Tunnel Rat

Milo was nervous as he walked through Shadowport to the small stone and metal building that housed the entrance to the recently built tunnel that led to the Deep Rock Engineering complex deep beneath Shadowport. The dwarves had dug the tunnel they called 'The Loophole' to the surface to recover all the parts of Leviathan and planned to send the repaired ship back the same way, then assemble the parts in the half-built drydock before launching her and beginning the project of recovering what was left of the Iron Queen. Rebuilding Leviathan was a huge task, but doing the same for the Queen was the stuff of legends.

Scavenger clans and pirate ships had converged on Shadowport to be part of both projects. Some were legitimate crafters who hoped to work on the ships and become part of the crew. Others were there to gain hints of the Queen's location. It was generally assumed to be why the Sharks disguised their submersible. Milo, or rather, his alter ego, Professor Tallsqueak, owned the remains of the Silver Shark. Soon, it would also travel down the Loophole to be used as scrap metal.

Milo was anxious to get back to the complex and see what projects were going on. The dwarves were in overdrive and talked continuously about the repairs to Leviathan and the rebuilding of the complex that his snake trap had blown up with the help of a huge storage tank of explosive dwarven whiskey labeled as waste fluid. But he was nervous, and for good reason. Engineers didn't name something the Loophole without a good reason, and from their grins as he strapped himself into the passenger seat at the front, he was sure he knew the reason, and it wasn't going to be good.

The original Deepwater complex was over a half mile below Shadowport, and the massive cavern beneath was another thousand feet down. Milo was about to travel roughly two miles along tracks that flowed through natural caverns and incorporated several twists and turns designed by crazed dwarves addicted to rollercoasters. It was a racial preference, Milo had been told, a way to increase their toughness and test themselves. It wasn't nearly so much fun for Milo, but Peenhammer, the dwarf sitting next to him was screaming and laughing the whole way down as the tracks corkscrewed into the earth, looped, turned over backward, and executed every other twist any of the junior Engineers could think of. They were constrained by the problem of not wrecking the supply trains, but as long as they ended up down at the bottoms, it was a good run.

Milo had turned most of his brain off for the run and screamed all the way down. The system happily informed him of earning 100 experience in toughness. He was pulled from the train by Peenhammer and leaned against the wall until he felt better. Despite how he looked, any Engineer who walked by gave him a thumbs-up or patted him on the shoulder. If you weren't a dwarf and could survive the ride, you'd earned their respect.

He'd only spent a little time in the huge cavern before. First, dreaming in a crack in one of Alta-Viator's immense ribs, and then later when he raced to dig out the Snake Egg before it could hatch. Before, the detriment of ages had covered the bones and scales of what remained Alta-Viator but the explosion he had set off had scoured the interior of the Great Bone Beast clean. Every cave for a mile around had been filled with fire and scoured clean. Not a bad thing since acidic slimes had overrun many areas. What was here now was a huge cave. The dwarves had measured the length of the main cavern at over 2000 feet long. The arched ceiling made of gigantic ribs and vertebrae holding up a coating of massive scales was 300 feet high in the center. Another layer of scales had been found 200 feet down, below the layer of rock that had formed inside the opening.

The shaft going up to the old complex had been widened and a sturdy elevator installed. Milo remembered his first time here when he'd come down in a bucket only a few feet above the horrendous 'Ever-Pudding'. The dwarves still had parts of it in glass jars. The creatures split off from the main mass had their own strange personalities, but all of them could produce high-grade acid that the dwarves found useful. Large signs warning about overfeeding the small puddings were everywhere.

Parts of the rebuilding project were everywhere. Huge project boards had been erected showing the plans for smelters, workshops, ore refining, and machine crafting. Huge copper towers were being erected far away from other construction. Milo pointed to them, "Are those fuel distillation towers?"

Peenhammer laughed, "Sort of. That's the whiskey factory. Just like the old one you blew all to hell but twenty times bigger. Across the cavern will be the fuel mixing tanks. We're testing out mixes of distilled tar oil, wasteful, and whiskey. So far, the experimental mixtures have been pushing boilers to the redline in record time. We've been blowing up boilers each week, but the last batch is finally holding. It takes layers of Deep Copper and Hammer Steel, thick ones, and then horizontal bands of Dark Steel. So far, they've held and Whale is happy with them, but I've some ideas about adding a new fuel additive to the mix that could up the pressure by 20% more. That'll blow a gasket for sure and we'll start over. But mark my words, the days of coal and its low-pressure output are gone for good."

Milo could see an area that had an impressive collection of exploded boilers. He saw Peenhammer's point, but a less volatile mix might be better in the long run. Blowing your boilers with a thousand fathoms of water above you made repairs tough. "Has anyone tried using both?" Peenhammer stopped in midstride, "Both? You have an idea for a project. Tell your old buddy Peenhammer about it and I'll put together a crew to test it." Milo could see he was excited.

"Oh, I was just thinking that if we reduced coal down to coke and removed the impurities, a slurry of ground coke and liquid fuel would give some advantages. Longer burning, more control on the pressure, and less chance of blowing a boiler."

Peenhammer nodded, "Yes, I see it. Come on! We'll write it up on the project board so we get credit and I'll get to work!" The excited dwarf let Milo to a spot with still more project boards where teams were submitting their experiments before running off to do something crazy. He helped Peenhammer with the writing up of the project and his new partner waved and ran off to find a crew to recruit. "Think up a few more things. Our crew will test them out and see what works."

Milo wandered down the long line of ongoing and failed projects. Some were outlandish, but that didn't mean they didn't have a chance of working. He noted that it was mostly the Junior Engineers, new recruits, and a few Scavenger mechanics working on the experimental projects. The Senior Engineers were doing the traditional, boring work that would eventually produce the rebuilt Leviathan. Huge drop hammers weighing tons were hard at work compressing layers of metal into Hammer Steel, Deep Copper was being processed in subrogators, and the steel mill was going all hours of the day. The dwarves were busy, and busy meant happy.

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Milo spent the next two days looking at every project and poking his nose into everything. Luckily, there was no bad math. Engineers checked their work diligently. That didn't keep explosions from happening. Their crazed theories often did exactly what physics and chemistry said they would do. He came up with three new ideas for Peenhammer and his crew to work on. The fuel idea had worked, and they were refining it further to get every bit of pressure out of the mix and see how long they could run a boiler at max pressure with no explosions. His next innovation was a small one, using existing engineering runes, the blood runes he had learned from Gendifur, and the new Runic Script that Vladimir had taught him. He produced six different valves that regulated fuel and steam flow, each using the small runic arrays to regulate them to an extreme level of accuracy.

Peenhammer wasn't used to this type of project but was game to try. "I got my nickname from my habit of always using a bigger hammer, but I know now that only works part of the time. These itsy-bitsy Runes are sort of cute, but with them inscribed on every valve, connection, and foot of pipe we could keep a steam-powered engine humming along like a dream. Just a matter of me the other chowderheads brushing up on our inscription and runic skills!"

On day three, Sledgemonkey found him and dragged him to a project meeting. "I know, not nearly as fun as what you're doing, but keeping things from exploding between Whale's clan and our Engineers takes a lot of work. Time for you to earn your lofty position and title."

"Oh, that's why I have to come? I don't mind going back to being a Junior Engineer. Even an apprentice."

Sledgemonkey laughed at him, "Nice try, and if it would work, I'd be right next to you, and you know what would happen next."

"Fun stuff?"

"Well, yeah. But then we'd find out the Scavengers had voted themselves in charge, and we'd have to accept their ideas and make them work. We'd be producing ships with so many cannons that they'd sink the first time out."

The meeting included the two of them, Captain Whale, Narwhale, Boom-Boom, Two-Screws along with Captains Annie, Goldtooth, and Cuda. Only Whale and her clan had been working on Leviathan up until now. Whale had argued for bringing in the Captains from three more great clans and discussing not only Leviathan's construction but the plans for exploring the Rust Sea, looting the hulks there for treasure and parts, and eventually salvaging the Iron Queen. There were also each ship's Mate and head mechanic, and several other Senior Engineers. That was a lot of people, and Milo tried to slide to a corner but Sledgemonkey planted him on a stool next to him. The Chief Engineer pulled out his spanner, slammed it on the table, and brought the meeting to order.

"Alright, I think we all know each other, so let's hammer a few things out. You wanted this meeting, Whale, so tell us what you want."

Captain Whale stood up and looked around the table. "A small point. I remember the mysterious 'Senior Engineer Milo' from when he helped blow up Leviathan. Her son-in-law smiled as he remembered the fun and said "Seeing all those boilers go up at once was a beautiful thing. My wife here put that ball right where Milo said to, and that ship was history. BOOM!"

Whale sighed. "Yes, and now we need to rebuild the damned ship. My point is, this is a dwarven operation, and I'm curious about why we have a human down here."

Sledgemonkey looked at her, innocently smiling, "He's a curious type of human. But he's shown he has the ability to build and destroy with the best of us. Being a dwarf helps to be a good Engineer, but that doesn't mean other races can't excel as well. In fact, I've approved a half-elf who will be joining us at some point. He comes highly recommended."

That got some reactions. "A half-elf? Are you mad", "You're pushing for a war, doing that. The Elves don't recognize Magi-tech as being our invention! Why would we let an elf see our secrets?" Several mates stood up. So did Milo. He took the spanner from his belt and slammed it down hard on the table. The pre-System tool left cracks spiraling out from the point of impact on the granite-topped table. Silence ensued, and every Engineer and Mechanic craned their neck to get a better look at it.

Milo spoke slowly, and menacingly as he looked at each person. "Vladimir Two-Souls is also half-dwarf and for his entire life, both sides of his family have looked down on him because of it. And it's Stupid! He's an amazing Engineer specializing in runic script, magi-tech, and mana-flow devices. He's one of the best, and he's a Deep Rock Engineer now. I gave him my own spanner that Sledgemonkey gave to me. It isn't the heritage any of us should care about, it's what a person can do. And Vladimir can do a lot. You can see some of his work in the new valve and flow regulators Peenhammer and I have been testing. If you have a problem with him, you have a problem with me."

Everyone sat back down and took a deep breath. One of the mechanics said, "Those are some pretty flow regulators." That seemed to settle things, at least for now. Sledgemonkey stood up again, "And don't forget, the ratkin of Limburgher Hollow are also part of this project. They have Storm Mages with some very interesting theories. I've talked to them. They'll be a great asset to us, along with supplying hundreds of tons of Deep Copper and other metals that we need."

Whale looked at the other Captains, "We've seen an example of the type of people the Hollow produces. We're fine with the ratkin from there. I wish we had a more direct route to there. What's the status of the tunnel?"

Two-Screws stood up. "Good, actually, they know their stuff, and their Caravan Master has mapped it out most of the way. We can start to drill towards them and he said they'd meet us halfway."

"Going to be slow if they're using picks and shovels."

Milo smiled, "You haven't seen digger moles at work then. I bet they get to the halfway point before we do from this side." He realized the error of his words as several Engineers smiled.

The race was on.