A Harem is no place for a Lady!

The basket lowered down toward the ground. Two of the crew members jumped out with ropes to steady the basket one of the men called out, "Princess, jump out now, please!" Teslaimia nodded and hopped down out of the basket.

The other crew member called out, "Lady Connaissance, please wait for one moment." the basket swayed about ten feet side to side and then he called out, "Lady Connaissance, please jump out now!" Emily hopped down but lost her footing and tumbled to the ground. The luggage they brought was tossed to the two crew members who stacked it one box at a time without complaint.

A group of military men from the Holy Chadtom Empire quickly surrounded them. One of the men asked, "Will you please state your identity and your intentions?

The crew member from the Zealous called out, "We are from the City of Connaissance Defense force, here to shuttle Lady Connaissance and Princess Teslaimia from Fursia the late Emperor's funeral. We will be headed back to our City now and should return again in three weeks to pick them up for the return trip. He gave a quick military salute and then gave the basket rope three tugs which caused the basket to rise back up to the hovering Destroyer.

The leader of the military men from the Holy Chadtom Empire smiled at the two ladies and said, "Welcome to Kohala. Don't worry about your luggage we will have it brought to the palace, please come this way." He escorted the women over to a nearby carriage. They climbed inside and Emily rubbed her ankle while wincing in pain.

Teslaimia leaned down and touched it frowning she asked, "Lady Connaissance hurt her ankle while disembarking from the ship can you have a doctor come to have a look at it?"

He nodded and said, "Of course. Please relax we shall be to the palace in a moment."

*****

"Archbishop Josciox, this is the last water until we get to the outskirts of the Chadtom Empire. We'll need to walk the horses on this leg of the trip or we'll start losing the heavy horses." A soldier kneeling in front of the tall bearded red-haired man spoke with a gravelly voice.

"At that pace when will we arrive in the Empire? I want to have that group of Heathens put to the sword before they can put their Emperor in the ground." He grinned madly, "The Church needs an example and these people did not heed that our words are the words that come straight from the Son. The Son gave them an order and instead of attacking the heretics they chose to ally with them and attack our brothers in the Windsor Kingdom."

"Your Grace, This road goes through every city in the Empire. They are all located along the banks of the Muliwai which we will find in four days march. That is also where we will find the next water. There are seven major cities and 6 villages that make up the Empire The armies of the Empire will be gathered at the capital city. Each of the major cities is one day's march from each other so we should be able to kill our way there in three weeks." The Soldier explained.

The Archbishop glared at the soldier, "Three weeks! No, we will need to increase our pace. I want to see their capital city in ten days. We won't be coming back this way. Empty this spring. Bring enough water that we can cross the desert in two days."

"Your Grace, it shall be done."

*****

Captain Gibbs stood next to Nate Butler his first officer looking out over the valley, "So two hundred then?"

Nate nodded and said, "It seems from our testing that flying at two hundred feet gives us the best response with our directional controls. I have to be honest, what I am most worried about is adverse weather conditions. We can't get high enough to fly over the top of it. If we get hit by a strong gust with sails up, we'll lose the rigging and this ship is basically a large sail itself, so we could be pushed hundreds of miles off course. Should we turn back now and try to make it back to the factory? The winds changed last night and are pushing us back that way."

The Captain nodded, "Bring us around we'll follow the Muliwai to the capital and then head due east from the capital back to Connaissance. We should hit the western end of the Muliwai in a couple of days and then be back to the factory by the end of the week. That should give us two weeks at the factory for repairs and to give them the data for tweaks on our systems."

A dirty man came running up to the bridge, "Cap'n Boiler two reportin' we lost steam pressure. Looks like we lost our water pump and water line. Unable to repair in the air."

Nate raised an eyebrow, "That means we only have sail power for the return trip, this should be interesting. Can boiler one handle the hives if we need to fight?"

The boiler man nodded and said, "Aye, one boiler is enough to use the hives, but we need both boilers running to power the shafts."

Captain Gibbs took a breath, "Keep us at two hundred, rig for full sale and start tacking procedures. I want the ship turned slightly against the wind to give us a forward boost." He looked at the boiler man, "Is the chief engineer already back there working on it?"

The boiler man shook his head no, "He didn't come to look, just stayed in his cabin and told us to tell you we needed to get back to the factory."

The Captain glared at the boiler man, "Nate, go get the chief engineer and frog march him if you have to, down to the problem area. I want him to look at it and see if we can make a temporary repair. I don't want to lose the Zealous on her shakedown flight because we couldn't make a minor repair to the water main."

A few minutes later the Chief Engineer looked at it and said, "Line needs a patch here. The pump failed because the water level got too low."

Nate made a face at the man, "And who has the duty on this ship to watch over the pressure levels here in boiler rooms?"

The Chief looked at the First Officer with a death glare, "Even you and the Captain get to sleep and don't stay at your post all day and all night."

Nate raised his voice, "When you aren't on duty, who did you put in place to monitor these gauges?"

The Chief waved dismissively, "I am the only man on this ship who understands these things, who am I going to assign that duty to if I am not here?"

Nate turned to the boiler man and pointed to the zero, "What number is that?"

The boiler man said, "Zero."

Nate pointed to the first number at the redline, "What number is this one?"

"Seven hundred, sir." He replied.

Nate frowned and the asked, "If this ship is running correctly, what should this read?" He tapped on the gauge, "When the boiler is on and working what should this gauge say?"

The boiler man said, "It's been running at five hundred since we took flight."

Nate's anger was ready to burst as he asked, "When the line failed and the pressure dropped what were you doing?"

The boiler man pointed to the coal room, "Chief has us stand over there by the coal box. He didn't like us looking at his gauges."

Nate turned and glared at the Chief, "From this moment on I want someone at these gauges twenty-four hours a day. Get this boiler online now even if you have to add water by hand."

He turned to the boiler man, "You just got promoted to the second engineer, go assign someone to the gauges on number one boiler."

*****

Princess Teslaimia was pacing around in front of Emily, "Why hasn't he come to see me yet? You're here he should have come running by now."

Emily felt annoyed and a little hurt by Teslaimia, "Then go see if you can find him. I am sure he is probably incredibly busy. His father just passed away and he has to take power over the entire Empire. How could he have time to come and greet a couple of unexpected guests here for a funeral he won't be holding for a few more weeks."

The Princess turned and pouted at Emily, "Does your ankle hurt a lot? You are not acting like yourself."

Emily sighed and said, "It's not bad, it was only a little sore at first. I would like to get up and go walk around town. I think they are only keeping us here in the harem right now to be safe."

The Princess shook her head, "No, we are here because we are meant to be the Emperor's women, this is where we are supposed to stay the rest of our lives. Only servant women can walk around town freely. Didn't you study this? Did you know that all of the guards here are eunuchs? As young boys, they are castrated and trained to look after the Emperor's women. All these men can only look but not touch you see? So they only act when someone from outside tries to get in."

Emily made a terrible face, "You mean they treat these women like his pets?"

She shook her head making sounds like, "Tscht, tscht, tscht. The women of the emperor's harem enjoy the finest foods, all the jewels, silks, and the most expensive gifts a woman would ever need. All the women are top class entertainers, dancers, singers, and musicians. It's like being at a grand party every single day of your life. Who wouldn't dream of such a life? Plus you are dedicated to a man's man. A true hero. With a body that is cut from stone and who's voice can make a maiden wet between the legs just from hello!"

Emily stood up and tested her ankle, "So what you are saying then, is that it is a very nice prison? Sorry, but I am not interested in such a meaningless life. I want to be able to go where I want, when I want, see who I want and do what I want! How can a life laying around like a slug in some furs give you any purpose? I want to build my city, invent things never imagined before, and watch the world from the highest point using the things I was responsible for bringing into the world! I don't want a man to give me something I can take myself!"

The Princess looked shocked, "But when will you have time to have children? When will you be able to enjoy the finer things?"

Emily gave her a dashing smile, "That's why I have you in my life, right?"

The Princess did a slow facepalm as she looked up to continue the argument she noticed that Emily had already left. For some reason, Teslaimia had a bad feeling as she raced after Emily.