Sat, May 19 2012
Rebecca reached up and tried to pry von Moenne's hands from her throat. She gasped and tried to speak, but no words would come. von Moenne laughed. Keeping one hand at her throat, von Moenne reached down to smack Rebecca on her thigh. His firm hand slapped against her flesh. "You like this, don't you?"
Suddenly, von Moenne found himself flying backwards through the air, his head striking his dresser as he crumpled to the floor.
"That's quite enough of that!" Rebecca said. "As a matter of fact, I don't. How dare you! Do you treat all of your 'lady friends' like that?" She scurried out of bed to stand up.
von Moenne rubbed the back of his head as he stood up. "Well, yes, actually, and they love it!"
"I highly doubt that," Rebecca retorted as she threw a violent kick into von Moenne's stomach. He staggered backwards, but kept on his feet. Rebecca punched him with a right hook, spun, and kicked his legs out from under him. He crashed to the ground, striking his head on the dresser again. This time, von Moenne stayed down, a slight trickle of blood dripping from the back of his head.
Rebecca crouched in a ready stance, prepared to continue. However, von Moenne made no move to regain consciousness in the immediate future. Rebecca sighed. "The things we do for Queen and country," she muttered.
Rebecca whirled about as a figure leapt from behind a nearby tapestry shouting, "You are getting away from her, you evil man!"
Rebecca backed off as she realized it was Passepartout emerging from behind the tapestry. "There you are!" she sighed. "It's about time. Where have you been?"
Realizing Rebecca was completely nude, Passepartout cried out and quickly spun around, to face the other direction. "I am sorry, Miss Rebecca," he stammered, "I... I was taking a wrong turning in the secret passageways."
Jules stepped out from behind the tapestry, saw Rebecca in her naked state, and quickly turned himself around, to stare at the same tapestry as Passepartout was intensely studying. "Why, Rebecca, what nice... hangings you have in here." He winced.
Prince Ellerin stepped boldly out from behind the tapestry as well. He walked elegantly over to Rebecca, held out his hand, took hers and kissed the back of her hand. "You must be Miss Rebecca Fogg," he said. "I'm delighted to meet you, these young men have been telling me all about you."
Rebecca smiled at the Prince, and curtsied to him, making no attempt to cover her naked form. Since it didn't seem to bother the Prince, she didn't let it bother her either. "Well, don't believe everything they tell you, I'm sure most of it's not true."
The Prince smiled. "I can see that at least some of what they said is quite true," he said smoothly.
Rebecca grinned back at him.
"Uh, Rebecca, Passepartout and I are going to search in the other room for a bit," Jules said, his voice quivering. "Your Highness, we could use your valuable assistance."
The Prince bowed to Rebecca and replied, "Of course, my good man." He followed the other men out of the room.
Rebecca laughed to herself, and quickly redressed herself in her leather catsuit. Having restored her clothing, she hefted von Moenne onto her shoulders and dumped him onto his bed. She returned to the dresser, rifled through the drawers, and took out four long scarves. She moved back to von Moenne, and proceeded to tie the man to each of the four wooden posts of his bed, one scarf for each hand and foot. Once he was secured, his naked body forming a natural "X" shape, she hurried into the main quarters of von Moenne's rooms.
Verne looked over at her and smiled, pointing at his journal in triumph. "Found it!" he said. "The idiot even left it open to the pages he was looking at."
Rebecca moved quickly to join Jules. "And?"
Jules grimaced. "It's my design for an Underwater Transport Machine."
"A what?" Prince Ellerin said, scratching his head.
"An Underwater Transport Machine," Jules continued. "It's something I designed a while back. One of my earliest designs in fact. It was supposed to be a personal transport for moving underneath the surface of the water. See?" He pointed at the drawings on the page. The schematics showed a bullet-shaped craft, just slightly larger than a normal-sized man. Inside the craft, a man was illustrated manipulating a few simple controls, whilst behind him, on the outside of the craft, a mechanism seemed to be churning the water behind it. "This propelling mechanism back here is designed to carve into the water, and thereby thrust the craft forward, along a path of the pilot's choosing. The pilot would steer by using simple up, down, left, right, go, and stop levers.
"The trouble is, I could never actually design the propelling mechanism clear enough to figure out how to make it work. I could see it in my mind, yet for some reason I just couldn't translate it onto the paper. It was one of the most frustrating designs I ever worked on. I eventually gave it up, and moved on to other designs."
"So von Moenne is interested in this Underwater Transport Machine design of yours, it seems," Rebecca said grimly.
"It appears so," Jules concurred. "I wonder how far along he is in his planning."
"Master Fogg! Miss Rebecca!" Passepartout said excitedly. "I am finding a map of the castle building. I can see that in the lower areas is a... catacomb? Yes, a catacomb with a tunnel heading out to the waters of the ocean."
Jules and Rebecca looked at Passepartout's map, then looked at each other. "We've got to get down there and check it out," Jules said.
"Right," Rebecca agreed.
"But what about the Count?" Prince Ellerin said, clearly happier that they were on the move and not discussing obscure mechanisms and schematics.
"Oh, it's all right," Rebecca said, grinning evilly. "He's a bit tied up at the moment."
Jules rolled his eyes. "As if we didn't see that one coming."
Rebecca's smile fell. "All right, I'll try to thing of something more clever next time."
"Fine," Jules chuckled as they went back into the bedroom, hurried behind the tapestry, and headed down the secret passageway.
+ + + +
About one half hour and several wrong turns later, the small group emerged from a stone stairway into a small chamber. They paused on the threshold of the base of the stairs, surveyed the room for danger, and, spotting no threats, they stepped forward into the chamber.
"The catacombs," Jules said, his voice echoing oddly in the small space.
"Indeed," Rebecca said, as she looked around.
The chamber was about 50 feet in width, and about 100 feet long. About halfway from the entryway to the far side, the stone floor suddenly gave way to dark blue water. On the far side, Rebecca could just about make out the shape of a small exit tunnel half in and half out of the water. It looked about 15 feet or so in diameter. However, her main focus of attention was drawn to what was tied up to two stone pillars at the edge of the water.
"Jules, I think we've found what we were looking for," Rebecca said, pointing.
Jules approached the stone pillars, and followed the ropes to the objects tied to the other end. There were two of them, one tied to each pillar. They were roughly cylindrical, perhaps ten feet long, with one end tapering into a bullet-point, while the other end exhibited a strange, propeller-like device. The main body of the object was a dull metal grey in color, and had a small glass dome on top with what appeared to be an access panel just behind the glass dome.
Jules approached one of the objects. "This must be the Underwater Transport Machines," Jules said quietly. He's already built two prototypes." Jules carefully leaned over and pulled open the glass dome of one of the Machines. He looked inside. "It looks just barely big enough to fit one person inside," he said. "There's a seat, and some controls just in front of it. The dome must be so one can see outside the craft and pilot it."
"Jules, be careful," Rebecca called, as she kept Passepartout and the Prince back from the edge to keep them safe from the water and the machines.
"Don't worry, Rebecca, I know what I'm doing," Jules said back. He carefully stepped onto the seat of the craft, and awkwardly slid himself down into a seated position. He examined the controls. "Looks pretty simple. I see a few buttons, one labelled 'On' and one labelled 'Off'. There are also four levers, and these are arked 'Up', 'Down', 'Left', and 'Right'. Let me try something."
Jules braced himself, then pressed the button labelled "On". Nothing happened. He pressed the button again, and again nothing happened. "Damn it!" Jules said as he thumped the controls in frustration. "It doesn't work!"
Passepartout's eyes brightened. "I will be trying the second Machine, Master Jules!" he said happily, but was quickly pulled back by Rebecca.
"Don't, Passepartout," she said softly. "Let Jules examine it, see how far von Moenne's gotten in his work, and then we destroy them."
Passepartout's face fell, but he nodded. "Yes, I am understanding. Such a bad man as von Moenne is not deserving of such fantastic machines."
"Do you have the charges?" Rebecca asked Passepartout. He nodded. "Get them ready," Rebecca ordered. Passepartout dug into his disguise and started pulling out several square boxes. He took three of the small boxes, flicked a little button on the side of each of them, and secured them to the arch of stone above the base of the stairway. He turned back to Rebecca. "We are having ten minutes to get away from this chamber," he reported.
"Charges?" the Prince asked, confused.
Rebecca turned to him. "Explosive charges, Your Highness. Please understand. We must destroy these Machines before Count von Moenne can create any more, and unleash his evil upon the world."
The Prince chuckled. "Such a melodramatic description, but I understand."
"Good. Jules?"
Jules, meanwhile, had climbed out of the Machine and had opened the small access panel behind the glass dome. He tinkered about for a moment, then looked back at Rebecca. "I was so close, Rebecca, I was so close when I designed this to make it functional. But von Moenne is even closer. I think I can get it to work!"
Rebecca shook her head. "Don't, Jules, don't even think about it. Our mission is to destroy these prototypes, and then get the hell out of here."
Jules was about to protest, but thought better of it. He nodded, and with a last look at the access panel and its contents, closed it up. He stood up, and called to Passepartout. "Throw me a charge."
Passepartout tossed Jules one of the small boxes, which Jules deftly caught. Jules pressed the button on the box, and clamped it securely inside the first Machine. Jules moved over to the second Machine.
"There you are, you bitch!" a voice cried out, piercing the eerie quiet of the chamber.
The little group whirled around to see Count von Moenne, pistol in hand, march angrily down the stairs and into the chamber. He stepped right up to Rebecca and looked her straight in the face, gun pointing at her heart. "How dare you!" he spat at her.
Rebecca smiled sweetly. "Oh, it was easy once I saw your ugly countenance. I just knew at some point I'd just *have* to knock you unconscious."
von Moenne frowned, and said quietly. "I thought we could have been happy together. I thought you were going to go along willingly. Those things you said to me, about seeing me at the reception for the Emperor."
"I lied," Rebecca said.
Passepartout nudged the Prince, and the two of them crept ever so slowly closer to the stairway. Jules, meanwhile, looked on helplessly as he stood at the edge of the water near the second Machine.
"Very well," von Moenne said sadly. "If you will not be with me willingly... I shall just have to find other methods to control you. Willingly or unwillingly, you will be mine."
The sound of a pistol being cocked echoed in the chamber. "Not on your bloody life, Count!" a harsh voice growled.
von Moenne turned his head slightly, keeping Rebecca covered with his pistol. "Ah!" he said, his voice laced with sarcasm. "Phileas Fogg, how nice of you to join us."
"Put the gun down, Count, and move away from Rebecca," Phileas said, angrily, as he kept his pistol trained on von Moenne's head. "Now!"
"I don't think so, Phileas," von Moenne replied. "You see, I want Rebecca. And I will have her. If you shoot me, I will shoot her. And we will be together in the afterlife. So you see, either way, I win."
Passepartout looked at his watch, and looked over at von Moenne. "I am not thinking so," he said.
"Oh?" von Moenne said, arching an eyebrow as he stared at Rebecca. "And why the hell not?"
"Because, we are getting out of here, whereas you are staying here."
von Moenne frowned. "What are you dithering about?"
"I mean, the exploding boxes I set are going to go off now! Everyone, go! Go!" Passepartout shouted as he bundled the Prince through the archway and up the staircase.
Rebecca feinted right, and darted back left, dodging an attempt by von Moenne to strike her head with the pistol. She spun around, kicked out to knock his gun away, spun the other direction and kicked his head. von Moenne stumbled, and fell to one knee, clutching his temple. Rebecca turned and ran through the archway, Phileas behind her, covering von Moenne with his pistol.
"Jules, hurry!" Rebecca cried as she saw her young friend dashing towards her.
Suddenly, the ground shook with such a fury that it knocked everyone down. Passepartout fell on top of the Prince, and attempted to shield the Prince from any flying debris. Rebecca and Phileas were knocked down as well. The stone from the archway crumbled and tumbled, piling up at the bottom of the stairway. The debris kept raining down, building a massive pile of rubble. When everything settled down after a few moments, and the dust began to clear, Rebecca was the first to raise her head. She looked down the stairs, and saw that their way down was completely blocked off. She also saw that there was no sign of Jules Verne.
"Jules!" she cried out.
Phileas shook his head, and struggled to his feet. He extended his hand to help Rebecca stand as well. They approached the massive pile of debris, and were soon joined by Prince Ellerin and Passepartout.
"Rebecca!" they heard a voice call back. "I'm all right! I can't see the Count, I think he got caught in the explosion and was buried by the debris."
"Try clearing the rocks from your side, we'll start clearing from this side."
"No, get out of here, Rebecca," Jules yelled back at her.
"But Jules--"
"Rebecca, the explosive charge that I put on the Machine is going to go off in a few minutes, it'll take longer than that to dig through the rubble here. I've got an idea..."
"Jules!" Rebecca called. There was no answer. "Jules!" she called again.
Phileas placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "Rebecca, he can take care of himself," he said softly but firmly. "Let's get out of here while we can."
Rebecca looked at her cousin, and nodded. "Fine," she said. The group hurried up the stairs, and into the hallways of the castle. They passed the bodies of several of the Count's guards, dead or unconscious it was hard to tell. "Your handiwork?" Rebecca asked.
"Indeed," Phileas said. "Keep moving, or we'll get caught in some more of my 'handiwork'."
+ + + +
Back in the chamber, Jules rushed over to the second Machine, and pulled open the access panel. He thrust his hands inside, and looked closer at the mechanisms inside. "A-ha!" he cried. "Brilliant! I never thought to cross-rig the motor servo with the fusion pump. von Moenne, you do have some talent after all. Let's see, this link should fit into here, and... Yes. Got it! Now, let me try this again."
Jules reached over, and pressed the "On" button. Nothing happened.
"Hmmm... Well, let's try this from a different approach. If we disconnect this piston control, I think we can hook up its energy pipe to the main energy coil, and thus boost the fusion pump. Yes, that should do it!" Jules tinkered about in the panel, the sweat dripping from his forehead as he worked to get the second Machine going before the first one exploded. He quickly shut the access panel, and jumped into the Machine's seat. He pulled the glass dome shut and sealed it, braced himself, and pressed the "On" button one more time. This time, the Machine thrummed to life. "Yes!" Jules cried in triumph. He manipulated the controls, and began to steer the Machine towards the opening at the far side of the chamber. The Machine seemed to putter along rather slowly. "Come on, come on," Jules urged the craft. "I wish there was a speed control on this thing," he muttered.
"This is going way to slow for my tastes."
With another shuddering boom, a second explosion ripped through the chamber. This time it was the first Machine that exploded. The shockwaves from the blast quickly caught up with Jules' Machine, and slammed into the little craft. Jules was thrown back in his seat as the resultant burst of speed pushed the small ship towards the exit faster than Jules was comfortable with. "I promise to be careful what I wish for in future!" he cried out as his craft plunged into the dark hole of the tunnel. Jules shut his eyes, and kept his hands steady on the controls, praying that the tunnel was a simple straight shot out into freedom.
After what seemed like an eternity but was really only about five seconds, light burst in on Jules as his Machine slipped smoothly out of the tunnel and into the open sea. The Machine continued to rocket forward thanks to the shockwave, and no matter how many times Jules hit the "Off" button, the Machine kept going. Eventually the momentum from the blast did die down, and the Machine slowly drifted to a halt. The early morning sun shone down on Jules as his craft floated upon the surface of the sea.
"Wow!" Jules smiled. "Now *that* was something else!" He reached forward to press the "On" button. "Time to head for shore," he said. The button clicked, the engine responding with a loud, worrying "clank". Jules winced. "Oh, no." He popped open the glass hatch, and breathed in the sea air. Jules twisted in his seat so he could reach the access panel, which he quickly opened. A great cloud of smoke burst forth from the open panel, causing Jules to cough violently. Once the smoke cleared, Jules could look into the panel, and he saw that he would never be able to get the Machine working again. Too many links and pipes had either exploded or melted, and were beyond repair. On top of that, a dead fish was caught in a small set of gears.
Jules turned back around, and slumped down in his seat. He looked around at his surroundings. A vast expanse of sea, with the shore a very long distance away. "Now what?" he said glumly.
+ + + +
Passepartout piloted the Aurora quickly away from von Moenne's castle. "I am thinking we need to look for Master Jules now, Master," he said to Phileas.
"We'll get to that, Passepartout, but for the moment, just get us the hell away from that castle as fast as you can!" Phileas ordered.
"Yes, Master," Passepartout acknowledged as he manipulated the controls of the airship. The craft sped away from the castle, in the direction of the nearby sea.
"What was that you said earlier, Fogg," the Prince said, curious, "about your other bit of 'handiwork'?"
Phileas smiled, and was about to respond, when from behind the Aurora an incredible explosion ripped through the early morning air. The Prince, Phileas and Rebecca rushed to the observation deck, and looked back in the direction of the castle. What had once been a majestic, proud stone construction was now no more than a shell of its previous existence. Debris and rubble was everywhere. Towers had toppled, walls had collapsed, and there were several fires buring in a number of locations throughout the remains of the building.
"Oh, a few fires, a few explosive charges here and there," Phileas said breezily. "Nothing too fancy."
The Prince nodded approvingly. "Ah. Excellent handiwork, Fogg."
"Thank you, Your Highness."
"Master!" they heard Passepartout call out anxiously. They hurried back into the main cabin. Passepartout pointed out the front window at the expanse of water they were now sailing over. "Look, in the water!"
Phileas, Rebecca and the Prince rushed to look out the large main window.
"Look, a flash of light!" Rebecca said. "I think it must be our Jules!"
The Prince looked closer. "Good God, he's in one of those infernal Machines!" he said, surprise clearly evident in his voice.
"Definitely our Jules, then," Phileas smiled.
Rebecca and Phileas rushed back to the access platform. "Lower me down, Phileas," Rebecca said briskly as she stepped onto the platform. Phileas threw the lever, and Rebecca rode the platform down towards the surface of the sea. As she got closer to the surface, she called out to Jules. "Fancy meeting you here!"
Jules laughed heartily. "You know, Rebecca, I'm always glad to see you." He carefully stood up on the Machine's seat as Rebecca got ever nearer to him.
"Can I offer you a lift?" Rebecca chuckled.
"Don't mind if I do, Rebecca," Jules smiled. He waited until the platform was just about level with the surface of the sea, then he nimbly jumped from the Machine onto the platform. Rebecca caught him and steadied him as he tried to keep his balance. She looked at him briefly, then hugged him close.
"I'm glad you made it, Jules," Rebecca said quietly in his ear as the platform began to ascend.
"So am I, Rebecca," Jules agreed.
"I see you got the Machine working," Rebecca said.
"Yes, it worked. von Moenne was close, just as I was close. But together our ideas were even closer. Then once I saw the actual mechanism inside, I knew how to get it to work. But now... now it's dead."
Rebecca reached into a pouch on her outfit, and withdrew an explosive charge. She pressed the button, and threw the box down into the open hatch of the Machine. "Yes, it's dead. So is von Moenne. And his plans die with him."
Jules and Rebecca rode the rest of the way back up in silence.
The Aurora hung in the air for a few moments. Then, below it, the second Machine exploded, its debris scattering over the water, and the main body of the Machine sunk into the depths. After a few more moments, the Aurora drifted off, on its way to another mission.
+ + + +
The debris from the exploded archway shifted slightly, as a hand struggled to the surface of the rockpile. The hand shoved aside several large pieces of rock and masonry. Eventually a second hand joined it, and then an angry body pushed its way out of the pile of rubble.
von Moenne stood on unsteady feet as he clutched his throbbing head. Several cuts on his head and body still dripped with blood. von Moenne looked about him. He saw that he could not go back up the blocked off stairway. He also saw that one of his Machines was utterly destroyed. Of the second there was no sign. von Moenne walked calmly towards the edge of the stone, and dove smoothly into the water.
He swam strongly and silently towards the exit tunnel, eventually reaching the fresh, open air, and hew swam out into the sunlight. He swam a little ways out to sea, then turned to look back towards land. Up on the craggy cliffside he could see the charred, smoking, crumbling ruins of his once-proud castle. von Moenne swam in place for a few moments, as he simply stared up at the ruins. Then, once more silent and determined, he swam back towards land.
Instead of swimming over to a nearby beach where he could simply walk ashore, he swam towards the rocky cliffside which plunged straight into the water, and from which the tunnel to the Machine chamber had emerged. He did not swim back into the tunnel to the chamber, however, but instead, after taking a deep breath, dove under the surface. He swam towards a much larger opening that was completely submerged and therefore not visible from the surface of the water. von Moenne entered this larger underwater tunnel, and swam down its length. He eventually emerged into another underground chamber and sucked air into his lungs. After he calmed his breathing back down, he swam over to the edge of the stone dock, and heaved himself up out of the water.
von Moenne, dripping with water, looked about the chamber. This underground catacomb was much larger than the one he had just left. It was about five hundred feet in width and length, with a small narrow stone walkway running along one wall. At one end of the stone walkway was an exit, with a stairway leading upwards. At the other end of the stone walkway was a control panel with switches, dials, and levers.
von Moenne contemplated the stairway leading upwards. He walked towards it. From the base of the stairway he could see that the upper part of the stairway was completely blocked, filled with cracked and crumbled debris from the destruction of his castle. Turning away from the stairs, von Moenne walked over to the panel at the other end of the stone walkway. He looked quietly at the controls, then reached out to calmly pull a lever.
With a great clanking, hissing, and rumbling noise, the water behind him began to churn. Something began to surface... a giant metal cylinder, vaguely in the same shape of the Underwater Transport Machines, but on an immensely larger scale. Instead of a glass dome on top, a small metal ladder fused to the main body of the cylinder led up to a normal-looking hatch with a wheel. The dark, dull grey of the giant Machine was slick with water from its time spent underneath the surface. Once the craft had emerged to a height of about three feet, it stopped, and the clanking and rumbling noise ceased. The chamber became quiet once more.
von Moenne paused to look at the giant Machine. From one end of the craft to the other it was approximately two hundred feet in length, and about twenty-five feet in diameter. The nose of the ship tapered to a bullet-point, as had the smaller Machines. The tail end again featured a propeller-like mechanism.
von Moenne calmly stripped off his damp, dripping clothes, and once he was naked, he calmly climbed the metal ladder up to the entry hatch of the giant Machine. Twisting the wheel, he lifted the hatch open, and climbed down, closing and locking the hatch behind him. He climbed down the ladder which was fitted to the inside of the hatch, and jumped down to the floor. He walked down a narrow, cramped hallway and went into a tiny room off to one side. A few moments later he emerged, clothed in a clean, neat, military-style uniform.
Feeling somewhat better, von Moenne marched back down the hallway, and headed towards the rear of the Machine. He reached a closed door at the end of the hallway. Reaching out, he yanked open the door. von Moenne marched into the craft's engine room. He headed straight for a bank of pipes and controls. "Let me see... what was it? Oh yes... 'hook up its energy pipe to the main energy coil, and thus boost the fusion pump'. Thank you, Jules Verne, I think between the two of us we might just get the Nautilus functional.
He paused, and looked up at the ceiling. "Count von Moenne may have died today. But the world will soon hear from... Captain Nemo!"
Turning back to the workings of the Nautilus' engine, Captain Nemo set to work...
...THE END...
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2