The Mechanical Era

The sun was about to rise and shine again in the city of Hoverdan. A man, with short black hair, and green eyes with gold flecks, woke up early in the morning. He found himself in his bed with a hay mattress, all alone, still wearing his pajamas.

"Ezekiel, honey, breakfast is ready!" he heard a feminine voice call out to him, belonging to his wife. He ate up the delicious food his wife had made him, which consisted of a variety of foods to keep him healthy, things they can afford that is.

Once he was done eating, he got dressed in his black long-sleeved shirt and yellow tie. It was the uniform he was told to wear by his corporate bosses at HeklorKloch. Once he had packed his briefcase, he kissed his wife goodbye and walked downstairs to his home.

Before he left the house once again, he took a good look at the nearly empty floor, filled with boxes, tables, and chairs. That was about it. It was his old workshop where he had worked alongside his father, while his mother cooked both of them their food upstairs.

Ever since they died 4 years ago, he had been forced to assume the position. However, in recent months, he had to close down the workshop thanks to a lack of money flowing into his business, being replaced by those larger firms, with tons of capital and workers on their hands to do his job.

Regardless, after he took a minute to look at the place, he left for good. He walks down the paved cobblestone road, through the slight smog air of the city, to a nearby tram station, which will take him to the office where he worked on the steam locomotive.

He comes up to the bench and takes a seat in the shade. Ezekiel looks up at the sundial and sees that the tram would be coming around 10 minutes from now. Considering the time he has to wait, he decided to open up his bag and take out a book that he had carried in the bag.

The book was rather big and thick, possessing about 500 pages. Its cover was made out of the same beige paper that the rest of the papers it had used. The book was given to him by his firm, to read and study to learn about steam engines.

It took a while to make this book. The firm had to do some science for themselves, to discover how to make ever more efficient steam engines. They did this by inviting researchers abroad, mainly from the city of Vallina, with a heavy bag of silver.

"Um... excuse me..." a stranger asked.  Ezekiel turns his eyes away from the book to look up and left. His eyes see a man, wearing similar attire to him. The stranger wore a white shirt with a light blue tie and beige pants.

"Are you perhaps part of the SELT Project?" he asked.

"Well, yes. I am. Why do you ask?" Ezekiel questions back.

"It is just that I recognized you. You were the one to ask his majesty the questions, right?" he questions further.

"You were there?" Ezekiel asked, now certain that he was part of the SELT Project.

"Of course! It was the first day. I could not have missed it. Those were some good questions you asked. I had popped up in my head myself." The man smiles and lends out his hands for a handshake.

"Oh! I am so sorry, I forgot to introduce you to myself. Hi, I am Jerry Smitz. I am a Mechanical Engineer at SteamerPile. I think we will be working together for a while, so we might as well get along," he said.

Ezekiel, after looking at his hand, grabbed it and firmly shook it.

"I am Ezekiel Berserk. HeklorKloch." Ezekiel replied.

"Say... can I sit down next to you?" Jerry asked.

"Sure. I don't see why not." Ezekiel replied. He put the book back in the briefcase, not wanting an employee of another company to see company secrets.

"So... how did you start?" he asks.

"Huh?"

"You know, how did you start? In your company that is."

"Well... I just got this job about 2 and a half months ago. My workshop had to close down because I wasn't making enough money, and had to go look for a job.

One day, when I was walking along the road, I saw an advert for a job listing for HeklorKloch. They were looking for some artisans to be a part of the group.

Considering I had years of experience in the field, and I was relatively young. I got hired over there. I was mainly told to design small steam engines and eventually grew into making larger ones.

Though they gave me the title of 'Mechanical Engineer', I like to prefer to think of myself more as a 'Steam Engine Designer'. It was what I was taught and did in the firm, and they are the only things I have experience in designing. Well, other than a few other primitive devices.

There are others at the firm who specialize in other things. Don, for instance, is the guy who makes those air-tight doors for the steam engines. He is another 'Mechanical Engineer' that works at the firm."

"I have to agree. I wonder why they gave us such a name for our jobs. I remember it wasn't always like that," he said, not really expecting an answer.

"The same reason as mine, I believe. It is because it makes us both sound more qualified than we actually are." Ezekiel answered. He then looks up and smiles.

"Not that I am not complaining though. At least it gives me something to brag about when visiting family," he replied. Jerry chuckles at his remark.

"Hm... Same here. Although, I joined my firm because it was started by my uncle, and he wanted to use my skills," Jerry told his coworker.

"You must be pretty good then. How much experience have you had been an artisan?"

"About 8. I started out when I was around 14. How about you? You think you can beat that?"

"If you want to know, I started when I was 10. So I have about 12 years of experience." Ezekiel boasted.

"Really? How many steam engines have you designed?" Jerry asks.

"How many have you?" Ezekiel asked back.

"Fine, I will go first. I have made about 9 so far. The latest one I had managed to reach 19 horsepower, though I had to use expensive steel to make that. So... how many did you make?"

"I have designed around 15 so far. My latest one runs on 32 horsepower, although there are some reliability issues."

"Damn! That is a lot! How the hell did you guys manage to do that?" he asks. Ezekiel simply puts his finger on his mouth and replies...

"That is a secret..." Just then, the tram arrives at the station.

"Ah, look! Our ride is here," Ezekiel remarked. The two men get up and board the vehicle, off to the next station where they can arrive at the office.