The Radiant War

Chapter 29b

     Shanks stared in astonishment as the Radiant thrashed and danced wildly just a few yards away from him, giving every appearance of being in unbearable agony. Its piping had risen to a continuous, almost inaudibly high pitch that sounded to the scientist like a scream. A scream that just went on and on and on. Shanks’s hand was still on the main switch that was delivering power to the experimental alternator, and he stared at the apparatus in dawning wonder.

     Was it working? Was the apparatus he and Andrea had spent so long working on actually working, delivering the mysterious side effect that so tormented the creatures? He noted that there was a bright arc of electricity between the two graphite contacts. An arc that had a barely perceptible flicker as if it were coming and going almost too fast to see. It was alternating! he realised. The tuning circuit was working, causing the current flowing across the contacts to change direction nearly a hundred times a second.

     “We did it, Sophie,” he said, his voice hushed in awe. “We did it! You should have seen this. And you too, Andrea.”

     A series of heavy thumps came from the Radiant as one of its tentacles pounded the floor hard enough to split its skin and spill green blood onto the tiled floor. It was trying to get away, he saw, but it seemed to be having trouble finding the hole in the wall it had come in through. A sudden fear came over him as he realised that it could destroy the machine with a single blow from the smallest of its tentacles. Why didn't it do that? It was almost as though the alternator was tormenting it so much that it was literally incapable of rational thought. Incapable even of delivering the simple blow that would still have given the Radiants victory and meant the end of human freedom across the whole world. It could still destroy the machine by accident, though. A wild spasm could still bring a tentacle crashing down on the apparatus at any time! Shanks took hold of the table, therefore, and tried to pull it away from the tormented creature.

     It screeched as its legs scraped across the floor, but he'd only moved it a couple of inches before the apparatus wobbled and swayed, coming within a hair of toppling over and crashing to the floor, to the ruin of all mankind. He let go of the table and grabbed hold of the nearest support scaffold, holding it steady. At the top the upper coil wobbled, and he stared in terror at the clamp holding it in place. If he'd failed to tighten it enough, the coil might slip from its grasp and fall to the table... The wobble stopped and he breathed a sigh of relief, letting go of the scaffold and stepping gingerly away from it. Forget about moving it, he told himself, but the Radiant was still so dangerously close, still thrashing wildly...

     The thrashing stopped and the Radiant just sat there for a moment, trembling as if a current of electricity was passing through it. Its eyes were staring at nothing, wild with madness, as if the agony it was suffering was so great that it had destroyed its very sanity. Then, with one last shudder, it collapsed, its tentacles suddenly losing their ability to support it. Its eyes lost their focus and it settled onto the floor, sagging, going limp, until it resembled a jellyfish washed up on the shore. It then lay still, except for one last tentacle that continued go twitch for a moment or two longer before also falling still.

     It was impossible to tell if it was dead, but it no longer showed any signs of life and Shanks allowed himself to hope that the device he'd helped to create had somehow killed it. The assault on the building from the other Radiants outside had also stopped. There was a ladder standing in the corner, used while replacing the charcoal contacts of the electric candles in the ceiling, and he moved it to stand below one of the surviving windows. Then he climbed it and looked out.

     There were no Radiants in sight. The entire city seemed to be deserted and empty, the only movement being fallen leaves and small pieces of litter blowing along the street below. His heart soared with joy. They'd done it! They'd created the Electric Messiah! The machine that would be the saviour of mankind! With it he would avenge the destruction of his people's civilisation, three thousand years before!