Abney Park's The Wrath Of Fate (21 page)

The docks were crowded with men, women and children, tying ropes, unloading cargo, and selling birds and beasts like fish on a wharf. There were huge machines attached to gas tanks that filled the airbags of the airships, and small wooden cranes hoisting cargo in and out of the them.

We steered confidently in. Or say, I did my best to give the appearance of confidence as we headed towards one of the docks. Men came out and stood at the ready by yard-long mooring cleats, so we threw them ropes. Soon a gangplank was extended, and I walked down it to meet with a red-faced, barrel-chested smiling man, who said, “Aye, she’s a ’beaut! That’s the best replica I’ve ever seen!” He was looking at our ship. “She looks just like the pictures of the
Ophelia
in the old newspapers from the ruins. In fact, other than that shattered hull, I’d say it was the actual
Ophelia.
Oh, and shouldn’t there be a big glass orb right in the middle there? Even still, you guys must really love your history!”

I said nothing, and we set off down the sun-bleached wood of the streets of High Tortuga. The outer docks were a bustle of commotion, but once inside their rings streets were peaceful and sunny, with only occasional shadows from the massive balloons that held the city from far above.

There were birds everywhere, and many of the railings were covered with their filth. Small children chased them, fed them, or caught them in large nets to take home for the supper pots.

The people of High Tortuga were a mismatched bunch. All skin colors, from fair and pink, sunburned and freckled, to black as pitch and covered in copper tattoos. There were huge tri-corn hats, and helmets as well as all hair types; braided beards and colored Mohawks, and curly blond ringlets so fair they looked like they were made of clouds. Some of the people wore huge coats, boots, and belts with swords or pistols in them. While others wore very little; vests, short pants and sunburned skin. Most had goggles on their eyes or foreheads, since there was often a strong wind blowing, making it hard to see.

The buildings where not tall, one or two storeys mostly. They were hand built of wood, mostly unpainted on the outer rings, but more ornate towards the center of the city, which appeared to be the favored homes.

We followed some signs, written in what looked like a stylized but readable variety of English, towards a pub called “The Weary Banshee”. Honestly, I’m not really sure why we were headed there, other than we were tired, and I hadn’t set foot in a pub in ages. It sounded like bliss.

We found the pub in a teetering building, hanging lower than the rest of the city. A porch and portholes that ran around the bottom floor had a three-sixty degree view of the grasslands and hills below High Tortuga.

We walked down a steep swinging bridge that led to a pair of doors, not the swinging saloon doors of the Old West I expected, but two heavy oak doors, with a big sign saying “Pull hard”. This we did, and in fact it took two of us to pull the massive creaking doors open, and we then stepped into a truly foreign place.

The first thing that struck us was the appearance that there was no floor! That wasn’t the case. The floor was completely made of thick glass, so the occupants could see what was going on under the city. Small, sturdy round aluminum tables were placed around the glass floor, with all manner of shadowy characters silhouetted against the sky beneath them. There were no candles or fires of any kind. Only a single large brass stove that sat in the corner of the room, with pipes and fans to push heat out. On the walls hung huge propellers, drawn swords, and framed sepia pictures of old airships, including…

“Oh, man, look at this!” Daniel pointed to a picture of a familiar craft. “That’s the
Ophelia
!” He was pointing to a news clipping that had been framed, that told of our exploits in the 1920s over the jungles of the Amazon Delta.

“Oh, what the hell!” Tanner said.

“Shush!” Daniel interrupted. “Keep your voice down.” He had moved onto the next framed news article. “If I’m understanding this correctly, it looks like we have not exactly been going our about missions undetected! We’d jump to the next destination, while people were writing articles about us! These guys see us as Santa Claus, or some team of super-heroes or something! Popping up through time to solve some world problem.”

Awesome, I thought. We’re superheroes!

Kristina rolled her eyes. “Thank god we didn’t stop to sign autographs! We’re lucky they don’t have pictures of us any closer then this,” she said, pointing to a distant shot of the
Ophelia
over a mosque in Istanbul. “If they did, I don’t think we’d have been able to get through the crowds at the docks!”

“Yeah, and I’ll bet they’re not happy with us.” Tanner said. “We’ve been missing for two hundred years, and the world has gotten pretty messed up.”

“It’s gotten pretty damn cool, too,” I said.

At this point a short, stout man in a silk coat and paisley top hat drew everyone’s attention toward the center of the room. “Ladies and Gentleman.” And then he laughed. “Who am I kidding, we got neither here.” The room chuckled and he began again, “Scoundrels and pirates, turn your attention to the stage!”

The man made a exaggerated gesture to a small platform in the center of the room, little bigger then a coffee table, with a small round lump in the middle of it, “I present to you a delicate treat of petite proportions!” At this the lump unwound itself, and stood up. A delicate ballerina of eighteen, gracefully lifted her arms over her head in an arch. She wore a translucent tutu, and point shoes, but it was clear that no other clothing was visible in the under light from the windows below.

“This
finely
crafted treasure. Nay, this Porcelain goddess of tender age and beauty, has been built purely for your pleasure!” Somewhere in the room a steam-powered calliope started puffing out a gentle waltz, in tones that reminded me of circus music.

The girl lifted herself to her toes, then slowly and without falter, lifted one leg up into the air and she hugged it. With a small twist she began to spin slowly on the other toe, as the narrator said, “She was crafted deep inside the cages of Desolation, from which her maker will never emerge! Yes, his cunning skill is obviously a genius the cities can’t endure, just as her skin has a smoothness that even silk can’t rival!”

As she spun, she extended one delicate arm, and when her back was turned towards us a large copper winding key could be seen extending from it. Her skin was a bit translucent on her back, and intricate gears could be seen spinning beneath as the key slowly turned.

Daniel gazed absentmindedly from a bar stool, and Tanner sat backward on a chair. Neither took their eyes off the doll for a moment. She stopped her slow spin, and stepped off the platform delicately
en pointe,
arms lifted above her head.

“Now gentlemen, or ladies, if the mood so strikes you,” the man in the paisley hat continued. “This fine delicacy is not here merely for you to gawk at from a distance! Oh no, this is a dish you may enjoy alone, for a time…” He paused, and then added with a lecherous tone “…And for a significant price! Imagine if you will, while she gracefully floats across the floor now, imagine how she can slither and grind in your bed!”

“Oh, we need to get her alone!” It was Kristina who had spoken. If it was possible, Daniel and Tanner’s jaws gaped a bit wider than they already where as they turned to face her.

“Um, we do?” I asked my wife with apprehension. I didn’t know where she was going with this.

“Yes, we do!” she was whispering excitedly now. “Look at her, she’s beautiful. She’s graceful, she’s amazing!”

I blushed. “Um, yes,” I said, feeling like I was being lured into a trap, and but still willing to take the bait.

Kristina turned towards me, and her look changed to one of a patronizing big sister. “She is amazingly
well made.
Who ever made her obviously is a very skilled engineer and scientist. Who ever he is, he could possibly fix the Chrononautilus on the
Ophelia!
We need to get her alone to find out where her maker is!” Daniel and Tanner looked suddenly disappointed.

“Let’s start the bidding at thirty-five!” said the small announcer, and a dozen hands went into the air. Kristina lifted her hand to bid, and the announcer chuckled. “Now that’s a sight I’d like to see! Okay, boys, don’t let this pretty lady bidder intimidate you! This is a dish you need to taste!”

In a few moments the auction was over. Kristina had won, and the small announcer put the ballerina’s hand in hers. “Take your time, girls, but get her back to me before sun-up.” And with this he gestured towards stairs that led to obviously seedy apartments. Kristina and the doll walked towards the steps, the doll gracefully on the tips of her toes the whole time. Just before she disappeared up the stairs, Kristina nodded for me to follow. I did, but I have to admit I felt a little tingly inside.

I walked inconspicuously as I could up the stairs a few yards behind the girls, and as I reached the top I saw them disappear into a room together. I knocked at the door, and Kristina opened it abruptly and pulled me in.

The doll was in the center of the bed kneeling, her transparent pink tutu flared around her small legs, and as her eyes flicked off Kristina’s to me, she said “Oh!” with surprise. Then she added, “Two is fine, but you have to be genlte with me. I break.”

“Actually,” Kristina said, “We have a question for you.”

The doll looked suspicious, and her little hands balled up into fists. “Yes?”

Seeing the doll’s apprehension, Kristina sat on the bed next to her. Speaking in a gentle tone she asked, “Do you mind terribly if we ask who made you?”

The doll
did
mind! She leaped to her feet, and grabbed a propeller shaped chandelier above us, and swung over Kristina. She would have swung right over me, and gone out the door, but mid swing the chandelier broke free, and crashed to the ground with her under it. She lay angrily pinned under it, her leg jutted out from under her body at an unnatural looking angle.

“Whoa, whoa!” I said, and I stooped to help lift the chandelier off her, “What was that? Are we not allowed to ask you that?”

She tried to stand, but her broken leg would not support her. She started to cry tiny golden tears that flowed slowly down her porcelain-like cheeks. “What will you do with me?”

“What? Nothing!” I said. “What do you mean?”

“You are not peelers? You don’t fill the Change Cage?” she asked, now looking as confused as I was.

“No, we don’t! We don’t even know what that is!” I said desperately.

“Look, we are not from around here, and we don’t really know the rules,” Kristina said. “We really don’t wish to harm you at all, its just that we are in big trouble and we need someone who’s good at building and fixing. I saw the gears through your back, and assumed whoever made you could help us.” Kristina then added, “You look…complex.”

“I am,” the doll said, not giving a hint as to which meaning of the word she was acknowledging. But she relaxed, and I helped her up to the side of the bed. We all quietly looked at her leg. As I held it in my hands, I could feel it was not a “bone is broken” sort of break, but a “pistons and chains have pulled loose under the skin” sort of break. It rattled when I moved it. This is not something that would heal - it had to be fixed.

“I don’t know who made me,” she said, and she looked out the porthole window toward the sunset. From here we could see the grassy plains, the horizon, and the setting sun. Just above the horizon we could see a cluster of airships, all uniformly built with black gondolas and black ballonets. These were just visible under the docks and airships at the edge of the city. As this cluster of black airships drew closer, bells started ringing around in the distance, and just as we heard them, the enclosing airships fired!

Torpedoes in the sky, self-propelled rockets whistled away from their hulls towards the docks. Their impact shook the city in waves, and cast its citizens off the bridges and into the sky. I could hear commotion in the bar below us, and I now knew why its patrons felt more comfortable dining while keeping their eyes on the horizon.

Another impact sent the room swinging, and the doll desperately grabbed my arm. “Take me with you. I am not allowed to be!”

“What?” I asked.

“Take me with you, and I will help you find my maker! My brother knows were he is, he can take you to him!” She held her arms out to me imploring.

I glanced at Kristina, who nodded, so I picked up the doll and put her over one shoulder as delicately as I could, while saying, “Tell me if I hurt you.” Like this the three of us ran from the room.

As we came down the stairs, Tanner and Daniel were coming up. “Hey, I think its time to leave,” Daniel said. Another explosion painted the sky red, and swung the Inn harshly.

“What gave you that idea?” I said as the five of us ran towards the door.

“Well, for starters, everyone else left,” Daniel said. “Kind of in a hurry, too.”

We ran up the ramp, and when we got to the streets we could see the docks were ablaze. Airships were starting their propellers, and the small black fleet was drawing closer, firing shot after shot into the port, clearing themselves a place to dock.

Many men and woman ran past us down the massive hanging bridge that led to our ship. They brandished a wide array of weapons, some obvious like swords or rifles, and some not so obvious. I saw one man rolling a device that looked like a wheelbarrow, with one wheel and two handles and triggers. On top was a series of brass orbs connected to two large cones that pointed out the front.
“Aetheric Condenser Cannon
” read a little plaque on the side. I might never know what it does, but I’m guessing you shouldn’t stand in front of it!

Another torpedo hit the docks where our swinging bridge anchored to them. The shockwave rolled down the bridge like a wave on the ocean, and tossed the townspeople like rag dolls off a bedspread.

“Hold on!” I yelled, and we all grabbed the railings and prepared to be thrown. The doll tightened her small soft arms around me, just as the bridge lifted and tossed us into the air. For a moment, my feet were above me, and a second later we were back on our feet running.