By morning, after flying through the night,
The Corseted Domme
was deep into the Prussian Empire, starting her descent into the Ruhr. Lady Sally, after a little early morning flagellation to get her going, took up a place alongside Captain Wyndham and Clarissa in the control cabin.
Lady Sally looked askance at the automaton with her sleek, auburn wig, short skirt and peaked cap, "Clarissa's dressed very sexily, I see."
"Yes, that was Victoria's doing," explained the captain.
"Yes, she's quite incorrigible. I know I shouldn't encourage her but it amuses me to give her these little pleasures sometimes. Now, captain, you must follow the line of the river."
Lady Sally was guiding her pilot to the airship station where they needed to land, as she had visited these workshops before, and was familiar with the terrain.
They were flying low over the manufacturing nucleus of the Prussian Empire. Lady Sally and the captain looked down upon a concentration of coal mines, factories and foundries. The air was thick with smoke and grit spewed up from the chimneys on the ground. This was where steam-powered vehicles, trains and weaponry were manufactured. The area was a hive of activity; people and goods were on the move everywhere.
Whatever the technical advances of this region, it had still never seen an airship on the scale of
The Corseted Domme
. She attracted curious and excited looks from people on the ground as she slowly steered towards the airship landing station on the outskirts of the city of Essen. Viewing him first hand, Lady Sally was impressed with the skills of her airship pilot as he manoeuvred the cone at the front of the massive dirigible into the gaping hole in the landing stage so it could be fixed onto the mooring mast by the landing wires. The riggers soon set out the guy ropes to secure her, and Lady Sally was ready to disembark.
She was met at the foot of the mooring mast by a steam-powered carriage. Lady Sally looked positively demure in a royal blue velvet dress and black mantle, which covered her dΓ©colletage.
"I'm not a fan of these steam-powered vehicles," she explained to Captain Wyndham, who was accompanying her on this outing, along with her maid. "They are so noisy and smelly. I much prefer my charabanc. I believe the combustion engine will be the vehicle of the future when its engines are perfected."
The carriage delivered the group outside a factory, proudly bearing the name
Ernst von Siemen und Unternehmen, Hersteller von Automaten.
Lady Sally was greeted with enthusiasm by an elderly gentleman with white hair and whiskers in overalls, brass goggles dangling around his neck.
"Lady Sally, it's a pleasure to zee you again," he said, giving her a big hug before ushering them into the works.
"Ah, vud you like a glass of
Schnapps
?"
"That's very kind, but no thank you Herr Siemen. I fear I drank rather a lot of champagne last night to celebrate the inaugural flight of my airship and am somewhat feeling the effects of it this morning. A cup of tea would be lovely though."
"Ah, ze English ladies and their teas," laughed the German.
This workshop was obviously an assembly room. There were broken moulds scattered on the floor, and parts of automatons stored on the shelves... brass heads, arms, legs and torsos, indeed every part of the human anatomy moulded in brass, including the male phallus. Captain Wyndham noticed a line of crates against one wall, stamped with the words,
Rudston-Chichester Brass Company Incorporated-Zanzibar
.
"Can I say how impressed the captain and I are with your automaton co-pilot. I have named her Clarissa."
Mr Siemen acknowledged the compliment.
"It's good to visit your workshops again. How are you... and how is business?"
"Business is booming, but for ze wrong reasons. I'm afraid I have bad news for you, Lady Sally. I've been ordered by the
Ministerium
to convert all my production over to ze war effort."