Wind whistled through the air, pulling at grass, leaves, and anything else in its path. In the distance, a rotor rumbled, a sound that had become ambient to anyone on the ship. Sitting up slightly from the machine he was crouched by, he was immediately assaulted by the forces of nature.

"Roy! Are you almost done?" He glanced over his shoulder as the area boss called to him.

He held up a hand. A long established signal for a few more minutes. The captain raised a hand in reply. Turning back, Roy studied the machine again. Gears creaked slightly as he turned a lever on the side, testing the mechanics. There was a sharp sound, and he immediately released the pressure he had been applying to the lever.

He crouched down again, shimmying into a small hole that gave access to the mechanisms. The wind abated, though it whistled past the machine in a hollow drone now. Shining his light, he was finally able to see what had caused it to stop functioning. A gear had slid out of place down the rod it sat on, getting stuck in another system and impeding its function.

Reaching in a pouch held around his waist, he pulled out a bolt and a strange tool. He threaded the tool onto the rod holding the gear, then gripped it with both hands. Twisting violently, he used as much force as possible in the small space. It slammed into the gear, knocking it slightly out of the system. He repeated the action. The gear eventually came loose. He slid it down the rod and rotated it until it fit snugly into its place. He placed the bolt on to hold it in place, and fastened a clamp after the bolt for good measure.

Sliding out of the space, he pushed lightly on the lever once more. It slid smoothly down to the bottom of its track, the gears turning smoothly and everything functioning as normal. He returned the lever to the top position before pulling down quickly and forcefully. The sudden force started a small motor, and the gears began to spin quickly. Roy looked up as the propellor span to life, creating a small downward current to combat the raging winds.

He looked out over the rail, seeing clouds rush past and the occasional break of blue above him. There was no point in looking down, he already knew, as only a white expanse stretched below them. Shaking himself from the monotonous view, he turned to go back inside. With a tight grip on a rope, he fastened himself to it with a clasp before turning and undoing a hook that had been attached to a loop on the propeller.

Then he turned and walked up to where his captain had disappeared into the doorway, the clasp snagging every so often on knots in the rope. Roy hefted the door open, fighting against the wind as he did so. Taking shelter behind the door, he leaned his weight on it and unfastened his hook from the rope. When he entered the room, the door slammed shut with force strong enough to break bones, as most well knew from either experience or stories.

"Ah, Roy," The captain came up to him at the slam, "Good job out there."

Nodding he undid the buckles and clamps on the harness he wore, hanging it on a hook by the door for later use. Now that he was out of the wind, it was a little easier to breath, and he heaved a sigh of relief.

Walking over to stand near the captain, he saw there was a blueprint spread over the surface of the table. "So can you tell me what was wrong with this one?" Nodding, Roy looked the paper over quickly before placing his finger over a gear. He then slid the finger down. "The gear had fallen loose? How odd..." Roy pointed at the same gear before pointing to a different set. "You're telling me that it was jammed in the other system?" Once more, Roy nodded.

The captain had a worried look on his face as he considered this. Turning to lean on the table, Roy squeezed the bridge of his nose as he waited for his captain to speak again. He had been up since before the time piece said three, shaken awake by his panicked captain. Three of the propellers had gone dark earlier, and he had fixed those. Since then, it seemed one was breaking down almost every hour. This was the eighth repair he had done today.

"It's different every time."

"Captain! Captain Lloyd!" Before whoever was yelling even stepped into the room, there was a sudden lurch and shudder of the ship. They were thrown into the room unceremoniously. That didn't faze them though. "It's an emergency, two of the propellers at the top of the ship have gone dark! We're losing altitude."

As if to prove the messenger correct, the ship shuddered once more. The captain met Roy's eyes with a worried look which was rather understandable. The propellers at the top of the ship were essential to staying airborne, as they provided the starting thrust that the other propellers fed off.

Roy started to move immediately.

He clasped his harness into place once more then grabbed a pair of goggles before firmly placing them over his eyes. He ran through several corridors before reaching another door that led outside. He opened the door with no problem, the ship blocking the air now that he was at the rear.

When he opened the door, he immediately grabbed a orange kite twice the size of an average human. The mechanic hooked himself in and gripped the steering devices before jumping off the rear of the ship. He fell for a second before an updraft caught him and sent him flying into the air. A rope was belayed out and he dragged behind the ship like a pennant.

Twisting the steering handle, he gained altitude. The larger propellers that sat on the top of the ship slowly came into view. He rose until he was at the end of the line, then dropped into a dive to gain speed. Approaching the area to land, he released one hand from the steering and clasped firmly onto a railing as the glider came even with the platform.

A twist of a knob, and the glider's wings retracted and he fastened them closed with one hand. His harness found itself attached to the railing and the glider was stored in a small compartment for later use.

The wind was fierce, and he had to fight it every step of the way to get to the broken propellers. They were at a standstill, but the wind carried a faint groaning of gears from one of the machines. He went to that one first, immediately turning off all power to the machine. Clambering into the machine, concern and confusion overtook Roy as he saw why the machine had groaned the way it did. There was a metal pole. The object had been jammed into a gear system, stopping all function.

Unfortunately, the pole didn't belong in any part of the machine. It was an oddly-shaped, foreign object in the well built mechanisms. How it got there, he would figure out later, but for now, he grunted as he wrenched it free from the machine. As he did, there was a thunk scarcely a few centimeters from his face. Turning to look, there was a large gear about the size of his shoulder that had been knocked loose by the metal pole. Running through schematics in his mind, he quickly located where it went, and was able to jam it into place, secured simply by the tension of the other gears around it.

After checking all the mechanisms, Roy scuttled out of the machine, dragging the metal object with him. Yanking the lever on the side of the propeller, the engine roared to life. Air buffeted him from above now as the strong draft was created.

Glancing about him, it wasn't long until he spotted the second propellor that had been damaged. From the outward appearance, it already looked damaged. It took scarcely a second before Roy realized that a blade from the propellor was missing. Looking down, it finally occurred to him what the metal pole was. A hole in the side of the machine he was by confirmed his suspicions.

Settling the propellor blade on his shoulder, Roy made his way over to the second machine. Reassuring that his harness was fastened securely, he clicked onto the iron bar that led up to the top of the propellor. In a feat of strength and agility, somehow he managed to arrive at the top safely without dropping his load. 

When he looked over the place the blade had broken loose from, he sighed. Several of the clasps that held the blade firmly in place appeared to be forming rust, a constant pain in Roy's butt. He understood that clouds held water, which sped up the rusting, but it didn't stop him from being annoyed by it. Settling into an odd position of his legs wrapped around the main pillar and the blade resting across his lap, he used the attachment of his harness to the securing pole to hold his weight while he searched around in his tool pouch.

First, using pliers, he cut off the rusted fasteners, quickly picking replacements out of his pouch and settling them into the notches. After ensuring that they were properly tightened, he then fitted the blade into the lined up slots. Though the constant wind dried any sweat that might have formed, he wiped his brow. Testing the fit of the parts, he was satisfied and shimmied down from the propellor.

Checking the system to see why it had stopped, it was more than a little surprising to find nothing wrong at all. It appeared as if the machine had suddenly lost all power. Checking that all wires were intact, he was once again stumped as to what made the machine stop. Even if a blade had flown off, there was nothing that would have stopped the machine because of that. Deciding to ask the electric engineer about it when he had the chance, Roy started up the propellor and began to make his way back to where the kite was.

Strapping in, he held onto the railing as the wings unfolded and caught the wind. He was then lifted up and he released his hold. A moment after his realization. The rope leading to the lower deck was far too slack, and when he let go of the ship he was immediately at the mercy of every wind. The rope that once held him extended as far as the lower deck, where it should have been fastened, and it fluttered wildly as it too was caught in wind currents.

After his initial lift from the ship, Roy soon began to descend. First below the top of the ship, then the bottom floor. Now the ship was far above him as he entered into the clouds that were below the ship. Dew clung to his skin as he interrupted forming droplets.

Once the shock had somewhat worn off from being detached from the airship, he tried to use the steering mechanisms to control where he went, but he soon realized this was pointless without the pulling force. He then made sure that he was still hooked onto the kite, and held on for the ride. There was no telling what would happen as he continued to fall.

Then, he finally fell below the cloud line, and his breath was stolen.

/\

Took me a while, but I decided I would do author's notes on this book. Now then, this is the first original novel I will be putting forward for other people to read. There is obviously going to be much room for improvement, but I hope anyone that reads this will be willing to give it at least a chapter or two beyond here.

The plan for this book is one chapter every month, mostly editted. That being said, it is only me editing this, so if anything is amiss, feel free to let me know. I'm far from perfect. Also, I would like to dedicate this first chapter to SilentSilverSlip because they are one of my best friends, even if we haven't been able to meet face to face.

Well, if you have read my other story (The Ultimate Weapon) you won't be surprised to find that I will do a random question here. Feel free to answer or not, I will hold nothing against you.

RQ: What is the first book that made you love reading?

Until next month,

-Nicky~