The Necronists_A Paranormal Steampunk Thriller

by J M Bannon

  “Don’t you want to get those names of the engineer,” asked Allen still not up to speed with the events that had just transpired.

  “Hallsey, I think Elmore just took the piss out of that fella; he would be wise to get out of town before Elmore runs him out,” said Pete Walters as he laughed to himself about Elmore’s way of bringing law to the Colorado Territory.

  2

  Saturday the 2nd of March

  10:00 p.m. Hawkins House, Paddington

  Master Edison, you might apply for an apprenticeship in the Guild. Your mechanical and electrical ingenuity comes naturally at such a young age; not something that can be taught in my opinion," offered Guild Mechanist Alfred Fletcher.

  "Alfie, quit licking the boy's bum and finish with the soldering of that wire. I want to test the process today," pushed Rose, staring over Tommy and Alfie's shoulders. The group was putting the finishing touches on the brass mechanical arm.

  The prototype appendage had been roughly constructed; the elbow, wrist and finger joints resembled iron balls. The shoulder of the disembodied arm was bolted to a sturdy oak post they had clamped to the lab table for support. From the shoulder socket down, it appeared very much like an arm, albeit a metal one. The two tinkerers were trying to access the wires beyond the springs, and air pistons of the upper arm to the elbow, to fuse connections from the relay box Rose had constructed to the actuators in the arm.

  Tension and excitement permeated the room as the rough approximation of an arm came together. The impressive hand with four fingers flexed when the pistons, gears, rotors, and flywheels actuated. The entire object, a collection of pig iron and brass poised to be so much more if Rose could work her spells and literally send magic down a wire.

  "That's it, last connection," exclaimed Alfie wiping off the soldering iron with a sponge.

  In the studio arcana, Rose had assembled her most audacious experiment yet, Professor Alfred Hammond Fletcher's mechanical arm. The automated limb connected to a cable that passed through a conduit, across the hall, and into the theurgy chamber. Rose had rigged a connection into the pool via her latest creation, the gemulet relay.

  "Now a connection exists from Fletcher's metal arm through a wire to my theurgy chamber. It's up to me to connect the real to the infinite and immaterial," said Rose to the two men.

  Rose walked to the doorway to exit to the theurgy chamber she stopped and turned. "Tommy many a night I lay awake reviewing what we accomplished on the Peregrine creating an electro-arcane connection to Azul. Let's see if we can reproduce the results today."

  "Can't imagine why this won't be a raging success since you made it work with horse glue and a prayer in the boiler room of an airship. Here we want for no component," said Tommy.

  The aim of her latest project was to test a concept using Professor Fletcher's mechanical arm. She intended to project astrally into her gemulet where she had already constructed the electromechanical connections. On the astral plane, she would activate the controls; virtual controls she had archetyped into her construct. If her gemulet relay performed according to plan, he astral actions would trigger the relays and solenoids in the material world.

  To accomplish her objective, she drew on the talents of old and new friends. Tommy Edison had stayed at the townhouse while the work was completed on the new Peregrine. Tommy and Rose were being helped by her latest collaborator Alfie Fletcher, a Manchester Guild member. She heard of him while he was promoting an idea of fitting war veterans with working mechanical limbs.

  On her return from Constantinople nine months ago, Constable Caldwell couldn't get the idea out of her head about the connection she made between this world and the spiritual. She felt she had attracted Alfie to her because she was praying for help on how to move forward. And then one morning Rose saw an article in the Guardian about Alfie's work that filled in the missing pieces. Rose immediately wire-typed the mechanist. She took to the quirky inventor the moment she saw his workshop, it was reminiscent of her Bethnal Green apartments and wasn't too far from the old stomping grounds. In fact, after her first visit, Rose stopped into the Hound and Hare for a meat pie, and a pint.

  Rose enjoyed sharing her ideas, regarding operating mechanical devices through an astral connection, with the mechanist. He didn't blink at the suggestion, rather he believed it would be only a matter of time that thoughts and actions could be sent through coils, similar to a wire-type cable. Alfie cited the work of Continental Physicians that hypothesized the brain and nerve system acted like an organic electrical system.

  "All right Alfie, I will enter the theurgy chamber and give a go at triggering your kit here. This could be fantastic or one of the most boring and disappointing moments of your life. You see time can be different in the astral plane after I arrive, I will go through the procedure we discussed for moving the arm. How and when the actuation will occur is anyone's guess," she explained. Rose searched the room for the control board they had used to test the arm with earlier. She had constructed its likeness in the gemulet. "My hope is the archetype control board will work identically to that one," she finished.

  "We'll stand by with the champagne chilling or the crying towel wrung out and ready for weeping," offered Alfie. Rose loved his upbeat approach.

  She removed her work apron and hung it by the exit of the studio and walked across the hall to the theurgy chamber. Stepping into the room and adjusting the flow of gas to the lamps, the lights dimmed.

  The clean marble surfaces were cold, Rose turned up the gas stove to warm the cool air. This was her first winter in Hawkin's House and she was becoming accustomed to the frigid basement temperatures and what was required to keep a marble room and a large pool warm.

  The pool pump circulated the water through a heat exchanger on the house steam boiler before it passed through the tincture mix pot then out of the cherub jar spout. Steam rose from the water pouring out of the spout and into the pool. Rose locked the door, undressed and eased her naked body into the basin.

  It was relaxing having the warm pool water engulf her body as the chilly air sheathed her shoulders and face. Comfortably seated on the bench of the pool, she rested her arms on the silver and gold floor inlay surrounding the pool, then closed her eyes and began her incantation.

  As part of her training with Enzo, Rose had been making frequent trips into her astral projection. Enzo, known in metaphysical circles as the Abbotless Monk was a strange hermit loosely affiliated with the Church, but focused on the metaphysical and miraculous. He had helped her achieve more focus on her spirit and control within the astral plane. While this awareness made astral travel easier, it also helped center her mind and improve clarity about the daily affairs of the mortal realm. She became adept at separating her oneness and spiritual presence from her thoughts and the critical voices inside her head.

  The Abbotless Monk, had been her spirit coach, helping her establish a deeper understanding of astral projection and how it worked. Anyone was capable of astral manipulation; just as most people have had an out-of-body experience or can remember an otherworldly dream state. This condition is the immortal consciousness detaching from its physical bounds and edging out into the immaterial.

  Dream state was the most rudimentary of astral travel. The gifted individuals who practiced the skill of projection could detach their essence and immortal consciousness to move about. In Rose's case, she could start a deliberate out-of-body experience and through the use of metaphysical training, could create a permanent construct of this dream state then attach the constructs she dreamed up to a fixed point in the aether, within the gemulet.

  Enzo shared with Rose that he and others could project beyond this existence. That our universe was one pocket within the warp and weave of the aether and with training, one could slip between the strands of the oneness from one pocket to another. Her goal today was to establish a cause and effect between the immaterial and material, through her gemulet relay.

  Once inside the construct within her ge
mulet, Rose's spirit-being opened her eyes and observed an exact duplicate of the actual Hawkins House. Naked, she stepped out of the pool and opened the door to cross the hall back into the studio arcana.

  Tommy and Alfie were gone as they existed in the mortal realm not in the projection. Just like how her physical body continued to rest in the pool across the hall.

  Rose approached the control station, identical to the one in the mortal realm. She removed the cable from the back of the control panel and plugged it into an ornate, silver box resembling a jewelry box in size and shape. An astral construct of the gemulet relay, not an actual object, that box existed in the pool. She had just established the connection to the gemulet, permanently affixed at the bottom of the theurgy pool and wired into the studio. The circuit was complete.

  The silver box was just the container, the relay was a proprietary mixture of Eldritch elements. To whip up this special alchemical formula Rose had worked with Dr. Lorelei Traube.

  Dr. Traube had become one of Rose's dearest friends, growing acquainted in a social circle rather than combating Prussian commandos and other dimensional beings on a mission to subdue or kill them.

  Rose continued to find Lorelei headstrong and infuriating at times, but an unmatched alchemical genius. Lorelei had been around less frequently as Preston's deteriorating condition and the tension at Gilchrist Manor persisted. Rose had wished her friend could be present along with Preston to see if the experiment worked. This was all for him although Rose didn't share this with anyone.

  She watched her reflection in the polished brass surface of the control panel and noticed that the glyphs she had tattooed on her lithe body were visible on her astral projection. This occurrence seemed odd, not that she was in the habit of looking at herself in projection, but she recollected that the projection was unmarked. Have to ask Enzo about that.

  She pushed the button to trigger the solenoid on Earth in her London studio, success would be celebrated when Alfie and Tom saw the arm bend at the elbow. The replica in her astral studio moved, a good sign but that could be her wishful thinking. There was no way to know the signal passed through to the actual arm next to Tom and Alfie.

  Rose methodically proceeded through the next steps in the testing procedure. She completed the checklist, now she could return and learn from the boys if the test was a success. Feeling particularly strong sustaining her projection, she thought she would try one more experiment, to flex her abilities within an astral construct and manipulate the aether.

  Rose concentrated, imagining a copy of Professor Fletcher's iron arm, not bolted on the table but as her own arm. She was now archetyping, using her imagination to manifest objects in the astral dimension. The arm she imagined was slightly different to than one bolted to the table.

  Slow your breathing, she thought to herself, painting the picture, imagining the weight and feel. She looked down to see her arm encased in the iron limb. Even if this didn't work just being able to manifest so quickly another iron arm was an improvement in mental discipline. Enzo would be excited to hear about it, well, as excited as he got about anything. He could be so disagreeable.

  Rose walked to the front of the control panel, unplugged the cable connecting to the gemulet relay and plugged the line into the shoulder socket. With the connection made she moved her arm, first just general stretching movements, twisting and flexing and finally she finished with more aggressive, full-range motions. Midway through a big arm swing, she felt the iron arm lurch as if stuck on something, giving her a stiff jerk. Breaking her concentration, she stopped to get her bearings and glean what may have happened; but nothing in the studio seemed to have changed. Done with her impromptu experiment, she slipped her arm out of Fletcher's metal appendage and set it on the bench. Then proceeded back to the theurgy room.

  Slipping back into the pool, Rose centered her mind's eye on her return to Earth. As she reoriented herself to reality, the ex-nun could hear the boisterous talk of the two men through the thick door of the chamber. Not able to make out distinct words she could tell by the tempo and volume of the conversation that the speakers were joyful. Eager to learn of the results she jumped out of the pool and wrapped herself in a dressing gown made of thick cotton and glided across the hall.

  There was a look of shock on the two men's face as Rose came into the studio in her gown. Both awkwardly looked away or to the side; she was always at a loss for the modesty of these so-called modern men.

  At that moment, she noticed the arm was laying on the ground.

  "What happened?" asked Rose.

  "Where to begin? I guess first off congratulations on the successful transfer of the signal. It all seemed to go swimmingly until the planned sequence finished. Then suddenly it was if the arm came to life. Its movements were different, fluid, precise but not following our sequence; I am unsure why," described Alfie, as he moved around the work table.

  Rushing up to Alfie Rose exclaimed, "Oh, Professor, that was me." Rose was elated, this was so much better than she had hoped for. "After our agreed procedure, I tried another experiment. I constructed an apparatus that followed my movements and then connected it to the armature,"

  "Well, it worked, too well at one point the arm stripped off the support and then flopped around on the floor," said Tommy.

  "Professor, I am so sorry. I hope I haven't damaged your work?" offered Rose.

  "Nonsense, Miss Caldwell, that arm is but a small cog in what we are now capable of through your genius. We are so much closer to achieving my dream of providing veterans the ability to regain the use of lost limbs. I am eternally grateful to you for reaching out to me and including me in your…" he paused teary-eyed, "fantastic enterprise!" finished Alfie.

  Rose gave him a hug, he embraced her with his one remaining arm.

  3

  Monday the 4th of March

  4:30 p.m. The town of Belfort, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of France

  This is silk from Lyon, it is the same quality you would find in Paris, Lilith,”

  “Paris would have silks from China and Siam; I want something exotic, cosmopolitan, not what the other provincial girls can get,” she replied. The girl continued to rummage through the bolts of cloth in the fabric shop.

  “Mrs. Remult, are you able to place a special order from overseas?” Asked Lilith.

  “Oh no, Lilith, that is too expensive. You would have to buy the whole bolt. I don’t understand, these silks are sought after in London and New York. Belfort is sophisticated in its own right, ours is one of the largest towns in France and we do a brisk trade with the Swiss and Italians over the border,” consoled Mrs. Remult.

  “You don’t understand,” murmured Lilith.

  “I think I comprehend far more than you do. You forget, I was once a young girl growing up in the country. I have already had my time thinking life would be grander somewhere, anywhere else than here,” replied the elderly French woman.

  “Did you ever leave and live somewhere else?” Lilith brightened seeking any avenue to break the mundane, even a story from the old lady Remult.

  “I could make a world big enough for myself here Lilith,” replied Mrs. Remult as she put the fabric away.

  Lilith made her way out to the street, the cart and horses were waiting. Emil, one of the farm boys sat holding the reins. It was his need to pick up hardware at the supply store that gave Lilith a chance to go into town. Lilith talked him into taking her along. Lilith knew Emil had affection for her and would go against her father’s wishes and bring her to town.

  Belfort was the biggest town Lilith could remember. She was born in Paris but had no recollection of the capital city. Her father moved the two of them to the country when she was a toddler. Belfort was the only town her father would allow her to travel to and until recently it was always with a chaperone. She thought of herself as being from Belfort, but in reality, her life was largely the farm and more so, the chateau where her father managed dairy production for the Monastery. She had li
ttle connection to the town’s people as they saw her and father as outsiders from the city, not farm people who worked the dairy and creamery at the cloistered monastery.

  “Emil, do you ever think about leaving Belfort?”

  “Occasionally, I guess I will in a year or so, maybe join the service and become a cavalry trooper. I am a good rider,” he said.

  “Even you, a lad has more prospects of getting away than I do,” lamented Lilith, at fifteen he was just two years younger than the girl, but in her mind, she possessed a decade of maturity on him.

  Emil guided the horse cart along the road that ran beside the Savoureuse River out of Belfort. High above the town sat the citadel, a series of fortress expansions designed to protect this area from Austrian or Prussian invasion.

  “Maybe you should socialize more in town, go to the dances and meet an officer in the Corps to sweep you off to foreign lands?” suggested Emil with a smile, looking up at the fort on the hill.

  “Don’t mock me,” Lilith brooded the remainder of the ride back to Monastère de la Prairie vallonnée.

  The reason her father moved out to dairy country to manage the estate was he blamed her mother’s illness and death to the putrid conditions of city life. Lilith had no memory of her mother or her death. As the cart progressed onto the property, her father rode out to meet her on horseback.

  “I have been calling after you, and now I see you were not even on the property,” yelled Lilith’s Father.

  “Emil was going to town, and I had finished my studies so I thought I would go to have a look at the shops and see if there were any new fabrics,” she explained.