The Nephele Ship: The Trilogy Collection (A Steampunk Adventure)

by Luke Shephard

  Liza pumped her fist, and the three of them scampered up the stairs. Dale, Luke, and I prepared to go through the doors down the stairs to the basement, and as I put my hand on the door, it suddenly swung open for me.

  Diana's voice sounded from somewhere nearby. "This house does not know to trust you, but this house will not hinder you unless you threaten this house's mission."

  I didn't much care for the idea of speaking to a house that had a brain harvested from a human installed as a sort of non-artificial intelligence, but at this point, what haven't I seen? I took a deep breath. We entered, and went down, way down.

  Dale spoke in a low voice. "It must have become active again when we reintroduced the gas into the system. It probably runs off steam power, and there's a boiler system somewhere." I nodded in agreement.

  "Diana does not seem keen on killing us, but being essentially dead for that long and then returning to life may have left some kind of damage in her psyche, especially since she does not seem to have developed much in the first place. Watch your backs," I said.

  The stairs dumped us into the first basement, where the worktables all were pristinely cleaned now. I hazarded a question to Diana.

  "Diana, do you have control of cleaning automata?" I asked to nowhere in particular.

  "It is part of this house's primary functions, keeping things clean and neat." The voice always seemed to come from somewhere just ahead, or possibly behind? "Spills of wine, puffs of dust, droplets of blood, all are cleaned and recycled by this house."

  The table that housed the brain in its preservative fluid was completely empty save for the large dome. The jars of other…parts were all lined up on a shelf, which had been wheeled over, and all the robots around the room, which were still attached to the wall units, shined like they had been polished. I marvelled for a moment-- the liquid in which the brain had been suspended had seemed to be clearer, more transparent than it was when I last saw it. Perhaps there was a filtering system inside?

  "Please do not touch anything on that table. This house functions from here." I almost chuckled as I heard the tiniest hint of trepidation in the voice.

  "I won’t. I promise," I replied. Luke reached for one of the doors, and pulled it open.

  The inside of this room was lined with shelves, row after row of what looked like modular doll parts. Arms, legs, heads, even tails and wings, were all stacked together on the shelves. The furthest shelf inside had some twenty torsos, all of which had a small metal plate attached to their upper back. Dale scrutinised it.

  "It's the same plate as on the spider monster, Captain. Maybe these dolls work on the same principle?" he said, picking up one of the nearby legs and holding it to the place it should have connected to the body. It seemed to snap into place with a magnetic click.

  Luke assembled one of the dolls, a head with pretty black hair finishing the deal. It shuddered in his hands, and instantly began moving, flexing its joints and twisting its neck. In disgust, he dropped it, and the limbs and head all scattered off the body. It seems the magnets inside it were not anywhere near as strong as the thing we fought.

  I sighed. "You know, Diana, I don't much care for dolls," I said. "They look too much like little men, and there is something unsettling about that. You don't look like a doll, though."

  No response.

  I pushed up the locking bar of the next room.

  "You may wish to avoid that storage room," said Diana, as I was opening the door. It was a bit to late, though, for me to close the door-- inside the room was just one item, though its size explained why there was just one: a gigantic metal wasp, with fully articulate wings and legs, and a terrifyingly long stinger with visible barbs that seemed to hook at the ends.

  I shut the door hastily. "You could have told me earlier, Diana," I breathed. Luke called from one of the other doors.

  "This one won't open!" he said, tugging on the door handle.

  "That room contains dangerous items. This house deems it unsafe to let you inside."

  Dale sighed. "Diana, I am going to level with you. You want to keep those creatures from getting out into the world, right?"

  "Yes."

  "Then you should know, they have already escaped. Through a tunnel in the very stone in the lower basement. You cannot stop them from doing something they have already done."

  A harsh clicking sound came from the table with the brain, and a steam valve let off unnecessary pressure with a gout of white-hot steam. "What did you say?"

  I clenched my eyes. "Damnit, Dale," I whispered through clenched teeth. "A pissed-off sentient house that controls robots is the last thing we needed."

  Dale looked back at me, his eyes saying "it's too late to turn back now." He continued.

  "In fact, Diana, these things have multiplied and have gone about under the earth, burning tunnels into the ground and causing the creation of continental faults. Do you know what those are?"

  "Continental fault. A zone, region, or line in normally solid ground that may suddenly shift and cause disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and sinkholes of great magnitude."

  "That's right," he said. "Now, you can still help us, still keep those creatures from destroying the works your creator brought to light."

  A sudden grinding sound from the brain table. "This house... remembers now... long ago, they escaped the devices my father created for them. They are deep now. He cannot stop them. He can only delay..."

  "Yes, yes, focus, Diana," I said. Maybe Dale was on to something. "We have a plan, and if you help us, you can finish your task and clean up those terrible creatures. We need your help."

  *****

  We came back up to the foyer, some time later, and met with the upstairs team. It turned out that Diana could not split her attention between the two groups, so she was basically unaware that the second group was in the house until we told her. Victoria, Liza, and Martha all wore some very fancy-looking armor, silvery plates adorned with engravings and brass accents, which Victoria explained were "articulate suits." The information card on this particular exhibited item (for, indeed, the upper portion of the house was basically a museum showcase of his works) explained that the suits added better balance and quicker reflexes to the wearer by augmenting the wearer's equilibrium with strong magnetic pulses from vibration sensors installed all over the suit.

  Martha sat in what I can only describe as an empty automaton frame, completely powered only by lever force applied by one's own body, that added nearly two meters to her height. It used simple mechanics to amplify the forces exerted by the "pilot," as it was termed, and even had prehensile fingers that matched the movements perfectly.

  There were four tall, slender dolls that looked like they were made of porcelain who stood in their immensely frilly and overly complicated dresses, which Liza informed me were "near-indestructible clockworks." They, too, were commanded by punchcard, but this time, we had a copy of them. They were apparently to be used in repetitive high-stress situations like circus acts and performances, but "could also be used in emergency situations as rescue and evacuation tools, due to their high-durability body materials and generation of force."

  We, for our part, came back with very little.

  "Was there nothing to help us in the basement?" asked Victoria, seeing us empty-handed. I grinned.

  "Diana, tell them."

  The whole house seemed to answer from all directions. "This house has taken Captain Austin Strallahan and his crew under its protection, and will assist in their task to prevent the fire creatures from causing a great disaster."

  I dusted off my collar, and opened my mouth to speak, when suddenly, a great boom followed by a rumble resonated through the house. Only seconds later, another, similar boom-rumble from the opposite direction met the first one, and the vibrations ran through the house and the ice that surrounded it. I swore loudly.

  "That sounds like our friends the Eyes doing their jobs," I said. "It's only a matter of time now. I've got a plan,
but we need to get it ready. Diana! The stairs!"

  The great staircase leading up to the second floor cracked open, swinging upward on its great hinge, and I motioned for everyone to descend. "We're heading down to the machine room, everyone! Make it quick!"

  The great door that led into the deeper sub-basement swung open. This was the first place that looked visibly distressed from the torrent of water that had passed through it. From above, Diana's voice sounded: "This house is diverting all unnecessary power down to the lower sublevel, as per your request, Captain. This house cannot see that far down, but will continue to assist as possible."

  "You're brilliant, Diana! You are positively amazing!"

  Diana also was doing one more thing for us. While the dirigibles floated in the air up above us, a panel in the roof opened, and a steam vent began directing its hot gas out of that window, melting the ice slowly in a small tunnel. Something tiny flew out of the tunnel into the sky. Everything was going according to plan.

  If I was right, then the creatures would likely begin to gather back in the house not long from now. We had to make this as quick as possible. "Liza! Dale! This machine. Figure out how to make it work. Diana tells us that this thing required tremendous power to function, but if we have a little now, I'm sure you can find its functional parts. I want this thing to draw as much moisture from the atmosphere as is physically possible, maybe more than that if you two can work your magic well. Make it rain, and hard. Victoria! You and Martha have those suits, and Martha, you've got that frame. You two probably have the best shot at directly fighting those things when they come up, so that's your job. Keep them off the machine, and keep them away from us. Luke! You are on the robots control. Try to make them be as difficult as possible for the creatures. They say they can stand up to pressure, so push them to that limit. Go!"

  Dale pulled a crowbar from his pack while Liza jumped up into the control rig. The two of them together would be able to tinker anything to pieces and back together again, I'd wager. The defenders gathered in a sort of semicircle formation around the hole in the stone, from which faraway sounds of screeching and dragging began to issue. That left me. I dashed back upstairs.

  "How's the hole coming, Diana?" I called, running up the stairs.

  "This house has several automata working on clearing just such a space now. It is perhaps not the most pleasant feeling, telling your own tools to drill and break holes in yourself, but it should be ready soon. Will you keep your part of the bargain?"

  I grinned, reaching the basement's first floor, and tapped the brain glass as I ran past it. "You bet I will."

  The scene unfolded quickly downstairs, I am told. After I left, Dale and Liza worked like blurs. The whole floor came up in pieces at Dale's crowbar, and when he had access to the underworkings of the device, he threw off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Liza, meanwhile, furiously pushed buttons, turned dials, and pulled levers, referring to the book of notes and results she'd brought with her for this purpose every minute or so.

  "Route th' copper wiring from th'coils directly intae th'magnetic generator!"

  "Wires routed! Run power through the initiation circuit!"

  "Initiation circuit running. Pressure reads?"

  "Below maximum. Disabling runoff valves!"

  "Careful! Diverting all available channels tae main valve."

  "Hold your breath... Yes! Beautiful! This thing will blow a hole in the moon if we tell it to, there's so much stored energy still here! It's incredible, but we'll only have one chance with it!"

  "That's all we'll need, Dale. That's all we'll need. Starting th'condensation sequence!"

  Their whole work took no more than a few minutes, but they seemed like they had some sort of unspoken communication method, like the very metal they both touched carried their thoughts back and forth. It made Victoria almost jealous.

  It wasn't long, however, before it was her turn to shine, and, armed with a rifle in her hands, a revolver on each hip, and her good and steady rapier on her back, she turned to face the hole as the sounds from inside got louder and louder. Martha, in her frame, held a veritable log in one of the giant hands and a metal door from upstairs in the other to use as a shield. On her person, she also had several firearms. Mingled with them were the four robots, their current command programmed as "seize intruders."

  Suddenly, three of the creatures poured out into the cavernous room, evidently surprised to find the crew there, ready and waiting for them. Martha said she was the first to act, waiting in ambush as she was, and brought the club down on top of the first one's head with such force that the creature immediately stumbled and crashed messily to the floor, the other two tripping over it as they entered. A gunshot pierced the echoing air of the cavern, and Victoria's smoking rifle jerked back. She pulled the bolt down to reload the next round.

  The four robots sprang forward in unison, locking themselves around the limbs of the two that had not been smashed and shot, and their surprising strength proved more than the creatures could overcome. They thrashed on the floor wildly, but did not spit their fire because they knew it would be too dangerous. For all that they were monsters, they were certainly intelligent to at least some degree.

  "Just a few more minutes!" called Liza. "It's nearly ready to release!" Dale, still down in the underworkings, heaved against a bolt with his heavy wrench. "Don't let that bolt go, Dale, or we lose all th'pressure--"

  "I KNOW!" bellowed Dale.

  Meanwhile, I rushed outside the manor to the ship. "Send up the flares! Now!" I called, and pushed the doors open wide. Far down below me, I knew that they were fighting the creatures, but I had to see this bit through. We needed that fire cannon support, and soon, or else the whole plan would fall flat. Up above, even through the ice, I could see the sky growing dark and swirling about with thick, black clouds.

  Seconds after the flares went up, I heard the powering-up far overhead of those terrible cannons, and then a volley of pure heat slammed into the ice. They at least were doing what they were told for now.

  Back down to the basement I dashed. "Diana, you all ready?" I asked. Next to the brain table, one of the assistant clockworks had wheeled up a table full of tools. Lying on that table was a doll, human-sized and female-shaped, its grey-white porcelain-like body glinting slightly in the gas lamps' light. The head of the automaton was angled up sharply, ad its cranium was open. Inside, dozens and dozens of wires ending in little ports were meticulously arranged. The chest was open, as well, and the small, hyper-efficient boiler inside waited for fuel.

  "This house is prepared."

  "Oh, quit with the 'this house' stuff, Diana. You're a person, not an object."

  There was momentary silence, before her voice, lower and resolved, said two words: "Let's begin."

  *****

  Downstairs, three monsters fell, and, thanks to the large shield Martha carried, their ensuing explosion was fended off from the machine and the unarmoured. Martha's new frame was truly something she rather enjoyed.

  "Dale! Pressure reading!" called Liza, as she frantically tried to keep her settings from switching to emergency shutdown.

  "Off the gauge!" he called back through gritted teeth. "Now would be a good time!"

  The tunnel was suddenly ablaze with sticky fire, and several of the creatures could be seen barrelling toward the entrance, their mouths dripping the flaming substance. Martha seized her shield by both sides and rammed it into the hole, bracing her frame against it. "Luke! Robots!"

  Luke slammed punchcards into the control box, one after another, and then punched the activate button, sticking it up to each robot's backs to make data transfer contact. The robots, who were surprisingly undamaged, braced themselves against the door and dug their heels into the stone.

  Not a second too soon! Quickly there came a great smash against the door and, even in her frame, Martha stumbled back a step before redoubling her effort to block the tunnel.

  Liza reached over and pulled the
big black lever on the side of the machine, gritting her teeth. "Here we go!" she shouted.

  From the mouth of the machine erupted a storm of electricity, even as the door holding the tunnel shut began to melt. "Now! Out! Go!" commanded Victoria in a voice she had not used since the last ship she doctored for. Martha drew back her great fist and punched one creature in the face through the hole that had formed in the shield, and then turned, scooping up Luke and Victoria together and barrelling up the stairs.

  Dale's hands finally let the wrench go, but he had held on long enough. Sparks biting into his bare arms, he leapt out of the hole under the machine, and turned to grab Liza's hand. As he reached out, he heard the exhaling noise of one of the creatures spitting fire.

  The fireball struck him in the forearm, and completely incinerated his hand and wrist, cauterizing the wound as the fireball itself continued on its course.

  Liza tells us about how even with his hand having just been destroyed in a flash, he managed to grab her with the other hand, jerk her out of the way of another oncoming fireball, and pull her to the floor before his eyes rolled back into his head and he lost consciousness. She threw him over her shoulders and bolted as fast as her legs would take her, carrying Dale, who had gone into shock immediately. Martha, halfway up the stairs, turned back, dropping Victoria and Luke, and charged back to the door, slamming it shut with such force that it came off its hinges and jammed, before scooping up the injured Dale.