Bioshock: The Story of Henry Walker

Chapter 8: Henry's Assignment

“Watch the sides you idiots!” Peach screamed as two of his crew members fumbled with the barrels of tar. It was nine thirty in the morning and already the ocean liner was filled with bustling workers, lifting barrels and crates, moving materials where they needed to be, they had already constructed a crane on both sides of the ocean liner. Steel girders and iron pipes were lifted by the cranes and moved out of the ways so workers could get by. Peach put his hands on his hips and breathed in deeply, “Nothing like the smell of fresh diesel fuel and tar in the morning.” He smiled and continued to bark orders at the workers. Henry walked out onto the deck. “Morning Peach, how’s the ship and crew this morning?” Peach swiveled around and smiled. “Henry! Top of the morning to ya! Ship’s in good order but the crew is still wakin up! Had too much to drink last night they did I’d wager!” he yelled. Henry heard snickers from some of the crew who passed by. Henry chuckled and shook his head as he walked up to where Peach stood. The two men shook hands and looked out to the ship filled with busy workers. Peach sighed, “Nothing like the sight of bustling workers to get ya in the mood eh Hank?” Henry nodded. It sure seemed like they were busy. “Hmph, slackers the lot of em!” growled a rough voice from behind. Henry turned to face a middle-aged man. A little smaller than Henry, he had a tired face, it showed experience, he also wore a bandana with bronze welding goggles, and a cigarette sticking out the side of his mouth.” Peach grumbled, “I hear ya, still the morning however, they got some time to pick up the pace.” The man shook his head. “We won’t make much progress at the rate we’re goin! They need to pick up the pace now!” Peach nodded and barked the order for his crew to pick up the pace. They groaned but followed their shipmaster’s order, moving at a much quicker pace. The man nodded in approval, “Now that’s more like it!” he said with a chuckle. He turned to Henry and looked him up and down. Henry was wearing his engineering outfit, dark tinted goggles, rubber boots and gloves, and a rough white shirt with thick overalls. Henry extended his hand to the man, “You must be Jacob Norris, Mr. Ryan told me I would be working with you.” Jacob grunted and shook Henry’s hand, “Looks to be that way, I hear you’ve got the brains when it comes to engineering, we got schematics to make, you ready to make em?” Henry looked around for anyone else, “Aren’t we working with those Wales brothers as well?” Jacob nodded, “We’re gonna meet em over at the cabin on the far side of the Odyssey, follow me, we’re already running late!” Henry nodded and looked back at Peach who was busy yelling at some young workers for dropping a crate of wrenches. Henry shook his head and laughed as he followed Jacob to the cabin.

 The inside of the cabin was quite luxurious. The floor was covered with a green velvet carpet and a large table sat in the middle of the room surrounded by four comfortable leather chairs. There was a man seated in one of the end chairs. His face was wrinkled, another face full of experience. He wore a black suit, with a black bowler hat. He had a grey beard and beady dark eyes. He seemed to have been lost in thought. Henry heard clinking and looked over to the far side of the cabin. Another man was bent over what looked to be a miniature bar. Jacob walked in the cabin and cleared his throat. The bearded man looked up, enormous bags sagged under his eyes, which were bloodshot. It looked as though he hadn’t had sleep for years. His face cracked into a small grin as he rose to shake hands with Jacob. “Jacob” he said with a withered Irish accent. “It’s good ta see ya again.” Jacob nodded, “Likewise Simon” he motioned for Henry to come over. “This is Henry Walker, he’s gonna be workin with us on the schematics as well, I hear he’s quite the engineer.” The bearded man smiled at Henry and shook his hand. “How do ya do Henry, I’m Simon Wales, that over there is me brother Dan- Daniel! What did I say about liquor in the mornin!?” The man over near the small bar hit his head on the way up. “God damn it Simon, ya know I can’t start the day without a hit of whiskey!” The man was taller than Simon, and looked much younger, he had grey blue eyes with a smirk on his face and rough stubble, he also wore a green vest with grey pants that looked more than a little ruffled, he also swooned and wobbled when he walked, if Henry didn’t know any better, he’d say the man was drunk! Simon shook his head with grief, “It’s a wonder how me brother Daniel here hasn’t fallen off the boat yet!” Daniel laughed, “I’ve got better footing than you do ya old coot!” Simon chuckled and raised a hand for his brother to be calm. “Relax Daniel, and sit down! Yer makin me nervous!” Daniel collapsed into the chair with a loud thud. Simon let out a deep sigh, “Now then, down to business, I hear yer quite the engineer Henry.” Henry nodded, “I helped manufacture weapons and vehicles for the war sir.” Simon looked impressed, “Good lad, I hear you’ve also invented quite a few things that will be of great use to us in creating this city.” Henry nodded again, “I’ve made quite a few things that have been stolen and returned to me, I’m guessing most of my pipe and glass modifications will be of the most use to us.” Simon nodded, “Aye, that they will, Daniel and I have built quite a few things ourselves, mostly shipyards and ships themselves but we’ve made a couple cities here and there.” And Mr. Norris here is a veteran deep sea welder, one of the best, I’ve got to say, Mr. Ryan has put together quite the team.” The others nodded. “So, how are we going to go about making the base schematics?” Henry asked. Jacob smiled, “Me and my team of welders, as well as Daniel, are gonna be headin to the bottom and taking measurements of the entire bedrock, see how much building room we got.” Simon nodded, “The only problem is, once we’ve got the measurements and created the schematic for the girders to be placed, we need to maintain constant communication with the welders. They need to know when to place each girder precisely, it’ll be dangerous and that’s why we need the constant stream of communication between them and us.” Henry nodded. He knew what needed to be done. “You need constant radio transmissions between the welders and us. You would need a two-way radio system, multiplied by one hundred for something like that to work.” Simon nodded again, “Since you’re the only one with the actual know how on how to build these kinds of radios, we’re going ta need ya ta make and establish the communications for this operation.” Henry hesitated, “The thing is, even if I were to build and establish proper radio waves through a large communications relay, I would need to put tiny little microphone radios inside every welders helmet! I don’t think I have the materials to make all that!” Simon chuckled, “My dear lad, Ryan has everything ya need ta make yer gadgets!” Henry thought for a moment, “What about the schematics? I’ll be so busy with the radios I won’t be able to-“Leave the schematics to me and Daniel, we’ve made tons of em before and we should have no problems makin the bedrock schematics for this here city!” Henry thought about it for a moment, he loved tinkering and perhaps he could make the radio relay box large enough to send communication waves to miniature radios! Yes, with the proper materials, it could be done! Henry looked at the three men at the table. He laughed, “Alright Simon, I’ll make the radios, I don’t know how long it will take me but I’ll make them!” Simon nodded, “Good lad, ye got yerself a month ta make the radios, Jacob, how soon till ye go diving for the measurements?” Jacob cocked his head, “End of the week I’d wager, maybe a little later, some of these divers are real greenhorns, might take a while for em to learn how to screw on their helmets.” Simon nodded, “Alright gentlemen, we have three months to get all the schematics for the city complete, we’ve got about a month to get the bedrock schematics done and the sooner communications are up the faster we can start building the city!” The men nodded in agreement. One thing was for sure, Henry was going to be really busy for the next three months.