Inside the boat things are hot and wet, the corridors and rooms filled with steam. The steam seems to come from down below, from the room with all kind of machinery and engines. The steam is at its hottest in that room, and you would expect that therefore it would be deserted. But still four persons can be seen running around, with pieces of cloth tied around their faces and hands. They are trying to find something, inside the steam-filled room, but do not seem to have much success. They keep running in and out of the room, taking deep breaths when they are outside, and moving as fast as they can when they are inside.
Finally one of them seems to have found what they are looking for, a small wheel attached to a large metal pipe. As he reaches the wheel he grabs it and begins to strain against it. With slow spurts the wheel gives way, turning clockwise. A loud hissing noise, not noticed until now, subsides, causing the figures to hear it for the first time. They wait, a few seconds, a minute, two, and the steam begins slowly to clear away. The figures smile and make their way out of the corridors, away from the hot steam, having accomplished what kept them there.
***
That evening the four people gather in the dining the dining room, adjacent to the kitchen. They each have a bowl of steaming soup in front of them, untouched. They are far too busy arguing to notice the soup beginning to cool.
"We cannot go on this way, we just can't. Everyday something breaks, and every day it becomes more serious. How long until everything breaks down?"
Copper waves his mechanical arm round, encompassing the whole ship.
"But what do you think we should do then? Go back to Kataria, hanging our heads in shame? It is a new technology, it was expected that some things would break down ..."
"Some things?! We almost lost half the ship today! If that valve hadn't sprung a leak it might have caused the engine to explode. And where would we be then? Swimming back to Kataria!"
Lyxia, tired of the arguing, enters the discussion.
"Guys, Guys, calm down. We are not going to explode, blow up, but we are also not going back to Kataria. We have already been underway for four days, and it only takes six days to reach Apaga(*)(*). So even with the problems, trouble we have had, we are still way past the halfway point. So either way we have to press on, till we reach Apaga. And there we can make repairs, hire some engineers and make sure no new problems will appear."
"If we can make it so far ..." Copper mumbles, but does not start the discussion up again.
Then the others realise they still have soup, and begin to eat, the heated mood having dissipated. It is not really that they are angry at each other, they are just all frustrated at this journey. They have been underway for four days, and nothing went as they expected it to go.
The first breakdown happened when they were underway for only an hour, then the first fuse blew in the engine. Copper immediately stopped the engine, and replaced the fuse. After a few minutes the second fuse also blew. When he inspected the other fuses he found out they all had different voltages, so only a few of them could actually be used in the engine.
That evening the wind picked up, and the sea became a bit rowdy, causing Ned to get seasick. So he spends the first night on board of the Dr Biene's Request hanging on the railing, dry heaving and feeling very miserable.
Aside from the breakdowns, which ranged from small leaks to a jammed rod in one of the wheels, causing the ship to move in circles, there were also some problems with the crew among themselves. Before, when they were planning this expedition, they never realized how it would be, to be stuck in a small boat with each other, getting on each others nerves and causing small rows of the simplest things.
The first shout happened the first evening, as Lyxia went to prepare the evening meal. The foodstuffs were alright, but the herbs were not. Apparently Nillian went into the shop and asked for "an ounce of everything", so with some herbs they only had enough for two days, and other herbs they wouldn't finish in ten years.
The second day the ship was filled with a thick black smoke. This time it was not the engine that failed, but Nillian who tried to cook. They had agreed that all of them would take a turn cooking and cleaning. But Nillian, never having tried to cook before, made a terrible mess. He once had seen a cook throw some alcohol onto a steak, giving off blue flames which then disappear, and Nillian wanted to reproduce that.
So he took the largest pan, put four steaks into it, with a lot of oil, and put in on a high heat. After a while the oil in the pan reached high temperatures, and began to fry the steaks, burning them. But Nillian didn't notice. Then he threw in some potatoes, and then half a bottle of cooking sherry, which he lighted.
The resulting flame was indeed spectacular, but the hot oil in the pan also quickly lighted, and the whole pan began to burn, spewing out thick black smoke. Nillian, beginning to panic, got a large glass of water, which he threw unto the flame.
The only thing that saved Nillian was the fact that he immediately turned away to get more water. As then the hot oil only rained down on his back, still leaving burns, but at least no horrible scars on his face. The others immediately came round, and put out the fire with a wet blanket.
Later, as they were cleaning up the mess, Ned found a large pot filled with a green sludge. When he asked Nillian what it was, he told him that he tried to boil some lettuce. It was then that they all agreed that Nillian was excepted from cooking, at least until he actually learned how.
All these things made the atmosphere inside the ship tense, which reflected on everyone’s mood. Nillian half-heartedly tried to improve the mood by creating rosters, trying to keep people separated, but that only made things worse. In the end Lyxia stepped in, and made sure that everyone got some time off, arranged some entertainment for everyone and made sure no fights broke out. And so they kept going, not perfectly but both the ship and the crew kept working reasonably.
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