Spidey’s legs are pumping up and down, so I set him on the floor. He buzzes off to explore our new surroundings. Roach climbs off me and darts after him.
“Where are we?” Megan asks. I see that the butterflies are fluttering about happily again.
Looking around, I see that we’re in a small, dark, triangular room with metal floor and glass windows on two sides. There are four chairs in the room, which, I realise, is vibrating with a rhythmic hum.
I go over to the windows, look outside and gasp. We’re way above the earth, but not in space.
“Orb!” I shout angrily.
The Orb comes through the crackling blue hole.
“Congratulations,” he says. “You’ve defeated the Mechanical and saved millions of lives. Again.”
“That’s well and good, but where have you brought us this time?” I demand.
“You’re on a high altitude airship, fifteen miles above the earth,” he replies.
“Why?”
“Because I have another mission for you...”
Noooooo...
Acknowledgements
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for always being with me.
I would also like to thank Melissa Scott for pointing out all the holes and weaknesses in the original draft, as well as for her awesome work in editing the manuscript.
Also a special thank you to Rachel Barret for beta reading the manuscript and for her invaluable feedback.
And of course, a special thanks to Insane-o-cat, who was as faithful as a dog and followed me everywhere. (And for being the inspiration for Roach.)
High Altitude Airship
Mechanicals Book Three
Copyright © 2015 Peter R Stone
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental.
For Tim
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Peter R Stone
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Chapter One
Megan, Robby, our little Mechanical friends and I, come tumbling out of the portal and land upon a hard, metal floor.
The portal is a hole in the fabric of space that’s filled with crackling blue energy. It snaps closed behind us, as though to stop us from jumping back through it. As if we would – there’s an oil rig rapidly turning into an inferno on the other side.
“Oh no, I’ve got a really bad feeling about this,” I say as I climb to my feet.
Spidey – a clockwork spider the size of a small dog – is anxious to explore our new surroundings. I set him down and he buzzes off excitedly. Roach – a clockwork cockroach – climbs down my leg and darts after him.
“Where are we?” Megan asks. The little Mechanical butterflies she brought with her are fluttering about happily. That’s a good sign. It’s when they become agitated or disappear that I worry.
I look around and see that we’re in a small, poorly lit, triangular room. It has four chairs and glass windows on two sides. The room is vibrating with a rhythmic hum.
I go over to the windows and gasp. We’re way above the earth, but not in space. We appear to be in a gondola – a passenger compartment hanging beneath an airship. Huge propellers are jutting out from the sides of the gondola.
This is so not where I want to be right now. Not when I consider all we’ve been through in the past two hours.
“Orb!” I bellow.
The Orb – a spherical life form of made of pure energy – suddenly appears beside us. I realise it never needs a portal to travel. It just appears and then fades away.
“Congratulations!” it says. “You’ve defeated the Mechanical and saved millions of lives. Again.”
“Orb, where have you brought us this time?”
“You’re on a high altitude airship, fifteen miles above the earth,” it replies.
“Why?” I roll my eyes with frustration. I wish the Orb would come out and just tell us from the beginning everything we need to know.
“Because I have another mission for you. The airship is over Antarctica. A Mechanical onboard is using it to enlarge the hole in the ozone layer. You must stop it, for without the ozone layer, mankind, the animals, and most of the plant life, will perish.”
“How many more of these missions do we have to do? We almost got killed on the space station, and were nearly roasted alive on the oil rig!” I complain.
“This is the last one,” the Orb informs me.
“Really? So after we – if we – stop this Mechanical, we can go home?”
“That is correct. Now, I suggest you get started, for there is not much time, and I really must go.” The Orb begins to fade.
“Hey, please! Don’t leave now – I have more questions! Are there grownups on the airship? Can you tell us what the Mechanical here looks like? The grownups made a real mess of things on our last mission, and it took us forever to find the Mechanical because he was disguised as a man –”
“As before,” the Orb replies, cutting me off. “I have provided you with all the help you need to succeed in this mission.”
With that, the Orb is gone.
Chapter Two
“Hey look, a light switch!” Megan flicks a switch beside the room’s only door.
Bright light bathes the compartment. That of course, means we can no longer see out the windows, since it is darker outside than in.
“Check out those chairs – weird or what?” Megan says.
There are four chairs in the middle of the room. And I agree with Megan, they’re the strangest looking things I’ve ever seen.
Not only are they made of bronze, but their legs and backs are joined to the seats by gears, rods and pulleys. The legs are bolted to the floor to stop the chairs from moving about when the airship is buffeted by the wind.
“Hey, Robby. Did you understand what the Orb said about the airship enlarging the hole over the ozone layer? What’s all that about?” I ask.
“Oh, okay. L-l-l-let me explain. Ozone is a – is a – gas that is found n-n-n-naturally in the earth’s s-s-stratosphere –”
“The stratosphere?” I ask.
“It’s the l-l-l-layer of air surrounding the earth that is f-f-f-found between s-s-s-six miles and th-th-th-thirty miles above the...ground. Ozone is f-f-f-found in this layer –”
“Why’s ozone important?”
“Will you s-s-s-stop interrupting?”
“Sorry.” I smile sheepishly. I forgot that although Robby has quite a stuttering problem, he doesn’t like it when people finish his sentences.
“Ozone is important b-b-b-because it blocks o-o-o-out much of the sun’s u-u-u-ultraviolet ra-ra-ra-radiation.”
“And ultraviolet radiation is bad?”
“Yes. Small doses can c-c-c-cause sunburn and sk-sk-sk-skin cancer. Too m-m-much and everything on the earth – on the earth – on the earth – will die.”
“How does this airship fit into it all?” I must admit that I’m a tad confused.
“The Orb s-s-s-said the airship is enlarging the – enlarging the enlarging the hole in the o-o-o-ozone layer. The hole in the ozone l-l-l-layer is above Antarctica.”
“What made the hole?” I ask.
“Ozone is d-d-d-destroyed by CFCs – a gas f-f-f-found in aerosol cans and...re-re-refrigerators.”
“How is the airship making the hole bigger?”
“That’s what w-w-we have to f-f-find out.” Robby nods thoughtfully.
I’m glad the Orb sent Robby to help us. He’s like a walking science journal.
Megan plops down on one of the chairs. “Not exactly comfy.” She frowns.
“Well, it is made of bronze,” I say with a laugh.
Megan shrugs and holds out her hands. The clockwork butterflies land on her fingertips in pairs and take turns winding each other up.
Megan giggles. “It tickles!”
There’s a strange scratching sound. I’m surprised to see a steel bolt that fastens one of the chair legs to the deck unscrewing itself. It comes all the way out and falls onto the floor with a metallic plunk.
Spidey scurries over to the bolt, picks it up and brings it to me. He drops it at my feet and backs away; wagging his little abdomen like a dog wags its tail.
“You’re so cute, little fella,” I say as I pick up the bolt and toss it across the room.
Spidey darts after the bolt to bring it back. But when he picks it up, another bolt from the same chair unscrews itself. Spidey drops his bolt, picks up the new one, and brings that one to me instead.
Suddenly, the other fourteen bolts fastening the chairs to the deck clang against the floor one by one. Spidey backs slowly away.
“Something’s not right here,” I say.
As if to confirm my words, the clockwork butterflies suddenly fly away from Megan like a flock of startled seagulls.
“Uh, Megan, get off the chair!”
“I’m used to it now,” she replies. “It took a while because the seat is so hard. Not like the sofas we have at home. They’re like, wow! So comfy. When you sit on them, it’s like sitting on a cloud, you sink down so deep. But hey – this one’s seat is so warm! It must be heated or something. I think I could sit here forever. I wonder if we could start a business selling chairs like these. They would sell like hot cakes. You get it, hot cakes?”
“I get it, haha. But, seriously, Megan – quickly, hop off!” I rush over to her, but unfortunately, I’m too slow.
Steel cables snake out of the back of the chair and wrap around Megan, pinning her in place.
“Ah, guys? Help me, I’m trapped!” She struggles against the cables with all her strength.
Suddenly, the other three chairs start marching awkwardly in our direction. It is so weird that I wonder if I’m dreaming.
“B-b-brad!” Robby cries out as he backs away from one heading for him. “What do w-w-w-we do?”
I want to say that we need to free Megan and get out of the room. But I’m too busy trying to dodge the other two chairs coming for me.
Chapter Three
It doesn’t matter which way I run. If I go left, a chair will suddenly appear. The same if I go right. In no time flat, I’m pressed up against the wall, kicking the chairs away as they attack me.
Spidey comes to my rescue. He scuttles behind the two chairs and runs in circles around their two closest back legs. I wonder what he’s doing, and then I realise he’s spinning a fine metal web around their legs, tying them together. That’s amazing! I didn’t know Spidey could do that.
With their legs tied, the chairs can’t move. I jump over the closest one and hurry away. They try to hobble after me, but apart from making a lot of noise, they barely move an inch.
“Good job, Spidey!” I say. The little clockwork Mechanical buzzes loudly.
Now that I’m free, I rush over to help Megan, only to find that Roach is already on the job. He is attacking the back of the chair with the tools that double as his feet. He has torn off the bronze backing panel and is plucking out gears by the claw-full.
The cable wrapped around Megan goes slack. I grab it with both hands and rip it out of the chair with one mighty tug. Megan springs out of the chair like a jack-in-the-box.
“Beastly thing!” She gives the chair a savage kick. She turns to me. “What’s going on, Brad – why are these chairs attacking us?”
“I think they’re Mechanicals.” I look at the gears Roach pulled out of the chair
“Oh great – evil chairs! That’s just what we need!”
“I know, right? Look, I’d better go save Robby. Can you can get that door open?”
“I’ll save Robby – you get the door open,” Megan replies.
“Okay!” Megan’s pretty strong. Between her and Robby, I reckon they can handle one Mechanical chair.
I rush to the door that leads to the next compartment and try the large iron handle. Just my luck – it’s locked.
“Roach, I need you over here. Argh!” I yelp in alarm when the chair that trapped Megan attacks me. Its cable is trailing along the floor behind it, but it’s still fast. It bangs into my legs and tries to push me away from the door. It looks like the chairs don’t want us to leave the room.
I kick the chair with my sneaker. It wobbles back, so I keep kicking it. My other foot’s only wearing a sock since I lost the other shoe on the space station. Meanwhile, Roach scurries over, runs straight up the wall, and attacks the door handle.
“You got that door open yet?” Megan shouts. She and Robby are having a hard time with the fourth chair. It keeps batting them with its back and kicking them with its legs.
There’s a loud CLUNK as the door handle hits the floor.
“Good one, Roach,” I say as I push the door open on well-oiled hinges.
Roach leaps onto my arm, which of course is a little painful due to his feet. It feels like a cat sticking its claws into me. I pat Roach’s flat, metal body. He head butts my shoulder, gives me a little nip, and buzzes loudly. He’s so cute!
“Come on everyone, the door’s open!”
Robby comes first. He’s running as though there’s a swarm of angry wasps on his tail. Next comes Megan, who actually does have a swarm following her. But it’s only her butterflies.
Spidey is last. But instead of leaving the room, he just drops his bolt at my feet and waits. I kick the bolt through the door and he darts in after it.
I hurry after him into a dark room and slam the door shut. Except it doesn’t stay shut because Roach removed the handle and the chairs are trying to push it open.
“Is there anything we can prop against the door? I can’t lock it.” It’s using all my strength just to keep them out.
“Hang on, I’ll get the light.” Megan says. I hear her bumping around and there’s a click. The lights come on and we gasp in awe. Hundreds of squat gas ‘bottles’ fill the room. The bottles are made of metal, and are about three-feet high and almost as wide. There is a narrow path between them leading the room’s other exit.
“Let’s pr-pr-pr-prop some of these b-b-b-bottles against the...door,” Robby suggests. He tries to drag one over, but it’s too heavy.
“Can you give him a hand, Megan?” I ask while Robby continues to struggle on his own.
She doesn’t reply, though, because she’s distracted. As usual.
“Megan!”
“I think I saw a mouse back there, running between the bottles,” she finally replies. “At least I think it was a mouse. I always get rats and mice mixed up. This one had a thin smooth tail – that means it’s a mouse, right? Rats have longer tails with scaly rings, if I remember. My dad caught once – a rat, that is – with a mousetrap. It was so big and ugly! The one I just saw doesn’t look –”
“Megan! Focus!”
“Sorry – did you say something?”
“Can you help Robby prop some bottles against the door? We can talk about the differences between rats and mice later. You know, when we’re not so busy trying to flee these crazy chairs!”
“Oh! Sorry.” Megan she hurries over to help Robby. Together they manage to drag over a bottle and lean it against the door. They head back for another.
Chapter Four
I look at the bottle closest to me. The label reads:
REFRIGERANT
Contains chlorofluorocarbons
While keeping my weight on the door, I reach out to touch the bottle...
...and suddenly I’m no longer in the airship but standing in my dad’s junkyard. It’s crammed full of broken and wrecked household appliances
, machinery, and cars.
I realise I’m reliving a memory from my past.
I see myself touch a weathered gas bottle labelled REFRIGERANT. There are quite a few of them in the junkyard.
I spy a flickering blue light over to my left. I walk over there and find a large glowing hole filled with crackling blue energy. It’s nestled between two wrecked cars. I’ve never seen anything like it before.
I know I should wait until my dad gets back from his interstate trip, before going closer, but curiosity gets the best of me.
I pick up a rusty windscreen wiper and gingerly poke it at the hole. To my horror, I’m instantly sucked inside. I pass through a weird, thick gloop and then I’m dropped onto a place I’ve never seen before.
When I clamber to my feet and look around, I realise I’m no longer on earth. A barren, rocky landscape surrounds me. Strange purple plants flourish in crevices. Great irregular rock formations thrust out of the ground and point heavenward. I can even see veins of pure metal – copper and tin – inside them. Flashes of lightning illuminate thick, grey clouds. What little I can see of the sky is dark pink!
A strong wind buffets the landscape, causing eddies to swirl here and there.
I figure that the blue hole, which is crackling happily away behind me, must be a portal or a wormhole that connects this world with the earth.
I consider jumping straight back into the portal and going home. But I quickly decide against it. I’m on another world! It’s time to do some exploring.
I’ve taken only a few steps when several glowing objects the size of tennis balls go bouncing past me. The one at the rear stops and rolls back towards me.
It looks like it’s made of electricity or something, so I jump back.
The ball doesn’t try to touch me, though. It rolls over to a small stone, absorbs it, and spits it out at my feet. The ball rolls back, and waits anxiously.
Clockwork Mechanicals - the Complete Trilogy Page 8