The Tea Machine by Gill McKnight Page A

and get out of here.” She turned away and led them deeper into the lab.
    “Good gracious, look at that.” Millicent gasped.
    “What? What is it?” Gallo raised her weapon. Millicent gently pushed Gallo’s firearm away.
    “It’s already dead,” she said. She walked over to a huge glass tank covering the far wall from floor to ceiling. It was filled with a thick viscose liquid, and multiple wires emerged from the tank to disappear into various electrical wall panels. The other ends of the wires were attached to a severed, heavily muscled, squid tentacle. It was at least fifty feet long, and at its thickest point was about five feet deep, which meant it was nearly as tall as Millicent herself. This close, Millicent found the physiology fascinating.
    “That’s unusual. The squid you’re fighting have more tentacles than arms,” she mused. “This tentacle, for instance, has multiple hooks and serrated suction rings. An uncommon amount, despite the size.”
    “That’s ’cos it’s a soldier squid.” Gallo came to stand beside her.
    “A soldier? So you’re saying these squid have a social structure, or a caste system, like an ant colony? What an intriguing concept.”
    Gallo shrugged, looking far from intrigued. She was less tense now that there was no immediate danger. Her hand strayed to her neckline, and she plucked absently at a gold medallion and muttered what Millicent took to be a short prayer. Or maybe it was an oath; it was hard to tell with Gallo. The medallion glinted in the overhead lighting.
    “Is that an amulet?” Millicent asked, noting her companion’s fidgeting.
    “It’s the goddess Looselea.” Gallo shoved the medallion towards Millicent so she could take a better look at the golden cameo. “She’s the goddess of engineers, not soldiers, but the medallion belonged to my mother so…” She shrugged self-consciously and tucked it back into her tunic. “Brings me luck,” she said as she snapped her top button.
    “You mother was an engineer?” Millicent was fascinated.
    “Yeah. Damned good ’un, too. See them hooks?” She awkwardly changed the subject and pointed at the rows of vicious tentacle barbs with her handgun. “They can rotate. Rip you in half in a second.”
    “In less than a second.” Sangfroid joined them.
    Millicent shuddered. She had seen them in action. It still felt like a dream, but her hand against the cold glass of the tank and the warm, sweaty smell of Sangfroid and Gallo standing beside her reminded her it was not. It was a nightmare. She was in a place where she should never have existed, experiencing things she fervently believed belonged far into the future. And what an Armageddon of a future it was. What had mankind become? Why, these people standing beside her could even be her own progeny!
    Gallo burped and tapped the glass with her toe. “Smelly fucker,” she said.
    “Hell, yeah,” Sangfroid agreed.
    Millicent sighed. Perhaps she would remain childless.
    Gallo wandered off to examine other tanks nearby, and Sangfroid moved closer to Millicent. She regarded the severed tentacle with interest.
    “I’ve never seen one of these things up close. Well, this still and up close. Why is it in there?” Sangfroid asked.
    Millicent’s gaze followed the trunk wiring. It wound from the tank to the panels in the wall above. The wires were thick and of various colours, all twisted and flexed, making the cord appear almost umbilical. “I think it’s a type of electrical animation,” she said. “I’m unsure how the circuitry works, but I’d guess the electrical impulses trigger muscle responses in the limb. Interestingly, this was first proven by Galvani in the late eighteenth cen—”
    “Okey-dokey.” Sangfroid sounded distracted. She turned away and shouted at Gallo. “What’s up ahead?”
    “—tury,” Millicent concluded. If she couldn’t be bothered to wait for the answer then why ask the question? She glared after Sangfroid, but then her