And so I decided to take a stab at steampunk erotica. The only small problem, as it turned out, was that I found that I wanted to establish the steampunk bit, and to determine something about the erotica, so the latter was a little time arriving. Don't worry, we get there in the end – though if you're in a hurry, you might want to look elsewhere. The other problem was that the tale grew in the telling, so this is just Part I – the first three chapters. In fact, this turned into something of an origin story. Even when it's done, there may be sequels. Charles Dartington is, I think, due some more adventures after this – as are others of our cast of characters.
*****
1. Pirate Attack!
It was a calm morning on the China Seas, and after breakfast, Charles Dartington decided to take a stroll around the deck of the steamship. When he came to the forward walkway, he found himself pleased to see Miss Elphinstone already there, and he smiled as he wished her good morning.
"Good morning, Mr. Dartington," she replied, and for a moment he thought he glimpsed a half-smile on her own face.
"Good
morning
, Mr. Dartington," her companion and chaperone, Mrs. George, agreed, materializing at her side and speaking in a tone that suggested that she wished Charles little good. "Come, my dear girl. It is best to find shelter before the sun is too high," she continued to Miss Elphinstone.
"Yes, Miss George," the younger woman agreed, paying no attention to Charles. The two of them set out towards their cabin. Charles watched them depart, reflecting idly that he might have wished that there had been someone of near his own age and class aboard the ship with whom he could be permitted to pass the time. Growing lost in thought regarding his near future, he turned to make another circuit of the ship.
"Pirates!"
Jolted out of his reverie, Charles looked around for the source of the warning cry, and reflexively scanned the horizon. But then he saw two crewmen pointing
upwards
, and he followed their gaze. A dark speck in the heavens above was rapidly becoming discernible as the teardrop shape of a dirigible, trailing a thin plume of smoke, and Charles, who had a keen and informed amateur interest in technology, realised that it must be driving down by raw engine power. He saw also that it must have approached in the cover of some thin morning clouds, explaining why it had not been sighted before. A second and a blink of the eye later, he saw that its hull was a rich crimson, and he knew from his reading of Indian news-sheets that the warning cry had been all too justified.
For long moments, Charles stood paralyzed and stunned. The ship was surely far off the routes menaced by the dreaded airship pirates! He had even made casual study of the navigational realities himself, as well as accepting the shipping company's reassurances, so he knew that finding prey this far from their secret bases would be an uncanny feat of navigation and a great risk for the villains...
The dirigible swooped down over the ship, and a cluster of dark shapes fell from it to burst on the deck. A moment later, Charles caught a distant waft of something cloying, spicy, and oddly sweet, and his memory of other studies made him gasp. Sleeping vapours! The pirates were cunning and well-armed!
But that latest memory brought with it other information, and in a moment, Charles broke out of his paralysis and dashed for his cabin. The vapours were a powerful soporific, but they were also highly soluble in water, and little danger once dissolved. It was the work of but a moment to soak a towel from his washstand in the basin, then tie it around his mouth and nose. Then, Charles ventured forth once more.
Already, he found, the vapours were having an effect; several crewmen and passengers lay insensible on the deck or at best leaned helplessly on supports – and indeed, the little that reached Charles's nose made his head spin. But his improvised mask served well enough to protect him as he made his way along the passenger walkway. On the way, he found one of the ship's mechanics who had clearly been overcome by the vapours after emerging to see what was happening, a great spanner lying by his side. It was the nearest thing to a weapon that Charles had yet seen, and he took it up and hefted it nervously as he looked around.
Then, sounds from an upper level made him look that way, and he saw that the pirate dirigible was now hovering a bare few yards above the ship, and had dropped grapnels and cables down. Even as Charles watched, figures came sliding down those cables, and Charles realised that other strange rumours were true. Even at this distance, the figures appeared female, slender as well as agile in swirling dark skirts and capes, though their faces were covered by masks to protect them from the vapours.
Horrified by a danger that was no better for being unclear in his mind, Charles rushed further along the walkway, and then started in a mixture of shock and relief as he saw several figures sprawled on the open deck space at the steamship's stern. One was unmistakeably Miss Elphinstone, clad in the white linen tropical dress which he had seen earlier; Mrs. George lay beyond her, likewise insensible. Even in this moment of shock, Charles found the younger woman oddly fetching in vulnerable disarray, showing slender ankles and delicate feet...
"Over there!"
The voice, muffled but recognisably female, came from behind him, and Charles span on his heel. His heart sank as he saw no fewer than three of the black-clad pirate amazons facing him. Their costumes featured skirts cut scandalously high at the front, revealing dark leather knee-high boots that matched the leather bodices that made them seem especially fearsome; their masks were of black oilskin, with large glass lenses over the eyes. They wielded guns of unfamiliar pattern – what appeared to be large-bore shotguns with short barrels, which Charles thought that must fire a devastating charge. He certainly had no desire to test their power.
Nonetheless, he turned instinctively to stand over the unconscious Miss Elphinstone, and gripped the outsize spanner two-handed in what he hoped was a determined manner. "Back!" he said, as firmly as he was able. "You shall not harm her!"
To his surprise, the three amazons paused. Their filter masks hid their faces, but he felt himself being assessed, and he had a terrible sense that they were
amused.
Then one of them glanced at the others "I do believe it's him," she said.
"Yes," said another, and then raised her voice. "Captain!" she called out, "Over here!"
"What do you mean..." Charles stuttered, his voice thickened by the gas seeping past his improvised filter, but the amazons made no reply, simply continuing to hold him at gunpoint until a fourth figure appeared. Although she too was clad in the same plain black-and-leather as the others, something about her poise and manner conveyed command, even discounting her striking height and the way that the other three made way for her. She was armed with a simple pistol, which she carried pointing downward.
"Ah," she said. "Yes. You are Charles Dartington." It was a statement, not a question. "A pleasure to meet you."
"Get back!" Charles attempted to command.
The pirate captain tilted her head as she looked at him. "Gallant, I see. We should have expected no less. And who is the young lady for whom you are so concerned?"
It occurred to Charles that there might be a way to gain Miss Elphinstone a measure of protection. "This is Miss Emma Elphinstone," he attempted to declare forcefully. "Her father is a director in the East India Company. If you do her any harm, he will hunt you to the ends of the Earth and destroy you."
"Elphinstone?" The pirate captain sounded interested or thoughtful through her mask. "Really? And what is she doing here?"
"She is on her way to her wedding... To Master Derwent... Even more important in the Company..." Even as he spoke, Charles was unsure of the wisdom of saying so much – but the vapours were making his head muzzy.
"Is she so?" The pirate captain seemed to inspect both Charles and Miss Elphinstone for a moment, and then she shrugged. "There is news. But for this moment..." She glanced to her side, at one of the other amazons. "Sui Pai – if you would?"
The other woman brought her gun to bear on Charles and fired in a single motion. He was confused, because the weapon hissed rather than roared, and he felt a blow on the left side of his chest. Looking down, he saw a feathered dart embedded in himself there, even as a he felt a numbness spreading from the point of impact. He barely had time to think of the word
drugs
before consciousness departed him.
2. A Prisoner of the Pirates
"How are you feeling, young man?"
The voice drew Charles Dartington back to consciousness, and he shook his head to clear it and looked around him. He found himself in what was evidently a cabin, but not his own cabin from the ship; it was smaller, and many of the fittings were grey metal. It was lit by one small porthole, high on the wall, but only evening light was coming through that, so it had to be supplemented – by a small electric lamp, rather than the gaslight he had become accustomed to on the steamship. He noted that he was lying on the lower part of a bunk bed, and was still dressed as at the time of the attack.
There were three other people in the cabin, but the speaker was sitting by the bed; a short, slender fellow of Indian extraction and indeterminate age, with a neatly trimmed beard, clad in plain tropical whites with smudges of grime or grease at the elbows and cuffs. He looked at Charles with a faintly amused expression, and raised a quizzical eyebrow.
"I... I think I am well," Charles said, sitting up a little as he spoke. "But where am I, please?"
"You are aboard the airship
Cheng Shih,
" the fellow replied, "and I am afraid that you must be accounted our captive."
Charles slumped back. This was much to take in. "Do you command this vessel, then?" he asked.
"I?" The fellow laughed. "Not truly, no. I am just the chief engineer. Forgive me, I am impolite; my name is Umesh Sharma. I believe that you met our captain earlier, briefly. But Captain Rukh has left me in charge for a little while. She has a steamship to dispose of just now."
