by John Eubank
Out of the blue, a cacophonous noise erupted upstairs. He almost jumped out of his shoes, and his hand went for the security of the pistol in his pocket.
“Henry!” he cried, trembling.
He was so nervous he accidentally pulled the trigger. The pistol fired, and the bullet tore a hole through his green coat. It pinged off the stone floor by his foot, lodging somewhere in the wooden ceiling above. As his panic grew, he aimed furtively at shadows, trying to figure out what was happening.
He had no way of knowing, but moments earlier the automatic timer in the control panel, which indeed had been set for one week, had finally ended. Softly clicking, spring-powered mechanisms had opened a throttle in an attempt to send steam to the verltgaat machine, and when nothing happened, a back-up system had come on line.
In the normal basement above, a hidden reservoir of fuel oil flowed into the firebox, where a striker ignited it. As more oil trickled in, the boiler, which was low on water but still within the safe zone, quickly came up to pressure and flooded the pipes of Beverkenhaas with steam.
RING RING RING! WHEEEEEEEET! CLONK CLANK, CLONK CLANK! The network of steam clocks had attempted to sound off days earlier, but with no power, they’d been stuck. With a resurgence of steam in the lines, they all went off.
Down in the sub-basement, Marteenus rolled his eyes, recalling with embarrassment how the silly things had frightened him before. “Stupid toy clocks!”
When they shut off and became quiet, another sound caused hackles to rise on the back of his neck. Turning his head, he gasped and would have accidentally fired the pistol a second time had he not returned it to his pocket.
The carousel-like part of the verltgaat machine spun furiously, and the crystals, already tuned, glowed and displayed dancing geometric shapes. Ghostly and spinning, the lump of Tracium hung in the air. With a click, a heavy spring under the control panel tugged a lever, and a twelve foot diameter circle of light appeared in the air.
He knew it was only moments from opening. With a peep of terror, he dashed for the control panel. Surely, his paranoid mind argued, this was Hendrelmus, heavily armed and wearing a steemsuit, about to come back and wreak havoc. He only now realized that his bullets would likely bounce off such armor.
“Off!” he screamed, blanking on how to do it and hopping up and down in a panic. “Off! Off! Off!”
Colors shot through the disk of white, and soon it settled on a purple so deep that it seemed he could fall into it.
“Hurry!” he shrieked, knowing it was about to open.
At last his fevered eyes landed on a big lever. Giving it a tug, the Tracium diminished and faded. The carousel-like wheel, no longer powered, began slowing down, and the verltgaat began losing color and intensity. The large white circle quickly faded and soon disappeared.
“By the crack in the sky,” he muttered, “that was close!”
To his horror, the control panel clicked, and the large lever moved itself into the on position again. He shoved it off and held it with one hand. Spotting a large wrench, he grabbed it with his free hand and looked for something to whack.
“Timer panel,” he muttered as memories returned.
He lifted the wrench and brought it down several times. Though he dented the wood, he could still feel the lever tugging, trying to automatically turn itself back on.
“Wait,” he said, stopping himself from hitting it further.
Realizing he might need the timer, he looked around for some way to jam or block the thing in the off position. He picked up a wooden chair and balanced it on the lever. The lever, jammed by the chair, couldn’t move, and the world hole couldn’t open.
He waited a moment to be sure, but the chair held. Now, he thought, he could find a way to make the machine work for him. Soon he’d have it set to new coordinates and go home.
THUMP. He cringed at this new sound and looked up. Suspecting the worst, he put his hand on the pistol and moved toward the stairs.
***
“What in B’verlt?” Tante Klazee said.
“It shut off!” Angelica cried.
Her great aunt had come running up the stairs, only to see the disk of dim, white light vanish. Angelica ran over and waved her hands in the air where the world hole had almost opened.
“Nothing!” she said.
Klazee looked worried. “Kint, what could this mean?”
“I don’t know.”
An extremely loud thump came from a nearby wall. The whole house shook, and Klazee grabbed Angelica to shield her.
“What now!” she cried.
The bathroom had no window, so she ran into the hallway and opened curtains at the landing at the top of the stairs. She shrieked in terror. A large, green monster’s eyes were just outside, staring right at her.
“Tante Klazee!” a familiar voice shouted below. “Get back!”
Coming to her senses, she realized the creature was mechanical. Craning her neck, she saw a large, green vehicle below and her nephew’s head popping out of a hatch in the top.
“Will!” she called. “What’s the meaning of this!”
“Sorry, Tante Klazee,” he said, “but we need to get this inside.”
“What are you doing in that contraption?”
“We stole it,” he admitted.
She did a double-take as she noticed something. “Groes Vevardinker, is that the steemball?”
“Tante Klazee,” Giselle called from another hatch. “No time to talk! They’re already here!”
She pointed up as a large airship, the Skyshadow, buzzed overhead.
“Get back!” Will shouted.
The Green Dragon’s head pulled back, and Klazee realized what they were up to.
“Run, kint!” she cried to Angelica. “This way!”
The dragon head lurched forward and crashed through the upstairs window, tearing out some of the wall. With a resounding thump, the crane dropped the heavy ball. It dented the wooden floor at the top of the stairs but did not go through. Angelica hugged Tante Klazee with fright.
“What’s the meaning of this?” the woman shouted.
***
“Now I see their plan,” Clyve told the airship’s captain. “This must be a Steemjammer safe house, where they’ve been opening verltgaats. They’re going to try getting the ball through to Old Earth and escape with it.”
As Skyshadow circled, he moved to the other side to maintain his view. The captain came over to join him.
“Ground units are going to arrive piecemeal,” Clyve said. “As long as they can contain our prey, we’ve got them. There’s a nasty surprise on the way.”
***
“What’s happening?” Tante Klazee demanded as she opened her front door.
Will and Giselle had already exited the Green Dragon and ran toward her, followed by Cobee, Donell, and a boy and girl she’d never met.
“Why have you done this?” she asked.
She jumped as a crossbow bolt embedded itself into the doorframe next to her head. Tipped with a metal syringe, it was meant to knock out its victim. Down the street a small, fast locomobile had pulled up, and the Rasmussen driver was already reloading his ranged weapon.
“Inside!” Donell bellowed. “Bar the door. I’ll be right there.”
For some reason he ran back toward the Green Dragon.
“Donell!” Will called.
Another crossbow bolt bounced off the ball carrier’s armor.
“I have tah do this,” the short man shouted. “Just open the door when ye see me comin’!”
He vanished into the Green Dragon.
“Tante Klazee, this is Jack and Kate,” Giselle said as a hurried introduction. “They’re helping us.”
The elderly woman blinked as they forced smiles and rushed inside. Cobee helped her shut and lock the door.
“Angelica!” Will said, shocked to see his sister. “Why are you still here? Didn’t the verltgaat open?”
“It tried to,” his sister began expl
aining.
“What do you mean?”
“It sparkled and glowed, but then it vanished.”
“Verdoor!” Giselle said. “Is it broken?”
“Maybe there wasn’t enough steam at first, and it will try to open again,” Will said optimistically. “Go back and watch for it.”
While his sister dashed upstairs, he opened the front door. Donell climbed out of the Green Dragon with a familiar metal box under his arm. From out of nowhere came a Rasmussen agent, aiming a crossbow at him.
“I’ll take that,” the man said.
Will started to charge out, but Donell signaled him to stay put. He’d left his hammer leaning against the Green Dragon, and he clearly planned on lunging for it. The Raz agent, however, would surely kill him.
“Steem hoeg!” screamed a voice from out of nowhere.
A man with reddish brown hair and blotchy freckles on his face charged from the other side of the Green Dragon. Before the Raz agent could do anything, the man leaped through the air and knocked him to the ground in a full body tackle. As he fell, the crossbow fired into a tree trunk.
“Alfonz?” Donell said incredulously. “Alfonz Zeldemthoos?”
Alfonz grinned. “Ter naar de vlees!” In the flesh! “Away, he is getting!”
He pointed at the Raz agent, who’d gotten to his feet and was running down the street.
“Och, let him go,” Donell said, picking up his hammer and leading Alfonz to Klazee’s house. “Ye’ve lost some hair.”
“Ya, bald like the egg, I am,” Alfonz said, “but the ladies, this they’re liking!”
Will stared as they reached the door. He’d been wondering if Alfonz would return, and he had, just in the nick of time.
“Alfonz?” he said. “You’re back!”
“Ya, of course,” the man grinned. “Back by the opening, I said I’d be.” He turned to Donell. “What were you doing, back-coming out?”
“Had tah get the Incendium,” he panted, “or they’d use it tah burn us out.”
They got back inside and barred the door, but there was no time for the others to greet Alfonz with more than a wave or a quick hello. Things were getting bad outside.
“I see the airship,” Cobee cried, looking out a side window. “It’s coming down!”
Jack looked out a front window. “Three locomobiles pulling up. Eight Raz, now, with crossbows and swords. They’re climbing into the Dragon. I think they’re disabling it so we can’t use it to flee.”
“We need tools, Tante Klazee,” Will said, already running up the steps.
“Tools?” she said. “What kind?”
“Big ones, to open up the steemball. The Tracium’s inside. We need to get it out!”
***
“Signal the men below,” Clyve ordered, his telescope pressed to his eye as he scanned the ground. “Tell them to spread out and prevent escape. We need to get men around to watch the back.”
“Right away,” the captain said, signaling a lieutenant to see to it.
“Get your men on the roof.”
“We’re still lowering.”
“Faster. They mustn’t be allowed to escape.”
***
“We should run out the back, now!” Tante Klazee cried. “We could get to the Hemel Snoor or a fast train!”
“And leave the Tracium for them?” Cobee asked, running by with an armload of heavy wrenches and pry bars.
“But we’ll be trapped.”
“The verltgaat opening, will it not?” Alfonz said in his butchered English.
“Too late,” Donell growled, peering out the back door. “They’ve got us surrounded.”
He slammed the back door as a pair of crossbow bolts stuck into the wood.
“Escape tunnel?” he asked.
“Isn’t one,” Klazee admitted. “The water table’s too high, and our attempts flooded.”
“Roof?”
“We can try.”
“The airship,” Giselle said, craning her neck at a window, “is lowering rope ladders and men!”
“No matter,” Klazee said bravely, lifting her dress so she could hustle up the steps. “If we can get to the Hemel Snoor, we’ll outrun them!”
They followed her upstairs and found Will and Cobee hard at work on the steemball. With a large wrench, they’d already opened one of the covers.
“Angelica?” Will called, but there was no answer.
He glanced around while Cobee turned the large wrench.
“Where’d she go?” Will said. “I wanted to ask her more about the lights she saw.”
“Maybe she’s hiding,” Giselle suggested. “That’s what she’s supposed to do when danger hits, right?”
The thud of heavy boots on the roof made them look up with fright. Rasmussen agents had come down ropes from the airship, at least ten of them by the sound they made. They tore off slate shingles, trying to get into the attic. The kids could hear glass shattering below and the noise of the Klazee’s front door being battered open.
“Get weapons!” Coby said, trying not to sound terrified.
***
“All right, you people,” a commanding, feminine voice boomed from above. “Your psychotic burglar alarm doesn’t frighten me. I know you’re down there because I could hear noises, so you’d better come out this instant.”
Down in the sub-basement, Marteenus pulled out his pistol and hid behind a pillar. Was this, he shuddered, that gigantic Amazon girl? No, he realized, this intruder was somehow even worse.
“You’re violating at least three dozen health and safety codes,” the woman continued. He could hear her tromping down the stairs. “Exposed pipes? Whirring gears? This is absurd and completely unsafe! I’m sure that OSHA and the Department of Homeland Security will want to be informed!”
Summoning his courage, Marteenus stepped out, aiming the pistol right into the face of a tall, imposing woman with strange, black hair and penetrating eyes. Each let out an exclamation of shock, but Marteenus, hand shaking, managed to keep the pistol pointed at her.
“You wouldn’t dare,” the woman asserted, “shoot an unarmed lady.”
“I’d shoot an army of them,” he countered, “if it meant getting off of this retched pigsty of a world!”
She attempted to argue but found she was so scared that only a strange guttural sound could come out.
Marteenus scowled. “Who are you? Did Hendrelmus send you?”
“I’m the neighbor across the street.”
“We’ll see about that. Back up!”
Threatening with the shiny revolver, he forced her to retreat until her back was against a pillar. He found a rope and wrapped it around her several times.
***
Marteenus was so absorbed in his task that he didn’t notice a clicking at the control panel. Stefana had been right about her brothers, and they’d designed this machine with many layers of fail-safes. One of their fears had been a parts-failure or a random object blocking the lever. The machinery under the panel, after using a steam-driven wheel to rewind itself, began anew, tugging at the lever. The chair slipped a bit each time.
***
“You’d better not do that,” Waverly Norman bluffed as he jerked the rope and tied it snuggly. “I’ve already called the police, and they’ll be here soon. You’re only making things worse for yourself.”
“You idiot,” he growled. “I won’t be here much longer.”
She flinched. No one had ever before called her an idiot, but the glinting pistol in the small, oddly dressed man’s hand kept her from protesting. She found herself staring at his strange hair, almost mesmerized and wondering against all reason why it stuck out like that.
“Have you been in a strong wind?” she asked, but then her eyes opened wide with shock as she noticed something across the room.
About to insult her again, Marteenus paused as he realized something was wrong. Dazzling flickers of light reflected off the walls. Twisting his head, he saw the machine spinning and
a fully opened verltgaat.
“Verdoor!” he cried.
Dashing over, he noticed that the chair had slid off the lever. He jerked on the lever, and in moments the hole mercifully closed.
Glancing this way and that, he aimed at shadows with the gun. Waverly gasped, and out of nervousness he spun and fired, just missing her. Having never experienced such a thing, she fainted. Marteenus kept scanning.
No sign of Hendrelmus, he realized with a feeling of intense relief. Replacing the chair on top of the lever, he decided to use some rope to tie it in place. That, he was quite sure, would keep the machine from turning itself on again.
***
“It’s not here!” Cobee cried with dismay.
He and Will had just opened the third of three panels on the steemball and tugged out the heavy, cylindrical weight. Like the first two, there was no Tracium visible. They inspected the weights and the chambers in the ball, and there was no sign of a hatch or lid to an inner compartment.
“It might be hidden,” Will said, rubbing the weights. “Feel for it.”
Cobee felt for seams inside the holes in the steemball, but he found nothing. They winced as a crossbow bolt stuck into the wooden banister between their heads. It had been shot by a Raz Agent who’d snuck to the staircase below.
“Get back, kinter,” Tante Klazee warned, handing each a dagger. “Giselle, pass out the swords.”
They’d opened a hidden panel nearby filled with various melee weapons, and she distributed them. Alfonz had a saber, and Donell held a heavy, two-handed hammer.
“Maybe you were wrong,” Cobee said, nodding at the opened steemball and weights. “It isn’t here.”
Will’s eyes opened wide. “Yes, it is. The problem is that it’s too heavy to roll through, when the verltgaat opens.” He examined one of the holes in the steemball, getting an idea. “Donell, I need that Incendium.”