The Start of Time

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  I stepped up to the stone table and examined the box. It was covered by a thick dust which I blew away as best I could. The thing wasn’t rusted in the least and it was perfectly smooth. There wasn’t a single mark or dent visible. At first I thought that it might be lead, but it seemed to me that lead would be too soft to have even been placed here without some mark being made on the surface. If it were iron, it would have rusted. If it was brass or bronze it would have oxidized and shown greenish tinting, at least. Aluminum would also oxidize and discolor, and aluminum wouldn’t have been in common use at the time that the manuscript was written. But the most puzzling thing was the faintly bluish color. It wasn’t painted or enameled or powder coated: it was a bluish metal.

  I seemed to want to determine what was inside the box without actually opening it. To somehow figure it out without getting intimate with it. On the one hand, I didn’t want to disturb it. It had lain here for a century, and who was I to interrupt the history it moved through. But, this was why I was here, and this was why the manuscript had been written. The author wanted me to know his secrets someday. Today was that day.

  Like an aboriginal hunter asking forgiveness of the animal that he was about to kill and feed to his family, I apologized to the box and to the author and to the spirits of the place, and then gently and reverently opened the hinged lid and peered inside.

  What I saw was a small engraved tablet, about the size of a standard letter sized piece of printer paper, made of the same metal as the box itself. It was the same size as the interior of the box and there was no apparent way of lifting it. I left it where it sat for the moment and read the inscription.

  “Traveler, welcome. I know not how you came here, but I assume that you have followed directions left by myself with relatives. I know not how long since I left this message, nor if you are the first since myself to reach this place.

  Let me give you warning: if you have stumbled upon this cave unknowingly, please return by whence you came and forget that you were ever here. Count it as a dream, for if you proceed without proper knowledge, I expect that you will surely meet your end in death before you pass 3 days beyond this point. Turn your face back toward home and I wish you luck.

  If you have come prepared, and you set your face toward my home, I wish you more luck, good fortune, and the happiness that I have found, but beware, it is hard-won, as you will know if you come here not by chance, but by design.

  Before you proceed, I have instructions that you may find to be further wisdom for your journey. If you come prepared, the puzzle will be trivial. If not, may you never find the answer, for your own sake.

  If you would proceed, use the buttons below, as on a typewriter, to spell the name of love and beauty.”

  Below the engraved message was a row of round buttons that could be depressed into the surface of the tablet. They appeared to be arranged randomly.

  DQWBENMJFAHTKLHPXOYRIZCSUV

  The name of love and beauty? Assuming this was a letter from John Carter himself, or someone purporting to be him, there could be just one simple answer.

  Hidden in the string of letters was ‘DEJA THORIS’. Dejah Thoris, the name of John’s mate, the Princess of Helium of Barsoom.

  I pressed the buttons, and as the final key was pressed, I heard a click and a spring of some kind pushed the table up from underneath. This left a space between the keys and the surrounding holes in the tablet, allowing me to lift it out of the box. On the back side of the tablet, I discovered another message, a continuation:

  “Traveler, once again, I welcome you. An adventurous spirit of my own home planet, or so I assume since I know not for certain what my home planet truly be. If you are determined, join me on the other side, on fair and harsh Barsoom. Step into the pool and travel beyond your experience.

  Let me make it easier for you than it was for me. The pool is a portal. Step in, enter the center, and you will be pulled through. On the other side, you will find a cave like this and a pool like this. Be aware that the trip takes a great deal of energy and the pool will not be able to return you for at least two Barsoomian years. You may return, but only after at least two years have passed since the last person has traveled the path. You will lose consciousness on the journey. Do not be alarmed when you awake in a strange surrounding.

  You may take nothing through the portal with you. No clothing, no tools, no containers of food or water. It is ourselves alone that travel this way. On the other side, you will find a box with a few items that I expect that you will find useful.

  You may wonder about the material of the box in front of you. No, it is not of a Barsoomian metal, but simply a bluish Jade. Nothing may go between but our own selves.

  If you take the journey, I hope to meet you someday. My best wishes. John Carter.”

  Chapter 4 The Day of Departure

  So there it was. Perfectly spelled out and logical. Signed by John Carter himself. I was ready to believe.

  Nothing could go through with me? So, that part was true. I remembered a passage from the manuscript,

  “As an Earth man, you would at first find it unusual to go about naked. You would be forced to adapt by circumstance. Firstly, it is very hot. Secondly, clothing will make it appear to hunters that you are an animal to be killed and you will most likely be shot before you are allowed to explain yourself. Besides that, the women are very beautiful and it seems a crime against nature to cover them up as we do upon earth. The people of Barsoom are in many respects extreme in their honor and under most conditions would never consider taking advantage even though the greatest beauty stand fully naked before them. Of course, unholy wretches do exist and these must be expunged from civilized communities.”

  I believed now. It was undeniable. There was some type of a strange energy anomaly, in a hidden cave, in the middle of nowhere, untouched by human foot for at least a hundred years, and a message inside written by John Carter. Yes, it could have been a very elaborate hoax; except for the swirling portal. If it was a hoax, the person who created it would have certainly tried to capitalize on it instead of hiding it.

  If it had been a hoax, it would have been promoted like a ‘Mystery Spot’ in Santa Cruz, California or the ‘Oregon Vortex’, or even the ‘Thing’ right down the road. If it had been a hoax, it would have been documented after the attraction was ready for the public, not in an elaborate manuscript and subsequent obfuscating and fictionalized pulp adventure novels. If it had been a hoax, the swirling vortex wouldn’t be here in front of my own eyes!

  I almost sat on the floor of the cave with my back to the wall to think it over, but decided at the last moment to retrace my steps to the outside and think it out in the fresh air and sunshine. I followed the carefully laid path back to the entrance and climbed the few feet out of the hole. What to do now?

  Well, first I returned to the ATV and carefully marked and double checked my GPS coordinates. I placed a marker on the device electronically, but also wrote a pen and ink copy in my field notes showing the location of the hole on a hand drawn map…then I took a permanent marker and inscribed it on the dash of the ATV. It would be tragic to lose the place now! As I thought it over, I decided that I needed to be even more careful and removed the GPS from the ATV and walked back to the cave and stood in the hole and marked that exact location both in the device and on my notes. There was no cell phone service here, but I took out my phone and photographed the area, making sure that the GPS location tagging on the phone’s camera was on and then sent the photos to my own email address and to my son. They would be delivered as soon as I was in cell tower range.

  It was tempting to just sit in the ATV or pace back and forth between it and the cave mouth, but I forced myself to be more deliberate and drove the off-road vehicle back to my encampment. Once there, I sat at my table under the canopy and thought through my options and plans.

  One thing was certain: I would go through the portal. That was clear. This was my journey and there was no reason to st
op now.

  First I would return to the town that I had stayed in the night before and contact my son. I would tell him what I’d found and then give him directions for handling my absence.

  I couldn’t take any provisions with me, but I could better secure my camp and I needed a few extra things to help me do so.

  There was no reason to wait any longer. I just got back into the truck and turned back toward the freeway. The going was much faster this time. I wasn’t pulling a trailer and instead of carefully picking my way around the lower bushes, I drove straight over the top of a lot of them. I made much better time on the dirt roads as well and was soon back on the freeway. My mind was racing, so the trip seemed to take no time at all. It was just about time for dinner when I checked back into the hotel where I’d stayed the previous night.

  Once in my room, and reconnected to the Internet, I opened my laptop and did more planning. The supplies that I needed would be available at the local big box hardware store and it was open until 9pm, so I had time to do other things before I did my shopping. My main to-do item was to see about buying more of the land surrounding my cave. It was all for sale, and I expected that if I offered to take a large piece of it that I could get an even lower price. I wouldn’t be here to handle the details; my son could do it all for me.

  My son was one time zone earlier than where I was now and should be off work, but not yet heading out or sitting down with his girlfriend for dinner. I called him.

  I said, “Son, it’s Dad. How are you?”

  My son answered, “I’m fine, Dad. My fiance and I have been having a tough time with each other for the past few days, but we’ll work it out. How about you? Did you find your treasure yet?”

  I said, “Son, you can’t imagine what I found. Yes, I found it…and more than I could have hoped for! Son, I believe that it’s all real. I found John Carter’s cave and the portal to Barsoom. I know that you must think I’m insane or joking, but I’m not. I found it.”

  He said, “Dad, are you kidding me? No, you just said that you aren’t. What are you going to do?”

  I said, “I’m going to go through it.”

  He said, “But, um, can you get back? Assuming you stay alive and that it really does go to a foreign planet?”

  I said, “Well, there’s one of the hang ups. I can get back, but not for at least two to three years. Minimum. And, I won’t be able to contact you. But, even then, if I do come back, I wouldn’t be able to go again for another two years. If things are good there, I might not want to come back if I have to wait that long to return. I do have an idea of how I can communicate though. We’ll have to pick a date and on that date, you go to the cave and either I’ll come back or I’ll send a message to you. If I can. Here is what I will do…”

  I described my plan for sending a message. I also gave details of the land that I wanted him to buy and other instructions.

  My son said, “Dad, I’ll do it, but wow! This is huge. I might never see you again. I get it though. It is who you are and you have to try. I’ll take care of everything on this end. I will be at the cave on the date we said, and a few days on each side to account for miscalculations. I’ll try again every few months. If I don’t get a message from you on one of those visits, I’ll have you declared dead 25 years from now. I sure love you, Dad. I will miss you. Are you sure?”

  I said, “Well, we’ll find out. If you don’t hear from me day after tomorrow, you’ll know that I’m somewhere else. Hopefully the Red Planet of Barsoom.”

  He said, “OK, Dad. Um, I hope you find a nice Barsoomian princess to marry.”

  I said, “Oh, maybe. Um, what if I did? Would you be OK with that?”

  He said, “Dad! Of course I would. So would Mom. She would have never understood you going, but she’s gone and she would want you to be happy. Here or across the galaxy somewhere. Go for it.”

  I said my goodbyes and finally disconnected the call. That was that. My son would handle my affairs for at least the next two years, and I would travel to Barsoom. Or somewhere. Maybe.

  I went to the truck and drove to the home supply center and bought three large steel equipment boxes and locks. That was all I planned to need to secure my camp. Then I went and ate my last dinner on Earth.

  My excitement was still somewhat constrained when I woke up the next morning. It would be easier to turn around and head home. The cave would be there next year and the year after that; but today was the day that I was here now. This present moment was where I was, not a year from now or hours from now or six months ago. This moment called for me to shower, shave, brush my teeth, get in my truck, drive back out into the Arizona desert, and then leap through a portal into the unknown.

  So, I did. I was in no mood to sit for a meal, so I drove straight to my campsite. It was some work to take the heavy steel work lockers down from the truck by myself, but I managed. I could have left them in the truck bed, but they would be harder to move by anyone thinking to steal them if they were discovered on the ground. I placed the boxes beside the truck and packed up the tools and supplies that I had brought with me in case I had decided to stay.

  I broke down the canopies and other things that I had unpacked and I packed them away and locked the boxes. The perishable foods, I tossed away from the site to rot on their own. Everything was placed neatly in the lockers or in the bed of the truck and I locked everything for as much unguarded security as could be hoped for. I pulled the camo nets over the truck and other supplies, including the ATV and trailer and then took a last look and turned toward the cave site.

  It wasn’t a long walk now that I knew exactly where it was. Finding the hole, I climbed down inside with my day pack, my phone, and my flashlight. The trek to the chamber with the portal was the same as the day before. When I got there, I placed the keys to the truck and a letter that I had written to my son in the blue box on the pedestal. My pack I set to the side.

  I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and then undressed. I folded my clothing neatly and laid it on the top of the box. I set my shoes on the floor beneath the box, next to the pack. Finally, when everything was done, I turned off the flashlight and lay it on top of my clothes.

  The room was dimly lit by the pool itself. A greenish yellow swirl gave way to a purple and then black vortex in the center. If the room were not lit if I did return, I was confident that I could find the pedestal and my flashlight even in a pitch blackness.

  I took another deep breath, let it out. Then I took one more…and stepped into the pool.

  The floor of the pool seemed just an inch or two below the level of the floor, and made of smooth stone. The ‘water’ was apparently not a liquid. I couldn’t feel anything like water touching my feet. What I could feel was a force, like gravity pulling me toward the center. I could have stepped back out of the pool at this point, but I took another step forward, toward the center. The pull increased, but the bottom of the pool stayed at the same level as the step before. Out of caution, I decided to sit down. And then I slid myself into the center of the vortex.

  Chapter 5 Arrival on the Red Planet

  There was no sensation. Just as I hadn’t felt ‘water’ around my feet, I didn’t feel nausea or dizziness or pain. Nothing. The only sensation I had was of waking up, lying flat on my back, on a round, smooth stone surface. The chamber I was now in was lit by a bluish lamp.

  I sat up and felt no worse for wear and examined my surroundings.

  Getting to my feet I saw that I was in a chamber very much like the one that I had left, but not exactly. First, there was the blue lantern on the wall near the opening to the tunnel beyond. There was a matching pedestal and blue colored box, but none of the possessions that I had set aside. This was a different place.

  I felt my body and even pinched my arm to make sure that I did feel pain, trying to prove to myself that I was not dreaming. I slapped the wall hard, and heard the sound and felt the sting. No, this was real and I was awake. I expected that my next logical
move was to examine the box. Was there a message or instructions inside?

  Opening the lid, I found another engraved inscription.

  “Traveler, if you have just arrived from ‘elsewhere’, welcome. I hope that you and I both survive to meet one another someday.”

  Below that, an inscription in some foreign script was written, supposedly for natives of the planet I was now on. And, below that, a question and a row of buttons, like the one in the cave on the other side.

  “Name the state of origin:”

  BYATQRMIZDKGOVNAH

  My guess was that this was a question to prove that I had come from Earth, rather than being a native of this place. The state that I had come from was Arizona, at least that’s where the point of origin for this journey was. I pressed the keys. ARIZONA.

  The familiar click was heard and the springs pressed up the tablet so that I could read the back and see what was hidden underneath.

  “Welcome my kinsman of Earth. I hope you find happiness and grand adventure. I have supplied a few small tokens for your first days upon Mars. I suggest you start with these things:

  1. Learn to walk. The gravity here is about 1/6th that which you are accustomed. It requires practice.

  2. Take the compass. It is set to lead to what may be a friendly settlement.

  3. Learn to talk. Find a beautiful Martian girl, hope that she does not kill you, and have her teach you the language.

  4. Take the gems. There is a small sack. They should be provision for your journey, and then some.

  5. Find water. I have written a parchment with hints about food and drink.

  6. Make a weapon. I have left you a good sharp knife; anything more is up to you.