by L. C. Mawson
“That is perhaps best tackled once the stress of travelling is behind us,” Michel said.
Ruth had come to rely on Michel to explain her needs when her anxiety stopped her from verbalising her thoughts. Thomas had taken a proto-version the role before, but Ruth had never implicitly trusted him to get it right. Possibly because he often didn’t. Michel, on the other hand, was refreshingly free of expectation and presumptions. Ruth had never been strange to him because she had been the first human being he had encountered.
Ruth had started to wonder if Michel would want something else - something more - out of life, but she hadn’t been sure how to approach it with him. Or, perhaps, she was too worried about what his answer may be.
She had broached the subject with Ivy, who had just laughed and made jokes about Ruth’s baby flying the nest. Ruth bristled at that. Not least because part of Michel’s original purpose had been to act as a puppet husband for her so that she had no risk of losing her independence, or having to entertain an unwanted man in her bed.
Captain Hall seemed a little unnerved as he looked over Michel. “So, you’re the mechanical man.”
“That is correct. Though, I tend to go by Michel. It’s a little easier on the tongue, don’t you think?”
“Well, yes, I suppose it is.” Captain Hall turned back to Ruth, clearly uncomfortable talking to Michel. “If you and the others could board the ship, we’ll take off shortly.”
Ruth nodded. “Of course. Could some of your men help with our luggage? We wouldn’t be sure where to put it.”
“Of course.”
CAPTAIN HALL OFFERED them all a full tour of the ship as they began to take off, but Ruth declined. She had far too much to do and far too many things to consider. Namely, what exactly she was going to do once they reached Paris.
Captain Hall took her straight to her room, where she immediately began to set up her workshop tools. She had brought as many as she could feasibly travel with. Her only real qualification when it came to hunting down mechanical men was that they were based on her designs. She knew their workings inside and out, which meant that she could potentially fashion something to prey on weakness in their design. Not that her designs usually had weaknesses, but Michel’s design was very much a prototype. Ruth had added to Michel over time, but she had never bothered to update her plans. If she never made another mechanical man, there was no need, she had thought.
Ruth started by trying to remember all of her original designs for Michel and writing them down, doing her best to weed out any improvements she had made since. She was only about halfway through when her door opened, revealing Michel and Ivy.
“How did the tour go?” Ruth asked them, not looking up from her work.
“The ship is amazing,” Ivy gushed. “You should have seen it. I’m sure Captain Hall will give you a tour later on.”
“What are you doing?” Michel asked as he looked at the plans. “Is this me?”
“Well, you when I first built you. It will probably be useful to have the designs that the thief is working from.” Ruth finally looked up from her work, scanning the room. “Where’s Thomas? Shouldn’t he be here to accuse you of distracting me from my work?”
“He’s still with Captain Hall. I think he is a tad infatuated,” Ivy explained.
Michel frowned. Or, at least, the ceramic plates that made up his brow angled down in a way that approximated a frown. “‘Infatuated’? How so?”
Ivy frowned before starting to grin. “Wait, has Ruth not explained romance to you?”
“I explained the concept of marriage when he was going to stand in as my husband,” Ruth said with a hand wave. “Anything else seemed superfluous.”
Ivy shook her head before turning back to Michel. “Humans like to be around other humans. Sometimes we like other people in a... Well, we...” Ivy trailed off as she lost her confidence on the topic, and Ruth got the distinct impression that she would be blushing if she had light skin.
“He is neither human nor anatomically correct. As I said, superfluous.”
Michel folded his arms in response to that. “Ruth, I would still like to learn about human interaction.”
Ruth sighed, lifting her head from her work. “Humans are usually compelled to find partners in order to fornicate, which produces children when the partners are a man and a woman. Some humans, like me, have neither the compulsion to find a partner nor to fornicate. Humans like Ivy have the compulsion with both men and women, and humans like Thomas only have the compulsion with their own gender. Generally, however, only partnering with the opposite gender is considered acceptable. So, as far as the wider world is concerned, Ivy, Thomas and I all have the compulsion to find a partner to fornicate with of the ‘appropriate’ gender, and the ‘appropriate’ gender only.”
“So, as a mechanical man, I will not have this compulsion either?”
Ruth shrugged. “Honestly, I have no idea how you’re sentient. You are so far away from your original parameters, I can’t tell you where you will go from here. Only you can decide that. But, no, it was never in your parameters, and you currently lack any of the requisite parts.”
“Requisite parts?”
“There is nothing in your trousers,” Ivy interjected.
“My legs are in my trousers.”
Ivy smiled. “We’ll buy you an anatomy book when we get into the city.”
Michel nodded, but he seemed distracted by the plans in front of Ruth. “If I was built to these same parameters and I’m sentient, what about these other mechanical men?” he eventually asked. “Are they like me?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Do you think they know that they are made from stolen designs? That they’re working for a thief?”
Ivy moved to his side, placing what Ruth assumed was supposed to be a comforting hand on his arm. “If Ruth and I weren’t your first interaction with the world - if it was someone else who had built you for some nefarious purpose - would you have been able to tell?”
“Probably not,” he admitted. “I knew nothing about the world until you explained it. I still don’t know as much as I would like. I only know the world from your perspectives. I suppose I am lucky that you are both such upstanding individuals.”
Ivy snorted. “That is the first time anyone has ever said that about me.”
“I think my upstanding status was ruined when I announced that I would rather work as an inventor than ever get married.”
Michel managed to give a close approximation of an eyeroll, and Ruth grinned with pride as she thought of how long he must have practised to perfect it.
“Regardless of your reputations, you have both been good friends and mentors to me.”
Ruth continued to smile. “I’m definitely sure no one has ever said that to me.”
“If I haven’t, then it’s only because I forgot,” Ivy quickly said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have hung around for so long. Your uncle doesn’t pay me that well.”
Ruth laughed a little at that. “Well, quite.”
The ship made a slight lurching motion that made Ruth’s lunch want to evacuate.
“I’m assuming that means we have arrived,” Ivy said brightly as she jumped towards the door.
Ruth nodded before following, using Michel to steady herself.
3
The bridge was impressively ornate, with dark wood panelling lining the walls and bronze instruments littering the room. Ruth had only the vaguest idea of what any of the instruments did, but she found her mind aching for the knowledge almost instantly. Ivy tended to focus her inventions towards navigation and aviation, so Ruth made a note to ask her about it later.
“Ah, I see you have decided to join us,” Captain Hall said, drawing her attention. His tone raised her hackles.
“I was busy drawing up a replica of the plans the thief took,” she said defensively.
“So that they can steal a second copy?”
“So that I can look for a weakness.”
Michel stepped to her side at that. “I can assure you, Captain Hall, with my superior strength and weight, your men would struggle in a fight against me. Similarly, I can theoretically be hit by bullets with only a small chance of taking any real damage. If the thief is using mechanical men like me as guards, your traditional combat methods will be of little use.”
Captain Hall made a grunting noise as he nodded, before turning back to Ruth. “This doesn’t help if we can’t find these mechanical men of yours.”
“I’m afraid I’m not familiar enough with Paris to give you a starting point,” she admitted, a little annoyed. Captain Hall clearly wasn’t too impressed with her, and she suspected that he didn’t trust her. He possibly even thought that she had sold the plans herself. She hated to admit to him that there were things she didn’t know.
“What about the local bobbies?” Ivy asked. “Might they know?”
“We’re a military group on foreign soil without permission,” Thomas said. “Or, at least, I assume we’re here without permission. If the French government knew that they had the plans so easily within reach, they would most likely take them for themselves.”
“Your assessment of the situation is accurate,” Captain Hall said before turning back to Ivy and Ruth. “No local officials can be involved.”
“Which brings us back to square one,” Ruth said, placing her hands on her hips.
“I may be able to help here,” Thomas said. “I have spent some time in Paris and have some friends in the city.”
“Friends are one thing, actually getting relevant information from them is another,” Captain Hall pointed out. “I doubt the nobility down there will be up to date on most of the problems of the city.”
“Who said my friends were nobility?” Thomas asked with a smirk before turning to Ruth. “You and I should head down alone. My friends won’t like me bringing a troupe with me, not to mention the attention Michel will attract.”
“Ruth, that’s not a good idea,” Michel said. “You won’t have any protection. The thief could be after you.”
“Michel’s right,” Ivy agreed.
Ruth shook her head. “They already have the plans. Going after me would only give me more information about who they are. Thomas knows the city; we’ll be fine.”
Michel and Ivy didn’t look happy at that, both of them turning to Captain Hall to see if he had any objections.
“We need the information and I’d rather not spook your friend. Go alone, but I’ll send some men just to wander the area in case there’s trouble. Nothing too close or conspicuous.”
“Thank you,” Thomas said before gesturing for Ruth to follow him off the ship.
THE STREETS OF PARIS, Ruth quickly found, were just as noisy and crowded as those in London. The smells were slightly different, but still overwhelming. Ruth focused on how her corset tightly hugged her middle in the hope of grounding herself.
“So, where are we going?” Ruth asked as she kept tightly to Thomas’ side.
“To a little cafe run by an old friend. Do you remember Adam?”
“Of course.” Adam had been a childhood friend of theirs, and one of the only childhood friends Ruth had ever made. They had stopped seeing as much of him once they reached their adolescence and soon learned that his mother had sent him away to boarding school abroad, telling their mother in confidence that he had been troubled.
“Well, she now goes by Abigail.”
Ruth blinked, trying to figure out what he meant. “Why would he take a woman’s name?”
“Because she is a woman.”
“Oh...” Ruth still couldn’t say that she understood, but it also wasn’t relevant to the task at hand, so she left it alone. “So, how does Abigail know about the mechanical men?”
“Well, I don’t know that she does. However, she does know that it’s your design, so if anyone would have been keeping note of any rumours of mechanical men, it would be her. Not to mention, she’s the only friend I can quickly locate, so she can tell me where the others are if she doesn’t have any of the information we need.”
“It’s certainly a good thing that you became so well-connected on your trips here.”
“Well, having unique tastes tends to put you into contact with a rather diverse crowd.”
He led Ruth around the corner to a small cafe. The cafe in question was reasonably busy, but not so packed that Ruth struggled.
As they approached the counter, Ruth almost did a double take. She wouldn’t have recognised the woman behind the counter, if not for the scar above her lip. She remembered when Adam - or was it retroactively Abigail? - had tripped in her garden, cutting open their face on a sharp rock.
“Thomas!” Abigail greeted with a smile as Ruth noted that she was wearing a dress that indicated only modest earnings. She wondered if her family had cut her off.
“Abigail, it’s good to see you again.”
“I didn’t think you would be back in the city so soon.” She turned to Ruth. “And you brought Ruth?” She seemed a little uncomfortable at that.
“Ruth has ended up in a spot of bother. We thought you might be able to help.”
“Oh? Sent out of the country to avoid a scandal? Though, after almost marrying a mechanical man, I don’t know what more you could do to your reputation.”
“This is less a matter of reputation and more one of treason.”
“Treason? Against the British Empire?”
“Suspected treason,” Ruth interjected. “Someone has stolen my designs for a mechanical man and we’ve heard of rumours suggesting that mechanical men walk the streets of Paris.”
Abigail’s gaze darkened. “Yes, I’ve heard these rumours, though I haven’t seen the men.”
Thomas nodded. “Do you know of anyone who has?”
Abigail sighed, before eventually nodding. “You didn’t hear this from me, but one of my customers says that she has seen them coming out of a factory in the city. She’s told me how startlingly inhuman they are.”
Ruth folded her arms. “Only because they’re working from prototype designs.”
Abigail smiled. “I imagine so,” she said before turning to Thomas. “I have the address if you want it.”
Thomas nodded. “We shall head there right away.”
“Not before you’ve tried my coffee!” Abigail exclaimed, rushing back to a strange contraption behind the counter.
Ruth watched with fascination as she produced a dark brown liquid in a china cup. The smell was overpowering and she sipped at it cautiously.
She made a surprised chirp as she found that she quite enjoyed the taste. Not as much as tea, but it was far from objectionable. She finished her cup as quickly as possible without burning herself.
“Can I have another?” she asked as Thomas had barely started his.
“Of course you can,” Abigail said with a smile.
Thomas glared at her. “You know that I’m the one who will pay for this later, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
4
Ruth felt as if the whole world had slowed down around her as she and Thomas finally left Abigail’s. She was used to her mind racing ahead of everyone else’s, but this was far more intense. As she babbled on at Thomas about her ideas for stopping any mechanical men they encountered, he took even longer than usual to respond, and she felt far more frustrated than usual at having to slow down to explain basic concepts to him.
“Ruth, are you sure you’re feeling right in the head?”
“Of course,” she told him. “Though, I suppose, my heart is racing a little.”
“Yes, well, you’re bad enough with just tea. Giving you coffee was never going to be a good idea.”
“I am perfectly fine,” she defended.
“You would say that,” he muttered, before shaking his head. “What do you think we’ll see in this factory?”
“I have no idea. I suppose we’ll find out when we get there.”
“Do you think
we should head back to the ship and get someone to come with us? If we encounter any of these mechanical prototypes, Michel would be able to fight them on equal footing, and Captain Hall’s men would at least be able to put up something of a fight.”
“We’re just going to have a look. If we see any mechanical men, we can easily head back to the ship. They’re not going to attack two people in broad daylight.”
“I suppose that would be foolish of them. Let us hope that whoever stole your plans was able to put them together with enough skill for these men to not be foolish.”
“I would wager that they are more likely to be sensible than any human men we may encounter.”
“You may be right.”
Ruth found herself gravitating a little closer to Thomas as the streets got narrower and darker, the sunlight blocked by poorly stacked buildings.
They approached the factory Abigail had directed them to and found that it was decrepit, with many of the windows smashed and the paint on the doors peeling.
“It doesn’t look like anyone has been here in years,” Ruth commented as she examined the broken windows.
“No,” Thomas agreed. “It is likely home to squatters now. Come, we should leave. I doubt anyone can use this factory at night as Abigail said. Not when it is in this kind of disrepair. Most likely, the whispers are just that.”
“Maybe...” Ruth hummed as she walked around the side of the building, scaring a stray cat. Ruth stepped back as the cat launched itself across the street before returning to her examination of the building. One window looked large enough to climb through, but was closed and undamaged.
“Ruth, we should go,” Thomas repeated as he wandered closer to her.
Ruth nodded, but didn’t step away, instead experimentally pushing at the window. After a sharp push, she found that it had been jammed closed, rather than locked. It gave way, showing a big enough gap to easily pass through.
“Ruth, this isn’t a good idea.”
“This is our only lead. If it doesn’t pan out, then there will be no harm done. If I may remind you, I will be charged with treason if we do not succeed, and I have an inkling that execution will not agree with me.”
