Clockworks and Corsets by Regina Riley

and cogs formed the forearm, elbow, and upper arm. The works merged into his shoulder where a thin red scar marked the end of the metal and the beginning of the man. Jayne fingered the contraption in awe. Atom bore her attention with good humor. Gabriella, however, sat in the opposite corner of the cage, eyes wide, looking confounded. Rose wasn’t sure what had the girl flustered, the fact that her potential suitor had a mechanical arm or the sight of Atom’s naked, muscular chest that glistened in the glow of firelight.
    “I mean, I’ve seen it before,” Jayne said. “Never in such perfect execution. This is just...just...”
    “Amazing?” asked the newly risen Jax.
    “Yes,” Jayne said. “It is. You cannot fathom how beautiful this piece of work is. It’s like fine art. Living art.”
    Jayne’s voice had a nuance of appreciation in it that made Rose worry. Before, Atom was just another genius to compete with. Now he was a piece of work. Gabriella was going to have some competition if she wasn’t careful.
    “My husband’s commanding officer had a clockwork leg,” Magpie said.
    Jayne shot Magpie a nasty look over her shoulder.
    “He did,” Magpie insisted. “Except it weren’t nothing like that. No sir. It wasn’t that fancy for starts. It had a terrible creak when he walked about too. The boys used to get away with all sorts of things because of that creak. He couldn’t sneak up on ’em, you see? You could hear the man a mile away for all the creaking and ticking.”
    “What makes it a weapon?” Rose asked.
    Jayne gave a sharp huff. “Captain, his strength in this arm alone must be at least that of ten men.”
    “Yes, but what good is that against an entire island of enemies?” Rose asked.
    “Could put the fear of God into ’em,” Magpie suggested.
    “Yah,” Jax said with a snort. “Maybe he waves it and they all go running.”
    “It kind of scares me,” Click said.
    “Ladies and gentleman,” Atom said, a little louder than the chattering crew. They went silent.
    “It’s a weapon because it can do this.”
    The man pulled his metal thumb backward until it lay parallel to his arm at a bone achingly uncomfortable angle. A loud click sounded when his thumb disappeared into his forearm. Atom twisted his remaining fingers together until they merged into one metal mass. Like the pieces of a Chinese puzzle box, he flipped, slid, and slipped his forearm and hand against one another. Soon all he had from the elbow down was a hollow metal tube.
    “What is it?” Magpie asked.
    “A cannon,” Jax offered.
    Atom nodded. “Of sorts.”
    “Simply amazing,” Jayne said. Her eyes lit with an affection that Rose had never seen on the tinker before. Jayne began once again to pat and paw at Atom’s arm, sidling ever closer to him.
    The young man looked away, letting the cogsmith have her fill of the new toy.
    Rose worried that if they did manage to escape this certain doom, there would be a triangle of trouble aboard her vessel. Yet Atom’s face told her otherwise. He gazed at Gabriella with mix of affection, desperation, and anxiety. Most of all he looked troubled. As if revealing his strange abilities to her had rent him to his very soul. Gabriella eyed his arm with a curious interest. When she looked up to see Atom’s terror stricken face, her bemused grin slipped into a warm smile.
    “I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” the young girl gushed.
    Atom’s demeanor changed. He relaxed, clearly relived that she’d approved, then stood a little taller, as if proud of her acceptance.
    “What kind of ammunition does it use?” Jax asked.
    “Good question,” Jayne said in that condescending tone she reserved for her own lengthy explanations.
    Jax grunted.
    “It doesn’t,” Atom said. “It operates using Faraday’s electromagnetism work. It’s basically a reverse of his homopolar motor.”
    Jayne snorted. “Reversing a homopolar motor would just push the components themselves