She gratefully jogged into the more populated merchant district. The quiet paths she’d been on had allowed visions of exploding engines in an ocean storm accompanied by screaming and dying sailors cursing her name parade through her imagination. All the thoughts purposefully avoided for the six months and twelve days since the Vibrius vanished without a trace into the vast ocean that encircled the world came unbidden, haunting her.
The timer in her head loudly ticked down and pushed her to jog longer and faster than ever before. The streets transitioned from loose stone to slush filled cobblestone streets, to cleaner paved streets with better drainage. The merchant district was filled with train tracks, warehouses, and wide open shipping yards.
Breathing deep, she wiped her face with her hand. The machinery oil of the trains and cargo cranes filled the merchant district with a heavy odor. The clean winter breeze mixed the scent with the coal fumes of hundreds of lorries, lifting skeletons, and other machinery. The road was clogged with whistling steam engine driven tractors and lorries moving goods around the yards. The heavy clanking of the lifting skeletons moving about on their treads signaled government or noble house operations as only rich houses could afford the complex loading machines. Other businesses had to use mixed physical laborers and fixed loading cranes.
Janali continued to jog through the busy streets completely entrapped by her imagination and guilt. She navigated familiar paths towards the harbor automatically. Her mind tried to produce a scenario to explain the long absence, profile altering repairs, and working engines.
Wind thick with the unique, pungent harbor odor ruffled Janali’s collar lace. She stopped, realizing where she was. Checking her mental timer against her pocket watch, she confirmed she had barely enough time to get to her destination. The Jedalor docks were twenty minutes away, and there was no use hiring a coach. Walking would be faster through the bustling trade streets. By her original estimation, she had exactly twenty minutes before the Vibrius could be at the docks. She resumed her pace, cutting around trailers, loaders, and trucks. She decided to save some time by cutting across the open loading yards used cooperatively by the smaller trade houses.
The yards were crisscrossed with roads and tracks all cleared of snow by steam plows. High banks of snow built up by the plows made a strange pattern throughout the yards. She maneuvered through them, avoiding any moving trains or trucks.
Coming around a stationary lorry being loaded, a large sweaty worker gave her a reproachful look with a raised eyebrow. He knew better than to speak to her directly. Still, she blushed slightly knowing full well she had no business being there. She stepped around him and kept her attention ahead, not making eye contact. A sharp metallic snap far too close to be safe sent a shock wave of fear through her. Instinctively, she leapt forward away from the sound.
A heavy male scream filled her ears as a weight slammed into her back. The heavy mass pushed her along, throwing her head first into an icy pile of snow. Stars danced in her vision as she screamed in pain and surprise.
A louder crash with force enough to vibrate her whole body followed. It was muffled by the fact her head was buried in snow.
Coming to her senses, she scrambled backwards, slipping on the icy powder. Rolling over, she looked up at the sight of a lorry tilting towards her. A large loading flat of wooden boxes tied together for shipping teetered half off the lorry’s flat rear bed. The lorry creaked and tilted more towards Janali, the shipment was going to slide off and crush her if she didn’t move.
On the ground next to her, the workman was groaning and holding his chest. His hands coated in blood. The blow had splattered the snow around him with a whip like cloud of red dots.
She slammed her hands down and brought her boots up into a reverse crab-like stance, trying to push herself up. She crab-walked backwards as fast as she could. But slammed her head into the snowbank she just pulled herself out of. Her eyes lost focus, and she felt a little dizzy as stars danced in her sight. A spray of translucent shimmering light flashed over her, striking the lorry like a jet of water.
“Janali, get out of the way!” an army officer yelled, leaping over the snow bank pointing her hands at the lorry. She was followed by four other soldiers.
As her head cleared so did her vision, and the dancing stars with shimmering lights faded. The ensign braced herself against the lorry followed by the four other soldiers. The five women were strong, and together they were keeping the lorry and its load from crashing down.
Janali rolled over and scrambled over the top of the snowbank. On the far side of some tracks, a steam lifting skeleton stood with its control seat open, smoke coming from its furnace and the operator standing to the side gaping.
“Hang on,” Janali commanded as she got her feet under her and ran across the tracks, climbing into the skeleton. She didn’t bother strapping herself in but jammed the motion controls forward.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The skeleton rumbled across the yard, its tractor treads had no issue with the offensive snow bank. The machine ticked and whirred as the automatic leveling pistons worked to keep a stable center of balance. The steam mechanics hissed as Janali brought the hydraulic arms up. She spun both arms so the lifting forks could be used as braces. The lorry’s thin steel sides crunched as Janali pressed the forks into its side, holding it in place.
“Get out of the way!” Janali screamed at the soldiers.
The women wasted no time in dashing out of the way. The ensign hung back just a moment, her eyes catching Janali’s before she too scrambled away.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the soldiers drag the wounded man to safety.
The gages for the lifting skeleton showed the steam pressure was low and dropping.
Janali took a second to look at the cargo pallet which still threatened to fall off the rear of the lorry. Furiously manipulating the controls, she made sure not to waste steam on unnecessary motion. The lifting skeleton shifted position towards the rear while continuing to brace the lorry. When she was close enough, Janali moved one of the arms, swinging it wide and bringing the lifting fork against the cargo pallet and slid it back onto the lorry.
The vehicle settled back, and Janali dropped out of the skeleton. The operator ran over.
“Ma’am, that was quick thinking. You’ve got great skills. If you ever need a job, I’ll put in a good word for you,” she said, offering Janali a handkerchief to wipe her face.
Janali accepted the clean cloth and tried to fix her appearance, dusting the snow off her kilt and jacket. She opened her coat to get some snow out of it, exposing the purple sash and business suit underneath. The operator jumped back a few inches upon seeing the sash.
“Lady, I didn’t mean any offense,” she said, her face going dark red.
Janali tried not to laugh at the poor woman’s baffled expressions and emotions dancing across her plain-cuffs working woman’s face.
Handing the kerchief back, she gave the operator a friendly smile. “No offense taken. I enjoy compliments as much as everyone else. Especially honest ones.”
The operator bowed and quickly climbed into her skeleton, saying she needed to get back to work.
Janali looked around for the soldiers that had helped. But they were already gone. There had been something odd about them. The officer had been an ensign and the four other soldiers had been commoners with many awards and ribbons. An odd group to be sure. But, she had little to do with the army so perhaps it wasn’t as odd as she felt it to be.
She thought maybe they’d taken the wounded man away. But a pair of workmen stood not far away, lifting a canvas stretcher with the injured man.
Her back hurt, and she examined the thick broken chain. She’d been lucky. The chain had whipped free when it broke, striking the man instead of her. If the workman hadn’t been there, she’d be the one on that stretcher.
A workman ran up, his eyes wide and looked at Janali holding a hand out. “Lady, are you okay? I’m sorry. That chain shouldn’t have broken like that.”
Janali wiggled a bit. “I think I’m fine. I was just knocked into the snow by the man the chain hit.”
A dock mistress in the imperial green and red trousered uniform walked over, her face a cold hard rock. She shook her clipboard in the air shouting, obscenities at the crane’s operating lady.
Janali took a last look at the cargo. She needed to get moving. Checking her watch again, she now had only fifteen minutes to get to her dock.
The dock mistress was already writing a citation and continued to curse.
Janali took a step towards the docks when she realized there was something wrong. She looked at the heavy chain that had broken. It was a strong chain. Looking up, she quickly decrypted the cargo markings. The indicated pallet weight could never break such a substantial lifting chain. It was significantly heavier; she had noticed the amount of force needed by the skeleton to slide it back onto the lorry. That discrepancy could be a mistake or an attempt at shorting the shipping costs, which included weight.
The crane and lorry belonged to House Salenti, once a staunch ally of House Jedalor until a falling out many years back had turned them into minor competitors. The cargo came from House Mendith, a current trade partner with House Jedalor. Janali watched as the dock mistress waved the crane operator out, preparing to pull her license for remedial action.
Janali considered the ground for a moment. An infraction would increase imperial scrutiny and consequently their tariffs to finance the additional oversight. House Salenti had fallen on hard times with the loss of some major shipments to pirates. The increased costs would allow Janali to steal one of their larger military shipping contracts coming up for renewal. As much as her mother would be pleased with the double victory of House Salenti ruination and securing a stable long-term cargo contract, Janali’s gut twisted into a knot at such tactics.
Taking a quick breath, she approached the dock mistress and bowed slightly to get her attention. The dock mistress paused in her muttering curses and writing to examine the interruption. Her brows closed over her already grim eyes, still she returned the bow.
“Ma’am, pardon the intrusion. However, I believe the infraction belongs to the manufacturing house. If I might direct your attention to the cargo markings.”
The dock mistress glared at Janali for a moment before her eyes darted down to the purple sash still exposed by the open jacket then up at the crates. She gave a short bow again. “I’ll consider it. Thank you for your concern, milady.”
The dock mistress turned and started decrypting the cargo markings on her pad of paper. Her carbon stick made deep grooves in the paper from the pressure applied as she wrote.
The crane operator looked Janali in the eye and bowed respectfully.
The dock mistress would come to the right conclusion in spite of being upset about being questioned. With a quick acknowledging hand wave to the crane operator, Janali turned back to the port.
Turning her eyes to the sky, she said a silent prayer to the Star Empresses that her sister wouldn’t learn of this. Her mother, although disappointed at the lost opportunity would understand, but Cybele could be vindictive.
When her eyes dropped back to Terra, she spotted the soldiers from earlier on the far side of the yards watching the scene. The ensign signaled with her hand, and the group walked off down a side street immediately out of Janali’s line of sight.