The Tower Bridge

by Steve Simons

  Henry says, “He is breathing, but it is quite weak, this dust does not help. We must get him to somewhere more comfortable, I know of such a room further in and to the left.” Henry picks Andrew up gently and this time carries him in his arms. Stuart follows closely behind Henry. The two Kelidons stay where they are, as if they are guards on duty ready to protect the small group from intruders.

  The room that Henry had referred to is quite a way into the building. Henry asks Stuart to wave his hand before the dull bump sticking out of the wall. Stuart does as asked, but the door does not open. Henry says, “Probably dust on the detector, just wipe it and try again.”

  Stuart wipes the detector and tries again and again, but nothing happens. Henry steps back and takes Stuart by surprise as he quite violently kicks the bump. Then exclaims, “Ruddy Saysestrian devices, as temperamental as the owners!”

  The door slides slowly open. Henry gets impatient with it, muttering things under his breath. As the door opens wider, Stuart can see that the room appears to be quite comfortable, a long bed, strange looking chair and a table with various containers on it.

  Henry soon has Andrew laying on the bed and he is checking his breathing again. Henry declares, “That is a lot better now. His breathing more steady and regular. That dust definitely didn't help. Right you stay here with him, I'll leave the door open. I just have to fetch the Kelidons.”

  “What are you going to do?” Stuart asks nervously.

  “The rule still applies, if I tell you, they will know.” Henry points towards the ceiling and Stuart knows that Henry is referring to the Saysestrians. Henry continues, “Although I suspect they have guessed already.” He points to Andrew, then disappears.

  Stuart bends down to check Andrew himself. Sure enough he is breathing, his eyes tightly closed as if trying to block out an image he does not wish to see. Stuart feels helpless, he wishes he knew what Henry was planning to do, especially as it involved the Kelidons. Henry's earlier words come to mind as he remembers Henry had said that the Kelidons were really useful as they were really strong. Stuart wonders if this is why Henry has brought them along.

  Soon Stuart hears the familiar noise of the Kelidons coming down the corridor. Henry and the Kelidons can be seen in the doorway now. Henry briefly stops, whilst the Kelidons march on. Henry asks, “Is he alright?”

  “Yes his breathing much more even now. Can I come with you?” Stuart asks.

  “No stay here you will do more good here, looking after Andrew.”

  “But what if the Saysestrians attack you again?” Stuart asks.

  “They probably will, but it is too late now, the Kelidons will complete the task, with or without me. I just want to tag along to experience the satisfaction of seeing the job done.” Henry is careful not to give too much away.

  Stuart now knows that whatever the Kelidons have been told to do, will only be completed because the Saysestrians have no way of influencing them. Very clever.

  Henry disappears in the direction of the Kelidons. The noise of the Kelidons fades away. The wait seems to take an eternity. Stuart wonders if he will know when and if the Kelidon's mission has been successful. If anything happens to Henry, how will Stuart know? What if Henry does not come back, have the Kelidons been told to come back and fetch Andrew and Stuart when they have finished their task?

  ~~o~~o~~o~~

  Chapter 10 – What Have You Done?

  The wait had been torment, sheer torment. The fact that Andrew had been out of action during mos of it, did not help. No-one to share thoughts and feelings with.

  The clunking noises, at the same moment reassuring and also torture. Was Henry safe, was he accompanying the Kelidons, the creators of the noises, or was he laying in a heap somewhere deep within this building? Was he alive or was he dead?

  The wait was sheer torment, only the noises to gauge time by. The countdown to some form of knowing.

  As the Kelidons make their way past the doorway, Andrew and Stuart are convinced that they have arrived unaccompanied. As nothing else appears to have changed, there has been no massive explosion, no declaration of surrender or anything else come to that; Henry must have been unsuccessful in his mission.

  Stuart asks, What do we do now?”

  There is silence as Andrew thinks over the options open to them.

  There is suddenly a voice from the doorway, “Well come on you two, we have work to do.”

  Andrew asks, “What about the Saysestrians?”

  “What about them? They have enough to worry about. I do not think they will be bothering us for a while, although I suppose they might want to try a bit of revenge.” Henry smiles a very mischievous smile.

  “What have you done?” Asks Stuart.

  “I think its safe to tell you now. I have given them a taste of their own medicine, clipped their claws for a bit at least.”

  “How?” Andrew gets up and walks over to the doorway.

  “Yes I forgot, how are you now, bit of a headache? Do not worry it will soon go.”

  It is Stuart who picks up the question again, “How have you 'clipped the Saysestrian's claws'?”

  “Oh quite simple really, the fact that they are now beings without need for bodies, they feed on pure energy and I have just cut back on their source of supply. You see deep in this building there are several shafts that go deep below the planet's crust, down into the core, were there is a continuous chain reaction taking place, which results in energy waves being released. The Saysestrians discovered this many centuries ago, they used to power their devices with it, but at the time of conversion, discovered that it was also the foodstuff of their new form.” Henry pauses.

  The boys wait, but as he shows no sign of continuing, Stuart asks, “So what have you done?”

  “I closed most of the shafts off and as the Saysestrians have no bodies or physical influence, they are unable to open them again.” Henry wears a satisfied grin, like a child who just bagged himself the largest bag of sweets.

  “But that may kill them!” Andrew exclaims.

  “No it won't kill them, just clip their claws. The have to concentrate their energies on surviving, rather than mounting attacks on us and our experiments.” Henry pauses a while, reflecting on his words, then says, “Well come on we have work to do. I don't want to starve the Saysestrians any longer than I have to. I am not a cruel man. I just want to protect ourselves.”

  The group set off down the corridor, to catch up with the Kelidons. As they near the entrance, face masks are put back on and they head once more out into the dusty region that is the outdoors.

  ~~o~~o~~o~~

  Chapter 11 – Work The Like You Have Never Seen Before

  For days the group of three toiled at fixing what the Saysestrians had ruined, recapturing lost ground. In so doing, Andrew had a sudden inspiration and said that he thought he had the answer to the problem of how to generate the pulses that would drive all this circuitry.

  Henry and Stuart are talking out in the main area of the laboratory, whilst Andrew persists in exploring his solution on one of the benches in the office.

  Henry says, “I can not quite understand what he is trying to do. He has been messing about for ages with that disc with those slits in it. But for the life of me, I can not figure how it will work."

  Stuart says, "He did try to explain it to me, but I couldn't understand how it was going to work either. He said that the string..."

  Henry interrupts by asking, "What the twisted fibres that he has spent so long perfecting?"

  "Yes that's right. The string is wrapped around the spindle that the disk is mounted on, the string goes over another spindle higher up and a weight is attached on the other end. As the weight drops the spindle turns, the disk spins and interrupts the light beam, causing pulses of light to enter the first oscillator, which in turn triggers the rest of the chain of oscillators."

  "Yes, yes, I know and understand that, but when
the weight reaches the floor, the spindle will stop spinning and the pulses will stop. Where is the use in that? I can not see the tunnel being opened and us three being able to travel down it in that short space of time. In any case the frequencies will be all over the place as the disk speeds up. For the device to work it has to be steady." Henry shakes his head as if in disbelief at the situation. Then he continues, "Yet Andrew will not be told, he insists on continuing with his experimentation."

  "He's just stubborn. Doesn't want to give up on his idea." Stuart agrees.

  "Perhaps if we both approach him, he might see some sense." Henry suggests.

  The two set off for the office, where Andrew has his invention operating at full pelt. The disk and spindle are making quite a noise as the weight heads for the floor. The weight gently settles on the ground followed by a 'slap' noise as the string heads over the top spindle and the newly free end whips across the office and lands on the floor, issuing another 'slap' noise. The disk continues to spin, even though the spindle is no longer being pulled by the string.

  "How did you manage to do that?" asks an excited Stuart.

  Andrew quite proud of himself, replies, "I came up with the idea of using one of the stones, to keep the motion going once the string has detached itself from the spindle. Then this device here, has two arms that get thrown out as it spins, which slows the whole thing down a bit. As it slows the arms get pulled in again. Whilst the string is still attached, if it speeds up gain, the arms get thrown out again. That process repeats over and over and keeps the speed quite constant."

  Henry is now quite enthusiastic, as he says, "Well well, you have re-invented a speed governor, you are quite a little genius after all. I have to give you credit for sticking with it. How long do you think it will keep going?"

  "I don't know, this is the first time I have tried it out. Took me ages to get the speed limiter to work properly, but as you can see it is going nicely now. That thick liquid that you had over the back of that bench over there, is really slippery and acts like a good quality oil and should help keep the device going longer. The string glides so much easier over that top bar too." Andrew looks at his watch and asks, "How long do you reckon we would need? It still seems to be going strong."

  "Difficult for me to say, as it was some considerable time since I last travelled through the tunnel, You would probably have a far better idea than me." Henry replies.

  Stuart says, "Well it took us far less time than this to get sucked into that thing back home, wouldn't you agree Andrew?"

  Andrew glances at his watch again, "Er, yes, you are right, it is slowing down now. I would have thought that would be more than enough time."

  “Excellent work boys, now we need to solve the problem of converting the light pulses into electrical ones and converting the battery power into alternating current.” Henry says.

  “Have I got to solve all the problems?” Andrew asks.

  “Sorry I did not mean that I was expecting you to come up with all the answers.” Henry responds.

  “Just messing with your head. I have already solved both of those. Found some stuff amongst your samples that only conducts electricity when light shines on it. Then I came up with the idea that final signal from the oscillators, will trigger my new device. I was messing about and wired one circuit up one way and the next the other. I accidentally connected them both together and ended up with, what would you call it? “ Andrew looks at Stuart for help.

  Stuart replies, “Don't ask me.”

  Henry asks, “Was it positive one moment and totally negative the next, without a gradual change?”

  “Yes” Andrew replies.

  “Oh I have it, its called a square wave.” suggests Stuart.

  “That's right, will it work Henry?” asks Andrew.

  “I would think so,” Henry pauses for thought, then continues, “It probably doesn't matter if it is a smooth transition or a step change. Its the fact that there is a change and the end frequency patterns that matters more.”

  Andrew says, “I have the circuit set up already, but it is not connected to anything on the output side yet, as we haven't made the wires for the coils yet. It is just over here.” Andrew points to a cloth covering a collection of odd shaped items at the end of the bench.

  Henry asks, “What is the cloth all about?”

  Stuart adds, “Looks more like a magician's table than some device.”

  Andrew replies, “Light, its all to do with light, if my devices were exposed to light all the time they wouldn't work would they?”

  Henry replies, “That is excellent, we are almost finished then, as I have been cooking a collection of rocks that should make us some really good conducting metal. I tried a small batch yesterday and I am ashamed to say that in testing it out, I managed to buckle the plates of one of your batteries Stuart. Sorry about that, but at least it proved the concept.”

  Stuart smiles, “At least you owned up, unlike some round here.”

  “Hey I was just proving my concept too, can I be let off the hook too if I say sorry?” Andrew protests.

  Stuart nods.

  Henry says, “I wondered if you boys had any ideas as to how my metal can be stretched from crude bars into lengths of wire? I have something that we can coat the wire in to insulate it, but I just can not work out how to stretch it.”

  Andrew grabs a piece of paper and sketches something out then asks, “How about this?” Then goes into details about his sketch.

  ~~o~~o~~o~~

 

  “Have you brought us more bars?” Stuart asks.

  Henry replies, “No, I am sure it is the Saysestrian's handiwork, but something went wrong with the last lot, I think the melting vessel got too hot. I think the Saysestrians had a hand in its ruin, in the hope that it would stop us.”

  “Perhaps we need to guard the next batch.” Andrew suggests.

  “I do not know if that would do any good, what could we do to a Saysestrian who took it upon themselves to try and ruin it, we may not even know if they are doing it?” Henry replies.

  “If we watched the surface, we would see more rapid bubbling and know they are trying to do something, we can cut down the heat we are putting into the mix and control things that way, we wouldn't need to do anything to to the Saysestrian.” Stuart suggests.

  “You are probably right. Excellent thinking young Stuart. We will have to have regular breaks, otherwise it will be boring watching the mix and it would be too easy to fall asleep.”

  Andrew offers, “Do you need a hand to clean up the last mix? I have finished here, Stuart can wind this lot up and when I get back I can help him with the insulator dipping.”

  Henry looks at Stuart, who nods and says, “OK with me, I can finish up here and take break, I could do with a rest..”

  Henry and Andrew set off for the metal foundry, putting on face masks as they leave the laboratory.

  ~~o~~o~~o~~

  Chapter 12 - Interference

  Stuart is rather startled as he sees Andrew and Henry standing at the office doorway. Stuart had been asleep, so had not heard them enter the laboratory. He asks, “So how did it go? Took you long enough.”

  “You should have seen it.” Andrew replies, “It was so baked into the pot, we ended up abandoning it and making another pot. Tough stuff that rock. Where did it came from?”

  Henry replies, “What I think was at one time a volcano, it took the Kelidons hours to hack lumps of the rocks off. So I had a good idea that it was tough stuff before I got it back here. Right Stuart if you take the first watch, Andrew and I can coat the latest batch of wire. I have left one of the Kelidons by the exit door to take you to the foundry, don't forget the face mask. It was a good idea of yours, young Stuart, to put seats on the Kelidons, it makes travelling on them a good deal more comfortable.”

  Stuart asks, “Thanks, but how do I get the Kelidon to take me?”

  Henry replies, “Oh Yes I forgot
that part, just say GO and it will pick you up and take you. If you need to come back at any time just tell it RETURN. Oh Andrew has packed you some food and drink it is also by the exit door.”

  “What am I supposed to be doing when I get there?” Stuart looks rather embarrassed as if he should really know the answer to his question.

  “I am forgetful today,” Henry apologises, then goes on to say, “Just watch the mix and if it starts bubbling really fiercely, it means that one of the Saysestrians is interfering with it.”

  “What do I do then?” Stuart asks.

  Henry smiles as he replies, “There is a lever by the pot, pull it towards you, that will shut off our supply of heat. When the bubbling settles down again you can push the lever forward again, the will resume the heat. The Saysestrian may try again, you just need to repeat the process until it either gets fed up or runs out of energy.”