Mercury Eye: A Novella

By Megan Leigh

The city of Considia is under attack by dragons. They roam the hovercar-filled skies and blast the neon streets with flame, seemingly determined to wipe out all of humankind and their technological accomplishments. Military attempts to suppress them have failed, and now the dragons resort to suicide tactics in their desperate reign of destruction.

Meanwhile, citizens are dying mysteriously and a strange white mist lingers amongst the buildings, a mist that only genius scientist Bryce Williams is able to see. When his greatest invention -- a thirty-foot titanium dragon -- escapes from its enclosure and goes on a fiery rampage, Bryce believes his efforts to create an intelligent robot to protect the city have failed horribly -- along with his career.

But the revelation he discovers about the motivations of his Mercury II dragon leave him shocked, yet unable to convince anyone of the truth...

What is the mist?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Megan Leigh
• Release date: Mar 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463366141

Megan Leigh

Megan Leigh is a Tasmanian expat writer and artist living in Amsterdam. She paints nature and animals and writes weird and wonderful stories of fantasy and adventure.

Book preview

Mercury Eye

A Novella

*

Megan Leigh

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2005 Megan Leigh

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

First published as ebook 2019

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Cover design original artwork by Megan Leigh

Mercury Eye

145 DEAD IN SUICIDE DRAGON ATTACK

145 people were killed and 16 seriously injured when a dragon crashed into the old Skye Industries building early yesterday evening.

The victims were all squatters on the 20 – 25th floors of the otherwise abandoned building. It is believed the dragon survived the initial impact, but was killed (along with its victims) when five floors above it collapsed due to structural failure.

Eyewitnesses say the attack came completely without warning, the dragon’s only apparent motive being to kill everyone inside.

The military denies allegations that it was responsible for the incident, claiming it had no knowledge of an impending attack and no weapons were fired.

Mayor of Considia, Burnie Stein, said at a press conference early this morning that dragons crashing into buildings were not an unusual occurrence – but was more often attributed to accident.

Since these attacks began six years ago, our main threat from the dragons has been fire-bombing, the Mayor said. We’ve had plenty of dragons crash into buildings in the past, but this latest attack is the first time a dragon has purposefully flown into a building with the sole, chilling intent of murdering the people within.

President of IntelliTech Inc., Raymond Mollier says the attack is an alarming new development. If these dragons are willing to become suicidal in order to destroy humans, we have one hell of a big problem.

Some believe our only real hope of winning the war against these terrifying creatures lies in the success of the Mercury Project – an ambitious new weapon being developed by the world’s leading manufacturer of Super Intelligent Robots.

When questioned about the progress of the Mercury Project, Mr. Mollier replied: The Mercury Project has been suspended. IntelliTech is concentrating on developing a much safer defence system involving high powered lasers.

Bryce Williams let out a long sigh and slumped back in his chair. Lasers, he thought dismally. That was their great alternative? He glanced over the glare of his holographic monitor at the darkened, titanium mesh-reinforced observation window that occupied the entire far wall.

His laboratory was silent apart from the usual quiet hum of computer equipment. Bryce screwed up his eyes in frustration. They were going to rely on a system that wasn’t even out of the planning stages yet, when the Mercury Project had been completed and sitting here idle for several weeks?

Why can’t IntelliTech have a little more faith in my invention? he thought angrily. They won’t even let me test it!

He slammed his fist onto his stainless-steel workbench. Several bolts jumped and rolled with a clatter onto the floor. Bryce listened to the silence as the noise died away. Then he sighed again; the anger was trickling away, only to be replaced by familiar, empty despair. He turned resentfully back to his holoboard and tapped a key, hoping to find something more cheery on the second page of the newsfeed.

He was disappointed. Page 2 contained an article on the second greatest threat to public safety; SDS, or Sudden Death Syndrome. The story was identical to every other that had gone before it; the only facts that had changed were the place and the numbers. This time thirty-nine university students had literally dropped dead for no apparent reason in the middle of a lecture.

Bryce didn't bother to read the rest of the article to see if there had been any new developments in the search for a cause (or a cure). He knew there hadn't. SDS had been around for as long as the dragons, and still no one had the faintest idea what was causing it.

The latest theory was that the dragons gave off some sort of biochemical that was toxic to humans. A good theory – except that it failed to explain why most cases of SDS occurred indoors to people that had never had contact or exposure to dragons, or ever been in the vicinity of one.

Bryce shut down his newsreader and gazed blankly at the wall, as though waiting for it to suddenly start speaking and provide him with the solutions to all his troubles.

The wall remained resolutely silent. Bryce sighed yet again. Storm blue, he thought dryly. He wished they had just painted it white. No one painted anything plain white any more. These days everyone seemed to be obsessed with colour.

He glanced down at his clothes. He didn't think much of the lab coat he had been given to wear, either. It was a pale, delicate shade of pink. He often wondered if someone was trying to tell him something, or if the cleaners had accidentally washed it with the coloureds and hadn't bothered to get him a new one. He wouldn't be at all surprised. That was just the sort of organisation this was – it poured billions of dollars a year into high-tech research projects, but wouldn't spare a blue cent for its human resources.

Bryce didn't care much. He had far more important things to worry about than his appearance. Besides, no one ever saw him down here anyway except Mollier and the occasional auditor.

As if in answer to his thoughts, a sudden metallic hum invaded the silence and Bryce started and blinked. He swivelled anxiously in his chair to see who had entered his lab.

A young lady swaggered through the doorway with a mischievous grin on her face. Her sun-blond hair was streaked with navy blue and pulled back into a two-foot-long ponytail. She wore a reflective silver jacket over a plain black t-shirt and work trousers.

Lauren! Bryce exclaimed in surprise, leaping at once to his feet.

Hey, Bryce! Lauren greeted cheerfully. She looked around interestedly at the quiet lab as she approached. Not gettin’ too lonely down here for you, I hope?

Bryce shook his head. Lauren’s grin was infectious. No, I’m too busy to get lonely.

A mock-severe expression suddenly crossed his friend’s face. She strode purposefully forward and tapped the oval glasses perched across his nose. "Still haven’t got your OEDs yet, I see," she said in an accusatory tone.

Bryce adjusted his glasses self-consciously. He turned away and sat back down at his bench, pretending to look for something amongst the jumble of circuit boards and computer chips scattered across it. No, and I don’t intend to, he muttered.

The loose parts rattled on the metal as Lauren jumped up to sit beside him. Bryce concentrated on avoiding her gaze. He knew what she was going to say, and he didn't feel like getting into another argument about it.

"Don’t you think its just a bit hypocritical that the only person on the planet that won't wear them is their inventor? Hmmm?" she said, proving his assumption correct.

Bryce snatched up a tangle of wires as thin as hairs and attempted to extricate one by yanking on it forcefully. As their inventor, I know their flaws, he said stubbornly. He shook his head. I never fully approved them for mainstream use, you know.

Beside him, Lauren rolled her eyes, and her head. Bryce, come on! she said in exasperation. "It’s been ten years! If something was seriously wrong with them, we would have found out by now!"

Bryce frowned at the mess of wires in his hand. He had to concede she had a point. Everyone had Optical Enhancement Devices these days. Even people who’d had perfectly healthy eyes to begin with had had them removed and installed OEDs instead. His invention had been deemed one of the greatest technological advances in history. The OEDs had practically eradicated all forms of blindness, and there had been very few side effects. There had not been any problems so far that could not be easily fixed.

Yet still his instinct told him there were faults. Even if they were insignificant to the rest of the population, he knew they were there.

And until he discovered what those faults were and fixed them, he was not going to have his biological eyes (no matter how imperfect) replaced with a couple of computerised devices.

So, he said without looking up. I take it you didn't come all the way down here just to badger me about getting some OEDs. A sudden thought struck him and he jerked his head up in alarm. Wait a minute! Do you even have authorisation to be in here?

Lauren laughed, and the sudden sharp sound after so many months of near silence caused him to flinch instinctively. Hell no! she replied, grinning. Actually, I was heading back from fixing a screwed-up MemScan on D level – but I couldn't resist schmoozing in here to annoy you.

Bryce was staring at her with his mouth open. What? he said incredulously, glancing quickly at the door. How did you get past my MemScan?

Lauren grinned, and patted a small black box amongst the curious tools attached to her belt. Code Scanner, she replied. I needed it to fix the MemScan on D level, but the temptation to use it for evil purposes was just too great.

Bryce’s eyes flicked in panic to the corners of the high ceiling. Are you insane? he hissed. What about the cameras?

Lauren gave him a ‘are you thick or what?’ look. Helllooooo? she said. She twisted around so he could see the words SECURITY TECH printed across the back of her jacket in eye-blinding crimson letters.

I’m a SecTec! she said. "The cameras are my babies!"

At the anxious look on his face, she laughed again and said: "Don’t worry about it! I set them on a time-loop for thirty minutes. No one’ll notice a thing."

Her silver jacket rustled as she shrugged suddenly. Besides, she added. I hardly ever get to come down here. And this may be the only chance I’m gonna get to see your baby before they crush it like the first Merc.

Bryce gave her a helpless look. "Lauren, you know I’m not allowed to– "

Oh, come on Bryce! Lauren pleaded, cutting him off. Come on, please?

Bryce looked up into her blue eyes. The laughter had faded from them, now replaced by a longing so deep it hinted at tears.

You wouldn't let me down after all the trouble I went through to get in here, would you? she said with a