Dieselpunk: An Anthology Read Online Free PDF

West. I still don’t see the threat. But obviously there is one — for him to wanna bury his own flesh and blood like this.”
    “ It’s not the potato that holds the key. It’s the fungus.”
    “ Whatever you say.”
    “ You’ll see.”
    “ I will?”
    They rounded a corner and Charlie, who had been holding his hand, suddenly let go and moved farther ahead.
    “Say! Where’re you going?”
    There was a pop! The dark was suddenly bathed in soft yellow illumination from sodium vapor bulbs all along the ceiling and walls of an immense cavern. The highly polished floor was covered in ranks of steel coffins.
    “ Mary Mother of Christ . . .”
    Charlie ran to the far side of the bay, to a large bin. There was a child-like mischief to her. Kennedy trotted over and looked inside the open container, fighting hard against his gag reflex. It held blighted potatoes, all rotten and stinking. Charlie handed him a German, Civil-C-style gasmask. He shot her a wary look and then donned it.
    “Grab a handful and follow me. The coffers are already cracked open, we just have to get the lids off and start the first ten or so. They’ll do the rest.”
    “ Ten what?”
    “ Mechanaughts.”
    Kennedy didn’t bother to ask. Why couldn’t things just be simple?
    He helped her push the lid off of the nearest coffin and jumped back when he saw what was inside.
    “ You brought the damned Kaiser?” Kennedy exclaimed.
    “ Close, but not quite.”
    It was a machine. A mechanical soldier whose face was nothing more than steel-banded ovals fitted with aviator goggles for eyes. Its hands were mechanical claws and a rifle was attached to its right forearm, though the weapon didn’t resemble any gun that Kennedy had ever seen. The only thing that kept it from looking exactly like one of the Nazi Wehrmacht from a distance were two exhaust pipes sticking up out of its shoulders. It even sported the German great coat, bandolier, and war helmet.
    Charlie climbed the side of the coffin and lifted up the steel troop’s helmet from the back. She plopped the potato in place and slammed the helmet shut. Next, she reached just below its neck, dug for a second, and then yanked back once on a ripcord hidden beneath the thing’s collar.
    A small engine sputtered to life and exhaust filled the coffin.
    Charlie hopped down to admire her handiwork. The thing’s round goggles slowly illuminated with an eerie green glow from within. It sat erect, then climbed out of its box.
    “ Wachen Ihre Kameraden, jetzt ! ” She said into its silent face. Then to Kennedy, “We need to do as many as we can. These boys will help once they get going.”
    The mechanical soldier had already moved to the next coffin to start its mate’s engine.
    Charlie explained as they went to the next sleeping soldier, “They’re gas powered, mechanized infantryman. Mechanaughts. The U.S. abandoned the project, but Nazi Germany didn’t. I don’t necessarily care for the Fuehrer’s little mess over there, but some of his R & D lab rats were more than happy to sell off what they perceived as a failure before incurring Hitler’s wrath.”
    “ What do you mean ‘failure’?”
    “ The mechanaughts are functional, but a live person has to operate a very complicated switchboard in order to just get one of the things to walk, much less fight a foot war.”
    Kennedy understood, and it made no sense. “How’s that gonna help anything and why are we wasting our time?” He stopped and puzzled over it a minute before continuing, “And what’d you shove a damned potato in its head for?”
    Charlie grinned. “That’s the magic! These potatoes carry a particular strain of fungi that are more known for their reanimation abilities.”
    Charlie continued to break it down for him while they worked. The gas engines supplied the power, but the fungus gave the things just enough sentience to act without puppet strings. Kennedy had his suspicions that there was a lot more to the mechanical