Chapter Forty-Five
Devona stepped into the mechanics lab, ignoring the "Keep Out" warning signs, bowl in hand, progressing towards the engineering bay where her betrothed and Asuran partner-in-crime were still working studiously, and had been save nothing but sleep for the last two weeks.
In truth, she was rather jealous that Coran's attention had been stolen away by a machination of what was promised to be obliterating destruction. It was during that time that Yue, in a surprising moment of friendliness and perhaps sympathy, introduced the warrior to the confection she was now consuming.
She found Coran and Vekk in the center of the bay, buried halfway in the rounded rectangular tube, with wires, contraptions, and other assorted knick-knacks strewn about seeming haphazardly.
"Coran… let me do this." Vekk said matter-of-factly. "Gold filament isn't cheap, and I have smaller hands."
"Very well." Her betrothed answered.
"How is the project progressing, gentlemen?" Devona asked in between bites.
Coran's body went rigid in unison with a metallic thud, and his yelp of pain.
"Careful with the casing!" Vekk chided as Coran emerged rubbing the back of his head. "I don't care if it is forged Titanium."
"Could you give a little warning next time, love?" Coran said with a pained groan as he wiped black oily grease from his hands with a towel. He then noticed her shovel another spoonful into her mouth, and rolled his eyes, "Yue's got you hooked on that stuff too?"
"It's good." Devona replied while swallowing. "Anyway… I came to inform you that you received a 'top priority' package that you and Vekk were supposedly waiting for."
Vekk popped his head out of the machination, his eyes bulging with what Devona assumed was anticipation. "It's here? Where is it?"
"Right outside the lab." Devona gestured with her spoon towards the bay exit. "The Mechanical Krewe carted it over to the main door. I figured from the roughly forty "FRAGILE" stamps on the container that it wasn't something I should be handling, so I figured I'd let you know so you two could bring it in."
Devona had never known Vekk could move so fast. He was off his stepstool and out of the bay towards the front of the lab before she could have even drawn her hammer. Coran attempted to follow, but the Asuran was already wheeling the cart, laden with a large reinforced wooden box through the empty laboratory and into the engineering bay.
"One modulating current resistor courtesy of the fine machinists of Utopia!" Vekk chirped… he seemed so excited Devona was expecting him to start skipping at any moment.
"Huh? Where?" Devona asked.
Coran's eyebrows lifted in amusement. "What? You've never been to the clockwork city?"
"I've never even heard of it!" She replied, and she thought she had been everywhere.
"There's a whole world out there, my dear." Coran said with a kiss on her forehead. "You think Atal Ra boggles your mind, you should see the Cronus Center, also called the Hub of Time."
"Or the Tempora Archway." Vekk added, nodding sagely.
"Is… this another Asuran town?" Devona asked, her brain sufficiently scrambled, and noticing her iced cream was now gone. With a forlorn sigh, she set the bowl down on a relatively uncluttered work station.
Coran rubbed her shoulders soothingly. "Actually, it isn't. No one knows who constructed it, much like the Eye of the North. Currently, all sorts of races live in the clockwork city, blessed with extraordinary manufacturing resources; much of the delicate components used in Asuran machinery are developed and fabricated within Utopia."
"Speaking of which…" Vekk declared, a crowbar materializing in his hand that Devona could not figure out how it got there or where it had come from, prying the top of the sturdy crate with remarkable deftness. The size of the box belied its contents, as Vekk reached in and starting throwing out clumps of a white, fluffy, foam material.
He eventually emerged with another box, this one of cardboard, in his hands and prompting Devona to ask, "Is that really necessary?"
"If you understood just how delicately tuned this instrument was and how little force would be needed to completely throw the entire unit out of alignment, a unit that has to be precise to within one ten thousandths of a nanonode, you would understand why such studious packing is required."
That box he opened carefully with his knife, and pulled out several sheets of a clear, seemingly rippled plastic before finally producing the object in question, a mish mash of wire and gold, silver, and copper metals. "I will have this calibrated promptly, and have it added to our test device." Vekk replied. "Coran, make sure the other modulator is in there, then you can help me mount the system."
Coran nodded in affirmation as Vekk was about to leave, but before he could, Devona asked warily, "If you have to adjust the thing anyway… why was such packing necessary again?"
The two males looked at each other with bemusement, and Coran thrust one sheet of the rippled plastic in front of Devona. "Here, have fun."
She took the plastic in question warily, noting that it actually wasn't rippled at all… instead the plastic seemed to have pockets of air trapped inside at regular intervals that caused the two separate sheets to form a raised pattern. "What is this?"
"Bulged Uniform Bubbles Beneath Layered Elastic Wrapping Required for Ample Packaging, known more simply as B.U.B.B.L.E.W.R.A.P." Coran explained, his lips tugging upward in a grin. "Close your fingers around one."
Nervously, Devona did as requested, pinching one of the bubbles between thumb and forefinger, then jerking with a start at the sharp popping sound it created. After several moments of silence as she processed exactly what had happened, the warrior took another exploratory effort, prepared for the sound and sensation this time, and releasing a short giggle. Further popping occurred with greater amusement and vigor, sometimes two at a time, and even a series of snaps as she twisted the wrapping among itself. When the first sheet was exhausted, she noted with glee that it had several siblings within the cardboard box.
"That should keep her occupied for hours." Coran noted with a hint of amusement. "It should give us plenty of time to finish our work."
He started to walk back towards the bay, only stopping to grab Vekk by the back of his collar, as the Asuran hadn't moved, entranced and envious at the sight of Devona at play. He protested with a whine as he was picked up and carried into the engineering bay with a pitiful, "But.. but… but I waaaaaaant…"