Not soon after, the two cars set off for the local steamworks, arriving after another few annoying cycles of going a mile at jogging pace before stopping again.
There, Robert was shut down again, knowing that at least a few people would be present to help move Robert in, thus speeding up the process of getting to the draft fan.
The team once again emerged from the car, in hopes of finding someone local who could help.
Knowing that the Dione’s fan had failed, once they arrived at the steamworks, Kaylie grabbed the technical manual from the glovebox and looked around for a willing helper. Kayden looked like he was about asleep on his feet, she knew Malavera would have trouble with the smaller tools needed to avoid breaking anything, Jayde may be more alert but had no idea how any of this worked, and Kivenaal, well… Kivenaal had fallen asleep once already a few minutes after arriving at the steamworks, face-planting the Bricksley’s steering wheel and honking the feeble horn surprisingly loudly in the enclosed space. Thankfully, the noise had woken him up, and he’d apologized to everyone around him, but Kaylie knew he was pretty much totaled. That left Rukari, who had done a fair bit of maintenance already.
“Rukari, mind helping me get our blower fan out?” Kaylie asked.
“I will work with you,” Rukari replied, grabbing the tool kit from under the seat.
A good result, however, of Kivenaal head-butting the horn switch was when the steamworks foreman wandered over. At first, the fairly tall man, at 6 feet and 2 inches, seemed momentarily confused at the pair of vehicles in his work area. Then he noticed the rail axles and the boiler. “This would be Robert, yes? That makes you Valentin, then. It’s good to meet you,” the man said, actually managing to point to Valentin in that moment. “I am Neville Jardin, foreman of the Allvenitz Steamworks. I’d shake your hand, but,” he held up his grease covered hands, “I’ve been helping out on the broken locomotive that came in.”
Neville looked at the flurry of activity that was going on in the Bricksley, then said, “By the looks of things, the bunch of you need tools, work-space, and given the state of half of them over there,” he said, motioning to the members of Shift Happens who looked about ready to drop at any moment, “you might need a bit of additional manpower. Only one who looks halfway awake in the blue lorry is the two-headed werewolf.”
The blaring horn of the Bricksley also sent a good scare through most of the Dione’s crew.
As the foreman approached the two cars, Valentin seemed remarkably alert despite having been awake for more than 16 hours already.
“Yeah. Valentin Schrant. Our draft fan went bust and needs replacing or fixing. The boiler we have has been sourced from a derelict lorry at Itzgarde Steamworks. Maybe we can make something work…”, Valentin explained, already looking around for whoever may be able to offer help in some way, even though he had no idea on how to make use of that manpower.
“For accessibility reasons it probably is best to get Robert over to a bay where we can get underneath without crawling.”, he continued. “Then we can get the remains of the old fan out of there.”
“An older steam lorry, you say? We might have one in rough shape out back, but, I’m not too sure if it still has the parts you’ll need. As for a work bay, we use these over here for working underneath steam-propelled road vehicles,” Neville replied, motioning to a couple of work bays that had an access pit.
“Come on, you little…” Kaylie grumbled, helping Rukari with the dash disassembly. There was a sudden, loud crash as Kivenaal, who had at least tried to help by removing the tow bar, practically collapsed, dropping the bar in the process and ending up on the floor.
Kayden sighed, looked over to Jayde and Malavera, then said, “Can the two of you get him into the back seat before he breaks something we need?”
Once they’d done that, Kayden climbed in next to him, then asked Nova, “Is he okay?”
“All of the information I can read from him says, yes, he is fine. But I can tell his body is in a bit of distress through sleep deprivation. We should try to get him somewhat comfortable and just let him rest for now,” Nova replied.
When Kayden got out of the truck, Jayde and Malavera looked at him for a moment before Malavera decided to ask, “Any news?”
“Kivenaal fell asleep on his feet,” Kayden replied. “He should be fine in the back of the Bricksley, I doubt that Kaylie or Rukari will make enough noise to wake him.”
Kaylie yawned and shook her head with a grimace. They almost had the fan out, but the clip on the connector was fighting them. Rukari, however, managed to squeeze the clip and pull the plug on the fan, freeing up the unit for removal. “I’ll bring this over to Val. Think you can put this back together?” Kaylie asked.
“Neyi. I’m not… Don’t know how,” Rukari said with a light shake of his head.
“That’s okay. I’ll be back in a moment,” Kaylie replied.
“We’ll get Robert over there then, i guess…”, Valentin mumbled, apparently loud enough for the surrounding staff to hear, as three workers went about and positioned themselves for pushing the car over to the bay.
“Connor. Mind getting in and steering for the three colleagues here? I’ll see if that lorry ‘out back’ has something of use…”, Valentin asked, which returned an approving nod from Connor, followed by him entering the Dione just before it was set into motion.
Before Valentin could go out the back to investigate the lorry, however, Kaylie already was approaching him, holding the Bricksley’s blower fan in her hand.
“Sorry to interrupt your thought process here, but… We brought you a fan. It’s probably not going to fit right away, but… Well, it’s at least a similar kind of part,” Kaylie said. “I’ve got to go help Rukari put the dashboard back together, though, because otherwise we’re going to have a mess to deal with in the morning.”
Kayden gave a huge yawn and shook his head, trying to keep himself awake, but he could tell that he was almost about to drop. He had no idea how Kaylie was still on her feet and moving, no clue where Jayde and Rukari found the energy to keep going, and he wasn’t even willing to contemplate how Malavera still looked like he could go another day without rest.
Rukari looked over the technical manual Kaylie had brought along, but to him, the various different names of all the parts blended together into a confusing mess. Sure, he could read the language, but he was struggling with the unfamiliar measurement system, the confusing terminology, and the concept of “Just follow it backwards.” He was used to everything measured out in millimeters and centimeters, not fractions of an inch. He had no idea what a ‘panel clip’ was or how to put them back in now that he’d gotten them out. He’d asked Malavera for help, but Malavera just ended up looking equally confused.
“I don’t do interior stuff, I help move engines and transmissions around, and I drive trucks,” Malavera said.
Rukari looked over to Jayde, then waved him over to ask, “Can you just wave your hand and put this all back together?”
“Maybe, if I were less tired. But right now, no,” Jayde replied. “Seriously, just wait for Kaylie.”
“Uhm… thank you, i guess…”, Valentin muttered, surprised at how Shift Happens managed to rip their dashboard apart in a few minutes to salvage the hopefully-still-functional fan out of.
With a new fan in hand he went over to the bay where Robert was now parked.
In the access pit, Val had a look around, half crouching while one of the workers got to town getting the frame of the old fan out of it’s mountings, even managing to correctly unplug it.
The damaged fan was chucked out of the pit, sliding across the floor and out from underneath Robert for a good ten feet.
“Now to get that mated to there…”, Valentin mumbled, his mind turning a lot of gears in an effort to devise a solution that could get it in place and secure enough to last for the remainder of the event.
Kaylie picked up the damaged fan, looking at it and realizing that, no matter what, an adapter would need to be made. Val had already gone down into the pit with the Bricksley’s fan, so she’d have to either get him to hand it back over, or find out how big it was in some other way.
“Valentin, we might be able to make an adapter for that, but we’d need to be able to see both fans to do it,” Kaylie said, leaning down toward the maintenance pit to speak with him. “Hold on, I have an idea,” she added, before standing back up, looking around at the machines and tools nearby. She knew Malavera worked with tools at least as primitive as these on a regular basis.
She looked toward the Bricksley, an idea quickly forming in her head. “Hey, Malavera! We might have a project for you!” Kaylie called out.
Malavera wandered over, studying the equipment in the workshop on the way. As he walked up to Kaylie, he admitted, “I’d love to have a workshop like this back home. Tools like this… They’ll last forever.”
Kaylie smirked. “Yeah, and somehow I don’t think Val is exactly comfortable with tools from the 1920’s,” she said, looking up at Malavera, “whereas you sit there with older tools than this and make muzzle-loading firearms for fun.”
“Well… Fair enough,” Malavera said. He leaned down closer to where Val was, then added, “How about a trade in projects, then? I’ll make an adapter, but someone has to get the information to a crew around here for a set of rail wheels.” He stood up, though could still clearly be heard as he spoke, “Otherwise our little plan goes nowhere, and we’re going to be in for one very, very long night. Let’s just say I’m not looking forward to trying to make a steam-powered Bricksley myself if we can’t fix what blew up over there,” Malavera said, looking a bit embarrassed at first that Kaylie had called him out for one of his hobbies.
“Likely we wouldn’t be able to, anyway,” Kaylie replied. “Only way I could imagine us making a steam engine work for that would be to make a crude hitch coupling to the rear bumper, have the boiler and engine essentially on a trailer, and push us along like an old articulated bus.”
Malavera grimaced. “Don’t let Kayden hear that idea.”
“Why not?” Kaylie asked.
“He’ll give it some sort of stupid name. We both know that.”
Kaylie smirked, then turned to her brother leaning against the truck bed. “Hey, Kayden!” she called out.
Malavera groaned and shook his heads. “Now is when I wish I had enough hands to cover all of my ears,” he muttered under his breath.
“Yeah?” Kayden replied back.
“What would you call a powered trailer unit?” Kaylie inquired.
Kayden stood there for nearly a minute, clearly thinking of something, but it was slowed by him being tired. Malavera almost looked relieved at how long it was taking, thinking the name might not be so bad. Then Kayden opened his mouth and spouted out, “We could call it a Bumper Humper.”
Malavera sighed and said, “Sorry, Val, that you had to hear that one. Ironically, it’s one of the better ones he’s had.”
“1920s isn’t the big issue…”, Val countered. “Basic health and safety rules are.”
After that, he simply waited for things to unfold, the process of which being juust long enough for his brain to start thinking: “Sleep. Now. NOOOW!”
Still, Valentin tried to persist and at the very least get the rail wheels underway, made a bit easier by the distraction that followed the ‘Bumper Humper’ name idea.
“Uh, yeah… rail wheels…”, Valentin started while the loss of mental capacity due to lack of sleep is getting ever more apparent.
“Connor? … I need you to generate some drawings for a solid steel wheel that clears the brakes of their truck and fits to standard gauge.” Valentin spoke, pausing afterwards to ‘buffer’ the next sentence.
“Okay.” Connor stated before walking off and over to the Bricksley to see what he was now working with.
“… And … i’d need local manpower to actually fabricate them … Though … measure twice, cut once.”, Valentin muttered as the three workers went off to help Connor as best they could.
The maintenance pit below the Dione was soon almost devoid of people, with only Valentin remaining down there. At this point, he is forced to give in to the demands for sleep, as he slides down the wall of the pit, now very much sleeping, seated in the far corner of it.
Over by the Bricksley, it was equally clear that some of the team were starting to have serious issues with staying awake. Kivenaal had already crashed out hard a while ago, but now Kayden was showing signs of difficulty after helping Rukari with the dashboard reassembly. Rukari was alert, but starting to have issues where he kept falling back to his native language, making it impossible to understand him unless he slowed way down to speak in a language others could understand. Jayde was exhausted, but still semi-functional when Connor came over to get some measurements of the Bricksley so he could make some technical drawings.
As such, when it came time to take one of the front wheels off, it was Jayde who was in the best shape to do it. Figuring out the jack wasn’t too difficult, and he got it into place, and removing the lug nuts, likewise, didn’t take real long. The problem came in when they went to measure up the rear axle, and Jayde very-nearly put the truck down on the brake rotor before putting the tire on. Thankfully, both Connor and Rukari had stopped him before any further damage could be done to the truck.
Malavera took his time making various measurements of the Dione’s blower fan exhaust housing, writing each down on a sheet of paper kindly provided by one of the workers. When he mentioned he needed the other fan, someone retrieved it from where it had been left in the maintenance pit and handed it to Malavera, who, again, took the same measurements and wrote them down. He then crawled down into the pit himself, a very tight squeeze and a very low crouch for him, in order to see just how little space he had to work with. Now that he had all the measurements he needed, he could start making the adapter as soon as he could find some suitable material.
With the dashboard reassembled and the tires back on the truck, that left Rukari, Jayde, and Kayden with not much else to do. Kayden, as a result, sat down in the passenger seat of the truck, which turned into a sideways slump that left him sleeping while spooning the gear sticks. Jayde and Rukari decided to take a look out back at the steam truck just in case things didn’t go smoothly, as anything could happen at that point.
“You know how to drive one of these?” Jayde asked.
“Neyi. Marinkosa, ne grundkosa,” Rukari replied.
Jayde nodded. “So you can handle a ship, but not a truck, then. But you could fire the boiler on this, yes?”
“Yi. Igniri nekasi,” Rukari answered.
“Firing won’t be a problem,” Jayde said, translating out loud. “Think this old beast will run?”
“Kasivah ahsi linesei, neahd vedi. Nevosa, neahd dobu,” Rukari responded.
Jayde chuckled. “Definitely old but strong. You’re right, though. Not fast, but it’ll do a walking pace just fine.”
Rukari climbed up into the cab and took a look around, not seeing anything obviously missing. He jumped down, looked underneath and nodded. “Weh sehaal kasi, neahd aihi kasi, vii sehuul kasivah.”
“It’ll take some work, but with that work, we’ll have a work beast,” Jayde said. “Hopefully, we won’t need it, but… Let’s be prepared just in case.”
The two of them wandered back in, and Jayde asked Neville, “When was the last time the old steam truck out there ran?”
“Couple months ago. If I remember it correctly, the problem she really has is that the engine’s slide valves are a bit worn out. She’s not efficient when she’s blowing steam all over the country while hauling coal. But she runs. You’d just need to stop quite often for water and fuel to make up for the valve leaks,” Neville replied. “Knowing you’ve got a Valraadi with you, well… I’d bet if we let him fire it and had another one to drive it, she’d be the fastest steam truck in the land.”
Not much happened regarding the members of RK Series Racing, as Valentin was already asleep, Tim was about to fall asleep sat in the rear bench and Connor was busy drawing up some crude documentation on how to make those rail wheels.
Constantin, likewise, had nothing much to do, but was starting to wonder where Valentin had been milling about.
In search for him, he somewhat aimlessly toured the building, checking on the lorry out back as well, eventually finding him below the Dione in the corner. Seeing as how getting a limp twig into an undersized car was nigh-impossible, especially alone, he just left him there for the time being, somewhat calmed by the knowledge of his now known location.
Connor, meanwhile went hard at work drawing up the manufacturing instructions, filling the massive sheet of paper with measurements, angles, material specifications and instructions on finish as well as a wireframe drawing of the object in question.
A second sheet was filled with a slightly altered variant of the first, containing the same things with the changes needed to accommodate the rear axle instead of the front.
Both sheets were than handed to the workers, who eagerly took them into custody and went to the Bricksley to proof-check clearances using the somewhat known stock rims as a reference point.
After that, Connor returned to somewhere near the Dione, idling, while the workers went ahead in making the Bricksley’s rail conversion a reality.
Malavera was in his element, carefully cutting, folding, and welding together the necessary adapter to convert the slightly-larger Bricksley blower fan to fit the Dione’s boiler. Every so often, he grabbed the various parts and checked them for fit, then made adjustments as needed, eventually ending up with an adapter that was, to be perfectly honest, over-built for the task. On one end, it mimicked the blower output for the Dione’s fan, at the other end, it mimicked the start of the Bricksley’s air duct, with proper mounting points to bolt right in using the mounting screws on the front of the Bricksley’s fan housing, turning the adapter and fan into one single unit. He went below the Dione to check the fit, then headed back up top to swap the fan plug over from the old fan to the new one.
By the Bricksley, it was clear now just how tired the team was getting, with Kivenaal and Kayden already crashed out in the truck, Jayde looking like he was about to fall asleep at any moment, and then an almighty crash as Kaylie lost her balance, fell into an almost-empty maintenance pit, and landed hard on her left arm.
“I’m okay,” she called out, getting up slowly, looking at the almost-empty cans of grease she’d smashed flat by landing on them. “Covered in grease, but okay.”
Jayde walked over to help as Kaylie walked out of the maintenance pit. “Yeah, we’re going to have to set up some camp here, I think. There’s no way we’re going to make it into camp like this,” Jayde said.
Neville looked over at them, then said, “We have a shower system here, just behind those doors. Fixing locomotives is messy work, and no one wants to have to clean bearing grease out of carriage seats in the morning. Use it to get cleaned up, if you need to. As for sleeping arrangements, you’re welcome to set up tents outside, just don’t block the entrances. I’ll go pass that on to the others, because it looks like a couple of them have also fallen asleep.”
As Kaylie and Jayde went to use the showers, Neville walked over to let Constantin and Connor know they could set up camp outside if needed, then walked over to relay that to Rukari. After that, he realized Malavera was relatively close to the Dione and gave him the same news as well.
“Well thank you, though we probably cannot make use of it. My tent relies on the car for structural integrity and Valentin obviously is already asleep… Hope you are okay with us staying here for the night, car and everything.”, Constantin replied quietly while he dug about for his sleeping bag in the car, trying to not wake up Tim.
The sleeping bag was then hauled into the pit, where it was rolled out to provide some added comfort and insulation for Valentin. Once down there, he realized that the air was getting a bit stale, though, ending in him chucking the bag back out. After that, he went over to Valentin again, crouching down to align himself for an across-the-shoulder pick-up. He was very careful about not pinching any of his hair as well as not flinging him about the area.
On the way out of the maintenance bay, he realized that he had no plan on where to put Valentin, now that he was out of the trench.
He somewhat cluelessly looks around for a reasonably secluded corner for Valentin to sleep in.
Malavera looked over as he saw Constantin carrying Valentin with no real good place to put him in sight. Quickly looking around the area, he found a spot not-too-far from the Dione, a space between two somewhat dusty toolboxes. He’d noticed most of the other toolboxes were either clean, somewhat greasy or oily, or covered with coal dust, not just the usual dusty dirty look. He waved Neville over, then asked, “What’s with those toolboxes?”
“Those? A bunch of tools we rarely ever have to use. Weird measurements, fractions of an inch. Archaic crap we keep around just in case someone brings in one of those awful imported Nehmenweld steam wagons again,” Neville replied.
Malavera looked over to Constantin, then motioned to him to place Val in the nearly 10-foot space between the two toolboxes. “Neville says they contain tools no one uses. Sounds like they might be American standard, not Metric. But I don’t think anyone will bother him while he rests there.”
Constantin took a look over to the toolboxes, which indeed where basically pristine save for the thick layer of dust draped over them. With a graceful shove of his foot, his sleeping bag rolled over to the space indicated by Malavera.
“Mind rolling it out over there? Cannot exactly do that without putting the pasta back into the pot first.”, Constantin requested.
Malavera gave a quick nod with his right head, then carefully unrolled the sleeping bag for Constantin, taking the time to make sure no loose bolts, nuts, washers, or other debris was under it so Valentin could get some decent sleep. After he had done that, he used the nearby toolbox to help stand back up again, then admitted to Constantin, “Sorry, but I may have slightly over-stressed the buckle. I hate those plastic clips, I struggle with them all the time. Squeeze too hard, they break. Don’t squeeze hard enough, you can’t undo them.”
Constantin followed Malavera over to the toolbox area and waited for him to unfurl the sleeping bag.
Once the area was cleared and the bag was placed, Constantin crouched down and carefully placed Valentin on top. He also took the chance to check up on the buckle to discover that it wasn’t exactly pristine, but functional.
Valentin in turn took note of the new orientation he was now in, flipping around to the other side almost immediately while also curling up somewhat to retain a bit of heat.
While the steamworks isn’t the coldest building in town, the mass of open windows and gateways made for a sizeable draft through the building.
Constantin returned to Malavera by righting himself again.
“Well that buckle doesn’t look broken. And even if, replacing it isn’t a problem.”, Constantin replied.
“Tell me if i can be of help somehow. Seems like we are the only two still fully alert here, other than Neville and the current shift of locals…”
Malavera nodded. “I’ve still got to install that blower fan. The adapter is done, but it needs to go into the car now. Rukari’s busy with the tents, but, well, I know him when he gets tired, you won’t understand a single word he’s saying. Ideally, we’d get Kayden out of the front of the truck, but there’s no way you’re moving him, and even if we could do that, we can’t shove him into a tent without waking him up anyway,” Malavera said, before picking up the fan and some tools to install it.
“But, if you want to help, I’m fairly sure while I can install this into the car, I’m not going to be able to get those plugs connected. Also, while Rukari is setting up some tents, I’m sure he’d appreciate some help. Might as well set one of ours up for yourself while you’re at it,” Malavera added, before dropping back into the maintenance pit to install the fan.
Getting it lined up was easy, and getting the bolts in took no time at all, but he fumbled around with the plugs for just a few seconds before saying, “I’ve gotten it in there, but it still needs to be plugged in. If I try, I’m just going to end up breaking something.” He climbed back out of the maintenance pit with a grimace, then added, “I don’t know how the locals do that, climbing in and out of those. There’s almost no space in there.”
“The locals aren’t near-enough 8 feet tall and also have one head each…”, Constantin mumbled while he got underneath the Dione to plug the draft fan in, which took all of seven seconds to do.
“As per tents, i can manage. There’s still space in the car and cramped everything isn’t news to me. Also, better test if the fan actually works, right?” He said while on his way out from underneath.
He then went to Connor, the designated fireman, inquiring about a dry-cycle test of the draft fan.
“Okay. Be aware that the noise might alert the people already asleep.”, Connor protested.
“Other option is doing it tomorrow, risking hefty delays if shit is still busted…”, Constantin insisted, forcing Connor to climb aboard the Fireman’s seat. He flicked the ignition into the AUX position, followed by a smooth 0-100-0 operation of the draft fan.
What was immediately obvious is that the Bricksley fan was substantially louder than the Anhultz one due to the bigger vehicle it was meant for. Still, neither Valentin nor Tim were awoken by the noise made, with the latter groaning a bit and flopping over lengthwise onto the bench.
Soon, the fan returned to being dead-silent and stationary as Connor turned the ignition back off.
“Seems to work.”, Constantin confirmed. “Thank you for helping on that plate thingy… If you don’t need me for anything else, i’ll join the others in the Dreamworks. Every minute counts, i guess.”
Constantin then turned around to head up front, turning the fireman’s seat into a makeshift bed with consideration made to make room for Tim behind.
“Sleep is important. Even I’m planning on getting some more rest, and I could probably go another day without too much of an ill effect on me,” Malavera admitted. “That said, we should probably plan on getting up a bit early, just so we have time to iron out any problems with putting the truck on the rails. After all, we’ve never done this before, and while I trust that the wheels will be done correctly, I’d rather have extra time to make sure it’s done and will work than to be spending several hours troubleshooting when we should be on the way.”
He looked to Connor, then asked, “Could you wake me up somewhere around 4 hours before sunrise?”
“Me too. Sounds like a solid idea.” Constantin added, aware that the entire team would need to get up early, even if none of them were aware of that yet.
“Noted. I shall wake you up four hours before sunrise.”, Connor calmly replied.
After that, Constantin simply nodded to both Malavera and Connor before actually heading into his makeshift bed proper for the night.
Malavera nodded, then headed over to the Bricksley where Rukari had finished setting up the tents, gladly picking one, making sure that Connor knew which one he was in, then crawling inside.
Kaylie and Jayde wandered out of the showers, glad that everyone else was pretty much asleep by that point, as Jayde had used his magic to dry them both off and dry out their clothes. They chuckled as they walked past the truck to see Kayden and Kivenaal sleeping on the bench seats inside, then went through the usual ordeal of picking a tent that, in this case, didn’t already have someone sleeping in it.
Neville smiled. He knew his crew would work hard over the rest of the night to get everything done. For him, it was worth it just to have met Valentin today, but knowing that Valentin and his crew had chosen his steamworks for an interesting project, well… That was above and beyond perfect. He looked at the huge blue vehicle, then back over at his crew as they machined a set of wheels to fit it, and chuckled to himself. “A steam wagon on rails. I might have to try that some day,” he said to himself.
