Castle of Cyborgs

by Adrian C. Bott

‘THANK YOU, AXEL. SO DID YOU. AND WE HAVE TO GO DOWN.’

  ‘What? We can’t. Dad’s in a tower, not a dungeon!’

  ‘I THINK WE SHOULD GO DOWN. A LONG WAY DOWN. RIGHT THROUGH THE FLOOR AND KEEP GOING, THROUGH ALL THE CELLARS AND INTO THE UNDERCROFT.’

  Axel let out an exasperated sigh. ‘Have you got a loose wire in your head or something? Why would we go down? Omega said even the Institute guys don’t go under the castle. The monster, remember?’

  Axel felt BEAST shudder. ‘I REMEMBER. AND I AM SCARED. BUT WE NEED TO FIND THE MONSTER.’

  ‘Find it? Why?’

  ‘BECAUSE THE BAD MEN ARE AFRAID OF IT. AND BEAST THINKS SOMETIMES MONSTERS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM.’

  Axel closed his eyes. This was just too frustrating. Why, of all the times when he could have malfunctioned, was BEAST blowing a fuse now?

  Chasing after monsters sounds crazy, he thought. And down has to be the wrong way to go. But… I do trust BEAST. And he needs to know I trust him.

  ‘Okay, then. Down it is. If we hit the floor hard enough we should smash clean through.’ There was no way to turn round in the cramped chimney, so Axel reluctantly switched BEAST’s foot rockets off. They fell like a plummeting lift.

  ‘Oh, man. Here we go …’

  From below came the dull whump of an explosion. Axel looked down and saw a wall of flame rushing up the chimney towards them.

  ‘Payne’s trying to blast us out!’ he yelled. ‘BEAST, we can’t keep going. We have to turn back!’

  ‘AXEL, PLEASE!’

  Axel reached for the throttle control. He squeezed, but nothing happened. For the first time ever, BEAST had overridden his own control systems.

  ‘We’re going to die,’ Axel said.

  And they plunged into the heart of the furnace.

  There was a deafening thra-koom as more explosions went off, right next to them. BEAST’s body shuddered as they smashed through the fireplace floor. Bricks rained down on them, blown loose by the force of the blast. Then they were free-falling, tumbling over and over.

  Axel didn’t even feel the impact when they crashed down on a flagstone floor hundreds of metres below. He had already passed out.

  There was a cold breeze blowing on Axel’s face. He could smell the damp mineral smells of old stonework and mossy cobbles, like a pavement after the rain. From somewhere nearby came the drip of falling water.

  Something was wrong. It took him a second to work out what it was.

  I’m not inside BEAST anymore!

  Total darkness surrounded him. He forced himself to stay calm. What had happened? Oh, yes – the falling, and the explosions. He must have been thrown out of BEAST when the robot hit the floor.

  But how? Axel wondered groggily. I was wearing my safety harness like I always do.

  He sat up, wincing at the fresh bruises on his arms and legs. Then he froze. There was a new sound approaching, a dragging, harsh sound of metal scraping on stone.

  Footsteps.

  A dim, flickering light came into the room. It lit up the archway that the oncoming thing was passing through.

  Axel didn’t move as it trudged into the room. It must have been human at some stage, but you could hardly call it human anymore. A stooping, ogre-like form, it wheezed and clunked with every step. There were riveted plates all over its body and pipes sprouting from its flesh. A dull light shone from its chest, flickering blue like an old gas flame.

  The monster. It’s real.

  It crossed the flagstones until it reached a heap of metal in the middle of the room. Then it shook its head and made a sad sound. With one paw-like hand it reached up and unplugged a cable from its body. Electric sparks fizzled.

  Axel almost sobbed out loud. That wasn’t a heap of metal. It was BEAST – what was left of him after the fall. And this inhuman thing was going to drain BEAST’s last spark of energy, or maybe break him up for scrap.

  No matter how frightened Axel was, he couldn’t let that happen. He knew he was face-to-face with the monster of the Undercroft, but as Rosie had once told him, ‘If ya can’t be brave, then be angry instead – it’ll serve ya just as well in a pinch.’

  ‘Leave him alone!’ he yelled.

  The creature started in surprise. It turned to look at Axel.

  The face was human. He could see that now. It might have metal ribs bulging from the forehead and a coppery stub where the chin should be, but it was still a person. Or had been, once.

  ‘Oh no,’ Axel said, feeling faint. ‘It can’t be you.’

  ‘Hnnn?’ said the creature.

  ‘Is that … is that you, Dad?’

  The creature’s face broke into a big, kindly grin. ‘Oh, no, young man. I am not your father.’

  Axel hesitated, taken aback by how well-spoken the creature was.

  ‘Are you the monster, then?’

  ‘Monster?’ It chuckled, and the sound was like the wheezing whumps of a car trying to start on a cold morning. ‘They think so. Those fools in the upper castle. But then, I think of them as monsters.’

  It took a step forward. Axel flinched, and then felt bad about it. The creature might look scary, but it wasn’t acting scary.

  ‘Please do not be afraid,’ the ‘monster’ said.

  Axel swallowed his fear as best he could, strode over to it and held out his hand. ‘Axel Brayburn. Pleasure to meet you.’

  Delighted, the creature took his hand in his huge, misshapen claw. ‘Likewise! I am called Gustav. But you probably know me as the Baron von Donnerstein.’

  Agent Omega’s words flashed into Axel’s mind. ‘Fusing man with machine. Some twisted freak called the Baron von Donnerstein started the trend a hundred years ago …’

  ‘THE Baron?’ he said in awe. ‘The original? So you’re what … a hundred years old?’

  ‘One hundred and sixty-three,’ said the Baron, turning his attention back to BEAST. ‘When my body parts wear out, I can simply replace them. That is the advantage of being mostly mechanical. So, Axel, why have you come to this terrible place?’

  ‘I’m trying to find my father and bring him home. He’s a prisoner here.’

  ‘I see,’ rumbled the Baron. ‘Now, whatever happened to your poor companion?’

  BEAST was in a terrible state. His power was off, and one of his arms had been wrenched out of his body. Axel had never seen him so bad. ‘He wouldn’t listen to me,’ he said, feeling bitter and sad and angry all at once.

  ‘Hmm. Let me see now. Perhaps a little boost would help.’ The Baron found BEAST’s power socket and plugged the cable from his own body into it. Immediately, BEAST’s eyes lit up.

  ‘Luckily, I have energy to spare,’ the Baron explained.

  Axel ran to his friend’s side. ‘BEAST, are you okay? Can you hear me?’

  BEAST’s voice was weak. ‘AXEL? DID WE FIND THE MONSTER?’

  Axel looked up at the Baron. ‘Yes. And you were right. He isn’t what he seems.’

  Gus Grabbem Junior was getting angry again. He waved the robotic angel’s gun-arm in Professor Payne’s face.

  ‘I’m telling you, you need to send a squad down there after him!’

  The Professor glanced at the collapsed ruin of the fireplace, where Gus had thrown half a dozen bombs. ‘Unthinkable,’ he said.

  ‘He’s still alive down there. And if you won’t go get him then I will.’

  ‘Do so at your own risk, fool!’ hissed the Professor.

  The Baron’s rooms were surprisingly comfortable, as far as stone cells under ancient castles went. Axel sat on a sofa sipping tea, while BEAST patiently waited for the Baron to finish welding his arm back on.

  ‘Why is the Neuron Institute so scared of you?’ Axel asked.

  ‘Probably because every time I escape from these dungeons, I smash up their laboratories in a berserk rage until they knock me out and throw me back down here again,’ said the Baron.

  ‘That’d do it,’ said Axel.

  Welding sparks lit up the Baron’s mangle
d face from below like a Halloween decoration. ‘They claim to respect me. I am the founder of the Institute, after all. But I sought only to save lives, not to corrupt them. What they have done in my name is … an abomination.’

  The word abomination echoed in Axel’s mind. Once again, he wondered what his father would look like if he found him.

  ‘Do you know how to get to the Tower of the Living Computer?’ he asked urgently.

  ‘Oh, yes.’

  ‘That’s where my dad is! So what is it, exactly?’

  The Baron was silent for a moment. Axel feared the news was so terrible that the Baron couldn’t bring himself to say it.

  ‘The Living Computer is a network made of human beings,’ the Baron said, finally. ‘Each one has a circuit in their head that lets them connect up to other test subjects. Together, the power of their minds forms an organic computer more powerful than any circuit of metal and silicon.’

  Axel was very still. ‘You mean he’s working for them?’

  ‘Not by choice,’ the Baron said gently. ‘They are using him, using the power of his wonderful brain. And it may be dangerous to disconnect him.’

  Axel felt a lump rising in his throat. ‘But why him? I know he’s clever, but …’

  ‘Not for his intelligence. For his imagination. Your father’s mind can create ideas that break new horizons in science.’

  ‘AXEL, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?’ BEAST said.

  ‘No,’ Axel said.

  ‘PLEASE REATTACH MY ARM QUICKLY, BARON. I NEED TO GIVE AXEL A HUG.’

  ‘Almost done,’ the Baron said, squinting at the mess of wires he was working on.

  Axel put his tea down, unfinished. ‘He used to make up stories,’ he said. ‘Every night, when I was little. He’d tell me about the adventures we would go on. We’d meet the fat King of the Sun, and his husband, the skinny King of the Moon, and battle the space eels for treasure. The forest of silver spiders, and the Pirate Princess, and the Horrible Fartdragon of Patagonia …’

  ‘There is a hanky in the box next to you,’ the Baron said.

  ‘That’s what Dad’s imagination is for,’ Axel said, with hot tears rolling down his cheeks. ‘They can’t have it. I won’t let them.’ He took a hanky and swabbed his eyes.

  ‘And we are done!’ The Baron leaned back, making a noise like bedsprings. ‘I have fixed the worst damage. Your self-repair systems will take care of the rest.’

  BEAST flexed his arm and wiggled his fingers.

  ‘GOOD AS NEW.’

  ‘Baron, will you help me get my father back, please?’ Axel said, as BEAST put his arm around him. The robot’s arm was heavy but comforting on his shoulders.

  ‘It will be my very great pleasure,’ said the Baron. ‘I have not gone on a wild rampage for many years now. I think the Neuron Institute ought to be reminded of why they are afraid of me.’

  Axel shifted BEAST into GALAHAD, his sword-and-shield fighting form. They followed the Baron up a spiral staircase that wound around and around.

  ‘This route will lead us right into the Tower of the Living Computer!’ the Baron crowed.

  ‘Won’t they know we’re coming?’

  ‘Ah, they do not know this old castle like I do. It holds so many secrets. The passages, the crypts, the attics, the dungeons below the dungeons. We will be upon them before they know it!’

  We’re nearly at the final battle, Axel thought. If this were a game, I’d really want to save my progress in case things went badly. But you can’t save your progress in real life. We need to plan, and that means knowing what we’re up against. The Baron is strong and brave, but ‘go crazy and break things’ isn’t my kind of a plan.

  He asked: ‘So when you run amok through the castle smashing stuff up, what do they try to stop you with?’

  ‘They send their silly little soldiers to fight me,’ said the Baron. ‘Cyborg warriors, indeed! Weaklings. I shall scatter them like skittles and break their Tommy guns across my knee!’

  Tommy guns? Axel thought. Aren’t they from, like, gangster times?

  ‘When did you last fight them, out of interest?’ he asked casually.

  ‘I forget,’ the Baron said. ‘It was a magnificent battle, though. They were taken completely by surprise. When I broke through the wall, they were all watching a man landing on the moon!’

  Beast piped up. ‘SO THAT WAS IN NINETEEN-SIXTY –’

  ‘We’d better keep quiet in case they hear us,’ Axel interrupted, giving BEAST a worried glance.

  This isn’t going to be as easy as the Baron thinks, he thought. He hasn’t fought the Institute since before Mum was born. They have better weapons than Tommy guns now! And that Grabbem angel thing will be out to get us, too.

  The Baron led them down a passageway so narrow they had to walk sideways, and behind the wall of what must have been the toilet block, judging by the noises coming from it.

  ‘Almost there,’ the Baron whispered. ‘We will break in to the very room where the Living Computer is kept.’

  ‘And I’ll rip my dad right out of it,’ Axel promised.

  Axel knew they were getting close when he heard the hum of machinery. The Baron grinned and pointed at an oblong sheet of canvas. ‘Ha! The old “secret passage covered by a painting” trick! Let us rush them.’

  ‘Wait,’ whispered Axel. ‘I want to take a look first.’

  He poked a tiny hole in the painting and peered through.

  The chamber was round, with twelve computer terminals spaced evenly around it. Above each one was a platform with a safety rail and a ladder leading up to it, and on each platform stood a white shape like an Egyptian mummy case. Cables connected them together. Gigantic screens high on the walls showed a kaleidoscope of patterns, like atoms joining and joining again in beautiful, complicated combinations. Four scientists in white coats studied the terminals and took notes: one tall, one short, one bearded, and one in little round glasses.

  It took Axel’s breath away. So much power … and so much evil.

  ‘Some scientists worked to make machines that could think, like our friend BEAST here,’ whispered the Baron. ‘But the Neuron Institute saw things the other way around. They wanted to use thinking minds as parts of a machine. You see why I call them monsters.’

  ‘Those mummy-case things. Are they …’

  ‘Yes. There are people in there, asleep. One of them is your father.’

  Axel raised the GALAHAD sword high. ‘BEAST, it’s time to finish this.’

  ‘BEAST WILL BE WITH YOU TILL THE END, AXEL.’

  With a yell that shook the tower, Axel slashed the painting apart. He strode into the chamber.

  Yelling in alarm, the scientists scrambled away from him. The short one ran for a switch on the wall.

  ‘Don’t touch that!’

  The Baron came sprinting out of the passage, bellowing like a bull. He launched himself through the air and slammed the scientist onto his back in a rugby tackle.

  ‘It’s the monster!’ screamed the scientist with the glasses. ‘Call the Professor, quick!’

  ‘Heck with that,’ snarled the beardy one. ‘Let’s fight him ourselves. Time to put our cyborg implants to good use!’ He pulled open his shirt. Instead of a pale, hairy chest and belly, Axel saw shiny metal.

  ‘Baron, watch out,’ he shouted. ‘They’re cyber-enhanced!’

  ‘That’s right,’ the beardy scientist sneered. ‘We’ve all got built-in armour and weapons. It’s a perk of the job!’

  ‘BEAST IS GLAD,’ said BEAST bravely.

  ‘Glad? Why?’

  ‘BECAUSE NOW BEAST CAN HIT YOU, AND NOT FEEL BAD ABOUT IT.’

  And BEAST bashed him with his shield. The beardy scientist flew across the room, hit the wall like a frog fired from a cannon and slid gently down in a crumpled heap.

  ‘Just shoot them!’ yelled the tall scientist, pulling off a rubber glove to reveal a hand made of metal. He jerked his hand forward in a martial-arts move, and a crackling ball of blue lightning
the size of a football whammed towards BEAST’s head.

  Axel quickly whacked it aside with the GALAHAD shield. In a ftazzzm of sparks, the ball was deflected and went whizzing back into the tall scientist’s face. He didn’t get out of the way in time and went dancing madly across the floor, howling, as electric arcs fizzled across his body.

  ‘Leave these fools to me, my young friend! Save your father!’ roared the Baron, who was still pinning the short scientist to the floor.

  The last scientist left standing, the one with the glasses, seemed to be more cowardly than the rest. He had taken cover behind a tray of instruments and was aiming some sort of gun that looked like a trombone with blinking lights all over it.

  The Baron flung the short scientist at him, using him as a missile. There was a howl and a crash, and the pair of them went down in a flailing jumble of arms and legs.

  Axel thought quickly. He’d have to use the computers to find out which capsule his dad was in, but that would mean typing on a keyboard. No way would he be able to work those fiddly little keys using BEAST’s big robot hands.

  He opened BEAST’s canopy, jumped out and ran to the nearest terminal. The displays made no sense to him. What did AUTO RECT-PURG mean? It sounded like a laxative. And what about CEREBRO COND? It was at seventy per cent, whatever it was.

  With shaking hands he tapped the screen controls, trying to find something to tell him which container his dad was in.

  For once, luck was on his side. He yelled, ‘Yes!’ as the screen flashed up a diagram of the room, complete with the twelve mummy cases. Each one had a name plate beside it. SANDERS. CASSERLY. WESTON. PATERSON. BRAYBURN.

  Found him. It was the very one Axel was standing under.

  His arms and legs moved in a blur as he climbed up the ladder to reach the container. A cold mist oozed from it.

  Panic overtook him as he saw no way to open the smooth, seamless shape. There was a control panel next to it, but it was behind a locked glass case. In desperation, Axel grabbed a wrench from the floor and smashed the glass.

  Alarms blared. The lights in the room flashed orange. ‘CONTAINMENT BREACH,’ thundered an electronic voice. ‘EMERGENCY. DEPLOYING RESERVE FORCES.’