Game Designer & Writer

I was sitting by the radio when the announcement happened. The announcement that would change the way that we lived our lives for as long as they continued to persist. It had been a fairly eventful day already, my father's automaton had malfunctioned and gave our cat quite the trauma as well as knocked some other things over in the house that I had to clean up while my father fixed his creation.
I was taking a break and listening to some comedians attempt to make light of the recent iron market collapse when the radio station was absorbed by static. After a few seconds a new voice took over, one that I recognized as the newscaster that kept us informed every other weekday, or at least the days my father decided to turn on the station.
"There has been a shocking discovery in the mines just south of the city. What appears to be hundreds upon thousands of strange gemstones were recently discovered deep within the caves after a wall was taken down and a wide cavern was opened. No information regarding their function or value has been discovered yet. As of now, the government is dispatching their airships and mechanic teams to assume control of the situation. All citizens are requested to stay in their homes for the time being. We will return with live updates as they come in."
The static resumed for a couple of seconds before my comedy returned but the mood for that had passed. I thought about what the radio had just informed me of and why it seemed so important. As far as I knew there had never been a time before when the news station had seen it required to take over every single radio frequency. And what was with the request for us to remain in our homes? I wasn't planning on going out anyway but that seemed a little drastic for a mine south of us finding some crystals. Was there something else going on that we didn't know?
I instinctively turned at the sound of footsteps, my father was standing in the doorway holding our cat Sparks in his arms. He was a fairly short man for his age standing just under five feet five inches, but he fit the crazy inventor aesthetic better than anyone else I had seen. His messy black and gray hair was all over the place, only restricted from covering his eyes by the magnifying goggles he had pulled up to his forehead. He was dressed in his work clothes as well, a large overcoat and black scarf to be pulled over his nose. His face was smeared with oil as usual making his beard shine in the lights, his work on our automaton apparently progressing well enough.
Sparks wriggled around for a brief period before my father placed him down. The black and white tabby cat hobbled its way over to me, its copper leg still holding up after all the years he's had it. I still remembered finding the kitten in an alleyway on the edge of life, but somehow my father helped it pull though. Sparks never really liked my father but he did always seem to have a soft spot for me.
My father wiped his face with a gloved hand doing very little to get rid of the oil on his cheeks. In fact I think he just added more to black streaks that may as well have been permanent markings.
"You hear the news report Jess?" He asked before coughing, his throat clearly dry.
"Yes father. What do you think it means? Why do we need to stay inside?"
My father paused a second before grabbing a jug of apple juice from a nearby counter and downing about half of it without taking a breath. Sparks took the free time in the conversing to make himself comfortable on my lap despite the height of the chair I was sitting in, his jumping prowess still strong as ever.
"Well I would have to guess it's to keep us out of the way," my father finally said. "If the situation is as dire as they are making it out to be then civilians in the streets would only hinder troops that are on their way."
"But don't they have the airships?" I asked.
As if on cue, a shadow covered our home. My father approached the window beside me and wiped it down to remove the coating of dust that had formed on its panels. His magnifying goggles had returned to his eyes and he adjusted them to find just the right intensity.
"Yes they do have airships," my father smiled, almost marveling at the size of his them.
I looked at the large balloon that was making its way up into the sky, the propellers and other metal pieces still remaining stationary as the balloon filled with warm air. That much I knew about them from what father told me. He had spent some of his earlier years working on the first model. We had a pretty good view of them too, our home sitting on the top floor of a six story apartment building. Underneath were several other homes but most remained unoccupied.
With a deep exhale my father took a seat across from me at the small table and tapped the radio. As the sounds of the previous station I had been listening to made their way back into the room, my father turned the dial a couple of times to a channel that was virtually quiet.
"There. Emergency broadcast channel. That should keep us up to date without any background noise."
"So how are you progressing then?" I asked.
"Fairly well, I should have the guy fixed my tomorrow night. I was going to go grab some parts from the dumpster in the junkyard, but I can hold off for now."
"Do you know what went wrong?"
"Yes, a miscalculation on my part. Hang tight I'll grab it."
My father stood up and hurried back through the kitchen to his miniature workshop. Before the door had even sung closed behind him, he pushed his way back through with two copper pieces in his hand. He placed them on the table and I noticed right away that they were disfigured. It seemed like they had been jammed or hit with something very hard.
"This piece…" my father held up the smaller of the two, a longer stick that looked kind of like a screw, only there were two flairs on the far end where the head would normally go.
"Is the main input source," he finished. "It's something that other children might find on a windup toy."
I rolled my eyes, "Thanks for outing me father. So I like metal more than children's toys, big deal."
My father chuckled, "Regardless, as you might be able to tell the piece is bent and the screw portion was ground away. Without the screw we can't wind it up, or as we found out, stop it once it's wound."
"So, what about this other one?" I picked up the other piece that looked like a ring, only the hole was very small. I assumed that the screw would fit inside to wind it.
"As you may have guessed by the look on your face, that's what is wound up by the screw. The problem is that the inside is ground away so that the screw can't catch onto it, and not to mention the outside of the piece is rigid. Feel it."
I ran my hand across the ring, only to find that it wasn't smooth like a freshly melted bar. It was bumpy, almost like it was calloused.
"What's wrong with the rigid exterior?" I asked.
"Well nothing immediately which is why I'm sort of thankful this happened. Sparks might argue with me on that point though, poor guy got quite a bit of harassment. Regardless, the rigidness becomes a problem when it gets colder. Because the automaton is powered by steam, loose water particles can become trapped inside the rigidness of the metal and freeze there if the machine is powered down without warning. Once the water is in there cohesion makes it easier for more to freeze on the piece until the ice starts to cause real issues."
I was about to respond, but the radio interrupted my train of thought. It had spurred to life once again.
"We are coming in with a live update. As of right now we have gotten a description of the scene. It appears like the crystals are very dangerous but no one has interacted with them in any way. We are being told there is a deep hum coming from the area and that the crystals themselves are glowing blue. That is all for now."
"Seems like the story is progressing then," my father said while rubbing his chin. "Though this all seems very sudden."
"Do you have an idea of what they could be father?" I asked.
"Not a clue as of now but if I had to guess…" he trailed off deep in thought. Sparks meanwhile took a moment to jump onto the windowsill. The airship had since taken off to let the sunlight shine through once again, the beams now landing right on the lazy ball of fur.
"From the details they gave I have a feeling the gemstones may have some kind of power to them."
"Power?"
"A source of energy. Think of it like how steam works currently. Right now we use steam as a source of power, its force and heat allowing for machines to harness the energy for use."
"So you think the crystals will act like steam?"
"Not quite. This is only based on the minimal description but the deep hum reminds me of lightning, or what lightning is made out of, electricity. Same with their color. Perhaps we have something even more powerful on our hands."
I furrowed my brow still trying to wrap my head around what my father was saying. I believed him but something that could be used to replace steam seemed like fiction. Ever since I could understand how machines worked, which granted was only as long as my father had realized I was interested, they had been powered by steam. A new resource could mean huge changes. I wasn't sure if I wanted that.
"You could do better at hiding your feeling Jess," my father gave a pained smile, "but I might be thinking something similar. If this turns out to be what I think it is, then everything I already know about steam powered machines… Everything will be wasted. "
"I don't want that father!"
He leaned back in his chair and let out another deep exhale, "Sometimes it's not about what we want. It's about what the world gives us. If it just so happens that this discovery changes the way that we look at technology then so be it. I'm still free to work with steam, and so are you."
The way he said that made me feel a little better but something still seemed wrong about the whole idea. It was true that moving forward to the next best thing was a natural part of the way technology worked but it usually happens though human progress, not some kind of overnight find. I had learned that steam technology was iterated upon hundreds of times over decades before it even functioned at all. Over time it became more usable and natural and now we were building self-acting automatons with it. That's how I always saw progress.
Another shadow fell over our home plunging the room into a darker shade of hues. The radio blared to life again.
"Breaking news once again! The crystals are powerful! They provide power! In perhaps the most glorious experiment of the year one was taken up to a government's airship and the sparks began flying! Within minutes the crystal had taken over! The airship is flying home now! It's a miracle! Will this spell the beginning of a new kind of power for us? What can we do with it once we know just how much the stones can fuel! I repeat, the age of change looks to be upon us!"
I turned to my father, his eyes now darkened by the heavy shadows that consumed the room, hand resting on the silenced radio. His gaze was glued to the airship that was soaring overhead almost like it was effortless. The wings seemed to flap smoother than before, the spinning tail whirring away at speeds I could only imagine. Was this how life was going to be from now on? Would this great discovery rocket society forward into a new age of technology? Or would this be just the opposite…