Clockwork Mechanicals - the Complete Trilogy

by Peter R Stone

  I look at the strange thing, and realise it’s an alien made of pure energy. I wonder what I should do.

  The little alien picks up the stone and drops it right in front of my sneaker.

  “You want me to throw this?” I ask.

  He moves back and bounces up and down. I pick up the stone and toss it. He bounces and rolls after the stone, catches it, and brings it back.

  The other small, round aliens suddenly come bouncing and rolling over to me. Each one drops a stone at my feet.

  I play fetch with the creatures until my arm feels like it’s going to fall off. I’m also famished, thirsty, and tired. With a heavy heart, I say goodbye to my newfound friends and touch the portal. Moments later, I’m back in my dad’s junkyard.

  I brush the dirt off my clothes and jump back in surprise. One of the aliens has come back with me! He is the first one I played fetch with. I can tell because he is a shade darker than the others were.

  He follows me back to the house when I go to make myself dinner. After I’ve eaten baked beans on toast, I go to my bedroom-come-workshop. I show the curious alien the clockwork toys I make.

  I suddenly realise he is losing his luminosity. He seems to be having trouble moving too.

  “Come on, we’d better get you back home. I don’t think you can survive here.” I head for the door.

  But instead of following me, the alien jumps into the clockwork spider I made a couple of months ago. The clockwork spider immediately comes to life! It races around the room excitedly, pausing only to wind itself up using its hind-most legs.

  “You can live in a clockwork toy?” I ask, amazed.

  In response, he grabs a bolt from under my desk and brings it over to play fetch.

  “I’m going to call you Spidey,” I say.

  Spidey buzzes loudly and waits for me to throw the bolt.

  I’ve made a new friend. A friend from another world! How cool is that! Now I’ll be the...

  ...“Brad! Brad, wherever y-y-y-you’ve gone, c-c-c-come back!” Robby shouts in my face.

  I blink rapidly as I quickly take in my surroundings. My trip down memory lane is over and I’m back on the airship in the room filled with refrigerant bottles.

  Megan’s saying something, but my mind’s in a chaotic jumble as I contemplate what I’ve just learned. If Spidey is an alien, that means Roach and the butterflies must be too!

  Another thought explodes into my mind. What about the evil Mechanicals? The giant squid? The one disguised as a man? The worms? The bronze spiders? And just about everything on this airship that can move – where did they all come from? Please, please tell me I didn’t make them too?

  There is one funny thing. Even though I’d lost my memory, when I met Spidey in the Space Station, I called him Spidey. I guess that proves I always think and act the same way. Unless...deep down I actually remembered his name.

  Chapter Five

  “Help us with the door, Brad. They’re coming through!” Megan shouts.

  She’s right. The evil bronze chairs have forced the door halfway open. Megan and Robby have pushed several gas bottles against the door, but they aren’t heavy enough.

  I glance about the room, looking for anything we can use to jam the door shut. I can’t see anything, but I notice Roach is busily removing the door handle from the door on the far side of the room.

  The handle hits the floor with a THUNK and Spidey butts the door open. Then he scuttles over to me and drops a bolt at my feet.

  “Everyone – into the next room!” I shout as I kick Spidey’s bolt through the open doorway. He darts off to fetch the bolt and we rush after him into the new room, slamming the door behind us.

  Megan turns on the light. We are in the airship’s living quarters. There are four double-bunk beds, two small tables with stools, four floor-to-ceiling lockers, a shower cubicle, a toilet – and a girl!

  She’s our age and has long black hair. I’m about to introduce myself...

  ...but suddenly I’m strolling down the school corridor with four of my buddies from the football team. We are heading past the lockers when I see a girl with long black hair – her name’s Georgia – getting books from her locker.

  “Hi Brad,” she says hopefully.

  “Hi Dumbo, flown anywhere lately?” I ask her because her ears stick out, and then burst into a fit of laughter with my mates.

  “You’re the man!” Craig says.

  “Give me five!” Jocko says as he gives me some skin.

  “You crack us up, Brad!” Turbo says.

  I don’t look back as we walk off, even though I know I’ve hurt her feelings. I make a living out of mocking kids like her...

  ...and I’m back in the airship. The girl is looking at me with hope in her eyes. That amazes me. I thought she would hate me for the way I treated her in the past because her ears were a bit different.

  “Hi Georgia.” I reach out and shake her hand.

  “Hi Brad.” She risks a smile. I guess she’s surprised I’m being nice to her.

  “Let me guess, the Orb brought you here to help us?” I ask.

  “Orb?”

  “A glowing ball about so big.” I hold my hands a basketball width apart.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” she says.

  “Did it say how?”

  “Sorry, no, it didn’t.”

  “That’s okay, we’ll find out soon enough. But first, I want to apologise for treating you so badly at school.” I lower my eyes in shame.

  “Oh no, you don’t need to apologise,” she replies.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Seriously, everyone teases me because of my ears.”

  “I didn’t just ‘tease’ you, Georgia. I was making fun of you – mocking you – and I shouldn’t have done that. I’m so sorry.”

  “You mean that?” she asks.

  “Absolutely.”

  Robby bounces over and interrupts us. “Hey, Brad – your m-m-m-memories are coming – are coming – back!”

  “Looks that way,” I say, though I feel terrible because I don’t want them back. I don’t want to be like I was before.

  “This place is so cool!” Megan calls out. She’s lying on one of the bunk beds on the other side of the room. “This bed reminds me of the bunk bed I slept in during last year’s school camp. It was hard like this one, and about the same size. I didn’t enjoy sleeping in it, though. The girl’s dormitory was full of bugs and spiders. Some of the girls screamed every time one crawled across the wall. And Felicity just lost it when a big beetle landed on her face. She made such a fuss that the teacher had to come in and settle her down–”

  “Ah, Megan,” I say as I reach out to her. “Considering what happened when you sat on that chair in the observation deck, how about you give these beds a miss. Just in case?”

  Megan accepts my hand and joins us at a table in the middle of the room. I breathe a sigh of relief when the bed doesn’t come alive and trap her.

  Spidey runs over to me and drops his bolt at my feet. I toss it for him, and then realise Georgia is watching us with her mouth open.

  “What are those things?” she asks as she points to the butterflies.

  “They’re my clockwork butterflies,” Megan replies proudly. “I found them on the space station. They’re alive, you know.”

  Georgia cautiously holds out a hand and two butterflies land on her fingertips.

  “They like you.” Megan smiles.

  “They’re so cool! How come they are alive?” Georgia asks.

  “Spidey, Roach and the butterflies are aliens from another planet,” I say.

  Robby is suddenly very excited. “Aliens? Another planet? How do y-y-you know? Have you b-b-been...there? Come on, t-t-t-tell us w-w-what you’ve remembered.”

  Megan’s off exploring the shower cubicle, so I tell Robby and Georgia all about the alien world and how Spidey followed me back. They are amazed when I share how he took over my toy clockwork spider.

  “I can’
t b-b-believe it – the M-m-m-mechanicals are from another...world!” Robby says. But then his expression darkens. “So w-w-what about the ev-ev-evil Mechanicals, do they – do they – come from there...too?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve only had that one memory so far. But it’s possible.”

  Chapter Six

  “I wonder if this shower turns on?” Megan asks aloud as she fiddles with a bronze faucet.

  “Megan, can you please get out of –” I don’t finish my sentence because the door to the storage compartment is bumped partially open by a rather agitated bronze chair. I can see the other three chairs bunched up behind it. They want in.

  I throw my weight against the door, stopping them from getting in. “We forgot to barricade the door!”

  “Quick, to th-th-the next...room!” Robby says. He rushes over to the other door and pulls on the handle.

  It’s locked, but the moment he touches it, utter chaos breaks loose. Just about every item in the living quarters comes to life and attacks us!

  The double-bunk beds tear themselves from the wall and scrape across the metal floor towards the Robby and the door. They push him away and anchor themselves there, blocking our escape route.

  At the same time, the tables and stools unscrew themselves from the floor and march awkwardly in our direction. The four floor-to-ceiling lockers join them, opening and shutting their metal doors like alligator’s jaws.

  As if that wasn’t enough, the toilet hops in our direction, spilling water with each bounce, and the shower lets rip with the hose, spraying us with hot water.

  Megan yelps when the water hits her and flees to the middle of the room. She doesn’t get too wet, though, because the butterflies assemble and make a shimmering shield that protects her from the water stream.

  Running from the hopping toilet, Robby joins Megan. “We’re trapped – we c-c-can’t get...out!” He looks terrified.

  Georgia is standing with the others, stunned by the sight of everything grating, hopping, and stumbling towards us. “Can someone tell me what’s going on?” she asks.

  “Someone help me wedge something against this door, then we can try to get the bunk-bed out of the way!” I shout. It’s taking all my strength to keep the bronze chairs at bay.

  “Wedge what? Everything not nailed down is trying to catch us!” Megan shouts back as she kicks over one of the stools. It’s only a small victory, though. The other table angles its top towards her and advances past its fallen comrade.

  Just when I think things can’t get any worse, the floor panel to my right pops open and a segmented cable snakes out. It slithers over to me and wraps itself around my ankle. Then it drags me towards one of the lockers, its door opening and shutting hungrily.

  A horrible thought crosses my mind as I’m dragged across the floor. There are four lockers grinding their way towards us, and there are four of us.

  “Help me!” I scream as the truth hits home. The Orb told me previously to stay away from the evil Mechanical, because it would imprison me for life if it caught me. If we can’t escape this room, those lockers will be our prison cells.

  Georgia acts first. She runs over, grabs the cable, and tries to pull it off my leg. She can’t make it let go, but she stops the locker coming closer by bracing her feet against it.

  Megan comes to help too, but is distracted when the chair from the observation deck with the broken cable forces itself into the room.

  “Not you again!” she says. She tries to kick it over, but then notices Georgia’s dilemma. She jumps over to her and pushes against the locker. “See if you can break that cable, you’re stronger than me.”

  “Righteo,” Georgia replies. She twists away from the locker, and kicks and stamps on the segmented cable. A section of its outer covering buckles and comes off. She keeps attacking it, and it goes slack, releasing me.

  “Thanks, girls!” I reward them with a beaming smile and scramble back to my feet.

  Chapter Seven

  There’s a BANG as one of the tables, along with its stool, hit the floor together.

  Spidey darts away from them, looking very pleased with himself. He bound them together, causing them to over balance and fall.

  If there were more little Mechanicals like Spidey and Roach, we’d stand a better chance against the things attacking us. I wish I’d made more of them...

  ...my vision changes and I’m back in my workshop at home. My workbench is covered with gears, pullies, springs, winding keys, and bits and pieces of a dozen mechanical items I’ve pulled apart.

  In the middle of this mess is a brand new clockwork toy I’ve just finished making. It looks like an oversized cockroach. I had a lot of fun with it because I pulled apart a Swiss Army Knife and used its tools for its claws.

  Spidey is up on the workbench. He has been watching me work, his little eyes following my every move. Since coming through the portal, he follows me everywhere. He sleeps on my bed at night, he’s ready to play catch when I wake, and if my dad’s not home, he meets me at the door when I get home from school.

  I wanted to show Spidey to my dad when he got back from his trip, but he froze up the moment Dad walked through the door. He didn’t move again until Dad left the room. I realised he was just for me, and left it at that.

  I pick up the finished clockwork cockroach and show him to Spidey.

  “What do you think? You reckon I can I get one of your friends to live in this?”

  He doesn’t answer, of course. He just picks up a discarded gear and drops it in front of me.

  “Okay, one quick game. Then I’m popping back to your world.”

  I head back to the portal with the cockroach in one hand and Spidey in the other. I jump through. Once again, I am in a barren rocky landscape beset with flashes of lightening and peals of thunder.

  I set the little clockwork spider down and he bolts off between the jutting rock formations. I race after him, hoping he’s leading me to his friends.

  He doesn’t let me down. Ten minutes later we find them, a dozen little aliens the size of tennis balls. They bounce and roll over to us, and go into a frenzy of excitement when they see Spidey.

  One of them rolls over to me and bounces off my shoe. There’s a snap of static electricity. I think he wants to see the cockroach, so I put it on the ground. The alien immediately merges with the clockwork toy, and just like with Spidey, it comes alive.

  I play with my two clockwork friends and the energy aliens until the sky grows dark. Then I then hurry home. But just before I jump back through the portal, I spot what looks like a swarm of fireflies.

  Curious, I go over to them. They’re not actually fireflies, of course, but tiny little energy creatures the size of marbles. They flit gaily around me, coming closer and closer. I hold my hand out to them and they take turns landing on my fingertips, giving me tiny electric shocks when they do so.

  I knew straight away that I had to make clockwork toys for these little aliens too. But not big ones like Spidey and Roach. No, something smaller – something with wings so they can fly – clockwork butterflies, perhaps? ...

  ... “Brad – Brad! We have to get out of here!”

  I snap out of the flashback and find Georgia shaking my shoulders. “We have to save them, Brad!” Georgia says.

  I quickly scan my surroundings.

  Robby is crouched on the floor in the middle of the room, hiding his head in his arms. Two lockers are trying to gobble him up, but Megan keeps slapping their doors closed. But she’s in trouble, too, because the chairs from the Observation Deck are trying to surround her.

  “Right. Where’s Spidey and Roach?” I spot the clockwork spider first. He’s in the process of encasing one of lockers in a web so it can’t open its door.

  It takes longer to find Roach, but when I do, I jump for joy. He’s removing the last bolt from a knee-high air vent that leads into the next compartment. We can’t use the door because it’s still blocked by a double-bunk bed.

  The
air vent’s screen falls to the floor. I don’t know what’s in the next room, but I figure it can’t be worse than in here.

  I grab Georgia and point to the hole. “Through there, quickly!”

  She nods quickly, jumps down to her hands and knees, and crawls through the exit.

  “Spidey, Roach, you go next – and keep Georgia safe, okay?” I say to my two clockwork friends.

  Roach bobs his long antennae in my direction and scurries off.

  Spidey just comes over to me and drops a bolt at my feet. I toss it into the other room and he’s gone.

  Next, I grab Robby and Megan, swinging them around so that they can see the way out. With the butterflies following along behind, the three of us crawl through the air vent too.

  Chapter Eight

  The next room is so hot that I immediately start sweating.

  I find the light switch and turn it on. We’re in a room filled with machinery and pipes. I expect to be attacked by evil Mechanicals in all shapes and sizes, but nothing moves. Nothing follows us into the room through the air vent either. It’s too low for the Mechanical chairs and tables to get through. I reckon they’ll be coming through the door soon enough, though.

  I look for the butterflies and sigh with relief when I see they are flying merrily about Megan.

  “It’s s-s-s-so hot in...here!” Robby exclaims.

  “What is this place?” I ask.

  Robby gives the room a quick going over, examining the machinery and pipes.

  “From what I c-c-can tell, the Mechanicals are p-p-p-pumping the CFCs – the chlorofluorocarbons – from the b-b-b-bottles we saw in – we saw in – we saw in – the storage c-c-compartment, into these machines. Then they expose it t-t-t-to ultraviolet radiation. That c-c-c-converts the CFCs into at-at-at-atomic chlorine, which th-th-they are r-r-r-releasing into the atmosphere.”

  “And that’s bad, right?” I ask.