“And hear you tell another tale? Not likely. I say we wasted our time putting our trust in this—”
Nita raised her voice. “I was correcting a pipe rupture in the primary phlogiston pressure regulator when a vertical ship-to-ship grappler lodged in our hull. It caused a forty-degree backward pitch that sent me tumbling onto the dreadnought from above. After bouncing off the primary load envelope and tangling in the retention rigging I reached the main deck, whereupon I worked my way down to the primary boiler. After vigorously applying a number six open-ended trith spanner to the head of the engineer, I opened the firebox and dropped in a fully tensioned quarter-size Calderan coil box. A few minutes of direct heat caused the frame of the coil box to buckle and explosively released the coil tension. This pierced the pressure tank of the boiler. The resulting out-pressure sheared the central hull of the dreadnought’s gondola and propelled the largest intact portion of the boiler directly through the main deck and the primary load envelope above. The venting of the phlogiston caused a complete loss of load capacity.”
She cleared her throat.
“And that was that.”
“Anyone else got any questions as to Nita’s credentials?” Lil said with a sparkle in her eye.
A new man raised his hand. “You with the big gun. Where did you get that?”
“I made it,” Gunner said.
“… Could you make another?”
“All right, all right,” Captain Mack said. “Enough bandying about. Let’s get to planning, or else we’ll be on our way. Miss Graus on that side, myself on this one.”
#
The room divided itself among the two members of the crew, with Nita gathering the lion’s share of the group. This wasn’t a surprise. From what little she knew of the way the fug folk structured their society, the grunts did almost all the menial labor, and thus for a task that tended toward construction, they would be more knowledgeable and more comfortable—though the relative silence and lingering stares of most of the group suggested there may have been ulterior motives for their choosing her side of the room over the captain’s.
“Where exactly is the ichor well?” Nita asked. “Not in terms of coordinates, but in terms of the surrounding land.”
“Mostly it’s underground. There’s sort of an open shaft, the rubble leads down into a shallow cave, and the ichor flows along its bottom.”
“I assume we’ll only need to fortify the rim of the pit then? Plus a bit of leeway around each side?”
“More than a bit of leeway. We’ll need a safe place to work and live, more or less.”
“How big is the pit?”
“Not big. A couple of yards.”
“And what will we need to enclose in the fence?”
“Room for twenty or thirty people, a pump house, a couple of boilers for power. A place to do the refining, and some storage. Oh, and a good, tall mooring tower, eventually.”
“One hundred yards by eighty then, for the fence?”
“That’s roundabout the figures we had in mind.”
“Say, fifteen feet high?”
“Better if it was thirty.”
“Isn’t that a bit excessive?”
“Some of the things we’re hoping to keep out can jump higher than fifteen feet.”
“… I see… Thirty feet tall then. And double reinforced. Barbed-wire top. Cargo gates at the center of the short sides and personnel gates at twenty-yard intervals?”
“Meets with our thinking, roughly.”
“Defenses. Armed guards?”
“Something more substantial. If the industry comes knocking, they’ll be riding in ships that’d take a fair number of shots, even with our rifles, for armed guards to stop.”
“Antiship guns then. Fléchette guns. Mounted on, say, every fifth support tower for the wall?”
“We planned for every third.”
“You’ll need steam, then. To run them. As well as the pumps and assorted other machinery. Is there a supply of water?”
“There’s a spring.”
“What of the materials then?”
“We’ve got the guns, some ammunition, most of the raw metal, and the parts for four or five boilers. Bludo managed to snag the parts for a steam shovel too. Lumber can come from The Thicket. And, of course, we’ve plenty of strong backs to sling shovels and swing hammers.”
“It seems to me you’ve got matters well in hand,” Nita said. “We’ll just be loading the goods into the Wind Breaker and helping you do the building.”
“Not so easy as that. It’s a flashy ship you’ve got there, even if it wasn’t already a famous one. And even if it wasn’t even flashy, this job is as good as ruined if someone sees us coming down into The Thicket from the air. We need to move wholly unseen, and that means under cover of The Thicket itself.”
“By land.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have steam carts?”
“Three of them. That’s where we’ll be scavenging most of the boiler parts from, once we’re through with them. Fully loaded, and each dragging unpowered carts that are also fully loaded, we can just about get all the materials where they need to go in one trip. But that’s not the hard part either. The hard part is getting there alive.”
“Because of the beasts of The Thicket.”
“That’s right.”
“What sort of threats can we expect?”
“You never having been to The Thicket, nothing I say can properly conjure to mind what we’re liable to run into. But this’ll get you started. Imagine the most vicious or most bizarre creature you’ve ever seen. Now imagine you’d only ever seen it in a nightmare. Now imagine describing it to a child. The beast that haunts the child’s nightmares the next night is what The Thicket would make of that creature.”
“I see. Wild animals are often frightened by fire. Can we keep them at bay in that way?”
“It frightens off the small creatures, at first. The big ones, it just makes curious. Same goes for loud noises, evidently.”
“I see…” she said, stroking her chin.
“Maybe we should be talking to one of the fellows with the guns for this bit?”
“No, no. I’ve never met a problem that was a match for a properly trained engineer plying her trade. Has anyone got a bill of materials? A list of the items we’ll be carrying along? That’ll give me an idea of what we’ve got to work with.”
#
On the other side of the room, matters were being handled differently. Digger and the other white-collars of the group were handling things on the Well Digger side of the discussion. Captain Mack handled the Wind Breaker side. At the moment Digger’s partner was doing the talking. He was a shorter, more crisply dressed fug person with dark, bushy eyebrows that seemed three sizes too large for his long, hollow face.
“What we would have you do, Captain West, is approach the facility from the south, as it is least guarded from that side,” said Digger’s partner. “You will not under any circumstances use force of any kind. You will, in fact, approach the academy at a distance not less than—”
Captain Mack turned to Digger. “What’s this fella’s name?” he asked.
“I was not through with your instructions, Captain West, and I’ll thank you not to interrupt.”
“His name is Lester Clear.”
The captain turned to Lester. “Lester, you ever worked with an airship captain before?”
“Prior to my arrival in The Thicket I was in charge of the dispatch of as many as fifteen scout vessels and messenger ships at a time. So yes, Captain West, I am quite familiar with the means to deliver orders to airmen.”
“I reckon you didn’t quite take my meaning, Lester. I didn’t ask if any captains had worked for you. I asked if any had worked with you. But the answer still applies.”
“I hardly see the distinction.”
“The distinction is, tall though you are, you ain’t in a position to be looking down your nose at me when you talk.”
“No, Lester,” Captain Mack snapped, “you ain’t hiring a gun. You’re getting help from a crew. The guns are just what my crew holds on to to make sure folks don’t try to do anything any more foolish than treat the people you came seeking help from like they’re at your beck and call. You ain’t doing the talking for your side anymore.”
“I’ve carefully outlined a precise—”
“Coop, if Lester here feels the need to run his mouth past this point, dissuade him.”
“That mean I should give him a fat lip, Cap’n?” Coop said.
“That would do the job well enough.”
“I cannot abide this rough treatment of—” Lester began.
“It ain’t got rough yet, but it’s about to be if you don’t cool it,” Coop said.
Lester’s mouth hung aghast for a moment, but he wisely didn’t use it for any further orders.
“… How would you like to proceed?” Digger said.
“Let’s start with where your chemist is being kept, and what sort of place it is,” Captain Mack said.
“Her location is Fadewell Academy. There she is ostensibly a professor, but one of history rather than chemistry. In reality she spends her time researching.”
“It being an academy, I reckon there’re students about?”
“There are, but it is a very exclusive academy. Six professors, twenty-five students. It is also exceptionally well fortified to, again ostensibly, keep out those who would partake of an education without the proper fee.”
“I ain’t never heard of someone trying to steal a learnin’, Cap’n,” Lil said.
“No, I don’t imagine you have…” Lester fumed.
“You know, for someone who’s seems like he ought to be smart, you sure don’t pick up on things too quick,” Coop said, pushing up his sleeve and advancing.
Three of the grunts behind Lester stirred and stepped forward.
“Coop, we’ll give him two more. At least Lester here is acting the way we come to expect from fuggers, which is comfortable in a way. Keep going, Digger.”
“I have the exact location here, as well as a rough rendering of the academy grounds,” Digger said. He paused. “May I retrieve it?”
“Go ahead.”
Digger pulled a folded sheet from his pocket. It was drawn with a rather precise layout of the grounds, complete with guard patrol routes.
“Samantha Prist’s private quarters are here. Her laboratory is here, and her classroom is here. She is not permitted to leave academy grounds without an escort and is seldom permitted to do even that. As such she can be found in any of these three places, or walking the grounds, at any time of day.
“It so happens we have a man in our midst who is familiar with the woman and might convince her of the wisdom of joining our cause. It would conceivably make the task a good deal easier if you were to take this man with you to act as an intermediary.”
“And who might that be?”
“That might be, and in fact is, me,” said Lester.
“Should I count that, Cap’n?” Coop said.
“Not that one, no. And if Lester is indeed the man for the task, I don’t believe his presence will make the task simpler at all,” Captain Mack said. “In fact, quite the opposite. Lester here does not strike me as the sort who is keen to collaborate in a civil fashion.”
“As if you would have any sense of what is civil,” Lester said.
“That we’ll count, Coop,” Captain Mack said.
“Sure thing, Cap’n. By my figurin’, that leaves you with just one left, Lester.”
“I’m genuinely impressed you were able to make that calculation with any accuracy.”
Coop grinned. “And that’ll do it.”
#
“Having ridden one of those steam carts, I’ve found them to have more than enough excess capacity to do as I’ve proposed, even while pulling the train of cargo,” Nita said. “And I… oh lovely…”
She stepped back in time to avoid a tangle of three grunts, Coop in the center, and Lil piled on top, as they stumbled through the crowded room and bashed into the far wall. That was the last clearly discernible action that occurred before the entire room dissolved into utter chaos. Voices rose to shouts, treating the crew to a host of brand new profanities that seemed to be native to the fug. Fists, elbows, knees, and feet were flying without any regard to where they might land. Nita slid one of the smaller wrenches from her sash, but Captain Mack appeared beside her, grabbing her by the back of her coat and dragging her back into the corner.
He turned to face her, planting his hands on either wall and serving as a levy against the overflowing hostilities.
“I’d just as soon see you keep out of this particular part of the negotiation, Miss Graus,” he shouted over the din. “But if you choose to partake, no weapons. This room’s a boiler and this tussle’s the valve. It might burn a bit, but there’s nothing to do but let the steam finish venting. You start swinging something less friendly than a fist and things are liable to get worse in a hurry.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The moment he removed his hands from the wall, whatever force of will had kept the battle from absorbing them completely evaporated, and both Captain Mack and Nita were pulled into the melee. Fistfights were not Nita’s strong suit, and if not for the mask on her face and the heavy winter clothes, she’d probably have earned more than a few bruises from the act. Few situations are better suited to teach quick lessons than a close-quarters brawl, though, and by the end she was delivering as many lumps as she was taking.
At the end of almost precisely five minutes, as though someone had rung a bell to end the round, the groups began to separate to their neutral corners. Coop had taken the worst of it, his cheek quickly swelling. Lil’s ear was bleeding from what looked suspiciously like tooth marks. Gunner’s eyebrow, or the space that would have been occupied by one if it hadn’t been recently burnt away yet again, was bleeding. Captain Mack had no visible injuries, though his wheezing suggested he’d taken a few blows to the midsection. Nita felt some sore spots, but the exhilaration of the experience hadn’t subsided enough to allow her the clarity to properly identify them.
When he caught his breath, Captain Mack spoke. “Nita, you make any progress toward a plan of action?”
“We were just hammering out the details,” Nita said, wavering a bit on her feet.
“Digger, your group happy with what they’ve seen and heard so far?”
“I, uh…”
“Happy?! These ruffians attempted to murder me,” broke in Lester, “and it was through only the combined force of our own laborers that they were turned away!”
Digger raised his hands, one to Lester and one to the captain. He looked to Captain Mack. “If I may?”
“By all means.”
Digger turned to Lester. “If these men and women were interested in murder or any other permanent recompense for your vile words, I don’t believe you would be standing here to accuse them of such. You’ll note each member of the crew is heavily armed yet not a shot was fired by either side. I would consider that evidence of admirable restraint. If you would show similar restraint with your tongue, then I think this venture might have a chance at success.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself, Digger,” Mack said.
Lester failed to take Digger’s advice. “I doubt their capacity to contribute in any regard. Look at the pummeling they’ve taken from just our meager force. What then could we expect if they were to take on the full brunt of the industry?”
“If you take a census of injuries, I think you’ll find an equal distribution on all sides. As there are five of them and fourteen of us, simple math would imply they can, in the vernacular, give it three times as hard as they get it. And if the industry were to arrive, I’m sure the crew would not withhold usage of their pisto
ls, which would further tip the balance of power in their favor.”
“Fine. In raw brute force they may be an asset. But you assured me their engineer would be an asset as well, and what has she produced?”
“To be honest, Lester,” said Bludo, who seemed loathe to be speaking in the Wind Breaker crew’s favor, “she’s proposed we hook the mounted defense guns up to the boilers of the steam carts while we’re on the road. And apply the barbed wire and fencing to the outside of them. Make something of a set of rolling forts against the wildlife.”
“Heck yeah, Nita! A fléchette gun’ll cut through anything that forest could throw at us,” Lil said.
“Interesting…” Gunner said. “A rolling gun platform…”
“That’s preposterous! I’ve never heard of such a thing. It couldn’t possibly work!”
“With a bit of tinkering,” said Bludo, “I think it might.”
“Whose side are you on, Lester?” Coop said. “Trying to convince your own folk against the help they went looking for?”
“Surely I’m not the only one thinking that nothing I’ve seen here today in any way qualifies these people to help,” Lester sputtered.
His statement earned him only blank stares.
“Well then I suppose I’m overruled…” he fumed, his arms crossed.
One grunt stepped up to Coop. “Where’d you learn to hit like that?”
“Say one too many things in a bar up in Keystone and you’ll see someone throw a punch like that. Take one too many punches like that you’ll learn to throw it back or regret not learning,” Coop said.
“And this one,” remarked another grunt in reference to Lil. “Let that one loose in The Thicket and its bears will come running for shelter.”
“You lay your hands on one Cooper, you got to tussle with us both. Them’s the rules,” Lil said, puffing up her chest. “And I’ll give you all this. Not one of you boys hits any softer than a Westrim mule. And I admire you not holding back when going toe to toe with a lady. Speaking of—Nita, you take any lumps?”
“I think a few people tried to strike my ribs and back. Considering the sash full of wrenches I’m wearing, I imagine it was the ones with bloody knuckles right now.”
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