Steam Pirates

In the bustling harbor city of Pescado, an orphan girl took a solitary break at a cold, damp, quiet alley. The brown hair girl leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground, all alone she curled up to keep herself warm from the chilly ocean breeze. Her family tragically dwindled in size from a noxious disease that swept the land. Her family continued to shrink until it became to only her father and herself and sadly one day events beyond her understanding lead to the sudden disappearance of her father, leaving her to live life on the streets. Wanting to rest her eyes she turned her head and laid it on her knees, she then closed her eyes and reminisced back when she had a home.

Even though her family lost many members, Cordelia could remember back when it was she lived a cozy loft apartment with her father.  She was just a baby when her mother passed away, and had no memories of her, but she was the spitting image of her. She was a very kind woman who loved the sea, and for more reasons than the pleasant gaze it gave. She cared for the life that dwelt beneath the surface, from the scampering glowing fish to the motionless pants, and everything in-between; all which she studied like a scientist. Cordelia had photographs of mother and the many notes she left behind about the ocean, which gave Cordelia peace of mind knowing she could at least keep her mother’s thoughts alive by reading them.

Her father was a brilliant tinkerer. Gifted in the field of machinery, he constructed automated puppets, which varied from lumbering dragons to lanky humanoids, and even more impressive was the full range of motion his puppets were capable of. His machine puppets performed entire plays without a single human actor. Even so they all mere mindless automatons, but he dreamt of a day when his automatons could move by their own admission. Cordelia show great aptitude for machinery as well, which her father recognized. He taught her a great deal about his craft before his disappearance.

Cordelia knew he’d never make an auto-puppet awaken with just gears but she too shared her father’s dream of a fully aware puppet. Cordelia was taught at school that the element which separated animals from their near motionless counterparts, plants was electricity. But she knew from reading her mother’s notes, that there was an aquatic plant which gave off electricity and curiously jerked about. She sought out to prove her mother’s contrariant notes and decided search for the very plant her mother wrote of.

While her father was at work Cordelia grabbed her mother’s notebook and went to her mother’s favorite vantage point that over looked the sea, a secluded tombolo just outside of the city. She anchored down reviewing her mother’s notes Cordelia read the page were her mother wrote of the plant.

“The blithesome Aldrovanda impigritas, related to the Aldrovanda vesiculosa but so conspicuously different. How it moves obstinately as if constrained by the limits of its own body. It seems to enjoy a light touch but surges with electricity and will defend itself for its own sake.”

Cordelia flipped the page once more and saw a drawing of the plant. The plant had very long and slender stems which divided in every direction. The plant also had turion pods where it stored electricity. She closed the book with the image of the plant etched in her mind and looked about for the plant and managed to find a sample just at edge of the shore. She went through her backpack and took out an ordinary pickle jar and placed the electric sea plant in the jar and brought it home with her. When she finally arrived home she placed the jar on her desk and tapped it with her finger and got a shock. Even after just receiving a shock she got very excited. Everything her mother said of the plant seemed to be true! Cordelia pondered if she could give this quiescent creature a body.

It was late at night and her father still hasn’t come home but Cordelia had an idea; she would simply place the plant inside one of the auto puppets at her home. She feared that her father wouldn’t want her experimenting on his autopuppets so she decided to place it in her own. She choose to use her favorite auto-puppet because she was most experienced with modifiying it and wanted the experiment to succeed. She spent more time with that particular auto-puppet than she did with children her own age. The clanking auto-puppet was affectionately called Cheche and was a peculiar thing. It was not in the shape of a person or even anything like nature had to offer but it was more insect like than anything else however, resembling a ladybug, but could also roll into a ball like a pill bug. Cordelia kept the puppet unpainted; still it had a bit of variation in color with bronze wings, a copper body and silver legs, six in all. Cordelia hastily constructed a special chamber which could conduct the plants energy and let it follow through the body of the auto puppet. Once fastened the puppet spurted up shaking, fumbling about like a careless baby. But just under a minute it suddenly sprung on its feet and finally began walk on its own! Cordelia jumped for joy wanting to show her father her success right way, but he never came home that day. And when odd men came to seize her only home Cordelia fled.