Orville Mouse and the Puzzle of the Last Metaphonium

by Tom Hoffman

  “I’ve been thinking about that. Remember how Haukesworth Mouse said he could read books without understanding the language they were written in? He said he could sense the pure formless ideas embedded in the words?”

  “He never told us how he did it though.”

  “I know, but I think that’s what Puella the Wise One was doing. She didn’t read the words, but somehow she absorbed the ideas while she was napping, then transferred those ideas into me. While I was sleeping, my own mind turned those formless ideas into words I would understand, into the language I’m familiar with.”

  “So Puella didn’t actually translate the book?”

  “Exactly, she just absorbed the ideas and transferred them to me. I also have a feeling when she spoke to us, it wasn’t the little mouseling we were talking to, it was her inner self borrowing our voices and language.”

  “How could a little mouseling be so connected to her inner self?”

  “I guess that’s why they call her Puella the Wise One. I can’t begin to imagine what she’ll be like when she grows up.”

  “What was the book about?”

  Proto poked his head between the seats. “The very question I was about to ask. Puella the Wise One is quite a conundrum, but the content of the red book is a far more pressing concern.”

  Sophia leaned back in her seat. “It’s so strange, I can see the book in front of me as if I’m holding it, written in words I understand, but I don’t need to read it because every word and every idea it contains is imprinted in my memory.”

  “So the book is about…”

  “It’s a history book.”

  “A history book? We went through all this for some moldy old history book?”

  “It’s not a moldy old history book, it’s called A Brief History of the Calamitous Metaphonium Haven Project.”

  “Um… just to be clear, what exactly does ‘calamitous’ mean? It’s something bad, right?”

  “It means it was a disaster, a tragedy, that something went terribly wrong.”

  “That’s what I thought. What’s a Metaphonium?”

  “It was an invention which was supposed to save millions of lives, a device designed at the beginning of the Anarkkian wars by one of the greatest scientific minds in Mintarian history, Chief Master Scientist Gnuj. When the war was in its infancy, the Mintarians watched as dozens of planets were devastated by the Anarkkians, countless millions of lives lost. When it became clear the Anarkkian invasion forces were moving inexorably toward Mintari, Chief Master Scientist Gnuj turned to a machine he had been working on, realizing the device might be used to save countless Mintarian lives.

  “Gnuj had spent years designing an impossibly complex device capable of creating a synthesized world, a world of such substance that a Mintarian could step into it in their physical form. Gnuj called his device a Metaphonium, and he was the first to test it, the first to enter a synthetic world. More importantly, he returned safely, with no apparent ill effects from his time in the new world.

  “Each Metaphonium held within it the gateway to a single world capable of housing millions of Mintarians, providing them safe haven from the horrors of the deadly Anarkkian invasion fleet, protected from the silver attack spiders and horrific cloud bombs. Once the war was over, the Mintarian citizens would exit the Metaphoniums and return unscathed to Mintari. Their homes and cities would have to be rebuilt, but they would have survived the war.

  “The Metaphonium Haven Project became a top priority for the Mintarian Science Guild. Within weeks, teams of Mintarian engineers and scientists were laboring around the clock in secret facilities, rushing to build the Metaphoniums before the Anarkkian invaders reached Mintari.

  “As the Anarkkians drew closer, their massive armada only a few galaxies away, an epidemic of fear swept through Mintari, the population in a state of panic over the impending assault, the power and brutality of the Anarkkians being legendary.

  “Three months before the first battle cruiser arrived, the Mintarian Science Guild announced the completion of twenty-nine Metaphoniums, assuring citizens the machines would provide a safe haven from the ravages of war.

  “Even as the Mintarians streamed into these synthesized worlds, Gnuj was working furiously on a revolutionary new design. In a flash of insight he had realized his Metaphonium could be modified to create not one, but hundreds of thousands of synthetic worlds. The entire Mintarian population would be safe, but Gnuj had to modify the existing Metaphoniums before the Anarkkians reached Mintari.

  “Fortune did not favor Chief Master Scientist Gnuj. He had modified only one Metaphonium with the new multi-world system when time ran out. The Anarkkians arrived, thousands of titanic Interstellar Assault Cruisers blinking into view around the planet. The Mintarian forces which had been sent to counter the armada using massively powerful time throttles had been utterly destroyed. In desperation, many thousands of Mark VI Time Throttles were fired at the battle cruisers from Mintarian ground based defense systems, but it was not enough. The devastation of Mintari had begun.

  “A single blast from an Anarkkian battle cruiser’s photonic beam projector could obliterate half a city, and one city in their sights was the great metropolis of Thuvia, home to over twelve million Mintarians. It had been evacuated several months earlier, many citizens taking refuge in one of Master Scientist Gnuj’s Metaphoniums, now hidden deep beneath Thuvia in a secure time vault. Unfortunately the Mintarians had drastically underestimated the ferocity and power of the Anarkkian weapons, the time vault’s defense system proving woefully inadequate. In one calamitous moment the Metaphonium which lay beneath Thuvia was vaporized, the gateway between its synthetic world and the world of Mintari permanently severed. Eight million Mintarian civilians would survive the war, but they would never return to their home planet, trapped forever in a synthetic world.

  “There was a great public outcry, wave after wave of Mintarians making their exodus from the Metaphonium Havens. These refugees brought with them terrifying tales of life within the synthetic worlds, whispers of the dreadful creatures who flickered out of nothingness, the sudden unnerving appearances of long deceased friends and relatives, of great cities which came and went in a single day, oceans where there had once been forests and deserts. It was these stories and countless others which brought a sudden and ignominious end to the great Mintarian Metaphonium Haven Project.

  “The Mintarian Science Guild evacuated the synthetic worlds and destroyed the Metaphoniums. Millions of citizens managed to escape through spectral doorways to distant worlds, but most were not so lucky. Chief Master Scientist Gnuj’s Metaphonium Haven Project would become a small and painful footnote in the Mintarian history books.”

  “That’s horrible, all those lives lost. I’m glad I didn’t live back then. It doesn’t make sense, though. Why would I bring back some weird old history book from Okeanos?”

  “I don’t know the reason for it, but choosing that book was no accident. There’s something we’re missing, some piece of the puzzle we can’t see yet.”

  “Do you think someone could have just made up that whole story? How could a machine have a whole world inside it? That’s like trying to stuff Muridaan Falls into your shoe.”

  “It’s not fiction. Remember your dream about Castle Caligari, when you were in the dungeon facing Mendacium the Dark Wizard?”

  “It was terrifying.”

  “But it was just a dream, all in your head?”

  “Of course it was, you were there in the dream with me.”

  “Here’s my question, how did you fit Castle Caligari inside your head? Your head is about the size of a coconut, but you had a huge castle inside it.”

  Orville gave his best cackling laugh. “You’re being loopy, it was a dream, the castle wasn’t real, it was just something I was thinking about, imagining in my mind.”

  “Did the castle seem real when you were walking around in it?”

  “Of course it did, it was completely real, and terri
fying. Wait, are you saying those synthetic worlds might not really exist? That they were just thoughts inside a machine?”

  “I’m saying those worlds might exist when you’re in them, but not after you leave them. And anyway, the world wasn’t destroyed, only the gateway leading to the world.”

  Orville groaned. “You’re giving me a big giant headache, I need a cookie.” He flicked his wrist and a freshly baked oatmeal cookie appeared in his paw.

  “Mmm… one thing I know for sure, this yummy cookie is real.”

  “Is it? Maybe it’s just a tasty illusion, maybe it’s all in your head just like Castle Caligari was.”

  “Then it’s a tasty illusion that I’m not sharing with you.”

  Chapter 12

  Revelation

  Orville rose with the morning sun, threw his clothes on and dashed down the stairs to find Proto in front of the wood stove.

  “Morning, Proto, I hope you didn’t forget today is painting day. Is that oatmeal?”

  “Warm oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, and a smattering of crunchy red snackles and lizard tails.”

  “Lizard tails is one of your weird Cube vegetables, right?”

  “Quite so, they have some resemblance to green beans but I chose to give them that rather whimsical name to make them sound more appealing, enticing you to eat veggies.”

  “It’s a good name, but it doesn’t exactly make me want to eat them. You’re going to help us paint Ebenezer’s house, right? Sophia will be here in a few minutes. She wants to hear Ebenezer’s story. She thinks it’s important, that it might have something to do with my dream about Okeanos and the red book.”

  “I would be delighted to help. Are you going to mention to Ebenezer that we saw him disappear when he stepped through his front door?”

  “No, I want to hear what he says about Aislin first. There’s definitely a lot he hasn’t told us, but he’s a good mouse. He really misses Aislin, loves her a lot.”

  Orville was helping Proto with the dishes when he felt the sharp pinch on his leg.

  “Giant crab in the kitchen!”

  Orville whipped around to see a smirking Sophia doing her best impression of a gigantic angry crab.

  “Very funny, let’s all tease Orville about the giant crab again. If you remember, I was the first one to see the crab and I’m pretty sure I saved both your lives.”

  Sophia clasped her paws together, batting her eyes. “Orville Wellington Mouse, my hero!”

  Orville flicked his wrist and three large paint brushes appeared in his paw. “I saved your lives on the Isle of the Serpent, but there’s no escape from painting Ebenezer’s house.”

  With all three of the adventurers helping, the first coat of paint was on by late afternoon. Orville stepped back to admire their work.

  “It looks amazing.”

  “I love the color. It’s such a nice warm yellow, like a sunny day. It really brightens it up, makes it nice and cheery.”

  Orville turned at the sound of approaching footsteps. Ebenezer stepped around the corner, his eyes on the freshly painted cottage.

  “I’d forgotten how lovely this house was.” He stood silently for a moment, a faraway look in his eyes. Orville knew he was thinking about Aislin.

  “We’ll put the second coat on tomorrow and paint the trim white. It should look really nice. We were thinking about painting your front door a nice bright blue.”

  “That sounds perfect. I can’t thank you enough for doing all this. I’ve decided to start working on the garden, try to make it look like it did when Aislin was here.”

  “It must have been lovely.”

  “It was beautiful, she was a natural gardener, loved her flowers, especially blue moreilias. Let’s go inside, it’s time you heard the whole story.”

  Orville stepped into the house, sensing he was one step closer to a confrontation with the horrific black smoking stick figure. He had faced fearful creatures before, but nothing like that.

  Ebenezer took a seat in a wooden chair, facing the three adventurers, an uneasy look on his face.

  “Not sure where to begin. I told Orville how Aislin got up in the morning, played the Sound Piano, started breakfast, said she was running to the store. When she didn’t come back I searched everywhere, talked to everyone. She would have walked past dozens of mice on her way to the store, but I couldn’t find a single mouse who saw her that morning.

  “It took me almost a year to eliminate every possibility except one. Aislin’s disappearance had something to do with the Sound Piano, something to do with the notes she played that morning. When she opened the front door she said, ‘Good heavens’. The way she said it made me think she was seeing something beautiful, something she had never seen before. I remember a few of the sounds she played, but I was half asleep at the time, and she’d played a lot of different ones, more than usual.

  “Day after day I sat at the Sound Piano, playing a few dozen notes, then running to the front door and opening it, each time hoping to see something different, something that would have surprised Aislin.

  “One morning when I played four particular notes something unexpected happened. One of the six yellow lights on the Sound Piano turned violet. I wrote down the four notes I had played and continued, trying endless combinations. Three days later another yellow light turned violet. I finally realized what was happening. The Sound Piano keyboard is divided into six sections, each one holding thirty-six keys. When I played four keys in a row in one section, the yellow light would turn violet. The solution was obvious, all six lights had to be violet.

  “I sat down at the piano, played four notes in the first section, watched the light blink violet. Then four notes in the second section. Another violet light. Then the third, the fourth, the fifth, and finally the sixth. All six lights were violet and the Sound Piano was making a deep humming noise I had not heard before.

  “Walking across the room to the front door was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. If I was wrong about the Sound Piano being responsible for Aislin’s disappearance, then my last hope of finding her would be gone. I was not wrong. When I swung the door open I stood facing an ancient forest filled with magnificent blue trees, the tallest I’d ever seen. The air was rich, earthy, the fragrance from the forest sweet and intoxicating. A great iridescent aquamarine bird glided past so slowly it looked as though it was floating, long flowing golden tail feathers trailing behind it. This had to have been what Aislin saw.

  “I didn’t hesitate, I stepped into the forest, calling Aislin’s name as loudly as I could. When I turned back to look at my house, I saw only the front door floating six inches above the ground in the midst of a vast primordial forest. When I opened the door I saw the inside of my house. A sharp hissing came from above me and I looked up, spotting an enormous orange and yellow striped snake winding its way down through the massive gnarled tree limbs, its long green tongue flickering in and out. Another movement caught my eye, two more of the gigantic striped snakes were rapidly descending from the adjacent tree, heading toward me. I am terrified of snakes, and this was too much. I ran into my house, slamming the door behind me, my heart pounding, my legs shaking. Once I had calmed down, I cracked the front door open and peered out. The forest was gone, Muridaan Falls had returned.”

  Orville realized he’d been holding his breath.

  “Creekers! That’s incredible!”

  Sophia’s eyes were on the Sound Piano.

  Proto added, “Most curious, it sounds as if the Sound Piano opened a spectral gateway to a distant world. Certainly the Anarkkians and the Elders had such advanced technologies, but your Sound Piano is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

  “You wrote down the key combination you used to reach the blue forest world?”

  “I did, and all the key combinations used to reach the other worlds I have visited. The number of possible key combinations is staggering, but I will not stop searching. I have visited over two hundred worlds with no sign of Aislin. Some
of the worlds are brutally inhospitable, many filled with terrifying snakes.”

  “The precise number of possible key combinations is three hundred and fifty-three thousand, four hundred and twenty-seven. If you visited one world a day, it would take you nine hundred and ninety-three years to visit them all. There is always the unlikely possibility the next world you visit will be the one Aislin entered, but the odds of such an event occurring would be quite astronomical.”

  “None of that matters. I will keep searching until I find her.”

  “That snow you tracked into the house last summer was from a world you visited?”

  “A stark, frozen, inhospitable land. No mouse could survive it, and Aislin would not have entered such a frigid world.”

  “A few days ago we were flying a Dragonfly over your house and saw you disappear when you stepped out of your front door.”

  “I stepped into a stark and beautiful desert, quickly proving itself to be a fearsome world filled with ferocious lizard creatures.”

  Sophia had been silently studying the Sound Piano. “Orville, do you have the red book with you?”

  Orville pulled the book out of his coat pocket, giving it to Sophia.

  “I should have thought of this sooner. There’s a diagram tucked into the back cover.” Sophia slid out the yellowed sheet of paper, gingerly unfolding it. “It’s a schematic circuit diagram for the Metaphonium. Proto, do you recognize these symbols?”

  Proto glanced at the drawing curiously, something catching his eye.

  “Good heavens, is this really possible?”

  Sophia nodded. “It’s more than possible. You saw the number of integrated subcarrier sensors?”

  “Two hundred and sixteen. That cannot be coincidental.”

  “No, it can’t be. This is why Orville brought the red book back from Okeanos.”

  “What are you talking about? Two hundred and sixteen sub what?”

  “This is a diagram of the internal circuitry of the Metaphonium. It has two hundred and sixteen integrated subcarrier sensors. The Sound Piano has two hundred and sixteen keys.”