Steam City Pirates: Pat O'Malley Steampunk Mysteries

by Jim Musgrave

  Manette came out of his trance slowly. When he was in the full present moment, he again gazed at me, and my eyes felt once more under his control.

  “This was only the beginning, Doctor. What followed was an escalation of this kind of weaponry until they had created what eventually destroyed our planet. So many nations had warehoused these weapons that the chance of accidental discharge was a certainty. It really does not matter how or why the first missile rose into the morning sky. I say it was a computer error, although it could have been a human error as well. I only say it was a computer because by that time all other systems of governance, business and finance were organized and controlled by powerful computer systems. The future nations placed their spiritual faith in scientific logarithms and computer technology, and it caused their ultimate destruction. This is why we are here, and why we must win, Doctor. Will you join us?” Manette’s voice concluded the final sentence in a harsh whisper.

  His plea was so passionate and moving that I had tears in my eyes. “Yes! I shall! Let me show you the designs I have. I want you to win the steam man competition. But first, tell me how you came to be here. Each inventor I spoke to told me his own story. You must have yours,” I said.

  “Me? I was their experiment. I was devised by their scientists to withstand a nuclear holocaust. I survived. I was the emergency device that existed inside a bunker beneath a Colorado mountain. Much of our living species had been destroyed decades earlier through what politicians had most quaintly called ‘Global Warming.’ I was created by renegade scientist as a reaction to this natural disaster and the future possibility of nuclear devastation. I have no memory of my birth or my history before I came here, for that matter. I do, however, have within my computer brain the entire history of humanity and each and every recorded experience. Such entertaining sources as the internet, social cell phones, and any and all digital and computerized information are all inside my brain. This is why I magnetize humans with my gaze. They are dynamically attracted to all the information I have stored inside me. I am not human. I am a human computer. The scientists transported me here on July 6, 2344. Therefore, Doctor, I am the only being who can save humanity. They sent me through time, and I landed here. I gave out my only secret. Time travel. This is my Promethean gift to all of you. I love you all very much, and I want to preserve your species.”

  I was quite dumbfounded. I had not expected this kind of story. I knew this man was quite different, but his physical movements were smooth, certainly smoother than the mechanical man, Bat Carry. Manette was the human computer.

  “Do you tell these inventors what you are?” I asked. It was the next logical question.

  “Of course! These scientists and engineers are quite fascinated by my reality. In one way or another, they have been worshiping me all along. I am what technology should have led to but did not. I am a computer with a conscience. Unlike the human species, I saw a way out of an obviously self-destructive quagmire of rationalizations and greedy practices. Please join us in this battle for salvation on earth.”

  After I showed Manette my steam men designs, and he had agreed to my construction of one of them for him, my mind was more confused than ever. First, I had heard the tale of Doctor Biggs-Pemberton, who claimed he was possessed by a visitor from another universe. His story encapsulated a complex theory of time and multiverses that had me wishing I had never been born into the possibility of such a reality. But he was deformed by the Society, and the visions seen by Seth were that of a pirate group that would use violence to achieve greedy ends—no matter what rationale I was now being told by Manette.

  For now, I was going to pursue this case believing in Pemberton. Before the Civil War began, I thought I had chosen the correct side because Mister Lincoln wanted to stop slavery and give more humans civil rights. In this instance, Manette claimed to want to prevent the destruction of the planet by keeping us frozen in one technology. On the other hand, Biggs-Pemberton claimed to be stopping a maniacal dictator who was preventing the freedom of time travel and the natural evolution of the multiverses. It seemed so much simpler back when war was so simple.

  The main objection I had against Manette and his group was the fact that he had taken in people like Jane the Grabber and John Allen. I knew they were greedy humans who did not have any conscience that I could determine in my own experiences with them. Perhaps this computer human did have control over them to do his bidding, but what about when they were out of his sight and control? Why hadn’t he wanted complete control over their activities? This made me believe Manette was lying and that all he wanted was power and money. I was even doubtful he was completely electronic and mechanical. I would ask Seth the Grabber to see if he could analyze the Grand Inquisitor to see if he were telling the truth about being a human computer. If he were completely electronic, then we would need a different way to terminate him because a drug would not work.

  I would continue to believe Biggs-Pemberton until I could be shown otherwise. The next item on my agenda was to create this new steam man for Manette. Seth the Grabber would, of course, assist me in its construction, as he was an authentic inventor. We had to complete this device soon because we did not know how long Bessie could keep the real Jane the Grabber unconscious inside the Mount Sinai Hospital. I also needed to go back to the future to discover more information about Captain Christie and his torpedo. It was quite obvious the Society was ready to launch and use this weapon on unsuspecting merchant vessels, and we must put a stop to it.

  * * *

  We were given a private cave for a week to create the steam man. I was able to obtain the parts through the warehouses kept by the Society in New York City. Because they had collected inventors from all over history, these supplies were quite necessary. The design called for a steam-powered engine, of course, and we chose the most powerful motor amongst those available. We installed this in the head of the steam man because of its obvious heating element and the fact that the steam itself would need to be dispelled from the top of the man’s helmet. The entire body of this fighting apparatus was constructed of steel, and it stood on legs that were close to the ground and bolted together to maintain his stance in a permanent crouching position. Seth the Grabber pointed out that the best position was a low center of gravity, and this would certainly give the mechanical man the lower body strength of a giant gorilla.

  These bolted steel legs were propelled by the engine, and they were controlled by the operator from the pilot’s seat in the waist portion of the steam man. We installed hydraulic levers to control the legs, and the arms were controlled by the pilot’s own arms inserted into gloves. By pushing different buttons on a horizontal panel inside each glove, the pilot could pick up objects, duel with swords, throw objects and even punch like a boxer.

  The missiles inserted into the helmet and arms of the steam man were fired using a device similar to the Gatling gun, which revolutionized field weaponry during the Civil War. Doctor Richard Gatling actually believed his invention would end the war because the leaders of the war would be too afraid to use it due to the horrific carnage it would cause. The revolving cylinders were attached to the inside metal sleeves and nose of the steam man, so the weapons could be fired while pointing the arms and moving the head in the direction of the opposition. Each gun could fire over 500 rounds per minute at the target. The steam-powered brass cartridges were stored in a feeder housed inside three compartments: one was in the head, one in the right arm, and one in the left arm.

  It was Seth’s idea to make the outward appearance of the steam man look like Abraham Toky Manette. Therefore, we installed a Nemes on the helmet, and we painted red eyes upon the face that could be lit-up using a magnetic charger. The metal outside included a white toga made of tin and a sword made of black steel inside a leather sheathe that could be used in close combat by the steam man.

  “How do you plan to counter this steam man in our own device?” I asked Seth the Grabber after we had completed our project. Se
th was inside the twenty-foot tall man, and I had to shout to be heard over the loud steam engine. The air inside the cave was filling up with steam, and it was rapidly becoming a hot house in there.

  The mazikeen spoke from a megaphone that was also built inside the man above the panel on the pilot’s seat. “I want to surprise everyone, Detective O’Malley. Please allow me to unveil it when we fight.”

  I did not think it would cause any harm to allow the lad a bit of excitement. I was concerned about who would pilot our steam man. “All right, Seth, you can have your bravado, but who is going to pilot our version?” I shouted up at him.

  The huge, steaming mass of metal began to move on its crouching legs and creep toward the cave’s entrance. Soon, I was following behind it as it stepped out into the enormous main cavern. I knew the boy had not heard me, so I moved up close to the steam man. It was clanking its different parts, as Seth was maneuvering them. The right hand whirred down to grasp the sword’s hilt, and I could hear a lever being pulled. The fingers on the hand squeezed around the hilt of the sword, and then I saw a big puff of steam as the metal forearm section of his arm pulled backward and lifted the shining steel blade from its sheathe. The blade was held high in the air, and then an event occurred that I had not been informed would happen. A loud, piercing scream burst from the head of the steam man, and it sounded exactly like the voice of the Grand Inquisitor himself.

  “Steam power for all society!” the steam man bellowed in a cloud of vapor.

  After Seth had tested the rest of the movable parts, and fired each of the guns into the cave walls, kicking up dirt in rapid fashion, he finally turned off the engine. The female form of Jane the Grabber with a mazikeen mind of Seth Mergenthaler slid down the rope that hung as a belt on the side of the mechanical Egyptian Pharaoh.

  “Did you hear me?” I asked Seth, when my partner was standing beside me, smiling, and looking up at the steam man.

  “What did you ask me?”

  “I asked you who will be the pilot of our steam man.”

  “Rabbi Adler, of course,” he told me with a straight face.

  “Adler? Are you certain he can do it?” I kept picturing the thin, intelligent face of the doctor rabbi. Then I remembered Bessie’s story about him being infatuated with mechanics as a young man. “Never mind,” I said, “he should do fine.”

  “Oh yes, I spoke with him already,” said Seth. “We are going to construct Michael the Archangel. It was Doctor Adler’s idea,” he added. “Isn’t it grand?”

  It was quite appropriate that they would construct a mechanical angel, but now I was wondering how we could inject a mechanical or computer man with a drug. No machine that I knew about ever responded to drugs made in a laboratory. We needed a different way to kill the computer human, Abraham Toky Manette.

  * * *

  Before we were to leave the Steam City Pirates’ headquarters beneath Central Park, I wanted to ask Bat Carry, our escort, one more question. He was assisting Monturiol with his submarine, so I visited the cave where the sub was tied-up and climbed aboard. I yelled for Carry after opening the hatch topside. The assistant came climbing back up the ladder in his herky-jerky way until we both stood facing each other on the corrugated rubber mat top-side.

  “I must go into the city to prepare the new amusement park with the Archduchess. I wanted to stop by the Society’s mansion on Fifth Avenue and tell them about the steam man we have created. They can add it to their exhibitions in the hallway. Who do I see now that the Vicereine Lela Rossetti-Dusteby and her little assistant, Doctor Franklin Biggs-Pemberton are no longer in charge there?”

  Bat Carry wrinkled his brow in consternation over his two glassy eyes. “Who did you say?”

  “Vicereine Dusteby or Dusty she said to call her. Her assistant wore a Roman Legion uniform,” I said.

  “First of all, Doctor Rondel-Goodwin, we have no such mansion in the city. We like to keep a low profile, so there are no such headquarters or employees who work for us there. I have never heard of these names,” said the mechanical man.

  “Bloody hell, you say!” I exclaimed in my British accent. “I was told these two people worked for you there. They have exhibits of all the steam-powered devices you have to sell throughout the city.”

  I was quite shocked by what Bat Carry had told me. Of course, if the Grand Inquisitor Manette decided to close down the headquarters because Vicereine Dusteby and Doctor Biggs-Pemberton had been shown to be traitors and members of the Network, then he would have also told the members of his organization to tell everyone they had never existed. And, if they never worked for the Society, then there could never have been a World Scientific Advancement Society for Progress office on Fifth Avenue either.

  This was an interesting clue, however, and I was going to confront Doctor Biggs-Pemberton about it. If he attempted to dodge the issue, then perhaps I should not be so trusting of what this little man had to tell me.

  “Thank you. I really don’t understand why they would tell me such things, but I now must be leaving! I shall meet you again when the amusement park opens in the spring. I assume the adverts for the battle royal will be going out soon?” I wanted to know if Manette were serious about the steam man competition.

  “Oh my, yes! Inquisitor Manette wants posters sent throughout the civilized world. He is quite pleased by your invention, and he says he will practice daily to become an efficient combatant. Have a good trip home, Doctor,” he said, and he tipped his bowler.

  * * *

  Not only did we have to take the tumultuous steam-powered underground tubes back to the surface of Central Park, but I had to fly over New York City holding onto the back of a mazikeen in the shape of a voluptuous, albeit sinister, woman. The feel of her backside upon my front side, combined with the stark terror running through me as I gazed down upon the tiny ant citizens below, sent me into a swoon. Seth the Grabber was not a smooth flyer. Instead, he seemed to take a malicious delight in swooping down toward chimneys, racing pigeons, crows and even the lead gander in a “V” formation of Canada Geese!

  When we finally landed on the steps of the Temple Emanu-El, I was happy to still be breathing and not smashed upon the ground like a bloody Irish house sparrow. I immediately grabbed onto Seth’s form, but he was immediately changing back into his own small boy’s body, so I pulled back and watched his physique morph into that of the young boy I knew so well.

  “What will the citizens do who saw us flying over them?” I asked.

  “No, Detective O’Malley. When you took my hand, you became as invisible as I was. For those moments in flight, you were, for all intents and purposes, a mazikeen. Wasn’t it an exciting experience?” The lad’s eyes were flashing with joyous abandon.

  “You wait until I get you up into the air in a balloon,” I stammered, and then I realized how preposterous I sounded. Nothing could scare this boy if it entailed being airborne.

  Doctor Adler had finally rejoined us, as he was inside the temple when we entered. He escorted us down into our sanctuary, and I told him all about our excursion into the lair of the Steam City Pirates.

  “They have a huge underground facility,” I said as I stepped down the stairs. “Inventors from throughout history have been recruited or kidnapped, depending upon how you view the matter, to serve this Society.”

  “In what way do they serve?” asked Doctor Adler.

  “They create steam inventions. The Society uses these inventions to raise money to stop what its leader calls the future Nuclear Armageddon. Grand Inquisitor Abraham Toky Manette is the leader’s name, and he told me who he is and from whence he came,” I explained. I was curious to hear what the rabbi thought about this part of my experience.

  “Inquisitor, indeed!” said Doctor Adler. “What did he tell you, Detective?”

  “He claims to be an invention himself. He is not human at all, he told me, as he was devised by scientists who wanted to save the world from being blown apart.” I was relishing this imme
nsely, as I now knew the doctor’s secret love of invention.

  “Go on. I’m listening,” he said, walking behind me to the laboratory chairs.

  “He told me these scientists sent him back in time to preserve the human race from self-destruction, as there had been an accident that occurred which launched these doomsday weapons. Just before the entire planet was annihilated, Manette the computer man was transmitted to New York City of the 1860s. He said he was here to maintain a Steam Age wherein no further technology will be allowed to develop,” I explained.

  We all took seats next to the lab table. Seth was listening as well, as I had obviously not told him about Manette during our horrendous flight over here.

  “Not allowed? I suppose this is why Doctor Biggs-Pemberton calls Manette a dictator,” Doctor Adler observed.

  “Of course, but I also found out that our little biggie fellow may have lied to us. Bat Carry, one of the inventors who escorted us to the leader, told me there has never been a Society headquarters on Fifth Avenue, and he had never heard of Vicereine Dusteby nor Franklin Biggs-Pemberton. Naturally, I shall confront our little friend about this. The Society may have decided to erase any history of their headquarters and its caretaker spies. It’s very possible. Then again, if Biggs-Pemberton lied, then what he created for us to see was all a fabrication in order to get into our good graces.” I leaned forward in order to better listen to what the doctor had to say in response.

  “Remember that I told you to stay with your God-given abilities at logic and intuition. You are reaching a possible crux in this mystery, and I want you to be careful. I suppose Seth has told you of my agreement to build Michael the Steam Angel. Did Manette accept the one you built for him?” Doctor Adler asked.

  “Yes!” Seth shouted. “I made him look exactly like Manette. How could he resist?”