Awakenings

by C. D. Espeseth

  No doubt some of its brethren would be near the convergence as well, sensing the same as it did.

  Maybe this time would be different; maybe the dream would finally be realized.

  Either that, or it meant they were finally at an end. A true end.

  Wunjo didn’t know which would be better as a very human emotion overtook it. Excitement.

  It was possibly some leftover static from a time so long ago it seemed a different lifetime, for indeed, it had been.

  Wunjo twitched and jerked as the old code slithered through its virtual synapses until finally the redundancy buffers swept it up and reintegrated the code with the rest of its being, and once again Wunjo was itself rather than the other who far too often floated up to the surface of its synthetic mind.

  2 - A Dream Come True

  Sometimes you need to consider the past to see what the future holds.

  My teacher told me that once. She had been talking about the cyclical nature of history as we seem incapable of learning from past mistakes.

  While it is a poignant bit of wisdom, it is my mission to change that fallacy within our species.

  We will learn or face extinction.

  - Journal of Robert Mannford, Day 052 Year 00

  Naira

  The Academy - Dockyard and Port, New Toeron, Bauffin

  Naira sweated in the early morning sun, but the breeze and spray from the sea cooled her as best it could beneath the crisp uniform she wore.

  “Jake, take the helm. I’m going to check below deck for a minute. I need to see this so-called steam engine work up close.”

  “It’s pretty wild. You’ll be impressed, I think. It’s like walking into the future down there, or is it the past? Pretty wild anyway.” Jake nodded to her and took the wheel.

  Naira quickly checked their position against the lead boat, and then ducked down below deck.

  The heat hit her in a wave as soon as she ducked below the main deck, and then intensified again as she stepped into a world of twisting pipes, metal, dials, gauges and steam.

  Men and women in trousers, braces, and thin linen shirts with shovels in hand scurried about. Some of the men were topless, and she couldn’t blame them. It was very strange to see a fire on board a ship, especially one which was still mostly made of wood, but the researcher in charge of the new design insisted the wood was insulated properly.

  “Valerie, how close are we to the limit?” Naira called over to her engineer, a new position on these fancy new steamboats the corsairs were using.

  Navy, Naira chastised herself. We have to call them the Royal Navy now. She didn’t know if she liked the change. There was something romantic about the Corsairs’ history, but she supposed the Nine Nations wanted to distance themselves as much as possible from anything related to piracy. The Union Wars against the Navutians had essentially been a war against a nation of ravaging pirates, and the Corsairs’ checkered history was all mixed up with what happened during those days.

  “We’re just touching the red, ma’am!” Valerie tapped the glass face of the shiny new pressure gauge gently and seemed to do some mental calculations. The ship’s engineer had abandoned her naval jacket and wandered around with a thick leather belt full of polished metal tools. Naira didn’t know what half of them were for, but in this new Navy, she didn’t have to know all of it, just enough to understand the role played by each of the pieces, and it was her role to command.

  “Give us some more then. Let’s see what these tubs can do,” Naira ordered, not in any way comfortable with being called ma’am yet or issuing orders to a team of a dozen sailors. They were undermanned on purpose, the instructors wanted to watch them scramble with these new boats, see how they would cope under pressure.

  “You heard her!” Valerie snapped. “Mason, let the worm out and check the butterfly valve on the throttle wheel. One-and-a-half time on the coal!” Valeria gave a crisp salute. “We’re on it, ma’am!”

  Naira returned the salute. “And make sure you and your crew are well watered. It’s hot as all hells down here.”

  Valerie winked at Naira and called to her crew, “Not to worry, we like the heat! Don’t we?”

  “Oi! Oi!” the crew shouted back.

  Naira smiled. This was amazing. She had never been part of such an excellent team, and it felt great.

  She stepped back onto the main deck.

  There was a groan below deck, and the rhythmic chugging of the giant pistons pumping up and down increased its mesmerising tempo. The distinct smell of coal wafted all around them as the huge paddle wheel on the side of the boat strained to increase its speed through the water.

  Naira shook her head in amazement as she considered the marvellous machine they rode across the waves.

  “Impressed?” Jake asked as he stepped away and let Naira take the wheel again.

  “Most definitely.” Naira quirked a grin and felt a gust of the ocean air on her face. The wind seemed an amazing luxury after being down below.

  “Pressure?” Naira asked through the copper voice pipe beside the helm, listening to alien combinations of rattling and hissing coming from all over this new ship. She didn’t know if the sounds were an improvement over the creaking of wood and sails in the wind, but Naira could not argue with the feeling of being pulled into the future as the paddle wheels tore through the waves and propelled them onwards.

  “Holding, seems fine,” Valerie’s echoey voice came back from below.

  Cresting a wave, they could see their boat was gaining now with the increased rate and extra push.

  Naira had sat through the lectures about how these boats worked and knew she would have to study for hours and hours before she felt comfortable in her knowledge and understanding of these new systems. Yet, she already knew the effort would be worth it. The science behind this new power was wondrous.

  “It’s the way of the future!” Chronicler Brussard from the Academy Research Division had said. The man had spent his entire life tracking down stories about old steam engines. Nearly fifty years of work and research had gone into the one engine he had displayed for High King Ronaston, and now they had six of these strange paddle-steamers in the new Royal Navy.

  These boats still seemed a bit sluggish given the wind they had today, but she supposed these tubs could keep going through even the worst doldrums.

  “We’re gaining on them!” Jake cried from beside Naira. He clamped his spyglass shut after a peek over at the lead boat. “How are those paddles holding up?” Naira asked her crew.

  Two sailors scurried over to either side of the deck.

  “All fine, ma’am!” the shout came back.

  Naira was starting to get used to the strange but monotonous pull of the steamer and had an idea.

  “Coming up to the corner,” Naira spoke her thought aloud.

  They could hear the engine of the other boat beneath the roar of their own, and everyone heard the increased chugging of the other boat as it turned its prow back the way they had come. This was their final lap.

  “They’re pushing hard now. Look at the smoke coming out of that thing. They must be shovelling like mad!” Jake yelled in frustration.

  Naira put her own spyglass to her eye and wanted to curse as she focused on the other boat.

  Darrell Sampson, the best sailor in her class, was waving at her. She watched him snap his own spyglass shut with a cocky smile.

  So far, the notorious Sampson had won every race, with every type of boat they had used. It was unbelievable, but Naira had to admit the man knew how to sail, and apparently how to steam-paddle better than anyone she had ever seen.

  It irked her to no end.

  They were only one swell behind. The other boat was all the way around the buoy and was speeding away from them.

  Another gust of wind and spray hit Naira in the face as the prow cut through the leading edge of the wave. The paddle wheels pulled them down the other side.

  “He’s going to win again!” Jake growle
d. “I thought we had him, we were gaining, but he’s got to be pushing that engine to the limit like we are.”

  “I’ve got an idea. Fellow Hinobi never said we couldn’t use the sails, correct?” Naira’s mind was whirring like the insides of the amazing clockwork bird she had seen a man displaying for a crowd just yesterday.

  “Well, no, but he did say he wanted to see what these boats could do under a full head of steam,” Jake answered, looking at her as if she had just cracked.

  “Oh, he will.” If our ship stays together, that is.

  Naira leaned towards the mouth of the voice pipe. “Helm to Engineer!”

  “Here, ma’am,” Valerie’s metallic voice came back.

  “The paddles work independently, yes? So how fast can they work going in opposite directions?”

  “We’ll have to slow the port side down to take the turn, it’s recommended to turn at three-quarters and a quarter on the wheels respectfully through a sharp corner in choppy waters. I see where you’re going with this though, opposite directions would be too hard on the crankshaft. We could go full and zero, though. Stop one paddle completely. That’ll turn this heap pretty quick.”

  “Want to see what this ship really can do?”

  “She can take it, ma’am!” Valerie called back. “Things are purring down here like a cat wanting to go out for a hunt.”

  That was all Naira needed to know. The nose-end of the ship had just passed the buoy. “Jake, Marcy, Han! Get those sails up! Cut power to port-side paddle! Full-throttle on starboard paddle. Boiler crew for port-side paddle get to the main deck and join rigging crews. Rig for full sail! Hard a port!”

  Naira felt the strange drift and pull on the wheel as the starboard paddle strained. Their forward momentum pushed them past the buoy.

  The water swelled in front of them as the boat turned. She had to time this just right, get the prow over the crest of the wave without getting slapped on the starboard broadside of the ship with the power of the next swell.

  Jake’s eyes met hers as he shouted his own orders, getting people into the rigging and securing his sail on the main mast. He looked excitedly terrified, and then he gritted his teeth as the wave rolled under them.

  “Hang on!” Naira yelled.

  They crested the wave, not as cleanly as she wanted, and she felt the ship buck beneath her as the wave slapped them.

  The jolt made her bones rattle, and the starboard paddle came out of the water spinning crazily, spewing water in all directions.

  Then they were sliding down the other side of the swell. The paddle wheel chewed back into the water, and a scream of metal screeched through the entire ship as their crankshaft shuddered in protest.

  “Engineer!” Naira snapped into the voice pipe.

  “She’s holding, ma’am,” Valerie responded. “Ease the throttle, damn it!” Valerie called to one of her boiler crew.

  “Secure those lines!” Jake yelled from behind her.

  Sail canvas snapped taut above them as the wind caught and the ship surged forward with the giant wooden masts groaning in protest.

  “Full throttle on both paddles! Full steam ahead!”

  “Aye, Aye!” The cry was heard from all over the ship.

  They surged forward, and Naira had to grip the helm with all her might just to stay upright. There were worrying groans as the paddle-wheels strained against the churning water, but their boat held together.

  “Woo!” Jake whooped from behind her, accompanied by several maniacal laughs from the rest of the crew.

  They hit the crest of the next swell at full speed and were only half a swell behind Sampson’s ship, and still gaining.

  “Boiler crew for portside paddle back to stations!” Naira yelled before once again calling into the voice pipe. “Engineer!”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Valerie answered, sounding excited.

  “I want everything you can pull from those engines, we’re taking down that damn pirate today,” Naira couldn’t help but smile as she said it.

  “Aye, Aye!” Valerie shouted back, and Naira knew her engineer was also grinning at the prospect at taking a title away from the self-proclaimed unbeatable Darrell Sampson.

  “Thinks he looks so good with that well-oiled moustache and groomed beard,” Jake said from beside her as he rejoined her at the helm.

  “He does look pretty good with it, actually.” Naira shook her head in admission.

  “Yes, I don’t know why I picked that. His moustache is glorious. I’m too excited!” Jake turned to ensure the sails were holding.

  Naira’s spyglass was out, and she once again saw Sampson looking at her through his. He was still smiling, yet not nearly as wide. It looked to be more of a smile of admiration.

  They had the jump on him, but Naira did not doubt the rumoured one-time pirate had some other tricks up his sleeve.

  It was then that she saw the lead boat’s sails also go up.

  “Damn it! Full steam, Valerie!”

  “We’ve got half of a boiler crew down here, ma’am. We’re giving it everything we can!”

  “Jake, take the helm!” Naira called. “You and you!” she shouted to two of the men above her in the rigging of the sails. “Will those lines hold if we stay the course?”

  “Yes, ma’am!” they both called.

  “Get down here, you’re with me. We’re shovelling coal.” She watched them scramble down the ropes like spiders but then saw their bare feet on the wooden deck. “Get a pair of boots on those feet! There should be extra below deck.”

  In a blink of an eye, Naira had tossed her naval jacket onto the peg beside Valerie’s and had a shovel in hand. The two men she had pulled off the sails soon joined her and everyone available was shovelling coal to try and get the enormous furnace burning hot enough to give them full steam.

  “We’ve stopped gaining!” Jake’s metallic voice called out of the voice pipe from inside the boiler room.

  She moved as fast as she dared in the hypnotic dance of shovel and toss, shovel and toss.

  Pipes shuddered around them, and the bowels of the metallic beast groaned while the heat rose and rose in the tight space, so much so that the air became hard to breathe, but then Naira began to hear another sound she had not heard for over two years. A high-pitched whining began to rise not from the giant engine beside her, but rather from within her.

  A pipe began to clatter and shake beside her head as she dipped for another shovel of coal.

  The whining became a scream inside her, and she looked up just as the pressure valve on the pipe next to her exploded off its coupling like an enormous brass arrow – straight towards her heart.

  The scream shattered within her, and suddenly she was once again in-between.

  This had only ever happened to her twice before. Once in the water with the shark speeding towards her, and again when the men in the alley had caught her.

  Her mind and body were somehow at right-angles to the world, looking at everything and nothing all at once, from upside-down, sideways, and beneath.

  She was there and not-there, here and somewhere else at once, in multiple positions around the room yet also nowhere.

  The shattering noise within her suddenly reversed, and she coalesced back into herself. The heat and dampness within the boiler room soaked through her once more.

  She was on the floor, her face covered in coal dust as a jet of superheated steam hissed above her.

  “Cut the pressure to that pipe! Cap it off, we’ll have to get a replacement valve back in port,” Valerie ordered one of the crew. “Holy Halom, ma’am! How in the nine hells did you get out of the way? Are you all right? That could have killed you!” Valerie was at Naira’s side and helping her up.

  “I’m – I’m fine,” Naira said, not truly certain.

  “Damn, that was lucky. I am going to have some serious words with Chronicler Brussard about valve couplings, I tell you. Are you sure you’re all right?” Valeria asked.

  “Yes, thank yo
u.” Naira took a deep breath and shuddered. She had remembered it this time, her time in-between. A shiver ran up her spine as she listened for the whining sound within her, but heard nothing.

  Valerie checked a gauge attached to one of the big pipes. “We have it, ma’am. Full steam. If you can spare those two from up top, I think we can maintain it too.”

  Naira took another shuddering breath and forced herself back to the task at hand. “Right, make it happen. We’re going to get him this time.”

  Valerie grinned in response but still looked as if she had seen a miracle.

  Naira should have a pressure valve-sized hole in her chest.

  “Naira!” Jake yelled at her, he was holding their course in position, and she could feel the wave swelling underneath them. She needed to move and get back to the rudder. As she got back up onto the deck, she felt the wind shift. She didn’t have to look, but she did anyway and saw Sampson’s crew already scrambling over their rigging lines to set the sails to take advantage of the wind.

  “Get that sheet tight!” Naira yelled, feeling their boat reach the top of the wave. “Jake, do you know your ropes?”

  “Yes, but-”

  “Lock the rudder, and come with me!” Naira pointed to the sheet they needed to readjust.

  They scrambled along the side of the ship. In Naira’s mind's eye, she could see Sampson laughing at them as they panicked, but she didn’t care just then. Her hands looped around the rope as they had done countless times before.

  “Pull!” Naira yelled, and she and Jake heaved on the rope with everything they had and as fast as the pulley would let them. The boom arm of the sail moved back into the wind, and the sheet snapped tight lurching them forward as an impressive gust of wind billowed the sail out.

  “Holy Hal-” Jake cut off as they were nearly pulled right off their feet from the tension in the rope.

  “Secure the line!” Naira’s arms shuddered in protest as she and Jake heaved the line to a cleat and tied it off.

  “Woo!” Jake yelled. “We’ve got them now!”

  She had a moment to think about what had just happened as they crested another wave and slipped down the other side. Her strange ability had taken control of her again. The smell of the sea and the odd tingling sensation all over her body made her think of the first time it had happened.