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

by Mark Lingane

  “Why him? What was so special about him?”

  “He was lucky. No other reason. For generations our family was born and grew up here as part of the hive. Life was good. Then your great-grandfather was chosen, but unfortunate things happened to him, and he was confused and left. Iris worked out that there was an anomaly in the calculations. The person it needed hadn’t been born yet. Iris needed someone younger with a more flexible mind, someone who could cope with the mental pressure. Grandfather had the position, but he found he didn’t have the mental ability for it. He got scared and ran. Iris waited and worked out that you would be the person to help govern, like a king.”

  Isabelle stroked his arm and looked into his eyes. “For a century they’ve been searching, for you, so they can tell you to come home. All is good. Good, Sebastian. You can come home. You can live here and be free. You can take your rightful position and be safe. The probability trees said this would happen, and it has come to pass. You’ll lead us all to peaceful days, after we crush those steam-powered liars and all those who stand against us.”

  “What rightful position?” Sebastian said. He felt confused.

  “You’re to be our new mind.”

  “What!”

  “Come join us, Sebby.”

  She offered her hand. He reached out for her. Tears formed in his eyes and he felt his heart well up. He reached for his mother, longing for them to be together.

  “My grandfather was the genetic match but was weak,” Isabelle said. “You were born for the position, born to be king.”

  “Is that why my head doesn’t hurt here?”

  “Yes, because it’s your home. You and I belong here. We are the same.”

  “I’m not like these cyborgs.”

  “But you are. Isn’t it true that you’re in pain when you’re in conflict with them? It hurts to battle your own people. And I’m here.” She reached out for him and smiled.

  “Oh, Mom.” He fell into her, sobbing, feeling like he was being ripped in half.

  His mother flickered as her face temporarily flashed several different colors. “I’ll good.good you forever.”

  “What did you say?” He pushed her away.

  “I’ll love you forever.” Again the image flickered.

  “No, it’s not you.” He turned away from his mother.

  In a different voice, she said, “Then you will die. Terminate him.”

  He turned back to her, his face a mask of shock.

  His mother’s face flickered and disappeared. It was replaced by another face surrounded with a fine mesh net. Small balls of light flickered and flowed through various colors. Faces scrolled across the balls, searching for a probability match.

  The door whooshed open and Sebastian stepped out into the corridor. There were a dozen cyborgs waiting for him.

  He concentrated his mind and focused all the energy he could toward those surrounding him. Nothing happened. His mind felt numb. He tried again as the black figures reached out for him. There was no wave. For the first time, the power had failed him. They grabbed him, and dragged him kicking and screaming into the dungeons below.

  40

  HE KICKED AGAINST the door until his feet hurt. He tried to clear his mind to sense some kind of lock, but everything was dark. He dropped to his knees and hammered against the door, crying and screaming. The pressure within his head grew and the room darkened. He sat in the middle of the room feeling like the desert winds were flashing around him. There was a hissing sound in the room and a thin green gas filtered in. He collapsed on the floor.

  *

  When he woke he was strapped to an angled metal bed in another room. It was larger than the last but still as brutal in its sparseness. He craned his neck to see the screen above him. A large green eye was looking down on him. It blinked occasionally.

  Three female cyborgs wearing white uniforms marched into the room. They all had long colored hair tied back in ponytails.

  A voice reverberated from the screen above his head. “You will come home, either by your own free will, or by force. One way or another, it will happen. The trees have foreseen it.”

  “Who are you?” Sebastian screamed.

  “I am Iris. I am you.”

  He cried out. Iris mimicked the cry. One cyborg laid out several shiny and sharp implements on a white shelf next to the bench. They glistened with deadly intent, full of inert menace.

  Dark thoughts filled his mind, about betrayal, about abandonment, about loneliness. He searched for someone to blame. And of all the people that flicked through his mind, it always came back to him. The pressure in his head grew. The walls were creaking. The glass on the lights began to crack.

  The cyborgs looked about hesitantly. Iris instructed them to continue, and not to stop until the task had been completed.

  One picked up a long stick with a sharp rounded hook on the end. She leaned forward, peering into Sebastian’s eye. She grabbed his head in a vice-like grip and held it still. He could hear the whirring of a small motor attached to her hand. Gradually it increased in strength. A whining, buzzing sound came from above his head. A circular blade was spinning toward him. Sebastian screamed and thrashed as much as he could but could not move against the powerful grip of the creature above him.

  The lights began to flicker. The screen behind him cracked. The eye glared on. One cyborg was knocked sideways by a strong wind that whipped around the room. The sharp implements spun up into the air and flashed around the vortex growing within the confines of the walls. The walls creaked and groaned. A low hum emanated from the vibrating walls.

  The door creaked. It moved the smallest fraction then blew out into the corridor, smashing and buckling into the far wall.

  *

  “Whoa. I only pressed the open button,” Isaac said.

  Melanie stepped in with two laser guns blasting away. “Not. On. My. Watch.” Deadly light lanced around the room, slicing through the cyborgs. A mixture of red blood and green fluid sprayed over the walls and spattered against the screen, just before the screen exploded. “Dead or alive, he’s coming with me,” she said. “Er, that’s you being dead or alive, evil-cyborgy people. Not Sebastian. Not him.”

  “You don’t need to explain,” Isaac said. “They’re already dead.”

  She dropped the guns and dashed over to the struggling Sebastian. “Are you all right?”

  Sebastian nodded. She examined the locks on the straps holding him down and yanked at them.

  “I’ve never seen anything like these before,” she said.

  “Let me have a look,” Gavin said. He stepped over to the straps. He closed his eyes and placed his hands on the locks. He concentrated and there was a faint buzzing. The locks sprang open.

  Melanie wrenched Sebastian up into a standing position. “Gavin, you did it,” she cried.

  “I said I’d been here before. I remembered the magnetic pattern they used on the locks.”

  Melanie handed Sebastian over to Isaac. “You can support him better. You’re the same height.”

  Sebastian placed his arm around Isaac’s shoulders and stepped forward uncertainly. Isaac guided him out of the destruction of the room.

  “How did you find me?” Sebastian asked Isaac.

  “Believe it or not, Gavin did something useful,” Isaac said. “It turns out he can sense you if he’s given enough incentive.”

  “His senses work here?”

  “Yes. Don’t yours?”

  “I don’t know. Everything’s really scrambled at the moment. I feel like something’s watching me, blocking my senses, like I have a cold in my mind. Everything’s distant and blurry.”

  They edged out into the corridor. It was empty.

  “Gavin, can you sense the way out?” Melanie said.

  “It doesn’t quite work like that,” replied Gavin.

  “We have to find my mother. She’s here somewhere,” Sebastian cried out.

  Melanie turned to him and placed a hand on either of his s
houlders. She looked deep into his eyes. “Sebastian, you need to let her go. You can’t do everything for her. Not this time. Maybe later, but for there to be a later you need to let her go now.”

  She put her hands in the air. “I won’t stop you. It has to be your choice. But if you stay they’ll catch you. You’re not strong enough to get your mother back. But you’ll gain that strength if you let her go now.” She stepped away from him. “What do you chose to do?”

  They could all hear the footsteps. They knew time was limited. If they waited too long they would all be dead. Yet they stood there, staring at Sebastian, waiting for him to decide.

  “All right, we go,” he cried.

  She stepped forward, wrapped her arms around him and held him close as he sobbed. “Good choice,” she said. “Good choice.”

  “But we’re coming back.”

  “That’s fine by me, but for now we run.”

  They all sprinted down the passageway as the first wave of cyborgs swarmed around the corner.

  “I have it on good authority that the ventilation shafts are the safest way out,” Sebastian shouted, running ahead searching for an exit.

  “Did you tell him about the cells?” Isaac whispered to Melanie.

  “I couldn’t do that. It would destroy him.”

  *

  The cameras were displaying live images from the various cells. The bleak metal rooms had no windows and only one long strip light set into the ceiling. In some cells men were running at the walls repeatedly. In others, people were huddling in corners. But only one had a woman strapped down on a metal bench with her face surrounded by cameras.

  On a large monitor on the wall was a digital copy of her face. It captured her every facial move and emotion as images of Sebastian were projected on the ceiling above her. A tear flowed down her face as she fought against the torture.

  A large needle extended from a white box mounted on a wall. She struggled but couldn’t move. The needle punctured her arm and a green liquid was injected. Her pupils dilated. The image of Sebastian changed to the hive master. The king over the sea. The one everyone loved. She smiled.

  Several pieces of technology were on a shelf behind her. A white robotic arm swung around, selecting the pieces one by one, dipping them in a thick green fluid then placing them back on the shelf. Above the shelf a clock was counting down.

  *

  The ventilation system was huge, big enough to cool an underground city. They had no difficulty in running side by side. Neither did the cyborgs. Then there was a familiar growl.

  “They’re on those powered bicycles. We’ve got no hope with those behind us,” Sebastian said.

  “Then we’d better get one for ourselves,” Melanie replied.

  They ducked down a side ventilation unit. Melanie crouched and waited. She tensed as the roar increased in volume and then she leaped. She crashed into the driver, knocking the whole vehicle over. The two tumbled to the ground. She stood up with blood dripping off of her blade.

  They all ran over to the vehicle and tipped it up onto its wheels.

  “Four wheels. Will that be harder?” Sebastian asked.

  “How could it be? It also has a big gun on it,” Melanie said.

  “Who wants to shoot the big gun?”

  “That’ll be me,” Melanie said as she pushed the others out of the way.

  “Do you think that loud wailing sound is something bad?” Isaac said.

  “Gavin, you steer, I’ll shoot,” Melanie said. “Everyone on and let’s go.”

  They all piled on and the vehicle tore away. As they barreled along, the distant light grew in size. Then they were out, flying through the air. The vehicle crunched down into the ground and they powered away from the hive.

  There was a gasp from Isaac.

  Melanie started firing the gun.

  “What’s going on back there?” Gavin shouted over his shoulder.

  “You really don’t want to know what’s behind us,” Isaac said.

  Gavin took a quick glance over his shoulder. There was a line of thousands of cyborgs on vehicles all screaming after them. Above them were over a dozen dragons, plus another four master dragons above those. It was ten times the force that had nearly crushed the city earlier.

  “That’s not good,” said Gavin.

  “We’ll never make it back with them behind us,” Isaac said.

  “You never know,” replied Gavin. He smiled.

  In front of them were twenty zeppelins, flying in a wide formation. The sound of the first cannons was already reaching them, followed by the whistling overhead of the cannonballs, which landed heavily in the sand, bouncing several times before exploding.

  The cyborgs fell by the wayside as the retaliation continued.

  Gavin urged on the vehicle, willing it faster.

  One zeppelin broke away from the formation and started to descend. Gavin made his way toward it. The dragons swooped in but the zeppelins had them in their sights and fired several rounds rapidly, pounding the machines down.

  The zeppelin was only a few feet off the ground as Gavin pulled the vehicle alongside it. The four leaped from the vehicle and fell in through the cargo hold of the zeppelin. Sebastian was the last. He jumped just as the zeppelin was taking off, misjudging the distance, and was left hanging from his fingertips.

  A large hand came down, grasped his arm and pulled him up.

  Nikola gave Sebastian a nod. He looked up at the turmoil above them. “Let’s get you home,” he said.

  He shouted instructions and the zeppelin turned and started to ascend.

  41

  THE FLIGHT BACK was a constant battle. The zeppelins blasted with everything they had until there was nothing left. The first ones out became easy prey to the dragons. Some managed to take a dragon or two before they plummeted to the ground.

  The Steam Academy came into view. The zeppelins formed a defensive ring over the rooftops and fired out at the dragons. Then they descended to replenish ammunition and return to the skies for a new assault on the enemy.

  Nikola’s craft came down and he ushered the youngsters off.

  He turned to them. “You all need to stay safe. The enemy force is strong, and I don’t like our chances of survival. I doubt we’ll meet again, but today we’re sending a message that we won’t be walked over. Reinforcements have arrived. Tough men from the land are now with us, and they do not surrender. Children, go and be safe.”

  The quartermaster shouted, indicating fresh firepower had been loaded.

  Sebastian saluted Nikola as the craft took off. With saddened eyes, Nikola waved goodbye.

  “I’m not hiding,” said Sebastian defiantly once the ship was out of sight.

  “Neither am I,” said Isaac.

  “Wherever you go, I’ve sworn to follow and protect,” said Melanie.

  “Well, I’m not going to be the one left out,” Gavin said. “Let’s do something. Anyone have an idea?”

  “I do.”

  The other three turned to face Sebastian.

  “Follow me.”

  He turned and ran up to the terrace where he and Melanie had spent so many peaceful nights. The battle raged above and below them. “I need to get on top of the hill.” He pointed to the large mound outside the western gate.

  “In the open? Right in the middle of them? You must be mad,” Melanie said.

  “Didn’t you say it was better to live the half-life of a hero than a whole one in a cave waiting for death?”

  “Something like that. But that was before I had a life to live, and before I learned that being a hero hurts a lot.” She sighed. “All right. But you owe me big time after this. Definitely a new gown.” She pointed at him then looked out to the mayhem on the field. “How do we even get out there?”

  “Maybe that’s where I can help you.”

  Sebastian turned with a huge grin on his face. “Merv! You’re here.”

  “Certainly, sport. The cricket season got cancelled due to the
se blokes. So we weren’t going to take that lying down.”

  “We?”

  “I brought some of the top order with me. They’s a good group to have in a scrape.”

  “Gavin and Isaac, find a dish that was on one of the tesla towers,” Sebastian said. “Go down to the batteries and place the dish in front of them pointing in this direction. It’ll help me concentrate and amplify the power.”

  Gavin and Isaac nodded and ran off in search of a dish that had survived.

  The team collected around Merv as he planned a defense.

  After much debate, Merv turned to Sebastian and gave him a nod. “She’ll be right.”

  Sebastian smiled. “Let’s do it.”

  They all charged down the stairs from the terrace, through the streets and toward the gate. The team rotated through the cyborgs with a combination of old rifles and desert-walker shields. When a cyborg fell they would pick up the new weapon and use that until it died. They whirled through the enemy until Merv, Melanie and Sebastian ran up the mound. When they were at the highest point, Melanie and Merv took up defensive positions on either side of Sebastian.

  “This is really going to hurt,” Sebastian muttered as he readied himself.

  “Not only you, sunshine.” Melanie deflected another blast. It pushed her back. Her arm ached from the constant firing and her whole body was beginning to fail. Her judgment began to slip.

  Merv stepped in to deflect the stream of light. “Not now, love,” he said. “Ain’t no time for smoko.”

  “Now we end it,” Sebastian whispered.

  He closed his eyes and held his hands out to the side. He could feel the full batteries underneath the city. He could only hope the others had got there and set up the dish. He breathed deeply. As he raised his hands, he could feel the power lift. It rose up through the ground, shaking it, cracking it. He could feel it, pure and powerful. He clapped his hands together and …

  … white light filled the world. Melanie and Merv slipped and fell, slowly tumbling down, their faces a mask of shock and terror. The lights from the lasers slowed down and dissolved into the great brightness.