10-23-2013, 03:33 PM
The dreamy look on Ethan's face warmed Crispin's heart. He wasn't entirely certain why he'd invited a stranger on board--he seldom brought people onto the ship, because they never seemed to appreciate her. The Beatrice was Crispin's home, wife, and child all rolled into one, and it pained him when visitors merely made polite noises. Ethan, however, was as delighted by the ship as anyone could have asked, and his question was certainly not mere polite noise.
"Of course! There are th-- er, two engines, actually. One for lift and one for propulsion." Crispin led the other man down the hallway and threw wide the door. The engine room gleamed from its recent cleaning, and it was obvious that as much aesthetic care had been taken here as in the rest of the ship. The engines looked streamlined and elegant despite their bulk, and handsome screens of bronze scrollwork disguised the necessary untidiness of the room's two workbenches. It looked like an engineer's fairy tale.
Unfortunately, like all fairy tales, there were some jarring notes. There were, indeed, two engines, but there was also a third component dominating the floor. It seemed to be the same general size and shape as the engines, but it was shrouded in white linen, and Crispin seemed to go out of his way to avoid looking at it. Also, here and there, the discerning eye could find signs that hinted as to why the third engine was so shrouded. A few scorch marks on the floor around it, some dents on the other engines, and a large discolored spot on one wall as if it had been replaced with a slightly different shade of wood. Something devastating had happened to the third engine.
"I've seen more efficient engine configurations recently, but I was more or less making it up as I went along. I might do it differently if I were to build her again, but it made sense at the time." Crispin walked past the shrouded hulk and rested a hand on one of the other engines with a caressing gesture. "She's a lovely ship the way she is, though, and more efficient than one would expect. It would break my heart if anything happened to her."
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