"What, isn't there a moral?"
Ulysses fixed the head with a stare as hard as stone. "Perhaps it hasn't one."
The Alice face frowned disapprovingly. "Tut, tut, child! Everything's got a moral, if you can only find it."
"Alright then, how about this? Don't get a life - live a life?"
"Oh no, that won't do. I don't like that at all."
"Very well then. How about, make hay while the sun shines? Or, there's nothing virtual about reality? Or ego cogito, ergo sum?"
"Hmm, perhaps," the child-head pondered. "But perhaps if you told me the story again I might be able to determine the moral that way."
"Tell it again? This was no story." Ulysses gave an exasperated sigh. "Besides, I wouldn't know where to begin!"
"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop."
"Look, are going to keep this up all the time?"
"The time has come," the anomaly said by way of a reply, "to talk of many things: of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages - and kings - and why the sea is boiling hot - and whether pigs have wings.'
Ulysses turned his back on the chattering child and slowly walked away.
"I'll be seeing you again," the child's voice called out after him, crackling like an old gramophone recording, "of that you can be certain, Mr Quicksilver. My champion."
There was a hazy quality to the air of the chamber and an all-pervading smell of pomanders and lubricating oil. In the crimson gloom, Her Majesty Queen Victoria - Empress of India, Monarch of Mars and Ruler de facto of the Lunar colonies - slept the sleep of the dead, bound within the confines of her steam-powered, life-supporting throne.
There was more machine than monarch now. The physical husk the old woman had become could never leave the Empress Engine that Erasmus Quicksilver had created for her all those years ago; ninety-seven, to be precise. The Widow of Windsor herself was just a withered, fleshless creature that had been kept alive long beyond her natural span, and for far longer than was good for her deteriorating mind.
But in her death-like slumber her eyelids flickered.
The peace of the chamber was interrupted by a delicate chiming coming from the throne itself.
In moments, a lady-in-waiting was at the sleeping monarch's side, deciphering the ticker-tape readout produced by the agitated engine.
Her eyes wide with incredulity, she hurried to the telephony device on hand, close by, and picked up the receiver.
There was a static click as someone picked up at the other end of the line.
"Doctor Malbuse?"
"What is it?" the Queen's personal surgeon-cum-engineer responded sharply.
"It's the Empress Engine, doctor, I... I've never seen readings like this."
"What do you mean?"
"It's... It's as if..." She trailed off, unable to find the words.
"What is it, woman? Tell me!"
"Doctor, I think you need to see this for yourself."
And in her sleep, the Queen smiled.
The long grass rustled at her feet as the White Rabbit hurried by and she could hear the rattle of the teacups as the March Hare and his friends shared their never-ending meal, and the shrill voice of the Queen ordering her unfortunate guests off to execution, mixed up with the distant sob of the miserable Mock Turtle.
So she sat, with eyes closed, and half believed herself in Wonderland, though she knew she had but to open them again, and all would change to dull reality.
And she considered how she would gather about her little children, and how she would make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.
Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.
Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream -
Lingering in the golden gleam -
Life, what is it but a dream?
(from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll)
The End
Ulysses Quicksilver novels by Jonathan Green
Unnatural History
Leviathan Rising
Human Nature
Evolution Expects
Blood Royal
Dark Side
Anno Frankenstein
Other novels from the world of Pax Britannia, by Al Ewing
El Sombra
Gods of Manhattan
Pax Omega
Action and adventure in a new Age of Steam!
In two scant months the nation, and all her colonies, will celebrate 160 years of Queen Victoria's glorious reign. But all is not well at the heart of the empire. It begins with a break-in at the Natural History Museum. A night watchman is murdered. An eminent Professor of Evolutionary Biology goes missing. Then a catastrophic Overground rail-crash unleashes the dinosaurs of London Zoo. But how are all these events connected? Is it really the work of crazed revolutionaries? Or are there yet more sinister forces at work? Enter Ulysses Quicksilver - dandy, rogue and agent of the throne. It is up to this dashing soldier of fortune to solve the mystery and uncover the truth before London degenerates into primitive madness and a villainous mastermind brings about the unthinkable. The downfall of the British empire!
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Rising from the Abyss, it hungers!!!
Around the world in eighty days in style! This proud claim, made by the Carcharodon Shipping Company, is about to be put to the test as its newest and most magnificent submersible cruise-liner, the Neptune, sets sail on its maiden voyage. Among those onboard is Ulysses Quicksilver, dandy adventurer and hero of Magna Britannia, enjoying a well-deserved sojourn after the traumatic events of Queen Victoria's 160th jubilee celebrations. But only days out from the undersea city of Pacifica disaster strikes. A brutal murder is committed and then an act of sabotage sends the Neptune plunging into the abyssal depths. Trapped at the bottom of the sea, for the survivors, their problems are only just beginning. Far below a decades' old secret awaits them. The Leviathan has awoken. Rising from the abyss it hungers and when it hunts none shall escape its primeval fury!
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Red in tooth and claw!
The Whitby Mermaid has been stolen from Cruickshank's Cabinet of Curiosities and consulting detective Gabriel Wraith is on the case. And he's not the only one, for wherever there is a mystery to be solved, Ulysses Quicksilver is never far away. What does the theft of the mermaid have to do with the mysterious House of Monkeys? And what of the enigmatic criminal known as the Magpie? Ulysses embarks upon an adventure that takes him to Whitby where the mermaid was supposedly caught. But there are worse things awaiting him there than mermaids. The moors of Ghestdale are haunted by the savage Barghest beast, while in the abandoned mines beneath the Umbridge estate, abominations lurk in the darkness. And Ulysses Quicksilver is about to discover that the worst horrors are those spawned by Man's own selfish nature.
Pax Britannia is an exciting new Science Fiction series, set on an alternative Earth where the British Empire still reigns and steam technology rules.
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In the heart of London a terrible metamorphosis is taking place...
After more than 150 years as the supreme power on the planet, the British Empire has become a corpulent, stagnating monster. At its heart lies Londinium Maximum, a city under a near-permanent cloud of noxious Smog. More than ever, the realm of Magna Britannia needs a saviour - a man like new Prime Minister, Devlin Valentine. But while London prepares for the launch of the Jupiter Station there are those who want this longed-for change to come about more quickly, people who are prepared to give evolution a helping hand. When a deadly legacy returns, Ulysses Quicksilver finds himself drawn into that pit of despair known as Bedlam. With a dangerous masked vigilante stalking the streets, a monster from Jewish myth on the loose in the East End and rival gangs fighting for control of the city's underworld there may be nothing Ulysses can do to prevent a catastrophic metamorphosis!
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There is no escape from The Ultimate Reich!
The terrifying Luftwaffe, on their steam-driven wings, have torn apart the sleepy town of Pasito in the heart of Mexico, only to rebuild it as a terrifying clockwork-town where the people become human robots, furthering the nightmare dreams of the Fuhrer.
General Eisenberg and his sociopathic son Alexis control this paradise of horrors. But they are unprepared for the return of a man the desert claimed nine long years ago, a man who has returned from the doors of death and the depths of madness to bring his terrible fury upon their world. With the slash of a sword and a laugh that lights up the night, the man in the bloodstained mask cuts his way through the hopeless, endless routines of the clockwork men to bring new hope to the people. He defies death!
He defies man! No trap can hold the masked daredevil, the saint of ghosts men know as El Sombra!
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BLOOD AND THUNDER!
"You're in New York. Protocol went out the window the second you arrived. This isn't a protocol kind of town. This is a town that breeds monsters and heroes, geniuses and madmen. This town makes gods, and heaven help you, you wanted to be one of us."
While his sidekick lies bleeding out in hospital, city saviour Doc Thunder and Maya, his beautiful companion, attempt to discover the identity of their friend's assailant. The clues lead to secrets altogether older and darker than they could ever have imagined.
The Blood Spider - a name that strikes fear into the hearts of criminals everywhere. But unlike Doc Thunder, this vigilante is willing to kill, and it can only be a matter a time before the two heroes collide.
Mexican masked swordsman El Sombra is visiting the Big Apple, but he's not just any tourist. El Sombra is on a mission of revenge that will take him all the way into the heart of the city's corrupt underworld.
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Indicia
Title Page
Fruiting Bodies
Vanishing Point
White Rabbit
The Ulysses Quicksilver Novels
'Unnatural History' by Jonathan Green
'Leviathan Rising' by Jonathan Green
'Human Nature' by Jonathan Green
'Evolution Expects' by Jonathan Green
'El Sombra' by Al Ewing
'Gods of Manhattan' by Al Ewing
Table of Contents
Title Page
Fruiting Bodies
Vanishing Point
White Rabbit
The Ulysses Quicksilver Novels
'Unnatural History' by Jonathan Green
'Leviathan Rising' by Jonathan Green
'Human Nature' by Jonathan Green
'Evolution Expects' by Jonathan Green
'El Sombra' by Al Ewing
'Gods of Manhattan' by Al Ewing
The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection Page 13
