Steampunk Desires: An Erotic Romance (The Complete Collection) (22 page)

Edwin grinned and shook his head. “She’s got a following,” he said to himself, almost disbelievingly.

“Ed, I’ve made the modifications to a few of the PCAs, and–” Harriet trailed off, coming up abruptly behind them and just having noticed Nora.

Nora turned, and her face lit up. “Dr. Beechworth! I–I–I’m so excited to meet you! May I shake your hand? Please, may I?” she asked in a rush.

For the first time Edwin had ever seen it, Harriet stood dumbfounded, gaping. She frowned and cocked her head in bewilderment.

“She’s your biggest fan,” Edwin needled her, giving her a nudge with his fingertips to her shoulder. That snapped her out of it.

“Oh, um, yes, how do you do,” Harriet said to Nora clinically, extending her hand, which Nora seized with fervor and shook with zeal.

“I have read everything I can about coital energy, Dr. Beechworth,” Nora said, “and I have always wanted to meet you. I am so excited to finally get to talk to you!”

Harriet disengaged her hand with some difficulty, and then stopped. “You’ve read my work?” she asked, surprised.

“Yes, Dr. Beechworth! I’m very interested in it!” came the reply.

“Oh,” Harriet said cunningly, “is that so?” She exchanged glances with Edwin, who grinned. “In that case, I suspect you’ll be interested to see it firsthand.”

“Oh, yes, Dr. Beechworth! I’m very excited about it!”

“I can see that,” Harriet said blandly. Another idiot, she thought, but at least this one was high-energy, which was an improvement over everybody else, except Edwin. “Come with me,” she said, beckoning. Edwin stayed to continue to oversee the room.

Harriet took Nora to the engineering floor and grabbed one of her prototypes. “This is a Power Collection Apparatus, or PCA,” she said. “The crew calls them ‘brass socks’ for obvious reasons,” she added distastefully. Nora nodded. “As you can see, it’s made of several parts: the body, which goes inside of you, the cord, which conveys power, and the plug, which connects you to the ship.” She handed it to Nora, who held it reverently, like a religious artifact. Harriet frowned thoughtfully. Maybe she wasn’t an idiot after all, she thought as Nora inspected the device minutely.

“Where is the resonator?” Nora asked. Harriet looked surprised but pleased: the girl really had been reading her work!

“It’s covered,” she said, taking the prototype back, placing her thumb inside and squeezing her thumb and fingers together. With a click, the cover that formed the inside of the PCA disengaged, and she slid it out easily, exposing the inner workings. She handed the prototype back to Nora, and she didn’t even have to tell her to be careful. Nora took it and held it close to her face so that she could see the ridges on the resonator, painstakingly crafted to resonate at the frequency of orgasm.

“Wow,” she whispered, biting her lip subconsciously. She had never dreamed she’d meet Dr. Beechworth, let alone get to hold one of her prototypes! This was just too wonderful! She handed the prototype back to Harriet carefully, who put the cover back on and beckoned for her to follow.

“We need to make sure you’re not sick before we plug you into the ship,” Harriet said, muttering, “That’s what started this mess.”

As they made their way back to the observation room, Nora took in all of her surroundings: the dusty chalkboards with calculations, questions, and notes scratched all over them, pieces of PCAs, storage capacitors, gauges, and other equipment littered about the place in various states of disassembly, the quietness and dark gloominess of the place. It was perfect, she thought, just perfect. But her reverie was interrupted when Harriet opened the door to the observation room and ushered her inside.

“Strip,” Harriet said simply. Nora looked at her, a little confused. Harriet slowly raised her head to look at the ceiling, letting out a long sigh. Not again. Not another one. Not another mindless dunce who couldn’t follow simple instructions. She closed her eyes and tried to relax; she and the crew needed this volunteer, and she had to try to be nice.

“Look, just take off your –” she opened her eyes to find that Nora had stripped completely and was sitting on the bed, looking at her expectantly. “Oh, er…yes, that,” Harriet fumbled. She recomposed herself quickly and handed the prototype to Nora. “This goes inside,” she said.

Nora nodded and began to insert it.

“Ah, you’re not a virgin, are you?” Harriet asked. Nora stopped and looked at her.

“Well, I–er, that is…” Nora stuttered. Harriet waited patiently, curiously. “I’ve never been with a man,” Nora finally got out, “I don’t prefer their company.”

Harriet nodded. “That’s not unheard-of,” she said. “We have several onboard like that, and actually, that’s perfect for the predicament in which we currently find ourselves.” She paused, and then regained her train of thought. “If you haven’t had anything inside of you, though, the PCA may be uncomfortable,” she warned.

“What can I do?” Nora asked, undaunted.

Harriet thought a moment. She didn’t want to disturb the women downstairs; they were all needed at full capacity. She didn’t want to make the volunteer uncomfortable: she couldn’t afford to lose her, and frankly, she was growing fonder of her by the moment. She herself had never been attracted to women, but she reasoned that she could do this for the good of the ship. She shrugged to herself. “Lie back,” she said. “The object is to get you aroused.” She hesitated. She knew there was wide variety in preference from person to person from her research. An idea crossed her mind, and she began narrating what she was doing.

“The cord to the PCA plugs into this gauge here,” she said, plugging the cord into the gauge. “As you can see, the gauge currently reads zero. That is because I am neither providing energy to the gauge nor absorbing it.” Nora nodded, licking her lips excitedly. Harriet noted her reaction and continued, “The effect is noticeable just from my holding it, since brass is conductive; however, the effect is much more pronounced when the PCA is inside.” She took the PCA and placed it just below Nora’s navel. The cold metal sent a chill up Nora’s spine, and the needle jumped to ten percent. Harriet frowned. “That’s mighty high,” she said to herself, moving the PCA up Nora’s belly between her breasts and her belly button. The gauge stayed put. “Huh,” Harriet said, removing the PCA. The needle dipped back to zero.

Harriet raised her eyebrows in surprise and turned to Nora. “The gauge was working fine earlier today. Either it’s lost its calibration, or you’re really putting out a lot of energy right now.”

Nora grinned. Now she was going to be one of Dr. Beechworth’s test subjects! Best day ever! “I’m pretty excited right now,” she admitted giddily.

Intriguing, thought Harriet. She placed the PCA onto one of Nora’s breasts, and the needle read forty percent. Harriet shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t trust this gauge,” she said, “but if it’s accurate, you’re perfectly healthy, and we shouldn’t be wasting any more time here! Come on.” She waited for Nora to gather her clothes and led her downstairs.

*****

Things were not looking good from the bridge.
The helmsman reported heavy winds that were making it difficult to keep the airship on course, and every time he had to fight the wind, it sapped the precious feminine energy. The captain ordered the helmsman to make large corrections, not to try to fine-tune it. “Keep her aboveground and heading generally back to port,” he said, “but don’t be too picky on the direction; we can’t afford the losses of power.”

With the darkness outside, the passengers could not see the effect of the wind on the craft, but the more discerning ones could feel it.

*****

Harriet led Nora back to the feminine energy collection room and took her to an unused bed.
The setup was the same for all the beds: a full-sized bed, perfectly made with white sheets; a nightstand with a clock and a logbook, pen, and ink; and two small gauges on the floor with connections for PCA plugs. Harriet plugged Nora’s PCA in. “What was your name again?” she asked.

“Nora, Dr. Beechworth,” Nora said obligingly.

“Ah, yes, Nora,” Harriet murmured, writing her name and the time in the logbook. She would be interested to see the strip chart for Nora when all was said and done. “Now where were we?” she asked. “Ah, yes.” She rubbed the PCA on Nora’s belly, and the needle on the floor registered positively. “Very good,” Harriet murmured. “Now, what happens when this goes inside of you,” she said as she stroked the rounded tip of the PCA over Nora’s sex, “is the energy from your arousal will cause the resonator to vibrate.” She glanced down: the needle registered sixty percent, and she tapped it with her foot in disbelief. “As the resonator vibrates,” she continued, “the electrical pickup, which I didn’t show you before, will collect the energy from the resonator and will pass it through the cord into the ship.”

Nora leaned back, her eyes closed, thinking of the mechanics of getting the energy inside of herself into the ship. The needle registered seventy percent. Harriet reached down and pushed the PCA gently into Nora’s vagina, not deep enough to break her hymen, but enough to begin to stretch it. The needle on the gauge rose further, reaching ninety percent. Harriet was very confused. This was a prototype unit, and she expected it to have better properties than the others she’d produced, but not by this much. She shook her head. Now was not the time for experimentation; she needed to get Nora relaxed so that she could start collecting energy: the fate of the ship depended on it. She glanced over and noticed Scarlett watching.

“You’re the take-charge one, aren’t you?” Harriet asked, and Scarlett grinned. “Perfect!” Harriet stepped out of the way as Nora sat up worriedly.

“Don’t worry,” Harriet said. “I’m going to be here watching, but there are people here far better at relaxing you than I am.” Nora nodded, and Scarlett beamed. Harriet was not known for giving compliments. Harriet gave her an expectant look.

“Hi, I’m Scarlett,” Scarlett said to Nora.

“I’m Nora,” Nora replied, brushing her dark hair back behind her ear.

“Don’t worry; you’ll have a great time,” Scarlett said with a wink, and Nora gasped as Scarlett brushed her breast with her fingertips.

As Nora lay back on the pillow, Scarlett clambered on the bed next to her and ran a finger over Nora’s lips, which parted in enjoyment. Her fingers trailed down Nora’s chin, grazed over her neck, and drifted down her side. The soft touch brought the needle on the gauge to one hundred percent and beyond, yet still Nora did not climax. Harriet watched the gauge with fascination as Scarlett brought her fingers around Nora’s wrist and began running them back up her arm. Nora gasped as the fingertips reached her elbow. Scarlett grinned and let her fingers linger there, tantalizing Nora, who squeezed her legs tightly together in lust.

While her fingers continued to taunt Nora, Scarlett brought her other hand around to begin tiptoeing down her belly, tickling lightly here and there, enough to drive Nora wild, but not enough to give her release. The needle pressed hard against the right side of the gauge, yet Nora still did not orgasm. Finally, Scarlett could sense that Nora was sufficiently distracted, and she stroked the brass sock on Nora’s vaginal lips a couple of times and then inserted it. It went in without pain or distraction, but the pressure of it inside of Nora finally prompted her orgasm. Her back arched tightly, until she was elevated off the bed by her hands and feet and nothing else.

As Nora’s body strength finally gave out, she collapsed on the bed, and Scarlett looked down on her, grinning. Nora grinned back up at her, and flicked Scarlett’s breast. Scarlett gave her a dirty look, and Nora winked.

“Have fun?” Scarlett asked.

“You bet!” Nora replied enthusiastically.

“Good,” Harriet chimed in. “With energy output like that, this ship needs you!” Nora blushed. “I’m going to examine the energy capacitor,” Harriet said. “I will be back, but I need to see how we’re doing.”

“I’ll go with you!” Nora volunteered, but Harriet shook her head.

“No, Nora, we need you here to help power the ship. We’re painfully low on energy, and every second counts!” Nora nodded, then looked hopefully back up at Scarlett, who grinned wickedly.

“You two have fun,” Harriet said, a hint of a smile on her lips as she went downstairs.