hwango

Kronacher had a lot of practice blocking out distractions so that he could focus on his work. He barely even noticed bad weather and monster attacks anymore. Still, Russel had been shouting at him for several minutes now. Maybe it was actually something important. Kronacher entered a few more numbers into his log and then turned to look at Russel.

"What do you want?" Kronacher asked.

"Damn you, haven't you been listening to me at all?! The controls for the starboard propeller and rudders aren't responding. We've been flying in bloody circles for the last ten minutes!"

Russel gestured wildly with his hands during this whole tirade, and Kronacher watched them the entire time to make sure they didn't strike any levers or switches. Satisfied that Russel's flailing hadn't done any damage, Kronacher considered his words.

"That hardly seems like an emergency. Certainly it isn't more important than monitoring these gauges to make certain that the boiler doesn't explode and kill us all."

Russel immediately snapped his arms to his sides and ducked his head a few inches, suddenly reminded of the sensitive equipment around him.

"You stay here and keep an eye on things. If any gauges pass into the yellow, sound the alarm." Kronacher was a few steps down the walkway when he paused and turned to add, "And don't touch anything."

Kronacher quickly made his way to the bridge, which turned out to be more crowded than he had expected. The pilot, Florian, was there, of course. Captain Sutter was also present, which made sense considering the situation. The third man, however, was a surprise.

"Kronacher," Captain Sutter said, "I don't believe you've formally met our guest, Mr. Lienert."

Kronacher frowned. Bad enough that the man was on board at all. But now observing social niceties with him was a more immediate concern than damage to the airship?

"No, I have not," Kronacher replied, hoping that would be sufficient conversation before more pressing issues could be addressed. Of course, it was not.

"Ah, Olov Kronacher at last – the brilliant mind behind this fabulous contraption. A fabulous contraption which, at the moment, is flying in circles. You must be so proud," Lienert said, contempt dripping from every word.

Florian and Captain Sutter froze. Florian was stunned and Sutter was clearly outraged, but both waited to see how Kronacher would react.

"In fact I am," Kronacher said calmly. "A ship with an inferior design would probably have dropped out of the sky by now, or at the very least flown badly off course. Our situation, on the other hand, is considerably better than either of those alternatives. Now, if you would excuse me, I have work to do."

"Yes, Mr. Lienert, why don't we give Mr. Kronacher some room," Captain Sutter said, gesturing towards the walkway outside. Lienert did not move.

"Work quickly, Mr. Kronacher" Lienert said. "You may recall that I am in something of a hurry. At this rate I would have been better off traveling by rail after all. And you can be certain that I will mention this and any other problems to Parliament."

"Mr. Lienert, I must insist," Sutter said, obviously struggling to maintain his composure. Lienert smiled and left without another word. Captain Sutter followed a few steps behind. Once they were gone, Florian sneered in disgust.

"That man wields his government connections like a club. Pity we can't throw him overboard," Florian said.

"Indeed," Kronacher said. "Now, what exactly has gone wrong with the starboard controls?"

"All slack. I had Noah watch them out a porthole and they're not responding at all. I figure a break in the connections somewhere in between."

"Has anything hit that side recently? I don't recall feeling any impacts," Kronacher said.

"No, nothing. They just stopped responding. Noah didn't see any external damage when he looked, either."

Kronacher started by inspecting the controls themselves and worked his way back towards the unresponsive systems. The physical problem turned out to be relatively minor, but the wider implications were more disturbing.

* * *

Captain Sutter looked almost as uncomfortable standing near the boiler as Russel had.

"Olov, if the problem isn't with the boiler, then why are we here?" Sutter asked.

"It's loud and there's only one entrance, which means that no one can listen in. The starboard controls were sabotaged."

Sutter's face clearly revealed his skepticism. "Sabotage? That seems…unlikely. We get knocked around enough that there's bound to be damage."

Kronacher shook his head. "There was a single gear missing from the linkage assembly. And no, before you ask, it wasn't simply knocked loose. I found it at the bottom of the compartment after I put in a replacement." He fished a small brass gear out of his pocket and showed it to Sutter.

"You can see the tool marks left by whatever they used to pull it free," Kronacher said, pointing with a fingertip about the size of the gear itself.

Captain Sutter's skepticism appeared undiminished. "You don't think that might just be ordinary wear?"

Kronacher's blank look and silence conveyed that the very idea was not even worth discussion.

"Fine, but who would sabotage the ship? Lienert might want to make us look bad, but does he even know enough about the ship to be able to sabotage it without risking bringing it down?"

Kronacher shrugged. "You're out of my area of expertise, there. Now, if you'll excuse me, I should really get back to logging these readings."

"Don't you think this is a little more important?"

Kronacher shrugged again. "Maybe. Or maybe I should be keeping an eye on things here in case our saboteur tries something more ambitious and inadvertently makes the boiler overheat. I'll leave working out the 'who' and 'why' to you, and just deal with keeping us in the sky."

Sutter could see his point, but clearly wasn't happy about it. As Sutter left, Kronacher could hear him muttering curses to himself even over the noise from the engines.

Kronacher tried to put the whole thing out of his mind and get back to work. Bad weather, monster attacks, and now sabotage. It was a wonder he got any work done at all.