The Map of Time (Trilogía Victoriana #1)(72)

However, all this changed when the government ordered the most eminent engineer in England to design an automaton soldier that would free man from the burden of war in the same way as he had been exempted from doing the dusting or pruning hedges.

Expanding the Empire would doubtless be far easier if such tasks as invading and plundering neighboring countries, torturing and ill treating prisoners, were left to the efficient automatons. The engineer did as he was told and produced a wrought-iron automaton with articulated limbs, as big as a bear standing on its hind legs. In its chest, behind a little shutter, he placed a loaded miniature cannon. But his real innovation was the little steam-powered engine he attached to its back. This made it autonomous, for it no longer depended on anyone to wind it up. Once the prototype was ready, it was tested in secret. The automaton was placed on a cart covered in a tarpaulin and taken to the village of Slough, home to the observatory that had belonged to William Herschel, the astronomer musician who many years earlier had added Uranus to the list of known planets. At intervals along the three-mile stretch between the village and the neighboring town of Windsor, scarecrows were placed with watermelons, cauliflowers, and cabbages for heads. Then they made the automaton walk along the road testing out his hidden weapon on the motionless vegetable men. The automaton reached its destination amid a swarm of flies attracted by the watermelon flesh splattered over its armor, but not a single puppet’s head remained in its wake, suggesting that an army of these invincible creatures would cut through enemy lines like a knife through butter. The next step was to present it to the King as the decisive weapon with which to conquer the world, if he so wished.

However, owing to the monarch’s many obligations, the unveiling was delayed, and for several weeks the automaton was kept in storage, a situation that would lead to disastrous consequences. For, during its prolonged isolation, the automaton not only came to life without anyone realizing it, but also developed something akin to a soul with desires, fears, and even firm convictions. So that by the time it was presented to the King, it had already reflected enough to know what it wanted from life. Or if it had any doubts, these were dispelled upon seeing the little man sprawled on his throne looking down his nose at it while continually straightening his crown. While the engineer paced back and forth, praising the attributes of the automaton and describing the different stages of its construction, the automaton made the little doors on its chest open up like those of a cuckoo clock. The monarch, tired of the engineer’s exposition, perked up, eyes bright with curiosity, waiting for the nice birdie to pop out of the automaton’s chest. But instead the shadow of death emerged in the form of a perfectly aimed bullet that made a hole right through the king’s forehead, hurling him back on his throne. The accompanying sound of splintering bone interrupted the monologue of the engineer, who stood staring aghast at what his creation had done, until the automaton grabbed him by the throat and snapped his neck like a dry twig. Having assured himself that the man draped over his arm was no more than a corpse, the automaton flung him to the ground coldly, pleased at the creativity his nascent mind had shown, at least in the art of killing. Once he was sure he was the only living thing left in the throne room, he approached the king with his arthropodal movements, relieved him of his crown, and placed it solemnly on his own iron head. Then he studied his reflection—from the front and side—in the wall mirrors, and since he was unable to smile, he nodded. In this rather bloodthirsty manner his life began, for although he was not made of flesh and bone, there was no doubt in his mind that he was also a living being. And in order to feel even more alive what he needed next was a name; the name of a king. After a few moments” reflection, he decided on Solomon. The name was doubly pleasing to him as not only had Solomon been a legendary king, but he was the first man ever endowed with mechanical genius. According to the Bible as well as some Arabic texts, Solomon’s throne was a magical piece of furniture that lent a theatrical air to the king’s displays of power. Perched at the top of a small flight of steps, flanked by a pair of solid gold lions with swishing tails, and shaded by palm trees and vines where mechanical birds exhaled musky breath, the elaborate revolving chair raised the king aloft, rocking him gently in mid-air as he pronounced his celebrated judgments. Once suitably baptized, Solomon wondered what he should do next, what goal to pursue. The ease and indifference with which he had snuffed out the lives of those two humans made him think he could do the same to a third, a fourth, a fifth, to a whole choir of singing children if need be. He sensed that the increasing number of victims would never compel him to question the morality of taking a human being’s life, however dear it was to him or her. Those two dead bodies were the first steps on a path of destruction, but did he have to take it? Was it his destiny, or could he choose a different path, employ his time in something more edifying than slaughter? Solomon saw his doubt duplicated in the dozens of mirrors lining the throne room. Yet he liked this uncertainty, for it gave another interesting facet to the soul that had sprouted within his tin chest.

However, for all the doubts he harbored about his destiny, it was clear he must flee, disappear, leave there at once. And so Solomon slipped out of the palace unnoticed, and wandered through the forests, for how long he did not know. There he perfected his aim with the help of some squirrels, stopping from time to time in a cave or shack to disentangle the weeds from his leg joints or taking a break from his aimless meanderings to study the star-studded sky and see whether the fate of automatons as well as that of men was written there. In the meantime, news of his exploit spread like wildfire through the city, especially among the mechanical creatures, who gazed in reverential awe at the wanted posters of his face papered on the walls.