Part 2

We meet the second main character, DiPersia Iaonsen.

Di hung upside-down, her legs hooked around one of the main rotary engine's external pipelines, trying to get that stupid bracket to stay in place. The steam wrench, heavy in her hand, as well as the thick leather gloves she had to wear to keep from getting burned made her normally agile fingers slow and lethargic. Even her specially crafted goggles were getting fogged up, making her want to throw them off in frustration.

She almost had it when her partner, Orm, yelled her name. "'Ey, Iaonsen! Hurry up, inspection team's almost here!" Not only did the unexpected shout make her hand slip and almost burn a hole through her glove, but her left knee nearly gave out again. Those idiot doctors. When they had patched up her leg when she was twelve, they had done such a shoddy job that her knee joint was now part ligament, part cheap metal. What twit puts that kind of strain on a human body? She had made Head Rotary Mechanic when she was ten, and now she was barely able to keep up with the average workers because her leg kept giving out.

Steaming--both literally and figuratively--she shouted down to Orm, not bothering to mask the irritation in her voice. "And who knows better 'en me, ya idjit? I was on the friggin' inspection team fer three years. So, iffen ya don't mind, lemme finish ma job so I can come down there in sommit other 'en a steam-broiled pile o' bones!" When she was miffed, her language slipped and you could clearly hear the brogue that she had inherited from her father's family.

Orm rolled his eyes, looking up at his upside-down partner, mentally kicking himself for yelling up to her when she was handling the steam wrench. That beast of machinery gave them all problems. As he watched, she made the last few adjustments and the bracket finally stuck. She made her way down; taking a bit more time than any of the others would have had to take because of that accursed metal leg of hers. He remembered when she ran along the pipelines like a monkey. She was still one of the faster workers--not that she'd ever admit it--but she had lost a lot of speed when the doctors had ruined her leg like that. No one cared about the grease monkeys that kept the friggin' ship in the air.

Author's Note

I had a bit of fun coming up with Di's accent (She's Scottish/Irish, if you couldn't tell). Some of her phrases seemed a bit rough, but this section is the heaviest it gets.