Chapter 10: Iron City

Penny, Alexus, Kale and Selwyn blinked to Tinble City.

They were sad to find that the shield had failed. The devastation suggested that it had failed many years before. When they entered the Citadel, they found it dark and quiet.

They activated their wands, so they provided light and using the stairs they headed to the room that the SAI should be located in. They found that she had died. The dried out mess in the tank suggested that she had been dead for a year or possibly two.

Kale touched the stiff material that made up the SAI. He frowned. “We need to get the power back on,” he said to the others.

They all looked at him. At first, none of them had any ideas how to do this. “We need Sarah and Storm to do that,” Penny said.

“Maybe not,” Alexus suddenly said. “We only need power for this building. I remember Sarah had shown me a room and said all the funny switches had to be in the correct positions or there was no power to the circuit wired to it. Let’s check that first. I believe that the crystal spire on this building is okay.”

So he and Penny went to find the room while Kale got Selwyn to help him clean out the tank. He found that water came out of the hose and gave it to Selwyn.

“Why are we cleaning the tank if she is dead?” Selwyn asked as she gently sprayed the dried crusty material off what she thought of like the skeleton of the being.

“Because I don’t think she is totally dead. I felt her inorganic data system was all right, but I believe that she has left spores in the tank. If we can get them to replicate or whatever it is her organic self does, we might be able to get her to regenerate, or we get a new SAI,” Kale said.

Selwyn was dubious, but she couldn’t see any harm in trying. She said, “I hope I don’t wash the spores out of the tank.”

Kale gently touched the being and said, “No, they seem to be in little pods attached inside the columns. I’m hoping if we can get the tank set back up, I can encourage them to come out and play.”

Alexus found the room he was looking for, and they opened the doors. They looked at all the switches and could see that all the smaller ones all faced the same way to on. Then Penny pointed at out the big one that said, ‘Off.’

He and Penny turned all the smaller circuit breakers off as Alexus remembered something Sarah had said, about not trying to start everything at once. “Why didn’t the androids reset it?” Alexus said as he put both hands under the lever to the big breaker and pushed it up.

Selwyn shrugged, “Actually, I haven’t seen one have you?”

“No, come to think of it, I haven’t. We may need to find the androids once we work out this problem,” Alexus said. He finally got the switch up, and they heard a ‘clunk’.

Alexus searched the tags using his wand as a torch then turned one of the smaller ones on and the lights flickered and then popped on. Alexus grinned at Penny. “Smarty pants aren’t you, my love,” she replied smiling back as she helped him turn all the other switches back on one at a time after a short interval.

They headed back to Kale, pleased that they had got the power back on. Kale had the filtration system cleaned out and restarted by the time they made it back. He was checking the nutrients tank.

“I think this one is still full,” he said. “All the lights are green, indicating it’s still good.” He worked out how to change the valves over to feed the system from it.

They had closed the valves on her tank and hoped what debris Selwyn hadn’t been able to flush out would be taken care of by the system. Kale had her keep the hose on until the tank was full enough that she was covered and then he kicked the systems back into operation.

He was pleased when the water flushed through the columns that were the skeleton of the SAI and more debris was washed out. They waited for a little while until it looked cleaner.

He turned the nutrient tank on, and they watched as it was mixed into the system. He dropped the feed rate to a dribble. “I want you all to touch her,” he said to them.

He was searching around in his head to find a spell that seemed right when Penny suddenly mentally linked to them all and blurted out several spells. They all felt her draw sharply on their magical energy and then she stopped.

They all blinked at the rush and focused back on the tank. “Wow! That is so awesome Penny,” Kale said.

Little pink sparkles burst from the columns, flittered around in the tank and settled back onto the columns, they joined with the columns, and the colour of the columns started to change from grey to pink.

They removed their hands and observed her come to life. They were totally awestruck by the spectacle. They watched a little long as the colours changed and the being gave off that alive feeling to them that living organisms projected.

“Hello?” a teenage-sounding girl’s voice said.

“Hello, do you know who you are?” Penny asked excitedly.

“Ooh! This is a nice place, so much information. Hum, there are messages. Oh dear! My parent had to go into preservation mode. Catastrophic failure. Ionic and magnetic storm disruption. Android malfunction. Main power lost. Shield spells lost. I have no name mistress. Do I need a name?”

“Yes,” said Penny. “It is easier if you have a name for when we wish to talk to you.”

“Communication files corrupt. No, only records of androids. Directives, to serve the wizards of Tinble. To serve the One People. Parent was Tina of Tinble.”

“Do you like that name?” Penny asked.

“Yes, but it is parents name, I like Ting,” she said.

“Hello Ting, we are pleased to meet you,” Penny said with a big grin.

“Yes, where are my people? Require shield to operate better and serve. Need androids to fix systems. Detect City, not healthy. JJ? JJ has a message. JJ says sailing ships are entering the bay. We need the shield working.”

“If the breaker was tripped here from the storm, then one or more of the other towers will have tripped. Can we at least get a shield over the Citadel?” Alexus asked the others.

“Yes, good idea,” Ting replied. “Give me time to get affiliated with all my systems. I have considerable information to assimilate.”

Penny smiled at her friends, “I was wondering why I felt compelled to read up on shields. I think if we put our hands back on Ting, it will help her to maintain the spells.”

They all put their hands back into the tank and touched her. To their surprise, she giggled as if she was being tickled. “Ooh, that feels so agreeable,” she said.

They all smiled and then Penny closed her eyes and linked with the others. They all felt a small presence that they suspected was Ting. Penny recited the spells. Then Kale added one. They all felt a massive rush of adrenaline and endorphins hit their brains as if they had just orgasmed.

“Oh my! That was incredible. You have my permission to do that to me whenever you wish my wizards. I feel fantastic. The shield for the Citadel is now at full strength. I am better connected, and many of the systems are coming online. I may require time to process before I can assist you further.”

They all removed their hands from the tank. Ting was positively glowing with health. “What did you do Kale?” Penny asked.

“Sorry, I just added a spell to keep the plague out. I think it affected Ting by cleaning up her system and for want of a better explanation, I think I regenerated the organic part of her, to fully functionality,” he said.

Even he couldn’t believe the change in Ting. He had gotten the feelings of contentment from her and that she was healthy and in better control.

“We need to find the androids,” Alexus said.

“Try the recharging room down the hall,” Ting suggested.

They did and found ten of the androids in the room. Penny touched one, “I think if they recharge they will be okay. Whatever we did seems to have reset them.”

Kale touched one and then another and replied, “Yes, it’s humming gently, and I can sense its power levels increasing. Ting, I suggest when they are recharged you send them to find their friends.”

“Shall do,” she replied happily.

“I wonder if the preservation spell worked on the food storage units,” Selwyn said. They all nodded in agreement. They had used a lot of energy, and they all felt famished, so they went to look.

They were delighted to find enough food to satisfy their needs. Some of the units had failed, and they would have to clean them out. Once fed, they went looking for a room to fix their other problem, caused by using a lot of magical energy. With Ting’s help, they found clean towels and linens.

They selected a couple of rooms and settled into their new home.

Three battered ships were rocking gently in the bay.

His Eminence had sent a party ahead to scout out the city while they got his carriage onto the wharf. The lankys were more than happy to get off the ships, as were the crew and passengers.

To the surprise of the Captains, they had been able to access the wharf at the base of the City. It had been a rough trip, and they had lost nearly a third of the crew and a quarter of the passengers to accidents, drownings from the rough seas and the plague that had followed them aboard.

They had lost more on Richard’s ship than the other two. If anyone was sick, even if it was just seasickness then they were just as likely to be tossed overboard by someone. The people on Richard’s ship tried to keep their distance from him, and none touched him or his personal servants willingly.

The cook wouldn’t even let them into the kitchen and made them pick up his meals and theirs from an area reserved for them. He told them to throw the dishes overboard. He had brought extra sets aboard just for them and Richard.

On shore, one of the men had found a warehouse to use as a stable, and they picked another establishment to move into that they believed might have been a hotel. The passengers happily relocated, while they waited to be told by the Bishop what they were doing here.

They let Richard, and his servants have the top floor to themselves when they found the square boxes that rose up and down the floors still worked. The rest of the Clerics took the next floor. The servants settled in on the lower ones.

The cook was mystified at what half the stuff in the kitchen did, but he had fun finding out. He nearly lost his eyebrows when he worked out how to ignite the gas burners on the stove. However, once he had, he settled in.

He also played with the other devices and worked out many of them plugged into the slots on the wall. He soon found uses for some of them. He fell in love when he found the walk-in fridge and freezer.

He learnt about most of the rest of the devices when he accidentally turned on a screen on the wall, and he was asked to select a recipe. He and all his staff huddled around watching the cook making a clucker casserole. The moving pictures had them mesmerised.

The Captain of the Bartholin said that the shield over the wharf might have been down for as many as ten years. He had noticed that the pier was showing signs of weathering for about that period. The barnacles were well established on the pylons.

The buildings were also showing signs of neglect and some had even fallen down during the winter storms. The roads also revealed that they hadn’t been used or maintained for a long time. The pavements were cracked and bird shit covered many of the buildings and ornaments. Their versions of rats had also moved in.

The better-built buildings, like the hotel, were in good repair inside and had maintained their seals. Some of the homes had personal belongings in them, and many of the businesses still had goods on the shelves. If the building hadn’t been breached then, the items were still usable.

When the soldiers headed into the city, it also showed signs of years of abandonment. The outer lying fields were overgrown, and new forest growth indicated that many years had passed since they were attended.

The roads were still mostly intact, but weeds had sprouted in any crevice they could. Tree seedlings and bushes had found the parks and gardens and were taking over. Lichens, fungus and algae were growing on the buildings in the damper locations.

They could all see that the once fine city was being reclaimed by nature. They tried several doors, but the buildings in the inner city zone were shut up tight, and they wouldn’t give them access.

They could pick out rings that depicted each time the shield retracted. One of the Clerics suggested that over the last ten years it had withdrawn many times as years passed, the outer rings being larger than the inner ones.

The wharf would have been one of the first areas left unprotected. The shield must have lasted the longest over the inner part of the city and the Citadel. It wasn’t as overgrown, and the roads and buildings were in the best repair.

Several of the Clerics that were with the soldiers found that they had to be careful what they touched, as many of the buildings repulsed them and some even gave them a burning sensation. It seemed that while the shield had failed the city wasn’t totally dead.

The spells on many of the buildings were still active. Many of those buildings still had power to them as well. When they approached the citadel, they discovered that the shield had shrunk to protect just it and the klick or so of land around it.

His Eminence wasn’t pleased. He had hoped the shield had failed completely. He was going to have to perform the sacrifices to get it to break, as he knew anything that could help him would be in the Citadel.

He still had his nine strongest mages so he should be able to do it. Ten of the girls were still alive. He had been very careful that they were kept isolated from the rest of the people on the ship they were on. They were attended to and guarded by two of his most trusted Clerics.