by Steven Bohls
“You can’t stop them all,” Lyle’s voice whispered in his head. “I have enough ships to fill this little warren to its brim.”
“Leave!” Jed yelled back.
“Certainly,” Lyle said. “I’ll leave as quickly as I came…if you come with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Jed said.
“Then watch your home world burn.”
Jed’s throat felt thick and lumpy. There was something so innocent about this place. Something so perfect. He couldn’t watch the golds be obliterated by Lyle, could he? He thought of Hift, Murjen, and Taskon. Of Shelpin and her kebabs. Of Calliope. But what choice was there?
If Jed went with Lyle, humans would die. If Jed stayed, then golds would die.
“We’re here!” Shay squeaked in his mind.
Shatterbricks plummeted through the opening in the dome, slamming into Lyle’s dreadnoughts. The ships inside the dome turned slowly in the sky, pivoting to face the new threat.
“Tell your friends to leave,” Lyle said, “or I will lay waste to this pathetic town!”
Fear welled inside Jed’s throat. He pictured charcoaled ruins in place of the lively lunchtime square. He looked at the gardens and orchards and lakes. All the glorious color, life, and smiles in this happy little hideaway…gone. Obliterated. Dead.
The outline of a ship at the top of the dome caught his eye. Bessie, the tugboat, breached the opening and entered the fray. The boat was a speck among giants, yet it launched shatterfire in a furious attack against the nearest dreadnought. The shatterkeg shells made dents in the dreadnought hulls. It was a suicide mission, but the tug crew fought all the same. Resolve, confidence, and hope swelled inside Jed. If Shay, Bog, and the rest of the crew could be so brave, Jed could be, too.
“I’m not a puppet,” he called to Lyle. “Not yours or anyone else’s. Now get out of here or I’ll smash your ships to bits, one at a time.”
“Keep throwing your cute lawn mowers at us, little one,” Lyle taunted.
Fury bubbled inside Jed. He concentrated, connecting the hundreds of thousands of waves inside his ocean of power.
Shay
Bog squinted at the mountain. “What is going on?”
The mountain was changing. It swelled and shrank, twisted and stretched. Two long arms took shape on its side. Then two wide legs split apart at the base. The lawn mowers shifted and then settled into the shape of a—
“Mountain monster!” Shay squeaked. “Right there, right there!” She pointed over and over and over at the mountain. “Do you see it? Do you see it? Right there!”
Captain Bog’s eyes were unmoving. His mouth gaped at the monster. “Shay. An entire mountain made completely out of lawn mowers is walking toward us. Yes. I see it.”
She scowled at him. “Well you don’t have to ruin all the fun by being mean,” she said.
“The…fun? What about that says fun to you? The part where we get crushed by a hundred thousand tons of lawn mowers, or the part about a scrap clunking killer mountain that is alive and walking around?”
“Yes!” Shay said, delighted. “That part. Definitely that part.”
“Well, enjoy it while we’re alive, I suppose.”
“Silly mouse,” she said. “It’s Jed. He wouldn’t hurt us.”
Outside, the mountain monster lifted one of its massive arms and brought it down onto one of the approaching warnoughts. The ship exploded into scrap.
“Right,” Bog said. “Totally harmless.”
“Don’t worry,” Shay said. “He’s on our side.”
“I sure hope so. Because no one’s fighting that thing and coming out in one piece. Though…I’m not sure any of us are going to make it out of here in one piece.”
“Our scritchmites will protect us,” Shay said.
Bog sighed. “That’s the problem: Looks like Lyle’s got twice as many scritchmites as we do.”
He isn’t wrong, Shay thought to herself as they descended deeper into the dome. Lyle had brought every last boat, while most of Bog’s boats were still trying to protect the human cities—which happened to also be trying to kill them.
“Do you remember the last time we played checkers?” Shay asked Bog. He nodded slowly, studying the scene before them. “Let’s be brave like my last, lonely, little mouseling piece. No matter what, okay?”
Bog gave her his full attention and smiled. “Deal,” he said. “We’ll be brave together.”
Shay and Bog turned back toward the bridge viewports. Bog’s dreadnoughts poured through the opening around them into a sky filled with enemies. They looked like swarms of flies, spitting fire at one another.
Fire-spitting flies…Shay thought to herself. Now that was something to be afraid of.
“Circuit,” Bog called to one of the helmscritches. He was a silly looking dread with big headphones drilled straight into his ears. Shay wondered if he even had ears underneath the headphones at all, or if the headphones were his ears.
“Captain?” the obedient scritch responded.
“Do we have any music on this ship?” Bog asked.
“I gots my very own record player down in my bunk,” Circuit said proudly.
“Bring it up here, will you? If we’re going to get shot down today, this time I’d like to do it with a bit of music. Last time was terribly irritating waiting to crash into the barge on a ship where the only sounds were thousands of shrieking dread.”
Circuit scrambled out of his station and hurried from the bridge. He was back before Shay could even squeak, carrying a boxy record player nearly as big as himself. A gramophone horn was connected to the record player and almost the size of the box itself. Tucked loosely underneath Circuit’s arms was a collection of records.
“Circuit,” Bog said, eyeing the records, “if you happen to have Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries,’ so help me, I’m going to give you your very own ship.”
Circuit’s eyes lit up, and he nearly dropped the record player. Setting the instrument in the center of the bridge he flipped through his records and pulled one free.
Bog’s face pulled into a look of complete shock as the fluttering sound of violins blared through the gramophone followed by oboes and clarinets. “Circuit,” he said, “you just earned yourself a dreadnought.”
Jed
The dome was ablaze with war.
Jed thrashed at Lyle’s ship.
Lyle’s voice entered his head again. “You’re acting like a child, Jed. Stop. You’re only making this worse.”
“I am a child,” Jed yelled. He lifted an arm and punched a warnought’s stern.
“You’ve forced my hand,” Lyle said with a sigh. “I didn’t want it to have to come to this, but you leave me no choice. Surrender, or your mother will die.”
Jed’s heart froze. The mower monster stumbled. “My mother?”
“Yes. Get out of that ridiculous pile of clunk, surrender yourself, and leave with me, or I will kill her. Am I clear?”
“You know where she is?”
“Of course I do.” Lyle laughed. “She’s been with us the whole time. Don’t you remember?”
Something clicked in Jed’s mind. How had he not noticed before? Despite the mechanical voice and the scraps of metal that had replaced her face, he knew the truth.
Alice.
Lyle read his thoughts. “It makes sense, doesn’t it?” he taunted Jed. “You asked me why I couldn’t fix her legs. Of course I can fix a clunky pair of legs. But why? She stole my future. In fact, her legs worked perfectly before I broke them. You know how delightful it is for me to watch her stumble around the Endeavor? It’s delicious.”
Jed’s jaw clenched. “You’re a monster,” he whispered.
“We’re all monsters,” Lyle said. “Look at you!” He laughed. “You literally are a giant, shambling pile of lawn mowers. You’re smashing dreadnoughts to bits. You’re the biggest monster here.”
Rage bubbled inside Jed. He yanked Lyle’s vessels from the golden sky a
nd crushed them, one by one.
“Stop this!” Lyle shouted. “You’re going to kill everyone!”
“Let her go!” Jed shouted back. His voice was like a storm. “Now!”
“Jed,” Lyle began, more softly. There was a hint of fear in his tone. “If you don’t—”
Jed cut him off. “No more threats, Lyle,” he said. “I am not your weapon. I will defend this city—and this world—for the rest of my life. And if you hurt my mom, you will regret ever putting a single spark into my body.”
Silence.
“Where are you?” Jed shouted, trying to link to Lyle’s mind once again.
“Good-bye, Jed,” Lyle answered at last.
“Mom,” Jed whispered, scanning the inside of the dome. “Where are you?”
If she were a machine, maybe he could speak with her through his mind. He closed his eyes and tried again.
“Mom,” he said out loud. “Please be there.”
A faint connection crackled.
“Mom, are you there?”
“Gzzz…”
The response was fuzzy and garbled.
“Mom,” he said, “if you can understand this, send me a signal. Tell me where you are.”
Jed scanned the dome. Explosions and rockets stained the skies, but a speck of light caught his attention, far away from the battle. It was a green battery bug fluttering in the distance. The battery bug from Trisky’s Trinkets in Lunkway. The battery bug he’d given to Alice.
“I’m coming, Mom.”
Jed
Jed kept his eyes locked on the light from the green battery bug and readied himself to hunt down the Endeavor. Just then, a whistle cut through the air.
Shay’s voice crackled in his ear. “Umm…there’s more people here.”
Jed recognized the whistling sound. Iron falcons.
A fleet of tiny shapes soared into the dome, firing at any dreadnought in their path. They didn’t care if the ships belonged to Bog or Lyle. All they cared about was fighting the dread.
The dome was turning into chaos. Ships fluttered about like swarms of gnats. Both dreadnought armadas again swiveled to face this new enemy, dividing their focus and unleashing shatterfire at the swarming falcons. More followed, and more. Copper battlecruisers, mercenary freighters, and ruster junk ships joined next.
The metals had finally united against the dread.
But Jed couldn’t stay and fight—he had a mom to rescue. Jed closed his eyes and drew in as much of the mountain’s remaining battery power into his sparks as he could—more than he ever had before. “Time to go,” he said to Sprocket.
Jed ripped the cable from his chest. Sparks dribbled from the loose wires and splashed around his feet. He flew to the window and leaped out into the open air. Wind rushed over him as he tumbled downward. Charging the ground with mutiny, he pushed hard against it. His body slowed until he hovered midway down the mountain. With a firm push, he then mutinied himself into the sky.
Jed flew through the air, rallying himself from ship to ship in deep, swooping motions.
“Alice,” he shouted to Sprocket, who flew desperately after him. “We need to get Alice!”
He sailed toward the green battery bug, gliding through the air like a hawk. He spotted the Endeavor clinging to a corner of the dome like a spider in a web. Jed swiftly, quietly landed on top of a boxcar roof.
“I’m going to stop Lyle and rescue my mom,” he whispered to Sprocket.
“Alllizzz,” she hummed.
“But I need you to do something for me.”
“Okaaay,” Sprocket said cheerily. “Whaaat?”
“Figure out a way to stop all of that,” Jed said, motioning to the thundering war behind them.
Sprocket turned in the air, her tin can face glancing at the burning warships and the whistling shatterfire. She glanced back to Jed. Then back to the war. And finally, back to Jed.
“Whattt?!”
Jed nodded once. “Yep. Just stop the war. That’s it.” He patted her head softly. “Good luck.” Then he ripped open a train hatch and dropped inside.
Lyle stood before him, unsurprised, as if he’d been waiting for this. He was dressed in the mechanical suit from the spark cabin. Mutiny sparks clustered at the tip of its right arm.
“Hello, son,” Lyle said with a smirk. “Come to watch the show with me?”
“It’s over for you,” Jed said. “You’ve lost.”
Lyle smiled. “Look around,” he said. “Everyone’s lost. Not just me. Pretty soon, this world will be a graveyard. How many golds do you think will survive this battle? Have you ever seen a gold try to fight? They’re pathetic. No matter who wins, all of them will die.”
“What about your army?” Jed asked. “You’re going to lose your fleet.”
“Every corpse in this dome will be my army. The more that die, the better.”
“You’re insane.”
Lyle shrugged. “Perhaps. But no more so than the fools out there trying to blow one another to scrap.”
“Where is Alice?” Jed demanded.
Lyle reached into his pocket and retrieved the black key he’d tried so many times to use on Jed. “Put this in your chest, and she’s all yours.”
“I’m not going to let you take control of every spark in my body,” Jed said.
“I don’t just need the sparks,” Lyle said. “I need your frame, too. And I know you are too kind to let your meat sack mommy die.” He held the key toward Jed.
Jed stared at the key. “And if I give you my power, you’ll let my mom go?”
Lyle nodded slowly. “Yes.”
Jed stepped forward and reached out his hand. Lyle’s eyes glittered with anticipation.
But instead of taking the key, Jed clasped Lyle’s hand.
The hunger in Lyle’s face evaporated—replaced with apprehension. “What are you doing?” he asked.
Jed closed his eyes and released his power. “Giving you everything I have.”
Lyle tried to pull away, but Jed rallied their palms together into an unbreakable grip. Lyle’s gaze snapped to his. “Stop it.”
Jed released more energy.
“Let go of me!” Lyle shouted. Lyle’s arm glowed orange with heat. Jed felt bits of himself beginning to melt as well. Energy passed through their clasped hands. Lyle’s face twisted into a scowl. His voice sealed as his features blurred and dripped into each other.
The last of Jed’s energy dispersed. A biting cold washed through his blood. Blackness swirled through his vision and his knees buckled. He was a statue of ice, falling to the floor before a statue of molten gold.
Jed
“Jed!” a voice shouted. “Jed!”
A hand wrapped around his wrist. “Wake up, wake up!”
Jed opened his eyes. Shay’s face hovered over him. Her nose was almost touching his. “Are you awake, Sleepy Mouse?”
Jed grumbled. His limbs were stiff and protested as he flexed them.
“What’s going on?” he said. “How long was I out for?”
Shay’s face scooted back, and she shrugged. “How should I know? I just got here and found you taking a nap. By the way, what in scritcher-snap-clunk is that thing?” She motioned to a figure standing before him.
“Lyle,” Jed said.
Shay studied the mangled golden mess. “Is he still…?”
“Alive?” Jed finished. Shay nodded. “I have no idea.” He sat up. “Alice,” he said to Shay. “Where is she?”
“Over here.” Jed spun around. Alice sat in the corner of the train car. She gave him an uncomfortable wave. “Shay already told me,” she said. “About the whole mom thing. It’s just…I don’t remember anything before waking up on the Endeavor. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry,” Jed said. “I know exactly what that’s like, not being able to remember anything. It feels like slug clunk.”
She nodded, but the discomfort in her face remained.
“We’ll figure it out,” Jed said.
“How about you figure it out maybe after everyone stops killing each other?” Shay said, pointing out the window.
Jed stood and peered out at the battlefield. “We need to get them to stop fighting,” he said. Explosions crackled throughout the dome as more and more ships clustered together, firing upon one another. “Lyle was right. This place is going to be a graveyard by morning.”
He turned and gave Shay and Alice a helpless glance. “Anyone have any ideas?” he asked hopefully.
“What’s that?” Shay asked, pointing to a violet light in the distance.
Jed turned and squinted at the light. It grew larger and larger until it looked to be the size of one the dreadnoughts. It hovered in the air, drifting closer to the cluster of warring ships.
An iron falcon broke away from the battle and launched a series of rockets at the purple light. Just as the rockets drew near, the light burst into a million tiny dots. The falcon’s rockets soared harmlessly past them and exploded into a patch of empty grass. The swarm of lights pulled back, paused, and then rushed toward the warring fleets.
“Battery bugs,” Jed whispered. He turned and glanced at Alice. “They’re battery bugs.”
“Where’d they come from?” Shay asked.
Jed flashed back to when Sprocket danced with them around Lawnmower Mountain. Before he could answer, the purple battery bugs swarmed the ships still hammering one another with shatterfire.
One by one, the bugs winked out as they entered through cracks in the ships’ hulls. Ugly grinding noises soon began to whine across the battlefield. Thick black smoke oozed from every engine and turbine that now struggled to function.
“She’s actually doing it,” Jed said.
“Who’s doing what?” Shay asked.
“Sprocket,” he said, grinning. “She’s stopping the war.”
Jed scrambled through the hatch and leaped from the Endeavor.
Battery bugs swarmed the remaining airborne vessels. They disappeared through vents, cracks, and exhaust valves. Wherever they entered, flurries of sparks showered from the sabotaged guts of the ships. Dreadnoughts, wasps, and falcons all writhed in the air.
