The rain started to hit the roof, and the wind started to raddle the building. Hearless slowly woke up from a flash of light, "a storm." She looked out the window and noticed a sudden rush of activity down the harbor. "Must be answering a sos." She started to look away, then noticed a figure in a dark coat with distinct white hair. "Enterprise, what the hell are you doing? Your ship isn't repaired." She started her way out, grabbing a coat as she exited the building, her wrapped hand complaining. She forced her way to the harbor and summoned her rigging boots to her feet. "Well, no time like the present to learn." She jumped into the water, landing in it and maintaining an unstable balance. "It's like skating; just move." She pushed off. She started to cut through the water, not at all fast by any means, and then she thought, "Size, I need to be bigger to have a chance to catch up." She pulled her notepad out and wrote the symbol again: "This counts as an emergency, right?" She placed the paper on her arm and activated it. She quickly saw the water drop lower and lower in her view; the ocean felt smoother, and she was moving faster. She squinted into the downpour, not seeing anything. She continued to sail in the direction that she saw Enterprise go. Nearly an hour later, she started to see something in the rain—dark objects, vaguely ship-shaped—but nothing she recognized.
She stopped short and quickly returned to her normal size. "I don't need to be questioned more than I am already going to be", she said slowly, looking at the hulls of the ships. "Weird,", she said, going deeper into the cluster of ships. Soon she saw Enterprise. She sailed up behind her and tapped her back. This startles Enterprise, who swings around, ready to strike, but stops short. "Hearless, what are you doing out here?", Hearless stared and pointed at the rigging on Enterprise. "Oh,", enterprise said, making several gestures at Enterprise; she did not understand a single one. "Vestal is going to kill me", She grabbed Hearless, laid her on top of her rigging, and sailed a little before jumping onto the deck of a light cruiser, seeing Cleveland there and a pair of girls. One girl was out cold, and Cleveland was what Hearless assumed was talking to the girl who was still awake. Enterprise placed Hearless back down on her feet.
Hearless looked around the ship, noting damage to the hull. She looked at Enterprise, giving her her best. "The hell do you want me to do?" Enterprise scratched her head and turned to Cleveland before turning back to hearless, pointing down, and speaking, "The engines are damaged. See what you can do", Hearless nodded at this and ran down into the hull, passing several different rooms and sliding to a halt when she sees the engines. "Are these coal-fired?", She walks around the engine room more and sees something else: "triple expansion steam engines, not turbines?", She starts to look for any issues, not seeing any but the fire being dead. She took a shovel and started to fill the firebox. She grabbed a rag that was covered in machine oil. She pulled a lighter from her pocket and struck the flint, catching the oil rag in a flame, which she threw into the firebox. Slowly, the temperature rose. hearless got to work getting the engine to move oiling parts and cleaning off the dirt. She cleaned the gages for water and saw that the boiler was starting to build pressure, but she waited, letting the needle climb slowly, inching to working pressure, millimeter by millimeter. hearless ran out of the room back to Enterprise and pointed down, then pointed at the bridge. Enterprise gave a nod and headed that way, entering it and disappearing from her view. She ran down to the engine room, where she saw the engine telegraph moving from full stop to slow ahead. She grabbed the steam wheel and cracked it open. The engines started to make a rhythmic vibration, shaking the floor as she started to turn the wheel and stopped turning when the speed was met.
She watched the engines run and saw an output shaft. She pulled the lever, and the stoker turned on slowly, feeding the engine coal as it sailed. She proceeded to run about like a mad woman, keeping the engine within safe running conditions and adjusting speed as necessary. Soon she saw the telegraph swing from slow to full. She opened up the steam regulator wheel all the way, and the engine soon moved as fast as it could. She kept the engine in check. watching gauges and needles, so this became a simple background for her thoughts, "what were those ships, they looked weird, they looked nothing like any of the others I had seen", she shook her head some continuing to think, "they also didn't have normal weapons they looked weird, light up with a bunch of lights", she turned a valve letting more water into the boiler, "better keep it fed I don't want a boiler explosion", the hand that was still wrapped was screaming in agony sending spikes of pain jolting up her arm, but hearless persisted keeping herself moving.
Soon hearless, she sees the engine telegraph move, this time dropping speed. Several intense and agonizing moments later, the telegraph showed full stop, she felt vibrations through the hull, something was rubbing up against it, "must be the rubber stoppers on the side of the dock," she started to open valves up and blow down the engine of steam, she turned off the stoker and adjusted the fire box to burn out within a few hours, she left the engine room and climbed back up to the deck, she saw Vestal on deck and had one thought, "Oh shit," before being pulled off to the infirmary, by Vestal along with Enterprise and the two ship girls they rescued.
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soundless exile
Fanfictiona young girl battling with her own struggles finds refuge in a ship but little did she know she was aboard a kansens ship
