Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

absurd as…flying to the moon.
    “Ah.” A deep, wistful smile softened Paolo’s face. “I used to dream that I would be a whale. It seemed a wonderful thing, floatingthrough the ocean, warm with my own blubber—and very far away from people, except for the whalers.” Humor replaced the softness of memory. “Of course, if I were a whale, I would shoot a harpoon back at them, and laugh at their surprise. I once considered making such a creature—a submersible, of course, not a true whale. But I thought it would be too silly, in the end.”
    Annika couldn’t stop herself. “So you didn’t finish it?”
    “Oh, no. Only the schematics. I’m not allowed to buy engines anywhere in the New World. That stipulation was included in my parole.” He looked to Lorenzo. “My son has been wonderful, procuring them for me at his own expense. I’m afraid I take terrible advantage of him.”
    Warmth filled Lorenzo’s expression. “Nothing is too much for you, Father.”
    “Not even the moon,” David said. “What made you dream of that?”
    The wistful smile came again, but tinged by the memory of sadness, pain. “In the insanitarium, I could see my window from my bed. I would not be feeling well, very often. And they didn’t always let me move. But I could see the moon as it passed my window—and it always seemed so very cold. So empty and lonely. I thought it would be an amazing thing to look up and see a man there. And eventually, many men building cities instead of war machines. We could labor together to create the perfect world, where everything would be clean. So clean. It could be a new start.”
    Paolo’s voice was unbearably hopeful. Unbearably sad. Her throat tight, Annika found David’s hand beneath the table.
    “It would be an amazing thing,” she said.
    Looking charmingly pleased, the older man flushed a little. “Yes, well. Until then, we do what we can here. Every bit helps.”
    To keep everything clean? “Such as using the pipes for heating instead of many stoves.”
    “Yes! I would rid our chambers of oil lamps, if I could.”
    “He truly would,” Källa said, laughing. “Please don’t encourage him, Annika.”
    “I won’t,” she said, then looked to Paolo again with a grin. “Have you seen the electric lights? I visited a fair in Nova Lagos once, and they had one on display. A man pedaled a velocipede, and it illuminated the entire tent.”
    “I refuse to pedal all night,” Källa said.
    “That is why the hot springs are—” Paolo stopped, his face lighting. “Have you seen the bath chamber? I just remembered that Källa once said that you enjoyed the springs very much. This is not the same, but quite a lovely feature of this camp.”
    She had seen the room not very far from her own chamber, filled with steam, pipes, and a tin tub. Annika had never used a tub in her life, and she couldn’t help but imagine that it was like sitting in a giant’s cooking pot. “I was in the chamber earlier. But I can make do with a pitcher.”
    “Oh, no, I must insist. It is quite lovely, I promise. Like our own little spring.”
    “Annika’s very modest,” Källa said on her behalf.
    Beside her, David seemed to choke.
    “No one can see you there,” Paolo assured her. “It is private.”
    “I—”
    “Would love to, I’m sure,” Lorenzo said quietly, and Annika’s protests died away. “It must be difficult and sweaty work, driving the walker.”
    Feeling as if she’d suddenly been caught in a snare, Annika nodded. “Yes.”
    “But I couldn’t help noticing that you do it very well.”
    “She’s better than I am,” Källa said.
    “In that case, I wonder if you would drive the men to the ice tunnel tomorrow while Mr. Kentewess is with my father. Since youalso believe that his goal is an amazing one, I’m certain that you would like to contribute to his project as well.”
    Annika didn’t want to. But she couldn’t waste the opportunity to see more of the glacier, and perhaps the means of escape. “What is the ice tunnel?”
    “The ice cap is almost a half mile thick in places. We can’t drill that far to place the charges, so we’ve dug a tunnel that allows us to start at a more reasonable depth. We have to carry the workers to thes current location.”
    “Beneath the ice?” David shook his head. “No.”
    “Yes.”
    “There were tremors today. We heard the ice crack,” he said.
    “So there have been on many days. But there’s never been a cave-in or