Gravity Chasers

Will sat in front of the washing machine whilst Ark and Liz looked on in amazement. Slowly he started to un-bolt the door. His tools clank and clunked as he practised his trade. Then the door came off, he put his head in and the gasp that came out was amazing.

Let me take you back to the beginning. It all started in the great storm of '86. The great storm was so great (hence the title) that it blew the whole of Port Torian onto a large cloud. Sadly, however, clouds can't support whole towns so it slowly fell from the sky and into the sea. To escape this fate the ingenius Charles Chimneair, Arks father, designed a series of flying machines. These now float atop the cloud. No one is quite sure how the flying machines work seeing that it's 1896 but they work all the well. Now that you know that I am quite happy to inform you that the cloud is now parked over a small rock in the middle of the ocean. But it is not important where the rock sits, it is a case of what might be on that rock. And the thing on that rock is the only, known, surviving area of Port Torian. The Chimneair Observatory.
This may sound insignificant but there is something you must know, Charles Chimneair went missing only a demi-week after the invention of the flying machines and it is his sons belief that the observatory holds the key to his location. But there is only one problem with this theory, shall I tell you what it is? I shall. There was no way to enter the building. You see the key went missing with the professor and there was no other way to get in. And so it fell that Ark was abandoned with his two friends, Liz Flamrdy the flower girl and Will Parksept the mechanic. So there they were on the air ship searching frantically for the key to the observatory when Ark decided to call it a day. The entire crew of three went to sit down round the large oak scratched table and then Liz picked up a small parcel that was waiting on the table for them and inside the parcel was a polished silver key with a chimney engraved on it. With joy and a triumphant grin the crew slid out of the hatch door, down the rope and onto the rock. Stumbling over rocks they approached the renovated lighthouse and Ark slid the key into the small hole and the door slid open. The fire which Ark remembered as burning and warm was dead and cold and the pneumatic pipe that use to deliver the days post was water logged. Ark looked up and saw the rickety old ladder that led to the his fathers observatory. He was reminded of how his father use to sit him on the old wicker chair, that belonged to his grandmother, and tell him about the constellations he should be able to see. It upset him to think about that. So he stopped thinking about it. They searched the house for a bit and gave in again. Will pulled his tools out of his pockets and started to fix the washing machine whilst Ark and Liz looked on in bemusement and amazment as he practised his trade. So then that takes us back to the beggining as Will pokes his head in and the gasp that comes out is amazing. And that gasp was shared by Ark and Liz as they saw what he pulled out. And that was a metal armature with silver and bronze metal plating. And instead of a face he had red firemans bucket with two slits cut in it where there was transparent glass and on the other side of those there were candles giving it lit up eyes. He had a complicated control panel on his chest and strange hands. Arks eyes lit up like the machines and he said "It's an automaton!"