Tesla's Signal (67 page)

Clara wasted no time, but strode right up to the Holy Couple and threw her strongest strongest sonic oscillator in Shelia's lap. “Party's over, sister,” she cried. The gizmo immediately began putting out powerful disabling waves, which did not penetrate Clara's earmuffs. But Shelia let out a scream of agony. The humans burst into shrieks of terror, holding hands to their ears.

“Now you,
Space Cossacks!” She took out her second oscillator, set at the proper ultra-low frequency, and threw it at the Martian with the damaged eye. The alien dropped its prey and grabbed its hideous elongated head.  

“Now suck on this for dessert!” Clara turned on the Scrambler that she and Niko had designed. She could not be sure of its effect: she'd hoped it would scramble whatever they received from the Orb, confusing and demoralizing them. The weapons seemed to be doing
something
: the aliens writhed about with grotesque un-human motions like stepped-on insects, filling the air with low moans and grunts.

The sights and smells pushed Clara's loathing up beyond endurance. She took out the pistol Jake had given her, and shot the closest U'jaan  right between their bulging eyes. “This is for Jake, monsters!”
One, two three
. Who'd have known that killing could feel so good? It felt even better when she fired up the wave rifle in her other hand, and dispatched a few more of the creatures. Savage glee overtook her, until she remembered: she wasn't here just for the joy of revenge.

“Uncle, keep me covered.” Handing him the pistol, she took out her control board and alerted the Tele-men which waited in the nearby woods. “Tele-men:
Attack
,
”
she cried at the top of her lungs.

Deafening sirens and mechanical warbles emerged from the Tele-men's sound chambers. “
Attention, Invaders
,” came a recording from Golem.
“This is Nikola Tesla. I am coming for you with an army of indestructible machine warriors.”
The voice had been amplified and deepened by a series of echo chambers, making it huge and terrifying.
“Leave Earth while you can, or be pulverized by Teleforce beam weapons that will smash your ships like eggshells. I repeat: This is Nikola Tesla. Leave Earth while you can! The Vengeance of Tesla is at hand!”
 

The Tele-men numbered no more than ten, but they would seem like much more, for they fired blinding beams of destruction out of their weapons apertures, as they broadcast  the message that Niko had recorded. Some were programmed to seek the Alien frequencies and cancel them; others merely smashed walls and ripped out fences. Most of all, they were designed to distract—and terrify. At their head came Golem, who pulled down the chain-link fence, proceeded to the first of the ship platforms and knocked it over. And all the while, the dire message blared out over and over.
“The Vengeance of Tesla is at hand!”
 

While the Angel servants screamed and wailed, and the Martians writhed in helpless panic, Clara strode over to a tall device which Shelia had concealed with a silk drape. She ripped the cover off to expose a giant Tesla coil, and spoke into her signal watch. “Now, Niko! Stand by. Powering on,” she cried, and pulled the switch.

***

Niko pressed the watch to his lips and answered, “Received. Power on!” He pulled another switch and opened the channel.

Potentials that had waited in the condensers and terminals awoke, pulling the current from the Earth below. The Magnifying Transmitter sprang to life.

Juice surged through the cables, like blood through living arteries. The hum of rising power filled the chamber, sweeter than any music. The river of spinning electrons raised every hair on his skin. The meter confirmed what he already knew. Fifty thousand...a hundred thousand...enough to kill ten ordinary men. But not him! He was Lightning Lord Tesla! He gripped the controls, feeling his hair standing on end, feeling himself lifted right off the ground.

His body vibrated with the power. He raised his arms, commanding the electrons to do his bidding.
Keep building! Higher!
Five hundred thousand...one million volts!
Wait...wait.
He held out a palm, restraining the flow.
Not yet. You must rise even higher before I release you.
He could hold it back. He was the Lord of the Currents: the human capacitor.

“Niko! Power is reaching maximum,” cried Clara's voice from the signal watch. “Are you ready?”

Am I ready?
In that moment, when his mind was at its most open... something rose up from deep inside and spoke:
Wait just a minute, Nikola. What in God's name are you doing? This was your dream...your most magnificent achievement.
 

A pain began in his chest and spread all through him
. This is a showcase of your genius,
said a voice within.
You were the Electric Zeus...you commanded an almost godlike power. The world was going to stand in awe..are you going to throw all of that away?
 

A cold sweat broke out all over his body.
Be quiet...stop thinking nonsense,
he scolded himself. His hands gripped the switches.

Into his moment of weakness came a flood of other voices that said
Don't destroy the great Wardenclyffe Tower...don't let them win: the mockers, greedy industrialists, blind fools who want to destroy your dream. This whole escapade has just been a plot to rob you of your destiny. That's what the Powers that Be have always wanted! Isn't it?
 

These voices...they had found a tiny crack in his armor: a weakness wrought by exhaustion, after months of terror, overwork and repeated injuries. Now the remnants of U'jaan conditioning flooded in, like the last spasms of a dying monster, to resonate with the darkest parts of himself.
The others are like animals compared to you
.
You could stand up there and receive their worship! You have the power to rule Earth!
 

“Shut up!” He clapped his hands over his ears and sucked in a gasping breath.
Control yourself, Nikola. Three times 6,721 equals...equals Go away,
he said to the evil voices inside.  

“Niko!” Desperation colored Clara's voice. “Are you all right? What's happening?”  

“I won't throw away my dream,” he said in a hoarse voice. “If you ask me to do that...then you're with my enemies!”

“Niko? For God's sake,” came the tinny voice from the signal watch. “What's happened—did the Martians get to you? You must fight them, Nikola!”

He held his hands to his head, holding in a tremendous scream. “I can't do it...I can't destroy my Tower!”

“Yes you can, Nikola,” said Clara's voice, calm and gentle. “You're one of the 36 Righteous Ones. You can keep the world from falling to ruin!”  

Her words cut through the buzz of voltage and the confusion in his head. This was the voice of Clara Eps—the most heroic woman on Earth.
It's Clara who is the Righteous One. She is the diamond, the pure soul who keeps the world on course
. And Niko had abandoned her, left her in mortal danger in the laboratory building, surrounded by ravenous U'jaan monsters.

She was right. He had to do it...had to bring the Tower down! “But...but Clara, I can't! I've lost the...I've forgotten how to...”

“Nikola.” Her voice became crystal-bright. As if she was one of the Aon. “Bring yourself into the frequency. Remember? Frequency 333!”

 

Once he had mind-linked with her. Today it was she who opened the connection, and he saw her in his head: there she stood, her hands clasping the giant Tesla coil. An electric halo surrounded her. She reached out a hand, glowing with lightning bolts.

 

He struggled to lower his barriers and make the connection. Then the memory came:
our lips touched.
Niko's fear of contact had melted away. He and Clara had become like one being.

Clara! We are one!
He touched her spark, took her energy. Their minds resonated, joining in a single pure wavelength.
Frequency 333.
 

Now
he remembered how...
now
he could do it!

“I'm sorry...I had a lapse for a moment. I'm ready to do it. The time is now!” he cried, and his voice echoed in the underground chamber.

He gripped the handle and threw the final bank of switches, releasing all the pent-up energy.
Today you must burst your confinement,
he told the current,
today is the day not to give light and life, but to burn and destroy! Remove the grounding. Reverse the flow! Turn it back! Reverse it!”
 

The current which had flowed out through the Orb and into the surrounding environment...now turned back on itself.

But despite having pumped the juice up to the maximum, it still wasn't enough to cause an overload, because he had built so many safeguards into his system.

There was only one way to push it over.
Release the current inside myself.
Delirious with the ecstasy of the currents Niko could at last burst through the block and make it happen.

He took hold of the live wires with bare hands.
Let it all come forth. I am the capacitor! I open the gate!
He hurled the explosion out of his body. Every ounce of energy...every electron, from inside himself, and from a source of cosmic power beyond.
Let 100 million volts of current consume this Tower...let it fry the Orb, let it melt the entire system. Every wire, every component...let it all fuse into scrap.  Let it all burn!
 

And it was just as he willed. The torrent flowed through him, climbed up the central shaft and spewed from the top of the Tower. As the power built toward overload, the metals heated up. One thousand degrees, five thousand degrees—the Orb began to fry, changing its molecular structure. Cracks appeared on its surface and at last the chemical bonds gave way. The Master Orb shattered with a tremendous boom, just as the first one had, hurling fragments in every direction.

This time the force was enough to blow the cupola itself apart and hurl the great curved ribs high into the air. They somersaulted and fell back toward the earth like warped metal flower sculptures. Flames burst forth from the tower's center and raced along the uprights. The wooden timbers weakened and detached one by one. Massive bolts loosened; metal twisted and sagged; girders came undone. The whole structure glowed red and fell inward and slowly collapsed toward the ground.

Beneath the Tower, the same intense heat melted wires and cables. Delicate components melted into lumps of metal. Smoke spewed from the control panel and Niko leaped away just an instant before it burst into flame. Sparks enveloped the great Magnifying Transmitter as connections blew out, one by one...rivulets of metal dripped onto the floor as the vast apparatus consumed itself

Niko staggered back up the passageway, now filled with thick smoke.
It's done! Let it all come down,
he thought, his mind swirling with grief and triumph.
Let no one abuse its power—let no alien invader steal human souls—let no evil beings get their hands on my inventions ever again.
 

He crawled out and collapsed onto the grass. He spared one look backward at the pile of smoking debris and twisted, glowing metal.

Let nothing remain of my vainglorious dreams, which brought so much suffering to the human race.

Tears ran down his cheeks.

Wardenclyffe Tower was no more.

37: The Triangular Passage

He forced himself to look back. The Tower lay in ruins. A vast, smoking heap of burnt timbers and scrap metal was all that was left of his greatest dream.

His signal watch made a small chirp. “Niko?”

“Clara. It's done.”

For a moment he just lay there.
Get up,
he told himself. He wiped his forehead and his hand came back covered with soot. His hair was singed; his clothes reeked of smoke, and his body was completely drained. How would he find the energy to stand up, much less continue the battle?

Somehow, he knew he would.

He lay flat among the growth of weeds, resting and studying the situation. The compound was in chaos. Tele-men were destroying the fences and smashing the ships' control towers. He saw someone—Abraham Lowe, it looked like—running about, releasing a huge number of people from enclosures where they had been imprisoned.