Capture, Evolve, Survive 3 by King Dante

Author:King, Dante
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

22

Mark stood by the riverbank, his mouth open in dumbstruck admiration as he watched Beth work her engineering magic.

Beth had stood, poised, with her fabricator’s hammer in her hand for a few minutes, before she had launched into building the company’s new vessel. The design that she had access to, she told them all, was inspired, or so she thought, by an ancient Egyptian style of watercraft.

“I can see it, the blueprint, with my waking eyes, even as I talk to you now,” Beth said. She was staring at the water, next to the little quay that had come as part of the boat building structure she had also built.

“What does it look like?” Lucy asked. Of all of them, she was the only one with any real or regular experience of boats.

“It is a sleek, elegant ship meant to transport people comfortably over water,” Beth said. “Now, let’s do it.”

Beth, as an engineer class adventurer, had an uncanny ability to work with both speed and precision, even when compared to Mark and the others. That day, despite her HUD telling her it was going to take her a relatively long amount of time to complete the craft, she was determined to get the boat done as fast as she could manage it.

“Go, Beth. Just sing out if you need a hand,” Sally said.

Beth nodded. Her eyes went distant as she searched inwardly. Then her whole form blurred.

It was hard for Mark to follow, but he thought that he saw Beth first lay out the timbers that Mark and the others had gathered and stacked nearby. She selected the strongest and straightest pieces for the keel and ribs.

“Wow, look at her go!” Cara breathed.

Mark watched as Beth deftly measured and cut the main keel beam, laying it down as the backbone of the ship. Her hands moved in a blur as she notched the wood, ensuring a perfect fit for the ribs that would give the vessel its shape.

“More timber!” Beth barked as she whizzed by the group watching her.

Mark hurried to obey and bring the engineer more planks as she began assembling the frame. Beth drove wooden pegs through pre-drilled holes with single, swift, powerful strikes of her fabricator’s hammer, securing the ribs to the keel. She called out measurements, but to who Mark was unsure.

Not being content to watch someone work, Mark found himself constantly on the move, walking around where Beth was working and watching the amassed materials go up and down like the sound levels of some audio engineer. His eyes were barely able to keep up with her pace.

With the frame complete, Beth turned her attention to the hull. She selected thin, flexible planks and started to bend and attach them to the ribs. The planks curved gracefully and impossibly, forming the smooth lines of the hull.

Beth’s movements were fluid and precise, each plank fitting seamlessly with the next. Her fabricator’s hammer glowed and flashed. Somehow, she was able to apply pitch and resin to seal the gaps with the tool, ensuring the vessel would be watertight.

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