Tesla: A Teen Steampunk/Cyberpunk Adventure (Tesla Evolution Book 1)

by Mark Lingane

“How did we end up back in your shed? We were just out by the well.”

  “Yes, then we came back. It would be impossible for us to just magically appear here.”

  Melanie sat down on the floor. Behind her were a dozen pillows. She reclined into them and closed her eyes.

  “Your oath. You must keep it if you’re all to survive. Break it and the world will be lost.”

  “What oath?” Melanie yawned. “I can’t remember …”

  “The one you’re yet to make, child,” the old woman said.

  Melanie fell into a deep slumber, and all four of them slept on as the rain drummed on the roof, alone in the empty room.

  38

  SEBASTIAN STIRRED. HE was the first awake. He was covered with several blankets and his clothes were next to him, dry and pressed. His chestplate had even been polished. He staggered up and quickly dressed before anyone had the chance to see his underpants. He stretched out his limbs. They were stiff and sore from the overnight march.

  He crept over to the front door. The morning sun greeted him and lifted his spirits. He stepped out into the growing light and onto the hardening sands. He walked around the shed. It looked small from the outside, barely big enough to fit even the one room, let alone two. He took a couple of deep breaths, smelling the freshness of the clean skies and damp ground.

  The old woman coughed.

  He jumped out of his skin.

  “Young child, you must be thirsty,” came her old, croaky voice. She was standing behind a large boiling pot. A small fire burned underneath, glowing green in the morning light. “Drink long of the broth, and receive its gifts.”

  Sebastian gave her a long stare. He stepped over to the pot and sniffed. “Does this contain strange things and foreign exotics, like vegetables?”

  “You’ll receive great nourishment in both mind and spirit.”

  Sebastian took this to mean that it not only had vegetables, but also tofu. Yet it did smell tempting. He hadn’t eaten in a day, and the sandwiches Isaac made had looked highly suspect.

  The old woman looked at him gleefully as he approached. She held out her ancient, hooked hand and beckoned him to taste.

  “If I drink from this, will I be given insight into dark, possible futures?” he asked.

  “No. You’ll be given relief from thirst and hunger for a short while, stupid child. Just have a drink and be on your way. You’re annoying and ask too many stupid questions. I have things to do, people to see. I’m a busy wit—person. You’ll need the sustenance from the broth once the darkness comes.”

  He took the small bowl she offered and dipped it in the broth. He slurped noisily. “Hey, that’s not ba—”

  *

  Sebastian was woken by someone shaking him violently.

  Melanie was shouting at him. “What were you doing out here?” she yelled, rocking him back and forth.

  Sebastian took a deep breath. He saw Gavin and Isaac standing behind Melanie. “I came out, and it was fresh and the old woman gave me something to drink, and it was quite tasty, then she said some stuff, then everything went dark suddenly. Then there was the elephant. Then the fire under the pot exploded.”

  Everyone looked around at the ground. There was no sign of an explosion. Or even any other tracks in the drying mud other than Sebastian’s.

  “Are you okay?” asked Isaac.

  Sebastian took a deep breath. “I feel good. Great, in fact, full of beans. Not beans, because they’re vegetables and I’m generally allergic to all vegetables. Even beans. But they’re funny because they make you fart.”

  The others looked uncertainly at each other.

  “Are you sure—” Isaac began.

  “Don’t ask him any more questions,” Melanie blurted. She had to interrupt otherwise it would take them all day to get going.

  She helped Sebastian up and handed him his pack. It felt heavier than before, but he felt strong and bouncy. He slipped it over his shoulders and they set off in the direction of the cyborg hive.

  *

  “Come on, Gavin, keep up.” Isaac had been giving the older boy trouble for the last several miles.

  “Shut up, pipsqueak.”

  “Hey, I’m the one who found shelter. What have you done?”

  “My task’s more important. When it’s time I shall be revealed and save the day,” Gavin replied.

  “Save the day? More like save your skin.”

  “Leave him alone, Isaac. You’re coming across as jealous,” Melanie said.

  “What’s there to be jealous of? Some of us have had to earn our rewards, not have them just handed to us.”

  “I’ll have you know I worked damned hard to get where I am,” she said.

  “It’s hardly the same. That physical stuff is easy compared to the mental pain and anguish a tesla goes through,” Gavin said.

  Sebastian looked back over his shoulder at the others trailing behind. He shook his head at their bickering and focused ahead, into the wind.

  “I suppose sitting behind a desk can be exhausting,” Melanie said.

  “It’s not the sitting. It physically hurts your head, training to be a tesla. Right, Gavin?” said Isaac.

  “Yeah. Anyone can get fit. What we do takes skill.”

  “Skill? I’ll give you skill …”

  Eventually the squabbling died down. Thick clouds rolled in, cooling the desert plain. The temperature dropped and the wind began to pick up, providing a strong headwind for them to lean into. They trudged on for several minutes, with the wind whipping around them. After the hours of arguments the silence was disturbing.

  “Hey, Melanie, are you there? Isaac? Gavin?”

  Sebastian sighed. It was deathly quiet. He turned around. There was no one there. He peered into the dim light. For as far as he could see there was nothing.

  His head started to throb. He looked around, but there was nothing to be seen in any direction. The wind howled around him, whipping the dust and sand into his eyes. He tried to shield them, and blinked to dislodge the grit.

  A large cyborg appeared directly in front of him, staring off in the opposite direction.

  Sebastian yelped and dived to the ground. He blinked, and the image was gone.

  He picked himself up, but the wind roared over him, knocking him backward. He stumbled a few paces before steadying. Several yards away, through the whipping sand, another cyborg appeared. It was walking away from him. He tried to run after it but the wind knocked him back. He stumbled and tripped. Caught off balance, he dropped to his knees.

  The pain in his head increased. It speared into him from all directions.

  He looked up and they were all around him, encircling him. Step by step, they came marching forward, trapping him in an inescapable ring, their dull washed-out eyes showing no emotion.

  As they approached, the pain in his head grew. They lowered their guns at him. They aimed. The world spun around his head.

  Then they were gone. He was in blackness and falling.

  *

  “Where did he go?” Melanie shouted above the wind.

  “I don’t know. He was just in front of me and then he disappeared,” replied Isaac.

  “He can’t just disappear into thin air. There must’ve been a hole or something he fell into.”

  “We need to spread out and search,” Isaac said. “Does anyone remember how far away he said it was?”

  Gavin was standing stock still, staring ahead. The wind blew fiercely against him, but he remained unmoving. “I can sense them,” he whispered.

  “That’s good, isn’t it?” Melanie said. “It means we’re close.”

  “They’re surrounding us,” Gavin said.

  Melanie spun around, searching for the threat, but they were alone. She threw her knife down into the sand in desperation. It clanged as the blade bounced off something metallic under the soil. She dug furiously into the sand, and within a few handfuls had uncovered a large sheet of metal.

  “They’re surrounding us b
ecause they’re below us,” she said.

  “Umm, guys,” said Isaac. He was looking out toward the horizon.

  “Not now, Isaac.”

  “Umm, guys …”

  “What!” Melanie snapped.

  “They’re not under us.”

  The sand beside them exploded. There was a distant roaring, followed by a deep red glow in the clouds above. More sand exploded by their feet, causing them to run in different directions.

  The fireball erupted.

  *

  Sebastian opened his eyes. He was in a dim room. All the walls, the ceiling and floor were made up of plate steel, held together by familiar steel rivets. Ahead of him was a low hole in the wall. He crawled over to it and listened. He could hear faint voices, but was unable to make out what they were saying.

  He made his way out of the small exit and down into a long pipe. He inched his way along it, feeling ahead in the near darkness. He reached an intersection. Down the left passage he could make out some light. He crawled along with the paneling under him creaking ominously. The piping opened up into another small square chamber. The paneling felt even thinner and buckled alarmingly under his weight.

  There was a grate to one side. Light and sound filtered through. He could make out the activities to his immediate side only. Two cyborgs were on a box with a scrolling floor. They were walking but never moved anywhere beyond the top of the box. They had a large piece of glass in front of them, which had an image of a forest path.

  “Hey, @simonFunLover, do you have free time?” said the first.

  Sebastian craned to see through the grating. The cyborg who had spoken consulted with its small, thin device.

  “My tinyIris says I have forty-five minutes free, @fiona3Cat,” said the second.

  “My tinyIris suggest that you would like to a) watch a sitcom television show written by award winning @jerryTheWonder, b) enjoy a refreshing soy-chi latte, or c) meet with @realTerryTreeman, who is also free at SuperBean cafe to discuss the TruBearing concert streamed last night on IrisTV.”

  “It was good.good.” The second cyborg consulted its device. “The best match is enjoying a refreshing soy-chi latte, because it tastes good, and has many health benefits. My tinyIris says my vitamins are low, and instructs that the soy-chi latte will be good.good for me.”

  Sebastian shook his head. They sounded disturbingly human, in a vaguely strange way.

  “Did you update your OS overnight as suggested?”

  “Of course. The new user interface design is much better than the old one.”

  “My tinyIris suggested that I complain in the OSupdate user forum,” the first cyborg said. “TinyIris suggests some people should be upset to make sure @developersOSDevelopers tries hard.hard.”

  The paneling beneath Sebastian gave way and he fell through.

  39

  HE LANDED ON thick steel plating with the breath knocked from him. The large cavernous space swirled around him. He blinked. Surprisingly, he seemed to be surrounded by dozens of trees. The brightest lights he had ever seen were flooding down from the ceiling, as bright as the midday sun. The temperature was not too hot, not too cold, and a gentle breeze was drifting in from somewhere distant. He could hear birds chirping in the trees, although he couldn’t see them.

  The trees looked odd. Their colors were extreme. The leaves were a vivid green, and the trunks were chocolaty brown. They reminded him of the trees he drew when he was younger, nothing like real trees but instead simplistic representations of them.

  He staggered to his feet with his mind swimming. He struggled to take in his surroundings. He appeared to be in a large park. He was certain he was underground, but the sky was blue and the sun was shining.

  Surrounding the park were short, square buildings constructed from evenly sized stones. They had been painted bright, vibrant colors. On the sides of the stones were paintings of people dancing.

  Scattered around the park, and placed on the sides of the buildings, were large signs, but again unlike any Sebastian had seen before. They had images that moved.

  The two cyborgs were staring at him. He jumped to his feet, taking in his surroundings.

  @Fiona3Cat’s device beeped. She read the instruction.

  “Iris suggests we no longer have the soy-chi latte at SuperBean, and instead capture the intruder,” she said to the first cyborg. “It’ll provide our daily requirement of exercise.”

  The sign to Sebastian’s right changed from something called the café at the SuperBean to a picture of him, with the words INTRUDER ALERT flashing next to his likeness. Then the words EXTREMELY DANGEROUS appeared over his face on the sign. Sebastian turned and fled.

  He ran through the park, leaping over benches and sprinting over the perfectly green grass. Other cyborgs turned to watch him run past. Some stood up and started to walk after him. Others went back to reading their thin devices. He ran out into a street. A few cyborgs were walking on the side of the street, while others were riding on something that looked like the front half of a cart. Each black-clad cyborg had a small platform with a wheel on each side, and a long pole sticking up that ended in a set of handlebars, similar to the powered bicycles they had used when chasing him.

  He dodged through the stream of cyborgs and ducked down a quiet alleyway. His feet pounded the pavement, with the metal ringing out under his heavy footsteps. There were more tall thin signs on the sides of the buildings, again with strange objects being displayed, often with a number next to them. As he passed, they changed to pictures of him, with various flashes of moving images replaying his running through the park.

  He ran around a corner, breathing heavily. The camera on the wall was surrounded by yellow and black tape. A large sign warned of ignoring the safety tape, and suggested choosing another path to journey down. He could hear footsteps behind him.

  He burst through the tape, ducked under the sign and charged down the alleyway. The walls were back to being the plain metal sheeting, supporting only various cautionary signs. No dancing people against vivid colors. He came to an intersection, decided that the road to the right was best, and sprinted away.

  He came to a crossroads. He stood in the middle of it, trying to figure out which direction would lead away from his pursuers. There was an explosion by his head, making him duck. He took a guess and ran down the shortest passageway. He scrambled around the corner and gasped.

  “Mom?”

  “Sebby, quick, come with me.”

  Isabelle grabbed his hand and pulled him into a small alcove. She waved her hand over a small panel and the door swooshed shut. She pressed the red button below the panel and a substantial clunk echoed. They heard the heavy footsteps run past.

  “Mom, you’re safe,” he whispered. He gave her a big hug.

  “Yes. I overcame a guard, stole the uniform and was making my way out. But we don’t have much time.”

  “Have you found a safe way out?”

  “Yes, we can get out via the ventilation shafts, but before we go there’s something you need to know. Things aren’t as they appear. I’ve been finding out startling information. You need to know the truth, and I need to tell you now.”

  “Like what?”

  “These people here are suffering due to a lack of water,” Isabelle said. “The planet’s been getting drier over the last centuries and water’s becoming scarce in all except a few places. There’s barely enough water around here to survive.”

  “Why don’t the cyborgs move to where there’s more water?”

  “The hive can’t be moved. It’s located on an energy source that continually powers the hive and the links with the mind.”

  “The mind?”

  “This place has a remote mind, called Iris, to coordinate everything. Iris keeps it running efficiently and makes sure no one goes without. Every cyborg gets its fair share of everything. But the mind is sick, and has been for a century. Iris has been trying to find a way to survive into the future.”

  �
��Where is this Iris?”

  “The mind’s located over the sea, in a very dangerous place. It can’t be moved and we can’t live without it. So we live here. Stuck. The mind is dying due to the lack of water. And those steamers have the water, but what do they do with it? Waste it, that’s what. Like it’s something that has no meaning or value. Like it’s not the most precious commodity on the planet. They disrespect it, and it’s the basis of all life.”

  “I’m sure they’d share if you spoke to them.”

  “That’s been the problem for centuries. No one at the academy ever listens. They don’t want to negotiate, and they’re leaving us to die slow and painful deaths. Those steam-powered throwbacks only seek their own preservation. They don’t serve the interests of any creatures except themselves.”

  “No, you’re wrong,” Sebastian said. “We lived there. We know those people.”

  “No, you’re of this place. You can talk to those throwbacks. You can bring peace among the people.”

  “But I’m not from here. I’m from a farm, not a hive of unthinking zombies. We belong to the Steam Academy.”

  “They’re deceitful and wear masks to hide what they’re really like. Have you been to the top floor of the admin tower? Evil lives there.”

  “No, I haven’t, but we have no disagreement with the cyborgs. It was them who came searching for me. They came for me, shouting the word terminate.”

  “Forget that. Iris was confused and desperate.”

  “Tell me again who Iris is?” Sebastian was finding it hard to take everything in.

  “Iris is the name of the mind,” Isabelle told him. “And there’s one more piece of information I need to explain to you, Sebastian. You need to prepare because this will shock you. There are probability trees that calculate how everything should go and what will happen in the future. Over a century ago Iris calculated the requirement of a person with a particular mental state of mind, a particular genetic make-up that could hook directly into Iris, to act as a pipeline between the hive and the mind. It searched through the people living here and found that my grandfather was that genetic match.”