Session 112: The Legend of Firyal Sails in the Sky
The quest to craft the Luminous Engine hit a snag calling itself The Elite, a band of bounty hunters/air pirates looking for an easy haul or a significantly more difficult battle. The six members of The Elite gave our brave adventurers one of the stiffest challenges they'd faced to date, with their picture-perfect teamwork and varied offense dropping half of their opponents before the battle ended (though Yves insisted on referring to this as 'experimental results,' a plan gone bats up). However, when the battle did end, it ended on the end of the Frost Fair Blade, plunged deep into the chest of Jeremy Buck, slicing clean through to and through his heart.
Adam Carelle immediately ceded the fight at that point, though whether it was out of a desire to avoid further casualties or simply knowing when he was beat, none could say.
After taking the scintillant on as payment for services rendered, and taking BTE turncoat Shaul Shotlocke on in recognition of his work setting The Elite up to be taken down, our brave adventurers returned to the Starfall so Isara Marquez could work her magic on canceling out Alterna's magic, so the Heart of Sabik could be found, along with any number of other treasures waiting in the Starfall's original resting place.
It is aboard the Starfall that we join our brave adventurers, passing a lazy afternoon floating in the Dicelan Sea, waiting for nothing interesting at all to happen for at least twenty-four hours for once...
**
The officers take their meals together.
It started as a suggestion from Marina, the only early hire that had ever been on an airship for an extended period of time before. The officers need to trust each other, and the officers need to have the respect of the ship. Therefore, the officers eat together.
Most days, the officers take their meals together.
Of course, without a full-time cook yet aboard, Linnet spends a lot of her time in the kitchen, yelling at half of the crew and engaging the other half in conversation about absolutely anything and everything. It's not uncommon for Linnet to be finishing her serving of the six o'clock meal at nine forty-five.
Isa often has business elsewhere on the ship. Increasingly, the dragoon has been taking her meals with the other Cardians aboard the Starfall. With political rumblings coming down from the mountains, it makes a certain amount of sense.
Orrey's presence at the table has been missed in recent weeks. Ever since losing his sister to the Seventh Dawn, Orrey switches from fully embracing his new family aboard the ship to deeply regretting saying goodbye to his old family back in Saron. The artist has been dealing with the latter mood more often than not, choosing instead to eat on the deck under the stars after everyone except Linnet has left.
Yves is the delight of the table when he is there, full of stories and non sequiturs, exiting a conversation through a rambling hole in his attention span only to drop himself neatly into place ten minutes later with such a perfectly-placed comment everyone else loses their train of thought. Of course, the Guardian Forces take up a lot of his time, and it's remarkably easy to lose track of time when attempting to fashion a tri-bowl for the mask of Cerberus's tiny house, especially when creating a triple-pottery wheel seems beyond the capabilities of terrestrial physics.
Most days, Bast doesn't eat completely alone.
This, fortunately, is one of those days. Yves is here. Isa is as well, though she's not said more than two words in the last thirty minutes, mind somewhere in the mountains.
Sixty percent of the officers are more or less eating together when Isara Marquez stalks up to their table, plants both hands on the table (she has taken off all of her rings, meaning she has been working), and says, "There's a dead god in your engine and she's pissed. Which one of you did that? Was it you?" she asks, pointing at Isa.
Isa lifts an eyebrow. She holds Isara's eye as she washes down her mouthful of food, then takes another drink for good measure, before answering. "No."
Yves raises a hand. "She was there when we got here, and it's a serious ethical problem," he says brightly. "Do you have any ideas? Because it's well outside of the scope of what I know to do about engineering or gods, dead or not, though I think technically that qualify her as more undead than dead? Since she's still talking and having emotions? Also, do you want any coffee, since you're here?"
"Yeah sure," Isara says to the last question. Coffee happens at every hour with her.
Bast sets down his fork, pushing the plate away, and crosses his arms on the table in front of him. "Dead is debatable, and-" he nods towards Yves "-the ship came this way, we didn't even know until we've knocked around on it for a while. Please tell me you didn't go engine-diving yourself to find this out."
Yves pours a cup of coffee for Isara, and slides it across the table. "I took notes on the first discovery of that exciting and horrifying fact, when we found out, but those are back in my room."
"Of course not," she says, insulted by the very suggestion. "No, I spent about three hours taking measurements and marking down notes, and then I went and thumped your weird thespian until he told me why he was hanging out near the engine room trying not to talk to me."
"Oh, Apoc? He's very reliable that way." ("He's the weird one?" Isa asks. "Huh.")
"Yeah, him." Isara downs the coffee, burning off whatever taste buds she has remaining, then holds the mug out for a refill. "He told me about Asura. That's your power source?"
"So far as we can tell. Not a situation we're happy with, not a good solution to it that we've figured out so far."
Yves pours more coffee, and notes, "We asked Principia a bit about that, but even the previous archives didn't tell us how to fix this."
"This, I gather, not being a typical design even in Alterna." Bast's tone is more than a little dry.
"Awful expensive to outfit a fleet," Isa suggests to Bast.
"You'll definitely want to fix it, because the ship's breaking physics, and that usually means physics is going to fuck you." She reaches into her pocket, pulls out a tiny silver vial, and lets three drops from it fall into her coffee. After swishing it around, she takes a sip, then shudders once, head to toe. "You don't put off any waste. It runs room temperature, there's no exhaust, you're making energy and it just keeps on making energy. The other side of making that energy, wherever it's going it's sure as hell not coming here. And if it's staying inside that godbox with the three-faced psychopath, you're gonna get fucked."
"So we could solve our ethical problem and avoid future practical problems at the same time," Yves says thoughtfully. "Is that a first? That might actually be a first."
"The whole 'death for miles around should something go wrong' part is a little awkward in fleet maneuvers, too," Bast replies to Isa, then turns his attention back to Isara. After she finishes summarizing their predicament, he picks up his fork again, spears some of the salad in front of him perhaps more vindictively than it deserves, and sends it on its way before speaking up again.
"Yeah. There's a lot about this that isn't how it's supposed to be. Got an idea for what to do about it?"
"Not really," she says. "I need more info, and I need more minds. But I know some folks who'll help figure it out. They're in opposite directions, so you'll need to pick one. But I'll vouch for 'em."
"Oh, well, that sounds easy enough," says Yves, who has a perhaps touching optimism in how well isolated engineers will cooperate when suddenly thrown together to collaborate on a major ethical problem slash mysterious power source.
"First, two kids out of Saine." She holds two fingers up, as if the visual aid is necessary. "Researchers working on things about space and time, and since this ship's up to its ears in both of those, I bet they can sort out something that'll help. We ran into each other about... six months ago now? During the Berlye Incident. They're young but they're sweet little idiots. Smart as anything, dumb as shit."
Isa's face is excruciatingly neutral.
"Second set's up in Cardia. Airship facility I blew through a year ago back when I thought I could mix bluespirit and umbral flarerock together and make something out of it." She grins at the memory. "I mean, you can, but generally just the once. Twice, if you were lucky enough to keep both arms and still didn't learn anything. Anyway, a coupla guys run the place. Kept thinking I was about their kid's age." She shrugs. "Only time I've ever had fun in Cardia."
Perhaps fortunately, Linnet does not hear this part of the discussion, having excused herself earlier to go prepare snacks. She left the galley door open and is chopping vegetables while singing a ditty Rahel composed during Cavaliers.
"Hoist up the thing, batten down the whatsit
What's that thing spinning? Somebody should stop it
Turn hard to port - is that port? - no, I've got it
Trust me, I'm in controoooool..."
Isara closes her eyes and lets out a long, low breath until the song has stopped.
"Maybe... maybe not the Cardia one," Yves says, looking down into his coffee mug.
"That might be complicated right now, yeah." Bast looks over at Isa.
"Remember the name of that facility?" Isa asks.
"No," Isara says immediately, covering for her trying to think. Another sip of coffee dilates her pupils. "Highwind," she says finally.
Isa shakes her head. "Bringing this ship to Highwind right now wouldn't be a great idea."
"But Saine should be fine," Yves says. "I mean, it's not like we're coming in on a whale or anything!"
Linnet emerges at the end of a chorus with a platter of crudités surrounding two different dips. She places the plate onto the officers' table with a flourish, grabs some broccoli, and takes a seat. "I left Shula in charge of dessert. I didn't know you could brulee cheesecake."
She catches up quickly and lets out a laugh around a mouthful. Swallowing quickly, she replies, "So it's either Yves' weird family or Hawk's weird friends. Let's go back to Saine, those two were great."
"My family is perfectly normal," Yves says indignantly. "...I mean, most of my family is, and my grandmother is just very dedicated to her work. It's hard to see her ever retiring." Unless one retires by going out in a massive explosion that destroys an entire industry for multiple years, but that's not the usual definition of the word.
"Wait, the Highwind guys, they're your family?" Isara asks Isa.
Isa sighs. "My uncles, yes." ("Huh.")
"...oops, sorry. Brain got ahead of my mouth there." Linnet stalls further gaffes by eating more broccoli.
"You're not wrong," Isa says, "they could help. But it's not the smart move."
Yves covers a crudité in its own weight in dip, and nods fervently to Isa's point around the crunching.
Bast produces a concurring mm-hmm around the carrot he's nibbling on.
"Stella and...what was his name. Joseph? Joe-something. Your description is very much on point." Linnet points a cucumber spear at Isara. "Did they have you test their translocation device?"
"Legally, I don't think we're allowed to talk about it. NDA." Isara finishes her spiked coffee and sets the mug down. "Anyway. I'm gonna go shake Apoc 'til the rest of the info falls out."
"Sounds good. Don't shake the engine, please, I don't think it'd like that." After Isara leaves, Linnet poses the question to the group: "What was she drinking? How do you make coffee smell like engine fuel?"
"There's no shaking necessary," Yves protests. "He's a very forthcoming sort of man, given the right context! Here, I'll come along."
Some time later...
Jozue and Stella are glad to have company, really. There's nothing at all awkward happening here. Stella hasn't switched out her wardrobe for a shirt cut to be just a touch more attention-getting, and Jozue isn't wearing a different style of frames solely because she thought they looked better on him than the rimless glasses. They're fine, and they're happy to have guests, and they've been getting a lot of work done.
(There's an undertone of a barely-audible squee through most of this encounter.)
"You just want to lock them both in a closet and shake it," Isara says under her breath to Linnet. Louder, she says, "My favorite cosmic god-botherers! Have I got a puzzle for you."
"And the ethical solution is going to come soon, so don't jump to conclusions early on in the explanation!" Yves adds helpfully.
After Yves and Bast alternate describing the situation, Stella and Jozue are both enraptured and puzzled. "And you have no idea who crammed a god in the motor? Or why?" Stella asks.
"I mean, I'm guessing 'the people who built the engine' and 'to power the engine', if I really had to pick my top ideas from the list of possibilities," Yves says.
"She wasn't exactly inclined to tell us about it," Linnet adds.
"I think Stella means why it was done with a sentient creature," Jozue translates. "She just has her own way about her."
"Probably the non-sentient creatures didn't have as much power?" Yves hazards.
"I'd guess as a prison. One that bleeds off her power."
"What she did to become accessible enough to imprison, though...that, I would have to time-travel to find out. Or stay here an extra week and poke through all the libraries." Linnet looks tempted.
"The first thing that comes to mind is the casing decision," Jozue says. He is as soft-spoken and thoughtful as ever, carefully working through his sentences before he says them.
Stella, on the other hand, is not. "I'm pretty sure you don't want to let her out and put someone else in instead."
"I mean, if you have anyone in mind..." Linnet catches Bast's Look. "Oops, sorry, I'll be quiet."
"That sounds like two new problems, not a fix for this one," replies Bast drily.
"If you're looking to come onboard and poke at the motor, please only one of you poke at a time. It sort of warped me into another dimension and I don't know how exactly I got back out." Linnet shudders a little at the memory of that formless weirdness.
"Let's sound it out first." Jozue sets about moving books off of chairs, to clear spaces for their guests to sit. Isara leans against the tallest stack of books as she thinks. "So we need an alternative type of power to run your ship."
"Which is really big," Stella points out.
Bast nods, with a mix of pride and concern.
"The ship's probably got room for some fuel storage, but we'd appreciate not having to invoke the Tolstoy equation or whatever that thing was about fuel being heavy." Linnet looks like she's thinking very hard. "Sorry, my last physics class was a long time ago."
"There are bits of the ship we haven't figured out at all yet, or even really gotten to look inside," Yves says, in a tone that implies this is fantastically exciting and not, like, a problem just waiting to spring at the worst possible moment.
"I tried sketching out some possible engines for diluted bluespirit, oil of Saron, even-" Bast's nose wrinkles in distaste "-dragonspit. Mostly what I ended up with is a lot of nicely fancy and unpredictable bomb designs."
"We have a dangerous expedition on the horizon, and several very large ships angry with us," Isa points out. "Losing our performance might be a problem."
"I mean, if they were predictable bomb designs, that's just really good containment and direction away from being a power source..."
Linnet sees the look on Stella's face and decides to redirect the conversation. "So we need a fuel source that doesn't explode. That takes us back to wind-powered sails, really, which aren't going to get us where we need to go fast enough, or some sort of batteries we can charge..."
"...which still requires a power source to charge them..."
"I mean, there's always crystals, if we had an enormous supply of the most expensive type on hand," Yves says mostly to himself.
"Yes, but maybe, like, while the ship is sitting. Or something. Look, I know fuel equals energy, but you all don't explode when you eat my cooking. So there has to be an equivalent somewhere." Linnet has the stubborn look of an expert in an entirely unrelated field confronted with a very difficult problem and a dartboard.
"So, we talked about how much Seventh Dawn cost to build," Isa says. "Half of that cost is just to get it into the air."
"A plentiful, light, efficient, and inexpensive power source," Jozue says doubtfully.
"Inexpensive, or poorly guarded--would be what someone might say, hypothetically." Yves doesn't look very hypothetical.
"Easy, right?" Bast shares an engineer's grim smile with Jozue.
"Are you wanting to stop using the god engine entirely, or just looking not to rely on it so much?" Stella asks.
"And it's not like we can just replace the current contents of the engine with gadgeteers doing shifts," Yves says to himself. "Maybe if we got enough that they could get reasonable breaks and vacation time, too, but coverage would be an issue even before we got into matters of payroll."
"...yes. Both, but not simultaneously?" Linnet replies to Stella. "But I don't think any of us are expecting to be able to do that this week, so an intermediate solution's not a bad idea."
"I'd rather get it out of our power train entirely, if we had a good idea for how and a good alternative. And decommissioning it is probably...complicated." This particular prospect seems to be too grim even for the engineer's smile.
"We would need to ask for her consent, too," Yves says, speaking up more clearly now that he's not musing to himself about crystals or powering things with people in a more ethical manner. "In case detaching her from the engine could, you know, permanently kill her? Also, it's possible she'll attempt to reign destructive terror and horrific revenge across some portion of the world, maybe without the 'attempt' and more 'succeed', I'm not sure on that point, but anyway! We should keep that in mind."
"The Seventh Dawn uses a traditional Alberich X-2 engine," Isara says. "The only modifications installed are ones that incorporate fire-aspected crystals to heat the fuel as hot as possible for better performance."
"...and what do they fuel it with?" Linnet asks. "Sorry, dumb laysylph's question."
"They're called firyals," Stella says. "It's a superdense material that's made when you put certain minerals under intense pressure. If you apply heat to it, it starts releasing energy as its own heat, which then builds on itself pretty rapidly to generate power."
"...they melt diamonds? Or waffles. That's what we say when we're stressed out: heat, pressure and time - the three things that make a diamond, also make a waffle." (When all you have is a spatula, every problem looks like a waffle.)
"I think the materials are slightly different," Yves says, with the faint frown of someone who is now unclear on the core substances used for waffle batter.
"What's left of the firyal is incredibly poisonous," Jozue says, "so proper disposal of them is critical. If your ship has a fully circular system in it, though..."
"We don't know that," Stella says. "Just that whatever waste product it generates is getting used somewhere else. Or just fueling the angry god."
"So someone needs to go ask Asura if she's been eating radioactive diamond byproducts. Got it." Linnet stands up and dusts off her hands. "I'm ready to attempt it again should we need an interview."
"I think you'd be better served searching for anything about the god themself," Jozue says politely. "You said you're going to Alterna?"
"That's the eventual plan, yeah. And how exactly do you recirculate...firyals?" asks a skeptical Bast.
"Also we should probably ask her about plans of revenge," Yves says to Linnet. "Maybe we should put a question list together beforehand."
"How long do you think," Isa asks, "before the current engine becomes unstable?"
Linnet nods to Yves. "Absolutely. I'll see if a notebook would transfer with me. I mean, my clothes did."
Bast mutters something about drop it in the ocean and hope for the best under his breath.
"I... don't think you could," Jozue says. Any disappointment in his voice vanishes as excitement over a new problem runs to take its place. "But if we used a fuel that could be recharged, somehow..."
(Linnet remembers she brought snacks and passes around cinnamon rolls to the group while they argue.)
"Unstable? Never," Isara says. "All the diagnostics I ran on it, based on its current power output, I don't see anything in normal use that would make it unstable. What worries me is that there's a fucking pissed off god inside of it and that's unstable. So it could be ten thousand years, it could be tomorrow, if she gets angry enough. I don't know where the unused power goes, or how it vents heat or anything like that."
“Did you ask her?” Orrey throws out. "Maybe the angry god knows how it all works?”
"If you don't know the difference between ten thousand years and tomorrow, I'd say it's already unstable," Isa points out.
"Hence, the interview, and in the meantime, the engineering people can plan a backup. I talked to her once; hopefully I can talk to her again and tell her we're trying to figure out how to get her out. Even if that's not our highest priority."
"I did ask the crystal what the hell its deal was a couple of times, but didn't get an answer. This was before I knew it had a name, though." Isara sniffs. "I also didn't touch it or anything."
Linnet winks at Isara. "You know machines. I know people."
"First thing that comes to mind for unlimited power is the Forge in Koehnta." Bast gives Orrey a sideways look. "Don't suppose you know of any gods that would be inclined to help us out?"
“I can ask.” Orrey says calmly.
Yves is sketching things out in a notebook. Mostly ideas involving crystals, though there's also a tiny diagram of a cartoon Linnet giving a cinnamon bun to a frowning (un)dead god.
(Linnet peeks at Yves' sketch and makes a note to bring cinnamon buns into the engine.)
"Worth a try. Certainly before we let Linnet stick her head in the engine again."
"Not much self-preservation on this ship, is there," Isara remarks to the room at large. "Your kind of people," Jozue teases Stella.
"Anyone could have fallen off of that train," Stella replies angrily.
"You can have self-preservation or you can get shit done." Linnet turns to Stella. "So, what would you ask the angry god in the engine? I may only get one chance."
Linnet backtracks. "...wait, Bast, are you seriously proposing we call on another god as a fuel source?"
"Not my top choice, but willingly shared seems like an improvement over our current circumstances. Or maybe they'll have some tips on engine design for us."
Isa says "We have three options. Find a way to ensure cooperation, find an equivalent replacement, or abandon the Starfall."
Linnet raises an eyebrow. "Nope, we have two options. Let me tackle option one while you smart people do option two."
"You two want to help figure this out?" Isara asks Jozue and Stella, apparently forgetting it's not her ship.
Linnet grins. "C'mon, it'll be fun. And I think we have at least one free double room onboard. Or would you pass up the chance to see Alterna?" Linnet's arm around Stella's shoulders expresses confidence that they won't.
"Assuming, of course, the engine doesn't explode before then," Isa adds drily.
"Sounds like additional motivation to find a solution before then." Bast gives the duo an appraising look. "Could use some more brains on the ship, so long as you put time and space back after you're done with them."
"For now, we'll have just me go in, as I'm not sure how many the engine can hold and I don't really want to piss off Asura. But you two stay outside and be ready to pull me back out, or yell for Bast if I'm not out in time. And take notes. And maybe bring some of these complicated measuring doohickeys with you." Linnet has no idea what the doohickeys are, but they certainly look impressive.
"We'd love to!" Jozue says.
Stella punches the air in celebration. "Another adventure! You won't be sorry!"
"Hawk didn't leave any messages with you, did he?"
(Without particularly waiting for the answer, Linnet and Stella start bustling around and packing. Thanks to them, Jozue will have an extra set of glasses and more than one change of clothes, and Stella won't forget her hairbrush.)
"He did," Jozue says. "He said to tell you that your parents are doing well, to stop worrying about him, and that you should tell all of your friends that his new album goes on sale in five weeks."
"Yeah, that sounds like Hawk." Linnet grins.
Adam Carelle immediately ceded the fight at that point, though whether it was out of a desire to avoid further casualties or simply knowing when he was beat, none could say.
After taking the scintillant on as payment for services rendered, and taking BTE turncoat Shaul Shotlocke on in recognition of his work setting The Elite up to be taken down, our brave adventurers returned to the Starfall so Isara Marquez could work her magic on canceling out Alterna's magic, so the Heart of Sabik could be found, along with any number of other treasures waiting in the Starfall's original resting place.
It is aboard the Starfall that we join our brave adventurers, passing a lazy afternoon floating in the Dicelan Sea, waiting for nothing interesting at all to happen for at least twenty-four hours for once...
**
The officers take their meals together.
It started as a suggestion from Marina, the only early hire that had ever been on an airship for an extended period of time before. The officers need to trust each other, and the officers need to have the respect of the ship. Therefore, the officers eat together.
Most days, the officers take their meals together.
Of course, without a full-time cook yet aboard, Linnet spends a lot of her time in the kitchen, yelling at half of the crew and engaging the other half in conversation about absolutely anything and everything. It's not uncommon for Linnet to be finishing her serving of the six o'clock meal at nine forty-five.
Isa often has business elsewhere on the ship. Increasingly, the dragoon has been taking her meals with the other Cardians aboard the Starfall. With political rumblings coming down from the mountains, it makes a certain amount of sense.
Orrey's presence at the table has been missed in recent weeks. Ever since losing his sister to the Seventh Dawn, Orrey switches from fully embracing his new family aboard the ship to deeply regretting saying goodbye to his old family back in Saron. The artist has been dealing with the latter mood more often than not, choosing instead to eat on the deck under the stars after everyone except Linnet has left.
Yves is the delight of the table when he is there, full of stories and non sequiturs, exiting a conversation through a rambling hole in his attention span only to drop himself neatly into place ten minutes later with such a perfectly-placed comment everyone else loses their train of thought. Of course, the Guardian Forces take up a lot of his time, and it's remarkably easy to lose track of time when attempting to fashion a tri-bowl for the mask of Cerberus's tiny house, especially when creating a triple-pottery wheel seems beyond the capabilities of terrestrial physics.
Most days, Bast doesn't eat completely alone.
This, fortunately, is one of those days. Yves is here. Isa is as well, though she's not said more than two words in the last thirty minutes, mind somewhere in the mountains.
Sixty percent of the officers are more or less eating together when Isara Marquez stalks up to their table, plants both hands on the table (she has taken off all of her rings, meaning she has been working), and says, "There's a dead god in your engine and she's pissed. Which one of you did that? Was it you?" she asks, pointing at Isa.
Isa lifts an eyebrow. She holds Isara's eye as she washes down her mouthful of food, then takes another drink for good measure, before answering. "No."
Yves raises a hand. "She was there when we got here, and it's a serious ethical problem," he says brightly. "Do you have any ideas? Because it's well outside of the scope of what I know to do about engineering or gods, dead or not, though I think technically that qualify her as more undead than dead? Since she's still talking and having emotions? Also, do you want any coffee, since you're here?"
"Yeah sure," Isara says to the last question. Coffee happens at every hour with her.
Bast sets down his fork, pushing the plate away, and crosses his arms on the table in front of him. "Dead is debatable, and-" he nods towards Yves "-the ship came this way, we didn't even know until we've knocked around on it for a while. Please tell me you didn't go engine-diving yourself to find this out."
Yves pours a cup of coffee for Isara, and slides it across the table. "I took notes on the first discovery of that exciting and horrifying fact, when we found out, but those are back in my room."
"Of course not," she says, insulted by the very suggestion. "No, I spent about three hours taking measurements and marking down notes, and then I went and thumped your weird thespian until he told me why he was hanging out near the engine room trying not to talk to me."
"Oh, Apoc? He's very reliable that way." ("He's the weird one?" Isa asks. "Huh.")
"Yeah, him." Isara downs the coffee, burning off whatever taste buds she has remaining, then holds the mug out for a refill. "He told me about Asura. That's your power source?"
"So far as we can tell. Not a situation we're happy with, not a good solution to it that we've figured out so far."
Yves pours more coffee, and notes, "We asked Principia a bit about that, but even the previous archives didn't tell us how to fix this."
"This, I gather, not being a typical design even in Alterna." Bast's tone is more than a little dry.
"Awful expensive to outfit a fleet," Isa suggests to Bast.
"You'll definitely want to fix it, because the ship's breaking physics, and that usually means physics is going to fuck you." She reaches into her pocket, pulls out a tiny silver vial, and lets three drops from it fall into her coffee. After swishing it around, she takes a sip, then shudders once, head to toe. "You don't put off any waste. It runs room temperature, there's no exhaust, you're making energy and it just keeps on making energy. The other side of making that energy, wherever it's going it's sure as hell not coming here. And if it's staying inside that godbox with the three-faced psychopath, you're gonna get fucked."
"So we could solve our ethical problem and avoid future practical problems at the same time," Yves says thoughtfully. "Is that a first? That might actually be a first."
"The whole 'death for miles around should something go wrong' part is a little awkward in fleet maneuvers, too," Bast replies to Isa, then turns his attention back to Isara. After she finishes summarizing their predicament, he picks up his fork again, spears some of the salad in front of him perhaps more vindictively than it deserves, and sends it on its way before speaking up again.
"Yeah. There's a lot about this that isn't how it's supposed to be. Got an idea for what to do about it?"
"Not really," she says. "I need more info, and I need more minds. But I know some folks who'll help figure it out. They're in opposite directions, so you'll need to pick one. But I'll vouch for 'em."
"Oh, well, that sounds easy enough," says Yves, who has a perhaps touching optimism in how well isolated engineers will cooperate when suddenly thrown together to collaborate on a major ethical problem slash mysterious power source.
"First, two kids out of Saine." She holds two fingers up, as if the visual aid is necessary. "Researchers working on things about space and time, and since this ship's up to its ears in both of those, I bet they can sort out something that'll help. We ran into each other about... six months ago now? During the Berlye Incident. They're young but they're sweet little idiots. Smart as anything, dumb as shit."
Isa's face is excruciatingly neutral.
"Second set's up in Cardia. Airship facility I blew through a year ago back when I thought I could mix bluespirit and umbral flarerock together and make something out of it." She grins at the memory. "I mean, you can, but generally just the once. Twice, if you were lucky enough to keep both arms and still didn't learn anything. Anyway, a coupla guys run the place. Kept thinking I was about their kid's age." She shrugs. "Only time I've ever had fun in Cardia."
Perhaps fortunately, Linnet does not hear this part of the discussion, having excused herself earlier to go prepare snacks. She left the galley door open and is chopping vegetables while singing a ditty Rahel composed during Cavaliers.
"Hoist up the thing, batten down the whatsit
What's that thing spinning? Somebody should stop it
Turn hard to port - is that port? - no, I've got it
Trust me, I'm in controoooool..."
Isara closes her eyes and lets out a long, low breath until the song has stopped.
"Maybe... maybe not the Cardia one," Yves says, looking down into his coffee mug.
"That might be complicated right now, yeah." Bast looks over at Isa.
"Remember the name of that facility?" Isa asks.
"No," Isara says immediately, covering for her trying to think. Another sip of coffee dilates her pupils. "Highwind," she says finally.
Isa shakes her head. "Bringing this ship to Highwind right now wouldn't be a great idea."
"But Saine should be fine," Yves says. "I mean, it's not like we're coming in on a whale or anything!"
Linnet emerges at the end of a chorus with a platter of crudités surrounding two different dips. She places the plate onto the officers' table with a flourish, grabs some broccoli, and takes a seat. "I left Shula in charge of dessert. I didn't know you could brulee cheesecake."
She catches up quickly and lets out a laugh around a mouthful. Swallowing quickly, she replies, "So it's either Yves' weird family or Hawk's weird friends. Let's go back to Saine, those two were great."
"My family is perfectly normal," Yves says indignantly. "...I mean, most of my family is, and my grandmother is just very dedicated to her work. It's hard to see her ever retiring." Unless one retires by going out in a massive explosion that destroys an entire industry for multiple years, but that's not the usual definition of the word.
"Wait, the Highwind guys, they're your family?" Isara asks Isa.
Isa sighs. "My uncles, yes." ("Huh.")
"...oops, sorry. Brain got ahead of my mouth there." Linnet stalls further gaffes by eating more broccoli.
"You're not wrong," Isa says, "they could help. But it's not the smart move."
Yves covers a crudité in its own weight in dip, and nods fervently to Isa's point around the crunching.
Bast produces a concurring mm-hmm around the carrot he's nibbling on.
"Stella and...what was his name. Joseph? Joe-something. Your description is very much on point." Linnet points a cucumber spear at Isara. "Did they have you test their translocation device?"
"Legally, I don't think we're allowed to talk about it. NDA." Isara finishes her spiked coffee and sets the mug down. "Anyway. I'm gonna go shake Apoc 'til the rest of the info falls out."
"Sounds good. Don't shake the engine, please, I don't think it'd like that." After Isara leaves, Linnet poses the question to the group: "What was she drinking? How do you make coffee smell like engine fuel?"
"There's no shaking necessary," Yves protests. "He's a very forthcoming sort of man, given the right context! Here, I'll come along."
Some time later...
Jozue and Stella are glad to have company, really. There's nothing at all awkward happening here. Stella hasn't switched out her wardrobe for a shirt cut to be just a touch more attention-getting, and Jozue isn't wearing a different style of frames solely because she thought they looked better on him than the rimless glasses. They're fine, and they're happy to have guests, and they've been getting a lot of work done.
(There's an undertone of a barely-audible squee through most of this encounter.)
"You just want to lock them both in a closet and shake it," Isara says under her breath to Linnet. Louder, she says, "My favorite cosmic god-botherers! Have I got a puzzle for you."
"And the ethical solution is going to come soon, so don't jump to conclusions early on in the explanation!" Yves adds helpfully.
After Yves and Bast alternate describing the situation, Stella and Jozue are both enraptured and puzzled. "And you have no idea who crammed a god in the motor? Or why?" Stella asks.
"I mean, I'm guessing 'the people who built the engine' and 'to power the engine', if I really had to pick my top ideas from the list of possibilities," Yves says.
"She wasn't exactly inclined to tell us about it," Linnet adds.
"I think Stella means why it was done with a sentient creature," Jozue translates. "She just has her own way about her."
"Probably the non-sentient creatures didn't have as much power?" Yves hazards.
"I'd guess as a prison. One that bleeds off her power."
"What she did to become accessible enough to imprison, though...that, I would have to time-travel to find out. Or stay here an extra week and poke through all the libraries." Linnet looks tempted.
"The first thing that comes to mind is the casing decision," Jozue says. He is as soft-spoken and thoughtful as ever, carefully working through his sentences before he says them.
Stella, on the other hand, is not. "I'm pretty sure you don't want to let her out and put someone else in instead."
"I mean, if you have anyone in mind..." Linnet catches Bast's Look. "Oops, sorry, I'll be quiet."
"That sounds like two new problems, not a fix for this one," replies Bast drily.
"If you're looking to come onboard and poke at the motor, please only one of you poke at a time. It sort of warped me into another dimension and I don't know how exactly I got back out." Linnet shudders a little at the memory of that formless weirdness.
"Let's sound it out first." Jozue sets about moving books off of chairs, to clear spaces for their guests to sit. Isara leans against the tallest stack of books as she thinks. "So we need an alternative type of power to run your ship."
"Which is really big," Stella points out.
Bast nods, with a mix of pride and concern.
"The ship's probably got room for some fuel storage, but we'd appreciate not having to invoke the Tolstoy equation or whatever that thing was about fuel being heavy." Linnet looks like she's thinking very hard. "Sorry, my last physics class was a long time ago."
"There are bits of the ship we haven't figured out at all yet, or even really gotten to look inside," Yves says, in a tone that implies this is fantastically exciting and not, like, a problem just waiting to spring at the worst possible moment.
"I tried sketching out some possible engines for diluted bluespirit, oil of Saron, even-" Bast's nose wrinkles in distaste "-dragonspit. Mostly what I ended up with is a lot of nicely fancy and unpredictable bomb designs."
"We have a dangerous expedition on the horizon, and several very large ships angry with us," Isa points out. "Losing our performance might be a problem."
"I mean, if they were predictable bomb designs, that's just really good containment and direction away from being a power source..."
Linnet sees the look on Stella's face and decides to redirect the conversation. "So we need a fuel source that doesn't explode. That takes us back to wind-powered sails, really, which aren't going to get us where we need to go fast enough, or some sort of batteries we can charge..."
"...which still requires a power source to charge them..."
"I mean, there's always crystals, if we had an enormous supply of the most expensive type on hand," Yves says mostly to himself.
"Yes, but maybe, like, while the ship is sitting. Or something. Look, I know fuel equals energy, but you all don't explode when you eat my cooking. So there has to be an equivalent somewhere." Linnet has the stubborn look of an expert in an entirely unrelated field confronted with a very difficult problem and a dartboard.
"So, we talked about how much Seventh Dawn cost to build," Isa says. "Half of that cost is just to get it into the air."
"A plentiful, light, efficient, and inexpensive power source," Jozue says doubtfully.
"Inexpensive, or poorly guarded--would be what someone might say, hypothetically." Yves doesn't look very hypothetical.
"Easy, right?" Bast shares an engineer's grim smile with Jozue.
"Are you wanting to stop using the god engine entirely, or just looking not to rely on it so much?" Stella asks.
"And it's not like we can just replace the current contents of the engine with gadgeteers doing shifts," Yves says to himself. "Maybe if we got enough that they could get reasonable breaks and vacation time, too, but coverage would be an issue even before we got into matters of payroll."
"...yes. Both, but not simultaneously?" Linnet replies to Stella. "But I don't think any of us are expecting to be able to do that this week, so an intermediate solution's not a bad idea."
"I'd rather get it out of our power train entirely, if we had a good idea for how and a good alternative. And decommissioning it is probably...complicated." This particular prospect seems to be too grim even for the engineer's smile.
"We would need to ask for her consent, too," Yves says, speaking up more clearly now that he's not musing to himself about crystals or powering things with people in a more ethical manner. "In case detaching her from the engine could, you know, permanently kill her? Also, it's possible she'll attempt to reign destructive terror and horrific revenge across some portion of the world, maybe without the 'attempt' and more 'succeed', I'm not sure on that point, but anyway! We should keep that in mind."
"The Seventh Dawn uses a traditional Alberich X-2 engine," Isara says. "The only modifications installed are ones that incorporate fire-aspected crystals to heat the fuel as hot as possible for better performance."
"...and what do they fuel it with?" Linnet asks. "Sorry, dumb laysylph's question."
"They're called firyals," Stella says. "It's a superdense material that's made when you put certain minerals under intense pressure. If you apply heat to it, it starts releasing energy as its own heat, which then builds on itself pretty rapidly to generate power."
"...they melt diamonds? Or waffles. That's what we say when we're stressed out: heat, pressure and time - the three things that make a diamond, also make a waffle." (When all you have is a spatula, every problem looks like a waffle.)
"I think the materials are slightly different," Yves says, with the faint frown of someone who is now unclear on the core substances used for waffle batter.
"What's left of the firyal is incredibly poisonous," Jozue says, "so proper disposal of them is critical. If your ship has a fully circular system in it, though..."
"We don't know that," Stella says. "Just that whatever waste product it generates is getting used somewhere else. Or just fueling the angry god."
"So someone needs to go ask Asura if she's been eating radioactive diamond byproducts. Got it." Linnet stands up and dusts off her hands. "I'm ready to attempt it again should we need an interview."
"I think you'd be better served searching for anything about the god themself," Jozue says politely. "You said you're going to Alterna?"
"That's the eventual plan, yeah. And how exactly do you recirculate...firyals?" asks a skeptical Bast.
"Also we should probably ask her about plans of revenge," Yves says to Linnet. "Maybe we should put a question list together beforehand."
"How long do you think," Isa asks, "before the current engine becomes unstable?"
Linnet nods to Yves. "Absolutely. I'll see if a notebook would transfer with me. I mean, my clothes did."
Bast mutters something about drop it in the ocean and hope for the best under his breath.
"I... don't think you could," Jozue says. Any disappointment in his voice vanishes as excitement over a new problem runs to take its place. "But if we used a fuel that could be recharged, somehow..."
(Linnet remembers she brought snacks and passes around cinnamon rolls to the group while they argue.)
"Unstable? Never," Isara says. "All the diagnostics I ran on it, based on its current power output, I don't see anything in normal use that would make it unstable. What worries me is that there's a fucking pissed off god inside of it and that's unstable. So it could be ten thousand years, it could be tomorrow, if she gets angry enough. I don't know where the unused power goes, or how it vents heat or anything like that."
“Did you ask her?” Orrey throws out. "Maybe the angry god knows how it all works?”
"If you don't know the difference between ten thousand years and tomorrow, I'd say it's already unstable," Isa points out.
"Hence, the interview, and in the meantime, the engineering people can plan a backup. I talked to her once; hopefully I can talk to her again and tell her we're trying to figure out how to get her out. Even if that's not our highest priority."
"I did ask the crystal what the hell its deal was a couple of times, but didn't get an answer. This was before I knew it had a name, though." Isara sniffs. "I also didn't touch it or anything."
Linnet winks at Isara. "You know machines. I know people."
"First thing that comes to mind for unlimited power is the Forge in Koehnta." Bast gives Orrey a sideways look. "Don't suppose you know of any gods that would be inclined to help us out?"
“I can ask.” Orrey says calmly.
Yves is sketching things out in a notebook. Mostly ideas involving crystals, though there's also a tiny diagram of a cartoon Linnet giving a cinnamon bun to a frowning (un)dead god.
(Linnet peeks at Yves' sketch and makes a note to bring cinnamon buns into the engine.)
"Worth a try. Certainly before we let Linnet stick her head in the engine again."
"Not much self-preservation on this ship, is there," Isara remarks to the room at large. "Your kind of people," Jozue teases Stella.
"Anyone could have fallen off of that train," Stella replies angrily.
"You can have self-preservation or you can get shit done." Linnet turns to Stella. "So, what would you ask the angry god in the engine? I may only get one chance."
Linnet backtracks. "...wait, Bast, are you seriously proposing we call on another god as a fuel source?"
"Not my top choice, but willingly shared seems like an improvement over our current circumstances. Or maybe they'll have some tips on engine design for us."
Isa says "We have three options. Find a way to ensure cooperation, find an equivalent replacement, or abandon the Starfall."
Linnet raises an eyebrow. "Nope, we have two options. Let me tackle option one while you smart people do option two."
"You two want to help figure this out?" Isara asks Jozue and Stella, apparently forgetting it's not her ship.
Linnet grins. "C'mon, it'll be fun. And I think we have at least one free double room onboard. Or would you pass up the chance to see Alterna?" Linnet's arm around Stella's shoulders expresses confidence that they won't.
"Assuming, of course, the engine doesn't explode before then," Isa adds drily.
"Sounds like additional motivation to find a solution before then." Bast gives the duo an appraising look. "Could use some more brains on the ship, so long as you put time and space back after you're done with them."
"For now, we'll have just me go in, as I'm not sure how many the engine can hold and I don't really want to piss off Asura. But you two stay outside and be ready to pull me back out, or yell for Bast if I'm not out in time. And take notes. And maybe bring some of these complicated measuring doohickeys with you." Linnet has no idea what the doohickeys are, but they certainly look impressive.
"We'd love to!" Jozue says.
Stella punches the air in celebration. "Another adventure! You won't be sorry!"
"Hawk didn't leave any messages with you, did he?"
(Without particularly waiting for the answer, Linnet and Stella start bustling around and packing. Thanks to them, Jozue will have an extra set of glasses and more than one change of clothes, and Stella won't forget her hairbrush.)
"He did," Jozue says. "He said to tell you that your parents are doing well, to stop worrying about him, and that you should tell all of your friends that his new album goes on sale in five weeks."
"Yeah, that sounds like Hawk." Linnet grins.
Comments