Steemjammer: Through the Verltgaat

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Steemjammer: Through the Verltgaat Page 6

by John Eubank


  Will had to lift the needle. “He said Rasmussen, not Rasputin.”

  “Oh.”

  “Huh?” Giselle asked, totally lost.

  “Later,” Will said, replacing the needle.

  “For many years,” his father’s voice resumed, “they plotted against us, but we thought ourselves invincible. We only realized our foolishness when their leader, Zander Rasmussen, led a surprise attack on our stronghold. His aim was to overwhelm us, take control of our machines, steal all our secrets, and as hard as I find this to believe, either exterminate or enslave all Steemjammers.

  “Because of the heroism of my father, your groesvader, and others, the venomous Rasmussens failed. The bloodshed was terrible, but most of us escaped to this place we now live.

  “Since then we’ve been rebuilding, looking for our moment to strike, to take back what is ours and see that the Rasmussens never threaten us again. This is why I’ve taught you steem and how to fight, because when we move, each of us must give our total effort!

  “That time, however, is not now.

  “The task at hand is to find and bring home your mother. I have reason to believe that she is alive and safe, but very far away. This is something that I must do alone. Wilhelmus, Angelica, you must be sterk, strong and tough, as we’ve taught you. Take care of each other and Beverkenhaas.

  “If there’s any trouble, seek help from Uncle Deet, Tante Yvette and Giselle. Shut down the boiler and ride the wagon to Lake Erie if you have to.”

  “He made this before my dad vanished,” Giselle noted during the pause that followed.

  “You can trust Cousin Alfonz,” Henry’s voice continued. “Other family members you may not have met might drop in. Most will be helpful, but at all costs avoid my cousin Marteenus!

  “He has strong cowlicks which aim his hair to the left. It sticks out parallel to the ground and is dark red and kinky. No matter how nice he seems, chase him away at once. You may have to threaten him.”

  “Marteenus,” Will said, lifting up the needle to pause the phonograph. “The guy on the airship!”

  “Why haven’t they told us any of this?” Giselle complained. “How are we supposed to deal with such problems when we don’t know anything?”

  Heartsick from the sound of her father’s voice, Angelica tugged her brother’s arm. “Keep playing it.”

  “I said earlier,” Henry’s voice continued after Will replaced the needle, “that I’d ask you to do something. Here it is: stop searching Beverkenhaas.

  “It’s dangerous. As proud as I am of you, as much as you’ve learned, you must not go further.

  “Do not look for me. Trust that I’m safe and sound, just far from home but always on my way back to you. Maybe this time with Mother. Have faith, stick with your studies, and stay out of trouble.

  “Keep your fire stoked and your steem high! Know that your mother and I cherish you beyond words. This is your loving father, Dad.”

  The phonograph hissed and thumped as the needle was pulled out of the groove. Tears streamed down Angelica’s face, and she couldn’t hold back sobs. Will found his eyes were welling up, too, and even Giselle had to sniffle.

  “That’s it, then?” Will said with disbelief. “After coming this far, we have to stop?”

  “He said so,” Angelica said with difficulty, wiping her eyes. “That means we have to, right?”

  Will didn’t like the sound of that. Giselle put a hand on his shoulder. “I think we should stop.”

  “I disagree,” he said. “Dad made that before Uncle Deet vanished, and what about this Marteenus guy? He tried sneaking up on us with an airship! What if Dad’s stuck somewhere and needs our help?”

  “But he said it’s dangerous.”

  Will tried to argue, but no words came out. His mind churned with turmoil. Could he violate a direct order from his father, even if it didn’t make sense? Maybe not. Going on felt wrong, but doing nothing felt even worse.

  He had to do something. Unable to think of anything else, he realized he’d forgotten about something. He pulled out the envelope Marteenus had tossed at them and, before his sister could tell him not to, ripped it open.

  Chapter 7

  Beverkenverlt

  “Will!” Angelica cried. “Don’t!”

  “Please,” he said firmly. “Normally, you’d be right, but nothing’s normal anymore, is it?”

  He unfolded the letter and read the spidery handwriting aloud. “‘My Dear Cousin, how many years has it been since that unfortunate incident which left us both stranded on this miserable world? Eleven? You may hate me more than I despise you, but for the moment let us put emotion aside and consider the practical.’”

  “What a creep,” Giselle muttered.

  “‘You have something I want,’” Will continued, nodding in agreement with her, “‘passage home, but have you considered that I may have something you need? I can imagine your face as you read this, your scowl of contempt, but humor me.

  “‘By now you must realize how utterly futile it is to keep resisting the Rasmussens. After these many years, you’re still here. What do you think your enemy’s been doing all this time?

  “‘They’ve been dissecting your machinery and records, such that you left them, piecing together your precious secrets. How much longer until they master them, and then what?

  “‘They’ve won, Hendrelmus. There will be no place you can hide. Your existence will be that of a hunted rat. Every morning you wake will be to face the pain of your disaster, as befits the name you carry: Steem-failure.’”

  “Failure?” Angelica interrupted. “What’s he talking about?”

  “I don’t know,” Will admitted.

  Giselle made a face. “Well, this has bugged me for a long time, but ….”

  “What?”

  “In Dutch, ‘jammer’ means, well, a ‘pity’ or ‘disappointment’. Or a ‘failure’.”

  “Impossible!” Angelica said. “We’re really good at steam, so how could we be steam-failures?”

  “It must have another meaning. Let him finish.”

  “‘Here is my offer, cousin,’” Will read. “‘I have considerable influence with Zander Rasmussen. If you send me back, I will convince him to spare your wife and children. For you, I can only ask that he give a clean and merciful death.’”

  Too angered to go on, he stopped. Giselle took the letter.

  “‘Since your obvious response will be to scoff,’” she read, “‘I extend my offer to this: send me back, and I’ll reveal the location of Deetricus, whom you will notice has disappeared. I have him locked up, far away and in a place you’ll never find.’”

  She paused, shocked, and glanced at Will.

  “You were right,” she said. “He must have snuck up on Dad from behind, like he did with us. He probably put a rope around him and hauled him away with the airship. If only I’d looked up, I would have seen it.”

  “I knew I should have clobbered him,” Will said, taking the letter back and reading. “‘When you realize you have no choice but to agree to my terms, fly a large white banner off the tower of your current domicile. I’ll be watching from afar, and don’t take too long. I’m not inclined to feed your brother.

  “‘Awaiting Your Response, Marteenus S. Skelthorpe.’”

  A grim mood fell on them. It seemed like all emotion had drained away from Giselle’s face, and Angelica put a small hand on her back.

  “I’m all right,” Giselle said, fighting back tears. “At least he’s alive. He didn’t drown.”

  “But Marteenus thinks my dad will make some deal with him,” Angelica said. “He doesn’t realize that he’s gone.”

  Giselle turned to Will. “Can you make any sense of this?”

  “It’s like some sort of war,” he said. “Now we know why Dad taught us how to fight.”

  “Why would anyone hate us so much?” Angelica asked. “If Marteenus is our cousin, how could he be so evil?”

  “I don’t know,” Gis
elle said, making a decision, “but Will’s right. We have to go on searching Beverkenhaas.”

  Will glanced down at his sister. She closed her eyes and made a small nod, adding: “But where?”

  He had no idea but wasn’t about to let on, so he led them back to the hidden room and said “Here!” He stomped his foot confidently on the wooden floor.

  To his surprise, he heard a hollow-sounding thump.

  ***

  After a quick search Giselle found a knothole in the floor that depressed, opening a second trap door in the hidden room. Instead of a pit, this one revealed brick steps going down into inky darkness. Turning up the lantern, Will slowly descended, but Angelica hesitated.

  “Dad said it was dangerous, remember?” she said.

  “You don’t have to come,” Will said, continuing down.

  “We won’t be long,” Giselle added, overcoming her fear and following him.

  “Wait,” Angelica said. “You know that powered armor in the barn? Why don’t you put it on, first?”

  Will sighed. “That rusty old thing? It hasn’t worked in years, and I don’t know how to steam it up. We’ll be fine.”

  As Angelica watched them descend, she began to get anxious about being left alone. Steeling her nerves, she put a hand on the railing and went down as fast as she dared, soon catching up.

  The stairs had taken them down over two stories in depth, where an open doorway led to a dark, cavernous room that seemed to drink up their weak lantern light.

  “There’s a basement under the basement!” Angelica said.

  The Steemjammer kids stared in awe. In the dim light they could make out a high ceiling, strong brick columns and heavy wood beams. Large machines filled the room.

  Angelica nodded at the closest one. “What’s that?”

  A series of stacked wooden cases took up a great deal of space. They were packed with rods, gears and rocker bars. A network of steam pipes snaked throughout it, and a bronze flywheel stood at either end.

  “I know,” Will said, eyes twinkling. “That’s a Variable Engine!”

  Giselle blinked. “A what?”

  “A Variable Engine. It’s like that thing your friend has – what was it called?”

  “You mean,” Angelica said uncertainly, “that’s a steam-powered computer?”

  “Like we’d have an electric one? I once heard Dad talking about it with Uncle Deet, and now I know what they meant. That,” he nodded at a series of large wheels and gears against the opposite wall, “I have no clue.”

  Eyes opening wide, Angelica gasped. “Are those real?”

  In the poor lantern light a workbench seemed to come alive with dazzling sparkles. She ran over and found it strewn with a pile of diamonds. Even uncut, they shimmered brilliantly. One was bigger than a quail egg, but it wasn’t the gems that had captured her attention.

  Next to them sat three small black rocks. Angelica examined them briefly before putting them back.

  “Yep,” she said. “More meteorites. I guess Dad never got around to putting them in a display case.”

  Across the room, Giselle stared with curiosity. “What’s that?”

  They went over to a large wooden table that held a three dimensional map. It had mountain ranges, some with high, sharp peaks painted white to signify snow. Blue lines indicating rivers ran here and there, flowing down into large lakes or an ocean to the west. Green blotches – forests - dotted the landscape.

  Several miniature walled towns piqued their interest. The largest were labeled: “New Amsterdam,” “New London,” “Little Dusseldorf,” “l’Espoir,” and “Wee Edinburgh.” Roads and railroads connected them. They saw tunnels, canals, large bridges and strange things they couldn’t completely figure out, like “De Achteroot Maalstrom,” The Backwards Vortex, and shaded places marked with skulls. A large, jumbled zone with jagged peaks and gaping chasms was called “De Tandweel Slagvelt,” The Cogwheel Battleground.

  Finding themselves drawn to the map table, they imagined what various features looked like. They could almost see a steam-powered train chugging across a bay on a long stone causeway - almost smell the hay in green fields and hear the wind howling in the mountains. Will and Giselle had a strong sensation of déjà vu.

  “No way!” she said as she guessed what this meant.

  Will grinned. “Yes!”

  “Is this …” Angelica started, too overwhelmed to finish her sentence immediately. “Is this our home?”

  “‘Beverkenverlt,’” Will said, reading a silver-inlaid legend. “It’s a map of Beverkenverlt.”

  “‘World of Works,’” Giselle translated, the word confirmed by a foggy, dreamlike memory. “Of course.”

  “Or Tinker World!” Angelica said brightly, her eyes opened wide with wonder. “Look, Will! Snowy mountains, like you were saying! This is all so wankenzink!” This time she meant crazy in a good way.

  A sudden hiss of steam nearby made her shriek with fright! They laughed as they realized it was only a relief valve, like the ones upstairs.

  Spotting something, Will moved on. “Over here.”

  In the back corner sat a big machine that resembled a pipe organ crossed with a slowly spinning merry-go-round, except there were no painted horses. Three steam pipes came down from the boiler, which was above them in the regular basement. The machine had a number of patches and looked like someone had taken great effort to repair or even rebuild it. Turning, occasionally hissing out vapor, this contraption had been left on.

  “I thought we were using more water than we should,” Will mused, intrigued. “He left it idling.”

  “I bet he was working on this when he vanished,” his sister added.

  An old control panel caught Will’s eye. Covered with dials and cryptic, faded, hand-painted letters, a rather large and obvious lever seemed to call out to him. He put his hand on it but hesitated.

  “Are you sure?” Giselle asked.

  “No,” he admitted.

  “It might blow up,” Angelica squeaked.

  “Then get back.”

  Giving them a chance to hide behind a heavy brick column, he braced himself and shoved the lever forward.

  CLICK! HISS! A surge of steam flowed into the machine, and the carousel spun faster and faster. The girls peered nervously from around the column.

  “What’s it doing?” Giselle had to shout to be heard over the noise.

  “Look!” he called.

  In the air a potato-sized lump of spinning gray metal appeared, hovering with no visible means of support. Unable to resist, Will reached towards it.

  “Don’t!” Angelica cried.

  His fingers went right through it.

  “It isn’t there,” he said, mystified.

  His sister backed away in fright. “That’s not possible.”

  “Will, what’s going on?” Giselle asked.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted, “but when I pushed the lever, for some reason – well, this isn’t going to make sense, but I thought of it.”

  “A floating chunk of metal that isn’t there? You thought of it?”

  “I told you it wouldn’t make sense.”

  “Think of where our parents are, then.”

  “It’s not something I control. It just happened.”

  Angelica stifled a scream. “Look!”

  A large, shimmering white circle appeared in the air, about twelve feet in diameter and reaching from floor to ceiling. Suddenly scared, Will ran around behind the column with the girls.

  “We should have brought crossbows!” he said.

  Little Angelica pulled her sling from her pocket and loaded a rock. Will drew a dagger from his belt, and Giselle grabbed a broom that leaned against the wall. They stared, mesmerized, as the giant circle turned various colors, settling on a deep purple that seemed to have depth and go for on forever.

  Suddenly the circle went clear, and they found themselves staring into another place! Overcoming his fear, Will walked over and peered th
rough.

  “I know what that is!” Giselle said, eyes wide open. “I remember the word from long ago. That’s a verltgaat!”

  “A what?” Angelica asked.

  “A world hole,” Will translated, peering through and realizing he was staring into the inside of an old, rusty boiler.

  Hands shaking, Giselle handed him the broom. He poked it through the hole and was just able to tap the boiler’s metal wall. They could barely hear it. Seen from the side, the broom handle seemed to disappear as it entered the shimmering hole in the air.

  “That’s how Dad vanished!” Angelica said, amazed.

  Pulling back the broom, Will found it was undamaged. Bravely he reached through with his left hand, starting with an outstretched pinky finger.

  “It tingles,” he said and reached in past his wrist. “Part of me’s in another world!”

  He pulled his hand back and flexed it. He was fine.

  “Here I go,” he said.

  “Wait!” Giselle urged. “We should think about this.”

  He stepped through. Briefly his image shimmered, and the girls could see him on the other side, looking around.

  “Are you okay?” Giselle shouted.

  “I’m fine,” he shouted back, and his voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a deep well.

  “Don’t leave us!” his sister yelled.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  He stepped away, and they could no longer see him.

  “Will!”

  Angelica teetered on the verge of a panic attack.

  “It’s okay, he’ll be right back,” Giselle soothed, wishing she’d sounded more confident.

  Unable to bear the thought of losing her brother, the little girl leaped through the world hole.

  Giselle gasped. “Angelica!” But it was too late. Her young cousin quickly moved out of her field of view.

  ***

  On the other side, Angelica found herself standing in a large, corroded old iron boiler. The only light came from the softly glowing verltgaat. Noticing an open hatch, she climbed onto a stone tiled floor in the middle of a huge, dark room. The silhouettes of large machines towered over her, and she noticed a stack of huge iron gears leaning against a pillar – one almost thirty feet in diameter.

 

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