An independent inventor

My eyes couldn't take it all in at once. Everywhere I looked, I could see strange contraptions, piles of vacuum tubes, copper pipes, and riveted leather bellows. In the center was, what looked like anyway, a dangerously modified Aether forge. "Where is the insulation?" I wondered aloud, suddenly worried about my safety both inside and outside this strange shop.

"No need for it. I rarely have to make any more Aether than in necessary to power a little steam trinket these days." I heard a voice say beside me. I burst in so quickly, I didn't notice the craftsman working on some sort of contraption with a series of tubes and hoses that I couldn't make any sense of. "Well, I see fashion has changed on me yet again." He said, noting my disheveled attire.

"Good sir, my father entrusted my care to a very bad man! He...he attempted to do many immoral things to me both in the velocicarriage and in the hotel room! I fear he will not be happy that I've slipped from his grasp. May I stay here for awhile?" I asked. He was a clean man of middle age with a roguish mustache and goatee. He certainly wasn't entirely British. When he moved, it was with a careful measure of how he flowed through whatever space he was about to occupy. In his workshop, we was a master of the dance. He pulled his gloves off, and removed his monocled magnifying glass. His hair was black and smooth, and well barbered.

"Another one? Trask really out to start locking those doors." he said, mostly to himself. "Very well, head to the back of the shop. There is a sofa there." he said, motioning with a Aetherwelding rod. I looked around. Now that I was able to look at individual pieces, some of them looked quite brilliant. Others looked like the improvised explosives the Americans use.

"Sir, thank you; but may I ask where I am?" I said, tension releasing from my body. I still wasn't ready to revisit that awful experience, so I distracted myself with my surroundings.

"You are in the workshop of the Wayland Singh Aetherworks Emporium. I am Mr. Singh. If you just escaped Trask's grasp then I suppose your simple mind must be quite befuddled by all this. These are my innovations and inventions." He said. Singh. So he was half-Hindu. No wonder he chose to work so far from the main colonies. Not much glory in being the child of a servant. Still, he was obviously well off enough. Must have come from a rather embarrassed but rather rich estate.

"So you know the man?" I asked as I picked up a device with an Aether battery and a long, copper coil.

"Put that down. Yes, I know him, and the "service" he provides. Don't worry, he won't come here. He has nothing to bribe my compliance with, and a tussle in this room would leave a crater the size of Kanda on the map."

"What do you mean by bribe your compliance?" I asked, studying him. He leaned back, and stood. He was a tall man with an athletic build. His voice was deep and even with just the hint of a Scottish accent.

"Trask is a company man." he said, brushing his hands off before fully turning to face me. He slipped his hands into his pockets, and with a straight face and only the hint of defiance, he said "I am not with the company." He then walked passed me, talking the whole while. "I am an independent inventor and researcher unaffiliated in any way with the East Orion Trading Company. My work, and my profits, are my own.

You, on the other hand, are almost certainly the daughter of some wealthy management type and got caught doing something every teenager does, and since he took you to the hotel instead of the woods, must have done something to convince him you'd play along. Don't feel bad, girl. You should count yourself lucky. Trask is a bumbling amateur at such a thing. At least once a month some panicked young Philomel comes running into one of the shops. The only reason he gets any work is that he is totally clean and completely infertile, unlike some other chaperones..." he says, trailing off. "It's surprising he didn't dose you with 'Rilla Nectar."

"What's that?" I asked, and felt the wine I drank kicking in. Everything was stunningly beautiful in his workshop. I felt my mind wander, and his voice fade off. Whatever it was, I was about to find out.

"Oh dear." I heard him say before I swooned, and ended up on the floor.