Mueller fired at another corpse and another. More were rising from the sand. A corner of the sergeant-chef’s mind noted that some were no more than skeletons, and yet they continued coming. Mueller could hear the screams of his Legionnaires.
Mueller’s gun clicked on an empty chamber. His hands shaking, the sergeant-chef fumbled the cylinder open and shook the spent brass onto the hardpan. He tried to thumb a new round into one of the chambers, but his shaking fingers dropped the bullet onto the ground.
A gloved hand grasped his gun hand and spun Mueller around. He stared into the empty eye sockets of the dead lieutenant. Another gloved hand grabbed his free hand. The grip was like iron. Mueller tried to pull free but he couldn’t break the creatures’ holds. Another cadaverous claw reached for Mueller’s neck.
His screams died in his throat.
Ode to Darwin © 2011,Jonathan David Baird
It pulled itself from the antediluvian slush
This nameless moldering ancestor of all of us
Oozing with protoplasmic contractions
This gelatinous mass of chemical reactions
Sat upon that ancient beach ….and lived.
Then to defy all holy laws, it evolved
And in the tumultuous depths of time
This loathsome perverse ball
Became Mother to us all.
The desert is a deeply lonely place. The horror found there can create powerful bonds between people.
Curse of Cygnus © 2011, Kevin Houghton
It was not quite 10 o’clock in the morning and already the sun’s rays cast a shimmering haze over the harbour of Alexandria. A heat wave that came up from the southern parts of Egypt, three days earlier, drove many of Alexandria’s inhabitants to seek shade by midday. The more fortunate souls were the ones who either lived, or worked, in the modern buildings that lined the inner harbour and marina. The most modern of the buildings was the Gabbari Palace that had been recently converted over to a grand hotel to accommodate the Europeans who had returned to Egypt after Wolseley’s campaign to retake control over the county.
Colonel Ian Grey of the Imperial Defence Service, and informally known as Watchtower, sat on one of the Gabbari Palace’s verandas overlooking the harbor. The harbor was full of activity, from the small fishing boats and their larger ocean going brethren, to the airships flying over the famous light house as they head for the El Maleha Aerodrome. Most of the vista was not seen by Colonel Grey as his nose was buried in the English morning edition of the Al-Ahram. The morning paper was filled with the latest news of the trial of Arabi Pasha, former Minister of War and commander of the Egyptian force that led the “revolt” earlier that year and who was defeated by Lieutenant-General Sir Garnet Wolseley in a matter of weeks. The trial, held in Cairo, concluded the day before on December the 3rd, 1882 had rendered a guilty verdict and the sentence of death. However, it was not the death sentence that set the news reports buzzing, it was the fact that Pasha’s sentence was immediately commuted to life in exile in to the British Crown Colony of Ceylon, off the coast of the Indian subcontinent. Grey had finished reading the main articles and had started on the opinion pieces that seemed to make up the rest of the paper, when the pearl handle of a parasol came over the top of his paper and slowly pulled it down to reveal the smiling bright blue eyes of Lady Victoria Dallas.
“Had I been an assassin, Colonel Grey,” stated Lady Victoria, “You would be an easy target, sitting at this exact spot at the same time for the past three days.”
Grey nonchalantly folded his paper and placed in on a small tiled side table next to his chair. He took his time in answering her jibe, cocked his head in an appraising manner and now had a full look of Lady Victoria resplendent in her summer clothes. The white open necked blouse and rose brocaded vest accented her upper figure, while the tan linen pleated skirt hid her shape below her hips, and had the skirt been some shade of green, she would look the very picture of a mermaid.
A smile to match Lady Victoria’s played across Ian Grey’s lips, “This spot has many advantages,” replied Grey and he raised his hand and marked them off with each finger, “First, my back is to the wall, and therefore no one can slip behind me. Second, I have a full view of the entire length of the veranda. Third, the angle of several of the windows allows me to see someone coming even when I am reading my morning paper. Fourth, the floors are perfect for acoustic recognition, so I can hear the footsteps and identify anyone walking around here.”
Lady Victoria straightened up and looked about her, confirming all that Ian Grey said. Not one to give up so easily she pointed at the tall glass of iced tea that sat on the side table next to Grey’s newspaper. “Well your defenses are all in order, but all one would really need to do is poison your tea.”
With a dramatic heavy sigh, Grey looked over at his tea and then with an exaggerated flourish produced a small strip of odd paper and dipped it into the tea and ran it along the edge of the glass. He made a show of examining the paper before handing it over to Lady Victoria.
“A gift from our dear colleague Dr. Huer: when the paper comes in contact with certain chemicals it changes colors.”
Lady Victoria’s eyes changed to a grey blue, a small involuntary reaction of hers to changing emotions. Observing this, Grey knew he had won, “Still I do not know if I should be impressed with the way you worked out ways to kill me, or concerned that you thought of them at all.”
Taking the compliment, Lady Victoria pointed her parasol at the center of Ian Grey’s chest as if it was a sword, her left raised up and behind her like a fencer, “I rather think I would make a most excellent assassin.”
“And what would your father say to that? Or more to the point, so to speak, what would Society say about you becoming a professional assassin, killing dastardly people willy nilly?”
Lady Victoria dropped her fencer’s pose and gracefully sat down in the chair next to her companion, “Well “Society” would think it was a step up after I dared to become a medical doctor.”
Ian Grey lightly took his companion’s hand, “And yet whenever you “suffer” at all of those society occasions, you keep so many in thrall with your many adventures. And besides was it not you who saved Lady Beechum’s life at a ball last year.”
Lady Victoria smiled brilliantly at the memory of that. Lady Beechum, a former lady in waiting to Queen Victoria, had a way of dripping every comment or seeming compliment with derision. She never let an opportunity go where she would not try to make Lady Victoria feel ashamed. However, during a spring ball held at the Duke of Marlborough’s estate, Lady Beechum choked on a peach pit and would have died had Lady Victoria not acted so quickly. First she struck Lady Beechum hard several times across the back and when the pit was still stuck in the back of her mouth, Lady Victoria swept her fingers in across the back of the throat to dislodge the offending pit. Unfortunately for Lady Beechum, she expelled the pit and the entire contents of her stomach onto one of the serving tables. The gossip papers had a field day with the incident and dubbed it the “Peach Pit Ball.”
Ian Grey continued, “Well our ship is almost ready and then we should be back in England in time for whatever winter ball is being held.”
“Why the delay? I would have thought the ship would have been ready yesterday?” inquired Lady Victoria.
“It seems,” replied Ian Grey, “That the Cygnus has also been chartered to transport back some mummy that was dug up down south. They have spent the past day stowing and securing the cargo under the watchful eye of private security, I am told.”
“I trust this will not be a problem in regards to our own accommodations aboard?”
Grey stood up and stretched, tilting his neck with several loud pops, “The captain assures me that our staterooms are secured. And with our business concluded here, we should have nothing to worry about. The ship leaves at 5 o’clock and as long as the air conditions are fine, we should reach London the day after tomorrow.”
At precisely 3
o’clock that afternoon, Lady Victoria Dallas and Colonel Ian Grey took a small carriage ride from the Gabbari Palace to El Maleha Aerodrome where the Cygnus was moored. As their carriage wove its way to the field, Lady Victoria was able to get her first close up view of the airship. The Cygnus was different from most of the airships that she was used to seeing. The most notable feature of the airship was its twin buoyant envelopes atop of the ship itself; each envelope was at least 400 feet in length. Most airships had either one, with a gondola attached underneath, or like the military airships, completely enclosed one airframe. The gondola of the Cygnus more closely resembled a river boat, with four decks and a large single propeller for propulsion. Despite its ungainly appearance the Cygnus was known for flying in all but the worst of air conditions.
As their carriage pulled up to the airship, Lady Victoria and Ian Grey were greeted by a neatly dressed but obviously sweating young officer.
“Ah, Colonel Grey and Lady Dallas,” chirped the young man, “I have been expecting you. I am Mr. Cooper, First Officer of the HMAS Cygnus, and wanted to make sure that your boarding is as smooth as possible.”
Ian Grey helped Lady Victoria down from the carriage, when she asked quizzically “Our boarding is as smooth as possible?”
Taking the question in stride, Mr. Cooper pointed out that the ship’s captain was fully aware of the delay caused by the requirements of one of the other passengers and wanted to avoid and confusions or mishaps. Therefore the First Officer had been requested to personally make sure that all of the passengers were boarded as efficiently as possible.
In record time, Mr. Cooper brought Lady Victoria and Ian Grey to their respective staterooms and made sure that all of their baggage was stowed away. The two companions were also informed that the ship would depart at 5 o’clock exactly and that Captain Barclay had invited them to his table at 8 pm.
As predicted by Mr. Cooper, the ship did begin its ascent into the air at exactly 5 o’clock. Ian Grey and Lady Victoria stood on the forward open promenade deck and watched as Alexandria grew smaller. Within short order, the ship began to reach its cruising altitude of 3,000 meters. At that height only the crew, in cold weather gear, would roam outside the airship.
________________________________________________
The dining hall was located on the middle deck of the Cygnus. Aside from a crew of forty five, the airship was designed to carry up to fifty five additional passengers, but for this voyage there was less than twenty on board. When Lady Victoria and Ian Grey arrived at the dining hall they were ushered to the Captain’s table. Several people already sat around the table when they were seated.
At the head of the table was Captain Barclay, a tall lean man with the bearing of a long military service. Although all sat at the Captain’s table, it was another man who held court. Sir Jasper Kingsley, who was as lean as Captain Barclay but with more of an impish quality about him, stood up immediately and greet the two new comers, “Hallo, hallo,” he said with a big smile. Captain Barclay was put off a bit by Sir Jasper’s greeting, but handled it with dignity and stood as well, thanking Lady Victoria and Ian Grey for accepting his invitation and just as quickly made the introductions to the rest of the guests seated at the table.
“Lady Victoria Dallas and Colonel Ian Grey, I would like to introduce you to the rest of my guests,” said the captain, accenting ‘my quests’, “The gregarious gentleman here is Sir Jasper Kingsley,” the term elicited a hearty laugh from Sir Jasper that gave his eyes a twinkle.
“To his left is young Miss Amelia Brinks.” The young girl shyly dipped her head. “Next we have Captain Edward Roycroft.” Captain Roycroft touched his hand to his head as if he was tipping his hat, “Ma’am. A pleasure to me you,” in a distinct American accent. Captain Barclay continued the introductions pointing around the table, to an older Egyptian gentleman named Yussef El Sadek, who was not only the foreman on Sir Jasper’s archeological dig but is also a representative of the Egyptian government and expert in ancient Egyptian history. An Indian Sikh named Harish Singh rounded out Sir Jasper’s party, and a quiet British Leftenant in the green uniform of the 95th Rifles, named Stokes completed those at the table. After the formal introductions were made and everyone was seated, Lady Victoria wasted no time in inquiring about the find made by Sir Jasper.
“Well truth be told my dear, I would never have found any of it without the help of my good friend Yussef here.” Once again Sir Jasper assumed the mantle of one who holds court, “I have been studying Egypt for many years and have always been fascinated by its more arcane history so to speak. Yussef and I go back many years, and he is the one who first told me about the High Priest Nes-min.”
Lady Victoria prodded further, “Nes-min? I have never heard of him.”
“Few have, Lady Dallas,” replied Sir Jasper, before continuing with the tale despite the fact that the look on the faces of many in his party showed that they had heard this tale many times before.
“Nes-min, First Seer to Ammun Ra of Memphis, served Pharaoh Nectanebo II the third and last king of the Thirtieth dynasty of Egypt. As High Priest and Scribe, Nes-min was a great practitioner of Egyptian magic and rituals. He had authored multiple scrolls including his own version of the famed Book of the Dead. It was the last year in the reign of Nectanebo II in 343 BC that Nes-min met his greatest challenge. The ancient Egyptian town of Khent-Mim was plagued by a demon that would possess people and forced them to kill others in horrible and bloody ways.
The demon first possessed a young slave boy who killed the entire family he served before he was caught and put to death. As the young boy died, the demon left his body in a black cloud, right in front of witnesses, including several high ranking officials. Next the demon possessed a noblewoman who killed her husband before she was caught. This time the local priest performed rituals and expelled the demon from the woman, but they were unable to send the demon back to the underworld and it possessed another victim, this time a stone cutter. It is said that it took ten men to capture the stone cutter. At this time, the priests called upon Nes-min for his help. Nes-min arrived in Khent-Mim to confront the demon and brought with him his most powerful weapon, the true name of the demon.”
Curious, Ian Grey asked, “Why does it matter that he knew the demon’s name?”
Sir Jasper looked upon Grey like a patient teacher does with his student, “You see my young man, if you know a demon’s true name; you can have power over them. A demon is not originally from this world, it breaks through only when the strongest magic is used, and even when it does so it is not a corporeal being. Only by knowing what it is truly called you can control or destroy it. This is a fundamental fact that can be referenced in all religions all over the world.”
“Now armed with this, Nes-min confronted the demon and through ritualistic magic expelled it from the stone cutter’s body. And when the demon was released, Nes-min used the demon’s real name and drew it into himself.”
“How horrible,” remarked Lady Victoria, “What could he hope to gain by doing such a thing?”
“I am getting to that my dear,” replied Sir Jasper. “Nes-min had the other priests place a magical cuff onto the back of his neck to paralyze his body. The demon was now trapped and unable to leave and was at the mercy of the other priests. They further bound the demon to Nes-min’s body with incantations and then, according to Nes-min’s own instructions, they mummified the High Priest alive, binding his body in black resin wrappings, the hands crossed each holding an Ankh to keep the demon trapped in the body. They placed upon the mummy an apron brightly painted with jewelry and spells from the Book of the Dead. The sarcophagus was also painted black with no outward markings at all and three statues of Egyptian goddesses were placed around it as extra wards. Nes-min was buried in a special tomb near the cemetery at Akhmim. Later that year Nectanebo II, who reigned for only 17 years, was defeated by the Persian king Artaxerxes III, and fled first to Memphis then into Upper Egypt, and finally into exile in Nu
bia, where he vanished from history.”
“And they did not destroy the demon or send it back to hell?” asked Lady Victoria, thoroughly fascinated by the tale.
Harish Singh spoke up in answer to Lady Victoria’s question, “Unlike those of my country, the Egyptians did not have the knowledge to forge weapons to destroy a demon at the time. They could banish them but that always ran the risk of the demon finding a way back.”
“Which is where Captain Roycroft and his friend Mr. Singh come into this,” interjected Sir Jasper, “You see my dear; Captain Roycroft has some knowledge in dealing with monsters.”
“Oh truly Captain, and how is that?” Lady Victoria turned her attention on the American captain.
Captain Roycroft paused for a brief moment before giving his account, “Well I have been all around this world and seen many things that would shock a fine lady such as yourself. My companion here, Harish Singh, is a Sikh. He and I met a while back and I would have to confess that I learned a lot from him in the ways of hunting certain creatures.”
“You are that Captain Roycroft,” exclaimed Ian Grey, “I thought the name sounded familiar. Victoria, this is the famed werewolf hunter that Sgt. Cunningham so often remarks upon. As I recall you had a hand in taking down some ‘werewolves’ in France a few years ago, correct?”
Captain Roycroft eyed the Colonel sitting across from him. “It was in the province of Gévaudan. And they were not werewolves, but in fact an existing pack of dire wolves, which had been thought to be long extinct. I have however encountered other demons, including a nest of vampire like creatures in Texas, when I was a Ranger down there.”
Monsters, Magic, and Machines (The SteamGoth Anthology Book 1) Page 3