Clockwork Catastrophe

Chapter 7

The Watchmaker twisted his mouth into a scowl as he glowered at one of the many flat screen TVs, this specific one showing the garden that Olly so nostalgically named the Garden of Eden. His labored breathing filled the silent room, save for Olly's lectures and Katrina's constant questions. Two months of this, this training, as Olly called it. His patience was wearing thin. A stark contrast to the luscious, full carpets that decorated his surveillance room.

Oh, he noticed Katrina the moment she refused to eat her dinner in the hospital and then displayed signs of awakeness. His sensors that kept track of the citizens of Mercy alerted him whenever someone's serum levels were low. Skipping dinner and then eating a late breakfast caused the serum level to drop out of her system entirely. How it happened so quickly, he still hasn't learned. And no matter how much more he pumped into her afterwards, she still remained awake.

This must be his punishment for stealing the serum from his brother in the first place. Especially after his brother warned him that it was not yet perfected. And now Ttam has his subjects completely and perfectly subdued. But he did not regret stealing it  because of how completely Ttam had destroyed the Watchmaker’s life, back in the days before they were forced to flee their home planet. Now Ttam has his own subjects that are much more controlled and predictable than any obedient dog.

But the Watchmaker thought that was too boring. Sure, it is slightly problematic that everyone strongly craves entertainment. Especially because the sports games recordings were limited and the old comedy films have already begun to repeat themselves. Soon, the people would notice. They were all independent enough to come up with their own conversations, and their reactions to new games and rules weren't completely predictable. Watching them go about their lives as a shell of what they once were brought him no small pleasure. And the thought that he took their children’s childhoods away made him giddy with glee.

And yet not a single one of them remember their former selves or that their children are not meant to be unimaginative robots. They do not remember why the Watchmaker punished them with the experiment. In fact, they do not even realize that they are being punished. Good. Let them exist in blissfully miserable ignorance while he allowed them too.

It was this anger and thirst for revenge that kept the Watchmaker going, kept him creating and inventing and preparing for the end.

In short, the citizens weren't a threat. They were fun to play with. Lastly, they deserved this for what they did to him. And while Katrina was disturbing the peace, he was not worried. Yes, there was that slight issue of her claim that she could breathe underwater…

Slowly and gingerly, the Watchmaker shifted in his luxurious wheelchair and let out a soft groan. A nearby angel immediately noticed his discomfort and hurriedly levitated up to him. “Would you like some pain medication, my Lord?” it offered.

The Watchmaker nodded. God, that movement alone sent razors slicing down his neck. The angel lifted an arm, which was fashioned from a complex assembly of gears. All of the gears rotated and retracted into the torso of the angel, to be replaced by a syringe with a needle. It then injected the medicine into the Watchmaker’s charred shoulder and he sighed as the medicine worked its way through his system.

The angel replaced the syringe with its arm and bowed, which required the gears that made up his body to move and pivot to cause it to slowly bend in half and then stand upright again. “Rest well, my Lord,” it said in its tinny, metallic voice, and levitated itself out of the surveillance room.

Now bored of watching Olly tell Katrina what feelings are, the Watchmaker pushed a button on the arm of his wheelchair and wheeled himself out of the room into the circular hallway. The bottom of the tower consisted of just the surveillance room. It encircled the circular hallway and monitored all of Mercy. For the past 16 years, since he established himself the master of the town that he and the citizens raised up, there had not been much that needed close monitoring. Until two months ago, that is.

The Watchmaker wheeled himself to the center of the plain wooden hallway where a chair lift awaited him. He pressed some more commands into the tablet that was installed onto the arm of the wheelchair, and it lifted him up to the second floor. The workshop floor.

He wheeled himself up to a powerful computer in the circular workshop and punched a key into it. His workshop was a mess of gears and parts and half-built angels and fully functioning angels that monitored the machinery.

“Greetings, my Lord,” they chorused in unison.

The Watchmaker ignored them as he opened up a programming window in the computer. He cracked his deformed knuckles and began typing.

He typed all day, only stopping occasionally to demand water and assistance in relieving himself.

Many hours later, the Watchmaker finally allowed himself to droop his lumpy arms in exhaustion and satisfaction. He stretched his mouth into a smirk at the programming he wrote, at what it meant.

Originally, he was going to allow the citizens of Mercy to live twenty years on Kahzo once they settled. That is what Olly convinced him to give them on the condition that he doesn't attempt to disable the precious serum or the System, which was not yet at full strength at the time. The Watchmaker always had a soft spot for Olly, his childhood best friend. Lately, that has grown into resentment. Olly has been encouraging the destruction of both the system and the serum by helping this girl.

The Watchmaker was also originally going to choose a wife at the end of the experiment. A child who was born on this world, who would be adjusted to the world’s environment. Then, with the angels, they would conquer Kahzo and its foreign flora and fauna and move onto new worlds. Start small, grow the empire. Subdue the aliens in faraway galaxies. Katrina would be a perfect wife for that. If she truly can breathe underwater, perhaps she has other abilities that would be of use to him. Perhaps he could force her to manipulate this planet to bend to his will. To establish a home base.

In between surveillance and tinkering and growing his angelic army, he has been studying Kahzo. He concluded that it was absolutely nothing remarkable, just a replica of the forest ecosystem that their old home used to have. Because of its tiny size, the Watchmaker was forced to create anti-gravity stabilizers that mimicked the gravity of home. Soon, he wouldn't need them. Because they wouldn't need them. Because they would be gone.

Seventeen years of revenge was good enough for him. He was more than powerful enough to overtake the tiny planet, despite whatever Olly may be trying to do with the girl. Kahzo had many more resources for his factories and clockwork angel army than he had anticipated. He would terminate the experiment. Olly would be kept out of harm’s way, of course. Knowing that he was too weak and not intelligent enough to stop the Watchmaker and his plans, he had hoped that he would be dead before the Watchmaker disposed of the test subjects. But he broke the truce. He had to be punished.

Let Katrina and Olly think that they trained undetected. The Watchmaker was itching to release his perfect angels upon Mercy. He has just written the program to initiate the call to arms. But the end had to be spectacular. Perhaps he had read too many comic books as a child, but he wanted to let Olly and Katrina think they were winning. Let them go as far as they dared to go. Then Mercy will get what it deserved.

The clockwork angels will be the beginning of the Watchmaker’s happiness. They will also be the end of everyone else’s.

Slowly and gingerly, the Watchmaker twisted his mouth into a smile.