Drowning Utopia

Chapter 17: The Electric Cathedral

After dinner and having a lovely time listening to the provided music, the captain announced that they were approaching the final leg of the journey and that any who wished to see the city as they approached would best be served by heading to the top observation deck. Tessa, along with a sizeable throng, moved to the top deck as the steamer rounded the last bend in the river, bringing the Higgins Dam into view.

At a distance, it resembled a low castle wall peppered with several outcroppings, housing the generators for the massive amount of power that the nearby city required. Even from a considerable distance, Tessa noted several additions that were not in the original design, including a number of smaller ledges and bulwarks strategically placed around the dam, with fortified buildings and towers on them. Tessa wondered at the number of fortifications along the structure. Men with sizeable guns and even a few rapid-fire turrets mounted along the length of the stonework. But she was far more intrigued by what appeared to be an additional two powerhouses.

The five original powerhouses were called the Electric Cathedrals, nicknamed by the workers who first started construction of the slate-roofed buildings. But if the first five were cathedrals, the two newer housing units were palaces in comparison. Tessa could not figure out why they needed to be so much more extensive unless they were perhaps using a new design of hydro turbines or converters.

To the side of the dam was the gatehouse. Three massive locks allowed ships to pass through. It also cleverly doubled as a way for Higgins to make extra money from the commerce moving up and down the river. If the rumors were to be believed, Mr. Higgins convinced the governor of the state to pass legislation to allow him to build the dam and lock system in the first place in exchange for taxing the dam and its outlets for a cut of the profit.

"Would you look at that?"

Tessa turned to see a couple of passengers observing the dam from beside her, arm-in-arm. The man was rather flamboyant looking with his large southern-style hat and an award of some sort pinned on his lapel. Tessa thought that he was perhaps a soldier with his date, most likely an ex-Loyalist, from how he was dressed. She noted that the gentleman escorting the woman had a particularly valuable-looking jewel-encrusted knife hanging from his belt. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach as she wondered how valuable it might be. Unobtrusively, Tessa positioned herself nearer to the two of them.

The woman commented, "An impressive feat of engineering. I wonder how long the endeavor took?"

"Who knows?" the man responded, patting her hand. "But I would wager it must have been terribly expensive."

Tessa was about to make her move for the dagger when the woman pointed. "Darling, what is that strange tower?"

Tessa was just barely able to break off her attempt at lifting the knife without looking suspicious. Instead, she made it as if turning to see what the other woman pointed at. Her heart sank when she saw it.

The dandy exclaimed with a scratch of his head, "You mean that tower? I don't know, darling. Perhaps something to do with the dam?"

Tessa said with a sour scowl, "It's a Copperfield Projector. Designed to transmit electricity wirelessly."

"So, that's the contraption then?" the woman asked. "The one mentioned on the pamphlets?" She looked at it thoughtfully. "But I thought it was called something else?"

"It is." Tessa sighed. To the right of the dam next to a rail line was the essence of the inventor's greatest achievements and her most grievous blunders. The "Copperfield" electrical generator and projector were the heart and soul of the wireless power grid that she had developed, stolen by the very people who helped her to create and fund it in the first place. A mixture of emotions filled the inventor as she glared up at her creation with her sea-green eyes; the towering structure seemed to mock her with the logo H-M branded on the side, Higgins and Meriwether Power Company. Tessa was both filled with pride and anger, the pride that her idea and invention worked so well and the anger that she was not recognized for its success and creation.