CH96 Airboat Launch
The failure of the toy airboat test hit Alex hard. The comments of the onlookers didn’t help either.
"That's what you get," an old man quipped to his friends on the boardwalk, "when someone without a shipwright class tries to build a boat."
Alex dismissed the boisterous remark from the peanut gallery, finding it unhelpful given the town's lack of a shipwright or even a wainwright.
As boats became a novel sight, Alex and others greeted the arriving vessels at the docks. Their return dispelled the myth of a monster-infested, doom-laden water, hopefully bolstering the magical girl's credibility.
“Hello, any news?” Alex asked the first man that came ashore, carrying a duffle bag filled with stuff.
“Nothing unexpected. We made it there and back without much trouble, just a little rain and cold. It took some effort to offload the barge. This place has a nicer pier than what we have going there. The nymphs helped by growing a dock out of roots.” The man looked around, wondering what to do next. “I brought some extra food and clothes, planning to pick up a single person and head back upstream.”
“Go ahead, I think Cecil has been organizing the townspeople. I’m glad to hear there hasn’t been any conflicts between the two groups of people.” Alex sighed in relief.
“Oh there are a lot more than two groups of people. A lot of the tribes have had grudges going back generations. But the nymphs are keeping a close eye on everyone, making it very clear what happens to people that don’t respect their peace.” The man pointed at a shrub that was growing by the waterline.
Alex clutched Lilly to her chest, not sure how happy she was with order being preserved by threat of shrub transformation. “Nymph, rule is weird.”
The man nodded and continued about his business. “Yes, they are very cheerful and friendly until someone gives offense.” He shuddered. “Then they are ruthless.”
As the magical girl let the Nymph’s methods sink in she could only blink in disbelief. “I suppose I should take Ki’s thoughts about how the smelting should go somewhere else a bit more seriously. I thought she just thought it was annoying how bad those bloomeries worked.”
Fufi flew down and landed on the boardwalk. “What’s wrong Alex?”
“I was just thinking, relying on the hospitality of the fey for everyone saved might not be a sustainable long term solution.” Alex smiled at the flamingo.
“You are right.” Fufi nodded in agreement. “Nymphs will always put the forest as their top priority. Some humans may feel that way but not all of them. It is bound to cause conflict.”
“That sounds like a problem that will have to be looked at in the future. I want to focus on getting people out of here quickly. If I can get this toy boat to work then with some help from the craftspeople of town we should be able to scale up the toy sized one to a person sized one.” Alex gestured to the model fan-driven boat that flipped upside down not too long ago. “Making something from memory and a concept is a lot more difficult than building something from plans in a book.”
Alex, taking a social break, observed the boats' comings and goings. The barge, a day out, had successfully completed its two-day upstream journey, a reassuring sign that the river lacked any shallow spots that could impede larger vessels. While some shallow areas undoubtedly existed, the river remained navigable.
On the third day following the demons' defeat, Alex dedicated time to refining the fan boat. "The boat's base should be larger and completely flat," Alex mused. "If I recall correctly, these types of boats don't have traditional boat-shaped bottoms. A longer front would also shift the center of gravity forward, away from the rear." This initial design served as a foundation for Alex's subsequent prototype.
“I can tell you right away what it is missing.” Fufi gave her usual response. “It isn’t cute enough. That should fix it.”
“Please, don’t just knock it.” Alex huffed. “Give me ideas.”
“Well these things that spin around at the back.” Fufi gestured with a wing. “You could make them heart shaped instead of these spinning paddle shapes.” She continued. “There could be some decorations along the hull. Perhaps some pinwheels along the side would be fun too. They could spin around while it is moving.”
Alex no longer dismissed Fufi's ideas, having learned from experience. She sketched the decorations Fufi requested, earning a nod of approval from the flamingo. With her familiar's blessing, Alex dedicated the rest of the day to the manor area where she'd crafted the first prototype. The barge was due the following day, so Alex focused on cutting, nailing, and attaching parts to ready the longer, more balanced, and cuter toy boat for her morning testing goal.
Fortunately, Marina consistently brought salvage from the river. While most ships in this world had wooden hulls, many parts were metal. She discovered ships too damaged to warrant refloating. Smaller, attacked vessels were often entirely wooden and floated as timber, which, on a river, meant they were washed downstream. Consequently, she mostly returned with iron, brass, and copper scrap. The scout's most impressive find was a decayed treasure chest brimming with gold and silver coins.
This additional salvage greatly aided the building project. Alex meticulously dusted the rusted metals, and the town smithy melted down a pile of the scrap for salvage. One valuable lesson Alex learned was having a shipwright involved bypassed the need for intricate drawings and measurements. Their skills smoothed over some mistakes before they could happen.
“You want this part to be what?” The burly blacksmith grumbled at the drawings that had detailed dimensions, angles and specifications on them. “I can read but some of these chicken scratches don’t mean much to me.”
“It doesn’t have to be completely perfect but these parts will fit together like this.” Alex tried to explain the drawing.
“Bah, I shouldn’t have to worry about this. Someone with a shipwright skill could just use that with the crafters they work with and lean on that instead of comparing all these dimensions together.” The man grumbled.
“If one shows up we can let them take over.” The magical girl prodded the stubborn man. “I’m going to test the small version of this today and if it works, a bigger version could get people out of the town faster.”
“Why not just get Marina to float another barge?” The smith grumbled.
Alex put her hands on her hips. “She’s gone the length of the river that is in this barony. If she goes any further out we’ll be entering another county with a different ruler. She’s explained this to Cecil. He agreed that we should evacuate with as much discretion as possible.”
Twilight blanketed the impoverished town by the time Lily’s airboat was ready. Talking to different crafters and getting peppered with questions took up a good chunk of her day. But a small crowd of the skeptics gathered on the dock to watch the second prototype.
The river awaited, twilight danced upon ripples. Alex carried the boat to the water’s edge, her heart aflutter. She placed Lilly at the helm, her tiny hands gripping the tiller. Aria’s own fingers released the boat’s enchanted weight, and the propeller hummed to life. Of note was the heart-shaped propeller blades. Fufi got her way and Alex changed the shape of the blades. The blades hummed like dragonfly wings.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, the prototype glided across the water. The airboat’s fan buzzed, leaving ripples in its wake. On the shore, Alex danced and laughed.
The little clockwork doll sped off in her cute watercraft. The toy boat, with its incredibly shallow draft, caught some air when bouncing over waves. As Lily turned the boat back around to avoid shooting up the opposite bank, Alex noticed that the turning radius was incredibly wide. It reminded Alex of a stunt driver drifting around a corner. Eventually the 15 minutes of free spin ended and the toy boat started slowing. Lily took her tiny hands to the contraption that held the weight. She wound the string back up along the wheel and let the weight fall again. The wheel whirled back into motion and she started doing figure eights in the water. There were a couple close calls but Alex had learned her lesson last time. The boat worked best on calm shallow water. Avoiding water that would tilt the boat sideways was extremely important. The boat got up to around 15 knots, Alex guessed.
Alex picked the doll then pulled toy boat out of the water. “What do you think? Can you help me build one big enough to transport people?”
“This will be the most elaborate contraption that anyone has tried to build in our backwater town.” Cecil, the guild master, gave the crafters a challenging glare. “You men up for the task?”
Seeing their manly pride was a stake, the earlier blacksmith that Alex spoke to gave a precise answer. “Aye, though to scale it up enough to be useful I think it would have to be about 20 feet long. That isn’t something that can be done in a day.” He paused. “How is that fan spinning for so long when the weight has already fallen?”
“Magic.” Alex gave a dumb grin.
The blacksmith shook his head, unphased, apparently magic wasn’t an awe-inspiring concept in this world. “You’ll have to be in charge of the majority of that part then.” He added. “How does it slow down and stop?”
Alex answered in an innocent tone. “I haven’t figured that part out yet.”
“I think it would be important. The bottom is so flat, I bet if your doll hadn't turned back around she would have been skidding up the shore and taking off across the wasteland on the other side of the river.” The gruff blacksmith regained some of his salty tone.
After some more discussion about possible flaws, the group split up and headed back to their homes. Alex adapted the plans a bit by going through some of the clockwork doll books. A lever was added to disengage the flywheel driving the propellers. The airboat was turning out to be a lot more complicated than Alex had expected but still it was nothing compared to making a clockwork doll that could shoot arrows or wield a sword. Being from a world without classes, Alex figured making the shapes to tolerance for all the gears would be impossible with simple blacksmith tools but just as having a skill in cleaning, cooking, or sewing allowed for superhuman feats in that area, having a class dedicated to metalworking likely allowed them to use an anvil and hammer in ways that people couldn’t even dream of back on earth.
While Alex was messing around in the manor, the barge had come and gone with no issues that same day. They loaded people’s belongings in the hold and townsfolk on the deck. Many farmers complained that this would be the last harvest they could get. The land was spent and their plants were failing at a rapid rate.
Days passed while they worked on the new airboat. By the time that the boat was complete there were less than 700 people left in the town. Many of the village houses were empty. Households that didn’t have a lot of possessions could load up their family and belongings on the barge all at the same time. People with farming classes volunteered to go right away. They knew there was no future for a farmer here.
Cecil, blacksmith apprentices and some carpenters lifted the boat and walked it to the river. They tied the boat off to the dock and dropped the weight that spun up the mechanical flywheel. The thing ran for the expected 15 minutes and strained against the lines that held it to the dock.
“Looks like it’ll have to have grease added fairly regularly.” The grouchy blacksmith squirted some oil on the gears. “These things will wear down and break the cogs off eventually.”
“If it lasts long enough to help get everyone out of here then it’ll have done its job. When we get settled in Mignoneville we can go from there.” Cecil stated. “You think of a name for the vessel?”
“Oh I’ve heard about this before. Are we supposed to give it a name, then break a bottle of wine on the hull for good luck on the maiden voyage? Like a princess or a duchess is supposed to do it?” Alex fantasized about ships in Victorian england.
“I think it would be better if we don’t invite any duchesses.” Fufi said. “Baroness Yvne caused enough trouble.”
Everyone liked that.
“So who wants to play the role of test pilot?” Alex asked, surveying the small crowd.
Marina perked up. “I’ll do it! I’m getting sick of searching the river for scap. We’ve gotten everything we can without heading further downstream and risking being spotted.”
It fell to Alex, who apparently was determined to be the cutest girl in the whole town to break a bottle of wine on the boat. The maids objected saying that would waste a good bottle of wine and that no such custom existed in Terre where they broke a bottle of wine on a boat before setting it on the maiden voyage.
“I christen thee, the vessel Stardrift!” Alex said and swung the bottle against the hull, breaking it. The contents spilled out into the river. “I thought it was supposed to bubble and fuzz all over the place. No matter.”
A maid sternly corrected Alex. “That would be sparkling wine Miss Alice. Sadly we don’t currently have any of that in the cellar. A proper maid needs to know the difference.”
Marina set off after doing some laps up and down the river. Everyone cheered her on when she passed the small sailboats heading upstream at less than a quarter her speed. Alex especially was grateful for someone else taking control of the boat. The larger boat meant a larger weight was needed to get the flywheel spinning. And with Alex’s less-than-impressive strength she couldn’t lift it. No one judged her for that.
The scout who often transformed into a mermaid took mostly farming tools with her for the first trip. The goal was to make it there in less than a day. And if there was any trouble, losing some shovels and pitchforks would be better than someone who couldn’t swim having to face the river. Eventually the humming of the fan quieted and the boat disappeared around a bend in the river. Everyone’s countenance raised at the successful boat launch.