The Complete Lady Ruth Constance Chapelstone Chronicles by L.C. Mawson

Author:L.C. Mawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: steampunk, steampunk adventures, steampunk airship, steampunk western, London steampunk, novella
Publisher: L.C. Mawson
Published: 2017-01-25T05:00:00+00:00

8

Ruth was roused from her work some time later by a knock at the door.

“Could you finish soldering that together?” she asked Ivy, who readjusted her goggles before nodding.

Ruth headed to the door, opening it to see Captain Hall and Michel there.

“Are you ready to leave?” Captain Hall asked her. “You should have just enough time to change before heading out if you wish to arrive there for six.”

“I believe I am, yes. Just...”

“Soldering is done!” Ivy called over her shoulder before removing her goggles and picking up the small contraption. It was a brass container, built around a cylindrical aether core. One end of the container had a handle and trigger, and the other was a directional rod.

“It’s a gun?” Captain Hall asked.

“It’s an aether disruptor,” Ruth corrected sharply.

“It looks like a gun.”

“It fires a burst that disrupts other aether sources. It will be effective against mechanical men and little else.” She frowned at the weapon in Ivy’s hands. “Or, rather, I don’t know what effect it will have on humans. And I have no intention of finding out.”

“But it will stop mechanical men?”

Ivy stepped towards the workbench at that, placing another aether core on the surface. It was giving off the same eerie blue glow as the one in the weapon.

“Watch this,” she said to Captain Hall before pulling her goggles back down over her eyes. Ruth followed her lead as Ivy stepped back before aiming the aether disruptor at the core on the workbench.

“What’s supposed to happen?” Captain Hall asked, just a second before Ivy fired the weapon.

The directional rod glowed with a loud whine, causing a sphere of light to bloom out around it. Then, so quickly that if one blinked they could have missed it, a straight, thin beam of white light burst forth, striking the core on the bench. The aether core’s glow increased to a bright white light before sputtering out with a slightly distressing screech.

“Is that it?” Captain Hall asked, clearly having expected more damage than the dark aether core.

“That will be enough,” Ruth assured him. “If the aether core is defunct, the mechanical man will be nothing more than a collection of metal shaped like a man.”

Captain Hall raised a sceptical eyebrow. “And you’re sure that it will work when the aether core is in the mechanical man’s chest?”

“As sure as I can be without testing it, but seeing as there is no way to do that...”

Captain Hall gave Michel a pointed look.

Ruth felt fury flood her stomach and stretch out to her limbs, causing her to grip at her skirts tightly. “As I said, there is no way to test it.”

Captain Hall returned her glare. “You had better get ready if you want to keep your appointment.”

He turned and stalked off, leaving Ruth to glare at his back.

“The captain doesn’t seem too fond of me,” Michel noted.

Ruth sighed, giving him a weary smile. “Nor me. Had we been born a few hundred years earlier, I fear he may have tried to burn me as a witch or some such nonsense.

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