Piloting, Pants, and Airships

"Miss Evangeline Forester, how do you plead?" The voice said in a bord drone of a public official as he shuffled papers and glanced fleetingly at the young woman. The woman didn’t answer the prosecutor but instead directed her statement to the judge.

“Your honor, for me to plead, it would be helpful to know what I am specifically charged with.”

“Miss Forester, you know very well what you did, but let's just read the list, Crown Prosecutor Lamb if you please. “The judge tugged at his collar, sweat running down his jowls. Why must they wear these absurd horsehair wigs and high collars? The judge mused, hoping this case would not take long.

The prosecutor pushed up his spectacles. Then the man recited in a high, nasally voice," The defendant in flagrant disregard for the law.” He gestured to the woman at the stand, “ Miss Forrester, dressed as a man, attended flight school for lighter than air flying machines and obtained a license in the name Evangelical Forester. Miss Forrester, for the last year, has been working in this disguise as a junior pilot. She was discovered as a woman after an air pirate raid and was shot defending the ship. She has been in violation of crown law 34-67 A piloting with a fraudulent license. Law code 9001.7- 6 Wearing the clothing and styling herself as the wrong gender. Regulation 900-12 Opening accounts at banks and obtaining credit without oversite of a husband, father, or male relative. Worst of all, breaking code 78-900 Voting in elections fraudulently as a man. The Crown is asking for the sentence of 15 years in the woman's prison of New Gate.”

The judge sat back, making his leather-bound chair squeak, “Guilty or not guilty, miss?" The judge repeated while dabbing his brow with his handkerchief. The courtroom was stifling, and someone’s baby wailed in the back of the room. The judge made a mental note , he was going to instruct his cook to make a lime sherbet tonight. That would be the ticket after a long day in this oppressively hot courtroom.

The woman looked up to the judge. His gaze was vacant, and she wondered if he was mentally doing a grocery list or something. This got her dander up; she was in this sweatbox having to plead to a man who cared less about her answer. Evangeline pulled the absurd straw bonnet with pink ribbons from her head, flinging it down. Gasps came from the gallery at the sight of her close-cropped strawberry blond hair, her sweat having made it stand up in a spikey mess. She would do horrible things to her public defender for making her wear this get-up. Miss Forrester met her public defender's stare and gave him one venomous in return. If Evangeline could get away with it, the overly feminine dress would have come off too. She said in a firm voice loudly, “I’m guilty of receiving two merchant marine commendations in safe transporting goods for the empire and king, your honor. I am guilty of living in a society, sir, with no regard for a woman's brains or talent. I refuse to sit at home making babies and knitting tea cozies." She glared at her public defender, who snorted at her response. He had told her to plead for mercy; if she didn’t, he assured her of a lengthy jail sentence. The public defender said in a bored voice, "Your honor, I advised her to plead guilty and beg the mercy of the court. My client is not following my request." Evangeline despised him. He wore a cheap suit, overly greased hair, and slouched as he read from his notes. Why, based on a penis, did he get to be a barrister, and she never could?

The judge steepled his fingers, "We are not here today to argue society's rules or even the rule of law. We are here to pass judgment on a clear violation of the law. Now prosecutor Lamb has correctly stated the sentence for your crimes, but I am of a mind to be lenient due to a heartfelt and tear-stained letter from your mother. She believes that you have a mental illness that gives you this delusion of being a man and that Doctor Voss of the Kings Chantry Sanatorium can help you."

Evangeline looked considerably paler and stammered, “Your Honor, I am not confused as to my sex; I am a woman. I disagree with faulty laws that discriminate based on the most arbitrary of things. I do not need a sanitorium. That letter is most fraudulent sir, my mother died in childbirth; I was raised by my grandmother, who recently passed."

The judge held the letter aloft, “Yes, well, your mother stated that you say that. Bailiffs, if you please escort her to the waiting carriage. Shackles if necessary, and Miss forester, I hope Dr. Voss has much success with setting your mind to right.” He slammed the gavel, and she gripped the stand railing, “This is a mistake, Sir; I do not have a mother."

The bailiffs pried her fingers free and hauled her the length of the courtroom, her heels dragging. She screamed, " NO!", she fought, but the burly men used too much more forceful opponents didn't acknowledge her blows.

Harlots awaiting sentencing cat called and offered advice as they clanked their chained fetters and laughed., “Stop fighting love; a year or two in the nutters home and you wear a pretty frock, you will be out." Another in a scandalously low-cut velvet dress added, "Play the game, lovey, when you get out, you come to see us, we know some chaps who like their girls to dress like boys.”

The carriage was a euphemism for a jail transport van drawn by two stout mules. The black box mainly was iron, with the slat boards painted black. The sole window had a metal grate on it. The door was a rectangle just large enough to throw her through like cordwood. One guard got in and slapped her soundly to stop her struggles as he clamped her in irons to the wall. She spit in his face, and he hissed with malice, " You bitch!" then closed-handed struck her again. She hit the floor stunned from the blows, and the man got out of the transport wagon, slammed the door shut with finality, and the padlock applied. Splinters had dug into Evangeline’s palms and knees, and when her chin had hit the floor, her teeth clacked so hard, she feared she had shattered a tooth. She sat and leaned against the transport wall; it reeked of urine, rotting moldy straw, and maybe rotting meat. Her eyes had to adjust to the near darkness in the sweltering box, and she heard a clank of chains and a voice, “Sad, isn’t it? You get to be one of three things, a wife, nun, or nurse until you’re a wife. Perhaps I should say two things. You... my dear, tweaked their nose, and they didn't like that one bit."

Evangeline looked at her fellow traveler as the driver snapped the reigns and the mules started their clopping on cobblestone streets forward. The iron box carriage lurched and squealed alarmingly as the wheels sounded like they needed oil. “Who are you? You seem to know of me.” Evangeline said sourly.

The other woman purposely shifted to get in the scant light through the only window. Evangeline was surprised; the woman was from the Jiǔzhōu kingdom. Her almond eyes and long black hair contrast the pale, light-haired woman of the Romo Britannia Empire. The woman said, “I would offer my hand to shake, but they chain us so we may not touch one another. I am Lu Xuefeng, and you should be the notorious Evangeline Forester. A pleasure to meet you.”

Evangeline sighed. Great a pleasure girl, and a chatty one. She knew that wealthy men paid dearly or exotics from all over the world. With this one’s command of the king's tongue, she must have been brought here as a child. She ignored the woman to look at what she could see of the iron box. It would take two days of riding in this box to get to the sanitorium, and she needed to figure out how to escape.

“You won't find a way out. Cold iron in case you have Fae blood. Spelled by a government witch in case you have magic or swallowed a magical item. I'm afraid you need rescuing."

“You also, Madam.” Evangeline snapped and still examined the door as far as her chains allowed.

“That’s just it. I do have someone coming to rescue me. The thing is, Evangeline, do you wish to come along or stay here?’

“Great!” Evangeline thought, “I am locked in with a madwoman." Look, ah…”

"Lu," her companion supplied helpfully.

“Lu, I don't know you, and truthfully, why would you or any friends of yours want to help me?”

“Well, my captain is who actually wishes to have you rescued. I just needed to get arrested and put on the same transport as you. Fortunately, that wasn’t that hard." Lu said distractedly, orienting her ear to the one source of fresh air and light the barred window. Evangeline, with the pause in the conversation, thought she might have heard a thrum in the distance. A sound like bees on a swarm. She looked over to see Lu fidgeting to get off her shoe. A filthy low-heeled mule that had seen better days. Grasping it, Lu slammed the shoe down repeatedly until the heel broke off. Holding the heel, she dumped out from its hollowed core an ampule. Lu snapped the top and carefully dripped a drop on the chainlink connecting her to the transport wall. The chain-smoked, and the substance ate away at the link., tugging the chain snapped. Lu then walked on her knees over to Evangeline, “hold out your hands you don’t want this acid on you, but I gather you wouldn’t want to be chained to this box anymore.”

Evangeline held out her wrists; while she had not said she would go with this woman having herself unfettered from the iron shackles would help her escape. Lu poured the remaining acid on the links that bound her wrists and the chain to the wall. With a pull, Evangeline saw her chain snap, “Do you have more of that stuff in the other shoe?”

“No, they wanted us to be able to climb out, and that acid is quite volatile in the right circumstances.” The humming thrum sound was louder, and Lu said, “I believe that is our ride, thank the goddess of mercy and compassion.”

Evangeline stepped back, “Who exactly are you with?”

The transport stopped suddenly, and the sound of guards jumping off, one of them yelled to the other to be heard over the sound of the airship, " God's damn it, that's no commercial ship. Get ready, boys; we have pirates."

Lu chuckled. “Oh, don't tell me you haven't guessed? I’m an air pirate. You should be one too.”

Evangeline stammered, “Look, I'm a law-abiding…."

Lu cut her off, “Why are you concerned about laws? You are being sent to the crazy house for being good at your job and wearing pants. If they make unjust laws, we don’t follow them. Talk to the captain; if what they say don't interest you, we will put you down wherever you like." Before Evangeline could answer, there was a boom that made the box shutter. Then there was the sound of the driver and guards screaming. The popping sound of what she assumed was guns and then silence. A voice called out heavily accented, “Beloved, are you in there?”

“Who else would be in this stench pit, Oyuun?”

A second male voice said, “Hang on, Louie, I am getting the torch down to cut you out.”

“My name isn’t Louie, Sebastian.” She called back.

"Whatever, Lu Lu, you got your chains disconnected? “

“Yes, now get us out of this vile iron box.” Lu turned her attention from the ceiling to her fellow traveler, “Come on now, it's the Insane Asylum or us, and we both know the chance of you getting free of them is slim and none.”

Evangeline heard the pop of the torch and the sparks of it cutting the metal roof. She said, " I am not about to become an air pirate, robbing, raping, and selling children. I fought you, people."

“NO! you fought the scum who do not abide by the codes, and we are not them. The government is unjust with its colonies. We strike targets that damage them and the corporations like the New India Trade Guild. I can't make you join, but for God's sake, get away from this asylum sentence.”

The roof now had a glowing square from where a torch was being used. a voice called, “Don’t stand in the middle." And then it clattered to the floor, letting in light and fresh air. A substantial muscular arm with a leather bracer thrust itself in, “ Wife take my hand; our ship will be noticed. We should go."

Lu took it, and he lifted her with ease. Then the arm reappeared, and he called, “Miss Forrester, come now, please."

Evangeline shook her head. This had to be either the best or stupidest thing she ever did and grasp the hand. In the bright sunlight, she saw the driver and guards knocked out on the roadside. A rope ladder hung down from a pirate dirigible. The men had started climbing up, and the slender woman held the key out to unlock the cuffs with the dangling bits of chain. She said to Evangeline, “Come on, let us go."

Evangeline watched the woman climb and called up, “Why should I follow you?”

"So, you can beat my ass for impersonating your mother in a letter," Lu called down, laughing.

Evangeline grasped the rung; the airship was starting to lift, so she scrambled to climb up. She resolved to hear what they said and, at first, chance get away from them. She was no pirate; maybe in the Americas, she could start over. The crew helped pull her up, and Lu, standing in the soiled dress, ordered people in a mixture of English, Cantonese, and Spanish. In the hive of motion, Lu said, acknowledging Evangeline, “Welcome to my ship, the Tea Dragon; I'm the captain."

Evangeline stood, and for a long moment, she said nothing. The captain was a woman?