Ionotatron: The Chronopticus Chronicles, #2

By Michael Galloway

When a construction accident takes out the mayor of Mars' largest domed city, Pierce Steadman is elevated into the role. Tasked with overseeing the reconstruction of Magnopolis after the Great War, he sets out to separate the city from its Earth-inspired past and to restore hope to its population.

 

Yet other forces also have designs on the city. As references to God disappear from the Network Archives, those forces unleash a towering destructive robot unlike any other: Ionotatron.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Candlepower Publishing House
• Release date: Feb 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9798223627371

Book preview

Ionotatron

Book II of the Chronopticus Chronicles

By Michael Galloway

© 2014 by Michael Galloway. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without written permission from the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locations or events is entirely coincidental.

Chapter One

Summer 2060 A.D.

Under the Magnopolis Dome, Mars

Pierce Steadman stood on the street corner and clutched his spiral-bound notebook of dreams as if it was a road map to a resurrected technological Eden. Notebooks were rare in the settlements and the ones he brought with him when he came to Mars made him pine for home. As he turned the pages, he reviewed his detailed drawings of a futuristic skyline of Magnopolis. Some of the buildings towered like rockets while others pushed the limits of Martian gravity with floors that orbited around a center spire like the rings of Saturn. There were even sketches of experimental, rocket-powered aircraft that yearned to glide above the Martian sands like aluminum birds. Together, they portrayed a world unlike their own yet well within reach.

He closed the notebook and looked up as the mayor, Jack Addard, approached down the street. Jack was a portly man with a beard and mustache, who founded the city despite the formidable financial, political, and logistical odds arrayed against him. Today he wore a gray suit coat with gray dress pants, and walked with a cane made of rocket scrap metal that scratched the pavement in rhythmic intervals. Like the city, he was hobbled by injury, but driven to overcome.

Once Jack arrived, they shook hands and together they walked along Entner Avenue towards the Towers of Venice Casino. Like much of downtown, the casino had been devastated during the Great War, but now underwent reconstruction. Along the way they passed a demolished apartment block on Cantor Street where a canary yellow bulldozer carved a path through the debris. A front loader then scooped the debris into a six-wheeled dump truck with spiral-treaded tires.

Jack gave Pierce a wearied look and stared at the notebook in Pierce’s hand. Have any plans in there for apartment buildings?

Everything but casinos.

After they passed Pascal Avenue, they came to the edge of the casino work site. Weeks ago it looked like a giant fist punched countless holes in the roof. As a result, the building was reduced back to one floor until the upper levels could be rebuilt. Now the skeleton of the building rose up from the grave to stand three stories high. Above that, a massive crane moved beams into position like a steel hand trying to build a house out of iron toothpicks.

On the ground, Pierce noticed bricklayers building parallel walls around a channel that circled the front of the casino like a moat. He turned to face Jack. What are those?

They tell me they’re going to have gondola rides. Like Venice back on Earth.

Pierce dwelled on the logistics of it a moment. Does this mean we’ll finally have canals on Mars?

They were approached by the foreman of the work site. Morning, fellas, the foreman said as he extended a hand towards Jack and then Pierce. Name’s Abbott Taylor.

Pierce shook his hand in exchange for a bright orange hard hat. He set the hat onto his head. I’m Pierce Steadman, full-time architect, part-time city council member.

I’ve heard about you. Only good things, though. Jack here says you got some ideas for rebuilding the place. Hope you’re not plannin’ something too crazy.

Pierce withdrew his notebook full of scribbled plans and leafed through the pages. He found one that showed an apartment building built of glass, disc-like structures. He leaned over to show Abbott.

Abbott gave him a suspicious look. Looks like you’d have to import a lot of that. Given enough time the man would probably frown on anything that did not line up with something he had already built before.

Nonsense. All the materials would be local, Pierce said as he closed the notebook. He stepped over to the edge of the scaffolding where a man was being hoisted up off of the ground and towards the third floor.

He walked underneath the scaffolding and stepped inside an opening in the outer wall to peer inside. The interior ground floor had been gutted of its slot machines, blackjack tables, and the restaurant, leaving behind a barren concrete floor with support posts and plastic sheeting hanging from the ceiling like curtains. He remembered taking a tour of the place on opening day and was struck by the dazzling lighting inside as well as outside. Although the restaurant buffet proved remarkable, the ringing bells, the vacant stares on the patrons’ faces, and the continual hypnotic hum of the slot machines left him searching for an early exit.

As Pierce scanned around, he heard a chugging noise off to his right as if the crane’s engine suddenly was having problems. Before he could turn around he heard a deafening metallic crash and what sounded like breaking wood. He darted out of the building and watched in horror as the beam once held by the crane broke free. The beam pushed the scaffolding off of the front of the building towards them like a collapsing deck of cards. Pierce dove back into the building as fast as he could but Jack was slower to react.

Each level of the scaffolding collapsed and sent steel tubes, couplers, and boards hurtling towards the ground. Two workers were knocked off of their platforms and parts of the scaffolding crunched down on top of Jack. In a cloud of dust, metal, and flying ropes, Pierce watched as Abbott staggered back to his feet unharmed. Jack was not as fortunate. Pierce ran over to him and found him facedown in a pool of blood.

Pierce reached down to lift the debris off of Jack’s legs while Abbott attended to the workers who were now flat on their backs on the ground. As Pierce hurled aside the boards and twisted metal, he found Jack’s legs to be bent at odd angles and was sure the man had more than a few broken bones. Another construction worker ran over to help. Pierce looked over towards the cab of the crane, whose engine was no longer running, and saw a man dressed in a plum-colored uniform leap down off the machine and run away from the site. The worker who came over to help wore a slate-colored uniform.

Pierce withdrew his phone from his front shirt pocket and dialed the number for the nearby medical hub. Who was the operator of that crane over there? He said as he motioned behind him and towards the now-empty cab of the machine.

New hire, I think. I don’t know. Abbott knows, the worker said as he knelt down and looked at Jack’s face.

Pierce pulled aside more debris so that the emergency workers could get through. Within minutes, medical services arrived and loaded the unconscious mayor onto a board and into an ambulance. Another emergency worker tended to the other two men who were injured in the collapse.

Pierce circled the area where Jack fell and then surveyed the side of the building. Moments later, Abbott walked over to talk with him.

See something? Abbott said. His voice shook with a mixture of anger and fear.

Pierce wandered over to look at the pile of boards and tubes he threw aside minutes ago. In vain he searched the alloy hay stack for a needle of an answer. How was this secured to the building?

There are ties every twelve feet. Why?

Pierce reached over to pull Jack’s cane out of the rubble. On the top of the cane he noticed a picture of an eagle inlaid into the polished oak handle. He used the cane to point at the pile of scaffolding before them. The ties are missing on these tubes, he said after further examination.

He scanned the skyline and stared again at the crane. Find me the name of the crane operator. Something tells me this wasn’t an accident.

Chapter Two

Three days later an emergency meeting of the Magnopolis city council convened in the mayor’s office inside of City Hall. The meeting was presided over by Jack’s assistant of ten years, a red-haired woman named Kayla. Pierce knew her to be determined, yet manipulative, measured with her emotions, yet prone to sarcastic jabs at unexpected times. Her hair was pinned back today, yet looked ready to come undone at the first sign of dissent.

Pierce sat next to Kayla at a rectangular table made of glass and steel with a polished olivine trim around the perimeter. Across from him sat the other three members of the city council. Melinda Jacobson, head of Parks and Planning, sat on one end and Isaac Parker, head of Public Works and Transportation sat next to her. On the other end sat Arielle Warzecha, who was the head of Accounting, Human Resources, and Legal. Arielle drummed her fingers on the tabletop before she reached over and activated a black, hand-sized, holographic recording device that rested flat on the surface of the table.

Kayla looked at Pierce and then set a handheld video plate in front of her on the table. The device was the size of a deck of playing cards yet thin as a few sheets of paper. She read the information off of the screen.

As I’m sure you are all aware, Jack’s condition is continuing to deteriorate, she said with no hint of emotion. Dr. Taggart has stated that although the internal bleeding has subsided, he has yet to become conscious despite being taken off of sedatives a day ago. Jack has also had two surgeries on his legs which went well. She cleared her throat. Furthermore, as we all know, due to his condition and due to the charter which was written up when Magnopolis was founded, this means he is unable to fulfill his role as mayor for the time being. The charter states that in the interim, if the current mayor is unable to carry out their duties, they must be replaced by the order of succession as laid out in the charter.

Kayla turned towards Pierce. As you all know, the next in line would be the deputy mayor, which would be Mr. Steadman here.

Pierce gave the group a brief smile. He put his hands on his notebook full of ideas as if the council members were ready to tear it to shreds with their hands. This would only be temporary, correct?

"Correct. Until a new election could