Steam Punks

"So Jasper, how did you and Victoria meet?"

Victoria smiled. Jasper knew all the right things to compliment, and her mother knew all the right things to ask.

"I was riding my new bicycle with some of my friends," Jasper began, "when one of them suggested that we try taking the back wheel off…"

Victoria gasped. "So that's why you fell off?! When I get my hands on Axel he—"

"Well, it made sense at the time," Jasper shrugged. "The back one was so much smaller, and it was already hard to balance with two wheels…" He shrugged again. "It sounded like a neat idea. And I met you didn't I?" He grinned.

Victoria suddenly realized why she kept expecting someone to criticize Jasper's story even though her mother was listening with a smile on her face.

"I guess Father won't be joining us for dinner tonight?" She wasn't sure whether she wished her father would miss dinner or not. He had to meet Jasper eventually, and it might as well be tonight. Then why was she so nervous?

"Don't worry, dear," her mother assured her. "He'll be here soon. There was a bad accident downtown. Josephine next door was just telling me about it. One of the trolleys blew a steam boiler, and ran into a street lamp. Thank goodness it hadn't been lit yet, or there might have been a fire!"

So her father wouldn't miss dinner, and he would be in a foul mood. Lovely.

Minutes later, they heard the door open and close, followed by the echo of footsteps down the hall.  Victoria's father strode in, looked his guest up and down, made a funny sound in his throat that sounded like a cross between a snort and a scoff, and said, "So, Jasper, I see you're a disaster relief first responder airship pilot?"

Jasper looked taken off guard and managed to slowly shake his head. Victoria could almost tell what her father was going to say next, but wasn't fast enough to stop him.

"Then why in the world would you be wearing goggles and a trenchcoat to the dinner table?"

Mr. Langley stared Jasper down with a raised eyebrow until the offender scrambled from his seat to deposit his extra clothing into the hall closet.

"Father, was that really necessary?"

"And what are you wearing, young lady?"

"It's just a necklace!"

"Do the wings fly? Does the key unlock something? Do the gears turn? What do they turn? Where's the power source? How does—"

"It doesn't have to do anything! It's a pretty necklace my boyfriend gave me," Victoria protested.

"Kids," was his grumbled response as Jasper slipped sheepishly into his seat.

Victoria hoped her father wouldn't ask about any of the easy targets that had become visible now that Jasper had taken his coat off. As she watched his eyes move over each item, she could almost hear the related inquiry.

Whether he ever actually checks the time on his pocket watch.

What he keeps in all those pockets on his vest.

If his boots really need that many straps to keep from falling off his feet.

What those wrist cuffs are supposed to protect his forearms from.

Instead, Jasper cleverly turned the conversation toward Mr. Langley's work at the university, and there it stayed until the end of the meal.

Victoria knew better than to try to get close enough to Jasper to get a kiss goodnight, so she contented herself with a smile and a wave as he climbed onto his bicycle and rode away.

***

A small plume of black smoke drifted skyward as the clock tower chimed the hour. The small plume joined a few larger plumes and slowly dissipated into the haze hanging over the city of Artona.

"Sorry about my father," Victoria murmured. She and Jasper were walking hand in hand—slowly because once she dropped Jasper off at work, they would have to part ways.

"Don't worry about it," Jasper smiled. "Typical university type. My boss has to deal with his kind all the time."

"Who's your boss?"

"Oh, he's a really great guy! Professor Drake. Well he's not really—aw, I'll let him explain it. You really should meet him. We're almost there, actually. Just this next street…"

Jasper stopped in his tracks as they turned the corner. They could see a really big plume of smoke rising from somewhere up ahead. People were shouting. This plume didn't come from a steam boiler. Jasper and Victoria broke into a run.

"Professor Drake! Your workshop!" They'd arrived as volunteers and neighbors had gotten the fire under control, and they hurried to help. It wasn't big, and soon it was out. Strangely the professor was smiling the whole time.

"What does a workshop matter?" He clapped Jasper on the shoulder. "I've done it!" The crowd began to dissipate as he smiled, shook hands, and waved them along.

"Done what?" Jasper asked. "The new boiler design? I thought we were just polishing off a few more tweaks."

"Boiler design, hah! That's just to pay for the workshop and a scrawny assistant." He gave Jasper a playful shove as he led them into the charred interior of the shop. "What I really do here will revolutionize the way the world uses steam power!" He dramatically pulled a heavy tarp off of a metal worktable. What was left of the device beneath it crumbled to ash. Disappointment briefly flashed across his face, but then his smile returned.

"I guess I wasn't fast enough with the fireproof tarp." He sighed. "I can always rebuild it!"

"What was it?" Victoria was bursting with curiosity as she intently studied the pieces of burned wood and the twisted metal on the table.

"The world's first working electrical generator," Professor Drake answered sadly. "Ruined because I didn't add enough resistors."

"Electrical generator?" Victoria asked.

"Electricity is what lightning is made out of," the professor explained. "Scientists before my time have discovered that it will run through a wire, and the world was satisfied with learning how to guide it to the ground whenever it strikes a tall building in a thunderstorm, but if it's powerful enough to split ancient trees in half, it's powerful enough to do something!"

"Like set the place on fire?" Jasper asked with a grin.

"Only because I was too excited to add enough of these!" The professor pulled a handful of short wires from his pocket each with some kind of elongated ceramic blob in the middle. "Put one of these between two wires, and the electricity will slow down, and lessen in power. Put all of them in a row, and the current will become so feeble that you can touch it with your hand and only feel a tiny jolt."

"Like when you shuffle your feet and touch a doorknob?" Victoria asked.

The professor's eyes widened. "I never thought of that!" he exclaimed.

Jasper was closely examining one of the resistors. The professor shook his head as if to store the thought for another day. "Come, Jasper. We can decide where to put the company logo on the boiler another day. I need your help to repair the generator. Pretty soon, Babbage and his cronies will have no choice but to reinstate me at the university!"

Jasper's eyes lit up at the prospect of finally joining this secret project.

This time, Victoria got to kiss Jasper good-bye, and then hurried home before her mother began to worry.

***

"Hey Jasper. Hey Tori. There's another coal miner's strike downtown. You should come with us. I hear there might be a riot this time!"

Victoria had told her mother she was going to visit her friends. That much was true, even though her mother was probably thinking of a different set of friends. The ones who were probably going to sit around embroidering pillow shams and gossip all day.

"Axel, I never knew you were into politics." Jasper clapped Axel on the shoulder.

"Of course not. I'm into riots!"

If Victoria's father ever met Axel, she doubted he would ever get far enough past the pith helmet/eye-patch combination to even notice the plethora of gears that adorned his clothing.

Max and his girlfriend Mia were there too. If Mr. Langley was at war with impractical industrial fashion, Max, its most popular designer, would certainly be his arch-nemesis.

"Max!" Jasper slipped his hand from Victoria's to have a whispered conversation with his friend.

Victoria nodded at Mia, who smiled back. Mia, of course, always wore the latest…before it was even the latest. Right now Victoria could hardly keep her eyes off the hat she was wearing. It was a top hat, but so small that it only fit on the side of her head, steadied by a circlet that was beautifully rusted in a way only Max seemed able to manage. That particular gear-and-peacock feather centerpiece, slightly to the left of the center of the hatband was most likely the first in the current craze.

"But you were going to use that to make me a….okay, okay! Fine!" Jasper was coming back now, making an effort to keep smiling. He waved away Victoria's questioning look. "So where's this riot?" he asked.

***

Victoria had to admit it. The highway bridge was a beautiful place to watch sunsets. And there was really no way to fall into the river as long as you were careful where you put your feet.

Jasper was grinning when she came to the ledge. He took her wrist as she carefully lowered herself into a seated position, then deftly fastened a bracelet around it.

"Jasper it's beautiful!" Victoria exclaimed, holding her wrist in front of her, turning it to admire the components that had been worked into something beautiful. "And resistors! I'm probably the first woman to wear something with resistors!"

Jasper grinned.

"What's this kind of stone?" Victoria pointed to the reddish bead in the middle of a ring of copper wire.

Jasper's grin faded to an awkward smile, and he turned his head away slightly.

"Is it….jasper?" Victoria teased.

Her boyfriend's face turned the same color as the bead.

"It was Max's idea. And he still made me give him my set of 1839 Abia Gears."

"Jasper! You shouldn't have!"

"Don't worry, I'll probably find something better tomorrow."

***

The sun was just starting to set as they climbed the fence. A large piece of what was left of a boiler engine clanged noisily as it fell from its precarious perch atop a big pile of rusty parts. Gears flew everywhere. Victoria winced, her grip tightening on the iron bars, but the others dropped to the ground one by one, and began combing through the junkyard looking for interesting gears and parts.

Victoria was quite pleased with everyone's reaction to her bracelet. The others had never seen anything like a resistor before. It caused more of a stir than when Max had presented Mia with a crown made from his collection of elaborate grandfather clock hands.

"Let me get this straight," Axel was saying. "By using steam power to spin a magnet around a wire, you can make lightning."

"Right," Jasper said.

"And using these things on Tori's bracelet, you can tame the lightning you've created!?"

"Right."

"Jasper, Max, name your price. I want one too."

***

They visited the junkyard almost regularly now. One of Axel's other friends had seen his new wrist cuff a week ago, and Max was swamped with orders from would-be lightning-tamers. Mia now wore an elaborate woven necklace with no less than 60 resistors, but Victoria prided herself on being the one to start the trend that had swept Artona's subculture off its feet.

"Hey guys, over here! It's only missing an arm."

The brass golem was indeed magnificent. Everyone gazed either at the find in wonder or at Max in envy.

"So what does it do?" Jasper asked.

"Let's find out." Axel flipped a switch at the base of its skull. A series of creaks could be heard, and the golem rumbled to life. It turned its head from side to side, then said in a clear, refined voice:

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipi—"

Jasper had flipped the switch, and the golem's eyes darkened once more.

Everybody groaned.

"It's a blank," Axel said in disgust.

"Anyone know how to program golem scrolls?" Max asked hopefully.

The others shook their heads.

***

She was heading home after walking Jasper AND Axel to work. Professor Drake had gotten his first grant proposal! One of Max's upper-class clients was curious about the science behind his purchase and had been shocked to find that the professor had no patrons.

Her mother was waiting for her on the front porch, a frown on her face.

"Victoria, is that soot on your face?"

"Soot?"

The front door closed with a BANG as her father stepped out onto the porch as well.

"Of course it's soot!" he growled. "Old man Witherspoon saw her running across rooftops with a band of scruffy delinquents."

"Father, it was perfectly safe! I—"

"Safe? He didn't know it was her until she almost fell through his upstairs window!"

"I didn't almost fall! I climbed down there to retrieve—"

"What were you doing on a rooftop in the first place?"

She knew better than to try to answer that one.

"Father, I'm twenty-four years old! I think I can take care of mysel—"

"Was that punk with the goggles with you?"

"Father, don't talk about him like that! He's my boyfriend!"

"Not anymore."

As she'd cried herself to sleep that night, her only glimmer of hope was the bracelet. "Jasper has it," she kept whispering to herself, smiling through her tears. "Jasper has it." Max borrowed it to make an exact copy of the bracelet that started it all. He was going to give it to Jasper to give to her today, but he'd forgotten.

"Jasper has it. Father took my key necklace, but Jasper has my bracelet. Jasper has it…"

"Victoria?"

"Huh?"

All the other women were looking at her funny. She looked down and saw that her knitting had fallen to her lap and had begun to unravel. Had she actually said anything?

"I must have fallen asleep," she managed a weak smile. "I forgot to have my tea with breakfast this morning."

They were still looking at her.

"So why isn't Amelia here today?" Victoria asked suddenly. "Did she have another relapse with the smelling salts?"

"Amelia does smelling salts!?" Fanny squealed. "Since when?"

"Ooh, that's not the half of it!" Candice's voice lowered, and she almost pricked her finger with her sewing needle in excitement. "Wait until you hear—"

And they finally left her alone.

She hadn't spoken to Jasper after that. She felt terrible, but what could she have said? "Daddy says I can't play with you anymore?" He would never have understood.

***

Victoria tried to be cheerful. Not just the automatic smile that kept her mother from asking her what was wrong, ignoring everything she said, and trying to talk her into feeling happy instead. She actually had a reason to feel cheerful today. She was on a real airship going to the World Fair with her father. He'd never taken her before. He must have either decided she'd been "good" enough for the past month, or actually felt guilty for controlling her life.

Either way, he would be at the university booth at the center of Progress Pavilion and would be far too busy to insist on accompanying her when she announced that she was going to walk around for a little while and see "some" of the other booths. He would be far too busy to come after her once her "little while" was up. A day of freedom at the World Fair. That was something, at least.

And then she saw Jasper's face at the window, just inches from hers. He froze—just as startled as she was. They stared at each other for what felt like hours, and then he put a finger to his lips and continued…(Victoria craned her neck to see out the window)…up a ladder. Axel was next. He rolled his eyes when he saw her, tapped at the glass, waved, and climbed up after Jasper.

Victoria whirled to see if her father had seen them, but he was gone. Either to get more coffee or to use the lavatory. She suddenly noticed the sign at her window instructing passengers of the special duties required for this emergency exit seat. Of course. That was why the ladder was right next to her seat. She looked around. For some reason, the crew members were all in the back, chatting with a refined older gentleman (who looked vaguely familiar). She turned back to her armrest. It seemed to double as a latch. She would be halfway up the ladder before Father got back.

"Jasper, what are you doing!?" Victoria was three-quarters of the way to the top of the giant balloon, when she saw Jasper and Axel tinkering with some of the equipment at the top. A light rain began to fall.

"We made another breakthrough, Victoria. Drake figured out how to use electricity to make a lamp ten times brighter than any that use kerosene. It hardly takes any time to set up, and we can hook the generator to the navigation system up here."

"We're going to light up the whole cabin with them!" Axel crowed. "Most of these people are on their way to the World Fair. We'll have a crowd of people following us to our booth! Drake and Max are sharing one this year. It's perfect! You should see Max's latest electricity stuff, Tori. He finally got that golem to work, and he has this glowy thing over one of his eyes that makes him look like a—"

"Jasper, Axel, you have to come down from there!" Victoria pleaded. "You'll get in trouble. Why didn't you just ask the airship company?"

"We tried that." Jasper's tone was so strained and sad, that it almost broke Victoria's heart. "They're just as bad as the university."

"Your booth isn't enough?"

"Tori, we're nowhere near Progress Pavillion!" Axel said in disgust. "They put us between a sushi-on-a-stick stand and a crackpot that tells fortunes from soot patterns. The only people who will visit our stall are a few of Max's clients and men like your father. Out to ridicule anything innovative that scares them. Forget Max's trinkets. Professor Drake is counting on this to get people to finally take his discoveries seriously."

Jasper only looked sadly at her.

Victoria gripped the sides of the steel-cable ladder unsure what to say next. She wanted them to succeed, she really did. But when her father found out, he would never forgive Jasper. Never!

"What the—Victoria!" (Father!) "What are you doing? Get back to your seat this instant!"

Victoria's heart sank. Distant thunder rumbled in the sky. She almost felt like fainting.

"Victoria?!" Her father was actually climbing the ladder now. Coming toward her at an alarming rate. She climbed a few rungs higher without thinking. Just out of panic. Then many more rungs when her father started climbing even faster.

"Don't worry about what he thinks of me, Tori," Jasper said quietly, for the first time using Axel's less-posh nickname for her. The only approval I want is yours."

Mr. Langley stopped when he saw Jasper.

"Young man, unless you are a member of this vessel's crew—which, despite your clothing, I highly doubt—I must ask that you return to your seat."

"Oh yeah?" Axel had had enough of this. "Then what are YOU doing up here?" The wind blew his pith helmet down over his eyepatch as he waved his arms for emphasis. The sky was getting darker.

Mr. Langley didn't say anything. Axel looked at the wrench in his hand and quickly put it behind his back.

"Victoria. Tell your friend, the blind archeologist, to stop tampering with the machinery before he breaks something." He suddenly noticed the wire running beside the ladder.

"What are you—does this have anything to do with what those kids were doing down in the—Drake!! I knew I recognized that gentleman in the cabin from somewhere. Cleaned himself up for once, eh? This is his crazy lightning science!" His face was very red now, and climbing faster than ever. "When Babbage and I get through with him, I—"

"Mr. Langley, this won't mean the end of steam power," Jasper called down, addressing not his words, but the underlying fear behind them. "Steam power will still be needed to generate electrical power, but it will mean larger scale operations. It will actually make the city better. When coal is no longer sold competitively in general stores, by small-scale companies, production will become more organized. When the workers can more easily bargain for better conditions, the riots will die down."

"Those coal miners are bigger punks than you lot!" Mr. Langley shouted. "The riots will die down when the constables start using deadly force!"

Lightning lit up the sky.

Victoria grasped for the next rung only to realize that she'd reached the top of the ladder. Jasper gave her a meaningful look, and glanced briefly to a small lever inches from her right hand. She scrambled off the ladder to the deck of the maintenance level, careful not to slip on the slick surface, and saw that pulling the lever would release the top five feet of ladder, essentially cutting off access to the deck. Her father was still eight feet below. She had moments to choose between free will and parental acceptance.

Tori pulled the lever.

Jasper, right behind her, reached out and fastened her bracelet back around her wrist as Axel flipped a switch on the generator. Jasper held out his arms, and Tori let him pull her in for a kiss as the bright glow of tamed lightning blossomed out from the cabin beneath them.

*****************************************************************

Author's note:
To this day, most of the world still gets electricity from steam power, so in a way, we're all still steam punks.

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Historical notes (Despite the Alternate-with-a-capital-A historical setting):

Charles Babbage was one of the greatest inventors of the Victorian era. Had his plans for the "Analytical Engine" been fulfilled, the computer would have been invented 100 years before the construction of ENIAC.

Golems have their origins in Jewish folklore. A golem gets its "programming" (Job skills, personality, phrases) from writing on a scroll inside its skull.

The "lorem ipsum dolor" passage (www.lipsum.com/) was adapted from a book written by Cicero that was extremely popular during the Renaissance. The passage has been used as sample text—almost since the invention of the printing press—to demonstrate a setting and background for passages of text without distracting people with something that they can actually read.