Steampunk Desires: An Erotic Romance (The Complete Collection) (18 page)

Speaking of her cabin, it was simple, but nice. She shared the room with another traveler, but the two had not really talked. They simply weren’t in the same place at the same time. And while the room was clean, with bunk beds to the left and two small pine desks to the right, she hadn’t come to stay in her cabin! She had brought books, but even with the journey nearly at an end, she still had not yet gotten her fill of the beautiful sights the ship afforded her.

*****

Edwin led Harriet to Scarlett’s cabin but found it empty.
That was typical, though, and so they next went to the bipolar collection room. Scarlett enjoyed both male and female partners, and especially since she had met Clarence, a submissive man who needed a firm-handed woman to control the sexual experience, she’d been spending a lot of time in the bipolar room. Not finding her there either, the two finally made their way to the aft recreation area, where they found her sitting with Clarence at one of the tables. They approached quickly.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Edwin said, “but we’ve got something important to discuss. Clarence, would you give us a minute?” Clarence frowned nervously, but Scarlett gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, and he left. Harriet took his seat, and Edwin took one adjacent.

“Scarlett,” Edwin said pointedly, “when you went to contribute in the female collection room this morning, who was in the bed before you?”

Scarlett thought about it a minute, and then said, “Francine.” She paused, thinking, “Francine and Mary.”

“Mary who?” Edwin asked. “Mary Ann?”

“No, Mary Elizabeth,” Scarlett said. “Why?”

Edwin exchanged a glance with Harriet. Francine had been telling the truth, or so it seemed.

“The toms’ output is low,” Harriet said bluntly, “and we wanted to determine if any of you were lying.” Scarlett frowned indignantly.

“Not that we think you are,” Edwin said hurriedly, giving Harriet a dirty look. “But the records show that Francine and Mary Elizabeth didn’t contribute any energy while they were there.”

Scarlett frowned, puzzled. “They had their brass socks plugged in,” she said, shrugging helplessly. “I mean, as lousy as Francine looked, I wouldn’t be surprised if their output was low, but they were definitely going at it with as much energy as they could muster.”

Edwin started. “What do you mean, ‘as lousy as Francine looked?’”

“I’ve never seen her look so bedraggled before,” Scarlett said, a note of concern in her voice. “I asked if she was okay, and she said she was, so I didn’t push it beyond that. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were droopy, and she seemed very low-energy. She’s not the type to overindulge, but that’s how it looked to me.”

Edwin frowned. “Where is she now?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” Scarlett replied, “but I’d bet she’s in her cabin.”

Edwin nodded, thanked Scarlett, and he and Harriet went to Francine’s cabin. When they entered, she was in bed. Sure enough, she was pale, her hair was disorderly, her face sagged, and her voice was coarse from coughing and congestion.

“By Pasteur’s beard!” Harriet murmured. Edwin looked at her quizzically. Who was Pasteur, and what about his beard had made this happen?

“Francine?” Edwin said quietly. She stirred, and then noticing them, started lightly.

“I’m sorry to disturb you,” Edwin continued. “Are you feeling all right?”

Francine nodded, and then fell into a fit of coughing. “‘Aye, Edwin,” she said in a cockney accent once her coughing fit was over, “I’m sorry; I’m afraid I’m just a bit under the weather. Nothing a little bed rest won’t cure.”

Harriet moved to Francine’s side and placed her hand on her forehead, then frowned.

“Who’s she?” Francine asked, gesturing to Harriet with her eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Edwin said. “Francine, this is Harriet, the ship’s engineer; Harriet, this is Francine.” Francine’s eyes widened. “You’re Harriet?” she asked, awed. “It’s an honor, Miss.”

“Of course,” Harriet replied, attempting to sound friendly and giving a half-smile. She returned to Edwin’s side and motioned towards the door with her head.

“Excuse us a moment,” Edwin said as they exited. “What is it?” he asked Harriet when they were outside.

“She’s got a temperature,” Harriet replied gravely. “She needs to stay in her room, lest we all catch it.

“Catch what?” Edwin replied, alarmed.

“Whatever she’s got,” Harriet replied. She didn’t know what it was, but whatever it was, it was on the ship, and it needed not to go any further.

Edwin nodded, and then asked, “but what does that have to do with her zero reading?”

Harriet frowned. She didn’t know. She’d have to run some tests, but that meant exposing herself and everyone else to Francine even more. That just wouldn’t do. “Let’s go look at the other zero entries,” she replied at length.

Edwin told Francine to rest, and they set out to locate the others. Over the next two hours, they tracked down fifteen of the women with zero contributions, and there were many they hadn’t even approached. All of them were in their quarters, and all of them looked just as bad as Francine.

Harriet abruptly took off running towards the stairs. Edwin gaped, not sure what was going on, but then took off in pursuit. They flew down the stairs, and Harriet unlocked and threw open the door to the engine room. Inside, they ran to the middle of the ship where one of the huge energy storage capacitors of glass, brass, and polished wood contained the feminine energy. Harriet looked at a gauge on it, tapping it fruitlessly in dismay.

“Harriet, what is it?” Edwin asked, alarmed.

She turned slowly to Edwin, her face pale. Edwin had never seen her like this before, and a growing sense of doom formed in his gut. “This is bad,” Harriet said slowly. “The ship runs on two kinds of energy: the masculine energy and the feminine energy.” Edwin nodded. “Masculine energy is used for propulsion. It provides the brute force needed to push the ship forward and keep it aloft. Female energy provides the finesse required to execute delicate maneuvers. No amount of masculine energy can provide finesse, and no amount of feminine energy can drive the ship forward; they are unique and equally important.”

Edwin’s brow furrowed. “But what about the bipolar energy?” he asked hopefully, “That has both male and female energy.”

Harriet shook her head. “It does provide some of both,” she said, “but it is impure; because of the way it is collected, it contains elements of both kinds of energy that cannot be separated—at least for now. It works just fine for day-to-day operations and even takeoff, but it is not refined enough to be used for landing. Edwin,” she said gravely, pointing to the gauge, “we have almost zero feminine energy left. Without feminine energy, the ship will be stuck in the air, unable to do anything but fly wherever the wind takes it.”

Edwin’s face paled to match Harriet’s. That would mean being stranded just above the dock, unable to land, unable to slow down, or worse, crashing into whatever happened to interrupt its path…wait.

“What if we cut the power to the male energy?” he asked. “Then we could lower a rope or something to let people off the ship.”

Harriet shook her head again. “Without any energy, the ship will not stay aloft, and it will crash to the earth, killing everyone onboard.”

Edwin swallowed hard. That wouldn’t work. “What do we do?”

Harriet’s jaw tensed. “I need to run a test very quickly,” she said. “I need Francine and one of the other sick crew members to go to the observation room. I have to make a modification to my gauges.” She swallowed. “The only thing that explains why the energy has dropped to zero already is that people who contribute while sick do not contribute; they sap energy from the ship.”

Edwin’s eyes widened, and his breath caught. That would mean that anybody currently engaged in contributing might be draining the reserves right now! He glanced up at the giant capacitor. Sure enough, a spark originating on one of the sides of the glass container shot up into the chandelier-like protrusion at that top and disappeared.

“Oh, no…” Edwin murmured, and then sprinted out of the engine room.

Harriet clenched her teeth. Damn it! Why hadn’t she thought of this before? How could she prevent this in the future? What she didn’t know was that although the principle of the device she needed had just been discovered, it was still thirty years from being useful. Even if she had known that, it wouldn’t help her now. There was no time to lose: she had to confirm her theory. As Edwin raced to stop his crew from trying to contribute, Harriet rushed to her lab to begin making the modifications.

“Scarlett, call everybody involved with female collection together and have them meet me in the female collection room immediately. If they’re in their cabins, do not bother them. I will address them personally,” Edwin said urgently when he found her. She stared at him, mouth slightly agape. It wasn’t like him to be so terse. “I’m sorry,” he said, slowing down briefly, “but this is urgent.” She nodded and started locating everyone she could find. Edwin went to Francine and Mary Elizabeth and dispatched them to Harriet, apologizing for getting them out of bed. Then he made for the female collection room.

“Everyone,” Edwin said gravely, “the ship is in distress.” There were gasps from the crew. Nothing seemed wrong, but it wasn’t like Edwin to pull their legs. “The feminine energy level is almost zero, and without feminine energy, the ship cannot land.” The gasps turned into cries of fear. “Be calm,” Edwin said sternly. “Harriet is currently researching the issue, but it looks like people who are sick who try to contribute deplete our resources. If you are sick, please stay in your cabin. I am sorry, but we cannot lose any more energy. If you are not sick, please do everything you can to contribute as much as you can.” He looked out affectionately over the faces in front of him. “You know I care about all of you,” he said, “and you know that I wouldn’t put this on you if it weren’t urgent, but this time it is.” Murmurs of assent came from the crew. “Bless you all,” Edwin said. “I know I can count on you.”

He touched his forehead in respect, and then left to go to address those who had been told to stay in their cabins. He gave them the same instructions. “I didn’t mean to deplete our energy! I’m so sorry!” was the typical response, but he soothed their fears. They hadn’t known, and they were all doing their part by staying in their cabins.

Next he went to seek out some of the male crewmembers. “I’m sorry to ask this of you,” he told them, “but I need you to play nurse maid.” He could not afford to distract what was left of his female crew, and so the task fell to these men to take care of the sick until they could get off the ship. This they did without complaint: in the propulsion crew, everybody did what was needed to keep the ship aloft, even if it wasn’t fun, and Edwin’s crew was the best of them all for picking up the slack.

*****

The music was enchanting.
The miniature orchestra that played for the third-class passengers had come around again, and Nora was delighted when they accepted her request to hear the William Tell Overture again. They had played it the first day, and she’d been enchanted by it: the soft, sweet song of the cello, the fierce frenzy of woodwinds, the stillness as the oboe and flute painting a picture almost as beautiful as the one she could see outside, and finally the clarion call that brought the orchestra to life and had all of the spectators cheering and tapping their feet in time all those days ago. Now as the oboe and flute again soothed away the chaos of the previous section, she felt the anticipation growing inside herself, the desire to again hear that trumpet brightly calling to the orchestra and to the audience, stirring them to giddiness. A quietly adventurous part of her stirred, wishing she had a horse to ride down the long corridors of the ship, evading pirates or stirring up trouble of her own. With the climax of the music, she imagined herself sailing over the bridge on her steed, headed for who-knows-where. The thought of being airborne and the final chord of the piece took her breath away.

*****

Harriet made it back to her lab and quickly instructed Giles to bring the gauge from her main observation room to the lab pods for modification.
She quickly put a new pod together, dragging chalkboards over so that she could scribble on them to perform the calculations required to make the modifications. No sooner did Giles bring the gauge than Harriet set upon it like a starved piranha on a cow, quickly dismantling it, pulling pieces of it out and throwing them behind her, putting new pieces in, and closing it back up.