Capes & Clockwork: Superheroes in the Age of Steam Read online

  Keely smiled and walked in as if nothing had happened. She moved sluggishly, having worn herself out.

  I, on the other hand, smacked my lips and asked, “Should I take it that you have already heard about this afternoon’s events?”

  “Tom,” Hunter began with concern in his voice. “The Ministry of Defense sent someone here. Her actions have caught their attentions and someone in the crowd named you as her protector.”

  “Just what did the little missy do, anyways?” Mattie chimed in. “They said somethin’ about her leapin’ up and catching an airman.”

  “I took her for a walk and…” I started and watched as she walked out the backdoor and into the sporadic sunlight. “We were at Victoria Park, walking up to the boating lake when we heard an airhorn and sounds of propellers. One of the Navy’s airships was coming over the city but was in distress. It was belching smoke and I could make out a fire in one of the engine houses. Without warning, there was a tremendous snapping and the whole of the ship jerked slightly. The keel had given and the vessel was beginning to break in half, dropping in the center with the ends moving up like a jack knife closing.”

  “I heard the noise,” Hunter said.

  “Right. Well, the vessel was surely several hundred feet up but then something fell. A scream caught my ears and I knew some poor soul had slipped. His end was certain, but Keely grabbed my arm and shook me. She pointed and shouted something. I—I didn’t know what to tell her. And then it happened.”

  Mattie looked cross, “What happened?”

  “I felt a blast of air and saw her streak upwards,” I said and watched their faces twist in disbelief. “My hand to God, she shot straight up like a rocket and caught him. His momentum must have been great because she fell back to Earth once she had him but controlled their decent until they reached the ground at a leisurely pace.”

  “How many people…” Hunter started but I stopped him.

  “Scores of people were there and saw the whole event. But that isn’t even the end. Once he was down, some in the crowd cried out and pointed to the wounded ship. It was sinking in the sky and would have smashed into several tenement houses.”

  “Would have?” Mattie asked.

  “She shot skyward again, latched herself to the underside of the vessel and, well for lack of a better explanation, she provided it the lift required for it to remain airborne until it could make a safe landing, just outside the city.” I paused and let the information settle. “When she returned, we had to make a run for it. It took some doing but we were finally able to shake off the pursuers who wanted to talk to her by darting through a couple of abandoned buildings.”

  We stopped talking and walked into the kitchen. There, through the windows, Keely danced and raced around the yard, playing in the intermittent rays of the sun.

  “What do we do?” Mattie asked.

  “I don’t know…” I replied.

  *****

  Something changed between us on the Sunday of her fourth week. We’d managed to hide Keely from the Ministry’s men and our daily walks had been limited to the twilight hours, just in case anyone was watching. But today, I felt we’d be safe.

  We sat, side by side on a park bench during the late afternoon. She’d become restless after the daily shelling, as had I. Mattie packed a small but satisfying picnic and off we strolled. A tinge of guilt tugged at me. I’d left my men at the workshop, finishing up some details on Henry the 8th, the nickname we’d given the new weapon I’d designed.

  She darted away when sunlight fell around and she did her usual dance, catching it in her hands. I remember her eyes, so wide and innocent until the explosion rocked the city. A second and then a third followed, each preceded by a sharp whistling, the tell-tale sign of incoming artillery shells.

  I glanced around and saw massive plumes of smoke and fire belching up from behind us. A tenement building had taken a direct hit and from the looks of it, disintegrated completely. The brownstones on either side of it had partially collapsed. People ran to and fro, panicked and unsure of what to do.

  “Come on, we have to see if we can help,” I yelled to her and we sprinted toward the destruction.

  Within minutes, we arrived. I pointed to the rubble and shouted to her, “We’ve got to move as much as we can. There could be people trapped underneath.”

  Several other men charged in to the piles of broken brick and wood. We struggled to move as much of the debris as possible, yelling out and listening for voices of the wounded calling back. Keely, on the other hand, show no signs of struggling as she lifted massive chucks of flooring and stonework and tossed them aside like they were made of paper.

  The faster she worked, the more wounded we reached. Twelve broken and bleeding bodies were pulled from the remains of the structures. Glancing up, I saw Dr. Hunter kneeling over one of the injured, while others tended to the less wounded.

  “I think that’s everyone,” one of the men said and I had to agree.

  After digging for an hour, I was exhausted. I led Keely over to the sidewalk where the wounded we still being cared for. The meatwagons had already transported most to the nearby hospital, but several still lay about.

  “Damnit, I’m gonna lose him,” Hunter exclaimed and we rushed to his side. His left hand held tight against a spot on the wounded man’s neck. Blood seeped through his fingers at an alarming rate. He glanced over his shoulder at us. “A splinter was lodged in his artery. I hoped to keep it there until we could get him to a proper surgeon. But the bloke had to feel around and yank it out.”

  “What do you need?” I asked, feeling lightheaded at the sight of so much blood.

  “I need a finger on this spot so I can thread a needle. I think I have one in my bag.” He said and nodded to the medical satchel, a few feet away.

  “I don’t think this is…” I started to say, but he knew of my aversion to blood and reached for Keely.

  “Get down here,” Hunter said as he snatched her hand and pulled her to her knees beside him. He yanked her closer and pushed her hand to the spot where his left hand rested. “I’m going to move my hand and you need to cover up the wound. Direct pressure.” She resisted somewhat and he looked her in the eyes. “He will die. Do you understand what that means? All the blood will leave him if I can’t sew him shut. Now,” he pushed her hand hard against his and then slowly withdrew his bloody fingers and let hers fall against the seeping wound.

  Her eyes widened and I saw the panic, the fear of not understanding, the fear of doing something wrong that could lead to a man’s death. She did as she was told, but I saw the tears streaking down her face and the whimpering that escaped her. For the first time, I realized that she was truly frightened.

  I knelt beside her, averting my eyes from the blood. My hand touched her chin and pulled her head around to look at me. I nodded and reassured her that she was doing well.

  The procedure took several minutes and Keely did her job but I could see a change in her eyes. The concept of mortality may never have occurred to her. Once Dr. Hunter no longer needed her, she sat back and looked lost as she glanced at the dead and wounded.

  As Hunter worked, several men and I again dug through the wreckage and pulled the remaining dead from beneath the shattered bricks and mortar. Exhausted now, I sat on a pile and just watched. She moved to me, blood drying on her hand, and sat beside me. Several folks in the crowd pointed and whispered about her. The newspaper headlines had been shouting her exploits, the bus, the airship, and more. I was too tired to care at the moment. Let them look and get it out of their system. My concerns were of a darker nature.

  I slowly shook my head, “They’ve never hit us with anything like this before. If they can sustain an attack with a weapon like…” I paused and realized that she didn’t need to hear any more.

  An elderly couple sat nearby and we watched the pair. The old man sat on the sidewalk, blood seeping from a deep gash on his forehead. The woman, his wife, sat next him, turned toward him a little and pressed a cloth against his wound. Her tears were evident as they left streaks in the mortar dust that coated her cheeks and face. The woman’s actions as she pushed herself close to him, held him, and kissed him proved that her tears were not of sadness but of joy that her love had not perished. We watched in silence as his arm slipped around her and his free hand cupped over hers.

  I felt a touch on my hand, which rested on the stone beside me. I glanced down and saw that Keely’s hand had moved and she slowly pushed it underneath mine. I looked up at her as my fingers curled around her small hand. Our eyes met and I saw my face reflected in hers.

  She glanced to the couple and saw the woman kissing and nuzzling her face against her husband. She looked back to me, pushed herself close and placed a small kiss on my cheek. She pulled back slightly to gauge my reaction. The feel of her lips on my face sent shivers through me. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers. The first kiss was brief, as was the second, but the third I knew would last forever.

  *****

  When we arrived home, a steamcar and courier from the Admiralty sat out front. The officer, a young man still cursed with pimples charged forward.

  “Dr. Laybourne?” he asked and I nodded. “I am charged with escorting you and the young lady to HQ. There is urgent business.”

  I glanced to Keely and then back to him. Somewhere inside, I knew it was only a matter of time.

  “We’ll come quietly.”

  As we rode, my thoughts were a mishmash of concerns and worries. My mind simply refused to focus on any one detail. The new weapon, how many had fallen on London and the other southern cities, would I be punished for k
eeping Keely a secret, and most importantly, I worried about her safety.

  I looked over at her. She had the window down and leaned her head out to feel the wind on her face. As she giggled, I silently prayed that she’d not be taken away from me.

  We arrived and were escorted through one building and into another, then winding stairs down to what felt like the center of the Earth, and finally into a crowded meeting room. It would seem that we were the last to arrive.

  The room was vast and open, with a ceiling that stretched up at least twenty feet. The whole of the room was paneled and the walls were covered with maps, charts and assorted panels with papers affixed to them. The conference table stretched forty feet and was lined with suited men and various military officers. Around the periphery, a dozen junior officers worried themselves about making sure that their leaders were afforded every possible convenience.

  Our escort led us to a pair of empty chairs at the far end of the table. I pulled a seat out for Keely and I noticed her nervous glances around as she sat. Once I was seated, the senior officer and Admiral of the Fleet, Henry Fabb, addressed us.

  “Dr. Laybourne, we missed you at the last meeting a few weeks ago, but your people have been keeping us abreast of your weapon’s progress.” Fabb leaned over the table, resting his elbows on it and cupping his cheeks in his hands. His eyes stared at Keely. “But, it would seem there is more to your work than we first were told. Some kind of …” He waved to her but was at a loss for words.

  I cleared my throat and stood. A sudden wave of nausea washed over me, but I kept myself in check. Military officers typically held men of science in low regard, unless, of course, those men were building a super weapon.

  “I, umm … I’m sure that you’ve read the newspapers and heard the rumors about…” I motioned to Keely. “It’s a long story but I’ve felt that it was best to try and determine who and what she was before bringing this matter to you.”

  The room erupted in noise. Every man wanted his opinion heard. Some called for her to be studied. Others feared that she was a weapon of the enemy. After several minutes of shouts, Fabb silenced the room.

  “As much as I’d like to discuss the girl, we have more pressing matters,” he said as a short man ran up to him and whispered a message. He stood straight up and cleared his throat. “Gentlemen, the Queen is present.”

  Everyman, including myself instantly jumped to our feet and bowed as the Queen, adorned in a simple white and gold dress, entered. She approached Fabb and said something that my ears could not make out. He stepped aside and allowed her to take his seat at the head of the table. With a wave, she motioned for everyone to take their seats.

  She stared briefly at Keely before asking, “Is this the girl from the newspapers? The one they are calling ‘super-human’?” I nodded and she continued. “Fascinating. She looks perfectly normal to me.” There was a hushed murmuring around the table as every officer immediately agreed with the Queen’s assessment of Keely. “Does she speak English?”

  “She understands the spoken word,” I said and looked over at Keely. She appeared confused but looked back at me and smiled. “But, she is still learning how to speak it correctly.”

  “Her exploits have the people chatting up a storm.” The Queen looked over at Fabb, “Do continue with your meeting.”

  He nodded and thanked her before addressing the room. “Two days ago, one of our airships passed over Wissant on the northern coast of France. The slugs have the majority of their long-ranged cannons positioned just west of the city’s remains. A perfect place to target London, as well as all the other cities they shell daily, Canterbury, Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, just to name a few.”

  “I’d still like to know how they know where to shell. They’ve never been able to cross the Channel and as far as I know, they have no means of air travel,” a Naval officer asked abruptly.

  One officer, a Royal Army field commander spoke up, “Good Lord, Jerry if these buggers have the intelligence to navigate the stars to Earth and the capabilities to lay waste to the armies of the Continent, I’d imagine that they’d know how to read a bloody French map.”

  Fabb cleared his throat and all eyes returned to him. “As I was saying, they do know where to hit us. So far, our only advantage has been that their long-range guns could only fire small shells that produced little damage. The scare tactic of a thirty minute rain of shells on each city per day was enough to do the trick. But two days ago, our ship spotted something new. Six new weapons had been moved into place among the others. They appeared to be the same type of cannons, only several times the size. Today’s shelling proved what they have become capable of doing to us. Six hits within London have left scores dead and caused a massive amount of property damage.”

  When the Queen spoke, everyone turned their attention to her. I was surprised at the softness in her voice, but the concern and worry were evident in her tone.

  “Admiral, I’ve ordered the city emptied but we can’t survive a prolonged assault from weapons of this type. Can’t we just send a squadron of airships to bomb these guns?”

  He looked at her and a smile appeared, “We can but it’ll just be a temporary fix. Their gun emplacements have been frequent targets with mixed results. As soon as we knock a cannon out of action, they replace it. No, this time more drastic action is required.” He looked directly at me. “That’s why you’re here, Dr. Laybourne. We need the Aspirium H8 device.”

  It was as if all the air in my lungs disappeared. I swallowed hard as the attention of the room, and more notably, the Queen, turned to me. I tugged at my collar as I stood again.

  “The device is in the final assembly stage. Once that is completed, we need a test firing to ensure that the weapon will work.”

  “Assembly, how long will that take?” Fabb asked.

  “Umm, I could have the device ready for a test firing within two days’ time,” I replied and didn’t like the look he gave me.

  “And if we test fired this one, and it proves successful, how soon before we can have more?” he asked. The urgency in his tone was lost on no one in the room.

  “If Henry works as planned and there are no major complications as a result of the explosion, we could have a second within two weeks. The munitions factories outside of the city could begin producing within two months,” I replied and swallowed hard when the Queen spoke up.

  “Henry?” she asked.

  “I gave it a nickname during the design process and my team adopted it.” I suddenly felt panic working its way through me. “Umm, H8 … Henry the 8th.”

  She gave a grunt and smiled. “Seems appropriate to me. You said complications from the explosion, what does that mean?”

  I looked at Fabb with concern. We’d already discussed the possibilities and I worried about stepping on toes with the answer. But he gave me a nod that I took as his approval to speak.

  “The device uses isotopes that should produce an incredible amount of power, namely heat. Since we’ve never detonated something of this magnitude, we don’t know what the result could be. There is a chance that the blast could ignite the atmosphere. If it did, the planet could be washed clean of all life.”

  She shifted uneasily in her seat, but I continued. “Regardless of what happens, it is a risk we must accept. If the slug’s smoke factories continue, they will eliminate what little sunlight we still receive. That will destroy all plant life on Earth, meaning no farms, no crops, no food. We risk destroying the planet, or we surrender our world to them and allow our species to die off, slowly.”

  “No choice then?” she asked and I shook my head.

  An awkward silence filled the room until Fabb spoke up, “Laybourne, we don’t have time to do a test firing. In two days, we’ll drop the bomb on the gun emplacements at Wissant. If it works, we’ll eliminate their guns, all of them in one shot. That’ll buy us time to build more.”

  “Sir, the goal of the H8 program was to drop them on the smoke factories since conventional bombings had yielded nothing,” I said.