Excerpt: Helium Dreams

Emil's office was a cluttered, messy thing much like the man himself. A stack of unpaid bills with dried coffee rings boldly stamped on top sat near the desk, lonely and forgotten on the floor. The top of the desk was devoted to blueprints and various smudged sketches of a large passengers' quarters. A scaled model of the cabin and the dirigible it was a part of graced the back of the desk, just to the left of a dim electric lamp. Various knickknacks, pencil stubs, and a pair of dusty reading glasses finished off the clutter.

The dark haired inventor glanced up from the book he was reading over as his pocket watch let out a muffled chime.

"Dinner already?" he wondered, reaching into his coat pocket to retrieve the time piece and scrutinize it. "Words, I thought I had longer."

He harrumphed a bit to himself and set the book aside for later. He was quite interested in reading about the properties of helium, but it would just have to wait until later. Lydia, dear woman that she was, would have his head if he was late for this meal.

And he was very much afraid that the housekeeper kept knives sharp for just the occasion he finally chose to disobey her.