The Clockwork Mechanical (Mechanicals Book 1)

  All the same, I hold my breath until I feel like I’m going to burst. Then I notice that Megan is breathing normally. The butterflies must have trapped a pocket of air around our faces!

  So I breathe out and quickly suck in another breath, and I’m astonished to find I can breathe. I look down at the clockwork butterflies clustered around my nose and mouth, and I’m amazed. These little creatures are much cleverer and more capable than I had imagined.

  The timer reaches 0:00 and the outer airlock hatch swings open. I half expect to be sucked into outer space, but it turns out that Megan was right. The hatch opens into another passageway, just like she said. It's a bit of a mess, though, cluttered with bags, discarded power cables and other odds and ends. It looks to me like the passageway is used for storage.

  The butterflies peel themselves from our faces and rush into the passageway.

  "Come on!" Megan says, glancing at me once before she hurries after them.

  Spidey rushes in as well but comes straight back out, making my heart miss a beat. Maybe there is something dangerous in there after all.

  But before I can think any more fearful thoughts, there is a metallic ‘clunk’ as Spidey drops a new steel bolt at my feet.

  “Found another one, did you?” I say with a laugh.

  I pick up the bolt and throw it into the passageway and Spidey scurries off after it. I rush in after him and the hatch swings shut behind me. I have to pick my steps carefully or I’ll trip over all the items crammed in the passageway.

  Spidey is having trouble getting over a thick cable that stretches across the floor. I pick him up and he starts to buzz really loudly, like he's purring or something.

  “You’re a cute little thing, aren’t you?” I say as I put him down on the other side of the cable and then climb over myself. Spidey takes off, chasing after the bolt.

  The tunnel ends at another airlock, just like Megan said. She opens it and we all get in, including Spidey, who has just found the bolt.

  We close the outer airlock hatch, and wait two minutes while the airlock tries to pump the small room full of air. Funny thing is, it’s already full of air, thanks to the passageway.

  When the two minutes are up we open the inner hatch and step into another module, which looks like it was used for conducting scientific experiments. Some experiments are bolted to the floor and walls. I can see a fish tank, another tank full of small plants, microscopes, magnification lenses, computers, and all sorts of recording equipment.

  Megan rushes over to the fish tank and starts tapping on the thick glass. She spots an automatic feeder button and pushes it, and food is pumped into the fish tank.

  "There you go, little fishies. Eat up, we don't want you to starve, now do we?" she asks.

  I'm about to point out that the fish are all going to die when the space station is destroyed, but I keep my mouth shut. I may as well let her have her fun.

  Chapter Nine

  Without warning, the module starts to vibrate and shake. I step over to a porthole and look outside.

  "Oh no," I moan.

  “What’s wrong?” Megan asks as she reaches out to grab a handrail on the wall for support.

  “We’re entering the atmosphere – we’re almost out of time!”

  What do we do?” she asks.

  “You have to get me to the force field generator and you have to get me there now!” I shout, terrified. If we don’t get there in time millions of people will die.

  “Okay, follow me!” Megan says, and darts across the module with the butterflies close behind.

  Spidey drops the bolt at my feet and backs up expectantly.

  I haven’t got time for this, but the little clockwork spider is so excited, wagging his abdomen from side to side. So I scoop up the bolt and throw it to the other end of the module. Spidey rushes after it, but stops suddenly when he passes Megan. He steps back as though he’s scared of something.

  That’s when I see them. The floor in front of Megan and Spidey is covered in hundreds of writhing mechanical worms, each about the size of my little finger but twice as long. They have sharp little mandibles that are constantly opening and closing. And like the Mechanical, Spidey and the butterflies, they look very much alive.

  “Stop, Megan!” I cry out.

  “No, it's okay, this really is the right way to go,” she says as she is about to step right on top of the worms.

  Spidey goes crazy. He runs at Megan and bumps his little metal head on her leg, trying to stop her from putting the foot down. The butterflies swarm her face and force her to step backwards.

  I grab her and pull her towards me so that she falls on top of me.

  “What are you doing?” she demands angrily as we both get back on our feet.

  I point to the writhing worms and their sharp mandibles. “You almost stepped on those things!”

  “Oh,” she says as she takes a step closer to look at them. “They weren’t here when I came this way last time. Are you sure they’re dangerous?”

  “Look at Spidey, he’s terrified of them,” I say.

  “What can we do? There are too many of them to jump over, and we have to go that way. I mean, there could be another way, but this is the only way I know to the force field thingy and you said we don’t have much time anyway. Besides, that Mechanical thingy isn’t far behind us, is it? Can we shovel them out of the way? But no, I can't see any shovels...”

  Megan keeps prattling away, but I shut out her voice as I try to work out a way over or past the worms. I look for a shovel too, but there isn't one, of course. You can’t use a shovel in space when everything just floats away. No, in space you have to use a vacuum cleaner to clean up messy spills.

  I need a vacuum cleaner!

  I hear a loud bang behind us and my heart jumps into my throat when I see the timer above the airlock counting down from two minutes. It's the Mechanical! In less than two minutes that hatch will open and if we’re still here it’s going to catch us.

  I look around the module frantically, looking for a vacuum cleaner. I spot a vacuum cleaner head set into the wall between two workstations. I grab it, give it a good tug, and the hose slithers out of the wall like a snake.

  I switch it on and start sucking up those ugly little metal worms by the handful. As I work, I’m glad the Mechanicals didn’t disconnect the power to the space station modules and machinery; otherwise, we’d be in big trouble now.

  I wonder why the Mechanicals need air and warmth. My guess is that their gears will seize up in below zero temperatures.

  "That’s a big enough gap: let’s go!” I say as I dart across the section of floor that’s clear of worms. Spidey hurries across behind me.

  When I get to the other side, I realise Megan hasn't followed me. I turn around and groan when I see she's got her eye pressed to a black microscope on one of the workstations.

  "Megan!" I shout.

  "You should see this, it's amazing," she replies.

  "What are you doing? Quickly, come over here before the worms close the gap!"

  "What? Oh!" she says when she looks up from the microscope. With great reluctance, she turns from the device and hurries towards me. But as she picks her way carefully through the gap, the terrible little worms go into a frenzy of wriggling and slithering and quickly close the gap.

  Megan stands there, stuck in the middle of them, and tries to kick and scuff them away from her. But for each worm she boots away, two take its place. Some of them are already chewing small chunks out of her sneakers. They'll be chewing into her feet in no time.

  "You have to jump!" I shout.

  "I can't!" she wails.

  The clockwork butterflies come to the rescue. The whole swarm descends upon the worms blocking Megan's passage. With their fragile little legs, they pick up the worms, fly them to the side, and drop them.

  One little butterfly is too slow, though. As it dips down to pick up a worm, two more worms launch themselves at it and latch on to it with the
ir mandibles. The butterfly is dragged down into the writhing mass of worms and in a frenzy of biting and chewing, it is torn apart.

  "No!" Megan cries in horror.

  I'm sad too, but I notice the valiant butterflies have cleared a path in front of Megan, so I dart forward and pull her to safety. The rest of the butterflies immediately abandon their efforts to pick up worms and hurry after us.

  "I lost one of my little butterflies!" Megan sobs on my shoulder.

  "I know, I'm sorry," I say as I pat her head gently. "Now come on, we have to keep going." I add this last comment because the whole mass of worms is wriggling towards us, their mandibles opening and closing with deadly intent.

  I wonder briefly why Spidey and the butterflies are on our side. Why are they helping us while the Mechanical and worms are trying to catch or hurt us? They are all clockwork mechanical creatures that have come alive, so what’s the difference between them?

  The airlock's hatch bangs open at that exact moment and the Mechanical heaves itself into the module. As if the worms weren't enough of a problem!

  Chapter Ten

  “Come on, Megan!” I shout as I pull her through the hatch and into a short passageway. We run through it and exit into a large module that looks like it's from a completely different space station. For starters, Chinese writing is all over the equipment. The module's floor, walls and ceiling are covered with workstations, computers, pipes, compartments, electrical wires, oxygen tanks, and portholes.

  I don't have time for a closer look because the space station is rattling and shuddering very loudly now. Somehow, it's managing to stay in one piece. The force field's obviously doing its job.

  That's when I see it. At the far end of the module is the very thing we’re looking for. The force field generator. It's immediately obvious it doesn't belong here. The space station is all whites and creams and some blues, but the force field generator is a circular device built out of bronze and copper. It has a glass dome top and blue and white energy can be seen crackling inside it. A dozen thick black power cables run from the machine and disappear into the walls. I guess the machine gets its power from the space station's solar panels.

  "That's the thing you want to turn off, isn't it?" Megan asks me, her face aglow with pride at her accomplishment.

  "That's it all right – you did good," I tell her as I rush over to the device and try to work out how to turn it off.

  "I told you I could take you to it. Not so hopeless, am I? Everyone thinks I'm no good at anything, but like I said, I've got a great sense of direction. Mum says I've got a good eye for colour too. She says I'll be an artist one day. Maybe that's why art's my favourite subject at school. You should have seen the..."

  "Hey, can you shush for a minute? I'm trying to find the generator's off switch," I say.

  The space station is rattling and bucking now, so I have to hold onto the generator to keep from falling over. I explore every inch of the device but I can't find how to turn it off. Maybe I just have to yank out the power cables?

  I grab the closest cable, but before I can try to pull it out, Megan squeals in fright and runs behind me. The swarm of little butterflies flaps frantically behind her.

  I turn around just in time to see the big lobster-like Mechanical claw its way into the module.

  Its eye stalks swivel towards me, to the force field generator, and back to me. It closes the hatch behind it so that we can’t escape, and then rushes towards me with its forelegs raised and pincers opening and closing.

  I give the cable a frantic tug, but it doesn't budge. I don't have time to try again because the Mechanical reaches me.

  That's it for me: game over, lights out. However, just as it's about to pluck me off the floor with its pincers, Megan rushes past me and attacks it with her sneakers, which she's pulled off her feet. Her sneakers make a loud clanging sound as she bashes them against the Mechanical's legs, but she doesn't damage it at all.

  Megan has managed, however, to get the Mechanical's attention. It abandons me and grabs her with its pincers instead.

  "Quick, turn the thing off!" she shouts as the Mechanical lifts her off the floor. The clockwork butterflies go crazy. They buzz around the Mechanical's pincers like a swarm of angry wasps.

  “Ouch, you’re hurting me!” Megan shouts at the Mechanical

  I know I should take advantage of this development and try to turn off the force field generator, but I can't stand by and let the Mechanical hurt Megan.

  So I grab my spanner, rush at the clockwork monster, and try to hammer it into scrap metal. I smash one of the eye stalks and dint one of the forelegs, but then it's all over, because the Mechanical lets go of Megan with one pincer and uses it to pull me to the side so that I can't keep smashing its head with the spanner.

  While Megan and I are both dangling helplessly from the Mechanicals outstretched pincers, it begins banging a mix of short taps and longer thuds on the floor with a hind leg.

  I hang from the pincer, trying to work out what to do, when it hits me like a punch in the face. The Mechanical is not thumping the floor randomly. It’s using a code – Morse code. Short dashes and long dashes, short taps and longer thuds. How could I have been so blind! The Mechanical has been trying to talk to me since I first bumped into it.

  I concentrate on listening to the taps and thuds and start to decode the machine’s message.

  The message goes like this:

  -.. --- -. --- - .... .. -. -.. . .-. ..- ... --..-- -... .-. .- -.. .-.. . -.-- -- .. .-.. .-.. -. . .-. .-.-.- .... ..- -- .- -. .. - -.-- .. ... . ...- .. .-.. .-.-.- .. - -- ..- ... - -... . -.. . ... - .-. --- -.-- . -.. -... . ..-. --- .-. . .. - -.-. .- -. ... .--. .-. . .- -.. - --- --- - .... . .-. .--. .-.. .- -. . - ... .-.-.- -.. --- -. --- - .... .. -. -.. . .-. ..- ... --..-- -... .-. .- -.. .-.. . -.-- -- .. .-.. .-.. -. . .-. .-.-.-

  I decode it to:

  DO NOT HINDER US, BRADLEY MILLNER. HUMANITY IS EVIL. IT MUST BE DESTROYED BEFORE IT CAN SPREAD TO OTHER PLANETS. DO NOT HINDER US, BRADLEY MILLNER.

  I look at the Mechanical with surprise. How does it know my name? Seriously, why does this living clockwork machine KNOW MY NAME?! How freaky is that? And it doesn't just know my first name, but my surname too. ‘Millner,’ it called me. Another let down – what kind of surname is that?

  But more importantly, the Mechanical told me why it’s trying to destroy Europe – it thinks people are evil, and it’s trying to stop us spreading to the stars.

  “You’re wrong – not all humans are like that!” I shout at the machine.

  That's when I see my chance. From here, I can see right inside the Mechanical. I can see its gears – big ones and middle sized ones and little ones – all whirring loudly as they spin around. I look at the spanner in my hand and I know what to do. If I jam the spanner into the gears, the Mechanical will seize up.

  Smiling with anticipation of finally being able to get rid of the annoying clockwork machine that has chased us all over the space station, I draw back my hand and thrust forward the spanner.

  But there is a loud CLANG and the spanner is sent spinning across the module by one of the Mechanical's eight legs. There's no way I can get to it.

  "No!" I scream, for now we are really done for. And not just me and Megan and Spidey and the butterflies, but all those people down in Europe who will die when the space station hits the ground.

  It's all over.

  I've failed!

  Chapter Eleven

  I hear a clunk beside me, look down and almost shout for joy when I see Spidey has fetched the spanner and dropped it at my feet. I scoop it up and prepare to jab it into the Mechanical's gears a second time. But the Mechanical is watching me with its one good eye and tries to swat the spanner from my hand again.

  Help comes from the most unexpected quarter. The clockwork butterflies suddenly swarm the Mechanical's eye so that it can't see.

  The machine drops Megan and starts s
napping its pincer at the butterflies. It squashes one, and then two more of them. Their mangled bronze bodies fall to the metal floor.

  "No! Leave my butterflies alone!" Megan screams. She grabs the Mechanical's pincer-leg with both hands and pulls on it with all her strength. The Mechanical fights back, but blindly, since it's no longer trying to swat the butterflies from its eye.

  It takes a swipe at me with one of its middle legs, but I duck the blow easily and thrust the spanner into the middle of its whirring gears.

  There is a very loud CLUNK as the spanner gets stuck in the Mechanical's works, and the large, terrifying, living machine freezes. Just like that.

  I pull myself free from its pincer, tearing my clothes in the process, and help free Megan.

  The space station is shaking so badly now that the immobile Mechanical collapses onto its side.

  "Quickly, the force field generator!" Megan yells in my face.

  "But I don't know how to turn it off," I shout as I turn back to look at it.

  Spidey suddenly scampers over to the closest power cable attached to the force field generator, grips it with his eight little legs, and then falls off it in an anti-clockwise direction. Then he turns to me and watches me expectantly with his eight little eyes.

  It takes me a moment to realise what he's telling me, but then I have it. I jump forward, grab the power cable, and twist it in an anti-clockwise direction. There is a loud click and the cable comes free. I scramble forward on my hands and knees and repeat the procedure with the next four cables. And then, when the last cable on this side of the generator is unplugged, the machine turns off with a cough and a splutter.

  Several things happen all at once after that. There's an explosion that sounds like a volcano erupting. The module we're in breaks free from the space station and begins to spin and lurch It starts to get really hot. And we're thrown to the floor by the sudden increase in gravity.

  This tells me one thing. Thanks to the force field having been deactivated, the earth's atmosphere is tearing the jury-rigged space station apart.

  Megan reaches out a hand. “We’re going to die now, aren’t we?”