The Graveyard of Empires - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A Revelation of Unexpected Competence

Eden took a long drink. "Before we discuss anything else, tell me what the Navy wanted you for? You don't seem to have come voluntarily."

Van Drake glanced at his wife. "No, no indeed. We were on our way to a holiday in Java to see my wife's family. We were overhauled by unmarked ships over the Atlantic and then delivered to United States Naval ships while at sea. It is an outrage!" He paced, waving his hands. "My employers will be furious when I tell them about this!"

"Mmm, if anyone believes you. I am sure the navy will have a long line of men who will be glad to attest that you were never here. It will be your word against theirs and in the end it will all be undecided. That's how things work, believe me. The US Government is very good at covering up its messes. I should know, I'm one of them." She waved at the other drinks on the table. "Have a sip and settle, all your hand-waving is making me shifty."

Van Drake took a seat, but did not touch the glass. "My wife and I are both part of the Temperance movement," he said rather stiffly.

Eden rolled her eyes, and she thought she saw Calliope roll hers a little as well. "Oh, well. Then try and calm down a bit. Look, just tell me what they wanted."

He sighed. "They had ahold of my designs for a radical new drive engine. I only just finished the basic work on it back home. I've done some testing and such, but nothing. . . nothing workable yet." he huffed. "They had my schematics and my notes! Copies of everything! I don't know how they got them. Someone back at the firm must be a spy. It's outrageous!"

Eden frowned. A new drive engine? "What kind of drive?"

"It's. . . well, it's quite complicated. I'm sure you wouldn't understand. But it would be capable of much greater speeds than standard turbine drives. Much greater." He shook his head. "I would need my notes to show you in more detail -"

"You mean these?" Eden brought the leather-bound journal up from under the table and dropped it next to the drinks.

"My. . . my notebook!" He grabbed it. "Wait, this is my actual notebook, from back home. How did -?" He broke off as his wife cleared her throat. He looked at her and they communicated by glances. "Oh, right, well. I had it with us on the trip. Of course. Of course. Still, very dangerous to have this just lying about." He didn't open it or flip through it, and Eden found that very interesting.

"So, a new drive," Eden said. She took the book from his hand before he could pull it away and she opened it to a random page. "Is this part of it?" She pointed at a diagram.

"Yes, yes. That is a part of the new pressure thruster gauge control system. As you can see it has four new-style electric motors attached here, here, and here." He pointed to parts of the diagram and she put her free hand down on top of his.

"I thought there was something funny about the two of you," she said. "And now - in your own notes - you try and tell me that the induction lift tank structure from a Templar-class cruiser with a sketch of a modified electro array and increased gas pitch filters and try and tell me it's some radical new design?" She watched as a look of fear washed over his face.

"So," she said. "Either you are lying to me, which I do not recommend. Or you are completely full of horse shit."

"I. . . I. . . " he started to sweat.

"This is good design work," Eden said. "But it's not yours, is it?" She picked up the journal and held it out toward the silent Mrs. Van Drake. "It's yours."

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Calliope jumped, and then she sighed and nodded. "Yes, that is mine," she said.

Alexander turned on her, startled. "Cally -"

"No, there is no reason to lie now," she said. She got up and came to the table, held out her hand. "May I have my book?"

Eden gave it to her. "So you are the genius, and he is what? A liar who takes the credit?"

"What? No!" Alexander seemed suddenly very upset. "This was not my idea at all."

"No, it was mine," Calliope said, her accent soft and pleasant. She let out a breath and sat down in a chair. "You are a woman, perhaps you will understand."

Eden smiled at that. "I might at that."

The door opened and Zenobia came in, pursed her lips as she looked at the three of them. "I'm hungry, anybody else hungry?"

The Van Drakes had not seen her before, and they gaped at the sight of this half-naked tiger woman with enough knives to start a war by herself and a baby strapped to her belly. Eden nodded. "Yes, I am. I need a word with Mrs. Van Drake here, why don't you take Mister Van Drake down to the galley and have him lend you a hand?"

"Sure," Zenobia said, looking him up and down. "He looks tasty enough."

"Well, don't strip his flesh just yet," Eden said. She motioned with her head, and with a look at his wife, Alexander nervously left with Zena. Calliope went after them a little, stood facing the door as it closed.

"He'll be fine," Eden said. "She's not harmless by any means, but she's mine. She'll do what I say." She took another drink. "So. You have a story to tell that I wager you haven't told anyone else."

"Besides Alex? No, I have not." She came back to the table and sat down. She was really very pretty, all golden skin and dark eyes, lips like a muse of pouting. "I am from Java. My father was. . . well, I am what is called half-breed by those who disparage me. My father was not married to my mother, but when I was born he was good to me. He was a scientist who worked on airship designs. He let me study his books and his work, and I was not very old before it was obvious I had a talent for it. I wanted to go away to a university, but he laughed. He said they would never admit a woman of mixed blood." She looked down at her hands. "He was probably right."

"So you studied on your own," Eden said. "But you knew no one would take your work seriously if they knew it came from a woman." She nodded toward the door. "So you found him."

Calliope smiled. "No, not like that. We married for love, but his prospects with the trading company were not very good, and we suffered because of our marriage." She rubbed at her lip. "He was mocked and looked down on for marrying a half-caste such as myself. We wanted to move to Europe, and I was to understand that France was much more open in it's beliefs about race. I found that to be somewhat true, yet still the fact that I was a woman prevented me from working in the field I was born for." She shrugged. "Eventually, I devised the scheme by which we live. I do the work, while Alex pretends it is his own."

Eden laughed a little. "I worked in the Smithsonian, you know. Before this."

Calliope's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Oh yes. I had a lovely little cave-like office down in the Department of Hazardous Antiquities. I suppose it was not a bad job." She sighed. "But I wanted to be a field agent, to have adventures and make my mark. However," she gestured to herself. "I was prevented not only by my youth, but by my tragic lack of a penis."

Calliope clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the snorts of laughter that burst out uncontrollably. Eden smiled. "I don't stand much on decorum around here. I suppose you'll get used to it."

The girl looked at her, and it occurred to Eden she could not be much more than twenty, if that. "Will I?"

Eden sighed. "I suppose you are anxious to know the terms of your captivity. Well, would it please you to know my main purpose is just to keep you from the hands of the United States government? If you could really build this new engine, then I don't want you building it for them."

Calliope looked uncomfortable. "I'm not sure if I can build it for you. I would need tools, materials, a place to work -"

"Oh I know, I know. One cannot make bricks without straw. I do not ask that, though I have a great interest in your theories. I will want to hear all about it." Eden tapped her fingers on the tabletop. "You designed the Drekkar-class ships, didn't you?"

Calliope nodded. "Yes. I worked very hard to get the high-pressure lift chambers to work properly. I always wanted to examine how they would work in practice."

"You mean you never saw the finished ships?" Eden said.

The other girl blinked. "Finished? The Drekkar are only a prototype. We built a scale mockup of the lift engines, but never a full ship."

Eden laughed. "Oh my dear girl, do they keep you two in a cave?" She leaned over the table. "I command three of them right now, and a fourth is still sailing, somewhere. What do you think bombarded Washington last winter?"

Calliope's eyes grew round as saucers. "You. . . you mean they built them? The design wasn't finished! We never solved the frame-stress problems, or tested how the pressure system would stand up to prolonged flight, or temperature changes! The weight distribution was never fine-tuned! The -"

Eden held up a hand. "What you mean is that the ships could stand to be looked over by an expert who knows all the details of their construction."

"Yes, obviously! I must see them! I must. . . oh they could be so dangerous!" She covered her mouth. "I wondered why they asked so many questions, but I never imagined they would actually build any without the testing they required. Only one other shipbuilder ever managed to construct such large ships, and they were not war craft."

"You mean like the Princess of Texas?" Eden said.

"Yes! The grand ships built for the Dragon Prince by Kheir ad-Din. No one has ever been able to reproduce those designs, and now there are only three of them in existence." She blinked. "We are going west. Do you think. . . think there might be a way to see the Princess?"

Eden laughed. "I think that is likely. In fact, I intend to. I will need all the help I can get on this trip, and I have a favor to ask of someone." She cocked her head. "As I understand, the drives of the Princess are entirely unlike the common sort we use, but they cannot go fast enough to interest military men."

"Yes, but that does not mean they could not be improved. The drive is supposed to provide lift as well as motion. But perhaps a different method of propulsion could be devised." Calliope stared off into space. "The lifting capacity is said to be tremendous. Imagine flying fortresses! Castles in the air, or entire islands! Imagine a flying shipyard, or a port for airships that flies a mile above the earth! You could build an entire city held up by such technology, if it could be properly harnessed."

Calliope's eyes shone with excitement, and Eden found it infectious. "You love to fly, don't you?"

"Actually, I am quite afraid of heights," Calliope said, laughing with embarrassment. "I love the idea of flight. I love the thought of freedom. To go where one wishes to go, regardless of river or mountain or sea. That is why I love airships. I want to see a world where nothing is held apart, nothing unattainable, nothing hidden behind borders or walls."

Eden smiled. "Well, I like that too. I used to dream of flying west, and then when I did, I found it so much wider than I ever expected. I never knew what freedom was - what life was -until I came out here." She looked out the dark port. "I can never go back. That's why when they offer to pardon me I just laugh. How could I go back to being what I was? Just because what I am now is against the law? Hell no." She poured another drink, then offered one to Calliope, who took it gingerly.

Eden raised her glass. "It is our motto. 'sword to sword we live, sword to sword we die'." She took a long drink and banged the cup down. Calliope took a drink as well and put her cup down somewhat more gently, coughed.

"Oh, that is good. I have not had a drink in a long time." She grinned and took another swallow.

"Alexander?" Eden said.

Calliope nodded. "Yes, he is very sensitive about it. His mother was a great one for the abstinence from liquor, and it was how he grew up." She leaned closer and giggled conspiratorially. "He drank one time, on our honeymoon, and he made a great fool of himself and was sick. I think that does not help." She took another drink. "What is this? It is very strong."

"The Mexicans call it mezcal," Eden said. "You have to get a taste for it."

"I am getting one," Calliope said.

Eden laughed at that, and they both drank again and laughed together. Then she saw Calliope grab her corset and adjust it with a grimace. Eden put her cup down. "I bet you are dying for a bath. I have a very nice tub here in my cabin."

"Perhaps. Perhaps you could just help me loosen this a bit? It is very tight. I had no one to help me dress and Alex always laces too tight." She stood and turned her back, and Eden smiled slow and then downed the last of her mezcal and got up. She came up behind Calliope and worked at the lacings of her corset, pulling them looser and looser.

"Oh, careful, it will come off," Calliope said.

"Mmm, I think that sounds like a fine idea," Eden said as she nuzzled up under the other girl's ear and nibbled lightly on her neck. "In fact, lets get everything off."

Calliope stiffened, then turned to look at her, and Eden planted a long kiss on her full lips, licking inside her mouth, then drawing back to nip at her lower lip. The dark-eyed girl was stunned into silence for a long moment, and then she blinked her butterfly lashes and took a big breath. "Oh. I suppose that could be nice too."

Continued in Chapter 6

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