Freer, Dave

In an alternate 1953 dominated by coal power and the British Empire, Clara Calland and her mother, an important scientist, embark on a treacherous journey toward freedom in Westralia aboard a smugglers' submarine, the Cuttlefish, pursued by Menshevik spies and Imperial soldiers.

In an alternate Australia dominated by coal power and the British empire, Clara and Tim arrive in the rebel republic of Westralia, where people are nocturnal and live underground, burrowing with machines called steam moles.