Spectacular Moments of Wonder with Dr. Monocle: That Certain Gentleman

by John Theesfeld

  The Strongman was just coming to and Louise had just caught her breath. I was wanting a word with Anna, but the Wormatons seemed to be a forthcoming problematic hindrance. But instead, as Hendryk seemed gone into the darkness, the Wormatons next went to their fallen brother. They kicked away and stepped on the pups eating the goo. The surviving few scampered off around the bend in the curve. They cleared rubble away from the area in preparation of lifting the slab from the other Wormaton.

  “Miss Dorothy Shelton, Anna, whatever name you go by, please do explain yourself,” I commanded her, demanded her, pleaded with her.

  “Call me, Anna, for goodness sake,” she said, “it’s my true name.” The monkey ran to her and climbed up to her shoulder where it perched.

  “You’ve tried poisoning me, this is correct?” I got up from the sandy ground and dusted myself off, “May I inquire as to why?”

  “For coin,” she said flatly, “now down on your knees!” She pulled her small revolver and commanded me back down to my knees.

  I achingly got down on one knee and then the other. I balanced myself on my umbrella and offered a smile. “Tell me, are you working for Huppard?”

  “Forever the clock winds down, no!” She laughed.

  “Mr. Brisk, though?”

  “He was after The Strongman,” she said as she approached me slowly. “I had him join us, he was working for Huppard.”

  “You and your other friends, though? Who are you working for?” I asked her directly. She wouldn't have time to answer.

  The Strongman stood up behind me and Anna turned, aimed her gun, and cocked the hammer. She was ready and willing to put the large man down for good, but she wasn't quick enough. Louise stepped forward from behind The Strongman, her small revolver raised waist-high. She fired. The bullet hit Anna in the shoulder, knocking her back. The monkey scrambled and was gone into the rocks. Anna turned back to Louise, but only to take another bullet to the chest. Louise fired another shot hitting her in the gut. Down she went. The light had left her eyes before she hit the ground.

  I ran to her side, but she was gone. Even if she hadn’t immediately died from her wounds, she wouldn’t be long for this world. I closed the lids over her vacant eyes. I could sense Louise and The Strongman approaching from behind, standing there.

  “The woman from the driver park in Fenterwig,” Louise remembered her sourly, “where are the rest of her brood?”

  I looked through her satchel: ammo; an oculargraphic of fading grays, two small children, a boy and girl, on the back, written in pencil, ‘Anna and Melville’; also, a card for a paraphenomenal seer in New Haverton, “Nasser Girgis, Paraphenomenal Tinkerer, Sub-Level 52a” within the design of an eye and a magical sphere and pyramids and a mix of other such nonsense. It seemed all meaningless, a jumble of arbitrary symbols.

  I handed the card to Louise, “Is this familiar?”

  She took the card and looked it over, “I’ll have to look into it.” With that, she put the card in her pocket.

  I looked through the rest of the satchel, but nothing of interest. A sounding crash turned our attentions to the Wormatons lifting and tossing aside the large slab that covered their fallen friend. I stood as we all prepared to stand our ground. It didn’t seem their fallen friend was about to get up. He was smashed and mushed; the clockwork suit was shattered beyond repair. The two standing Wormatons turned to us and advanced.

  Just as the big fish does eat the smaller ones, from around the corner, father appeared with his surviving pups. He stood a story and a half, insect-like, reptilian, covered in a tough outer-shell. His long legs covered ground easily, each leg meeting the dirt beneath its pincers.

  I whispered between my teeth, “Step back ever so slowly and find a place to hide within the rocks.” And we all took steps backwards, slowly, fanning out. The Wormatons still advanced, unaware of the soft-stepping, pincer-footed underdwellar approaching. Louise found a place, as did I, and The Strongman disappeared into a rather large crevice. His broad shoulder was just barely visibly protruding from behind some rock. It would have to do.

  Within three steps the large behemoth was upon the Wormatons, taking a bite out of one and tossing it. Then piercing and ultimately smashing the other with his pincer tipped leg. He left both Wormatons there, malfunctioning and dying. Father turned and was gone around the bend, presumably back to the nest. The pups stayed behind and feasted on the dead worms.

  When it seemed safe to come out, we approached the vault built into the rock wall.

  “Well, doc?” Louise said as I traced my finger along the carved stone.

  “We’ll take the key and then work on getting out of here,” I replied as I examined the dents in the steel. “Strongman? If you would, please,” I stepped out of the way to let him have a look at the door. He felt around for a space to stick his fingers into before being able to get a tight hold. His hands, like meaty claws, strained and the skin over his knuckles tightened over the gnarled bones of his hands.

  Before long the metal began to give way and bend. Soon enough, the metal vault opened for the first time in a long time. The Strongman stepped aside for me to give a look within. I reached my arm in and felt around. I retrieved the only object within: A large metal key, ordinary with a number of teeth, punctuated with seemingly random dimples. It was thick and rather heavy, cold to the touch. It was a fine piece of craftsmanship, a key like none I had ever seen before.

  Upon removing it from its resting place I examined it thusly and brushed it free from dust.

  “That’s what we’ve come down here for?” Louise asked seemingly put off.

  “I told you it was just a key,” I reminded her.

  She snarked, “Hope you were paid well.”

  As more debris fell and a few more pups joined their brethren for lunch The Strongman suggested we start heading back to the surface and simply asked, “Which way?”

  It seemed we were at a loss for a plan. I thought a moment and perhaps a moment more. I juggled ideas. Perhaps, I thought, we could send ourselves straight upwards.

  I requested the assistance of The Strongman, “Please do me the favor of covering Miss Shelton, Anna, with something. Perhaps that sail material from that crashed airship, something.”

  “Sure thing, Doc,” he quietly agreed and set forth to find something he could cover Anna with so she may rest at peace. He was able to use a flap of balloon material from the wreckage of a downed airship. He prepared the body while I examined all of the junk that lay strewn before us.

  It seemed a mechanical wonderment of treasure. There was enough material down at the bottom of The Chasm to build our own small, personal airship, I thought. So, why not try to do so?

  36

  I piped up immediately, moments were fleeting, "We're going to use your size along with all of this rubbish to our advantage, my friend." The Strongman strolled up alongside of where I stood.

  "What've you got in mind?" Louise asked curiously.

  "We're going to build this gentleman a wingpack of his own and then some." I enthusiastically explained to Louise.

  "I don't know if I like the sound of this, doc," The Strongman's face contorted with worry.

  "Look at all this stuff!" I marveled about the pile of junk, "All of this fabulous rubbish! Glorious rubbish! That balloon material. Those boilers. Those fan blades."

  Louise began fishing the items from the rubbish heap.

  I continued, "Sweep up every last bit of coal you can find. Look for oil and grease, anything that will burn."

  I disconnected the small balloon from the bit of airship it it was still connected to. It seemed to have originated from a smaller airship. It would be just the right size, although something smaller would have probably fared better. I pulled the balloon out across the ground, it seemed to be in tact. No holes, tears, or punctures. It looked to be from an airship. A lightweight material.

  Louise and The Strongman retrieved all of the things I asked for and more. With everything s
pread out before us, I explained as we grouped the materials together, “We build The Strongman a harness for around his mid-section and over his shoulders. On this harness we’ll fashion a frame which will hold two small cylindrical canisters, boilers. These will create the heat to cause the balloon to lift us upwards. As the air warms and the closer we come to the surface, a third canister mounted on the frame, yet upside down, will ignite. This, save from exploding, shall turn The Strongman into an accelerating projectile. The fan blades can be fashioned with a rudder that Louise could steer us with. A couple of sets of wings from the wingpacks of the fallen can been affixed for stability. Your arms would stay stretched out,” I held my arms out to my sides to display how he should do the same, “while we each ride beneath an arm. The power would be surely enough to send us up out of The Chasm, potentially over the metro to the outskirts away from the bloodshed. Hopefully we'll gather enough speed and be a hard target to hit.”

  Louise and The Strongman looked at me as if I were absolutely delirious. They were stunned. Speechless.

  The Strongman finally broke the silence, "You'll blow us up, doc. Or worse; you'll blow us up just to crash us back down."

  "No, no, I'm certain we can do this!" I wasn't completely certain, but it was worth a try. "Would you rather climb up? Perhaps we just go back the way we came? How does that sound? Perhaps we find the rest of that gang that has been pursuing us? Sound like a good idea? I certainly think not."

  "Doc, I just don't like the idea of having three canisters of fiery, explosive material strapped to my body," The Strongman grumbled.

  "And I don't like the idea of being strapped onto him with said material," Louise chimed in.

  I showed them the notebook from my coat pocket, "I’ve done the math. It will be fun!" I put my notebook back in my pocket and started putting pieces together, building the odd contraption.

  The Strongman turned from me and began collecting materials to build a harness for himself. "He hasn't got me killed yet," he said to Louise, but it came out as if he needed to reassure himself

  "Oh, bloody hell," Louise jumped in and started putting together the fan blades and pieces of wood to create a makeshift rudder.

  I had to make certain the two burners fired just enough to release the right amount of heat to allow us to rise evenly. I also had to make sure they remained above The Strongman’s head. The third canister had to essentially work as a concentrated furnace pushing out enough heat to propel us. I was able to re-purpose some parts from the original burner to this hot air balloon. I would be able to control the amount of heat that let forth.

  The ignition canister I constructed from a combination of wingpacks that used propulsion and a smaller steam engine, most likely from a steamdriver. When I had the pieces put together, I had The Strongman put them on his back.

  “As long as I don’t need to run, I think I’ll be alright,” he said as he paced back and forth to become familiar with the weight.

  “Do remember you will be carrying us,” I reminded him.

  “Shouldn’t be a problem,” he played tough guy well. While carrying the weight was one thing, having it strapped to your body while you’re being projected through the air is another.

  I took apart a few wingpacks to refashion the wings. Louise managed to build a retractable propeller and rudder. With a few adjustments to the steamdriver engine, we were able to get the blade to propel. Hopefully it would be out of the way of the flame emitted from the rocket canister. I found it bothersome we had no time to test anything. The more we put together, the more dangerous this idea proved to be. The few hours it took to put the contraption together was enough time for second-thoughts to seem reasonable.

  Louise and I looked upon The Strongman as we finally put his wings in place. He was a spectacular mess. He was reminiscent of that Weather Man fellow with all of his equipment.

  There was the big engine piece on The Strongman’s back, from which two pair of wings extended. From his shoulders, and connected to his hips, was the balloon which would take us up. Hidden just barely was the retractable propeller and rudder that would be connected to the steamdriver engine.

  The coals were burning hot and The Strongman was barely protected by the sheet of metal shielding him from the engines. I assured him the heat would release as we burned the coal and reached the surface. He was sweating profusely already.

  Louise and I strapped ourselves beneath each of his arms. He allowed his knees to bend just slightly as he became accustomed to the amount of weight on his back and shoulders. It was terribly uncomfortable for Louise and I, but evermore so for The Strongman.

  “Louise, you know where to steer us to get us out of harm’s way?” I asked her.

  “We’ll find out,” she replied and it was good enough for me.

  “Strongman?” I said.

  He answered back, “Ready, doc.”

  I counted down apprehensively, “3... 2... .... ... 1.” I released the lever and heat slowly filled the balloon. Slowly. We waited at least a half an hour for the thing to inflate. It was a rather anti-climactic take off. Once it did fill, we really took off. As we left the ground, Louise dropped the propeller and rudder down and set it into place on the steamdriver engine. The propeller took and spun wildly, nearly out of Louise’s control. We sped up faster and faster. Steering wasn’t the best, but it was better than flying upwards haphazardly.

  “This thing steers like a pregnant cow!” Louise commented.

  We swerved towards the rock wall. The Strongman caught us as we nearly hit and pushed us off and away.

  “Watch the wing!” I shouted as the wing took a good scraping against the rock.

  This set us terribly off course and we were rising much faster than I had expected. We nearly crashed into a jutting rock formation, but again, The Strongman caught us and got us out of the way. The balloon then seemed to catch fire. I almost felt like giving a chuckle. What else could I do? We all looked upwards as we began slowing down at a terrible rate.

  The Strongman struggled to release the burning material and, as it blew away, I pulled the lever igniting the rocket. Louise screamed and I nearly lost the monocle from my eye. The burst of speed we received was unparalleled to anything I had felt before. Unfortunately we were terribly out of control. Louise had no luck with the rudder which eventually snapped off, propeller and all. We were strapped to this behemoth, flying upwards aimed directly for a major platform at war. The blue sky was becoming clearly evident and the warmth of the air felt inviting.

  The metro became more and more apparent. The walls soon went from shear rock to carved windows, walkways, ladders and stairways. We dodged foot bridges and nearly got caught up within pipe work.

  “Everybody hold on,” The Strongman said as he tried to grab onto a piece of pipe to slow us down and keep us from crashing into the platform. He managed to get a hold of the pipe only for it to break from the wall and send us spinning violently towards the bottom of the platform. The world became a wild kaleidoscope which my eyes refused to focus on. I couldn’t tell if we were headed upwards or downwards at this point. We tumbled through the aether at such speed, I thought Louise and I would be torn from The Strongman.

  The main platform of Chasm City came up on us. It was tremendous, several metro blocks in length and width which connected and allowed travel between the two sides of The Chasm’s surface. It seemed always under construction, as the entire thing was put together piece by piece by whomever thought they could create a place to live on top of The Chasm. Some platforms would never take off, others were planned, some wound up mischievously destroyed. This main platform was Chasm City’s largest.

  Most of these platforms were built like bridges with planks of wood. Flammable and terribly dangerous, unable to support the weight above. There was a movement afoot to replace the wooden planks with steel. Fortunately, we were not head for a steal platform, but one of dry, brittle wood.

  The Strongman grabbed at another jutting pipe and sp
un us in the opposite direction before we leveled out. The platform was nearly upon us. The Strongman extended his arms outwards, from his sides to his fists clenched before him. The crash was terribly jarring and absolutely sudden. Wood splintered in every direction. He was able to punch through the floor. We slowed just a bit. The Strongman quickly released us from his sides and we fell to the platform below. It seemed the gunfire all around us stopped for a moment as the massive man flew through the air. He couldn’t control the wingpack at all, nor could he easily remove it from his body. He flew through the air, panicking in a futile attempt to remove the pack.

  He flew askew, eventually crashing headlong into a saloon and gambling hall. The WingedMen opposite the saloon, behind us, cheered and advanced on the place. Overhead and by foot they made their way to the saloon, near victorious. It was utter chaos.

  A WingedMan grabbed me by my arm, “Let’s get you out of here!” He forced me up and took me to the back of an awaiting steamdriver. My head was spinning a violent turbulence and I feared I would be equally as ill. Another WingedMan attended to Louise, but not as forcefully. Louise joined me at the steamdriver which took us behind a defensive wall into WingedMen territory.

  “Are you hurt?” She asked me.

  “No, no. Just fine,” I said. “And you?”

  “A little shaken, but good,” she said. “You were right, that was fun.”

  The firefight around us became more intense. Thugs and scuttlers were being taken down left and right. Inside the saloon, a terrible ruckus sounded. The place eventually caught fire.

  “I do hope he is all right,” Louise worried.

  We watched from afar. A fellow WingedMan handed Louise a telescope. I was reminded of my telemonocle which I thusly retrieved from my pocket to find in a wonky state of being. It was rather smashed, but I managed to extend it open. The lens was cracked, but I could see across the landing to the saloon.

  “Do you think he survived the crash?” Louise asked me looking away from her telescope.