Clockwork Dream

xi Dreams of Clockwork

Of course, the answer was right in front of him. Unable to bear the silence any longer he held up the design and faced the madman.

"Mr. Reiner, you created this didn't you?" He forced himself to sound meek and curious.

Finally he shifted his gaze to the paper. Leo had to suppress a cheer and some of the tension drained from his shoulders. "Of course, harping about that again are we? Well at least it's better than bloody military defenses."

"Yes sir, I have to admit that I'm not quite smart enough to figure out what it does on my own." The admission stung but Reiner's chest puffed outward like a toads and he knew I'd made the right decision. Losing his temper wouldn't get him anywhere when the inventor had an ego bigger than the ship they were on.

"We'll of course my dear boy, just because you're miles above these other buffoons doesn't mean you can out do me!" Was it possible to be any more self-absorbed? Leo doubted it.

"Does that mean you'll tell me what it does? No one else would."

"Not what it does, but what it is."

"Well, what is it then?"

Reiner cocked his head to the side and said, "Do you know they say there's going to be a war?"

For a moment he was puzzled by the sudden change in subject but then it dawned on him. "Is it a soldier then?"

He let out a strange high pitched screech that could have been a laugh before answering. "Soldiers Bah! Soldiers! Why do you think I left in the first place! Better resources, bigger workspace, not so earsplitting all the time but they wanted me to build them mindless weapons. Any fool who knows how to read could make a machine that follows a set of commands. That thinking is so limiting it infuriates me. No, what I've done goes far beyond the scope of simple bloody soldiers. An intelligent being, that is the fruit of my years of research, and what did they want me to do? Tear out all the important parts to turn it back into worthless chunks of metal that would sit and rust without a hand to guide it. I've created life and all they think about is their silly little war. They can't see the big picture, but you understand don't you. You can see the beauty in what I've done."

Leo sucked in a short breath. "What do you mean? That you've created life!" The prospect was so outlandish he couldn't even contemplate it. He'd always thought the man was crazy yet brilliant but he considered revising that to just plain crazy.

"Well not by the standard definition I suppose, they wouldn't be made of cells and all that rubbish but it can think like you or I! It can speak! It can feel!"

"That couldn't possibly-" Leo cut himself off before he said something that would offend the man. He only seemed to have two emotional states, quiet, calculated scientific interest and frenzied bursts of fanatical activity. In neither state was he a very good conversationalist so Leo tried to imagine how his automaton could be any better at it.

That manic grin seemed to stretch ever wider as Reiner snatched the schematic from his grip. His stout frame was deceptively quick and Leo was forced to draw his hand back as if he'd been burned. Then even stranger, came a half croaked melody, like the chill which creeps under a door frame in the darkest part of winter.

Living but not breathing

Lenses instead of eyes

No time wasted on teething

No need for compromise

Thankfully a booming knock graced his ears, halting the strange and haunting song. Matthew stood framed in metal with a rather sheepish looking Alice in tow. If they'd arrived just a few minutes earlier he wouldn't have been nearly so glad to see them.