Adventures

Mechanykal Phantasmagoria (Part One)

Mechanykal Phantasmagoria ..... Xenoclea

“Velcome one, velcome all, velcome, velcome, velcome!” The excited voice dashed out from their mustached and bespectacled tour guide. “Velcome to the greatest museum of man-made marvels in all of Germany! Hold on to your hats and spats, Damen und Herren, because you’re all in for the time of your lives!”

Annemarie rolled her eyes and clutched her parasol tighter in her hands. “Why are we here, again?” she muttered under her breath to Scot, who was squished up against a large, colorful poster.

“The job, Captain.”

“But did it have to be here?” The tiny museum was crowded with her crew and other visitors, all jostling to get a better look at the contraptions on display. “This man obviously is a fraud. His accent isn’t even real!”

“’Ow do you know, eh?”

“He’s trying to fake a German accent. I should think that I of all people would be able to tell.” Annemarie jumped as a man nearly backed into her. Adalè put a hand on her arm reassuringly, but it didn’t help to calm her nerves. Not only was she stuffed tight into a room crowded with people, but she was in Germany of all places. The accents of the other guests were familiar but far from comforting.

“Yes, Doktor Milton Bandersnatch’s Mechanykal Phantasmagoria Emporium is the one place in the Vorld, of all places, for you to experience the amazing results of science, mechanics, and pure genius!” The crowd shifted so the crew caught a glimpse of an automaton, shaped like a little girl in a dress, moving her arms and head up and down. Jameson snorted.

“I agree, Captain. This ‘automaton’ of his is most likely nothing but a puppet with a few gears attached. Are you sure this is where our client wanted us to go?”

“He said he wanted us to come here to find his missing inventions,” Adalè reminded him as they shuffled past a few more shabby displays.

“I still find it rather unlikely that this fraud has anything of worth hiding here,” said Annemarie, jerking her chin towards the “Doktor” with obvious distaste. “This place is just one large, decrepit sham. It’s astounding that people are actually taken in by all of this... con-artistry.”

“The man may be a fake, Captain, but that engine over there sounds real to me,” said Jameson, listening intently to the whirring hum that filled the stuffy air. “It’s small but sounds pretty powerful. Excuse me,” he said as he politely but forcefully shoved his way through a group of gawkers towards a highlighted exhibit. Annemarie stood on her tiptoes in her high-heeled boots, trying to peer over the mob that was murmuring excitedly in soft German. She was naturally tall, but even in her three-inch heels she couldn’t see over the looming top hats towering over her. From the front of the queue, she heard the doctor’s soft gasp of surprise.

“What is it?” hissed tiny Maria, stuck in the back next to Adalè, Scot, and Rogers.  She looked ready to hop up and down to catch a glimpse. “I can’t see! Can you tell me what it is?”

 As if answering her question, the voice of their showman guide, clad in its faulty accent, rose of the babble of the crowd. “Ja, meine Damen und Herren, here is the vunder of my magnificent museum for your viewing pleasure. Not only my sweat, my blood, my tears, have gone into this wonder I now present to you, but my very soul!” The speaker paused for dramatic effect. Annemarie could almost picture him with his hand on him chest or forehead. “I give you my prize invention, the Mechanical Aerial Engineered Clockwork/Electric Engine!”

The crowd broke into frantic applause and Annemarie seized her chance. She shoved her way through the gap until she stood, breathless, next to Jameson. In front of the pair stretched a curtain of copper rings linked together to form a translucent mesh, which, the captain realized, was one wall of a cage. Clinging to the copper curtain with disturbingly humanoid fingers hung a creature unlike any machine or mammal Annemarie had ever seen.