Chương 3: Captivating Concoctions and Craftswoman:

Arlene lead the three extremely junior engineers through the streets of Lumiere, her scowling face showing no trace of the sadness or melancholy expressions she'd been wearing just a few hours before.

Her mind was ticking over the problem at hand.

On the eve of St.Gunter's day, things were typically pretty rowdy. Thousands of workers from the Light of Lumiere would take the opportunity to start their normal drinking early, so they had time to fit in all the OTHER drinking they'd be doing non-stop until tomorrow night.

No doubt, whoever had knocked over the train had been aware that the pubs of the city would be stocking up, and brought men armed with pumps and watertight haversacks.

Filling the barrels back up was a nice touch- it kept the ruse from being noticed during the unloading.

If they'd only shut all the pubs completely. There still would've been a riot, but at least it would be a manageable one.

Haveluck street, Captivating concoctions. The proprietress was standing outside talking with Hahn.

The pharmacy was a shopfront that backed onto a large warehouse and compounding facility and they sidelined as a wholesaler for most of the smaller shops in the city.

The woman's eyes widened as she saw the three sheepish followers behind Arlene.

"NO! Get those moronic apprentices out of my sight this instant!"

Her yell caused Arlene to pause.

"Cynthia. I need one of them. I will not let that one out of my sight. The other two won't enter the shop. Now, before you say anything, please, listen."

Cynthia, who had been drawing breath for another round of impassioned shouting, deflated when she saw how serious Arlene was.

"Who died?"

"Nobody yet, but give it time." Arlene pulled Hahn and Cynthia into a huddle and explained the situation.

"So you see," she said when she was finished recapping, "we're in full damage control mode. We've all seen how crazy it can get on this night. We are going to have riots, people drinking from tainted barrels, the works."

Hahn stroked his chin. He was a brawny one, but behind watery blue eyes, he had a mind as sharp and ordered as a razor.

"I don't suppose we could spike the remaining barrels, get everyone knocked out instead of rioting?"

Cynthia snorted.

"Even if I could brew enough tranquillisers in time, firstly, my equipment is broken, secondly, we'd never get to all the pubs in the city and get the correct doses mixed into the barrels. Besides young man, anaesthesia is tricky business-"

Hahn held up a finger.

"Not all the pubs. Broadway, Fiddlers green in and Walters place."

Arlene wrinkled her nose- "What about those three firetraps?"

"Those three pubs are where any large riot is going to start. We might be able to nip things in the bud if we can the more violent drinkers to an early naptime."

"Fair idea. Cynthia, if we fix the machines could you brew us up the needful and the necessary. Then after, get the bandages, troll oil and-"

Cynthia cut Arlene off with a huff.

"Arlene, I've known you since you were waist high. Don't try to teach me what I need to do before a wild night! Just get my equipment in order and I'll take care of the rest."

Arlene smiled, and gave a nod.

As Cynthia left, Arlene consulted with Hahn- he'd already checked the damage and made a list of the parts that had to be replaced rather than repaired. The list was unceremoniously torn into three, leaving Hahn and the male engineer apprentices, Dasilva and Owen a third each to go collect.

Harper was a Craftswoman, so she came with Arlene into the shop to start on the repairs.

Captivating Concoctions might've had a shopfront that looked like a classic witches pharmacy, filled with exotically coloured glass bottles, tinctures, salves and scented soaps- but a few meters beyond a grey door marked 'Staff Only' the business revealed it's true form.

A great warehouse filled all the equipment needed to run an industrial medicine production business. Ten meter copper boilers, re-purposed mining trolleys overflowing with herbs, great vats where potions were boiled and distilled and more.

However, right now the most noticeable thing was the centrifuge. Five meters tall, it had hundreds of litres in capacity and was at it's heart, little more than a large metal drum mounted on an axle.

Unfortunately, it's surface was now covered in dents and several noticeable breaches, where objects had punched their way out through the wall of the metal cylinder.

Of course, it wouldn't have been that bad if it had been just damage to the centrifuge drum. Not much that could go wrong there. But, it was clear that when the tools had been dropped into the spinning drum, they'd burst out with quite a bit of force behind them, spreading the damage to nearby machines.

Squatting down next to the main conveyor-belt Arlene swore.

"Alright. Harper? What stage Craftsman are you?"

Harper, who'd been hovering meekly behind her, shrank back at the sudden question.

"Uhm, my physique is bronze, but my eyesight and control is silver."

"Bronze? Silver? You only look about seventeen. Whatever, come here, follow my lead. We'll start with the conveyor belt and work our way through to the more serious issues."

Harper stepped forward and Arlene pointed at a gear which had warped.

"The teeth of that one aren't meshing properly and it's triggering the safety switch. We want it going again, we need to fix the fit."

Almost immediately, Harper reached out, a soft glow enveloping her fingers- only to fall on her side, red hair spilling out from under her cap as Arlene delivered a sharp blow to younger girls head.

"Think first! Use those oh-so-fine eyes and THINK!"

Harper was about to protest, but then she focused on the gear she'd been about to touch and realised it was shaking ever so slightly. Understanding dawned.

"The machine is still on?"

"I said it was triggering the safety switch. Motors for stuff like this generally have a function to reduce torque if resistance exceeds a certain threshold so they don't strip the teeth if something goes wrong. Lesson one, don't work on a machine while it's on."

"I didn't..."

"I know you didn't know. That's why I'm telling you. I will shut off the motor, then you reshape the gear to it's original specs. I assume you can do that?" Arlene's words, though pointed, evoked only an earnest nod from Harper.

The repairs proceeded fairly smoothly. Harper was, despite first impressions, a quick learner- and she had the specs to back it up. Her bare eyes could discern detail's at the millimetre level and with her physique and control, she was perfectly capable of softening, cutting and bending metal with her bare hands. Despite that, she wasn't exactly experienced. After half an hour of hard work, her hair was damp with sweat and her hands had started to shake. Still, she picked up a piece of pipe with some shrapnel embedded in it and prepared to continue.

Arlene had been keeping a sharp eye on her- and decided that anything further was too risky.

Besides, they still had a whole mess of repairs. Better to have Harper rest now and avoid collapsing later. She pulled the pipe from Harper's hands. Originally she'd intended to do it gently, but, Harper was a Craftswoman, and though she wasn't holding the pipe tightly, it required all of Arlene's strength to remove it from her grip.

Even then, it was mostly because Harper had let-go halfway through.

Setting the pipe aside, Arlene pulled out a water bottle from her haversack and after taking a quick swig, handed it to Harper.

"Take a breather. Alright? We're not done here yet by a long shot."

The girl gripped the bottle gingerly, cheeks flushed with her recent exertion and looking away from Arlene, she hesitated for only a moment before draining it entirely.

"You're doing good there kid. One we've fixed the pill furnace piping, the boys will be back with the replacement panelling for the centrifuge."

Harper started drawing circles on the floor with her shoe.

"Something on your mind kid?"

"You know you can call me... nevermind. Arlene, can we really fix the drum? Even if I use my control to weld in new panels over the break, they'll still be weaker than before."

"No, that drum is busted. What we can do is patch it so it'll last long enough until replacement."

A short period of silence followed- broken only by the muffled orders of Cynthia in the ingredient warehouse next-door.

"Arlene?"

"Yes, kid?"

"Call... never... Your dad was pretty famous right?"

"In certain circles."

"How about you?"

"Me?" Arlene laughed, "I'm nobody. Just a fresh face with a Masters but no Doctorate."

Harper looked incensed.

"No you're not! Everyone here seems to know you, and you took charge the moment you realised there was a problem- and besides! When I first arrived here on the carriage, there were a whole bunch of people looking for you!"