Steampunk Desires: An Erotic Romance (The Complete Collection) (20 page)

Harriet grinned wryly. “Now you know what it feels like!” she needled him.

He nodded, and then left his office at a run, heading down the hallway. “Oy, all hands!” he called as he ran, and then corrected himself. “All healthy hands to the aft common area!” he bellowed as he ran, attracting the attention of several crewmembers, who took off, echoing his call all over the deck. He spied Francis as he ran.

“Francis!” he called out. Francis turned, startled, as Edwin ran by. “Come on, you young land-lubber! Don’t let a sixty-year-old beat you!”

Francis’s jaw dropped in shock, and he took off at a sprint after Edwin. “Edwin! What’s going on?” he asked as they ran.

“Tell the crew I’ll be addressing them in a minute,” Edwin told him. “I’ll be right back!”

Edwin made it to the aft stairwell and ascended the three flights of stairs to the bottommost deck of third class. He came out of the stairwell and rounded a corner to make his way to the bridge, almost running into a bellhop and called out behind him, “Oy, sorry, mate!” as he instantly adjusted his speed to a very brisk walk. No reason to alarm the passengers.

He found the captain on the bridge leaning intently over some navigational charts.

“Sir,” he accosted the captain, “it’s urgent.”

The captain straightened, surprised, and turned to look at him.

“Mister Bligh,” the captain said slowly, “this is highly unordinary,” turning to face him.

“Aye, sir,” Edwin replied, “but I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t of great import.”

The captain nodded, and Edwin continued. “Sir, many of the women onboard have fallen ill, and our feminine energy is extremely low, sir. I noticed it late this morning, and Dr. Beecham has been researching the issue. It appears, sir, that the sickness causes anyone who tries to contribute to actually deplete energy from the ship. One couple was able to deplete a week’s worth of cruising energy in a single sitting.”

The captain raised his eyebrows and took a breath at the revelation. His eyes scanned slowly from left to right as he considered the information he’d been given.

“How many of the crew are affected?”

“Almost half.”

“How long do I have before I have to land?”

Edwin paused. Harriet hadn’t told him. He turned to leave. “I’ll–”

“You can’t.”

Edwin and the captain turned to find Harriet standing there, chest heaving from having run after Edwin. The captain looked at Harriet expectantly.

“There is currently insufficient energy to land the ship,” Harriet stated plainly. “With the number of female crewmen who are currently ill, it will take the others a day to accumulate sufficient energy to land.” The captain exhaled through closed lips. That was cutting it close. “Captain, I’m sure I needn’t remind you that undertaking a landing without sufficient energy is extremely dangerous,” Harriet warned. “Running out while trying to land will likely result in a crash.”

“What can we do, Dr. Beechworth?” the captain asked.

“Mister Bligh’s crew should be able to handle it,” Harriet said, “but do not begin descent until we are certain we have sufficient energy.”

Edwin swallowed hard, and the captain nodded slowly, turning to him. “Mister Bligh, have your crew work around the clock. I will see to it that their contributions are compensated. Dr. Beechworth,” he continued, turning to Harriet, “monitor the progress and notify me as soon as we’re able to land. We are still a day out of port, but I will prepare a very gradual descent to minimize the energy demand at the time.”

Harriet and Edwin nodded, and the captain dismissed them. Harriet returned to the engine room, and Edwin went to instruct his crew, who were waiting anxiously for his arrival.

*****

Nora had finally decided to take out a book and was reading it when she noticed one of the crewmen come up from the decks below.
She’d never seen him before, and he seemed to be in a hurry, almost running into one of the stewards in his haste. She glanced up over her book and watched his body language and that of the captain. Both seemed tense. A woman — a very short woman — followed some time later, and she was just as tense. Nora watched thoughtfully: as often as she’d sat right there at that table looking out at the world through the window or watching the captain and his crew on the bridge, she’d never seen the captain tense up. The arrival of these two people and their tense expressions piqued her curiosity. The two left in a hurry.

“Excuse me,” she said to a passing steward, “do you know who those two people are?”

The steward looked just in time to see the backs of the two people as they fled down the stairs. He shook his head. “The tall one I don’t know,” he said thoughtfully, “but the one of shorter stature is most likely Dr. Beechworth.”

“
The
Dr. Beechworth?” Nora asked, surprised and awed.

“You’ve heard of her?” the steward asked, giving her a puzzled look.

“Why yes!” Nora replied enthusiastically, “She did all kinds of research on coital energy. She’s one of the brightest women of our age, and my personal hero!”

The steward raised his eyebrows. Huh, he hadn’t known any of that. He just knew she was a hot-tempered bigwig who kept to herself on one of the lower decks. Rumor had it that she experimented on the crew from time to time.

“But why is she up here?” Nora wondered aloud. “I always heard she was vehemently reclusive.”

The steward nodded. “Yes, madam, that’s what I’ve heard as well, but I’m afraid I don’t know the reason for her presence here.”

“Oh,” Nora said apologetically, “I didn’t mean that as a question, good sir; I was just wondering aloud.”

“Ah, yes, madam,” the steward replied. Nora thanked him, and he left. She went back to her book, excited about having seen someone she considered to be the biggest celebrity in the world, and curious as to why she would be out of her lab.

*****

“What’s going on, Edwin?”

“Is everything okay?”

“What’s the matter?”

Edwin held up his hands to quiet his crew.
“Oy, I’m not gonna talk over ya,” he said, gently chiding them. They quieted.

“As you can see from looking around,” Edwin said, gesturing, “there are a fair number of your female crewmates who are currently ill. Harriet has determined that if someone is sick and tries to contribute, it actually saps the ship’s energy. Right now, we don’t have enough energy to land.”

The crew gasped and began murmuring amongst themselves, and Edwin held up his hands again. “Oy, it’s not a lost cause, or I wouldn’t be here!” he said. “I’d be up in first class enjoying my last day!” The crew chuckled a bit. “Look, I need all the women to contribute around the clock.” He held up his hands defensively, “I know I’m asking a lot, but we’ve got to get it done; the passengers, the captain, and your fellow crew mates are all counting on us to get us down safely. Ladies,” he said apologetically, “if any of you have been curious about others of your own gender, now’s the time.” He cringed, embarrassed to have to ask, but there were no complaints from his crew.

“Let’s get it done!” Scarlett cried from the back of the audience, and a cheer took up from the rest of the crew. Edwin dismissed the women with a nod, his face expressing his gratitude.

The women departed, leaving the men looking uncertain. “What should we do?” one asked.

“Help out where you can,” Edwin said. “Keep the beds made, bring food and drink, do what it takes to make things comfortable. Sign in for the contributors; get replacement brass socks if they break. We’re all in this together.” The men nodded understanding and went to seek out ways to be helpful.

The next eight hours were spent with the women going at it as though their lives depended on it, and in truth, they did. Women masturbated or found a partner or two or three to work with. The men kept food and water flowing into the room and trash and dirty sheets out of it, even assisting the laundry crew with the increased demand for clean sheets. Edwin oversaw the action, pointing out things that could be done or women without partners. After a bit, he stepped out to check in with Harriet to see their progress. He got up to the engine room and found her pacing impatiently.

“Edwin!” she said irately, “What have you been doing? We’ve got to get our numbers up!”

Edwin stopped, gaping at her.

“Well?” Harriet demanded.

“Harriet, we’re all going at full capacity,” Edwin said helplessly.

Harriet took his hand and dragged him right up to the big storage capacitor and pointed to a large gauge that read barely above zero. “Does this look like full capacity to you?” she challenged.

Edwin’s face sank. No, it didn’t look like full capacity. “There’s got to be something wrong,” he said weakly. “I have every female crew member going!”

“
Every
crew member, Edwin?” Harriet asked skeptically, “What about the ones who don’t contribute female-only energy?”

“
Every
crew member,” Edwin said firmly. Harriet’s eyebrows rose. “Yes, Harriet, they’re all taking one for the team. It’s been eight hours—why didn’t you say something before?”

“I’ve been flying between here and the lab,” she retorted, “trying to see if there’s anything that can be done for the efficiency.”

“I understand, Harriet,” Edwin replied quietly, “but it would have been good to know this a long time ago.”

Harriet’s posture softened, losing its aggressive edge. If the crew was operating at maximum capacity, why wasn’t the gauge filling? She put her fingers to her forehead and thought intently. A leak was unlikely: the ship had been going fine, and there really wasn’t anything to disturb the power. What about the engines? What if one had developed a short? That would drain power quickly. No, the engines made a characteristic sound when they shorted, and all of the engines around them were humming as they should. She kept coming back to the crew. If they weren’t fully into it, their energy output wouldn’t be that impressive. She stopped pacing.

“Ed, take me to the female collection room right away,” Harriet said urgently. Edwin didn’t need to be told twice. He picked her up and carried her piggyback up the stairs to the female collection room. All along the hallway were men going into and out of the room carrying food, trash, water, or sheets.

“Ed, you’ve got all the men doing housework!” Harriet said gleefully. Edwin chuckled in spite of himself and called out, “Oy, make way!” The men cleared the way for Edwin and Harriet to make it into the collection room. Inside, women were writhing on top of each other, under each other, on the beds, off the beds, on the nightstands, standing, sitting, lying, using their fingers, tongues, and even feet to bring each other to orgasm after orgasm. Harriet tapped Edwin, and he put her down. She hurriedly made her way from bed to bed, looking at the gauges.

“Here!” she cried. Edwin came and looked. The needle of the gauge was pressed up against the left side of the enclosure. “You two, unplug right away!” Harriet barked to the two women on the bed in mid-orgasm. Not getting fast enough results, she bent down and unplugged it herself. The needle drifted back to zero.

“Edwin, if they’re sick, it’s imperative that they don’t contribute!” Harriet scolded incredulously. “You told them only the healthy ones, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Harriet, I did!” Edwin protested.

“But I don’t feel sick!” Agatha insisted, as did her partner. Oh, no! Edwin thought: with his top producer now laid-up, how could his crew possibly make up for the loss?

Harriet shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she said firmly. “You’re drawing power from the ship, and we can’t have that.” She paused. “You two ought to go to your quarters,” she said thoughtfully. “This might be an indicator.” She looked at Edwin for support as the two women looked at him, waiting for his decision. He exhaled through puffed cheeks and shook his head.