed to be nearly the same number of people, mainly men, holding similar objects.
In the front, a short man with a red face and rusty hair, stood screaming at the Admiral, apparently not letting him speak at all.
“You can't just hire anyone for it you know! We'll cut you off so fast that you people will never get an airship off the ground again! Think you can go it alone? Fuck that! We've got connections and we'll make sure no one ships with your line until you buckle under!” He continued on like this.
Finally someone in the crowd saw her and yelled. Pointing helpfully.
“There she is!”
A half dozen people, all large men, rushed her then. Remembering all her recent practice, she pulled the PC from her pocket, waited for them to nearly reach her and threw three of them back into the rest of the group. Only one remained standing, the others on the ground in shock, though they didn't look hurt too bad. One bled from the nose. He'd live. If you wanted to fight, you had to be aware that you were probably going to be hurt, even if you won.
