The Gravity Engine

by Kylie Chan

  He found male clothes in the next room, robes and breeches that would fit him, and male underwear. He fell onto the bed and looked at the ceiling. The time difference between Western China and Northern Europe must have been ridiculous and it was probably insanely early in the morning where he was from, but he wasn’t tired at all – he was too overwrought at the thought of these wonderful women who were intelligent and self-aware, who considered themselves his mother and fiancée, and who were demon copies.

  He woke later with a start. He had a moment of disorientation before he realised where he was. The room’s window was dark and he had no idea how long he’d slept. He pulled himself out of bed feeling gritty and needing a shower, but he didn’t know how long he had until dawn, when his captors would come for him.

  Teleportation out of the mansion was impossible – his teleportation skills were blocked again. Time to do it the old-fashioned way. He went as silently as he could out of his room onto the darkened landing; all the other doors were closed. He sent his senses out; Rhonda and Clarissa were both still asleep in Clarissa’s room and he didn’t disturb them. He went downstairs and opened the door to the kitchen to find all the demons lying on the floor or sitting against the wall. No way could he creep through there without waking them. He returned to the entry and had an inspiration; he flew up to the ceiling to take a glass panel out and go exploring.

  He flew too high and hard in the low gravity and crashed into the glass. He stopped and hovered just below it. He heard movement; someone had heard the noise and was waiting to see if it occurred again before investigating. After a few minutes of silent hovering he put his hand on the glass panel and unravelled the metal holding it. The panel fell into his hands and was liftable – heavy, but liftable – and he flew through the opening it made in the ceiling and placed it on the roof to one side.

  The sky was mostly dark with a brighter smudge on the eastern horizon – dawn soon. The air was bracingly cold and full of the suggestion of snow. He tried to teleport again and failed; something about the nature of these European Heavens was severely limiting his powers.

  He flew higher over the city and sent his senses out. There were life signatures of birds and small animals, but nothing larger than a rat. He flew a kilometre over the breathtaking spires and found a building that looked promising; six storeys high, and more blunt and utilitarian than the prevailing airy decorative style. He landed in front of its door and tried it, and it swung open easily.

  It was another library, with a vast central atrium the full six storeys tall and stacks of shelving containing hand-lettered and bound manuscripts, covered in a light layer of dust. The floor hadn’t been walked on in a very long time. The amount of knowledge held there was awe-inspiring. Due to the Celestial nature of the location, he had no trouble reading the shelf labels: there were books on history, philosophy, engineering and ‘magic’. He opened a magic book and it was detailed descriptions of something identical to the Asian methods of energy manipulation – chi gong and martial arts. He walked up a flight of spiral stairs to the first level: medicine and history. He opened a history book and it contained a detailed description of the Roman expansion two thousand years before. He shook his head as he returned the book to the shelf; he had to find a way to retrieve this treasure from the demons’ control.

  Something shifted in the corner of his eye and he turned. The building was changing – the metal brightened from grey to almost white and the dust disappeared. He watched with wonder as the structure around him flared into life, the crystalline lamps becoming more brilliant and the glass clearer and more perfect.

  A rhythmic banging began some distance away and it took him a moment to realise that it was the sound of a helicopter. He sent his senses out: it was the Demon King, returning with a Shen whose nature was completely different from any Michael had experienced before – the spirit of the city. The city must be responding to its spirit’s return.

  The Demon King needed to stay unaware of his ability to leave the mansion otherwise he would probably be locked up. He rushed out the door of the library, closed it behind him, and flew as quickly as he could back to the mansion with sound of the helicopter’s rotors seeming directly behind him. He flew through the roof and replaced the panel with a quick weld of the amalgam. He hoped that was enough to hold it as he flew down to the bedroom he’d chosen.

  His feet touched the landing just as the front door opened and the King entered with the spirit of the city.

  ‘Prince Michael,’ the King said, moving forward to speak to him. ‘Please come down here.’

  Michael took a huge stride over the balcony balustrade and landed in front of the King on the floor below. He studied the spirit of the city; it appeared as an elderly European man in a brown robe similar to a monk’s habit. The hood was thrown back and the man had long grey hair held in a braid that fell down his back and a long beard fastened in multiple smaller braids. His intelligent green eyes studied Michael curiously.

  ‘How did you get out of the mansion?’ the King said, his voice sharp with controlled anger.

  Michael considered playing dumb for a moment and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. ‘The building’s made of metal.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And I’m my father’s son. I could dismantle the entire building in less than five minutes.’

  The King turned back to speak to the spirit. ‘Is there a building in this city that isn’t made of metal?’

  The spirit smiled slightly, and when he spoke his voice was warm and rich. ‘No. I’m one hundred per cent silver, except for the parts that are glass.’

  The King turned back to Michael and concentrated for a moment. Five huddling, terrified demons came out of the kitchen.

  ‘Go up and get the young one and bring her down here,’ the King ordered without looking at them.

  ‘No, wait. Why do you want her?’ Michael said.

  ‘No bamboo here, I’ll have to stick slivers of wood under her fingernails.’

  Michael reeled back, nauseous. ‘Don’t hurt her! Why would you want to do that?’

  The demons stopped halfway up the stairs.

  ‘Will you vow to remain in this building?’ the King said.

  ‘I give you my word,’ Michael said. ‘I won’t leave the building. There’s no need to hurt either of them!’

  The King waved the demon servants away, again without looking at them. ‘Good.’ He gestured behind him towards the spirit of the city. ‘Semias, this is Michael. Michael’s visiting from the Asian Heavens, he’s the son of the spirit of their western heavens. I want you take him to see the gravity engine.’

  ‘He just vowed never to leave the building,’ Semias said.

  The King gestured with frustration. ‘He can leave it to go to the engine!’

  ‘Very well,’ Semias said. ‘Michael, was it? Come with me.’ He held his thin, pale hand out to Michael.

  Michael took his hand and heard the Demon King say, ‘Wait, what?’ as the mansion disappeared.

  The room around them changed to a vast hall, fifty metres high and three times that long, nearly filled by an enormous shining brass cube. Michael’s mouth fell open; they were standing on a walkway halfway up the building that circled the hall and gave a good view of the cube. Lights sparkled and sank around the structure, and the glass-tiled floor around it rippled in expanding circles. He sent his sense out to check where they were and found himself deep underground. No tunnels led into the room; it was only reachable by teleportation.

  He jerked back as Semias moved right up into his face to challenge him, the spirit’s expression rigid with anger.

  ‘What the hell is going on here, young man?’ the spirit said. ‘Why are there Asian demons here, what are those two poor women doing here, and more than anything what the hell are you doing here?’

  Michael opened and closed his mouth a few times then pulled himself together. ‘I was hoping you could tell me that. Why are you working with them?’
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br />   ‘I’m not. They’re forcing me to cooperate.’ The spirit sagged and turned to face the machine, leaning on the railing. ‘I need answers.’

  Michael leaned on the railing next to him. ‘So do I, sir.’

  ‘How did you travel up here? Our world is blocked off and nobody should be able to enter.’

  ‘The Asian Demon King brought me. I have no idea how he did it. The gateway was a cathedral in Rotterdam.’

  Semias banged his hand on the brass railing. ‘This should not have happened!’ He turned to Michael and jabbed a finger in his face. ‘If you’re the son of one of the Asian spirits, you shouldn’t be working with him.’

  ‘I’m not. I came to investigate, and discovered that he’s holding my mother and fiancée.’

  ‘And he threatened to torture them if you don’t cooperate.’ Semias sagged and leaned back on the railing. ‘Do you know what he wants?’

  ‘Mostly he wants control of the Asian Heavens. It looks like he’s already invaded the European ones. Why didn’t the Shen here stop him?’

  ‘Shen?’

  ‘God? Spirits?’ Michael shook his head. ‘It’s what we call ourselves in Asia.’

  ‘Calling them Sidhe would be close enough. They’re gone. It’s just me here, guarding the empty Heavens.’

  ‘So why didn’t you stop them? They’re demons and they should not be here!’

  ‘You think I didn’t try?’ Semias said, his voice fierce with anger. ‘I have no idea how they made it up here. When they came to my city I blocked them, I closed my gates and made my walls slippery and unclimbable – and that bastard took a huge mechanical battering ram to me. He broke the glass and framework on my eastern gates …’ He dropped his head and shook it. ‘Do you have any idea much it hurts if I’m dismantled without any preparation or proper care? It was agony. Torture. I fought them, but they broke into me.’ He raised his head and glared at Michael again. ‘And when you took a piece out of the palace’s ceiling it gave me a massive headache.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Michael said. ‘But we need to find a way to stop them. How many demons are here in the European Heavens? Are there more than a hundred?’

  ‘Three thousand.’

  ‘Holy shit.’

  ‘But that’s just the big ones. There are six thousand small ones as well.’

  Michael was speechless.

  ‘You’re a Sidhe yourself, I can see it. Kill yourself now and go home and warn them. Tell them what’s happening here.’

  Michael gestured towards the cube. ‘What if the demons work out the secret of the gravity?’

  ‘We’re underground, a hundred feet below the city, and nobody but me can travel here. There’s no other way in. Go now while they’re waiting for us to return.’

  ‘I can’t leave my mother and fiancée. I have to take them back with me.’

  ‘They’re demons, lad. Leave them.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  Semias hesitated.

  Michael turned away. ‘Yeah. Neither am I.’

  ‘It’s hard to tell,’ Semias said. ‘Your fiancée isn’t from my region, and your mother has an unusual part-demonic nature. She may be a descendent of the ancient Serpent people.’

  ‘What Serpent people? I’ve heard that before. Tell me about them, I think it’s important.’

  ‘We don’t have time. The Demon King just pulled your fiancée down to the entrance hall and is threatening her if we don’t return immediately. We need to go.’

  Semias teleported them back to find the Demon King in the mansion’s foyer, yelling at a terrified Clarissa, who was being held by two guards. When he saw Semias and Michael he rounded on them. ‘Next time do what I tell you!’

  ‘I did exactly what you told me to, I took him to see the engine,’ Semias said.

  Michael ran to Clarissa and pulled her out of the demon guards’ grasps. ‘Did he hurt you?’ He held her close and brushed his hand over her hair. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘I didn’t touch her. She broke down herself, the coward,’ the Demon King said.

  ‘Leave her alone!’ Michael pulled back to see her face, and his heart broke when it mirrored the haunted Clarissa back at the Western Palace. ‘Clarissa, honey? Talk to me.’

  ‘Where’s Rhonda?’ Clarissa clutched him. ‘Can I go back to my room? I want to be away from here.’

  Semias disappeared, then reappeared with Rhonda. She ran to Clarissa and Michael released his fiancée into his mother’s arms. Rhonda led Clarissa, still dazed, up the stairs to their rooms.

  ‘Next time don’t take anyone anywhere without my permission or I’ll put you back in your cell,’ the Demon King said to Semias with venom. He turned to Michael. ‘Did you see the gravity engine?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What does it look like?’

  Michael hesitated. ‘You won’t believe me.’

  ‘Try me.’

  ‘It’s a brass cube. Featureless. No external moving parts.’

  The King nodded, unsurprised. ‘All right. Now both of you listen carefully to me. Michael, if you can map the internal workings of the engine and provide me with a blueprint, I’ll let you and the women go back to the Asian Heavens, free and unharmed. Semias.’

  ‘I know,’ Semias said. ‘If I give him the information you’ll leave me here in the city and I won’t be kept locked up and separated from myself any more.’

  ‘That’s the deal. Will you both cooperate?’

  ‘I will,’ Michael said.

  ‘Very well, I will as well,’ Semias said. ‘Let the boy eat and rest, he’s falling over on his feet. I’ll take him back this afternoon and we’ll map out the internal structure for you.’

  ‘Provide me with an incorrect blueprint and I will knock every tower in this city down, one by one.’ The Demon King glared at Michael. ‘And if I don’t produce a working identical engine from the blueprint you give me, I will hunt down everybody you love and I will torture them to death myself.’

  Michael slept through most of the day and went out to the dining room as dusk was falling, feeling dehydrated and exhausted. Neither of the women were there, and he went up to their rooms and rapped on their doors. He sent his senses into the room, searching for them, and didn’t find them. They weren’t anywhere in the building. He stormed back down to the kitchen and yelled at the cowering demons.

  ‘Where are Rhonda and Clarissa?’

  ‘The King took them, my Lord,’ the small female demon said. ‘He said to pass on the message that he will hold them safe until you produce what he wants.’

  ‘Where’s Semias?’

  ‘Who?’

  Semias appeared next to him. ‘I’m all around you, lad, I am the city. Eat something …’ He looked around. ‘Not good enough.’ He concentrated, and the kitchen glowed into life. Preserved meat, smoked and netted, hung from the hooks on the sides of the walls, and baskets of vegetables appeared next to the stove. ‘Feed the boy and then we’ll get to work.’

  He led Michael into the dining room, which gleamed with even more splendour while the spirit was present, and sat him at the table.

  ‘Can we do this?’ Michael said.

  ‘We can,’ Semias said, sitting next to him. ‘Do you think they’ll keep their side of the bargain?’

  ‘There’s a small chance they will,’ Michael said.

  ‘Can you find the women and teleport to them? Take them out now and leave.’

  ‘I don’t know where they are. Do you?’

  ‘They’re not within the city.’

  Michael rubbed his hands over his face with defeat. ‘I don’t have any choice. I have to help him. I just hope he doesn’t find too many military uses for the technology when we unlock it for him.’

  ‘Don’t worry, he won’t.’

  The demons emerged from the kitchen with plates of food. Suddenly Michael was starving and Semias remained silent as Michael wolfed the meal down.

  After he’d eaten they returned to the gravity engine room and
stood on the walkway. Michael turned his metal senses into it and stood for a moment, bewildered, as he watched it work. It appeared to be clockwork; cogs and springs worked in jerky mechanical motion within it, but there were places inside the engine where the mechanics didn’t mesh. It was like looking at the interior of a clock through a shattered window.

  ‘What the hell is going on in there?’ he said.

  ‘You can see inside?’ Semias said.

  Michael nodded a reply, moving along the walkway to get a view from a different angle. Some of the pieces appeared to be only half a cog, but still turning as if they were circular. The nature of the interior was giving him a headache.

  ‘It’s four dimensional,’ Semias said. ‘All of the movement is in three dimensions, but it’s bent through four. That’s where the weird interior joins are.’

  ‘I see,’ Michael said. ‘The Sidhe could work in four dimensions?’

  ‘Can you teleport, lad?’

  ‘No,’ Michael said, confused at the sudden change of topic. ‘I’m stuck here. Something about this place screws my head up.’ He rubbed the back of his skull, which was still tender. ‘Or there’s permanent brain damage from being smacked around too much in the last week or so. Wouldn’t be the first time.’

  ‘Could you teleport before you arrived here, though?’

  ‘Well, yeah.’

  ‘That’s moving in four dimensions. You lift yourself above the flat piece of paper that is our reality, and drop yourself somewhere else, moving through the fourth dimension. You do it yourself.’

  ‘But …’ Michael shook his head. ‘Okay, if you say so, all this advanced physics is beyond me. But I can’t manipulate things like the interior of that machine.’

  ‘No, I do that. I have multi-dimensional control within my city. All the parts were built by our artisans, and then I put it together.’