Steven Harper - The Havoc Machine

A conveyer belt that led out of the main machine clanked to life. A moment later, a figure emerged, rolling atop it. Sofiya stared in shock. The figure was Nikolai.

Nikolai reached the end of the conveyer belt and toppled off it to the floor. Sofiya automatically reached for him, and stopped herself. This wasn’t her Nikolai. It was a monstrosity, some wretched creature spat out by this awful machine. She watched, hands over her mouth to keep from screaming. The false Nikolai pushed himself unsteadily upright. He had no clothes on, his movements were uncertain, and his hair looked wild and patchy, but it was definitely Nikolai. His skin showed fresh rivets, and the pistons in his joints were similarly visible. With jerky motions and strange twitches, he pulled himself up to the silver chair and dropped into it. A spider pushed a thick wire into his ear with a heavy click.

“Thad-de-us,” Nikolai said. His voice was guttural and made Sofiya’s skin crawl with worms. “Dan-te. So-fi-ya.”

The memory wheels changed their whirling. A spark crackled up the wire into Nikolai’s ear. He shuddered hard and went limp. The chair released him, and he fell out of it.

More spiders went into the hopper. The conveyer belt clanked, and another Nikolai rolled out of the machine, fell to floor, and jerked upright like a half-dead marionette. It started toward the chair. Yet more spiders went into the hopper. Sofiya was panting now. The machine and its havoc spiders could build more than just more spiders-it could build other machines. It was also clear that the spiders had been searching for Nikolai. The moment they had found him and examined him, they had returned. It explained why the attack had ended so abruptly. But why Nikolai?

She thought about shooting the machine, or perhaps its bank of memory wheels, with her pistol. But a quick clockwork calculation told her that she would be unlikely to do lasting damage with her single shot, and the havoc spiders would no doubt exact immediate revenge.

A third Nikolai trundled out of the machine. This one landed without falling, and its movements were more lifelike. Practice, apparently, had an impact on the machine’s reproductive prowess. The third Nikolai pushed the second Nikolai aside and climbed up to the chair. The wire clicked into his ear, and the havoc spiders dumped the first Nikolai, who still hadn’t moved, into the hopper with more spiders.

“Thaddeus,” grunted the third Nikolai. “Dante. Sofi-ya.”

Suddenly Sofiya didn’t care what was going on. All that mattered was that she had to get out of there, make sure Nikolai and Thad were safe, and tell someone what was going on. Let the tsar and his soldiers handle this. For once, the Russian dislike of clockworkers would work in her favor.

“Sofi-ya,” said Nikolai III again in his thick voice. “Sofi-ya! Sofi-ya!”

A chill ran through Sofiya as she realized that Nikolai III had seen her. The machine, every bit of it, stopped. Silence slammed through the chamber. The main havoc spider looked at Sofiya with hard eyes.

“Sofi-ya!” said Nikolai III.

The spiders swarmed toward the door. Sofiya fled. Maddie popped her light to life as Sofiya bolted up the stairs. She didn’t dare look back, but she heard the horrible claws coming after her. The stones were slippery beneath her shoes. Her clockworker memory, sharpened further by fear, let her retrace her route, and she ran and ran and ran. Maddie’s light bobbed up and down with every step, and her breath came harsh in her ears. Still the spiders came. Sofiya was faster than a normal human or they would have caught her with ease. She tried to think, tried to find a way to slow or stop them, but she hadn’t had time to snatch any tools or weapons from the Black Tent, had nothing but Maddie and an energy pistol with one shot.

Sofiya scrambled up a staircase. Could her single shot bring down the tunnel behind her? Too risky. Even the most carefully placed bolt might bring down the entire thing. She was panting now, and a stitch pulled at her side. The blue glow of the spiders and their skritching claws came relentlessly after her, like dogs on a hunt. She ducked through a grate and climbed more stairs. Her shins and knees burned. Even a clockworker couldn’t run forever.

The door to the outside appeared just ahead of her, limned in light. A havoc spider leaped onto her back. Its claws dug in. She screamed and snatched it away. Another one got into her skirts. She kept running even as she fought with it. It bit her hands. The pain sliced through her flesh, and she screamed again. Slippery blood ran down her palms. Maddie dropped onto the havoc spider and fought with it. Sofiya was at the door now. She managed to pull the two spiders apart. The havoc spider bit her a second time even as she flung it away and burst outside into blinding light. Panting and bleeding, she forced herself to leap up the steps to the spot where-oh thank God! — Kalvis waited.

Havoc spiders poured out the door behind door. Sofiya flung herself into the saddle. “Go!” she shouted, and Kalvis leaped forward.

They tore through the streets, buildings on their right, the River Neva with its heavy load of boats on their left. Dripping blood from her injured hand, Sofiya arrived at the pontoon bridge back to the mainland and turned to check behind her. No spiders in sight. Kalvis had lost them. She allowed herself a relieved sigh and patted his brassy neck.

“You’re a fine horse, you are,” she said, and he snorted once.

Her hand throbbed and she examined it a little more closely. Two wounds but not too bad. They hurt and wanted cleaning, but-

The horde of spiders swarmed into view. Sofiya flinched. How had they tracked her?

A drop of blood landed on the stones at Kalvis’s feet, answering her question. What now? She couldn’t lead them back to the circus-and to Nikolai. But neither could she run forever. She glanced at the pontoon bridge, floating on its odd upside-down boats. Dammit! Everything was always impossible.

“Go!” she ordered Kalvis, who bolted onto the planks. His hooves pounded across them in a blur, but it didn’t drown out the sound of hundreds of havoc spiders and their claws scrambling onto the bridge behind her. Kalvis galloped, and Sofiya clung to the saddle with bloody hands until they were halfway across. Abruptly she halted the horse and wheeled him around, nearly causing him to stumble. Maddie squeaked and jumped down to cling to the saddle. The havoc spiders swarmed closer. They were perhaps twenty yards away. Sofiya, mouth dry, dropped to the planking to face them. When the spiders saw she had stopped, they seemed to double their speed. They formed a seething black and gold mass that engulfed the bridge beneath them. A strange calm descended over Sofiya as she pulled out the single-shot pistol and took aim. The closest spiders were only ten yards away now. She fired. The bolt struck the planking in front of the spiders and slashed straight through. Flames roared up and a wave of heat rolled across the bridge. Black smoke belched into the sky. Sofiya threw up a hand and backed into Kalvis, half blinded by the heat and smoke.

The bolt had destroyed the center of the bridge, leaving no clear way to cross. The dry planks of the pontoon bridge burned eagerly. A number of the spiders, caught in the blast, were flung into the River Neva, and they vanished beneath the current. Shouts and cries came up from the boats on the Neva, and the rivermen paddled frantically to stay clear of it. The remaining spiders backed away from the flames and skittered about the other side of the bridge uncertainly. It was clear they were unwilling-or unable-to jump the gap or to swim. There was no other bridge from Vasilyevsky Island to the mainland. The havoc spiders would be isolated. Other people lived or worked on the island, and Sofiya had to hope the spiders-and the machine that controlled them-would take no interest in them until the place could be evacuated by boat.