The Clockwork
Mechanical
Mechanicals Book One
Peter R Stone
Copyright 2014 Peter R Stone
All images of the International Space Station are public domain images found on NASA’s website.
Chapter One
I wake up.
The thing is, I'm not in a bed or on the floor beside the bed or on a sofa or even in a car. I'm lying on a white floor made of metal that is bruising my elbow, shoulder and hip.
Sunlight is streaming into the room through a small round window. Okay, it's not a window. It's a porthole, like you would find on a spaceship.
I stand up and look around. The room is longer than it is wide, but isn't much bigger than a bedroom. The floor, walls and ceiling are all made of metal. They're all white and all look exactly the same. You could turn the room upside down and it wouldn't look any different. There are lights in the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, but they're flush with the metal. That means you can walk over the ones in the floor without stubbing your toes. Two circular passageways run off the room, leading to who knows where.
The funny thing is, I have no idea where I am or how I got here. Worse, I don't remember who I am. What on earth is going on?
I peek through the porthole and I gasp in shock, because I realise I'm not on the earth but in space! I know this because I can see the earth below me. It's a big round globe covered in fluffy white clouds, green and brown landmasses and lots of blue water.
I figure I must be dreaming, so I pinch myself hard. It doesn't wake me up, though; it just hurts and makes my skin go red.
So I’m not dreaming.
“Where am I?” I ask myself out loud.
“You are on a space station.”
I turn around and see a fuzzy bright blue ball about the size of a basketball hovering in front of me. It looks like it’s made of pure energy, like pure electricity or something.
“Did you just...speak to me?” I ask the ball.
“Yes, I did,” the ball replies.
“But what are you?”
“I am an orb.”
“I can see that. But what are you?"
"What I am is not important. What is important is why you are here," the orb says.
"I don't know where here is. In fact, I don't even remember who I am," I complain.
“You are a boy.”
“That much I know!” I snap.
“You are eleven years old.”
"Okay."
"And you are on a space station. Well, it used to be a space station. All sorts of things – parts of spaceships, satellites, even meteors, have been joined to it to increase its mass,” the orb says.
“But why would someone do that? Why do they want to make the space station heavier?” I ask, confused.
“A creature called a Mechanical did it. It increased the space station's mass so that when it enters the earth’s atmosphere in less than an hour, and crashes into the European continent, it will cause massive earthquakes and tidal waves. Millions of people will die," the orb informs me.
"But why? Why would someone do that? And what's a Mechanical anyway?" I enquire. None of this makes any sense.
"The Mechanical is a clockwork machine that is alive. And it is crashing the space station into Europe because it thinks the human species is dangerous and it is trying to wipe you all out."
"But that's terrible!" I protest.
"Yes, it is," agrees the orb.
I turn and look through the porthole. I can’t see much of the space station from here, but I can see its large solar panels and a couple of its sections, which if I remember rightly, are called modules. I can also see communications satellites, weather satellites and lopsided meteors joined to the modules and to the solar panel struts.
The whole thing is so sloppily and hastily put together that it looks like it would fall apart if someone sneezed on it. That makes me think of something.
"If this space station enters the atmosphere, it will be torn apart during re-entry and most of it will burn up," I say to the orb.
"Normally that would be the case. However, the space station is protected by a powerful force field which will protect it during re-entry," the orb says.
"Then the force field has to be shut down!" I point out.
"Exactly, and that’s why you are here. It's your job to shut it down," the orb says as it floats a little closer.
I step back. "What? No way! I can't even remember who I am: how am I supposed to shut down something like that?"
"The force field generator is in a module on the other side of the space station. You can't miss it; it’s a big copper and bronze machine full of bright blue energy." The orb starts to move away.
"No, wait!" I say. "Why have I lost my memory, how come I can’t remember who I am?”
“I am sorry about that, but it was... necessary.”
“What – you did this to me? You wiped my memory?” I demand angrily.
“As I said, it was necessary. One day you will understand why it had to be done. But for now, you had better hurry along because you don't have much time," the orb says as it starts to fade.
"You can’t ask me to do this!" I shout.
“Yes, I can.”
“But what of the space station’s crew - why don’t you ask them?” I beg frantically.
“The crew abandoned the space station weeks ago,” the orb says as it continues to fade. I can see right through it now. “Oh, one more thing – don’t let the Mechanical catch you. It will imprison you for the rest of your life."
I want to ask more, but the orb has gone.
Chapter Two
I stand there, frightened, confused, and alone. I’m also wondering why I'm standing on the floor. Aren't things supposed to float in space because there’s no gravity? Maybe this Mechanical creature has created an artificial gravity field inside the space station. It's also warm in here too, which is lucky, for I know space is very cold.
I stand there, wondering what to do. Should I look for the force field the orb told me about? Or should I try to find an escape pod?
My thinking is interrupted by strange sounds coming from the passageway on my right. I can hear large gears meshing together and the thump and scrape of metal upon metal.
I'm afraid to look and find out what's making such terrible sounds, but I look anyway. And then I squeal with fright because there is a monstrous machine standing there that looks like it came from my worst nightmares.
It looks like a mechanical lobster that's been cobbled together from scrap you could find in a junkyard. It has a brass and steel skeletal frame, eight mismatched legs with pincers or claws for feet that drag it along, and two twisting eyestalks complete with glowing red eyes. The mechanical creature's insides are filled with brass gears of all shapes and sizes that never stop turning. It also has a huge, coiled spring like those found in wind-up wristwatches.
The horrifying machine suddenly starts to bang one of its hind legs on the floor. It makes a series of short taps and longer thuds. Watching the otherwise motionless machine tapping randomly like this is so spooky that it makes me shudder.
The tapping stops just as suddenly as it began, and then the machine launches towards me with its larger foreleg pincers opening and closing.
I realise this machine must be the Mechanical creature the orb told me about.
I think about trying to talk to it, but it is so big and scary that I don’t think that would be a good idea.
So I turn and scamper into the other passageway. I hear the machine coming after me, but I don’t look back. I hurry through the passageway and step into another
module.
This one looks like it's used for storage. It has many closed compartments, handrails on the floor, walls and ceiling, storage bins, a computer terminal, and webbing on the walls in which you could put things to stop them floating away in zero gravity.
I tug open the circular hatch at the other end of the module and climb into the passageway beyond, just as the Mechanical enters the module behind me. It spots me with its red eyes and makes its way quickly towards me, dragging its hideous body along behind it.
I slam the hatch and turn the handle to lock it. The hatch has a glass viewing panel, so I watch as the Mechanical reaches out with two spindly metal arms and pushes against the hatch. When the hatch won’t open it produces a leg tipped with a blowtorch and starts cutting through the hatch with a shower of sparks.
I turn and run through the passageway and climb through a hatch into a longer module, which appears to be living quarters for the space station crew. It has two sleeping compartments, exercise machines, magnetic clipboards stuck on the metal walls, computer consoles and screens, and four portholes. It even has Russian writing on its green and white walls. How I know it's Russian I have no idea.
I get something of a major shock, though, when I realise there is a young girl standing in the middle of the module. A young girl surrounded by a swarm of little clockwork bronze butterflies.
The girl is about my age. She has a freckled face and wears her brown hair in pigtails.
The clockwork butterflies are taking turns landing on her outstretched hands, and she's giggling because their little metal legs are tickling her palms.
One of the butterflies spots me and flaps its thin metallic wings furiously as it flies towards me. I can see that its body has been constructed from the inner workings of a ladies wind-up wristwatch but the watch face and the hour and minute hands are missing. Its legs and antennae are very thin, but not as thin as the wings. The mechanical insect looks so fragile.
It suddenly occurs to me that these clockwork butterflies could be smaller versions of the big Mechanical that's chasing me. If that's true, they are probably just as deadly.
"These butterflies are dangerous – we have to destroy them!" I say to the girl as I reach out and snatch the clockwork insect from the air. I hold it with one hand and prepare to smash it with the other.
"No! Don't hurt it!" shrieks the girl as she charges me and grabs my hands. I try to smash the insect, but she's a lot stronger than she looks.
"Let go of me! These things are alive, they could be spies for the big Mechanical or maybe even hurt us!" I exclaim.
"Don't be daft, Brad – they're my friends. And they're so cute! Did you know that when they start to run down, they wind each other up? How cool is that? As long as there are two or more of them, they can survive, but if there was only one, it would unwind and then it would simply stop. That would be so sad, don't you think?" the girl says as she forces my hand open. She offers her hand to the butterfly and it crawls into her palm, and then with a flutter of its wafer-thin wings, flies up to join the rest of the swarm, which is hanging back behind the girl. Like they're scared of me or something.
Maybe the girl's right. Maybe they're not Mechanicals, or at least, not dangerous ones like that lobster thing.
Chapter Three
It suddenly occurs to me that the girl called me Brad.
“You know who I am?” I say.
“Duh! We're in the same class, remember? You know, in school,” she replies as though I was dense or something.
“My name is Brad?” I ask, disappointed. I was hoping I had an impressive name like Reginald or Bartholomew.
“What are you talking about? You can't remember your own name?” the girl says as she bounces away from me. The clockwork butterflies lift off her hands with a flurry of flapping wings and follow her.
“I seem to have lost my memory,” I explain.
“That’s too bad. Hey, maybe I can help you find it. What does it look like?”
“What does what look like?” I ask.
“Your memory,” she says.
‘Haha. Hey, how come you’re here?”
The girl doesn't answer because she has turned away from me and is fiddling with the treadmill, trying to work out how to turn it on.
I tap her on the shoulder and the butterflies between us scatter. “Hey, I asked you how come you're here.”
“Oh, sorry,” she says as she turns to face me. I notice she’s got dark brown eyes and a cute little button nose. “This shining blue ball thingy brought me here. It said I have to help you when you get here. Weird, huh? I was at home playing with my iPad trying out this new app. No, wait, not my iPad. I was playing with my new doll, you know, the one I got for my birthday. I took it to school to show everyone for 'Share and Care' when I got her, but no one cared. That's pretty sad, isn't it? I always get excited when you other kids bring things for 'Share and Care,' but no one cares when I do, you just talk to each other and ignore me...."
The girl keeps talking, though more to herself than to me, I think.
This whole situation, the space station, a girl from my school that I have no memory of, the clockwork butterflies – it's all so weird.
Surely I'm dreaming! I pinch myself again, but just like last time, it just hurts. It doesn't wake me up. And that's not good, because that means this is real, and if this is real, that means we have to find that force field and turn it off.
The girl has stopped talking and appears to have forgotten me. She’s trying to open a compartment in the wall. Actually, it's not a compartment – it's a bed.
I hear whirring gears and the scrape of metal claws on metal. I turn to see the mechanical lobster-creature reaching out several jointed legs so that it can pull itself out of the narrow passageway and into the crew quarters' module.
“Quickly, come with me!” I say, panicking.
The girl notices the Mechanical and squeals with fright. I grab her hand and we run to the hatch at the far end of the module with the swarm of clockwork butterflies close behind.
The Mechanical hurries after us, tracking our every moment with those evil red eyes. I wonder where the creature came from? Did someone make it? How come it's alive?
We climb through the hatch and find ourselves in another passageway. But in my hurry I forget to close the hatch, so the Mechanical climbs in after us, its gears whirring loudly as it comes.
The passageway leads us to another module. This one is really a junction that connects to three passageways: the one behind us, one in front, and one above. Okay, the one above is more like a service tube than a passageway.
The girl pulls me to a stop and points to the service tube. "Let's go up."
"Okay, but quickly," I say, and give her a boost up. She uses the handrails in the module and service tube to climb up and disappears into the module above. The butterflies flutter up after her. Strange little things. What are they? Where did they come from?
I jump up, grab a handrail, and begin to hoist myself up. I’m only half way up the tube, though, when something grabs my foot. I try to shake my foot free, but it feels like it's stuck in a vice. I glance down and see the hideous Mechanical directly below me. It has caught my foot in one of its pincers and is reaching for my other foot with the other one.
I kick away the second pincer as I cling to the handrails and try to pull myself up. But it’s no good; the clockwork monster is too strong.
“Help!” I shout as it tries to yank me out of the service tube.
Suddenly the girl is at the hatch above. She grabs my outstretched hand and pulls with all her might.
There's a ‘pop’ as my sneaker is ripped off my foot and then I’m in motion again and the girl helps me up and out of the service tube. Just in time too, for the Mechanical has discarded the sneaker and is reaching for me again. When it sees I’m out of reach, it tries to climb into the tube after me. Luckily, the tube’s too narrow for its large lobster-like body, so it backs away, and then suddenl
y starts to bang one of its hind legs on the floor, just like it did before. Short taps, longer thuds.
“Are you okay?” the girls asks.
“Yeah, I’m down a sneaker, though. But hey, thanks – you saved my life!” I answer. Though seriously, it feels weird walking around in one sneaker and one sock.
“No worries,” she replies as she gives me a big smile.
I look around and see that we're in a module where the astronauts conducted research and scientific experiments. Its floor, walls, and ceiling are jam packed with computers, computer cables, cameras, audio recording devices, air conditioning ducting, and dozens of interchangeable pods or racks which hold the experiments the astronauts worked on. I wonder what happened to the astronauts – perhaps they fled the space station in an escape pod when the Mechanical came here.
The module also has several portholes and a hatch at the far end.
Talking about hatches, there's also one on the floor, so I slam it shut and twist the handle to lock it. The Mechanical may not be able to fit up the service tube, but I feel a lot safer with the hatch closed and locked.
Chapter Four
We have to keep moving.
We have to find that force field and turn it off. I try not to think about what will happen to the girl and me when the space station burns up on re-entry. Maybe the orb will reappear and rescue us?
“Hey, what’s your name?” I ask the girl as we climb over workstations and computers to get to the other exit.
“Megan,” she replies.
“Nice to meet you, Megan,” I say.
“Don’t be daft: we’ve met each other lots of times,” she says with a musical laugh.
“I’ve lost my memory, remember?”
“Oh, that’s right: you did mention that. Hey, what am I supposed to be helping you with? I mean, there's not much I'm good at, you know. I'm hopeless at sport even though I do try my hardest. I'm way behind the rest of the class with my reading and writing. And don't get me started on maths: I can't even do my six times table yet. Not like you: you've memorized them all off by heart, you little smarty-pants. In fact, I don't know why they haven't put you up a grade; one of the girls told me you're doing a year nine maths workbook at home with your mum. I mean, wow...”