The adventures of the young engineer and Prinz Eugen Volume 2.

No. 7 Chapter 7

After the young engineer had woken up, he had already made his way back to the drawing boards. There he picked up his equipment as well as his notes and said his goodbyes as best as he was able to, to the other designers with whom he had worked together. Afterwards he returned to his dorm room and started packing his things for his preparations to return to Ironblood. Through his head ran once more his thoughts on the matter. As much as he had enjoyed his stay here and getting to know the Sakura Empire and its navy, he was equally happy to get some distance between himself and some of them. He also thought about the blueprints he helped in finishing and what he had taught the other designers about retrofitting riggings, ships and how to potentially awaken new ones. He felt bad about missing out on what they would be able to do with that knowledge. But he was sure he would learn eventually what they did with the knowledge he had transferred to them.

He was interrupted by a knock on his door. Walking over to the dorm room door, he opened up and saw the sharp toothed smile of Kumano awaiting him on the other side. "Hello there. You are already awake? Wow, you are almost like the commander. Isn't that totally a horrible feeling to wake up that early and do all sorts of stuff in the morning? I was barely able to stand up and do my chores today." She started to babble out. "Good morning Kumano." The young engineer greeted the cruiser back. "How may I help you?" He asked. "Ohh, yea, right." The cruiser realized that she had been going off topic. "I was sent here by the commander to ask you to stay longer here in the Sakura Empire. He is inviting you and Prinz Eugen to stay until after the new year's celebrations. He said he wanted to show his gratitude for your work and apologize for Akagis and Taihos behavior." She informed the young engineer. The latter scratched the side of his neck. "Thank you for the kind offer. I will inform Prinz Eugen about it and meet up with the commander later on." He postponed giving a definitive answer. "Alrighty. Ya know, it would be like totally awesome if you two would stay. The festivities are always great. So many nice things to eat and all the fireworks and nice dresses. You would totally like it." Kumano encouraged the young engineer to decide to stay. "Thank you for offering your point of view. I will be sure to consider your point." The young engineer smiled slightly uncomfortable. "You really should though. The new years festival is totally awesome here." Kumano encouraged the young engineer before leaving. The latter observed her walking down the hallway before returning into his room to get his coat to meet Prinz Eugen for breakfast.

Sitting together with Prinz Eugen in a restaurant near the base, the two enjoyed their breakfast in silence. Neither of them seemed sure how to engage in a conversation. After finishing his fish and vegetables the young engineer took the opportunity of Prinz Eugen still chewing to initiate a conversation. "I received an invitation from the sakuran fleet for us to stay here for a while longer as guests to their new year's festivities. What do you think of that?" He asked her. Prinz Eugen swallowed her food before answering. "That is a nice offer from them. Are you sure you want to stay here though? It seems you are rather uncomfortable with most of them except for the cruisers." She asked him in return. "I would say I will be alright. Especially now that my big and scary protector is here." He answered her question and teased her in the hope of making the conversation feel less awkward. "So I am your protector now am I?" She asked ironically. "Well, a knight deserves a kiss from the princess as reward. So where is mine for rescuing you yesterday?" She teased him right back while turning her head to present her left cheek, displaying her smile in profile. The young engineer's face quickly turned red. "That is not what I meant." He declined her demand. "What a shame. My princess is prude. Even a kiss on the cheek is too lewd." She mocked him and both had to laugh. "At least we are seemingly getting right back to where we used to be." The young engineer commented on their interaction. "I am certainly happy about that." Prinz Eugen agreed. "In any case, I would like to stay here as well. After all, I don't think I have any other opportunity anyways." The cruiser agreed to the invitation. "Why so?" The young engineer asked. "Well, my rigging needs an overhaul after I traveled around half the world. The other issue is that I think I bent one of the rudders on my heels." She explained. "You bend a rudder?" The young engineer asked, surprised. "How did you manage that?" He asked. "I might have taken a rest on a cliff and probably damaged it either by leaving the sea or reentering it when I jumped off or onto the surface." The cruiser explained her best guess. "I suppose it is a good thing that I am here then." The young engineer concluded in a somewhat defeated tone. "It is quite fortunate indeed." The cruiser smiled. "I am sure you will be able to fix that easily." She added before waving over a waiter to pay for their breakfast.

Returning to the base the young engineer and Prinz Eugen both headed over to the docks where they looked for Prinz Eugens rigging. The two maws greeted them with low, humming growls. A sound the young engineer was quite used to as a greeting. The workshop they were in was similarly equipped to the one he had at their home base but the layout and decorations were quite different. The workshop itself looked more like an office that had been mixed with a mechanics workplace rather than a room solely intended for the latter use. While Prinz Eugen sat down on one of the padded chairs, the young engineer made his way over to inspect the rigging. It was quite worn and one could see the distance it traveled on the rust speckles that accumulated on its steel skin as well as all the depleted lubricant reservoirs. "Well, at least that is nothing that can't be fixed with basic work." The young engineer assessed. "So nothing too difficult." Prinz Eugen answered. "Yes." The young engineer confirmed. "So, show me your rigging boots and that bent rudder." He asked her. The cruiser obliged and grabbed her boots out of a locker. The two metal constructions looked like a mix of a medieval sabaton and a high heeled boot. Attached to the heel of each boot was a rudder the cruiser used to navigate during her high speeds on the surface

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The rudders were needed to steer and navigate for the Shipgirls just as the rudders were needed back when they were the large constructions of steel. Back then they needed them to direct their propulsion and displaced water to steer into the direction they wanted to go. That was the same now. Despite being able to walk on the surface of the sea, the speeds the ships had when they were rushing around with their riggings together with the weight of their riggings would have caused them to always fall or become off balance if they tried to turn like a normal human being in a run due to their inertia and centrifugal forces. The addition of rudders ensured that they could use the water resistance to counter their inertia and centrifugal forces to move and steer in a circles and arcs like ships, while retaining the maneuverability of the human movements to a small degree at high speed and to a greater degree the slower their speeds were. How exactly the propulsion and power of the rigging was transferred to the water was different from Shipgirl to Shipgirl. Some had next to the rudders also propellers on their heels, which ensured their propulsion when they were on the seas while others had parts of their rigging do their job and some had no seeming propulsion systems at all. As far as the young engineer knew, it was all about the exact way the energy of the Shipgirl and their rigging worked together that ensured their compatibility and the way they functioned.

Looking at the right shoe the young engineer already saw the issue at hand. The rudder was partially unhinged and its steering pin bent. Next to that the rudder blade itself had a bad bend and cracks on the rims. It did not take much more for the young engineer to know that he would have to fix the steering pin and probably the grearing of it. The rudder blade itself he could write off. Even if he would bend it back and fix it up, the cracks and fractures in the metal told him already that its structural soundness was not given. He would have to make a new rudder blade for the shoe. "Seriously, what did you do to mess your rudder up like that? The blade is done for and the steering mechanism is hopefully just bent out of place. The latter I can probably fix in a couple of hours, but I have no idea how I am supposed to get you a new rudder blade." He explained with slight frustration. "Well, as I said, I might have bent it while waiting for Atago on a cliff." She explained again. "I am sorry for that. But I do know who can help you with getting the materials to make a new rudder." Prinz Eugen added. "You do?" The young engineer asked with slight surprise. "I do indeed. The overall lead engineer of the fleet of the Sakura Empire has all the materials you need." Prinz Eugen explained. "They have a lead engineer?" The young engineer asked, once more surprised. "They do. The repair ship Akashi and the outfitting ship Kashino both became alive as well and kept performing their duty for the fleet in this way." Prinz Eugen explained. "Interesting. I never knew that other ships that are not directly warships have also become alive." The young engineer stated while thinking about that new fact he just learned. "Akashi can get you the materials. But be careful, she is a bit special. More so than the other ships you have met so far." Prinz Eugen warned him with her teasing smile.