"Sabotaged! How very shocking. What do you mean captain?"
"It's probably easier if I show you," replied Captain Wyndham beckoning her and Victoria to follow him into the engine room.
When the captain opened the engine room door, Lady Sally gasped in amazement. Her living and dungeon quarters were designed and fitted to her personal and precise specification, but she left the detailed, technical aspects of her airship to Barnes-Wallis, Captain Wyndham and their team of artificers.
As she stepped tentatively into the room, she looked around in wonder at the intricate network of polished copper around her. She was struck, not so much by the technical complexity of the inner workings of the airship, remarkable though these were, but more by the enormous potential it offered for unusual punishments for her slaves.
"Why, Captain Wyndham, this is quite incredible. I had no idea. Would I be right in thinking these pipes get very hot, uncomfortably hot?"
"Why, yes Lady Sally, but..."
"So, would I be right in thinking this lets out a burst of hot steam?" she asked, examining a nozzle on one of the boilers.
"Well, yes Lady Sally, but..."
"And would these pipes be strong enough to suspend someone from if you chained them tightly enough?" asked Lady Sally, her imagination running away with her.
"Yes, possibly Lady Sally, but there's something I have to show you."
"Oh yes, of course, I'm terribly sorry. It's just I had no idea the engine room might offer such intriguing possibilities for erotic and corrective pleasure. But yes, do go on captain."
Captain Wyndham showed her the copper pipes, and pointed out how cleanly they had been sliced, and the tell-tale serrated markings which showed the pipes had been attacked with a hack-saw.
"The supplies to the four engines have been cut. That was what was so strange. It's not surprising to have an engine failure, but not to all four at the same time. I'm sorry Lady Sally, the only conclusion I can come to is that this was done deliberately."
"How shocking," gasped Lady Sally, "who could possibly want to do such a thing? Could it have been one of my slaves do you think, Victoria?"
"Madam, I doubt it, after all they're usually a bit tied up."
"Well yes, I suppose there is that."
"It's not impossible," Victoria continued, "one could have sneaked away in a moment when he wasn't in bondage but, to be honest, there's not much opportunity for that when you're around."
"Do you have any enemies?" asked Captain Wyndham.