by Robert Brown
“I know my job is all,” the police chief muttered in a much deflated tone, his eyes on the iron floor.
The young lieutenant already seemed disinterested. “Take her for processing,” he said, and two of his subordinates dragged her away as the police officers stayed in line by the train. We were obviously the underlings of the military, and I was getting the feeling we weren’t really allowed to wander. That would make this difficult.
On a massive wall I saw a huge signboard that looked like a train schedule. On it was a listing of dozens of disciplines, and under each of these were dozens of names:
Machinery and Magnetism (842):
John Calloway - tasked
Jeff Webber - dispatched
Philip Porter - tasked
Seamstress or Leather Worker (632):
Rachel Fenway - tasked
Thomas Bruin - dispatched
The young lieutenant added to the bottom of a list marked “medical” a card reading:
Amy Adams - Being Tasked
The two automatons walked obediently when told, but the girl’s eyes were pivoting quickly around the room. They were led to a large contraption that featured two huge rolling wheels like a rock smasher, each cover in spikes. A conveyor belt lead to this crusher, and as it pulled, huge hammer like weights smashed down onto it. The machine’s operator stood the automatons in line by the conveyor, and turned the machine on. There were bits of metal scrap on the belt, and the weights easily flatted them before they were fed into the crusher.
The operator told the small girl to lie on the belt, facing up. She stumbled a bit getting on it, which made the operator raise his eyebrows, but the girl then diligently laid down. The belt pulled her towards the first weight. As it came down she cried out, and leaped from belt, tripping and falling and breaking on the floor.
“Clearly sentient,” the young soldier said, making a note. “Dissemble her!” he said victoriously, and they raised the small child up and threw her, crying and screaming, into the compactor. The manner in which she was crushed would have made a butcher queasy, but being mostly metal none of the soldiers gave her a second glance as her scream garbled and then stopped.
I was shaking with rage at this point, and my eyes were tearing up, but there were at least thirty soldiers and ten police officers in the room. Luckily, it was over before I really knew what was going to happen, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself. I would have jumped to her aid, and all would have been lost. Still, many a long night since I have lain awake wondering if I could have helped her.
Next, Gyrod was told to lie on the belt. The first weight fell towards him, but stopped before hitting him as it did with the girl. He lay perfectly still.
“Not sentient. Find out what it does, and we’ll put it to work,” said the young lieutenant.
“Chew!” said our chief, once again full of boisterous superiority. “You need to get to administration and find out why you weren’t on my list,” he said this with a growl, but he didn’t leave the line of police officers. Instead he jabbed a chubby finger towards a hallway under the sign board.
Perfect! I thought. I stepped out of line, and headed toward the hallway. Just before I stepped into the poorly lit tunnel I read on the wall:
Clock Work Sentience (616)
Down the drearily iron hall I jogged, taking in everything as I ran. I passed what had to be an administrative office. I passed a room full of a hundred different kinds of automatons, sitting perfectly still with eyes unmoving. I past several hatch doors that led into large vertical tubes. Inside each tube was a platform and a series of buttons, so I assumed these were elevators. I hopped into one, and pushed the button marked “6”. The elevator began to rise. At floor six I stepped out into another hall, this time lined with locked iron doors about fifty-feet apart. At each massive iron door there was large lever, and next to each door was a number on a rusty plaque. I ran down past 612, 614 and finally stopped at 616, “Clock Work Sentience”.
Gyrod waited by the door, blood on his hands and legs. I had a moment of shock, thinking that whoever he killed might have been undeserving of death, as I remembered automaton child’s death. To Gyrod, this was reason enough, and my brain whirred in a moral struggle, not knowing if man was allowed to kill machine. But there were more pressing problems.
“Crap,” I said. “Now it won’t be long before they are on to us!”
“I know. I am sorry,” he said, and he looked it.
I pulled the lever by the door, and heard machinery grind and halt. The door was locked.
“Pardon me,” Gyrod said, and I stepped aside. With one massive finger he sliced through the iron door like paper. He pulled the door pieces out of the way, and stepped inside.
“Father!” he said, and I heard another voice say, “Gyrod?”
I stepped into the room, and this is what I saw: The room was large, perhaps the size of a basketball court. There were piles of automaton torsos and limbs everywhere. There were tables, tools hanging on cables from the ceiling, and a single bed and chair in the corner.
Standing over an open torso in the middle of the room was a gray-haired man in his mid-sixties, holding small tools he used to select various gears from a tray. As he saw us enter, he set down his tools, and removed the massive pair of goggles that covered most of his face.
“Doctor Calgori!” I exclaimed, for it was in fact my friend the Doctor, looking younger and healthier then I had ever seen him look.
“Yes, that is I,” he said in a tired, confused voice. He did not know me.
Now, you must forgive me for tearing up. Although Calgori did not seem to know me, just a few weeks ago I held him in my arms as he died. I strode across the room, I wanted to embrace him, but I settled for an enthusiastic handshake as I was clearly a stranger to him. I said, “It’s good to meet you again, Merlin!” knowing full well he wouldn’t remember his first words to me.
“What? No, I’m….Gyrod, what are you doing here with this Bobbie?” Calgori asked referring to my uniform.
“I’ve returned to free you,” Gyrod said, “I am so sorry I left, father.”
“Nonsense, you had your family to protect. And you came back eventually, so all is good! The plan just took longer then we first thought it might,” Calgori said, smiling. Gyrod looked thankful.
“Also,” Gyrod spoke. “My friend here needs help.”
So I quickly told Calgori about our broken time machine, and the smashed orb. Calgori said, “Yes, I know the style of machine you describe, as I am fairly sure it’s based on mine. I arrived here twenty years ago in a balloon with a similar Chrono-adjustment-field-generator. If we could find my machine, we could use parts from it to repair yours…”
But he was interrupted by a gunshot. I turned, and saw Gyrod, a massive pistol at one side of his head, a hole in the other side of his head was smoking. His eyes went blank, and he fell with a crash forward into the room. Black and silver clad soldiers ran in pointing rifles at us. The young officer with the pistol holstered it, and spoke, “I don’t have authority to execute people when they are brought in, but I do have authority when they act such as you have. Take aim!”
“Hold your fire,” said an impossibly deep and confident voice. From behind the soldier appeared four men, if they were men. They stood as tall as Gyrod, and were as black as the Africans we sailed with years ago. They were bald, with giant round shoulders and arms, all of which were adorned with symmetrical tattoos of interwoven knotted lines. They had huge curved blades at their waists, and massive gold cuffs on the wrists of their bare arms.
The deep voice spoke again, “These two are being requested by the Emperor himself. Please bring them to the roof top, and load them into the Imperial Frigate immediately.”
The young soldier looked terrified, and responded, “Yes, sir!” Then someone behind me held some sort of sponge to my face, and I blacked out.
BEAUTIFUL DECLINE
Our wrists were in cuffs, and the cuf
fs were locked to the arms of chairs, but the chairs were very posh. Polished, light tan leather cushions, backs and arms, with gorgeously sculpted aluminum frames. This theme of tan leather and aluminum was carried on throughout this massive cabin; bare rivets hand-bolted brushed aluminum panels to wall and floors, which surrounded the portholes, which were as big as bay windows.
Out this ample view we could see the tree tops of a vast jungle, the tallest trees stabbing gold in the early dawn light. Little wisps of morning fog streaked across the leafy jungle canopy, and were so serene and beautiful it was hard to remember our dire position. I couldn’t help think of the harsh and ironic assessment an older Calgori would be making of our surroundings at this time. “Leather?” he would have said, with a disapproving raise of the eyebrow. “The king of the beasts has leather chairs?” This ten-year-younger Calgori was much more mild than he would become, or at least he could keep his mouth shut better. Calgori’s mind seemed elsewhere, probably still working out the geometry of some creature or device he had been building in his lab.
Outside, to our left and right, were smaller, more heavily armed airships. These were the size of the Ophelia, and bristling with guns. Not the heavy iron cannon that served us so well, but a variety of more modern weapons; sleek cannon, machine gun turrets, and something that resembled depth charges. This high-tech weaponry was closer to what I might have seen on a warship from my own time.
These crafts had a 1930s flair to them. They were obviously handmade, but made with great skill. They were chrome, aluminum, and rivets in gorgeous sleek lines of luxurious Art Deco. There was nothing Victorian about Victor’s personal guard.
Our room was at the front of the massive gondola, I assume one floor below the bridge, so we could see directly in front of the enormous zeppelin. In the distance the pale yellow sun rose over a paler blue coastline, and at this point the jungle cleared to reveal a sprawling, ancient, ruined city. Vines had swallowed these tan-stone Mayan ruins, and huge trees hung over the outer walls. Every one hundred feet around the wall and throughout the city were towers of sculpted steel girders similar in construction to the Eiffel tower, although considerably smaller, and topped with massive copper spheres. At fifteen second intervals these spheres would simultaneously burst in lighting bolts that, from this distance, looked like a blue web of light in a geometric dome over the ancient ruined city. This array of tesla towers was obviously a deterrent, a shield against airships, should any sky people feel like they wanted an end to the Emperor’s reign. I have to say it would be an effective deterrent. I sure as hell wouldn’t try to drop my big flammable balloon through this glowing web of lightening!
“Approaching Tulum city,” said a crackling female voice over the intercom. I learned much later that Tulum was an Mayan City that had stood on cliffs over looking the Caribbean sea since the thirteenth Century.
The towers near us stopped flashing just before our airships came within range. They turned off a few towers in the middle, creating a perfect channel down the center for us to fly. It reminded me a bit of an old film, wherein a very Hollywood-handsome Moses parted the Red Sea.
The sky was now pink fading to pale blue, a beautiful Caribbean morning. Over the quiet engines I could hear the emerald blue surf pounding on the white powder sand. The two airship destroyers held back, as our giant luxury ship slipped silently to the ground. We set down on beautiful grasses, where grazed the greatest variety of flawlessly healthy beasts I had ever seen. Zebra, giraffe, ostrich, llama, tapir, something similar to a giant armadillo, those stupid elelopes that nearly got me killed on the plains, and a hundred other beautiful and exotic beasts strolled through the gorgeously tailored lawns of this ancient city. It was a perfect Eden for a world emperor.
Guards now entered the cabin. They went straight to our chairs, and uncuffed us. “We are very sorry to have locked you up this entire trip, but you would not have come willing. Please refrain from anything impolite until you have met and spoken with the Emperor. We feel confident that you will not feel the need for violence once you have.”
Was this supposed to put me at ease, or creep me out? It mostly did the latter. What was he going to do, hypnotize me?
They walked us down the gangplank to the lush lawn, and at this time I saw a lone figure walking down the massive front steps of what must have been the main palace. I’m not sure what I expected the Emperor to look like, but this was definitely not it. A tall, muscular man in his late forties, tan with sun bleached hair was walking cheerfully towards us. He was shirtless but wearing a gorgeous black Armani suit of very Twenty-First century styling, and his tan bare feet stepped lightly from the old stone steps of the palace to the lush green grass of the lawns. Had he been younger, he could have easily been a model, but now his deep smile lines, and crows feet gave him the look of a very attractive movie star nearing an early retirement.
He had a huge smile, sparkling green eyes, and he jogged up to me enthusiastically. “I am so very very glade to meet you!” he said with genuine enthusiasm, as he grabbed my hand and shook it. “I have dreamed of meeting you for years, and hoped you would one day step into my time! Hopefully, I can set your mind at ease quickly, so that we may spend many days comfortably exchanging stories from our travels.”
I stared at him perplexed. “Okay. My name is Robert.” The Emperor smiled at my name as if telling him my name was a clever joke. I continued, “Nice to meet you.” This felt like make-believe, but I was going through the motions to see what would happen next. “Oh, and this is Doctor Calgori?” This last I said more as a question, since it was growing apparent he knew very well who we were. As I introduced Calgori, I could see the doctor’s face glowing red with rage. He had obviously seen too much of the oppression of the cities to have his forgiveness bought with a pleasant smile from a charismatic man. But if the Emperor noticed his anger, he didn’t show it.
“Come with me to breakfast, and we will talk! I will answer all your questions, in exchange for a few good stories from your travels, and thus we will spend a wonderful day together!”
Not seeing many options, since there were the massive, turbaned Imperial guards everywhere, and starting to feel a bit peckish, I followed him across the lawn toward the beach. Between the ruined, vine covered temples, were gorgeous, huge topiaries. All kinds of beasts, both real, extinct, and imaginary, had been rendered in these beautiful gardens, and among them strode the very real menagerie, looking just as fanciful.
There were also two large mausoleums of much newer construction than the city around us. Over the door of each were the names Emperor Victor Joseph Hippocrates the First, and Emperor Victor Joseph Hippocrates the Second. The Emperor turned to me and smiled. “A ruse, of course. It’s always been me throughout the years, as I’m sure you’ve now guessed. I travel back and forward through time setting plans in motion to create this Eden you have been enjoying. Much like yourselves!” he added with a smile.
“Eden!” Calgori growled under his furrowed brow, but the Emperor either did not hear or chose to ignore him.
“I didn’t want my people to think me some strange immortal creature,” the Emperor continued. “So I have faked my death several times, and posed as my own son and now grandson as needed. I chose this city because it has been unchanged since the Thirteenth Century. If you wanted to make your home in a place that would never change, no matter what time you traveled to, this is an excellent spot. Very clever of me,” he said with a sparkle which was meant that he wanted us to know he was joking when he patted himself on the back.
“I had furniture constructed of the highest, most long lasting quality and placed it here long ago. Now my rooms stay nearly unchanged no matter what time I travel to!” He grinned smugly. “Of course, if you travel too far back in time you have to deal with the city’s previous occupants, as I once learned. Not a pretty bunch, those Mayans, I barely survived the meeting. Still, it gives me nearly a thousand years to work with, and believe me you can accomplish a lot with
a thousand years of non-linear time to play back and forth in. I have staff in most eras of the last few centuries, and they await my appearance to take my commands and execute them.”
As we walked, the palace and the sea were to our right, and to our left I could see a massive and gorgeously adorned hot air balloon being inflated. The gondola was sitting on a pedestal between topiaries, and attached to it was one of the glass orbs from the Ophelia’s Chrononautilus! On the side of the gondola was an anchor and spool. This was obviously how the Emperor managed his time travel, he’d go up in the balloon, jump through time, drop anchor and descend to nearly the same location but in a new era.
Soon the grass ended, and we stepped onto beautiful white powdered sand. Waves gently rolled onto the beach, and sleepily slipped back into the vast blue sea. In the middle of the sand was a tent of luxuriously ornate fabric, with decorative posts, golden ropes, and flags depicting the symbol of a deer eating a growing leaf. The sides of this tent were tapestries, and the scenes on them ranged from wildlife to what might have been illustrations from the Kama Sutra’s more advanced pages.
The Emperor turned back to us with a sly grin. “This will be a pleasure for us both! Allow me to introduce you to my wives!” We came around to the front of the tent, which was open to the sea. Inside was dark, but we could see silhouetted on the translucent cloth walls a huge bed on which were the almost pornographically shapely silhouettes of two women. They embraced and were kneeling on the bed between numerous tasseled pillows, kissing. When they noticed us, one of them leaped from the bed and ran to the Emperor. She was more flawless than a fashion model in her barely existent bikini and terra-cotta tanned skin. She looked at the Emperor doe-eyed, threw her arms around him and kissed him deeply.
