Bram Möller's Arc

Chapter 36 of 63

The bid sheet was signed, but by morning Bram learned the sheet meant nothing without a crew. The depot master found him at the loft rail and tapped a line in the rulebook. "Long-haul rules. No solo bidders on the winter circuit. You need a ground crew of two before the sheet closes at noon, or your name comes off." Bram read the line twice. He had chased the winter route for years, and now a clerk's rule stood between him and the launch. "Where do I find crew at this hour?" "Not my problem," the master said, and walked back inside. Vex was already at the field, coiling line around her forearm. She heard him out and shook her head. "I'm not crew, Bram. I'm the engineer who installed your illegal coil. Put my name on your sheet and the depot flags us both." "I know." "Omondi will sign. His name is already on the tail." Omondi came down the ladder holding a wrench in the wrong hand and nearly dropped it. "I will sign. That is one. You need two." Bram counted the pilots on the field. Every long-haul courier there had their own bid in. None would crew for a rival. He turned toward the loft to think, and almost stepped on a girl crouched behind the mooring drum. She was small, maybe fifteen, in a canvas apron heavy with gears. A clockwork apprentice's tool belt hung off her hip. She held Bram's mechanical owl in her lap and had its chest plate open. A brass gear turned slowly between her fingers. "Don't shout," she said before he could. "Your vent gear was slipping. I fixed it." She closed the plate and the owl blinked, steam curling clean from its vents. "Cora Springwick. I ran off from my master three towns back. I sleep in your loft. I eat what the crews drop." Vex laughed once, sharp. Omondi pushed his glasses up his nose and stared. Bram crouched. "You know steam rigs?" "Better than the man who trained me." She met his eye. "I want off this field. Sign me as crew and I'll work your circuit. No pay till the first stop." He looked at the owl in her hands. It sat calm. He looked at Omondi, who nodded once. Bram walked her to the counter. The depot master looked up from his ledger and frowned at the girl. "She has papers?" "She has hands," Bram said. "And she fixed my owl in the dark. Omondi is second. Write them both." The master wrote. He turned the sheet. Bram signed under both names. Cora tucked the owl into the crook of her arm. Vex was watching her, not smiling now. "You just put a runaway apprentice on the winter circuit," Vex said quietly. "Her master will come looking. Probably before dusk." Bram buttoned his cracked jacket to the throat. "Then we launch before dusk."