Chapter 38: The Maw of the Serpent Part 3

"Did you check with the Captain?" Thomas looked up for a moment.
"Henrichs said it should be OK. We haven't seen any of the serpents this far out. If something grabs the line, I'll let it go."
Cal set up to draw Pentam fishing. He tossed the line out gracefully and let it sink before hauling
it up and doing again. On the third cast he caught a fish. He snapped its neck and kept on fishing. By the time the sun had moved to the west, he had a pile of fish on the deck.
On this cast, he must have hooked onto a larger fish. Pentam grunted as he hauled it in. It broke the surface and flapped desperately. Thomas run over with a long boathook and leaned over. Cal stood to get a better angle on their struggle. That was going to be a huge catch.
A shadow moved under the water. Shark, they'd seen a few, but nothing that big. It kept growing. Cal had a flash of the teeth pulling the net down.
"Pentam!" Cal screamed. "Get away from there, now." She pointed to the water. Pentam took one glance than dragged Thomas away from the side.
The serpent's head rose out of the water, catching the fish and still rising. It looked big enough to swallow a man. Pentam and Thomas scrambled back. The serpent turned to them and opened its mouth. It hit the Peregrine. The entire ship rocked violently and the serpent fell back into the water with a tremendous splash. Cal held on for dear life as the shadow vanished into the depths and the ship bobbed to a rest.
The all hands alarm sounded. Cal scrambled to pick up the sketchbook and stuff it in her satchel. The pencil was gone. She headed down the ladder, slowed by her injured hand. The others were all in the lab before she arrived. Her father's face relaxed when she walked in.
"All right. We were packed up for travel, but not for the shaking we just got. I want everybody in the hold checking on our samples. Make sure they are intact and safely stowed. Pentam, have a look at your darkroom. Cal you're with me. Captain Cully will want to hear from you what happened."
The Captain stood on the bow deck taking reports from the crew.
"All hands present and accounted for." Henrichs spoke in the tones she would have ordered dinner. "Two injuries. One fell down a ladder when the ship heaved. Hit his head, but he'll be fine. The other...." She looked over at Cal and pain crossed her face. "Monky was in the boiler room when we got hit. The stoke door was open. He's burned pretty bad. Purser's with him now.
"Captain." Thomas stepped up. "We've got a problem. That blow to the ship was that bloody big serpent hitting the rudder. It's gone, torn right off."
The Captain went still then nodded his head. "Get a team together and assess the damage. Can we jury-rig something with what we have? Bran?" The assistant engineer stepped forward. "We need that boiler room put to rights. Hop on it."
"I don't know..." Brnd trailed off uncertainly.
"I have a schematic that will help. We'll get it done." Cal looked at Captain Cully. "We could use another set of hands." She held hers up.
Captain Cully pointed at a burly sailor, and Cal led them to the ladder down.
"I'll just grab my schematic from my berth, you get down there and check the pressure, better low than high." She left them scrambling down the ladder and ran to fetch her drawing. She made it down the ladders and stepped into the engine room. Coals scattered across the floor. Cal looked at the sailor.
"Derrik, right? Grab the shovel and get that coal back in the fire."
"Yes, ma'am." He picked up the shovel and began clearing the floor.
Cal picked her way over to the boiler.
"Pressure's really low, we must have lost water."
"Let's find where."
Bran and Cal went over the boiler drawing in hand.
"Here, the pressure release took a bang from something." Cal pointed to where the valve was twisted.
"What would be heavy enough to do that?"
Cal pointed to the bulkhead where the massive shaft went through to the ocean.
"The hull twisted when the thing hit, one of the pipes could have hit the valve."
Bran tried turning the valve. It moved a little, then stopped.
"We'll need to replace it."
"We'll have to dump the steam."
"Most of its gone now anyway. You saw the pressure; the pistons aren't moving."
"How are we going to do that?" Bran looked at her wide-eyed. "We aren't even proper engineers."
Cal pointed to the tools. "We have tools. First we cool down, then get the thing off. Have a look and see if the valve is welded or threaded. Pray for threads."
"Yes, ma'am." Bran saluted. Cal stepped out of the engine room and opened the door to where Monky had mentioned spare parts.
"Good Heavens." Cal looked around. There had to be enough to rebuild most of the engine room. Pipes of varying diameters, valves of all kinds and sizes. Even something which looked like a miniature boiler. She couldn't imagine what it was for. There was nothing like it in the engine room. She went back to the engine room.
"Report."
"Coals are cleaned up, ma'am. Bran said to dump water on them, we didn't want them burning right now." Derrick stood at attention.
"Good thinking, Bran."
"The valve is threaded. That wrench," Bran pointed to a massive thing on the wall, held down with chains, "will fit if we kind find a gorilla to use it. I'm checking all the other valves for damage. So far everything looks good."
"Very good, continue. I'm going to report to the Captain."
"Yes, ma'am."
Cal climbed up to the deck and found the Captain with Sir Shillingsworth and Henrichs trying to come up with a solution.
"Assistant Engineer Cal reporting." Cal's hand ached as she tried to salute.
"You've given yourself a promotion." The Captain smiled briefly at her. Cal blushed. "Don't worry, I think I'll make it official. Give your report, engineer."