Sign In

Close
Forgot your password? No account yet?

Emergency by eduardosoliz

Emergency

"Brace yourself, my dear!" the gentlewolf yelled to his mistress as the airship began to slowly list to one side. In response, Muffy reached to grab onto a large pipe that was near to her, but the female arctic fox immediately released it due to its extreme heat.

"Ah! Monty, it's too hot!" Muffy exclaimed, backing away from the pipe. She shook her singed white paws in the air and blew on them before making her way over to Monty.

Lord Montague adjusted his monocle before looking over the many needles, indicators, numbers and controls at his disposal. The more he looked at them, the less sense they made. The room began to shake as the airship's engines struggled to keep it aloft.

Monty's voice took on an air of desperation: "I have tried everything, my dear Muffy, but nothing appears to be working! Perhaps this one? Or maybe this one?" He said, randomly pressing buttons, pulling levers and turning knobs in vain. A whistle sounded as the intensity of the shaking increased. Having reached Monty, Muffy pulled him away from the engine controls.

"Oh, Monty, my love! It is a shame that our young lives must come to an end like this! Let us share one last kiss as we hurtle to our doom!" Muffy cried. She held onto Monty tightly, tears welling in her eyes.

"Yes, my love! We shall take our forbidden love to the world that lies beyond this one!" Monty replied. He and Muffy embraced deeply as warning bells and whistles sounded in protest around them.

A door then suddenly burst open and a short female dog ran into the control room. She had light brown fur, floppy ears and wore overalls that were soiled with oil and grease. She growled upon catching sight of the amorous aristocrats, who ignored her as they kissed.

"I swear, I can't eat dinner or take a nap without you blasted bluebloods coming down here and tamperin' with MY engines!!" the young engineer exclaimed as she walked to the engine controls. After looking over a row of gauges, the engineer began to quickly adjust the controls, her paws expertly flipping switches, turning dials and pressing buttons with the grace of a concert pianist. The whistles and bells went silent and the ship's shaking and listing gradually ceased.

Satisfied that all was well, the engineer turned to the young couple, whom had broken their embrace, but were still in each other's arms. "What in the Sam Hill were y'all thinkin'?" she angrily yelled at them, "This here engine is a dellycate machine that should only be operated on by experts like me! I swear, the next passenger that I catch sneaking around in here is a-goin' to get hogtied and thrown into the cargo hold! NOW GIT!!" she told them as she pointed to an exit.

"You mean to tell me you are not an engineer, Monty?" Muffy asked with a disgusted look on her face as she removed herself from Monty's arms and started to walk towards the exit.

"Well...uh...no?" Monty replied half-heartedly.

"Muffy! Come back!" he cried as he chased his now-former mistress.

The exasperated engineer wiped her forehead and paws with a handkerchief and sighed with relief as the outer door closed behind Monty. She adjusted her overalls and said to no one in particular:

"How about that Mister Fancypants pretending he's a steam engineer! What kind of engineer dresses up in their Sunday best to work?"

Emergency

eduardosoliz

Most Steampunks tend to focus on the more grandiose members of their fictional society in all their well-dressed splendor. As you will see in this story, though, they aren't the only ones on board!

Written for the Megaplex 2012 conbook.

Submission Information

Views:
257
Comments:
0
Favorites:
0
Rating:
General
Category:
Literary / Story