Cogs in Time Anthology (The Steamworks Series Book 1) Read online

“I wonder where everyone is,” Pierce said, staring down at the vast square structure.

  The Independence crew busied themselves with landing, and Billings climbed the ladder to prepare the rest of his men for the exploration of the building.

  Murunga stood beside Pierce and looked down at him. “Captain?”

  “Such a huge building, in the middle of a jungle. And a strange ship comes down out of the sky. Didn't anyone notice? Where are the people who live here?”

  “Ndiyo, it gives me a strange feeling, like a ghost village. A village deserted after a terrible illness. I'm beginning not to like this voyage.”

  Pierce grinned and slapped Murunga's shoulder. “It's the unknown, my friend. That's why we're here.” And that's what keeps us alive, he thought, not stagnating in a bungalow on the African savanna.

  “There's nothing to tie the mooring lines to,” Liz Fletcher said from her place next to the pilot. Her crew was on the ground, holding fore and aft lines, preventing the craft from drifting away. “The ground is too hard for them to pound in anchor hooks. I don't know what it's made of, but they can't even crack it.”

  “Then we'll get out, and the Independence will have to lift off and stay nearby,” Pierce said. “Can you keep the ship above the courtyard, ready to retrieve us when we need it?”

  “Mr. Gridley can. I'm going with you, Mr. Pierce.”

  “I don't think that's wise,” Pierce said.

  “Because I'm a woman? Spare me your misplaced gallantry, Captain. Aside from the search and rescue mission, your objective is to study their version of the portals. You're no scientist, and Billings certainly isn't. I'm an engineer. I designed and built this airship, which is a flying Tesla portal. I started helping my father improve on Tesla's primitive designs when I was twelve, and in the last five years, I've improved my father's designs. So, do you know of anyone else who knows more about the Tesla portals?”

  “No, can't say I do,” Pierce said. “Very well, then. Murunga, please stay close to Miss Fletcher.”

  Her eyes flashed in anger. “I don't need your servant to follow me around, Captain.”

  Murunga tightened his jaw, making the ritual scars more pronounced.

  Pierce stepped closer to Liz and kept his voice low and sharp. “Miss Fletcher, Murunga is a Maasai warrior, the son of a chieftain. And he is my friend. You can be as condescending to me all you like, but treat him with respect, and never call him a servant.”

  Murunga relaxed his features. “Captain Pierce is my captain, miss. Besides, he pays me well.”

  Liz Fletcher reddened. “I'm sorry, Murunga. I just thought because you're dressed up like an English gentleman and all...”

  Pierce motioned to Murunga's dark slacks, waistcoat, and jacket. “He chooses to dress like that. European culture is something of an obsession with him. Actually, I find it embarrassing. He spends all his wages on clothing.”

  Murunga looked down at Pierce. “You only complain because I dress better than you. Which is only proper, since I am a prince.”

  “Your father has six sons,” Pierce said. “You're the youngest.”

  “But still a prince.” There was a hint of a smile on the large man's face. “Besides, English clothes make for good hiding places.” He pulled a dagger with a carved bone hilt from his sleeve, and then concealed it again in one swift motion.

  Billings and his men descended the ladder and headed toward the gangway as Liz gave final instructions to Gridley and accompanied Pierce and Murunga in Billing's wake.

  Pierce stood in the shade of the airship, the solid ground feeling good after the rocking and vibrations of the craft. Smelling the rich odor of vegetation in the humid air, he could imagine being somewhere in the tropics of Earth, but he sensed a strangeness, a taste that was otherworldly. Add to that, an odd sensation as he walked, a sluggishness as though he had suddenly gained weight.

  The landing crew of the Independence climbed the gangway, and the airship rose into the deep blue sky.

  “Well, Captain Pierce,” Billings said, “where do we start?”

  Pierce wanted to question the two men Billings had sent as scouts, to see what they had found. He headed toward the man who had signaled them to land, and then stopped.

  The soldier pulled off his white pith helmet and tossed it aside, revealing a head of blond hair plastered flat with perspiration. He drew his Webley and aimed it at Pierce. The face that grinned at them was one Pierce did not recognize.

  “What the blazes!” Billings exclaimed. “Who the bloody hell are you? Where's Cooper and Granger?”

  Other men appeared through the doorway behind the stranger, but their uniforms were gray. Pierce recognized them, as did Billings, who dropped his hand to his own revolver.

  “Please, Captain,” said a tall man dressed as a German major, “do not draw your weapon. And instruct your men to drop their rifles.”

  One of Billings' men raised his rifle to take aim. A German soldier, carrying a bulky, thick-barreled weapon attached by cables to a metal and wood box strapped to his back, aimed the contraption at the soldier. Blue sparks flashed across the copper coils wrapped around the barrel, and a blinding beam shot out, engulfing the Englishman. In a flash, the man was gone. Nothing was left of him, as though he never had existed. A second German pulled a lever down on the back of the box and began cranking it around, as though winding a clock.

  The major raised a hand. “Please, Captain, do not make me ask again. Weapons on the ground and hands up.”

  Billings slowly released his pistol and laid it on the ground, nodding to his men to do the same.

  “Who are you? What do you want?” he demanded.

  “Major Henric von Eisen, at your service. And you are?”

  “Captain Charles Billings, Her Majesty’s Royal Army. And you are trespassing.”

  Von Eisen smiled. “It would seem we are all trespassing. However, I have laid claim to this planet in the name of Kaiser Wilhelm.”

  “You can't do that! We were here first. That's our portal in the jungle,” Billings insisted.

  “And very convenient it was for us to travel back to Berlin. There was no portal when we first arrived, only your expedition. Oh, do not concern yourself over those men. With one exception, they are all now guests of the German Empire in Berlin, as you soon will be. True, your people were here first, but no one will dispute our claim.”

  “Last time I checked the papers,” Pierce said, “Germany and England weren't at war.”

  Von Eisen looked at him. “And you are?”

  “Harrison Pierce.”

  “Ah, yes. The name is familiar to me. I have read one of your books, the one on your exploits in East Africa. And the young lady?”

  “Elizabeth Fletcher,” Liz said.

  “American? How quaint.” Von Eisen looked into the sky. “And such an amazing craft. How in God's name were you able to bring it here? Obviously not through a Tesla portal, unless England has built a very large one. The Kaiser will be fascinated when he sees it. I am, of course, confiscating it in the name of Kaiser Wilhelm.”

  “Not on your life, mister!” Liz said. “That ship is the property of Fletcher Industries.”

  “Not any longer. Doktor Himmel!”

  A small man in a rumpled dark suit came out from the building, wiped the perspiration from his face with a handkerchief, and squinting against the brightness. “Jawohl, Mein Herr?” He looked into the sky, fumbled in a pocket, and pulled out a telescope. He extended it and aimed it at the airship. “Gott! Herr Major, there are Faraday coils running along the superstructure. The airship is its own portal.”

  “I suspected as much,” von Eisen said. “An invention of Fletcher Industries?”

  Liz stepped forward. “I–”

  “Yes,” Pierce said, interrupting her. He grabbed her arm and tugged her back. She glared at him, but stayed quiet. If she so much as hinted at being the inventor herself, she would never see America again. The Germans would lock her away and drai
n every bit of knowledge from her, and not in a pleasant way. “Miss Fletcher is a representative of the company. She has loaned the ship to Her Majesty's government for this expedition.”

  “Where are my two men who were the first to land?” Billings demanded. “Did you kill them as you did Peterson?”

  “No,” von Eisen said. “They are safe for the moment.”

  “What is that thing?” Billings asked, motioning toward the bulky device that had vaporized his soldier.

  “Ah!” Himmel said, grinning with crooked teeth. “My own invention. A modification of the Tesla portal. Where the portal transmits a person to a destination frequency, this merely transmits…to nowhere. The soldier is still here, his atoms dispersed. He has floated away on the breeze.”

  “So you took a tool that has bettered mankind,” Liz said, “and turned it into a weapon.”

  “Of course,” said the little man.

  “And,” von Eisen said, “it was a convenient tool to use in forging a path through the jungle. We hid the starting point near the portal clearing, so that other explorers would not so easily find it. It did not occur to me that you British would be so resourceful as to bring an airship.”

  “What do you want here?” Pierce asked. “How did you even know about this world?”

  Von Eisen motioned to the door. “Come inside. The air out here is stifling. To answer your first question, Captain Pierce, we came for the same reason you have. Exploration and expansion.”

  They were surrounded by the armed Germans and escorted into the building, where the air was noticeably cooler and without the musty, decaying odors of the jungle. Humidity was low, as though the atmosphere was somehow filtered and controlled. The corridors were wide and high, lighted by electric fixtures hidden behind panels in the ceiling. Pierce marveled at the smooth material of the walls and the thick sponginess of the floor, which absorbed the sounds of their footfalls.

  “Where are the people who built this place?” Pierce asked, wondering if the Germans had killed them or taken them prisoner.

  “Gone,” von Eisen said as he led the way. “Long ago, undoubtedly. A pity. I would like to have spoken with them, to learn about all their marvels. We have so much to learn from them. In particular, their source of power. Their fixtures still light and the air flows fresh from vents, but how is everything still running? But perhaps we have found the answer.”

  He turned off the corridor and went through a door that opened on its own. Pierce stopped short, but von Eisen motioned him and the others inside.

  The room was so huge that the Independence could have fit in it. The ceiling was several stories high. Benches with flashing lights and electrical devices stood in several rows. At the further end was a large metal sphere with small windows set into it. Large glass sheets were set in all the walls around the room, showing only whiteness.

  Billing's two men, Granger and Cooper, sat on stools to the right of the sphere, the latter in his shirtsleeves, a German holding a pistol on them from behind. On another stool another soldier sat, his uniform khaki, devoid of trappings, the material stained and torn. He looked up as the others entered, his dirty and bruised face brightening, eyes widening.

  “Harry!”

  Sam Pierce started to rise, but the German behind him shoved him back down.

  “Ah, yes,” von Eisen said. “The connection makes sense, now. And the names. It is all right. Allow the siblings a reunion. We are, after all, not uncivilized.” He nodded to his soldier standing guard over the prisoners, and then waved Sam to approach.

  Sam glanced over his shoulder to the guard, and then pushed himself to his feet. He walked unsteadily, as though in pain. Sam was the officer of the first expedition. The Germans would have interrogated him, and not kindly.

  Ignoring the armed Germans around him, Pierce went to meet his brother. He gripped his hand in greeting, and then helped support him to join the others.

  “Are you all right?” Pierce said, though he could see he wasn’t.

  “Never better, old man. So they recruited you, did they? Sorry to spoil your retirement, Harry. Never dreamed they’d come after you. I have caused a bit of a stink, haven’t I?”

  “Wouldn’t have missed it, Sam.”

  “How touching,” von Eisen said. “But allow me to show you gentlemen, and lady, something extraordinary.”

  He stepped to one of the benches, fiddled with dials and buttons, and one of the glass sheets began to glow. Then it turned blue with an image of the sky, and in the center was the cigar shape of the Independence. The image magnified, until the airship filled the glass.

  “Fascinating, isn't it?” the major said. “Like an electrical window. It is how we knew you were here.”

  “We have only scratched the surface,” Himmel said. He pulled a device shaped like a book from his pocket. On its front was a rectangle of glass-like material, similar to the large sheets on the walls. Tiny buttons covered the rest of its front, while the back had an elaborate set of brass gears and a crank lever that looked out of place with the rest of it.

  “My own modifications,” Himmel said, tapping the brass contraption. “Its battery does not keep a charge, so I attached a clockwork system for recharging, similar to what I use on my portal weapon.”

  He tapped buttons on the front and the glass lit with the scrawl of a foreign language.

  “I have been working on a translation of their language,” he said. His other hand dove into another pocket, pulling out a battered notebook. He waved the leather-bound book at them. “My notes. This is fascinating! All the things we can learn, especially their source of power.” He motioned toward the giant sphere.

  “What is it?” Pierce asked. He left Sam with Murunga and approached the metal sphere, peering through one of the windows. Inside was a shiny metal cylinder. It didn't appear to be doing anything. No spinning, no steam, no heat. Yet he could feel the slightest vibration under his fingertips as he touched the glass, as though it were alive.

  “That,” Himmel said, joining him, “is the power of the sun.”

  Pierce looked at him. The little German nodded enthusiastically and motioned him to a nearby bench with buttons, dials, and little squares of glass. Himmel touched buttons and one glass lit with the strange foreign writing.

  Pierce reached out to touch one of the buttons, to see if he could get one of the other glass sheets to light up.

  “Nicht! Don't touch that!” Himmel snapped. “I have not been able to translate everything. I do not know what all these buttons do. But imagine what we can do when I learn the secret of their power. I could make my portal gun lose all its bulkiness. I could build them the size of pistols.”

  “And the Kaiser's army will be invincible,” von Eisen said.

  “Unstoppable, you mean,” Billings said.

  Von Eisen smiled. “You came here for the same reasons, Captain Billings. You and young Captain Pierce there. He hasn’t admitted to it, even under…strenuous questioning. But we have eyes and ears in your own government, which is how we knew about this place. We came here not long after your first expedition, taking them captive. Captain Pierce’s men are all alive and well in Berlin. We insisted on his company here, so that he might enlighten us as to his mission, to no avail. We already know that your government intends to use this place and any knowledge here to advance its own empire. Exploitation seems the general rule for our respective empires.”

  “We’re here for exploration,” Pierce said, turning away from his study of the control console and the scrolling foreign script.

  “Don’t be so naive, Captain. You have seen too much in your career. Even your book lamented on how the savage world has been exploited by our civilizations.”

  “We aren’t here to colonize,” Pierce insisted. “Only to gain knowledge.”

  “And then?” von Eisen asked. “You would use that knowledge against us, as we will against you. The strongest survives to take control of the world, and then this world. And others be
yond it. What did they tell you, Captain Pierce? Did they promise that this was only exploration so that you would join in on the rescue? They lied.”

  “We're an expeditionary force,” Billings said. “You maniacs are the ones who want to conquer. We just want to beat you back.”

  “The British Empire would not have gone through the expense to hire the American airship if it did not expect to gain some great advantage. Weapons, of course. Or more advanced sciences, especially as the portals are concerned. Your people already suspected what we have discovered. Whoever built this place did not come from here. They traveled through their own portals, and they have left frequencies to other worlds, perhaps their own home world.”

  Himmel held up the small device so that they could see more incomprehensible writing. “I have translated their frequencies. Dozens of them.”

  “You are here to expand the Empire, as am I,” von Eisen said. “Only we work for opposing empires. Mine, however, is superior. With this new knowledge, we will spread over Earth, and then take our empire to the other planets. An easy process when we combine the new technology with your airship design. Imagine mounting portal weapons on airships and laying waste to England and America.”

  “I won't let you do that!” Liz Fletcher yelled. She stomped over and slapped von Eisen across the face. Soldiers moved to grab her, but von Eisen waved them off.

  Pierce studied the bench beside the sphere with all its lights and buttons. A large red button caught his attention. It was under a clear protective box that swung back on a hinge, preventing anyone from accidentally pushing it. In his culture, red was an indication of danger. What did it mean to the beings that built this structure? They had doors, tables, and chairs. Were they similar to men in other aspects? He flipped back the protective shield.

  “Do not touch that!” Himmel cried, reaching toward him.

  He pushed the red button.

  Immediately, a whooping siren sounded.

  “Kill him,” von Eisen said, pushing Liz Fletcher aside. He motioned to the soldier with the Tesla weapon.

  The machine hummed to life as the man threw switches on its stock, and aimed it at Pierce. The device on his back hissed and hummed.