by Hep Aldridge
When I looked around, Jeannie was nowhere in sight.
The next morning, we were back at it again, being the diligent students, trying to absorb as much as we could. There was a more relaxed feel to our sessions, not so much student-teacher as it was friends talking, with the conversation and the learning becoming easier.
Jeannie explained how her people, when they felt the time was right, began interacting with indigenous people around the globe. She described how the various cultures started developing and growing and how her people began helping them progress by gradually introducing advanced technologies, sharing concepts that encompassed math, construction, astronomy, and science. They provided them with the basis that they needed for their cultures to continue to develop at their own pace. When this occurred, many of the teachers left and fell back into an observation mode from a distance and watched from the original outposts they had created.
Others had integrated/inbred with the indigenous culture and stayed behind, continuing to advance the culture/civilization. Over time, as careful as they were, the visitors were observed moving about the skies in their ships and soon were given the status of gods, beings from the heavens. This is something that most of them shunned, but not all. It became a point of contention with the ones who had stayed behind, and, in many instances, conflict arose between them. It became evident that some of the visitors’ hubris had caused them to accept this lofty mantel of so-called gods. That lasted for thousands of years, and then came the devastating self-destruction of Attalia. The ensuing cataclysm resulted from hubris, greed, and advancing technology that was in some cases (both intentionally and unintentionally) ill-managed. It wiped many of the civilizations, even beyond Attalia, off the face of the planet. The massive flood, earthquakes, and vulcanization events changed the face of this world for millennia. When equilibrium was finally achieved, the various groups that survived started to flourish again gradually. But it was a new world. Areas that had been lush with vegetation were now deserts or covered in ice. The landmasses had shifted dramatically, and vast oceans or immense mountain ranges now separated civilizations that had once interacted with one another.
A new world and new civilizations had to be created, a combination of the memories of the old civilizations and the realities of the new. Some flourished; others did not. The tranquil world environment was replaced by civilizations that did not embrace their neighbor’s differences but saw them as a threat or competition for resources, something to be feared and conquered. Warfare became rampant, an ever-growing way of life. Jeannie’s people began to move further away and distance themselves from what was happening on this planet, greatly horrified and deeply distressed by an unanticipated outcome of their interplanetary social migration. At least most of them did, but not all. Thus, a rift was created within Jeannie’s people that led to many leaving Earth. Some who had integrated with the indigenous people and had established families remained; others reassumed their role as “gods,” visiting the planet occasionally, and others stayed as Watchers, trying to reinstate the peaceful coexistence that had once flourished and discreetly sharing useful knowledge.
A few like Jeannie retreated to places like the Citadel, given the responsibility of continuing to build an invisible civilization around the globe and atone for some of the devastation that their well-meaning habitation of Earth had unintentionally helped to cause.
There was a feeling of sorrow that went along with the story we were being told—deep grief and yet a sense of hopefulness. A hope that someday this world would change—could change, and the peace and technology that had been brought here initially by Jeannie’s people could be reborn and flourish. It was her job, and any others that were left, to be part of that change. To continue to unobtrusively observe, nurture when possible, teach, and prepare for that day, no matter how long it took, was a solemn task.
The day ended with that thought, a thought of hope for the future of this world, our world… Earth.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Day three continued our education. We focused on questions about the more significant outposts Jeannie’s people had set up and the locations. It was amazing. Every continent had multiple large sites initially, but many had disappeared over time. Not having the power resources to reach out beyond the borders of her Citadel, she had no information if any were still functioning.
We reassured her we would try and help with that if it was within our technical capabilities—an unknown fact that would be dealt with later.
Jeannie told us more about their science and technology, which brought up the topic of longevity and life extension.
I said, “The men that followed us wanted to learn if that capability was real and, if so, acquire the ability to use it, no matter the cost. We were warned it was a plot to control a large part of the population and bend it to the will of one person.”
“I understand,” she said. “I knew they had to be stopped from acquiring it. That is why I assisted you. You were fighting on the side of good, not evil.”
“So, how do you do it?” Doc asked. “Is that something you feel you can share with us?”
“I will do better than that; come with me,” and she left the room. We followed her to another building, one we had not explored. It was located deeper within the city. This building was different than the others we had visited. It had a closed door blocking the entrance. All the buildings we had visited previously had no doors, only open entrances. Jeannie walked to the door, placed her hand on it, and it opened. As we entered, lights came on, and we could see right away that this building was unique.
There were racks and shelves around the outer room walls, all containing, for the most part, unfamiliar devices, some large, some small. But on one shelf, we saw, lined up, a large number of the silver cubes like we had found on the galleon, only these were smaller and thinner. Above them were shelves that held a variety of objects that were grouped by their design. Some looked like metallic gloves, others looked like metal rods with handles, and some looked like wristbands. There were even some that looked like pistols and a kind of rifle. There must have been hundreds of them stacked there.
Jeannie turned to us, and her thoughts explained, “This is one of our storerooms for our tools and some weapons.” She turned and walked into the next room. To its left, as we entered, was a small control room. It had a physical console, much like we saw in the medical facility. Next, we entered the larger room that had two rows of six lounges arranged in it.
“This is the room of Life,” she explained with a wave of her hand.
“Is this where you do the life extension?” Doc asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “Unfortunately, it is inoperative at this time. The power requirements are quite high, and without access to the external collector/convertor, there is not enough power to maintain the cloak and basic operation of the Citadel and operate the equipment.
“I know we talked about this earlier, but let us try and help. If we can get to the device you are talking about, maybe there is something we can do. We won’t know until we find it and take a look,” I said. “You said it was on the canyon rim somewhere. If you can help us find the spot, we can fly our drone up and see if we can spot it. We can send the image back real-time to our computer, and you will be able to see it here and maybe make the determination as to our ability to repair it.”
Jeannie said, “Your enthusiasm is admirable, and there is the possibility you may succeed, so I accept your offer and am ready to assist you as I can.”
I turned to the group and said, “Well, tour time is over; time to get to work. Joe, Dimitri, you’re with me. We’ll take the drone and find the device. The rest of you, stay here and relay the information we need from Jeannie. We’ll send any video we get back for her to review. I’ll need someone to position themself outside the cloak so we can use our Comms. Eduardo and Reggie, you guys handle that.”
“Roger that,” Reggie replied and put an arm around Eduardo’s shoul
der. “Looks like you and I will be spending some time on top of the platform.”
“Cool,” a grinning Eduardo replied.
We all left the building and headed back to our campsite, energized by the task ahead, its challenges and potential benefits.
Our hard-wired, two-way link was still active with the cameras outside and our computer, so it was just a matter of Joe changing a couple of simple commands to re-connect with the drone’s system. Of course, Jeannie had beaten us back to the campsite and gave us directions to the device's location as we put our gear together.
She asked if we could pull up the camera view again, which Joe did. The camera farthest away was of no help. The device was located somewhere behind it. However, the one situated two hundred yards away proved to be helpful. Jeannie was able to point out a landmark on the canyon wall in the distance that we could identify from the ground.
“I believe you will find the collector/receptor just above that rock outcrop,” she said.
“That looks to be about five hundred to six hundred yards away. You can see by the large piles of debris on the canyon floor that there has been a rockslide sometime in the past,” Dimitri observed.
“Seismic activity is not unusual in this area,” Jeannie said.
“Okay, let’s go; when we get topside, we’ll do a Comm check with you guys and then head out,” I said.
We climbed the steps of the platform and disappeared through the cloak. Reggie and Eduardo were right behind us and took their positions at the top of the platform as we ascended the hidden stairs cut into the rocks. Once on top of the rockpile, we did our Comm check with the message verbally going from Reggie to Eduardo, who ducked inside the cloak and relayed it verbally to Doc, seated at the computer. Thinking back on it, I had to laugh. Here we were in a Citadel of an advanced civilization using “old school” methods to solve this alien, high-tech problem. The irony was not lost on me.
We did another Comm check from the bottom of the rockpile and then headed down the canyon. As we went, I looked around at the familiar surroundings of our gunfight, and, true to her word, there was no trace of anything having taken place there. No bodies, no blood, no shell casings, nothing. Not sure how, but Jeannie ably took care of business.
We spotted our landmark and got into position to launch the drone. I checked with Reggie and received confirmation they had drone video in the Citadel. We monitored the screen on the controls as Joe flew the drone up the canyon wall. He got to the top and began to fly along the ridge edge. In a matter of minutes, we spotted a long rectangular block lying next to a flat base of the same length. No wires or anything like connectors were visible. We heard the call from Reggie, “Jeannie says that’s it.”
Joe put the drone in a hover and slowly descended toward the objects. As we got closer, we could see that the rectangular block looked like it had broken in half when it fell from the top of the base some fifteen or twenty feet to the rocks below.
“Ah, shit, that don’t look good,” Joe said.
We got the message from Reggie that we should fly as close as we could to the fallen block very slowly. Joe got down to about ten feet from it and flew its length, spending time hovering over the break. We waited to hear from Jeannie through Reggie for what seemed like an eternity. Then the surprising message came from Reggie, “She says it can be fixed. Jeannie said you guys should be able to fix it.”
“Really?” I questioned. “If it’s supposed to be one piece, then it looks pretty FUBAR to me,” I said rather incredulously.
Reggie was laughing her butt off at my comment. “I’m not going to relay that message to her, Colt. I don’t think she would understand GI lingo, but she assures me that you guys should be able to repair it with the right tools. She says to return, and she can provide the tools and directions for the repair.”
“Copy,” I said, “we’ll pack up and head back.”
As we were recovering the drone, Dimitri said, “I don’t know how it can be repaired, but a more pressing question is, how the hell are we supposed to get up there to do it? I mean, that’s a two-hundred-foot vertical climb, and I didn’t see any freakin steps cut into the wall.”
I threw both hands up in the air and said, “I’m with you, brother. I don’t see us safely being able to make that climb, especially carrying tools.”
Joe had finished putting the drone in its case and stood up.
“Well, guys, Jeannie hasn’t let us down yet, so if she says it can be fixed and we can do it, are you really going to argue with her?”
“I get your point,” Dimitri said. “Look at me; I’m fully recovered after being gut shot just a couple of days ago. So, I know the lady has got some serious mojo working, but…” as he looked up at the rock wall, “that’s some serious sh…”
I stopped him before he could finish, “Yeah, but Joe’s right. She has seen and assessed the problem and is confident we can do the repair job. So, if she has confidence in us, are you ready to say to her, no, we can’t do it?”
Silence, and then Dimitri said somewhat begrudgingly, “Well, hell, if you guys are in, so am I. I wouldn’t want you pansies to get halfway up there, get skeered, and freeze, and then me, in my injured condition, have to climb up and rescue you.”
Joe and I, standing on either side of Dimitri, gave his shoulders a solid punch at the same time. Joe said, “In your dreams, superman, in your dreams.”
We were all three laughing until tears came to our eyes as we headed back to the Citadel, as I wondered, “What the hell does Jeannie have in mind for us?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
When we got back to the Citadel, there was a lot of activity and excitement. Doc and Jeannie were off to one side in deep discussion as the others were going through a pile of new equipment, separating it into three distinct stacks. I immediately recognized some of the smaller silver cubes attached to belts. There were some of those glove-looking things we had just seen in the storeroom and a couple of the rods with handles.
“Whoa, what’s going on?” I asked as we got to the bottom of the stairs on the platform.
O’Reilly paused in the sorting and replied, “Just getting your gear ready for the repair mission,” as she went back to work.
Doc saw us, and he and Jeannie came over.
“Jeannie has been briefing me on the repair procedure, and I must say, it’s quite amazing.”
“Really, Doc, from what I saw, I don’t know if we can get to the thing that needs to be repaired. I’m not sure we can make that climb with our gear.”
Doc laughed and looked at Jeannie, who was wearing her enigmatic smile, and said, “Well, then, it’s a good thing you aren’t going to have to climb, I suppose.”
I looked at Joe and Dimitri and back at Doc, “What did you say?” I asked.
“Not to worry, Jeannie has a plan. Come sit down, and she can explain.”
We went over and sat on the bottom step of the platform as Jeannie stood before us. A note, Jeannie never sits down, ever. I guess if you are an energy being, you never get tired of standing or floating around, whichever she does.
“From the pictures you sent back, the repair should be easily accomplished. All you must do is re-join the two pieces of the collector and then place it back on top of its base.”
Now, we all three looked at one another, and Dimitri said, “Jeannie, with all due respect, were you looking at the same pictures we were? Because what you’re saying is impossible.”
She laughed and said, “Now, Dimitri, after what you’ve been through, you should know better than to make a comment like that. Of course, it’s possible and well within your abilities to accomplish.” She paused. “With my help, of course.”
Now, Joe jumped in, “That broken piece looked like stone. Even if we could get up there with your assistance, how are we going reattach the pieces to each other?”
O’Reilly held up one of the gloves and one of the rods with the handle we had seen in the storeroom and said, “With this.�
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Okay, in our absence, these guys had been briefed on how this whole thing would go down. So, we were in the dark. I told the guys to be quiet and looked at Jeannie.
“Okay, how about starting at the beginning and explain your plan to us?” I said.
“As you know, we have harnessed the capability of anti-gravity, using these devices,” she said, pointing to the stack of tools that had been assembled. “You will be able to ascend to the rim of the canyon, lift the two broken pieces, and fit them together, repair the break, and replace it atop its pedestal.”
“Oh, so that’s it, ascend, lift, repair, and replace; well, that sounds easy enough,” Joe said somewhat dubiously.
Not responding in any way to the uncertainty in Joe’s remark, Jeannie said, “I assure you, Joe, it will be.”
“Okay, we obviously need a little more explanation, please,” I said.
“Of course, Colt, you will don the anti-gravity devices, which you control with your mind, rise to the location at the rim of the canyon, attach two of the devices to the broken pillar, move it into place, and then Joe can use the rod to realign the molecules of it at the break. Working together, you will then raise it and place it back on top of its base. When in place, detach the devices, and return to the canyon floor.”
“Well, when you put it that way, it does sound kind of easy,” Dimitri said.
Joe looked at Jeannie and said, “If I’m going to be the one doing it, you need to explain to me how this molecular re-alignment works.”
“Quite simple; I can see you are a welder, so think of it as a very simple welding job. Nothing more. Put on the glove and take a rod, point it at the area to be repaired, and a beam will become visible like one of your lasers. Slowly move it along the crack. You will be able to sense how fast and when to move the beam.”
“Really?” he said with relief in his voice. “What about heat and eye protection?”
