The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection by Jonathan Green

Author:Jonathan Green [Green, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Steampunk, Sci Fi & Fantasy
Publisher: Abaddon Books
Published: 2011-05-30T06:00:00+00:00

A fuzzy ball of light glowed into life, like a blown ember, at the heart of the void-sphere. It rapidly began to take on a recognisable shape as Alexander Oddfellow materialized, suspended within the spinning gyroscope.

He appeared more solid than on either of the two previous occasions when he had manifested within the house. Looking through the whirling barrier of light, squinting as if he was struggling to focus through the distortion, he fixed his gaze on Ulysses and Ulysses saw a glimmer of recognition there.

"Ulysses Quicksilver," Oddfellow's voice wafted to him as if he were speaking to the dandy from another room. "What are you doing here?"

"Oddfellow," Ulysses said. "What is this thing? You've caused no end of problems, disappearing like that. There are questions that need answering."

"You can hear me?"

"I can hear you."

"Then listen carefully. I do not know how long we've got. I've been trapped here for... it feels like... I don't know how long."

"Where?"

"Within this damnable machine; inside this wretched containment field," Ulysses heard Oddfellow's strained words a split second after he saw them form on his lips. It was as if image and sound were fractionally out of sync.

"What was it designed to do?"

"What you see before you is the experimental prototype of Oddfellow's Matter Transmitting Device."

"A teleport?"

"That's what it was supposed to be, only something catastrophic occurred." Oddfellow seemed to peer past Ulysses, taking in the others gathered within the cellar-lab, before adding, "A spanner in the works, you might say."

"So where did it teleport you to?"

"Nowhere. Limbo? I don't know. All I do know is that I'm still trapped within it. If the power were to fail, I don't know what would happen; where I might end up. I rather suspect my component atoms would be spread across the ether, never to be reunited."

"Well, Smythe was right, it does explain the power drains and the problem with the lights," Ulysses said, half to himself as he tried to make sense of what the unreal Oddfellow was telling him. "But if you're trapped in there, how come you appeared to us during the séance? And how did you lead us here in this incorporeal form?"

"I have wondered the same thing myself," the floating Oddfellow admitted. "I can only presume that some other device was used to focus my signal and project me to those locations in this wretched form. But I don't know of such a device."

"I can help you there," Ulysses exclaimed excitedly, "Smythe and Wentworth's Patent Paranormal Anomaly Detector! That crazy gizmo of theirs must have inadvertently focused the signal." The lights in the cellar dimmed still further and bulbs on the panel of the sphere's control console flickered and faded. "But I rather suspect that we do not have much time. Just wait there. Don't go anywhere," Ulysses instructed the hovering ghost.

The dandy turned to the two technical whizzes working the logic engine next to him.

"This thing requires massive reserves of energy," Smythe said, looking anxious. He and Wentworth had been listening in on Ulysses' communion with the dead.

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