Terror of the Sixth Spire Preview #6

After Calais helps several elves escape Parn, she had to find out where the empire was taking them. During her investigation of the local factory, she stumbled onto a group of elven prisoners waiting to be transported. Surrounded by soldiers, she had to find a less direct means of helping them. Then, she overhears a worker trying to resolve an issue with his equipment. 

“I know you’re in pain,” he said. “I will fix it soon. Just need to make a few more adjustments.” He continued to work the controls as  needles danced in the monitors. Calais could tell that he was trying to regulate the ethaerium flow. Despite his efforts, there was too much energy pulsating through the system. He continued his one-way conversation. “Yes, I am in more pain than you. You were right. I should have trusted you. She wasn’t right for me, but I just wanted to be happy and to make her happy. Now, she ignores me and spends more time with her friends. I could tell she liked the other guy. He is some dumb, machinist who talks about becoming a gladiator. How can I compete with that? I hate my life.” He stopped turning his dials and hung his head low. Feeling sorry for the man, Calais started to say something, but he continued. “I don’t understand. How can I be stronger and more handsome? How is that even possible? Wait, is that all I have to do?”

“What do you have to do?” Calais’ curiosity got the better of her and the man spun around in shock.

“Who are you?” The man squirmed in his heavy overalls while wagging his finger at her. “You shouldn’t be up here. The ship is about to dock.”

Calais looked to her left and saw a large silhouette approaching. Several soldiers moved the line of elves to the opening. Other soldiers pulled levers against the wall and a walkway slid out to the airship. Realizing she didn’t know how to infiltrate the airship, she looked back at the nervous worker.

“How do I get onto that ship?” Her intense stare caused him to shift around nervously.

“You have to help me so I can help those elves?”

“The elves were a mistake,” he stuttered.

“Shut up, you idiot! They are people just like you and me. Either help me or get out of the way.” When he didn’t move, she shoved him aside and examined the panels.
Calais determined the panels controlled the airship’s refueling process. If she could damage the ship, she might force the ship to stay docked longer. It would give her more time to get onboard. Finding the right knobs, she increased pressure in the fuel lines.

“What are you doing?” he said frantically. “You could blow up half the ship.”

“I would rather destroy the ship than let those elves die for no reason.”

“It won’t matter. Another ship will come and another. If you want to stop the empire, you should go to the source. Please don’t hurt the machine. I don’t have anything left.”

“Where do these airships go?”

“To one of the spires, but that’s all I know. Please reduce the pressure. I will get blamed if anything bad happens. I have lost so much already.”
Before she could respond, Calais heard the airship’s engines roar while it moved into docking position. Grinding motors slowly extended fuel lines towards the airship, and crewman connected docking hooks onto the tower. With a few soldiers hustling to get the airship docked, the rest remained with their prisoners. The control panel’s lights flashed red with the pressure exceeding the system’s tolerance.

“Oh no,” the worker squealed. “I am going to be fired or even jailed. Please stop!”

“Hey you,” a deep-voiced soldier bellowed. Calais looked up while the worker cowered behind the console. “You at the console. Can you fix an ethaerium capacitor?”

“Huh, you can’t fix a capacitor, you have to replace them.” Calais hoped she was right. She hadn’t dealt with ethaerium engines in a long time. The theories were simple enough, but the machinery seemed to constantly evolve.

“Sure, whatever, you’re needed on the ship. We are on a tight schedule. The ship’s got to undock as soon as we load the cargo.”

-Excerpt from Chapter 9, Terror of the Sixth Spire, Fallen Spires Book 2