The Steam War (The Steam War #1)

Chapter 12: The Love Nazi

"Welcome back to Airship Anatomy, where we dissect, discover, and divulge in knowledge. On today's agenda, we explain the hovering of airships." Mr. Gates pulled out a large model of an airship that was cut down the middle. It exposed all the innerworkings.

"Now, imagine I lost my balloon." He popped the balloon segment off the ship. "Logically, I'd be falling to the ground, right? Most don't. In groups of two or three, try to come up with an idea of how it could stay afloat. There are almost no wrong answers."

Gogs and Sail partnered up before he even finished talking, so Cog and Sprocket paired up. Lukas ended up joining them as well.

"Okay," Cog began, "so I actually tried figuring this out one time, but I couldn't. I saw vents on the bottom of an airship once." She paused, trying to piece the concept together. "What if enough air gets pushed down through them to keep the ship up?"

Sprocket and Lukas both sat quietly, unsure of how to respond to her idea. There was no physical way for that to work, and they knew that.

"Is that a no?" she guessed, observing their contemplating faces.

Lukas opened his mouth to respond, about to destroy the idea with actual physics, but Sprocket gave him a warning gaze.

Don't. Even. Sprocket mentally warned. Lukas didn't have to read his mind to understand what he was trying to convey.

"It's possible," Lukas said, rewording the answer he had prepared. "But I think a more efficient way would be steam power. If heat rises, and you get enough heat, then logically it would rise."

"I'm hearing two normal answers," Mr. Gates announced. "Yes, steam and propellers keep it up. But I also heard Cog's answer, which is also plausible." He himself had to hold back any snarky comments. It wouldn't be very professional, after all. "However, can anyone think of the two other ways?"

Both Gogs and Sail both raised their hands immediately.

Gogs chimed, "They used to use Helium storage pipes pre-1960, until the Helium regulations."

"Now, primarily electricity and aerodynamics keep it up," Sail added.

"Nerds!" Sprocket whispered in their direction, sticking his tongue out. They both returned the favor.

"Boom and boom," Mr. Gates said, a fist pump with each syllable, "the first students I've ever had get both of those. And you included the date of the change. There goes my entire lesson for the day."

A worksheet and a couple more notes later, class ended, and lunch was on. The four sat down, each with a tuna cheese melt as the main course meal, with a side of... something.

"I've got seafood," Sail said, pointing to the food. "See? Food!"

The other three groaned.

"I hope you don't have any more of those," Cog said.

"Puns?" Sail poked. "Oh, I've got a tuna them."

"That's the spirit," Gogs cheered, offering a high five. Sprocket just shook his head.

"I could hardly handle it when there were just two of you who made puns," Cog moaned. "Now I have to deal with three?"

All attention aimed at the stage as Amp ardently approached the auxiliary microphone. Now that the Bahamas were far behind them, he was decked out in his normal attire again.

"Day five already, everyone!" he announced, a big smile shining out at the lunchroom. "I hope it's going splendidly! Of course, tomorrow is the big day. President Jimmy Carter will go on live television, broadcasted worldwide, and speak about Christmas, Nazis, his plans going forward, and our very school! The TVs have all been installed and are in perfect working order. Feel free to watch one of the five channels we can get.