"No! Leave my butterflies alone!" Megan screams. She grabs the Mechanical's pincer-leg with both hands and pulls on it with all her strength. The Mechanical fights back, but blindly, since it's no longer trying to swat the butterflies from its eye.
It takes a swipe at me with one of its middle legs, but I duck the blow easily and thrust the spanner into the middle of its whirring gears.
There is a very loud CLUNK as the spanner gets stuck in the Mechanical's works, and the large, terrifying, living machine freezes. Just like that.
I pull myself free from its pincer, tearing my clothes in the process, and help free Megan.
The space station is shaking so badly now that the immobile Mechanical collapses onto its side.
"Quickly, the force field generator!" Megan yells in my face.
"But I don't know how to turn it off," I shout as I turn back to look at it.
Spidey suddenly scampers over to the closest power cable attached to the force field generator, grips it with his eight little legs, and then falls off it in an anti-clockwise direction. Then he turns to me and watches me expectantly with his eight little eyes.
It takes me a moment to realise what he's telling me, but then I have it. I jump forward, grab the power cable, and twist it in an anti-clockwise direction. There is a loud click and the cable comes free. I scramble forward on my hands and knees and repeat the procedure with the next four cables. And then, when the last cable on this side of the generator is unplugged, the machine turns off with a cough and a splutter.
Several things happen all at once after that. There's an explosion that sounds like a volcano erupting. The module we're in breaks free from the space station and begins to spin and lurch It starts to get really hot. And we're thrown to the floor by the sudden increase in gravity.
This tells me one thing. Thanks to the force field having been deactivated, the earth's atmosphere is tearing the jury-rigged space station apart.
Megan reaches out a hand. “We’re going to die now, aren’t we?”
“Not if I can help it. Orb! Orb, we did what you asked, now get us out of here!” I shout at the top of my lungs as I hold her hand.
“I’m scared, Brad,” Megan shouts. We have to shout because it’s so loud in here. I notice the clockwork butterflies have landed on Megan's jumper. Their wings are still fluttering, but they're not trying to fly away: they're just trying to hold on to her.
“There’s something I want to tell you,” I shout.
“What?”
“If we survive this and ever get back to school, next time I’m team captain in sports class, you’ll be the first one I pick for my team.”
“You mean it?” she asks with tears in her eyes.
“I promise,” I assure her.
Spidey, who is pinned to the floor between us, suddenly starts tapping his legs up and down. I look at him, and then see what has got him so excited.
A large round hole filled with crackling blue energy has appeared right beside us.
“What on earth is that?” Megan shouts.
“It’s our way out of here: it has to be,” I shout back.
Little Spidey is trying to reach the hole, but the G-forces are so strong that he’s having trouble moving. He stops suddenly and begins winding up his winder.
I push myself to my hands and knees. Then I reach forward, scoop Spidey off the floor, and tuck him under one arm. I offer the other hand to Megan. “Come on, let’s go.”
Megan takes my hand and we crawl towards the glowing blue hole. It's some kind of portal, it has to be. The clockwork butterflies start flapping their wings furiously. I think they’re trying to help Megan move faster.
The blue hole isn't far away, but it feels like we'll never get there. The heat in the module has become unbearable and the module is bucking like a wild horse.
And then, just when I think we aren’t going to make it, Megan and I touch the glowing blue hole with our joined hands, and with a WHUMP we are sucked into it.
We pass through a weird, thick gloop that is like a mix between yoghurt and air, and then we are dumped onto a hard metal floor.
We are in a massive room filled with enormous pipes that reach from the floor to the ceiling high above. The ground is vibrating slightly and I can hear a distant rumbling.
I stand and help Megan to her feet. Spidey’s little legs are going like crazy, so I pop him on the ground and he buzzes off to explore our new surroundings. The clockwork butterflies spring off Megan and start flitting about happily.
“Are we back on the space station?” Megan asks fearfully.
I cock my head to one side and listen. I realise that as well as the deep rumbling, I can hear the slap of waves on metal.
"No, we're at sea, on a boat maybe?" I suggest.
"You are on an offshore drilling platform, to be precise," says a familiar voice.
We spin around and find the orb hovering beside us.
"A what?" Megan asks
"You know, an oil rig. Where they drill for oil," I explain. I turn to the orb. "You almost got us killed on that space station."
"And yet you survived. You also defeated the Mechanical and turned off the force field. Thanks to the two of you, the space station broke apart during re-entry and most of it burnt up. Congratulations, you saved millions and millions of lives."
"Why are we here, then?" I demand angrily.
"You are here because I have another mission for you."
Oh no...
Acknowledgements
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being my very best friend.
I would also like to thank the three lovely ladies who beta read the book, Rachel Barret, Tamara Bass, and Karen Siddall.
And of course, a special thanks to Mi-ke, the cutest and craziest kitten in the world. She plays fetch like a dog and was the inspiration for Spidey.
The Ring of Fire
Mechanicals Book Two
Chapter One
Megan and I, along with our little Mechanical friends, come tumbling out of the portal to land in a heap on a hard metal floor. The portal, a hole in the fabric of space that’s filled with crackling blue energy, disappears behind us with a loud SNAP.
We’re in a large room packed full of machinery and enormous pipes that reach from the floor to the ceiling above. The ground is vibrating and I can hear a distant rumbling.
I jump up and help Megan to her feet. My free hand’s still holding Spidey. He’s a living clockwork machine the size of a small dog. His legs are going like crazy, so I pop him on the ground. He buzzes off to explore our new surroundings. The little clockwork butterflies clinging to Megan’s sweater lift off and flit about happily.
“Are we back on the space station, Brad?” Megan asks fearfully as she gazes around the room.
In addition to deep rumbling, I can also hear the slap of waves on metal.
"No, we're at sea – on a boat perhaps," I suggest.
"You are on an offshore drilling platform, to be precise," says a familiar voice.
We spin around and find the Orb hovering beside us. The Orb is about the size of a basketball, and appears to be a life form consisting of pure energy. I have no idea where it comes from.
"A what?" Megan asks.
"You know – an oil rig – where they drill for oil," I explain. I turn to the Orb. "You almost got us killed on that space station!"
"Yet you survived. And defeated the Mechanical and turned off the force field. Thanks to the two of you, the space station broke apart during re-entry and most of it burned up. Congratulations, you saved millions and millions of lives."
"Why are we here, then?" I demand angrily.
"You are here because I have another mission for you," it says.
“What? No way! You have no right to ask us to put our lives in danger a second time. Isn’t that right, Megan?”
Megan doesn’t answer, so I glance in her direction, only to find that she’s gone over to one of the windows.
“You sho
uld see this view!” she says excitedly. “Miles and miles of ocean as far as I can see. Hah! That’s funny. Did you hear what I said? I said ‘ocean and see,’ but I could have said, ‘sea and see.’ But I couldn’t have said ‘sea and ocean.’ You get it? Ha-ha.”
“That’s pretty funny,” I say as I conclude that Megan is distracted as usual. So it’s just going to be me having this conversation with the Orb.
“Your new mission...” it begins again.
“I said ‘no,’ and I meant it. Find someone else to do your mission. Even better, do it yourself.”
“I can’t survive long in your world,” it replies.
“Then get someone else who can, you know, like some grownups? Like the FBI or the CIA,” I suggest.
“Oh no, I can’t ask them.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re the one who made this mess,” it tells me.
“What mess?”
“The Mechanicals-trying-to-destroy-the-world-mess,” it replies.
“And you’re trying to tell me that I caused it?” I ask.
“That’s correct. Perhaps this is a good time to remind you that you asked me to do whatever was necessary to help you stop the Mechanicals’ attempts to destroy the human race.”
“And when exactly did I say this to you?” I ask.
“Just before I erased your memory and sent you to the space station.”
“But...if I asked you to help me stop the Mechanicals, why did you do that? Do you have any idea how confusing that was? Running around on the space station with no memories of myself or my past?”
“As I told you previously, it was necessary.”
“How do I know you’re not lying to me? I mean come on - I’m just a kid! How could I possibly be responsible for the Mechanicals’ attempts to destroy the world?” I demand angrily.
“Did the Mechanical in the space station talk to you?” the Orb asks.
“Y-yes, it did,” I stammer.
“What did it say?”
“It knew my name!” I blurt out. “How could it possibly know who I am?”
“As I said...” the Orb begins.
“Yeah, I know. I caused this mess,” I interrupt. And you know – I’m beginning to think the Orb is telling the truth. How else could the Mechanical know who I was? It had spoken to me using Morse Code, telling me that humans were evil and needed to be destroyed before they could spread to the stars.
I hear a clunk and look down. Spidey has found a long, rusty bolt and has dropped it at my feet. “Not now, Spidey,” I say.
Refusing to be put off, he picks up the bolt again and drops it on my shoe. Then he slowly backs away while wagging his abdomen from side to side. His eight little red eyes are watching me intently.
“Oh, all right,” I say, and kick the bolt out of the room. He shoots off after it, but suddenly stops and uses his hind-most legs to turn the winding key on his back. That done, he races off to fetch the bolt. Self-winding, living clockwork toys that play fetch. How weird is that?
I turn back to the Orb. “Can we get back to how I’m supposed to have created this mess?”
“It is not the right time to tell you. What I will tell you, however, is that there is another Mechanical on this oil rig and that you have to stop it.”
“But...”
“Bradley!” the Orb cries. “I would love to hover here and answer your questions all day, but we do not have the time. You have to stop the Mechanical lowering a nuclear bomb down the well shaft that’s between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. The bomb is so powerful that if it detonates, it will trigger massive volcanic activity throughout the Ring of Fire. It will also cause earthquakes and tidal waves that will wipe out the west coasts of North and South America, Japan, and other Asia-Pacific nations. There will be tremendous loss of life.”
The Orb immediately begins to fade.
“But I don’t know the first thing about how to deactivate an atomic bomb! And what’s the Ring of Fire?” I say, panicking. It can’t leave now - I need more information!
“As before, I have provided you with all the help you need to succeed in your mission,” the Orb says.
“No, wait!” I yell. I can see right through the Orb now.
“You have less than one hour, so you better get going.”
Chapter Two
With that parting comment, the Orb is gone. I am left with Megan, who is giggling as she plays with her clockwork butterflies. She is holding out her hands, and as I watch, two of the little metal insects alight on her fingertips. One butterfly uses its legs to wind up the other’s winding key. The other returns the favour and then they take off, to be replaced by another pair.
“You watching this, Brad?” Megan asks. “Aren’t they adorable? I just love them to bits!”
“Yeah, cute little things. But hey, did you hear what the Orb just said?”
“I’m so sad I lost some of my butterflies on the space station, poor little things. That big lobster Mechanical was so mean to destroy them! And don’t get me started on those horrible little mechanical worms! From here on, I will make an extra special effort to keep my butterflies safe. I won’t let anything harm them,” Megan says.
I go over, grab her shoulders, and gently turn her to face me. “Megan, focus! Did you hear what the Orb said?”
“The Orb? No, sorry. Hey, where’s he gone?” she says as she scans the room.
“It has given us another mission. There’s a Mechanical on the oil rig and we have to stop it from putting a bomb deep into the belly of the earth,” I explain.
“Really? Okay, let’s get to it then, shall we?” she asks.
I wish I could remain calm like she does. I get in a flap so easily. “You wouldn’t happen to know where the bomb is, would you?” The Orb had sent Megan to the space station a day or two before I got there, so she knew exactly where the force field generator was and took me there.
“Sorry, I don’t know anything about this place,” she says.
“Blast. Okay, let’s go find it.”
I rush out of the room with Megan on my heels and the butterflies fluttering along behind us. We find ourselves on a metal walkway with a high railing. A drilling derrick – the tall framework that houses the oil rig’s drilling machinery – towers over us. I’m getting a sore neck just looking up at it.
There are three massive exhaust towers for the rig’s generator turbines, and a three-storey structure behind us. I can also see a helicopter pad on our right, but there’s no helicopter on it. There are even levels below us.
I’m bewildered. This place is huge! Much bigger than I thought it would be. I wonder where we should start our search.
I guess the first thing to do is to get off this walkway. “Let’s go that way,” I suggest, pointing ahead.
But before we can take a step, the butterflies suddenly scatter like a flock of frightened seagulls. They disappear into the nooks and crannies of the walls, floor and structure above us.
“What’s happening, where did they go?” Megan asks, eyes wide with worry.
“Hey! You kids! Stop right where you are!” a man bellows.
We look over the railing and see a big man wearing overalls and a yellow hardhat pointing at us. He uses a ladder to climb quickly to our level and stomps over to us. His arms and legs are as thick as tree trunks and his chest is like a barrel. And he doesn’t look happy.
But me, I’m so happy I could burst – there are grownups on the oil rig! That means we can ask them to catch the Mechanical and deal with the bomb threat.
“Sir, I’m so glad to see you,” I say as soon as he reaches us.
“Blasted kids, where did you come from?” he demands angrily.
“We were, ah...brought here through a portal,” I reply, suddenly realising how ridiculous that sounds.
“Brought here by a what?” he snaps.
“It’s not important,” I add quickly. “But what is important, sir, is that there’s a mechanical m
onster on this oil rig and it’s got a nuclear bomb. You have to help us find it and stop it before it lowers the bomb down the well shaft.”
“I asked you to tell me how you got here, not spin some silly fairy tale!” the man says angrily.
“But sir, I’m telling the truth!”
“Look kid, we’re running a tight ship here and have a deadline to meet. We don’t have time for games. Come with me – I’ll take you to the shift supervisor. He can work out what to do with you,” the man says as he reaches out and grabs our arms.
Without another word, he drags us along the walkway.
“My butterflies!” Megan wails as she looks behind us.
I glance back too, but there is no sign of them or Spidey. It’s like they don’t want anyone else to see them.
The man ignores Megan and keeps dragging us with him. Megan tries to pull her arm free and run back to find the butterflies.
“Quit your fussing, girly,” the man growls.
“You have to let me go! My butterflies are back there and they need me,” Megan says as tears slip down her cheeks.
“What are you talking about? We’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – you won’t find any butterflies out here. Now quit struggling or I’ll carry you the rest of the way,” he threatens.
“We’ll come back for them after we’ve seen the shift supervisor,” I tell Megan.
She nods and stops fighting, but keeps looking behind us.
Chapter Three
We get to the end of the walkway and the man propels us into an elevator cage and closes the gate. The elevator goes down two levels. He opens the gate and pulls us out into an open area that’s the centre of activity. My guess is that this is the heart of the oil rig. There are several workmen here, all in hardhats and working furiously to lower lengths of tubing into the well shaft.
There’s no sign of the Mechanical, of course. I wonder where it could be?
Clockwork Mechanicals - the Complete Trilogy Page 4