It looks like wood, but it's brown and shiny and feels/sounds like metal.

Huh. That is absolutely, delightfully bizarre. Is one of these bunks available, perhaps, or is there somewhere in particular she should stow her bag? And what's up with skysuits?

"Oh, it's freezing cold and there's no proper 'down' off the engine, away from islands. Sky-suits keep you warm and tethered to the engine, and protect you from the starlight, so we can do emergency work on her exterior, or salvage things. Cap'n doesn't like doing salvage, though. Says it's too risky most of the time."

"Well that's just fascinating. And possibly an area where I may have a comparative advantage, given that I can just gust myself back toward the engine, as long as you don't pick up too much speed without me. I assume the risk in salvage is at least partly of drifting away?"

"Partly. But trying to salvage wrecks is dangerous 'cause they might break apart, or something might still be inside them."

"Hm. That's... That's worth still considering, I think, because I can probably protect myself from something landing on me. And I'm a bit harder to kill than the average person. But it's something we'll have to look over from multiple angles, I expect, because there's likely plenty more I don't know."

"Do I just find an empty bunk, or is there some process?"

"Just find an empty bunk. I think there's five left, one right next to the engine rooms that gets too warm, three upstairs, and one that's... Bad luck. If there's arguments, Cap'n intervenes and gets grumpy about it."

"Where's this bad luck room?" she asks with an easy grin.

"You don't want the cursed room. People who take it end up getting hurt. And things break in it."

"I'm hard to hurt. And desperately curious. And the only possessions I remotely care about were designed to be combat-rugged enough for ongoing use by teenagers."

They glance at each other. "...Well, if you're sure."

The 'cursed' cabin looks totally ordinary. It's right across the hall from the galley. The bed shows signs of being repaired - part of it is shiny and new.

Repaired bed might be comfier, for all she knows. With a glib smile, she sets her bag on the bed and stows her things properly. Once that's done, and after re-checking that her batons and ARCUS are securely clipped to her back and hip, she heads off to find someone to see about some hands-on training.

A pair of engineers are cleaning and inspecting things in the back of the ship, and will talk about the duties that keep a locomotive in good order happily enough. Stokers and deckhands, lookouts and drivers. There's a lot to learn.

"We don't expect you to get it all first day, of course. You'll have someone spell things out for you at first, and you'll pick it up quick enough."

She smiles at that. "I'd try, if it came to that, but I do appreciate not needing to have it all memorized immediately." She makes a point to ask questions and engage with the process, the better to understand the reasons behind what they're teaching her.

The workings of a locomotive are complicated. They stick to simple explanations and laying out the jargon, like 'clearing knots' to rebalance the steam pressure or 'spoiled fires' for a problem in the furnace. This is the proper way to store lamp oil. Here's a trick to quickly slam the bulkheads shut, in case of emergency.

There's also some questionably sage advice thrown in. Things being neat and shiny is nice, but a too-clean engine can be a bad sign too - it means other things aren't getting attended to as much as they should. Never trust a flower that can talk.

She'll make a note of those tips, most of which seem quite useful, and the rest of which seem either worth checking anyway, or like the sort of madness that's looking like it's just an occupational hazard of her new world.

The Captain shows up again during this lecturing.

"Everything look good, lads?"

"Aye aye, so it does!"

"Teaching Miss Hailey the ropes?"

"Exactly. I don't know what job you had in mind for her..."

"I was thinking general deckhand, at first. How are you finding the engine, Hailey?"

"Quite nice! Welcoming and fascinating and busy! I like it!"

"I'm so glad to have another vote of approval. Could you come to the bridge with me for a bit?"

"Certainly." She follows after.

The bridge is a mostly-open space with three seats before sets of controls and dials, and a wide view out frontal windows. The glass is thick, with sturdy-looking bars segmenting and reinforcing it.

"Thought you'd appreciate a view from the bridge. We're not departing quite yet, tomorrow morning. And your wind powers might be helpful for maneuvering, and for ballistics. Is now a good moment to talk about that more?"

"Oh my, that's delightful!"

After a short time gazing out and enjoying the view, she turns to the captain and nods, "Yes, I was thinking along similar lines. I don't know as much as I'd like about maneuvering an enormous engine rather than a single girl, but the underlying principles should be similar at least. I know less about ballistics, but I have a few guesses and I'm eager to learn about both. Now is a great time."

Well, navigation before gunnery. Here is a lecture on how the winds tend to behave in the Reach, and how it affects the locomotive. It is capable of some fairly sharp maneuvers in emergencies or combat, but it takes a while to build up steam and momentum, or to turn. Sometimes there are billowing wind-currents that make it difficult or impossible to head one way along a section of sky, or speed you along in the other way. Does she have a 'feel' for wind, can she tell which way it's blowing from inside the engine, for example?

She can't sense anything more than anyone else about about air she's not actively affecting, and doesn't get much more when she is. She can affect the air in two basic ways: shaping it or moving it (these being different modes of her batons that are triggered by different grips and energy flows). For navigation, moving it is more relevant (unless he ever wants wedges or airblades or spikes for ramming or side-swiping). With exterior access, she could effect a very sudden turn of the engine, or a significant speed boost, by bracing herself and shooting a large jet of air away. For that matter she could also stop them suddenly if she shot a jet forward. Doing any of this has a cost in fatigue. She'd estimate engine-scale jets to be tiring on a scale of running flat out for about twice as long.

"Something for combat or emergencies, then. Not to save on fuel costs. There's only so much we can do while docked, and the Titanians will be upset if we fire the guns, so actual experiments will have to wait, sadly..."