Welcome to Novel PASTimes, Raymond Calvert! We appreciate your interest.
Thanks, happy to be here! I must admit, the technology present here astounds me. When I was a kid in the early 1900s I never imagined such incredible devices as I’ve seen these last few years. I was introduced to the Teslanauts in 1922, and from there I learned of the world of volt-tech, the secret advanced technology first created by the great inventor and my boss Nikola Tesla. Now I’m getting interviewed by a, what is it called, a website? A page much like that in a magazine or newsreel but on screens rather than paper and accessible to everyone in the world? That’s the bee’s knees, I gotta say.
Where do you live? Where did you grow up?
I was born in Brooklyn, New York in October 1904, and other than my globe-trotting escapades as a Teslanaut I’ve rarely left my home city. New York is a great place, anyone ever tell you that? It’s got towering skyscrapers, dazzling shows on Broadway, and is the home to many famous and important figures. Mr. Tesla moved here at the end of the nineteenth century after immigrating from Serbia, and boy, he picked a ritzy place. So much has happened here. When I was seven years old I saw the Carpathia dock in the harbor with all the surviving passengers of the Titanic, and that’s one of many experiences I’ll never forget.
Who were your parents?
The wonderful Francis and Martha Calvert. My mother Martha is a seamstress and took care of me financially over the last couple of years, as my father Francis has been… well, it’s a long story. All I knew for the first seventeen years of my life is that he worked for a secret government agency and couldn’t tell us what exactly he did, but from what little I gathered it seemed like a bunch of wild adventures just like in the books I’ve always read. One day when I was twelve during the last years of the Great War, two men from his agency came to our house and told my mother that he would not be coming back home, which, to put it mildly, I took quite hard. I spent the next five years of my life trying to figure out what had happened, and believed with all my heart that he was still alive and needed to be rescued. After hounding City Hall with classified papers I found in his office, I was finally told the truth, or at least part of it: my father was a Teslanaut, and he intended me to become one too when I came of age. I then got recruited and, well, here I am. As for what really happened to my father, I didn’t find that out until later, but that’s a story for another time, and the answer probably isn’t what you expect.
What exactly is a Teslanaut?
An adventurer. A scientist. An engineer. An espionage agent. Basically anyone in service of this great volt-tech organization. Volt-tech is the most incredible stuff I’ve ever seen. Through hidden towers all over the world emitting rippling power waves, our specialized wireless gadgets, vehicles, suits, and what have you can do things beyond what I had ever thought possible before. You like cars? How about house-sized walking machines? You like running fast? How about a suit that turns you into a bolt of lightning so you can zoom about at over a thousand miles an hour? You have a pet dog? How about a loyal hovering automaton that likes the buzz of electric shocks? It was Nikola Tesla who first invented volt-tech, and other scientists followed his wake, until eventually many governments around the world formed their own volt-tech factions all answering to an overarching organization called the Electrocracy. Almost every developed country on Earth has their own volt-tech faction; the Teslanauts are just the ones based in upper America. As for why you haven’t heard of us, well, it seems the common people can’t be trusted with the power of volt-tech, and many warmongers, corrupt forces, and mad scientists have tried to use it in terrible ways. As a Teslanaut, I’ve helped save the world a few times from these nasty ne’er-do-wells, and history will never know about it. To keep the public safe for the time being, all use of volt-tech is classified, and any witnesses have their memories erased by a shadowy group called the Cleanup Squad. They’re probably on their way to visit you right now since I’ve told you all this, so sorry about that.
Surely you don’t go on these adventures alone?
Well, when I first joined the Teslanauts I definitely felt alone, but I was used to it; I’m an only child and I didn’t have many friends in school. My obsession with figuring out the whereabouts of my father kind of took a toll on my social life. But once I got recruited and I finally felt like I was making progress on my longtime goal, I opened myself up a little and managed to make some friends in the volt-tech foundries. Becky helped me build a gadget whose blueprints were left behind by my father. Arthur is younger than me and already has multiple college degrees. Watson is a crazy enigma in human form. And Helen… oh, Helen. I’d like to think I’m playing the long game with her, but I just don’t know how she feels about me. I like her a lot though, and I know she likes me too, but in what way? A friend? Something more? Sorry, I got distracted there.
What is your primary goal as a Teslanaut?
Find my father, to the point that it drowned out everything else in my first few weeks as a Teslanaut agent. Another friend of mine in the agency asked me a question that I pondered for a long, long time: “What do you want to do?” And to be honest… I’m still trying to figure that out. I’m here because of my father. He gave me this job. But what do I do with it myself? Do I live in my father’s shadow forever, or find my own path? Maybe I should consult someone about this.
You said you have some friends in the agency, but do you have any enemies or rivals?
Obviously when I fight bad guys who are threatening to restart the Great War to line their pockets or who build massive volt-tech superweapons, those folks tend to be my enemies. Some of them my father might have been involved with in particular, and boy, that took a bit for me to come to terms with, although there’s more to that story that you’ll probably learn at some point. In the Teslanauts though, there’s this fellow agent named Lei Ji who, while not an enemy, does kind of treat me with disdain due to him thinking I didn’t earn my place here and was just given it by my father. The worst part of that is, it’s kind of true, but that’s why I push myself to get better.
When do your adventures take place, and do you think there could be more on the way?
My adventures with the Teslanauts started in the great year of 1922, a few months before my eighteenth birthday, and have continued for the two and a half years since. I’ve had many smaller missions in between, but the two big ones were when I first started and in the current year of 1924. As for if there will be more, I can only assume. I’m not retiring anytime soon. I imagine I’ll be here for decades to come. I wonder if anything big or world-shattering will happen in the decades after these roaring twenties…
Thanks for allowing us to get to know you a little better!
Thanks, happy to answer the questions for this… what is it called again? A website? Golly, technology truly is out of this world where you come from. I hope to see some of it someday, but the volt-tech I encounter daily is pretty fun, too.
Matthew Donald has been an obnoxious snarker and dinosaur fanatic for all his life. After first winning a writing contest at age six, he made it his lifelong goal to write a bunch of books and release them upon the world. He graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 2014 with a B.A. in English and Creative Writing, and is currently working on four sequels to Teslanauts among some other projects. He lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado with his cockatiel, Lyra. Learn more at www.matthewdonaldcreator.com.
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