Tesla: A Teen Steampunk/Cyberpunk Adventure (Tesla Evolution Book 1) (33 page)

“In the open? Right in the middle of them? You must be
mad
,” Melanie said.

“Didn’t you say it was better to live the half-life of a hero than a whole one in a cave waiting for death?”

“Something like that. But that was before I had a life to live, and before I learned that being a hero hurts a lot.” She sighed. “All right. But you owe me big time after this. Definitely a new gown.” She pointed at him then looked out to the mayhem on the field. “How do we even get out there?”

“Maybe that’s where I can help you.”

Sebastian turned with a huge grin on his face. “Merv! You’re here.”

“Certainly, sport. The cricket season got cancelled due to these blokes. So we weren’t going to take that lying down.”

“We?”

“I brought some of the top order with me. They’s a good group to have in a scrape.”

“Gavin and Isaac, find a dish that was on one of the tesla towers,” Sebastian said. “Go down to the batteries and place the dish in front of them pointing in this direction. It’ll help me concentrate and amplify the power.”
 

Gavin and Isaac nodded and ran off in search of a dish that had survived.

The team collected around Merv as he planned a defense.
 

After much debate, Merv turned to Sebastian and gave him a nod. “She’ll be right.”

Sebastian smiled. “Let’s do it.”

They all charged down the stairs from the terrace, through the streets and toward the gate. The team rotated through the cyborgs with a combination of old rifles and desert-walker shields. When a cyborg fell they would pick up the new weapon and use that until it died. They whirled through the enemy until Merv, Melanie and Sebastian ran up the mound. When they were at the highest point, Melanie and Merv took up defensive positions on either side of Sebastian.

“This is really going to hurt,” Sebastian muttered as he readied himself.

“Not only you, sunshine.” Melanie deflected another blast. It pushed her back. Her arm ached from the constant firing and her whole body was beginning to fail. Her judgment began to slip.

Merv stepped in to deflect the stream of light. “Not now, love,” he said. “Ain’t no time for smoko.”
 

“Now we end it,” Sebastian whispered.
 

He closed his eyes and held his hands out to the side. He could feel the full batteries underneath the city. He could only hope the others had got there and set up the dish. He breathed deeply. As he raised his hands, he could feel the power lift. It rose up through the ground, shaking it, cracking it. He could feel it, pure and powerful. He clapped his hands together and …

… white light filled the world. Melanie and Merv slipped and fell, slowly tumbling down, their faces a mask of shock and terror. The lights from the lasers slowed down and dissolved into the great brightness.
 

The cyborgs walked on. The great wall on the city crumbled.
 

The dragons swooped in and blasted their fireballs over the screaming people.
 

Sebastian opened his eyes. “Now we end it,” he repeated.

*

And the roar could be heard for miles, so loud that it was solid. The beast ripped out of the shielding and rose up, towering above the city. Its great arms reached into the sky and swatted the dragons out of the air in mid-flight.
 

Its tail whipped around, carving through hundreds of the cyborgs. The beast turned and glared over the advancing army with its mechanical red eyes. A stream of fire erupted from its mouth, so hot that the sand melted to glass.
 

Within minutes the battle was over. The wrecked city stood, victorious.

Sebastian stood on the terrace looking up at the beast. The beast looked down on him. They stood looking at each other for a long time, lost in some kind of understanding.

Melanie rushed up to Gavin and gave him a hug, the bruises and battering from the day forgotten. “You made it. I’m so glad you got the dish set up.”
 

“Ah, that’s the thing. We
didn’t
get there in time. The passage was blocked. Deliberately, Nikola thinks. He’s not even sure the energy came from the batteries. We won’t know until we get down there.”

The beast moved. It stepped backwards and turned away. It stomped off toward the distant mountains.

“Welcome back,” said Sebastian.

Welcome back
, came the echo.

42

NIKOLA, MELANIE AND Sebastian all looked out to the west, watching the boiling sun drop below the horizon.
 

The comments of the old woman floated around Melanie’s head.
 

“I’m sorry about your mother,” Nikola said to Sebastian.

“Was there any truth in what she told me?”

“Some of it. And some parts were missing.”

Sebastian was quiet for several moments. He kicked some loose stones, which rolled off the edge of the great wall. He placed his hands behind his back and looked steadfastly out to the bleak horizon.
 

Eventually he spoke. “I’ll get her back.”

The adventure continues in book two of the Tesla Evolution:

AWARDS:

Foreword Reviews’ Indiefab Book of the Year Finalist (Science Fiction)

the Bookbag’s Top Ten Self Published Books of 2014

SPR Full Moon Awards Runner-up 2014 (Science Fiction)

National Indie Excellence Award Finalist (Science Fiction)

Wishing Shelf Award Silver Medalist (Teen Readers)

In Praise of Decay:

A significantly darker outing where the first was more of a quest to discover Sebastian’s destiny and his mother’s fate, Decay has no such strong light at the end of the tunnel. The theme of the book is stagnation and despair. This is in no way a failing of the book’s writing, which is excellent; the tone of the book is well set and motivations of the characters have become individual and complex ... Lingane is certainly an author to pay close attention to this year and in the future. 5 Stars
 

- SPR

Dialogue is crisp, pacing is strong, and despite its generally grim tone and flashes of violence, the story is dotted with touches of humor. Seb and Melanie are fun, personable teens whom readers can identify with and enjoy.
 

- Kirkus Reviews

Decay offers good commentary on contemporary society. The cyborgs parallel contemporary technology overtaking our lives. Have we become robotic as we rely on technology? Are people increasingly critical of anyone different? There is good commentary about how to proceed in this wartorn world. Some are pacifist and some are calling for war, the debate from all sides effective and engaging. There is much subtlety and nuance in describing the humans’ plight. There is humor to balance out the darkness. The novel is plenty dark, but it is not unrelentingly grim. Recommended
 

- SPR Full Moon Review

Lingane’s prose style is warm, humorous, energetic, and controlled, a tough job to handle when the pacing moves at air-scorching speed. He’s mastered the art of moving a story through action without leaving the reader behind. 5 Stars
 

- Foreword Reviews

It’s obvious to see how Mark’s grown as writer and the Tesla series is more than a pinnacle: it’s a pinnacle with the phrase ‘movie material’ balancing on the top. 5 Stars
 

- theBookBag

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Mark Lingane writes, and has written, a lot over a long time. Not much of it is interesting. Even if it sounds interesting, it isn’t. For those who are interested, further comprehensive and quality insights—like this—about his past, and future publications might be found at:
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where you can also join the reading group.

Check out these other great novels by Mark Lingane

Para-noir-mal Detectives

Beyond Belief

Sucker

The Ellen Martin Disasters (Rom-Com Adventures)

Chasing Heart

Desert Heart

The Tesla Evolution (Young Adult Science Fiction)

Tesla

Decay

Faraday

Fusion