***This is just a short story I had to write for my science class, but I thought it was fun, so I hope you like it!*
1890
A man and his son walked down the long row of photographs in the History of London museum. The Hallway of Notorious Convicts was dark, the only light coming from little electrical energized lamps that shone down on the pictures. On the opposite side of the hallway were black tinted windows that kept the harmful sun out, so its penetrating rays wouldn’t fade the photos. The boy stopped at one. Instead of a photograph, this one was a wanted poster. Under the frame was a plaque that had 1864-1883 engraved into it. The description next to it was short and un-detailed.
Robbed several banks, house broke numerous times, sold stolen artifacts, and stole important items for unknown employers.
Convict killed in explosion in 1883. The boy looked at the picture again. The young man had bright red hair with astonishingly green eyes.
1883
Hal froze. A sentry was about to pass him. Looking more closely, he saw that the sentry was also carrying around a bottle of ale. Hal considered ending his life; a guard who walked around drinking while on duty was only a waste of space and oxygen. The drunken man hobbled past him and turned around the corner. Silently Hal crept past the mechanical room, and was soon covered in the shadows of a large fossil fuel run ship. On the side of the airship he saw that the numbers 4765 were roughly painted on it. He swore. This was the ship he was payed to rob, and it was the largest ship by far in the compound. He had a jet pack, but it would make too much noise and lead the sober guards, if there were any, straight to him. Taking a couple of steps back, he found a way to reach the bottom wing. Hal ran a few steps, then launched himself into the air. He barely got hold of the wing, but managed to pull himself up onto it.
For the next hour, Hal worked his way up all five wings, each larger than the other. Then, using the last of his energy, he pulled himself through the window and into an empty room. He snapped on his energy-sensor goggles and made his way down to the middle floor until he was in front of a steel sliding door with the words: WARNING: DANGEROUS ENERGY WITHIN printed on it with red paint. Ignoring the warning, Hal put the code that his employ gave him into the small computer next to the door. He held his breath, waiting for an alarm to go off and wake up all the airmen that were on the ship. But the only noise that came was a small click as the door slid open. Before entering, Hal scanned the room, but all the energy that he sensed was in the center of the room. And there was a lot of it.
In the center in the room, there was a glowing glass bottle, filled with nuclear energy. This amount of energy could be the death of billions of people, and, despite what the law of conservation of energy says, it will destroy. Hal reached out a gloved hand but then stopped.
“Put your hands in the air and step away from tube,” commanded a rough voice from behind. There was a rustle as more men filed into the room.
Thirty minutes later, Hal was tied up to the pipes in the engine room on the bottom floor of the ship. He had stepped away from the nuclear energy tube, but then lashed out and broke the nose of the man behind him. That caused an uproar from the other men who had come into the room, and after a lot of fighting, the group of airman managed to restrain him. After tying him up to the pipes securely, they left him with a young midshipman, who was given the orders to watch “the prisoner”.
“Hey, kid,” Hal began,” How ‘bout-“
“Shut up, prisoner,” the midshipman snapped. Hal’s eyes widened. “How ‘bout you don’t talk an’ jus’ sit there all nice like ‘till the Capt’n comes ‘round to see wot t’ do with you.”
