
Captain Helga Steam
Once upon a time, I wrote a story, of which I was not particularly proud, in a steampunk world where most of the earth was a nuclear nightmare land and the few pockets of 'good earth' were inhabited by Conclaves. And there were dirigibles, who flew wherever the hell they wanted, mostly trading so they could refuel and suchlike at the Conclaves, but generally doing very little. And there was the Airman's Consortium, or the Connies to all and sundry, who were 'legal', and worked very hard, and did a lot of good stuff, and the pirates, who mostly just attacked things and stole. And there were strange creatures, many of which looked a lot like fantastical creatures of the modern day, and a few humanoids, like Faeri, and a kind of angel-like being that didn't ever really get a name, and these things called Soul Stones, that were crystals about as big as a thumbnail, came in various different varieties, and allowed telepathic conversation between the owner of the Stone and creatures of the corresponding subtype (It was a wee bit more complicated than the old elements and suchlike deal, but not much) and thus they often decided to become long-term companions, for mutual benefit (For the human, having someone big and mean to defend them, or whatever, and for the animal, having someone who could relay their order at the takeaway in a language the guy behind the counter could understand).
Captain Helga Steam here was a privateer, which means that she didn't belong to the Connies but she wasn't a pirate. She didn't do much killing people and stealing things, but it occasionally came up. And her niece was our young heroine. Her name was Hester, and she wasn't particularly attractive, cried a lot, had no grip on reality and was about as useful in any stressful situation as a chocolate fireguard. Hester was fun.
of course, I soon discovered why unexpected heroines are usually at least mediocre-ly competant at something, because Hester just seemed to get in the way while everyone else did something, and it made everything much less fun for everyone. Of course, I'm now wishing I'd saved it and carried it through... that could have been interesting...
