The aurora had not yet returned when The aurora had not yet returned when Artemis set off for work the next morning, but the sky was still bristling with life as the sunrise took hold over the eastern horizon. The air was cool, but warming gently as the sun rose, and a gradient of soft blue and gold bloomed into the black of the retreating night.

The Moon was full and its daylight side facing Earth today. The weather on the nearby world was as clear and cloudless as it was down below, and its oceans and forests reflected the sun like a green marble among the stars in the morning twilight.

Freighter whistles howled across the city as the arrivals docked in the harbor, unloading boxes of cargo from the United States and Britain to be shipped by road and rail across Nineva.

Artemis walked down the street unwrapping the egg and sausage sandwich he had just purchased from a food wagon, careful not to spoil his uniform with grease and crumbs.

“Papers, papers! Read the paper! Just one cent.” Chanted a scruffy Lunarian kid with a satchel full of newspapers as men and women crowded the corner around him waiting to cross the street.

“What’s in the news today?” Artemis asked the kid.

“Well, in sports there’s photos of yesterday’s boxing match. In politics Louisiana and Texas are threatening war over the oil fields and in local there’s coverage of last night’s blackout.”

“What does it say about the blackout?”

“You can find out for a penny.”

Artemis reached into his pocket with his free hand and gave the boy a half-dime, and the boy handed him a paper and very quickly walked away.

“Hey!” Artemis shouted. The newsie stopped and looked over his shoulder.

“What do you want now?”

“How about the four cents you owe me? I gave you a half-dime, remember?”
 
“What do I look like? A god damn bank teller?” The Lunarian boy jeered and ran laughing, his long floppy ears flapping like flags as he fled.

The guard halted the cross traffic and waved the pedestrians through, and Artemis stomped across the street, swatting his paper through the air.

“This had better be worth five cents.” Artemis thought as he took a bite of his sandwich and unfurled the paper as he best he could with just one hand.

The front page was shared by two bold headlines;

“WAR IN THE WEST? - Louisianian and Texan Troops Clash Over Oil Fields (page 1)”

and,

“INCREDIBLE ANOMALY - Electric Tram Carrying Columbian Dignitaries Travels Cross-Town in Midst of Power Outage (page 7)”.

Artemis tried to turn to page seven without putting down his sandwich, but after dropping several pages he stuffed the paper in his jacket and continued eating.

Artemis finished the last bite of his sandwich and wiped his hands on the old newspaper it was wrapped in. As he tossed the wrapper into a bin, he noticed an unfamiliar chugging sound drawing from behind, growing louder as it approached. It was too loud to have been a tram engine and too slow for an automobile.

He looked over his shoulder and just as a train came along side. It was City of Freyberg being pulled down the street by an ugly green tank engine, belching smoke and steam as it crawled cab first along the crowded street.

Proper tram engines had covered wheels and filters to control the noise and smoke, but this ancient contraption should not have been on the streets at all. To see it street pulling City of Freyberg was to see a royal carriage being hauled by a battered old mule.

As the unusual train puffed steadily downhill Artemis jogged along the trackway beside the engine’s open cab and shouted to the engineer,

“Hey, can a fellow trainman hitch a lift to the depot?”

“Sure boy,” said the man as he grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the footplate. “if you’ll help me feed the fire. My fireman’s home with conjunction and I can’t drive and shovel coal with all these maniacs out on the road.”

Artemis went right to work, picking up the shovel and tossing scoopfuls of coal into the firebox, which roared and seared the air like a rocket engine as he opened the trap door.

The engineer glanced away from his controls as he watched Artemis add coal to the fire.

“No, no, no! You don’t just dump coal in like you’re burying a casket, you’ll smother the fire. You tram boys don’t know nothing bout steam these days do you?”

“I’m afraid not.” Artemis conceded. “I’ve only driven electric, but my boss Mr. Woodrick says I’m one of the best motormen in the city.”

The engineer chuckled as he kept his eyes on the street and his hand steady on the throttle.

“What skill is there to driving electric sides sitting on your ass and ringing that bell?”

“Well, you’ve got to make sure you aren’t overloading the the resistors, and you’ve also got to be good with both the handle and the brakes or else you’ll rattle the riders like peas in a pan, and when the wind blows you have to make sure you don’t knock the trolley pole off the line, and plus there’s the cutoff trick you use for changing track switches, you need good timing for that. It may be simpler than steam, but there’s still a lot of skill to it.”

“And just how good at it are you at it then? If your boss says you’re the best?”

“Good enough to drive that.” Artemis motioned to City of Freyberg as she rocked along on her springs behind the locomotive, the trolley pole still detached from the wire and swaying aimlessly.

“Alright then. In that case I admit you might have some skill, but if these blackouts don’t let up you motormen may be back to shoveling coal sooner than you think.”

“I don’t know about that. I drove all the way up to the harbor yard last night in the middle of the blackout.” Artemis said proudly.

“Get out of town kid. That’s impossible even with electricity, unless you had an engine pulling you.”

“It’s true. I was taking a bunch of rich people to catch their boat and the power went out when we were in the middle of in the theatre district. While we were stuck I was sitting there at the controls staring at the aurora and I suddenly felt like I was connected to it, and then all I had to do was think about it and I drove the tram all the way into your neck of the woods without even touching the controls.

Everyone on board saw me do it and lots of people out on the streets saw it too. And I could feel it when it was happening, it was like someone in the sky was pulling us up the street. It was amazing.”

“So I guess whatever it is that pulled you up to the harbor couldn’t be bothered to push you back down huh?”

“Once we reached the port the aurora disappeared, so we were stuck there afterwards.”

“Well, I don’t think you tramway people would like it if we left freight cars from the docks out in the middle of your street, so what makes you think we appreciate you leaving a dead tram out on our tracks first thing in the morning?”

“Sorry. I was going to come back for it and drive it home though. Once the aurora came back.”

“And just what makes you think it’s coming back?”

“Someone told me.”

“Who?”

“Perhaps I shouldn’t say, it might sound strange to you.”

“You already sound strange to me, so you might as well out with it.”

“The aurora told me. It talks to me in a way. I can’t actually hear it with my ears but I know when it’s said something to me.”

“Whatever boy, just watch the fire like you said you would, this ain’t a free ride. And remember, just sprinkle the coal on the fire like you’re seasoning a steak, don’t smother it like you’re burying gold.”

Artemis said nothing more and did as he was told until they reached the tram depot.

“What’s this hunk of steaming scrap iron doing in my neat, clean tram depot?” Charlie yelled as the old engine puffed noisily into the building amongst the electric trams as their crews prepared them for work.

“Well, hows about you trolley boys don’t leave your little toy trains out in the middle of our right of way where they’re blocking traffic, huh?” The engineer shouted back from the footplate.

“Hey buddy, the streets are our territory, we only let you harbor people run the port district stretch cause we ain’t electrified it yet! Oh, and Artemis, Mr. Woodrick wants to talk to you, you better go see him before he finds out you’ve been fantasizing with the enemy.”

“Me? The enemy? Ha! If we weren’t there to pull your trams last night when the power went out this place would have been burned to the ground by riders wanting their money back.”

“You’re going to burn this place to the ground with that bomb on wheels if you don’t get it out of here. Look, it’s smoking up the place already, it’s terrible.”

Artemis climbed off the locomotive footplate, brushed the coal dust off his uniform as best he could, and slipped away from the arguing men to the loft where Mr. Woodrick’s office overlooked the operations below.

Artemis had barely reached the top step when Mr. Woodrick said, “Come in Artemis, the door is unlocked.”

Mr. Woodrick was sitting at his table sipping coffee with a man Artemis recognized from the outing last night.

“Great, he’s here.” The other said. He was older than Artemis, but much younger than Mr. Woodrick, and burlier than either of them put together.

“Good morning Mr. Woodrick. Charlie told said you wanted to see me.”

“Yes indeed I do. How about you sit in my seat for now, you are the star of the show after all. You really saved the day last night Artemis, I know I must have thanked you a thousand times by now but I really mean it.” Mr. Woodrick stood up and pushed his chair over to Artemis.

“Thanks Sir, but are you sure I aught to be sitting in your chair? I’ve just been shoveling coal and I’m a bit dirty.”

“No, no, don’t mind my chair. Sit, sit. You’ve earned it. What have you been up to shoveling coal anyway?”

An engine from the harbor just arrived towing City of Freyberg a moment ago. Since the train was heading my way I hopped aboard and helped the driver keep the fire going.

“Ah, my baby is back home. Good.” Mr. Woodrick peeked through the blinds of an inward facing window and saw his private car on the tracks below, still attached to the locomotive.

Nearby, conductors and motormen were crowding around Charlie and the engineer, who were circling each other, one brandishing a spare electric wire like a whip and the other wielding a shovel with a scoop filled with hot coals.

Mr. Woodrick opened up the window and shouted, “Hey! I’m not paying you all to kill each other! Cut it out and get those cars on the street before the buses come and steal all your fares!”

The conductors and motormen all sighed and grumbled as they dispersed and returned to their jobs. Charlie and the Engineer shared a fierce look and and begrudgingly went their separate ways.

Mr. Woodrick shut the window and closed the blinds. His expression softened quickly as he returned his thoughts to Artemis and his other guest.

“But, as I was saying, Artemis, you’ve really changed things for yourself and this company with that stunt you pulled last night. Not only did you keep all the investors on my side, you’ve also… Vincent, I’ll let you carry on from here.”

Mr. Woodrick sat back in his couch, grinning and wringing his hands like he were watching a golden goose lay eggs before him as the man stood and began to speak to Artemis.

“Good morning boy. My name is Mr. Van Wyck. I was aboard the train last night and I’d first like to thank you for delivering me to my destination in a timely manner despite the difficulties.”

“I’m just doing my job.”

“Oh don’t be modest. Powering a streetcar with the auroral current is a noteworthy feat you know. You harnessed the Earth’s electric current to power the street car last night. Do you know how incredible that is?”

“I suppose. I mean, I didn’t mean to make anything happen. I was just watching the sky and there was sort of this, connection, and I wanted the car to move and it just did all of a sudden.”

“I’ll be direct. I represent the Edison Electric Company, and we need your help more than you can possibly imagine. I can see by that blank look on your face that you have no idea what is at stake or what you are capable of.”

Sitting up in his seat and trying his best not to look blank, Artemis asked, “What am I capable of then?”.

“You can help us fix the greatest mistake in human history.”

“Have you a way to send me back in time and stop Eve from eating the apple then?” Artemis asked.

Mr. Van Wyck pulled up a chair and sat directly in front of Artemis.

“Late last century, around the time you were born, Mr. Edison and our company were at war with the late George Westinghouse and his company. It was a war over what type of electricity would power our civilization, a war of currents.

Every electric device in our world today runs on direct current electricity. Mr. Edison believed in direct current. It was well understood by our engineers, and it worked perfectly with all of his inventions.

One of Westinghouse’s inventors discovered a new type of electricity called alternating current. We at Edison Electric knew too little about alternating current to understand its potential, and using it would have made many of our most lucrative products obsolete overnight.

For years we fought tooth and nail against Westinghouse and their alternating currents. We did everything we could to defame their system. We lied about how dangerous alternating currents were, we electrocuted animals and prisoners to frighten people, we even got towns and cities across and New Britain and North America to outlaw alternating currents entirely.

Eventually Westinghouse folded because no one would trust alternating current technology, and we at Edison won a war that we should never have won.

Alternating current should have won. It was by far the better system for building a national energy grid. Alternating current can be sent miles and miles over wire to where ever it is needed, but direct current has such a short transmission range that in Manhattan and Brooklyn we were forced to build a new power plant for every half mile we wanted to electrify.

We bypassed direct current’s range limitation by using steam as the transmission media. Our plants make steam, we send it to the customers via pipes and their generators turn that steam into electricity.

Of course that meant that the factories didn’t bother to install electric engines for their operations, but instead used our steam to run their old steam engines. There are now steam engines small enough to power household devices, clocks and radios and automatic blenders, things we intended to be powered directly by electricity.

By stamping out alternating current, we have sent our society down a path in which steam will become the dominant form of power in nearly every application. The science of electrical engineering has already been set back a decade or more, and at this rate electricity's role will be limited to lighting and small transit operations such as this streetcar line.

My boss believes your ability to draw current from the aurora may be the breakthrough we need to reverse this threat to our progress before the damage to society becomes irreparable.

Mr. Edison has summoned you to his laboratory in Manhattan so that he can personally investigate your abilities and apply them to science and industry.”

“Umm, Mr. Van Wyck. This is really very interesting and, but altering the course of civilization is kind of a big responsibility for a person like me. My boss pays me well of course, but my mother is home alone and we’ve got bills to pay. I’m not in a position to leave her by herself so I can play around with Thomas Edison.”

Mr. Woodrick got up and stood beside Mr. Van Wyck.

“It’s not play Artemis, it’s work. For me, for us, with pay. Edison Electric were the ones who paid for the electrification of our tramway, and we still owe them a large amount of money for it.

For you to go the US and help Mr. Edison discover a new source of energy, it would more than absolve the debt, and of course that would mean a big reward for you, and a promotion.”

“Listen to your boss Atticus, it’s not every day guys like you get a chance to brush elbows with Thomas Edison. This is the opportunity of your lifetime. It would make a great story to tell your grandchildren someday. Don’t you owe that to them?”

“Yes, and of course we can see to it that your mother is well taken care of while you are away. Think of it like a vacation with full pay. You’ll get to see Manhattan and meet Mr. Edison and help me out of debt and earn yourself a raise. I’m practically paying you to have the best time of your life. Isn’t that great Artemis?”

“Yes it is, thank you Sir, but this is all really very jarring to have laid before me. All I did was drive a tram during a blackout and next thing I know I feel like I’m being drafted into a war.”

“Hey, Artemis, you’re the best motorman I’ve got. You’re always working hard for me, so think of this as a reward. In fact, I’m not even going to let you go to work today.”

“You aren’t Sir?”

“No, I’m not. Like you said, this is all must pretty mind boggling for you. I know it is for me. So why don’t you take the day off and go home to pack your bags and tell your mother the good news?”

“Pack my bags?”

“Of course, time is of the essence Atticus. Mr. Edison’s private yacht is waiting in the harbor as we speak. This magnetic storm won’t last forever, and I’m sure you’d rather the research take place in a fun, warm place like Manhattan and not in the middle of nowhere up in Lapland or Alyeska were the auroras normally occur.

We will set sail for Manhattan tomorrow morning. So what do you say?”

Artemis sat there with his mouth open as the two men stood above him like two iron gates penning him in.

“I’m still pretty shocked but I suppose it may be nice to see Manhattan and all that if I were to be paid for it, but I’d like to think it over and discuss this with my mother and --”

Mr. Woodrick and Mr. Van Wyck each took Artemis by the hand and lifted him to his feet, patting him on the shoulder and congratulating him profusely as they herded him towards the door.

“Good choice Atticus I knew you’d listen to reason. Now like your boss said, just go home and tell your mother the good news, pack your bags, and get ready to leave tomorrow.” Mr. Van Wyck said hurriedly.

“Yes, like he said. Go home and pack your bags and be here tomorrow at six sharp, we’ll all ride down to the harbor together in City of Freyberg to see you and Mr. Van Wyck off. Some other sap’ll do the driving for a change eh? How about that? Won’t that be lovely? Yes it will. Good now. I love you. Bye.”

The office door slammed behind Artemis as he was shoved over the threshold into the depot were cars being dispatched one by one onto the streets to carry the people of Freyberg to work.

Artemis hopped on board a double decker tram as it rolled out into the morning sunshine. He didn’t care where it was going, the rumble of engines and the presence of flowing current were all he needed.

“What’s wrong Artie? Woodrick give ya a yell down war hell ride?” Asked the conductor as he saw Artemis staring listlessly out the window.

“No. He gave me a paid trip to Manhattan to meet Thomas Edison.”

“Why you look so upset then?”

“I don’t know.”

Artemis climbed the stairs to the upper level and found a seat at the front of the car. The rolled up newspaper crinkled inside his jacket pocket as he sank into the springy wicker cushion. He unfurled it, turned to page seven and started reading.

**********

“Oh! Baby dumpling! You’re home early! Thank goodness!” Artemis’ mother said as he tossed his belongings onto the mail desk and closed the door behind him.

Mrs. Malcolm was sitting by the kitchen window holding a piece of paper. The apartments on the upper floors were feeling the worst of the heat, and a little steam engined fan sat on the table, connected to the wall outlet by an insulated cord.

“Hello Mom.” Artemis kissed her on the cheek and pulled up a chair from the tiny dinette. “Mr. Woodrick gave me the day off and I’ve got some news for you.”

“And I’ve been worried sick with news for you. A telegram came the moment you left for work. I couldn’t understand what it said, but I knew that whatever it was had to be bad news.”

“A telegram? Who could have died this time? I didn’t think there was anyone left to be honest, at least not that I know of. Let me see it.”

“Whatever it is it must be pretty serious. They even used periods instead of stops.” Mom said as she unfolded the telegram and handed it to Artemis.

Artemis braced himself and began to read out loud.

______________________________
Dear Mr. Malcolm,


Dr. Nikola Tesla has learned of your use of the aurora to operate a tram car.

Dr. Tesla has been engaged in studies related to the aurora and hopes you would be willing to assist him at laboratory in the Republic of Alyeska.

Should you accept his invitation, the Alylsworth Institute would be glad to fund your journey and compensate you handsomely for your time and work.

Money and a boat ticket to Manhattan can be found in locker 118 at the Freyberg City Railroad Station. The combination is 16-38-5. The boat leaves at six tomorrow morning.

                                                             
Mind your business,

Aloysius Alylsworth
______________________________


“Mind your business? What is that supposed to mean? Who signs a letter like that?”

“I don’t know Mom, but I’ve got to go out for a moment. I’ll be right back.” Artemis folded the message and slipped it into his pocket.

“You’re going to go looking for that money aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t take it. What if it’s from the mob? I don’t want you go get caught up in something you can’t handle and end up disappearing. I couldn’t deal with that. I’d be all alone, and you’re my son.”

“I’m already caught up in something I can’t handle. Thomas Edison found out what I did last night during the blackout and wants to force me into working for him. My boss is in on it too and they won’t give me a choice, it’s go with them or get fired.

I don’t like what they’re trying to do to me and going with this Alylsworth guy to Alyeska is the only other option that will keep the bills paid. I’ll check inside this locker and see if there’s anything in it, and then I’ll try to figure out what I’m going to do next.

Love you Mom. I’ll be back soon.”

Artemis grabbed his keys, locked the apartment door behind him and stomped down the seven flights of stairs as fast as his legs would carry him.

He ran his errand and then waited impatiently for the sun to set and the aurora to appear, spending his day on aimless tram rides about the city, which he savored today more than usual.

It came later than it had yesterday, some time after nine as Artemis laid across a bench on the rooftop garden of his apartment building. A plume of current swooped down towards Artemis and carried the invisible half of him into the sky, just as it had the night before.

After a long, satisfying silence, they spoke to each other.

“I wish you could stay with me once the magnetic storms end.” Artemis said to the creature in the aurora after an hour or more. “I’ll miss you.”

“Follow me north then, Artemis.”

“Yes, but what about my job? Woodrick will fire me if I’m not on Edison’s yacht tomorrow.”

“Then leave him. You’ll find work in Alyeska, remember?”

“I can’t quit my job. What would Mom say?”

“She’d say to follow your heart.”

Artemis got up and went to the edge of the garden. He removed the motorman’s badge from his hat, kissed it, and with all his strength pitched it into the depths of the alley below.

“This had better be worth it.” Artemis said, clutching the ticket to his heart as he looked up to the North Star and sighed.

He missed being a motorman already.



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