Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep

[Brian]

Tim has a seat not far from Angus, as it turns out.  The man with the iron post to replace a leg gives a warm smile in return, and then more and more people begin to funnel into the room.  Just before Balmer (a round, incompetent looking man -- almost exactly what one would expect of stereotypical upper management.  He's balding, slightly, and got an imposing paunch) saunters into the room and steps up behind the podium, surveying the crowd.

He's about to begin his speech when Catherin slips in through the doors, giving a nervous glance behind her, and then shooting Tim a sharp look.  She takes one of the last seats free in the back of the room, and then there's no way Tim can look at her without being obvious.  Which will be especially difficult since Balmer taps a baton against the podium for everyone's attention.

"Friends, members of the anabaric siphon crew, and," and here Tim sees that the man sitting immediately next to him -- on the side away from Angus -- is in military dress, "those responsible and ever vigilant for Anabara's safety, it is with no small amount of joy today that I am here to remark upon our festivities!

"It is a testament to our will and our determination, our integrity and our steadfastness, that we are here today, gathered beneath the protective aegis of the Anabaran siphon network to do nothing more than celebrate.  And this revelry is entirely earned of our own hard work; a just reward for a job well done.  In that vein, I am glad to welcome Foreman Warden Donner to speak."

There's a deathly silence in the room at that.  Foreman Donner remains where he's sitting, on the other side of Angus from the military gentleman.  The scarred man's eyes narrow, but his face doesn't change.

"Oh," Balmer says after a brief pause.  "Right.  Well, I suppose I'll need to speak for you, then."

Donner remains completely impassive, though at a glance the two journeymen who work beneath him look furious enough for the scarred man anyway.

Clearing his throat, Balmer drones on, "Journeyman Ken Hastings has performed quite well this year; a real asset to any crew, and our siphon especially.  Mister Hastings has been nominated by Master Donner for a citation of merit for commendable virtue in the workspace, along with following the three integrities."  He pauses again, glancing at the podium.  "But before that, and while we're on the subject of the integrities, I believe that Master Tavner had some words he wished to share with us?"

Angus's expression went from pensive to brooding at Balmer's little stunt, but now his face clears and he rises -- looks like the metal post replacing his leg has a 'dress' alternative that looks like a real leg.  Probably wood.  He walks forward with a slight limp and takes his place behind the podium, edging Balmer (who turns out to be relatively tiny ... he's barely taller than Millhouse) out of the way and placing both hands on the podium.

"I wish to address this to my crew, and all those who listen," he says in a grave voice.  "The integrities guide and shape all Anabarans.  I think that my crew, in fact, all of the lads in the tower, have shown all of them.  They've let us keep things running in the face of fire, poorly machined replacement parts," Worthington calls out, 'Truth!', at that, "and the lack of light we've got up in the machine works."

The more civilian personell in the crowd look a bit surprised at this.  Certainly Angus is drawing more attention than Balmer, who remains standing behind and to one side of the foreman, hovering nervously.  "So, valor, dedication, reaffirmation.  I'd like to say that of the men in the tower, I've seen few with more valor than Worthington -- who manned a cracked valve to see that the Council would have nothing to complain about, even when it would have been safer to vent all pressure and start from scratch."

The crowd seems to gather that this is important, and that Worthington did something brave, but it's also a bit technical for them.  Balmer's face pinkens, ever-so-slightly.  "And for dedication, well, I'm sorry lads, no one can help but admire Master Donner himself; to take injury as he has and continue working, letting no volume of broken scrap or, er ... waste ... deter him."  This last with a stolen glance at Balmer, who doesn't appear to notice.

"But beyond all that, for reaffirmation, I'd like to announce that our own 'Tim', who came her without a last name, has earned my regard this time."  There's a bit of a buzz in the crowd at this.  "As you know," Angus says, leaning forward and lecturing, "the only reason someone has to hide from his own name is to spare the disgrace of a failing apprentice.  I'll tell you now; Tim's got no shame to hide from.  I've scarcely seen a lad with so much initiative and ability to learn."  Then he smiles a bit.  "The only problem there is, he's no apprentice anymore."

His eyes go to Tim.  "Tim, I call upon the three foremen of the tower to recognize you as a Journeyman, no longer an apprentice."

Foreman Donner, and another foreman that Tim doesn't know the name of, both nod and begin clapping their hands.

"Well, then," Angus says, his smile widening to a grin.  "Stand up, lad!"  He reaches into a pocket and produces a medal -- an iron star pressed onto a gear.  He gestures Tim up to the podium.

[Halbarad]

Tim heads up to the podium, not slightly nervous himself. Be nice if it was a little smaller, he thinks ruefully.

OOC: Shifting 5 points of influence to Persuasion.

Giving Angus a smile as he accepts the medal, he faces the crowd.

"I'll be honest with everyone; I'm not much good at speaking in public, but Master Tavner did ask me to speak," he says, looking around at the people in the crowd. "So I'm going to make this pretty short.

"I'd say the most important thing I've learned during my apprenticeship has been making sure to pay attention to details. If a job isn't done right the first time it almost always means doing twice the work later, so making sure everything is as it should be before you call the job done is really important.

"Paying attention to the equipment you're using is just as important, too." Resisting the urge to look back at Balmer, he goes on. "When you don't have the best parts, making as sure as you can that the part you use is the best you can manage is even more important. A pipe with a tiny crack now can blow open later, or a gear with a lot of flaws can wind up ruining everything inside a box if it shatters."

Giving the crowd a nervous smile, he turns to Angus, taking a breath to steady his nerves. "I'd really like to thank Master Tavner for all the help he's given me during my apprenticeship, and to everyone else here for all that I've managed to learn."

[Brian]

A few things happen at once.  First, there's a bit of a silence as everyone is quiet and appreciates the speech.  Then the door in the back of the room opens, and two men in clean, identical gray suits slip in unobtrusively -- Tim sees this, but everyone else is frozen for the moment.  Catherine does, however, turn around to see the men, and her eyes widen.  When they see her, they begin to move towards her -- but they don't reach her.

This is because alarms start blaring from deep within the tower, a series of loud rings.  Angus flinches and yelps something, likely an obscenity, then grabs Tim by the shoulder and moves to a door behind the stage.  The other members of his crew are already dashing towards the same exit, while the crowd works itself into a panic.  Balmer grabs podium and tries to shout for order.

[Halbarad]

Things that are happening are important, whatever they are. Letting Angus direct him, he shoots an apologetic look at Catherine before hurrying away into the depths of the tower with the foreman.

[Brian]

Catherine runs through the panicking crowd, ducking beneath some flung elbows as pursuers burst through the door, struggling to get in as everyone else is running out.  Hitching up her skirts, she dashes right past Balmer and chases Tim through the door, which slams shut behind the group with a shudder, as the emergency elevator begins hauling itself quickly upward.

The alarms are muted here, fading in and out in a bizzare echo-abused doppler effect.  Angus blinks, his hands on the controls of the lift, which is a bit cramped now that everyone's crammed inside, then shakes his head.  "No time," he mutters.  "Lass, stay behind Tim, and out of the way -- I'll find out why you think you belong here later!"

"Of course," she says, shivering slightly, shooting a nervous glance at the door everyone entered through.  A door on the opposite side begins opening even before the car reaches the top, Worthington and Angus pushing everyone away from the opening until it comes to a halt.

"Tim, you're with me," Angus barks.  "Worthington, I want to see the registers running at full inside three minutes!"  Worthington and the other Journeymen scurry off to the ladders, Angus stumps out across a walkway -- the elevator has dumped everyone out in the middle of the works, it looks like.  Thankfully, there's a pair of lanterns.  Worthington grabs one, and Angus takes the other.

[Halbarad]

"Yessir," Tim answers briskly, grabbing Catherine's hand as he paces the foreman down the tunnels - it's best she not get lost down here. Hell, it's best that HE doesn't get lost down here either.

[Brian]

Angus leads Tim a distance through the twisting walkways, and up a flight of stairs.  There, he hangs the lantern up on a hook, and squints at an array of levels and dials.  "Gah," he grumbles.  "The Council is ordering almost everything to our defenses -- reserves are already down to half.  Tim, I want you to watch the rotors on that shaft over there," he says, gesturing.

The shaft in questions stands out, marked off with brightly painted red chains, as though in warning (like there weren't already enough dangerous moving parts down here).  The entire shaft is evidently some kind of modified worm screw, and turns gears nearby.  Or would, if they were properly engaged -- gearing keeps them separated for the moment, until Angus pulls a lever.

Then one of the gears (almost a meter across, and probably a ton in weight), slides smoothly into place.  Catherine raises an eyebrow and leans forward to peer at it curiously.  Before she gets any closer to it, Angus grunts, "Right," and then the main shaft begins spinning.

The gear turns, too, sparking from the edges of its teeth.  At this rate, it's probably going to strip itself out in a matter of minutes.  "How long?" Angus asks over the screeching whine.

[Halbarad]

"No more than a couple of minutes - it's not going to take the torque!" Tim calls out over the din.

[Brian]

"Shoddily designed piece of ancient-" Angus begins.  Unfortunately, that's as far as he gets -- there's a tremendous crash from above, as gears, walkways, controls, and who-knows-what-else is smashed out of the way.  Catherine cries out and ducks, even Angus raising a hand to ward off whatever's coming.  Whatever it is, it tore open the tower's roof, and now it's open to the sky, letting the light of day bleed in and illuminate acres of damaged gears.  Somewhere, a broken steam-valve is emitting a fierce whistle.

When Tim recollects his senses, the walkway back to the exit is gone, replaced with a wall of tortured and abused looking steel.  At roughly eye-level, though at a slight angle, is a battered plate reading, H.M.S. Starflare.

"Oh, no," Angus groans, turning to look shakily at the shaft.  It's now cracked, the upper portion spinning out of control, wobbling wildly.  The gear and the shaft's lower portions are entirely stationary.

From a distance, barely audible over the ruined machinery's death throes, Worthington cries out, "More is falling!  We need those shields up!"

[Halbarad]

"The shaft's broken from the debris!" Tim bellows back at the top of his lungs. "We can't give you anything from here!"

[Brian]

"We'd best....  We should evacuate," Angus says numbly, staring at the ruined machinery, then the wall of dropped steel.  "But that was our exit."

Catherine scowls.  "We're not giving up here," she hisses.  "Use your spark!  Fix the damnable thing!"  She then turns to look at the shaft, and swallows, biting her lip.  "We'll both do it together," she decides.

"Clearing out!" Worthington shouts.  "Stops are locked for shields -- good luck!"

"Lass?" Angus asks, blinking, looking at the girl askance, grinning weakly.  "This is a poor time for jokes."

[Halbarad]

Tim bites his lip for a moment, not sure what Catherine is referring to but knowing that that shaft needs to be fixed or it's going to shake the room down around them as the gyrations get worse. How to fix it given its weight and the fact that it -won't stop- are another matter, though. With a grimace, he gives the motionless end of the shaft a look to see how bad the break is.

[Brian]

The break looks bad.  The metal was torquing badly, but something below has jammed it immobile.  Thanks to the daylight leaking in, it's visible.  A steel hanging walkway is wrapped around it.  As far as where the shaft is broken, at a second glance, the metal is deformed out of shape by the force of the break.  Angus looks disbelieving, though, as Catherine puts her hands on the still shaft, and they begin to glow faintly.

Tim feels his fingertips begin to itch, and thinks of the tools he would use.  If there were, perhaps, weeks instead of moments, a hammer, for one.  That would be able to knock the walkway off.  After that, there's some solvent.  Unlikely to hold the shaft together, but....  And then Tim's vision is momentarily washed away in a staggering field of numbers, diagrams, and schematics.

Suddenly, it all seems very simple.  Just tap into the anabaric energy in the world around the shaft, then use its force, guided by the tools....  What a moment ago seems impossible now merely seems daunting.

[Halbarad]

Daunting is manageable - like any job, everything's just one step at a time. Using the strange anabaric force does feel somewhat natural, and then it's just a matter of peeling away the walkway and doing his best to knit the two broken halves of the shaft together.

Struck by inspiration as he makes the attempt, he also draws out his dream-stick - although quite a bit bulkier than he'd use as a walking or fighting staff. A bit smaller than the diameter of the shaft and made of the finest steel he can imagine, he uses it to form the core of the repaired shaft, using the anabaric power to fill in the remainder of what's been lost.

[Brian]

Tim's stick neatly bridges the gap between the two halves of the shaft.  Then it's a simple matter of stringing shimmering strands of resonant energy between the missing machine bits.  Catherine is mumbling about kinetic transfers, angular momentum, and torque ratios all the while.  But the startling shriek of the walkway being peeled away and dropped into other machinery causes Angus to jump, his replacement foot hitting the deck with a bit of a 'clang'.

In short order, the machine is up to function again.  Tim knows that it won't last forever; without someone to hold the energy in shape, it will eventually fade ... but for the next two or three minutes, the shielding unit (and that whole piece of machinery has managed to lodge a schematic of itself in Tim's head, at least for the moment) will work.  Angus swallows, then consults the dials on the panel by his side.

Even as he's speaking, Tim understands what's going on; the pieces of deck plating blasted off of the Starflare were very close to the Shroud.  Some of them actually pierced it, and others lingered a while before dropping.  When they hit the shield that the tower is projecting, they're slowed, until they lower to the streets at a rate people can reasonably dodge away from.

Not a perfect solution, but a better one by far.  It's already caught the last few pieces of debris, it seems.

"Well," Angus says shakily, his back turned.  "Always thought highly of you, Tim-- er, that is, majesty, I suppose."  He bows his head as he turns around.  "I feel right shameful for our conduct, now."

"Angus!" someone yells from inside the works.  It sounds like Balmer.  "Brilliant work, there!  Brilliant!  We'll get you out of there right quickly!"