Spark of life

“How wonderful the power of the modern steam network!”

I felt differently, after packing up the equipment post-experiment and the constant clicking of progression through the country, I had achieved little sleep...

“Here we are Carter.....The grand labs of London......many a discovery has happened here, I can tell you...” A smell similar to that given by the spark generator hung round the door.

Pulling back the large brass lion that hung as a knocker, the sounds of London soon dissipated till all that I heard was voices from inside.....The knocker fell and in no time we had time at all, we had been introduced and were already sat down in a grand room. When I say grand, I mean not the rooms of a country estate, but that of an inventor. The walls were lined with brass pipe work, which gave a low hum to the room, and large brass gears hung on the walls with Spindles entering and exiting the walls at varying points. The room, however, was most certainly dominated by the large mesh of gears and pulleys that resided, bolted to the floor in the exact centre....

This grand centrepiece ticked. Randomly it seemed at first. The large jewelled coil span around every so often, with the large clock face that sat aloft, counting the turns with six needles.

The wooden panelling of the wall across recessed into the wall and slid across. A tall figure stood in the vacancy in the wall. As he flicked the rim of his Bowler hat to above his well groomed brow, the light streamed from our room into his smirking face. His fingers twiddled his spindly black moustache and his eyes rose from the ground.

“Vwelcome dear comrades!” his accent lay heavy on his voice. “If you would like to follow, ze time approaches and lateness is not acceptable!”