There was a rare kind of reverent hush that moved along the clacking and hissing engine floor. It surrounded a woman that looked like she stepped fresh from a Paris fashion plate and a rather tired looking man whose body language screamed copper. The normally very focused technicians became blushing, bumbling school boys before the queen of engines. Jetters Black smiled as he lead the tour of the central statistics municipal annex that was under his care. Lady Ada could see the pride he took in his work as they chatted about the difficulties inherent in data processing. They were both laughing as she told the tail of a misplaced decimal that had nearly gotten her in to trouble when she was younger. Then a voice filtered down from above. "They sold you an upside down decimal linkage. That is what caused the slip."
Ada stopped she was quite sure she had never told that particular anecdote to this particular audience but that was exactly what they had found wrong with that unit. "How did you know?
"Tried to pull that on Ed once but I could hear the difference." The voice came from a scrawny thing that was hanging upside down quite high in the air on the late model engine, The figure bent upwards to look at them with a boneless grace and Black almost covered his face with his hands. He had wanted to get through the tour without Françoise popping up but now it was too late. The figure studied them from above it's contortions looking some how natural. Ada was a bit unnerved but she wanted to know more.
"Did you fix it?" There was a click as the panel Françoise had been working on closed and he did a strange sort of floppy tumble to the ground. The boy was even stranger up close. All knees and elbows, his white shirt cuffs were stained with grease and bits of red hair stuck out from under his hat.
Françoise grinned and took the lady's hand much to the alarm of her paladin. "Ein sung like a bird after that. You are that lady of numbers aren't you? Tomato here ran your itinerary all the way from Bath." He touched the engine with fondness like an old friend. The ladies knight, Fraser, did not approve and looked at the boy like he was mad.
Ada herself was wondering what a boy that looked barely a day over 10 was doing here with highly trained and educated technicians. "So this is tomato?" The boy nodded and pointed to a polished plaque proclaiming it to be model number T0-M8-00. Ada smiled seeing the joke immediately. Françoise's attitude changed and his normal slightly prickly teasing softened. Black almost sighed in relief. When provoked Françoise unpredictable and near brutal. they did not need a reprise of the teacher incident.
Fran oise was smiling he approved of this number lady, her music sounded right. He put a good deal of stock in understanding tomato's name. "Tomato was all hiccup-y when Ed got here. He tried to turn all the traffic lights yellow because it was noon but I gave him a bath and tighten him up as good as new." He looked proudly up at the towering machine. "Some day I will make him run on lightning." Ada was at a bit of a loss. This boy was obviously good with engines but he spoke like he was quite a bit younger than he looked. It was true that each generation seemed to take to clacking sooner and sooner but this was still an oddity. "I put Ein on lightning and he sings better than ever. Françoise grinned like the Cheshire cat and decided it was time for the number lady to meet Ein. Ed could make Ein do all sorts of fancy tricks and the number lady would like it. "Come see Ein number lady." He did not give her time to respond instead he tugged her hand and they were off.
Past the main room the halls were twisty and half full of hissing pipes. An unamused Fraser and Black were on their tails as they ducked and ran. They took one more turn where everyone was forced to duck and squeeze by some unnamed bit of machinery. They had reached a grubby looking bit of hall that was thankfully clear of pipes and lit by what looked like jars of fireflies connected by wires. The walls were papered with bits of old posters faces on strange bodies stared as they passed. The door in front of them was painted with a strange abstract face that was phosphorescent green and leering at them Ada felt nervously out of her element here her mind filled with visions of Alice and the rabbit hole.
"This is Ed's room but Ein lives here too." Françoise opened the door to a brightly lit room that was far more spacious than Ada would have guessed and it was immaculately clean. There was a tiny kitchen and a lounge that looked like it served as a bed. The rest of the room was covered in tools, schematics, what looked like the child of a wimshurst generator and a bicycle and a shining contraption made of kinetoscope pieces and delicate gear linkages the like of which had never been seen before. Françoise happily jumped on the bike and peddled like the devil was after him. The whole thing shook like it was about to fall to pieces as the smell of ozone filled the room like the sky before a thunderstorm. He stopped almost as suddenly as he started and then jumped up and hit a red button on the masive construct. Fraser nearly jumped as heavy curtains came down to cover the windows sending the room in to blackness. A kinetoscope pointed at the blank far wall fired up showing a series of the same strange smiles that were on the door. "Wakey Wakey Ein." Françoise said cheerfully. The picture changed again revealing soothing that looked very much like the top of a desk complete with papers and what looked like a disembodied hand floating above it. The engine clicked quietly as if it was waiting for something. It was a strange sound not like the normal hiss of steam but a quiet buzz as if it had a beehive hidden inside.
Françoise pulled a tablet from a slot in the machine and a blunt metal wand. Ada was very curious to see what the boy was up to. He placed the want on the tablet and suddenly the engine started to whirr as of processing cards and jerkily the hand protected on the screen moved. Causing all those not expecting it to jump. "Hello Ein lets play a game." He was very happy to be showing this to a new audience. Some of his fellows had seen the things Ein could do and had responded with distrust like somehow Ein was more than Françoise's creation and had some life of its own. They had left disturbed and not been asked back. Black had very carefully made sure they were transferred as far from Françoise as he could, when angered that boy could be a demon.
Cards appeared and shuffled themselves in to a game of solitaire. Ada's eyes lit up this was something she could understand more than the strange almost magic that happened before. Françoise took a velum sheet with a diagram of the card layout being projected on the wall. "See you touch the plate and Ein does the rest." Ada got caught up in Françoise's glee as she watched the cards move, this was like nothing she had ever imagined. There were ambitious clackers in France just starting to toy with the concept of useing a kinetoscope as a input output device with an engine but she had never heard of having a direct interface. And this odd boy had somehow made this fantastic thing without ever publishing a paper or attending school if his manors were anything to go by. He was here in a corner of the government that few people even remembered existed making things for what looked to be the sheer joy of it. Strange Strange child, she though.
As they played and talked Fraser took Black aside for a smoke. Black had been expecting and dreading what happened next for a while. There was only so long Françoise's light could be hidden under a bushel especially when the boy was actively trying to outshine the sun. Fraser took up a relaxed post outside the room and looked at Black's searching hand movements. There was a story there waiting to leap out and all he had to do was start things "So about that boy..."
Black sighed like a weight was removed from his shoulders. "I found Françoise living in a light relay they instated just after they passed the gas lamp act." They were ingenious little things that used lime and colored glass to direct traffic all over London and light the streets at night with less smoke. They were hooked via linkages to engines in the heart of London that ran the entire thing. "I don't know how old Françoise was at the time and I have never been able to find birth records. I think Françoise might have erased them." The fact that a child was able to do that did not sit well with Fraser, "As far as I can tell a clock maker found the child on his doorstep and took the poor thing in. The only clue left then was a note naming her Fran oise Appledelhi pined to her clothes."
"Her?" Fraser said smoke wreathing his head and obscuring his expression.
"Yes Françoise is female" Black said with the ghost of a smile. "As far as I have been able to find she loved with him for almost seven years without speaking a single word. Then the old man died and his son came to clear up his estate. They took Fran oise in and his wife tried to polish her up in to a proper lady. She still has scars on her hand from Françoise's teeth. Then she falls off the face of the earth for a while." He turned to Fraser. "Do you remember that business a few years ago with the random vandalism and engine malfunctions all over town?'"
Fraser frowned that had been the month from hell. "The Radical Edwards. That was a bloody goose chase."
Black laughed. "I found the goose. She apparently had no idea how much damage she was doing all she wanted to do was play with the music." Black looked pensive now. "I wanted to be a copper but I ended up in the army instead and lost my arm. Thought bringing her in would be a good way for me to live up to all my aspirations. But when I found her I panicked, hit her over the head, put her in a sack and brought her back here afraid I killed her. I locked her in my office and when home unsure of what to do. When I came in the next morning I thought she was gone for good but I found her happy as a monkey climbing the engines wrench in her mouth. I caught her again and had the techs see what damage she caused. Françoise fixed a problem that had been plaguing us for weeks." Black looked rather like a proud papa. "She is a savant in the truest sense of the word and entirely self taught. She sees numbers as a sort of music that she can play unlike anyone in the world."
This was a bit too much of a fairy tail for Fraser. "Why isn't she in school? There are plenty of places that would teach someone like her for nothing."
Black sighed. "We tried. Fran oise is an odd child and not always companionable with new people. At best if she dislikes you she wont speak to you at worst she has some wickedly sharp teeth."
"She bites?"
"More like clamps down like a bear trap and wont let go. We decided to keep her here after that. She gets a safe place to play with her numbers, regular meals and all the parts she needs and we get her."
"I see." Fraser said snubbing out his cigarette. He could hear excited chattering voices beyond the door speaking of math and engines. For a moment he could almost feel the world changing around him. Oleander had probibly intended this meeting of the minds from the beginning. He wondered of someday the queen of engines would be eclipsed by this odd creature and if so what kind of world it would be.