Steamrolled by Pauline Baird Jones Page B
Authors: Pauline Baird Jones
Tags: sci fi romance
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about getting zinged.
He pulled out a file and opened it, sifting through the contents with swift thoroughness. He froze, then liberated a drawing. Unlike the other drawings, this one didn’t have a label and had been filed in a miscellaneous folder. Might have been Uncle E’s to-do file.
“I call it the bug.” Because it looked like a metal bug with crazy, bent legs and wheels and a pointed nose. Olivia had signed the drawing, so Emily assumed she’d also added the “helpful” labels, like “correct angle to overcome issues of torque & inertia during transmogrification,” and “facilitates Emergency Absquatulation Device.” She tipped her head to one side. “I think Uncle E was a few quarts short on his mental lubricant when he came up with that one.”
Robert turned, gesturing for Carey to join him. When he was close enough, he held up the drawing. He didn’t ask anything but Carey answered with a short, deliberate nod that he couldn’t possibly believe she wouldn’t notice, could he? Maybe Uncle E wasn’t the only one missing a few quarts of lubricant. Weird enough that they were interested in Uncle E, but now his bug?
Ric not-Jones joined them. His eyes widened, but he didn’t speak. She could tell he wanted to. Her presence was inhibiting, but it was her museum. Three of them exchanged looks of a significant nature, like she wouldn’t notice them doing that either. The big one, Fyn, just looked. Maybe he didn’t do significant. She shifted her laptop to her other arm and waited. The silence stretched. Her curious quartet excelled at not talking. They weren’t as easy with silence as she was though. The silence stretched some more. Ric not-Jones shifted. Fyn didn’t. Carey drifted off toward a workbench and fiddled with the display. Emily shifted the laptop to the other arm, and then off loaded it to another workbench. Whatever had brought them here, it wasn’t historical accuracy.
Robert cleared his throat. More silence, then, “Your uncle’s filing system is…unusual.”
“Everything about Uncle E was unusual.” She paused. “But I believe the system was Olivia’s.” Carey limited his response to a rapid blink this time. She resisted the temptation to repeat the name a few times, just to see what he’d do. Besides, she already knew what he’d do.
“Is there anything in the files that indicate what went missing?”
Why would he care? Uncle E lived, worked and disappeared in the 1890’s, as had Olivia. Technology had moved on since then. Way on. One hundred plus years on. A sudden thought almost got her to ask a real question. Could one of them be a descendent, too? Of Olivia or even the nefarious Professor Smith—
“What’s this thing?” Carey held up a small, black box.
She couldn’t resist. “It’s a black box.” Robert’s perfectly arched brows arched some more and somehow she heard herself add, “I think it’s the Emergency Absquatulation Device.” Emily felt them still, saw it, too, and felt tension surge into the air around her. Crazy was in there, too. Funny how it always was. “He invented some crazy stuff. The Gyrocompass isn’t too weird, but Individual Discovery Velocipediator? Mapulator Retrieval Apparatus?”
“Transmogrification machine is my personal favorite,” Carey muttered, prompting his companions and Emily to turn and stare at him.
Emily frowned. A question almost made it to the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t imagine an answer to it she really wanted to know.
“Oh-oh.” Carey held up the box. “It’s humming.”
The floor tilted again, hard enough to make her grab the edge of the file cabinet to keep from meeting it with her nose. Robert didn’t notice because he’d joined the two guys not holding the black box in stampeding to the one who was. Carey handed it to Robert. Emily, once the floor dropped back into place, joined them at her normal pace, though she had mixed feelings about it.
“What did you do?”
Emily kind of
He pulled out a file and opened it, sifting through the contents with swift thoroughness. He froze, then liberated a drawing. Unlike the other drawings, this one didn’t have a label and had been filed in a miscellaneous folder. Might have been Uncle E’s to-do file.
“I call it the bug.” Because it looked like a metal bug with crazy, bent legs and wheels and a pointed nose. Olivia had signed the drawing, so Emily assumed she’d also added the “helpful” labels, like “correct angle to overcome issues of torque & inertia during transmogrification,” and “facilitates Emergency Absquatulation Device.” She tipped her head to one side. “I think Uncle E was a few quarts short on his mental lubricant when he came up with that one.”
Robert turned, gesturing for Carey to join him. When he was close enough, he held up the drawing. He didn’t ask anything but Carey answered with a short, deliberate nod that he couldn’t possibly believe she wouldn’t notice, could he? Maybe Uncle E wasn’t the only one missing a few quarts of lubricant. Weird enough that they were interested in Uncle E, but now his bug?
Ric not-Jones joined them. His eyes widened, but he didn’t speak. She could tell he wanted to. Her presence was inhibiting, but it was her museum. Three of them exchanged looks of a significant nature, like she wouldn’t notice them doing that either. The big one, Fyn, just looked. Maybe he didn’t do significant. She shifted her laptop to her other arm and waited. The silence stretched. Her curious quartet excelled at not talking. They weren’t as easy with silence as she was though. The silence stretched some more. Ric not-Jones shifted. Fyn didn’t. Carey drifted off toward a workbench and fiddled with the display. Emily shifted the laptop to the other arm, and then off loaded it to another workbench. Whatever had brought them here, it wasn’t historical accuracy.
Robert cleared his throat. More silence, then, “Your uncle’s filing system is…unusual.”
“Everything about Uncle E was unusual.” She paused. “But I believe the system was Olivia’s.” Carey limited his response to a rapid blink this time. She resisted the temptation to repeat the name a few times, just to see what he’d do. Besides, she already knew what he’d do.
“Is there anything in the files that indicate what went missing?”
Why would he care? Uncle E lived, worked and disappeared in the 1890’s, as had Olivia. Technology had moved on since then. Way on. One hundred plus years on. A sudden thought almost got her to ask a real question. Could one of them be a descendent, too? Of Olivia or even the nefarious Professor Smith—
“What’s this thing?” Carey held up a small, black box.
She couldn’t resist. “It’s a black box.” Robert’s perfectly arched brows arched some more and somehow she heard herself add, “I think it’s the Emergency Absquatulation Device.” Emily felt them still, saw it, too, and felt tension surge into the air around her. Crazy was in there, too. Funny how it always was. “He invented some crazy stuff. The Gyrocompass isn’t too weird, but Individual Discovery Velocipediator? Mapulator Retrieval Apparatus?”
“Transmogrification machine is my personal favorite,” Carey muttered, prompting his companions and Emily to turn and stare at him.
Emily frowned. A question almost made it to the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t imagine an answer to it she really wanted to know.
“Oh-oh.” Carey held up the box. “It’s humming.”
The floor tilted again, hard enough to make her grab the edge of the file cabinet to keep from meeting it with her nose. Robert didn’t notice because he’d joined the two guys not holding the black box in stampeding to the one who was. Carey handed it to Robert. Emily, once the floor dropped back into place, joined them at her normal pace, though she had mixed feelings about it.
“What did you do?”
Emily kind of
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