Anthology of Ichor III: Gears of Damnation (2 page)

“
No, not at all! Think of these cadavers as nothing more than a sculptor’s armature.”

Tesla stomped to the first body, snatching a sharp scalpel from one of his desks as he walked. Turning the blade upward he carefully sheered the clothing off the dead man’s torso and legs. As he cut swatches of cloth free a shiny metal cage-like structure wrapped around the limbs and chest of the corpse came more and more into view.

“
You see Twain, an exoskeleton!” Tesla voice peaked with elation. “My dream, born into worldly existence. You are looking at the second design, one I have yet to patent
.”

Easily fascinated by technology Mark Twain stepped up to the metal laden man, his handkerchief to his face to filter out the stink. As Tesla pointed to the metal bars and gears that made up the exoskeleton Twain’s eyes followed as if he was a child being lead by a chocolate bar.

“
How is he-it operated?”

“
The exoskeleton or the soldier?” Tesla queried.

“
This magnificent, yet perverted structure,” Twain ran his hand across one of the smallest gears in the arm housing. “How is it powered?”

“
Steam,” Nikola retorted.

“
Like a locomotive, I should have known,” Twain nodded.

“
Yes, like a locomotive. I must give some credit to my design, as much of it is borrowed from Walschaert’s valve gear technology.”

“
I understand you being able to make the dead man move, but how will you command it Nikola, there is no means possible,” Twain flapped his hand like a floating butterfly as he spoke.

After a short chuckle, Tesla boasted. “When have I worked within the realm of possibility?”

“
If you can do what you say, do you not worry about the repercussions? If it can walk and pick up items...” Twain paused to collect himself. “Imagine the thousands of laborers who will lose their jobs, if the dead can replace them in the work place.”

“
The dead rot like fruit——you know this. So their ability to provide labor is short term at best.”

“
Then why use the corpse as an armature? Why not build the entire Automaton out of metal,” Twain played the part of a scientist.

“
Too heavy.”

Staring more at the exoskeleton Twain further realized a similarity between the leg structures and a train’s wheels.

“
Your exoskeleton, it eventually tears the body apart?” Twain deduced.

“
Yes, so a fresh, strong corpse is required.”

Nodding the writer asked another question, “And you control them how?”

“
The body is the conduit to the machine, a perfect balance,” Nikola smiled content with his own genius. “This you will find astounding my friend. I took the findings of Richard Caton and applied them to my research with the transmission of electrical energy without wires.”

“
Richard Caton, I am not familiar with this name.”

After sighing and rubbing his forehead, Tesla took a step back. Counting his footsteps under his breath the man crossed the room to a drawing board cluttered with numbers. Upon reaching the board he wrote the sum of his paces in a corner that was less jumbled with scribbles. After reflecting on the number a moment he continued his explanation.

“
Mr. Richard Caton discovered electrical activity in the brain, a theory mind you, I mulled over for many years.”

“
Ah yes, I do recall you telling the tale of this phenomena a year or so ago. Please do continue.” Twain’s interest began to grow.

“
I could speak on this topic all day, but time is of the essence. Just let me demonstrate. To paraphrase John Locke,
actions best interpret a man’s thoughts.”

“
Bravo,” Twain’s smirk could be seen peeking out from his handkerchief covered face.

Hanging up on the wall opposite the bodies was a Pickelhaube helmet wired differently than the others. Attached to a smaller generator, one that sat atop a wooden cart, this helmet had a pair of large antenna on either side of the shiny metal spike atop the dome.

After strapping the helmet on, Tesla positioned it side to side until it was fitted perfectly. No less than a dozen wires ran from the helmet to the portable generator, curling like pig’s tails as he drew closer to the cart.

“
Stand back,” Tesla told his friend. “A generator exploded two weeks ago, I was deaf for the sum of two hours.”

Tesla flipped the switch to the generator without pause, or flinch; he was fearless Twain thought, or too bent on revenge to care about his own well being.

“
Now, lend a hand and power up the main power generator,” Tesla yelled over the crackling of electricity to Twain who had stepped back to the threshold between the office and laboratory.

“
What? Now?”

“
Yes!”

After shuffling timidly to the main lever Mark Twain looked at his friend, his eyes nearly bulging from his head with fright.

“
One exploded; your words precisely.”

“
Do it! Do it now!” Tesla screamed, prompting Twain’s hand.

With the main power on the room hummed and shook. How the workers in the levels above ground did not wonder what was happening below them, Twain could not fathom.

Twitching as he moved, Tesla movements were jerky; inhumanly—terrifying.

“
Nikola! Nikola!” Twain yelled over the generators and the static crackling in the air. “Nikola are you well?”

His friend did not answer, instead he raised his arm not once, but three times before it held up and into a pointing position. Following its aim, Twain saw the men hanging upon the wall begin to stir.

Switching his gaze between his friend and the moving corpses Twain’s mind began to draw a correlation. Nikola’s boastings were true, he could control these Automatons with only his mind. Tesla’s body would jerk, his arms twitch and the exoskeletons would respond in time. Twain watched as all eleven of the men unlatched themselves from the wall and took three steps forward, in cadence like a line of well trained soldiers. Gears turned and pistons pumped as thick white steam vapors exhausted from the water tanks on the mens' backs.

“
You see, my thoughts are sent to each of them and translated into electrical impulses that instruct the machinery.”

“
How advanced can their actions get, can they frolic like children or do they only shuffle about like old men?”

“
Frolic, my friend? Behold.”

Tesla’s body shook like a man stricken with disease, yet Twain’s eyes could not stay on his friend for long, as two of the Automatons had joined hands and begun to dance. Astounded by the two metal clad mens’ movement, Twain counted off the beats to their dance while looking at his watch, his assumption was correct the Automatons danced a near perfect Viennese Waltz.

“
58 beats, amazing!”

Removing his helmet ceased the dance, and returned all eleven of the men to a slumped, yet rigid standing position.

“
So this is your plan Nikola? To send your Automatons to do your dirty work?”

“
Indeed.”

“
I believe the blame will be too easily traced back to you my friend? Who else could create such... such things?” Twain spoke with conviction. “Who else besides Dr. Frankenstein and we all know-“

“
I have already considered that.”

Tesla walked to the closest of his soldiers, one of the two who had just danced. While waving for Mark Twain to come closer, Tesla carefully unhooked a large metal panel on the exoskeleton’s back. Between the two glass water tanks was a small combustion tank, fueled by burning coal, the housing was glowing red hot, so Tesla donned his work gloves from his back pocket.

“
You see here, like a train, the coal burns and produces the steam which drives the pistons. Yet I included a fail-safe. If I instruct the automaton to, it can pull a level under the armpit that will drop all the coal into the fire, and seal the exhaust valve.”

Pointing as he talked Tesla explained the fail-safe better.

“
Call it a self destruction measure, if you will. With the majority of the coal burning the heat level will rise and the pressure will build to 1500 P.S.I, causing a small steam explosion.”

“
The proof will burn with the body.”

“
Precisely.”

The chime of a grandfather clock rang out above the humming of the generators, the time for explanations was over.

“
It is time,” Tesla nodded thrice. “Care to join me?”

“
Me?” Twain stood back. “Join you in your retribution?”

“
Come with me, bear further witness to my genius.”

Tesla’s hands shook as he spoke, was it excitement, or something more that made him tremble, Twain was unsure.

“
I don’t know.”

“
The magic show is far from over. This exciting tale still has a few more surprises.”

“
I think I have seen enough. It grows late and I should take my leave.”

“
Your loss.”

February 13, 1895 –
Menlo Park, New Jersey

Standing across the street from Thomas Edison’s Laboratory, Nikola Tesla lined up his eleven Automatons. A golden glow in the back of the main building served as enough proof that the man called the “Wizard of Menlo Park” was home. It had been months since he last gazed upon Edison’s compound, its mere sight, nestled lovingly in the arms of this loving community made Tesla bare his teeth with anger.

After carefully placing fresh coal in each of the backpack steam engines, he donned his control helmet.

“
Never believed me...” he mumbled out load just before flipping the final switch on his portable generator. “It ends here!”

One by one the Automatons marched across the dark road from the shadows where they stood. Twitching from head to toe, Tesla relayed a mental command to the first two Automatons to reach his rival’s door. Armed with lumberjack axes, the door stood little chance at holding Edison’s enemies at bay, but a simple wooden door was not the extent of this inventor’s defenses. Having growing concerns of retaliation from the likes of jealous “sub-intelligent inventors”, as Edison would call them, he designed a home alarm and security system.

As the first automaton entered the laboratory’s vestibule he started to shake. Tesla panicked as his controls of the machine-man began to breakdown. Before he could figure what was wrong the second automaton entered the building and began shuddering like an ailing man.

Feeling a light upward pull on his back pack, Tesla deciphered the mystery a moment too late. As his eyes shifted up, the two shaking Automatons rose from the ground as if picked from the floor by the very hand of God.

“
0,282,28...7-gah!” Tesla grunted with mounting frustration. “Magnets!”

Tesla commanded his Automatons to rush through the vestibule and past the ceiling mounted magnets. Fast thinking had prevented any others from being captured or disabled.

“
Who’s there? Who dares to invade my private laboratory?”

That voice, it was that very tone that mocked him time and again. Enraged his chest began to tighten, Tesla would need a release before he could concentrate enough to complete his task. Turning back towards to vestibule he gazed once more to the ceiling where two of his Automatons hung lifelessly. Twitching his head to the left in a series of six sharp movements Tesla counted.

“
...ten. Now!”

The two trapped Automatons engaged the self destruct switches, overheating their steam engines. Tesla knew the explosion would be loud, but he needed to fully witness the destruction in order to feel his frustration wash away.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Protected behind the large arching doorway, Tesla laughed. Edison’s magnets had been destroyed.

“
You will never capture another one of my inventions, wizard!”

With his attention back on the main floor Tesla sent his soldiers in two by two, until only three remain behind as his own personal guard. Swinging their axes like drunken men, the Automatons destroyed everything in their paths as they searched through Edison’s laboratory. While one pair destroyed the work benches, the others waited. When the glimmer of light sparkling off a shelf full of glass jars caught his eyes Tesla moved the next pair in. Using their axes like baseball bats the Automatons shattered the glass, spreading across the floor a carpet of nuts, bolts, powders, acidic chemicals and other dangerous elements.

Moving in another pair of Automatons, Tesla directed them to the back of the room.

“
Tesla! Is that you Nick? I knew you would come seeking retribution one day. I prepared for the possibility in fact. The only err in my judgment was that you would be man enough to come alone.”

With Edison’s last word spoken the dozen light bulbs that hung the ceiling on rods suddenly amped up, flashing to a blinding intensity. His eyes burning, Tesla covered his face and knelt down to the ground behind his three guards.

Springing up from a trap door in the floor at the back of the room, Thomas Edison and his assistant Clarence Dally countered the attack.

“
Be courageous and show these ignoramuses what the United States Navy taught you, lad!”