Imanaged to put the goggles on over my short, dark blond hairwithout ruffling it too much – short hair was far safer in alaboratory and I still had thoughts of a certain hazel-eyed lady –and wondered why we were whispering as the almost mesmerised facesof the crowd let me think I could probably dance naked in front ofthem and they’d’ve been none the wiser. Even wearing the safetygoggles I made sure not to look directly into the spheres for toolong as I’d learnt it had a markedly deleterious effect uponmammalian eyesight.
Movementfrom one side of the low stage caught my eye and a tall thingentleman with black hair seemingly painted to his head emergedfrom behind a red velvet curtain. He wore an open white lab coatover a tweed suit. I wasn’t able to make out the exact colour dueto our goggles and the sphere’s light. Seeing his audience’sexcited faces he smiled. It wasn’t one I particularly liked as itseemed too shark-like for my taste.
I feltand heard a silent ‘harumph!’ from Sir Percival beside me. “Ishould have known it was Peter Frost,” his voice dropped intodisappointment at the man’s name. “Well, best see if the bounderhas a smidgen of useful information,” he added with a disappointedsigh.
MrFrost’s eyes swept over the audience and his smile seemed to falterslightly at seeing a be-goggled Sir Percival and myself watchinghim. Regaining his composure he walked forwards to stand betweenthe two spheres. They were roughly two feet in diameter and theheight of his shoulders.
“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your esteemed interest inmy work.”
At thisthe ladies tittered and preened themselves for being so clever bymerely standing in front of him, while the men puffed their chestsout at each other. I nearly threw up.
“You see before you the very pinnacle of modern-day aethericinvention.”
He letthe excited ‘ooh’s’ and ‘aah’s’ die down before continuing. I wasnow on the verge of relieving Mr Gatling of his new gun and doingserious damage with it.
Hisvoice changed down in tone. “As many of you know aetheric energywill soon overtake steam as the world’s major power source as it isin plentiful supply. The only problem being drawing it into thisworld and harnessing its unique qualities.”
He movedcloser to the attentive crowd, possibly the more gullible ones, andcontinued, “In front of you I demonstrate the harnessing of thisenergy source. Each of these spheres is using enough aethericenergy to power several hundred homes!”
The awedgasps almost sucked him into the audience. One lady almost swoonedbut I managed to viciously poke her in the whalebone corset beforeshe could keel over.
“I shall now demonstrate the patent pending principles of myunique invention.”
At longlast he seemed to be getting to the nitty gritty. I felt SirPercival’s body stiffen as he made ready to memorise everythingPeter would say.
Peteropened his mouth but then stopped as if struck dumb. This wasn’t asymptom of aetheric poisoning I was aware of and turned to ask SirPercival’s thoughts on the matter when a Rockhopper penguin’s headflew down and smashed one of the glass spheres in front of usresulting in a tremendous purple explosion.
Then thescreams began.
Two
Louderuptions came from behind, echoing around the building likethunder, and the frightened crowd forced us towards thedemonstration and the raging purple aetheric fire. Luckily thesecond sphere was still intact.
“Put it out, Peter!” yelled Sir Percival trying to makehimself heard over the screams and explosions.
Peterhad been thrown to the ground by the force of the sphere’sexplosion and was wiping his face as if stunned.
“Bu– Bu–” he gabbled.
“Idiot,” sir Percival said under his breath and quicklyclimbed over the brass chain lifting me over afterwards. I was toostartled to voice my thoughts of such man-handling, especially as Ialso caught sight of another severed Rockhopper penguin headshattering one of the gaslight chandeliers high above us. Hot,sharp glass rained down on the chaotic crowd eliciting yet morescreams. I hoped Hazel-eyes was safe.
WhileSir Percival dragged me over to deal with the purple fire I saw thebald bulky-bodied Department liaison quickly heading our waypushing people out of his path. He was certainly single-mindedabout his job. Luckily I was with probably the only person in thewhole place who knew what to do. Unfortunately that also meant Iwas closer to an aetheric fire than I really wanted.
“What’s the power source!” Sir Percival yelled atPeter.
“W–?” he looked confusedly up at Sir Percival.
“This is for your own good, Peter.”
“W–?” he tried to say again.
SirPercival’s hand flashed out and slapped Peter’s cheek so hard hishead jerked to the left.
“Now, where’s the power source?”
Perhapsnot wanting a repeat of such uncouth behaviour Peter’s right handpointed towards the curtain he’d appeared from earlier.
LeavingPeter on the ground Sir Percival tugged me after him and headed tothe curtain. Behind us the Department liaison had climbed over thebrass chain and was skirting round the purple fire in ourdirection.
Thecurtains reduced the chaotic screaming and noise so I could makeout Sir Percival’s quick muttering to himself. One of the thingsI’d found I was good at was understanding what he wanted, sometimesbefore he even knew it himself. So it was that while he examined averitable birds-nest of brass pipes and levers and pulleys I rootedthrough an obsessively neat toolbox.
“Sir Percival! We leave now!”
TheDepartment liaison had caught up with us.
SirPercival stood up straight and glared at him through hisgoggles.
“You understand the danger. If I don’t do something the wholebuilding, possibly this area of London, will be acrater.”
I couldhave done without this information.
“Then I need to get you out now.”
“Miss Lovelady, see to him,” he said, turning back to thepower source.
I dowish he didn’t do this to me. The Department liaison and Iexchanged looks. I smiled and shrugged apologetically at his broadstoic face.
Thenoise from the exhibition suddenly dropped to nearly nothing. Weshared a puzzled look and he joined me in carefully peered roundthe curtain.
It looked like the majority of the crowd had managed toescape, which was lucky because in the distance a strange whitemist seemed to crawl over the exhibition floor. The people thatbreathed it fell insensible to the ground. I didn’t see
