Steven Harper - The Doomsday Vault

Gavin jumped, and Dr. Clef instantly snapped to himself. “Wonderful! I should have thought of this myself!”

“Where did it come from?” Gavin asked. His heart was pounding.

“Time, I think,” Dr. Clef told him. “The cube is truly unique, you know. Do you remember when Viktor von Rasmussen found a way to bring his parallel selves from other universes into this one?”

“I heard about it,” Gavin said, “but that was before my time at the Ward.”

“He is dead now. But he started me thinking. I built the cube to be absolutely unique. It actually exists in all the other universes, you see, but they are all the same cube. This gives it many strange properties.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Yes. When you give the cube different energies, it changes them. I think that one”-he gestured at the A-flat tuning fork-“has something to do with time. The cube can’t travel through time, you see. The cube can’t travel at all. I think what happened was that the entire universe-all the universes-moved backward and left the cube in the same place. When you struck the fork again, the cube matched itself to the vibration and pulled the universes back to where they should be, but since we are in the universes, it appeared to us that the cube moved, when actually we did.”

“That’s im-That’s not poss-That. . makes my head hurt.”

Dr. Clef waved a hand. “So, so. This is my masterpiece! A wonderful thing, yes?”

“Yes. I mean, I think so.” Gavin felt off-kilter, and looking at the Impossible Cube didn’t help. “Doctor Clef, you stay here and I’ll be back.”

“Yes, yes.” He waved a hand. “I have more tests.”

Gavin locked the workshop door carefully behind him and dashed down the stone hallway and past the extra-heavy door where Edwina was being kept. Her door had three powerful locks on it, and Gavin didn’t have any of the keys. Only Lieutenant Phipps ever went in, even with food. He also passed the Doomsday Vault with its four guards, and, deciding not to wait for the lift, hurried up the spiral stairs to the office of Susan Phipps.

“I’m going out, ma’am,” he said, poking his head inside, “since I’m still on holiday. But you’ll want to check on Doctor Clef again. He found his cube.”

“Did he?” Phipps got to her feet behind her desk. “And what does it-”

There was a muffled boom . All the lights, including the oil lamps, went out. Shouts went up all over the house. Phipps made an exasperated sound.

“I never liked that thing,” she said, fumbling in the dim moonlight for matches. “I think we’ll have to put it into the Doomsday Vault first thing in the-ouch!”

“What’s wrong?”

“The lamp is still lit. It’s just not giving off any light.”

“I don’t even want to know how that works,” Gavin said. “Do you need me? Alice rented a new house with her bonus, and I’m supposed to help her. . uh. .”

“Go, go.” The lights abruptly came back up. More shouts from the halls and rooms. “But I want you on hand in the morning when we put that thing in the vault. An hour before sunrise. You know the ceremony.”

“Ma’am.” He fled before she could change her mind.

Alice met him at the front door with a kiss. “You’re just in time,” she said.

“For what?” He couldn’t help smiling.

“For moving furniture. It’s too heavy for me, and Kemp is cranky.”

This row house was small but newer-well built and free of drafts. The living room had a fireplace and the kitchen had a good stove, which meant the place stayed warm. A sofa, chair, divan, and several end tables were scattered about the front room. Click perched on the back of the sofa, and Kemp was in the kitchen with tea things. Little automatons crawled, whirred, and scampered everywhere, like autumn leaves at play.

“I like this place,” Gavin said. “It’s very much you.”

“I suppose I should hire a maid-of-all-work,” Alice said, “but I think it would make Kemp unhappy, and the little ones sometimes get nervous around too many people.” She spread her arms. “It’s freeing to be here, Gavin. I’m renting it with money I earned myself, and that means I can be myself. Whyever do you stay in those tiny rooms at the Ward?”

“Most of my money has gone toward the ship, and my family,” he said. “But I’m glad you found this place. It’s more private.”

“That it is.” She slid her arms around him, and his heart jumped. “No one to interrupt us here.”

“Tea?” Kemp said, entering with the tray. Click chose that moment to leap at one of the flying automatons. It squeaked and shot higher. The clockwork cat missed and crash-landed on one of the tables, which tipped over and spilled him onto the floor. He scrabbled madly at the boards and rushed indignantly out of the room.

“No interruptions?” Gavin grinned.

“Have some tea,” Alice said, plucking a cup from the tray.

“Darling? Can you hear me?”

Gavin jumped. Alice dropped the cup and it shattered on the wood floor. It was Edwina’s voice, and it was coming from Kemp. The automaton stood completely frozen, still holding the tea tray.

“Hello?” Kemp said, speaking as Edwina. “Alice, are you there?”

“Wha-what?” Alice said. “Aunt Edwina?”

“Oh, good. It works. Listen, darling, I don’t have much time, so listen quickly.”

“What’s going on?” Alice demanded. “Where are you? You’re not going to attack another airship, are you?”

“Not to worry, darling. I’m in my cell at the Third Ward. They call it a workroom or a laboratory, but it’s a cell, nonetheless. I’ve been pretending my grip on reality has slipped, but they still give me equipment to play with and I cobbled together this transmitter. Did you talk to the ambassador as I told you?”

“You didn’t tell me to do anything, but yes,” Alice said, recovering herself. “We figured out what you meant.”

“Then you know about the cure and why the Crown wants to suppress it. I realized this would happen, you know, which is why I set everything up the way I did.”

“What do you mean by that?” Gavin asked.

“Mr. Ennock is there? Good! This will make things simpler. Have you joined the Third Ward, Alice?”

“Yes,” Alice said slowly. “I’m in training, but I’m in.”

“Excellent!” Edwina sounded relieved. “I haven’t told you everything yet, so I need you to listen closely now. The clockwork plague is destroying the entire world, and not only by disease. One day, a clockworker will make something powerful enough to wipe out all life on Earth. This plague must end. Now.”

Gavin’s thoughts went to the Impossible Cube, and he glanced at Alice. Her face was white. He reached for her hand, but she shook it off.

“The Ward has my first cure, the one that works on one person at a time. They put it in the Doomsday Vault. They’re still looking for my second cure, the one that spreads.”

“You said it was incubating,” Alice interrupted.

“It is. They can’t find it because I put it in the one place they’d never look.”

“I’ll ask,” Gavin said with a sigh. “Where?”

“Inside me.”

Alice’s expression became incredulous. “Inside you?”

“There are places even the Ward can’t search, darling. Now that I have proper facilities again, I can finish incubating it. In fact, it will be done by morning. That’s where you two come in.”

“I don’t understand,” Gavin said.

“Both cures must be released. That’s why I arranged for the two of you to join the Third Ward. Once I was able to use the Ward’s facilities to finish the cure-”

“You would need someone to break you out,” Alice finished. “No.”