Bioshock: The Story of Henry Walker

Chapter 28: Steam

        If there was one place the workers of Hephaestus despised more than anything else it was the trenches. There were four of them, ten feet deep, five feet wide and fifteen meters long. They were aligned in a cross formation, surrounding the main reactor. Every day someone had to get into these tight corridors and re-adjust the valves. Doing this ensured the reactor would not over-heat.

David McRoy had done this job hundreds of times. It usually required two people but he could do it himself. Sometimes it was quicker when he did it alone. That was years ago. David was now on the wrong side of sixty and his back let him know it. Recently he had been assigned a partner to assist him with the trench valves. The old man stood in front of the reactor, arms crossed as he waited. A wrinkled hand grabbed at the brass pocket watch found deep within his worn pants. David flipped open the tarnished cover to reveal an abundance of old-school clockwork. The engineer's face turned a tad sour.

"Half past eleven. Where the hell is that trouble-maker!" 

As if on que, the reactor doors slid open. David's ears perked up at the familiar noise. He turned around to find a girl standing in the doorway. She was a fair height. Pale skin stained with grease from the machines. Jet black hair tied back, covered with a worn bandana. A pair of blue tinted welding goggles hung from her neck. She wore a rough white shirt rolled up at the sleeves, thick working boots, black leather gloves and baggy overalls. 

"Sorry for the wait, Dave. Had to take care of a few loose pipes over on the far side." she sighed, walking over to the elder man.

David shook his head in disbelief. Elizabeth Walker, barely into adult-hood, had taken the position at Hephaestus without hesitation. Long hours and tense working conditions. Not exactly the most ideal job for a teenager. He thought she would quit within the first day. It had been two months since. She kept up with all the others. Even went so far as to improve on some of the machines and structures. The prodigy of her late parents, and Henry Walker himself, truly.

"Well, now that you're finally here, we can get this over with." the old man grumbled. 

Elizabeth smirked as she slung a monkey wrench over her shoulder. "I thought you liked it down here. Has a nice homey feel to it, don't you think?"

"Yeah, yeah. Real summer retreat, smart ass. Just get down to the first trench so we can start." 

"Don't have to tell me twice."

She clamped a small tool belt around her waist. Walked over to the five-step ladder and into the first crevice. Her first time down in the trenches had been filled with wonder. Dozens of gears, pistons, pipes and gyros covered the narrow path of machinery. To a novice it may have been incredibly overwhelming. But Elizabeth had tinkered quite a bit and was experienced with more than just basic engineering. Slowly maneuvering past the first row of pipes, she made sure to check the steam meters and adjust accordingly. If the meters were too loose or too tight then she would make the changes. Otherwise all the coolant would back up into the pipes, risking a chance of them bursting. One after another, she double checked. For her it was all routine. Every day it was the same thing. She didn't mind it much. Elizabeth thought of it as a playground. A really narrow, humid, mechanical playground. She came up to the seventh meter. The black needle wobbled near the right end, close the red zone. 

"Ah, gotcha." she whispered.

Grasping her wrench, Elizabeth hooked the head of the tool onto the large washer around the lead pipe. With a decent amount of force the seal came a tad loose. She watched closely as the needle dropped back into the middle of the yellow zone and slowly moved to green. Sweat trickled off her forehead. The large vent at the end of the trench was the culprit behind all the intense heat.