Ah, gentle readers, if you attended the Circle City Aerodrome Grand Masquerade Ball you witnessed the culmination of our Penny Dreadful created for your entertainment. Thank you so much for your attendance & many kind words!
If you missed our Ball, fear not! We shall continue to chronicle doings at the Aerodrome after a short holiday to revitalize ourselves. Meanwhile, please peruse the many fine photographs of the event shared on our Facebook page:
Eveline comes crashing through Widow Millport’s mirror. As she pulls herself up she sees Gentleman Jack and several strangers. One of the women is becoming hysterical.
“What are you all doing in my foyer!?” screams Rosemary in frustration. ”I’m not even ‘at home’ this morning. Have you no consideration, no thought … no MANNERS?”
The woman looks directly at Eveline she takes a deep breath and states loudly and slowly, “You. Need. To. Go. Home. NOW!”
“Why are you talking like that?” asks Eveline while Jack groans and Belle rolls her eyes.
“Because people don’t just pop through mirrors into my house. It is RUDE!”
“You have no one but, em yourself to blame,” says Dr Dane. “Those spectacles of yours created… the connection to her, um, well where-ever she came from.”
“Eveline’s crystal may have contributed to the vortex too,” Jack says, “But it seems to have overloaded it. It’s not giving off any energy now.”
“Be that as it may, You need to go back. Now!” the Widow points an accusing finger at Eveline.
“I don’t think it’s safe to send her back. Not through this Portal.”
“Noooo!” wails Eveline in horror. ”How will I get home?”
“Not to worry, we can find a way to return you,” soothes Dane, “What were your dimensional coordinates?”
“My what?” quavers Eveline.
“Rosemary dear -we have loads to talk about it seems. Be a pet and let’s all go sit down.” Belle says with a smile you could cut glass with.
The Widow Millport leads the group to the back of the house and into the kitchen. There is no telling what filthy place these new arrivals had come from, it certainly wouldn’t do to receive them in the salon.
“Soooo … it appears that unknown to me, my crystal spectacles are causing some sort of dimensoinal…”
“Oh cut the crap Rosemary! You knew the effect the spectacles were having! ” interrupts Belle.
“I didn’t know for a fact that the spectacles were causing the fluctuations!” moans Rosemary, “I accidently discovered that if I used them to look into large mirrors I could glimpse activities in other ports. It’s fascinating to watch actually….”
Dr Dane picks up the spectacles gingerly. ”You must NOT use these in any mirrors Rosemary. In fact, I should lock them in the lab.”
“NO! I need these for the Ball tonight” inists Rosemary. “I give my word not to use them other than for my own vision. No mirrors. I promise!”
“Erm…. well if you give your word” agrees Dane, his words measured while thinking of the influence that Widow Millport has on the Board and its funding.
“Hmmmm…” mutters Jack as he leans back and considers the spectacles on the table.
“Hrumph! Snorts Belle - “Anyone taking bets on how far to trust her?”
The Widow doesn’t dignify the insult with comment but turns to Eveline, “Now you, young miss, you can’t stay here. I don’t have any work for you.”
Eveline, in shock “I don’t work.”
Widow, frustrated, “But… but… this is outrageous! I must prepare the Silent Auction and for the Ball!”
Eveline brightens, “Oh, I DO go to balls.”
“Honey, come with me” sighs Belle. “My girls can find you something to wear, and I guarantee you a night you’ll never forget!”
The mirror in the Widow Millport’s foyer begins to ripple. Rosemary pulls her spectacles away from the interference, but the ripples grow and begin to swirl. A voice, nearby but unseen, shouts.
“Watch out!”
The warning is too late. Jack crashes through the rippling mirror surface into Rosemary’s arms.
“You?!” snarls Rosemary as she disentangles herself from Jack. ”What are you doing in my foyer mirror!?”
“Fascinating… ” murmers our good doctor as he steps back a pace.
“How dare you!” Rosemary demands, regaining her composure.
“Really Jack, you have simply stunning timing” chortles Belle.
“This isn’t my doing,” Jack says. “I was showing Eveline her mirror and testing to see what effect her ring has on it. Then suddenly the energy level spiked and it pulled me through.”
The rippling mirror flashes again.
“Aaaaaugh!”
This foyer is very crowded.
Belle starts walking, setting a cracking pace. Dr Dane follows reluctantly after her. He would prefer to remain in his laboratory conducting further tests, but Belle has given him no choice.
They arrive at the Widow Millport’s house and knock on the front door. Marsters, the Widow’s faithful butler, shows them into the red salon where they wait for the Widow to join them.
“To what do I owe this extremely early visit Madame and Doctor? Why, it isn’t even 11 yet!” states Rosemary upon entering. “No one is “at home” until after 11!”
“Cut it Rosemary!” snaps Belle. “I’ve one nerve left and Hal here has strained it.”
“Well!”
“Now Belle,” interjects Dane - “please let me explain Widow…a-hem. Yes…”
“What Hal is trying to say ” interrupts Belle in frustration “Is that we know about the effects of your crystal spectacles. The Port stability issues as well as the dimensional flux they cause in mirrors.”
“Why that’s absurd! These are merely an aid I use due to the severe eye strain my business causes me” replies Rosemary.
“Now Rosemary”, counters Dane “I observed unusual amounts of dimensional energy from these same spectacles just yesterday at the Aerodrome transport hub.”
“Ridiculous!” sniffs the Widow ”Why just seconds later the port alarms were going off. How dare you insinuate that my spectacles were the cause. I think your compass was simply picking up the Aerodrome port instabilities.”
“Why look -do you see anything special about these spectacles? Here’s a mirror even!”
Belle is baffled for the moment and Dane certainly does NOT want to further intrude and anger one of the most wealthy Aerodrome board members.
“Well… yeeesss. I am not picking up any dimensional flux energy at the moment” admits Dane with some embarrassment. “Perhaps this needs further testing…” he mutters as he stares into space considering the theoretical implications.
“Now, feel free to contact my office any afternoon of the next week. I simply don’t have a minute free today with the Aerodrome Ball this weekend” purrs Rosemary smugly as she leads them to the foyer.
Rosemary can’t resist one last dig as Belle and Dane prepare to leave - “and really, would I knowingly put the Aerodrome at risk? Why look - nothing to see here!” as she holds the spectacles up to the foyer mirror.
“Er —Widow!!” stammers Dane…..
Belle turns and looks at the mirror behind her. Even from just a few steps away it looks perfectly normal. No sign of dimensional flux or portal to the strange and empty house. She locks the parlor door after herself and heads straight to her own extensive library.
She is certain that the large tome in Aramaic she saw on the shelf is the ancient original of a book that she has in a more modern translation. Fortunately, the equations will be the same in both.
Hours creep by in the cold library as Belle continues to search for answers. As the grey light of dawn starts to creep over the horizon Belle’s questions have turned to burning suspicions without answers.
With a groan of frustration Belle throws down her glasses and rings for a pot of tea and some breakfast. There is one person in the Aerodrome who can possibly provide answers, and he won’t be very happy to see her.
An hour later Belle enters the the Aerodome laboratory complex. Two interns flutter after her helplessly as she barges into Dr. Dane’s personal laboratory. One glance at Belle’s set features and he gestures to the interns “Leave us.”
“I’m running short on sleep and patience,” states Belle. “I know about the port instabilities. I’ve just traveled through my own parlor mirror. I have no idea WHERE I went, but I know as sure as god made little green apples, that I know *how* I got there.”
“Madame Belle I assure you…” Dr. Dane begins.
“No, Doctor! Let me assure YOU; if you don’t tell me what is going on around here, I will blow this story so wide and high you won’t be able to get a job cleaning equipment in any laboratory in ANY of the known dimensions!”
“Madame please!” interjects Dane. “Let me explain… it is true we have been experiencing some port instabilities…”
“SOME! My parlor mirror certainly wasn’t a trans-dimensional transport device when I purchased it!”
“Well, perhaps more than we’d like the general public to know about, but I assure you that we are making every effort to ensure not only the stability of our transport hubs, but everyone’s safety at the Aerodrome…”
Belle’s silence causes Dane to stammer to a halt. As he stares into Belle’s cold eyes, he takes a deep breath and makes a decision.
“Are you at all familiar with the concept behind lenticular lenses?”
“Of course replies,” Belle - “the Alhambra Club is using a lenticular screen for those new 3D picture shows.”
“Yeesss… That is one application, but I was thinking more of the use in printing. Lenticular prints are graphics that, when viewed with a lenticular lens allow the viewer to see different images depending on the angle at which they view it.”
“Quite” drawls Belle, “but what does that have to do with parlor mirrors and Port failures?”
“Yes, …. yes, indeed … What I was getting at is that the under certain… ehm… conditions, there are particular lenticular crystals that used in conjunction with reflective lenses create a fractal progression of dimensional energies.”
“…..and?”
“Well, er… those fractal progressions increase rather than decrease the dimensional fluctuations and are causing the port stability issues as well as the , ahem, … other situations.”
“Well then you need to suspend whatever ridiculous experiments you’re conducting, that — “
“Madame!” snaps Dr Dane, “My experiments are to find the source of the fractal progressions. These instabilities are not the result of anything the Aerodrome or my departments are doing.”
“So have you identified the source?”
“Actually, er, *a-hem*…. I believe I have.”
As Dane pauses, one well groomed eyebrow silently slides upward in Belle’s otherwise still face.
Uhm, well, er …yes… — it’s the Widow Millport.”
“ROSEMARY!?” Belle gasps, shocked.
“Not precisely. Rather, it’s her crystal spectacles.”
“Then we need to pay *dear* Rosemary a visit.”
Eveline stretches, yawns in a most un-ladylike fashion and climbs the stairs at the far end of the library. Belle and Jack creep quietly out from the doorway to peer at the journals on the table. Belle scans the titles on the shelves. They are all books on dimensional physics and esoterica including an ancient looking tome in what appears to be Aramaic.
“Blast!” mutters Jack, “She took that ring with her.”
“Jack, I hate to sound critical, but this isn’t the time chase after shiny things” whispers Belle as they retreat back towards the hallway.
“That crystal was creating dimensional flux, same as your mirror. I was watching my compass while you were watching her. We need to study that crystal!”
“No we don’t, Jack! We need to get back through that portal while we still can. And hope we end up back where we started,” Belle said crossing the back to the mirror.
“You’re being unreasonable,” grumbles Jack sweeping the rippling surface with the compass, “see, the dimesnional flux is as steady now as when we cam through.”
“But for how long” Belle asks pensively. “I want to make sure I make it back to the Aerodrome. I’d rather chase the answers there instead of being stuck in a strange place chasing some sweet young thing with a large rock.”
“That ‘rock’ as you put it could provide our answers” insists Jack. He puts the compass in his pocket, returns to the library and looks up the stairs after Eveline.
“Have you lost what little of your mind you have left? We should return now.”
“Could it be that Madame Belle Breeze actually afraid of something?”
“I’m just being sensible Jack!”
“Me too. That crystal could be invaluable in solving the mystery of port instability.” Jack says, thinking to himself - not to mention valuable in other ways. “I’m not leaving without it.”
“We DON”T NEED the Crystal!” roars Belle in a whisper.
She turns and marches back to mirror and steps straight through. There’s no sense in arguing with Jack when he’s on a treasure hunt. Besides she has larger concerns.
As Belle steps thankfully back into her own parlor, she is less worried about Gentleman Jack - he knows how to take care of himself. She is more worried about the fate of the Aerodrome’s Ports of Presence. She is starting to suspect that the problem is bigger than just what’s in her parlor. But what, or who, could be causing it?
Elsewhere, Jack climbs the stairs in search of a large jewel and the lovely lady who wears it.
Gentle readers, it distresses us most sorely to narrate this tragic tale.
Eveline….. only daughter of the eminent physicist Febe (Phoebe to you gentle readers) Sky. Great -granddaughter of an esteemed Caballero of Aragon.
Father: Geraldo Sky who is never spoken of.
Uncle Ramon - no hidalgo and barely a gentleman. Trustee of the Sky estate until Eveline’s emancipation upon her 25th birthday.
Phoebe - missing after the last energy flare incident in her lab 16 months ago.
While Eveline knows her mother loved — still loves! - her, Eveline has spent most of her short life alone with novels for company as her mother worked long and erratic hours on research she has always refused to discuss in detail.
First a series of governesses attempted to curb Eveline’s fantastic imagination, and then the ladies finishing tutors at the convent school in Aragon …. None have seemed to have much impact on our dear heroine.
Upon word of her mother’s disappearance, Uncle Ramon has moved into the house the “watch over things” and last month he insisted Eveline return home rather than “waste any more money and time stuffing her head with nonsense and her mouth with sweets.”
As Eveline often mis-quotes dramatically (to herself): ”For mother and father are gone and uncles are never to be trusted!”
This doesn’t mean Eveline is unintelligent - quite the contrary. However, Eveline is so often alone with her thoughts, she has difficulty separating the stories she has read in novels from the events going on around her. In truth, Eveline has spent much of her short life bored silly and retreated into stories far more exciting and fantastic than her reality. She views her world through lenses shaded by the latest works of Radcliffe, Hugo, and even (until found by the governess and burned) the Monk by Lewis.
With no pin money to spend on novels and no friends to socialize with, Eveline has had her fill of days spent mourning her mother and avoiding her uncle. She delves into her mother’s papers and journals looking for whatever it was Phoebe was pursuing so determinedly.
As she begins to piece together the events leading up to the temporal flare incident, Eveline finds herself becoming as driven as her mother. Of the few items she has that were her mother’s one is the large ring that Eveline is sure was her father’s. Though her mother never spoke of him, she kept this ring with her, on a chain on her neck and it was the only thing left on the lab floor by a mirror after her mother disappeared in that energy flare.
Eveline is sure the answer lies within her mother’s lab journals, extensive library and the ring….
Gentleman Jack watches as Belle steps through the portal. He pauses a moment and then Belle’s arm swims out of the rippling light. Her hand grabs instrument case from his grasp and calls “Are you coming or not?” Her voice rings in Jack’s ears as clearly as if she were standing next to him.
Jack looks down at the compass with it’s indicator still fluctuating wildly. He shrugs, glances over his shoulder, loosens the gun in his holster. No time like the present!
He steps into one mirror and out of another. He finds himself standing next to Belle in a dark, unfamiliar hall with a large mirror on the wall behind them. The air is warm and wafts with unfamiliar scents. A light creeps out from beneath a door down the hall.
Jack points to the light and the two of them and they sneak across the stone floor to inch open the door. Cautiously they peer into the room looking for clues to where they have been transported to. The door opens into the back of a great library lit in the night by a fire.
The vastness of the library gives the impression of it being empty. But in the firelight they see someone working. The dancing light catches on the jeweled facets of a large crystal. It appears more than the light is flickering. The very surface of the crystal seems to ripple and move under the young lady’s inspection. Jack looks down at his compass and notes the wild fluctuations continue on its dial.
Who is this young lady? And why is she alone, studying far into the night? WHAT is it she is studying?
Belle waits impatiently for Gentleman Jack to return, pacing back and forth in front of the locked door. She wants to investigate. She finances research into time-stream physics and dimensional theory. She has a fully equipped lab in her basement. Could it be that all this time she’s had a Portal in her parlor?
Jack finally arrives with the instruments, including a revolver holstered at his side. Belle is skeptical of this as precision equipment.
“What exactly does that measure?” she asks.
“This,” Jack says patting the butt of his gun, “is standard issue in my line of work. But I have something else that is a little more specialized.”
Jack produces compass, much like Dr. Dane’s and holds it near the mirror’s face. The glass begins to ripple and the compass arrow starts to spin.
“The dimensional energy is off the chart. There’s no doubt that this can be used as a Portal.”
“Obviously,” Belle says, “But look at the change in the output. It’s incredibly unstable.”
She stretches her gloved hand to the surface of the mirror. She can feel it move beneath her touch; cool and fluid like water.
“Whoa!” blurts Jack as Belle’s touch seems to start further agitation moving on the mirror surface. “We have to find out where this leads.”
Belle considers the implications. She hasn’t had the chance to do serious study of the Portal. It can be dangerous to go through and even impossible to return. But there is no telling when Dr. Dane will return, bringing the Boffin Corps and official sanctions and regulations. This may be her only chance to investigate.
Belle pushes her fingers past the shimmering surface. She’s not sure what to expect. Despite living near the Aerodrome and having an academic understanding of the Ports of Presence she is not accustomed to using a mirror (however tasteful) for trans-dimensional travel.
Jack stirs impatiently…
“My house, my mirror, my lead” quips Belle stepping up.
Belle hands her instrument case to Gentleman Jack, saying “be a dear and hold this for me.” as she vanishes through the rippling surface.
As Doctor Dane leaves Madame Belle’s establishment, the discomfort caused by his encounter with Gentleman Jack, is over-ridden by a sense of urgency. Finally he has some insight into the Port stability problem that has crippled commerce in the Aerodrome.
He heads for Circle City Ticketing Hall, hoping to collect further reports of the odd fluctuation in dimensional stability. As he is waiting for the hub Transit Manager to return with the daily records, someone calls his name.
“Hello Dr. Dane,” the Widow Millport has stepped out of the street’s traffic to speak with him, “I am on my way to Sotheby’s to view a silver tea set. Sterling really is best for tea. I hope they have something tasteful. I would hate to have to order it. These port delays are most inconvenient!”
Dr. Dane isn’t listening. The spectacles in Widow Millport’s hand have caught his attention. He seems hypnotized by the prismatic lenses.
“Ms. Millport… erm , if I may… I am most interested in these spectacles,” he interrupts reaching for them… Intriguing.”
“Whatever are you doing Dr. Dane?” huffs Rosemary drawing herself up. “A lady need not explain her need for vision assistance!”
“No, no.. oh — no offense meant!” Hal apologizes. “But these are quite unlike any reading glasses I have ever seen. I should like the chance to examine them.”
Then, without explanation he produces the compass from his pocket and holds it out near the Widow’s spectacles.
Rosemary peers through the crystal eyepieces and sees the compass dial spinning - first clockwise, then counter before abruptly changing again. Dr Dane holds it there for her to see, not seeming shocked in the least by the malfunctioning instrument.
“This device,” he begins to explain, “measures dimensional energy and registers flux in the established…” but his dissertation is drowned out by an alarm from the direction of the Terminal.
“Blast! er - excuse me. I have see what has happened this time!” blurts Dane as he hurries toward the source of the alarm.
