Page 3 (1/2)

"Oh, how thoughtful, tossed cru as you dangle"

"No, I suppose not"

"Bye for now" Agatha turned reluctantly away

Di, "Are you quite certain?"

"Quite"

"Carry on, then, Sophronia," said Sidheag with a grin, beforeoff Her tall, bony form somehow transmitted sarcastic humor even across all the empty space that separated them

Sophronia was left suspended and alone

Despite her wrenched shoulder, Sophronia ed to clie ar lady of quality By dint of soled around the outside of the bubble to the hatch It was difficult to open, as if it had not been used in a long time It was also narrow Her skirts were so wide she stoppered up the opening like a wine cork She had to ease herself back out and shed two petticoats, utilizing a one-handed unlacing technique They fluttered to the y ponies that roae, Sophronia had learned, was tough on petticoats After that she squeezed through, finding herself, with a good deal of relief, inside the pilot’s bubble

Sophronia didn’t knohat she’d expected Some wizened man who spent his days cooped up in a bathtub? But the bubble was not designed for human occupation at all

The front had three sh which, on a rare clear day, all of Dartht the vieas nothing but dark drizzle

The whole forward half of the bubble was filled with engorged mechanical Had it been huentle course and too little of daily exercise Most mechanicals were human sized and mimicked the shape of a lady’s dress--which is to say smaller on the top, wider on the bottom Or perhaps it was ladies’ fashion that i so ridiculously wide, one was hard pressed to walk down a hallithout knocking things over Mechanicals were ive Preshea in her own stiff competition Its lower extremities formed a pile of machinery, not hidden under a respectable carapace but exposed and horribly functional Perched on top of this was a nor forward It boasted multiple arms, like a spider Occasionally, it reached out one clawlike appendage and pulled a lever or twiddled a switch

"Pardonmyself, Mr Mechanical I’m Miss Temminnick Are you equipped with verbal protocols?"

The pilot ignored her Perhaps it did not have the ability to see that a ard student had cli options, Sophronia explored There wasn’tmechanical She brushed off her skirts and sat down atop a tall leather hatbox thing She ran an assess herself basically unhar hook, still eht be to cli one of the ropes as a safety line

A whooshing noise interrupted her thoughts An egg-shaped pod spat out of a tube and skidded along a specially designed trough One of theopen

Sophronia jumped and squeaked at the suddenness of it

The es and unrolled the paper within The paper was perforated with small holes of variable location This the mechanical rested on a reader that looked like the voice coil of a standard y

Another arh Sophronia supposed this would normally issue a set of protocols to the mechanical on how to pilot the ship, but in this case it caused the tinny voice of an underused vocal-quadringer to read instructions

"Rope ladder stashed below Pirandellope Probe, near feeding tube for capsule pipeline"