The Brass Arks

A drowned world. Humanity's last hope: colossal brass arks, steam-powered cities adrift on the endless cerulean expanse of the Exile Sea.  Their survival hinges on solar harpoons, drawing geothermal energy from volcanic vents — a precarious dance with a tempestuous ocean.  Elgin Varn, a disgraced harpooner haunted by a past tragedy, finds solace only in the rhythmic clang of his tools and the vastness of the sea.
But solitude shatters when Elgin discovers the *Whisperwind*, a derelict ark concealing a dangerous secret: the Wave-Breaker, a forbidden technology capable of anchoring the arks, ending their ceaseless drift. This discovery ignites a desperate struggle for control, plunging the Exile Sea into chaos.
Kristy Savage, a ruthless pirate queen, sees the Wave-Breaker as a weapon to dominate the waves. The Arkon Council, Porthaven's clandestine rulers, fears the upheaval it represents.  Caught between them, Elgin must choose a side.  He allies with Leslie Dominguez, a brilliant biologist who fears the Wave-Breaker's ecological consequences, and Joseph Harris, leader of the nomadic Wave Riders, who see the arks as a parasitic blight upon their ocean.
Elgin’s quest becomes a desperate race against time.  He must uncover the *Whisperwind’s* hidden history, a forgotten truth about the cataclysm that birthed this watery world, and find a third way, a path that doesn't involve control or destruction.  As Savage’s pirates and the Council’s agents close in, Elgin journeys to the heart of the Exile Sea, to the submerged ruins of the old world, seeking a lost technology, a symbiotic energy source that could offer a future in harmony with the ocean.  But the sea holds its own secrets, a sentient network of bioluminescent plankton that whispers of a power beyond human comprehension.
In the ruins of a drowned city, the final confrontation erupts.  Savage and the Council converge, their forces clashing in a desperate battle for control.  Elgin, armed with newfound knowledge, must make a choice: embrace the Wave-Breaker’s seductive promise of stability or trust in the wisdom of the sea and forge a new path, a future adrift, but in balance with the ocean’s flow. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance.