The Machinist's Apprentice

Chapter 10: Road Trip

She didn't look like she believed him, so he added "Unless you have a better idea. Whatever we do, we'll need to do it quickly before someone comes looking."

That was enough. Aina wasn't one to waste time worrying when decisive action was called for. With a small sigh she climbed up into the seat next to him and sat staring blankly at the controls. "All right," she said after a moment, "what do I do?"

He quickly and briefly explained all the pertinent controls before her so she had a rough idea of what was going on before giving her more specific instructions. The boiler needed to be ignited first. A simple switch on the console took care of that. Then the engine itself had to be started. A lever to the side released a valve allowing the pressure to force the engine to turn. Aina seemed very unsettled as the beast around her roared to life.

"Now all that's left is to release the brakes", he said, "You'll need to push that large switch forward." Aina gripped the toggle's handle, but before she could move it, he quickly cut in again, "But make sure you have one hand on those central handles! That's the steering! Once you release the brake, the vehicle will begin to move. You don't want it to go out of control." Aina paused with her right hand warily over the switch. She steadied herself and took hold of the steering control with her left hand, before determinedly pushing the brake lever forward.

The machine shuddered and began to move forward. Aina stared forward with her jaw set and her hands tightly clenching the steering. The freighthaul had been resting in a flat clearing to the side of the road and so they made their was onto the road proper at an angle." Make sure you stay on the road," Jevrem advised, "This machine won't run well off of it. We could get stuck."

She nodded silently, moving the steering to orient the vehicle in line with the road. Being unused to such things, she overcompensated and they started to drift right back off of it until she hurriedly corrected. For a brief time the thing's trajectory wobbled back and forth until it was mostly set on course, rumbling its way up the road. Jevrem said nothing as she did this. Her steering problems stemmed mostly from inexperience and he didn't think they were really in any danger of going off the road. Barking commands probably wouldn't help her nervousness. It was best to let her get used to it on her own unless things started to really go wrong.

Once she had gotten the steering under some control, Aina let out a long breath that he suspected she'd been holding since she released the brakes. "We're really going," she said softly, "This isn't so bad." Jevrem couldn't help smiling a bit at the wonder in her voice.

Their speed built up somewhat slowly and even at its top speed the freighthaul wasn't especially quick. There were other vehicles in Goskar that were designed for speed, but the focus of a freighthaul was transporting the cargo. Still, even the vehicle's comparatively slow pace was significantly faster than walking would've been, especially with the shape they were both in.

"Where should I go?" Aina asked somewhat shakily.

"Just follow the road," was all he said. There would be time to figure out where they needed to head once they'd put some distance between themselves and Bojan.

Jevrem stayed silent for some time after this as they chugged along. It was really beginning to sink in how difficult doing this must truly be for his companion. Certainly as an Astansurian, she was unused to Goskaran machines, but she'd seen them before. Goskaran machines heralded the attack in the woods as they'd traveled to the mine...and they'd also been present when her parents had been killed. He looked sideways at her profile, her face stern with concentration as her eyes stayed locked on the road. What must she have been thinking as they approached this metal monster? How difficult was it for her to even climb into the seat, much less drive the thing. He'd been so focused on securing them transportation that he hadn't even stopped to think about it. Yet she had done it without complaint. The thought gave him a sting of guilt. It was unfair of him to ask so much of her, but for the time being he had no choice in the matter. He only hoped he could make it up to her somehow.