Abominations (55 page)

      When the door opened, she saw her assailants, standing rosy cheeked and dressed in warm looking white outfits.

      Kelvin and Heather Westmorland.

Chapter thirty

      Kelvin didn't wait for Gwen to say anything, swooping in to give her a hug, while Heather stood laughing and putting her hand out to be shaken toward Gwen, but keeping her eyes trained on Winslow who still had a hand in his pocket. She nodded at him, not really tense, both just waiting to see if the other would do anything.

      The Westmorland data guy finally put Gwen down all the way, having pulled her on to her tippy toes for a moment, and held up a hand to keep her from speaking.

      “Bethany's fine. She wanted us to let you know that she didn't have a choice about leaving like that. She literally didn't by the way, Darrick came in and handed her a teletransport sphere, whisking her away to training, without telling her what was up. Bit of a dirty trick, but he really doesn't like giving people the option of saying no. Then he brought the note back for her, but didn't warn her about anything either. I know I should have come sooner myself, but things came up. About the, you know...” He looked sideways at Winslow, who nodded and walked away, asking them to follow him to the drawing room.

      “Anyway, we can't stay long, but Heather wanted to come and make certain you understood the cryptic messages about training and got specs for the uniforms.” He handed her an envelope.

      “This is big, but it's going to be a bit. Political stuff is always slow. So, how are you doing? Did you have a good Yule? What have you been up too?”

      Kelvin listened raptly to her answers, and told her that she should keep working with the airships like that for as long as they needed her.

      “No one ever went wrong going over the basics, besides, if you ever get into any of the special services armor, you'll need that. It basically runs the same way I hear.”

      Heather shook her head and told the man he didn't have a clue with a chuckle.

      “It takes special conditioning and training to run the armor, not just raw power production, though it takes that too, at the same time. Kelvin's right though, it sounds like you're getting some good training. The guy at the door, he helping you?”

      After a few minutes of explaining what she'd been doing running exercises and weapons, Heather excused herself to go find the butler. Kelvin made small talk and told her that Darren, the one that had found Mathews for Gwen, had told him to tell her hello.

      “I don't know, but I think he likes you. If so that would be a first as far as I've ever seen. He barely tolerates most of us. Darned good at his job though. Man can find anything and give you coordinates down to the foot for it. He even found a week off for me once that I didn't have on schedule. I mean that seriously too. Bit of a miracle worker.”

      Heather came in then, followed by Winslow. They all shook hands, this time Heather also shook the butler's hand, and seeing this Kelvin followed suit, then spun and gave Gwen another hug.

      Then they left, out the front door this time. They had to tramp through the snow which reminded Gwen that she should work on a path if she got the time.

      Gwen suddenly felt a little sleepy and told Winslow about the drug or whatever it was she'd been given. He stiffened briefly, looking a bit angry, then directed her to the shower, getting one of the maids to lay out some sleepwear for her. She started to tell him she could do it herself, but then yawned, a wave of tiredness coming over her. Her eyes closing suddenly of their own accord.

      “Or maybe that would be a good idea.”

      She managed to get a shower, the water sloughing off of her, since no one in this world had ever invented a decent shower head, not even for the rich, apparently. Or maybe they had and people here just didn't like them? Regardless, showers here were a purely functional thing, at least for her. She noticed the shower head thing every time still. She washed quickly and got herself ready for bed just in time to get under the covers when everything went away.

      She woke up about nine hours later, crawling out of bed and getting dressed in the warm room. She worked her way down to the kitchen, hoping she could grab a bite of food before going in to work. Taking stock she realized that she felt... fine really. Better than she had in a while, knowing that the Westmorlands hadn't forgotten about her yet. Ethyl saw her and started to raise a fuss, worried that the work had been too much for her the day before.

      “I mean, I'm exhausted and I barely charged two of those thruster packs. They said you did four main drive crystal packs yourself. That's insane dear. We won't go hungry if a few airships can't leave for a few months...”

      This got Gwen to nod.

      “Good to know, but what about the loaders and their families? They make good money, but some of them need to keep working to stay ahead, right? Then there's the delivery people, they don't get paid if they don't work, I bet. The cooks on the airships and so on. Can't just leave them hanging, right? Something this large goes down for too long and thousands end up being affected.” She yawned and laughed about it, so that Mrs. Vernor wouldn't worry about her.

      The same sledge driver came as had taken them the day before, giving his name as Leopold. He took in her shabby clothing and sniffed slightly, but didn't say anything about it. He asked her when she'd need to be picked up.

      “Do you think that someone could meet me here at seven tomorrow? I know that these things don't have lights, is that safe? I mean for the driver coming in do you think?”

      He told her that eight would be better for the morning man, if she held concerns for safety. He seemed happy that she'd mentioned the need for light, almost like no one had ever brought it up before. He pulled out a small notebook and made a note of her desired pick up time, telling her that someone would meet her in the main office, if that suited her.

      Since she didn't know which airship needed to go out next, she headed to the main office to check as soon as they got to the airfield. She couldn't find anyone she knew, so she asked the clerk sitting behind a low desk if he knew. He wasn't great looking, but had a young and healthy appearance anyway, smiling big when he saw her.

      “Oh? You're that new girl then? The one doing all the charging? Let's see... I think that the Griffin should be next, then the Peregrine. The rest need to load still, so that should be all for the day. Do you need directions to the Griffin? I could walk you over if you want.”

      It was only two hangars over from the small office building, so she had no trouble finding it. A group of men, dressed for work, hung out near the back of the ship, one of them whistled at her as she walked up.

      “Hey! You looking for a good time? I think we might be able to help you out there, since we're going to be here for a while.” This came from a thick looking man, not fat really, but that kind of ex-athlete look some men got as they aged. Muscle still there, but a little padding creeping over it. He had a shaved head and an earring in his right ear, a silver hoop with a bit of what looked like turquoise on it. So basically like a gay biker pretending to be a loader.

      Cool.

      “Well, right now I have to see that your main crystal pack gets charged, then see to the Peregrine. After that you'll be gone for a while... Maybe we can work on that good time you mentioned after that? I mean, if “hey, you looking for a good time” isn't your best line. I do have standards.” She smiled at the man, who looked shocked in return. At first she thought that she might have offended him, but it turned out he just hadn't expected her to talk to him at all. Gwen felt glad about that, since his offer, even if in jest, was the very first time anyone had asked her out on a date in her whole life. Unless he meant sex specifically. In that case, it was still the first time. So really, win-win for her.

      “Normally women just keep walking. Heh... So you're the charger they got? Do good work I hear. Um, since I guess I've already made a fool of myself, let me take you to our Engineer to get set up. This way.”

      He walked ahead of her. Well ahead she realized. Keeping a proper distance now that she'd actually talked to him? Or had her awkward attempt at being flirtatious actually done something? She'd tried to sound confident.

      The Engineer turned out to be a fairly young, decent looking man, whose first words to her were an apology for whatever Givens had done and his assurance that he'd be punished as severely as the law allowed. He glared at the man for good measure, a genuinely surly look as if he really wanted an excuse to kick the man off of his boat.

      “You'd think, eh? But no, this one's actually here for the crystal.” The bald man went on to explain the whole thing, even leaving in his unusual greeting and her response.

      “So, as you can see, other than me having found what may be the perfect girl, there's no problem here at all.” He spread his hands, a gesture that tried to convey his innocence and turned to wink at Gwen.

      The Engineer barked at him to get out. When the other man had left, he stood laughing for a bit. Then took her to the crystal to get set up.

      “Forgive Givens. He's alright, but grew up on the docks – wet docks – and never served in the military. His idea of discipline seems to involve being yelled at regularly for some reason. I heard from the office; coffee each hour or so and sandwiches every few? We can make that happen. Please, let us know if you need anything else, we'll send Givens for it.”

      The charge went smoothly after that, Givens bringing her coffee and sandwiches regularly. He apparently knew enough not to talk to her while she worked, just handing things to her and taking away the empties like everyone else had. At the four hour mark she felt the crystal push back and called the Engineer in to double check, since she very well could just be tired or imagining things. Four hours seemed fast, but maybe they'd had a partial charge already. No dials meant that they needed to be careful that way.

      “Hey! Great job, thank you. I'll get the loaders in to set this up and we can finally be on our way. Do you know who's next? We can send someone to check if you need.” He glanced at Givens then. For all the man kept yelling at the bald guy, he also seemed to be his go to person for getting things done. Not just the dirty work either, Gwen was willing to bet. Kind of like Groundling? The boat's enforcer? Interesting if it turned out to be the case.

      “The Peregrine should be up next. I know where it is as long as it's in its regular hangar. I've worked as a loader on her before.”

      Both men blinked at that. Givens nodded at her a bit.

      “I see. Well, good crew over there. Makes sense I guess. If someone like you is going to be a loader anywhere, it would be the Admiral flagship, wouldn't it?”