Being debriefed was not an issue and he knew that would occur. It was unusual that it would be done by the members of security, “Can it wait. I need to find someone first. I will be right back.”
“Einar…I’m sorry, but it’s about her,” Cyperien noted somberly.
Einar’s heart sank into his stomach, “What about her?”
The short walk to the secure room seemed to take an eternity for Einar. In the room, monitors and surveillance equipment lined the walls much like the lab. On several large screens, groups of agents were watching in slow motion the assault by the Roo’kall the day before hoping to glean something from the footage that would help them get a handle on the threat. The agents revealed to them the incident with Art and Asger with the Tavisian taking on the likeness of Salvana. The fact that there weren’t any red flags found in the background search or genetic test results on file, suggested that Salvana had been kidnapped and was replaced by the Tavisian.
They stopped in front of a large monitor that was unoccupied. The agent passed an iris scan, waved his hand over a sensor and the computer came to life. He slid in a chip and the monitor illuminated, “This is Ms. Volden…right?” The agent asked as the video was a recording of when she returned to the hanger and watched the team depart.
The video was clear enough for him to see her countenance change to one of disappointment as she looked toward the hanger opening. Eerika remained for about a minute staring at the backside of the hanger opening before turning and walking away. She sat in a chair by the hospital’s triage. He watched as she pulled out the arao and typed a message on it and was abruptly interrupted by the member of the staff. There was no audio on the recording, but Eerika did not appear happy with the female hospital worker who seemed to force her into participation.
He pulled the device out of his pocket and showed it to the agents, “I think this is hers. I found it out beyond the wall.”
“We have people out there right now. Is this all that you found?”
He shook his head and returned to the video. Eerika was seen following the member of the medical staff and did not appear to be happy about something, “She stands here for about thirty minutes, talks to one of the nurses, then leaves,” he sped the video up and showed her passing the guard and exiting the door.
“That is exactly where I found the arao,” Einar noted.
The burly woman appeared out of an invisible wall and struck Eerika on the side of the head and grabbed her. In the blink of an eye, they both vanished into thin air. Subconsciously Einar held his breath for a second. Thoughts of where she could have been taken flooded his mind. He was tired of all these beings that appeared and disappeared without a trace. He had enough.
Einar walked out of the office and down to the hospital. He looked at every member of the staff and studied their faces. He didn’t see the female from the video, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t others like her. The overflow of people giving their blood and genetic samples was still out of the door and down the hallway to where Eerika had sat. He plopped himself down in the very chair where the rogue nurse initially forced her participation. It seemed to him that Eerika was targeted. Perhaps they were tracked and followed. Maybe she was taken because she was a witness. There were videos of the assault at the Baraza Zima, why would a witness matter? he wondered.
Einar looked up at Cyperien, who had followed him there, “All of these samples are tainted. We can’t trust any of the results of any of these tests. How many of these are Tavisian implants taking the samples? We're just helping them with this nonsense.”
“I think they realize this now. But they don’t want to let on that they know what is going on yet. They are watching the staff closely,” he could see the concern in Einar’s face. He was angry and afraid for Eerika. “Can you come out in the corridor for a second?” The two walked out of the busy room and to a place where the number of ears that could overhear them was at a minimum. “We have three boys here that can enter these dimensions and travel to wherever they want just like these Roo’kall. They can go to Earth and back in minutes. They can go to any planet and return in minutes. Apparently, one of them has manipulated the minds of the Redum soldiers and made them kill each other. They have some amazing abilities. We need to work with these kids to learn what we can about this. Maybe they can help us find Eerika. I am not sure that anyone will like us doing this, but I think we need to try.”
Chapter 29
The sound of bare knuckles knocking against the hollow metal door wrung out across the large room. “Sound frequencies seem to travel well here,” Logan said rising from a chair in the center of the room. As he stepped off the thick oval rug the rapping of his hard-soled shoes against the polished floor was equally as loud creating an echo that bounced off the bare walls. With the exception of a large table, two pieces of furniture that resembled bench seats and ten chairs, each hand carved from a single piece of a substance that looked like wood to him, the room was bare. The walls were the same dull color of the stone and there was no décor. The room was inconceivably boring with exception to the window that rose from floor to ceiling and matched the width of the room. The river was undoubtedly the focal point and it seemed that the occupant was given no other option but to stare at it or go mad with boredom.
Logan knew who it was that was knocking but due to enhanced safety concerns, the doors were required to be manually opened as they automatically locked upon closing. In an emergency situation, a reset of the door’s controls could be done remotely by a SINSTER agent but was ultimately controlled by the occupant.
“Look at this chamber cut out of rock. Your view is much better than mine,” said Dr. Smith.
Logan shook his hand, then moved aside allowing Ayla and the Doctor to enter the living quarters assigned to him for the duration of their stay. Ayla grabbed his hand and leaned in toward him, “He is right. They gave you a much better view. You can’t exactly put a nail in the wall and hang pictures to liven the place up…can you?” The two exchanged a kiss and she moved into the room stopping in front of the large window looking over the raging river. “Not sure that I would want to do any white-water rafting in that,” she said with a slight nod of the head.
Each member of the party from Earth was given spacious living quarters along the south side of the river. Everyone from Earth was congregating in his room to discuss a plan for moving forward and the return trip. He closed the door until he heard the familiar sound of the electromagnetic lock taking hold.
Logan walked over and stood next to Ayla. She glanced briefly at him then rested her head upon his shoulder. Logan put his arm around her and looked down as she watched the river. Ayla was everything he could ever want and her accent, despite being slightly watered down, was a bonus. He believed their feelings to be mutual since she had yet to convey anything to the contrary and was the one to initiate the relationship. Despite this, he couldn’t help but wonder if the timing of their connection was appropriate. Their lives were at risk as they were in what was essentially a war zone millions of miles from home. Their home planet would also be at war in the not too distant future if what they were told came to fruition. The irony, he thought. He had Sonia back, met the woman of his dreams and welcomed a new addition to the family. It was the fear of the unknown, the looming threat that seemed to siphon the life out of any optimism he was able to conjure up. His newfound circumstance was wrought with possibilities of losing all three and even his home planet if they were to fail. Was this the best time to be distracted with matters and the emotions of a relationship? Asking himself that question was as dumb as the notion that he would or even could simply walk away from any of it. Logan could no more turn off his feelings for Ayla than he could defeat the entire Kasadu force by himself with a pellet gun. The time for caution with Ayla had long sensed passed. Logan would never forgive himself if anything happened to her.
Ayla, having been lost in the moment returned to her senses and walked back to the group,
“Doctor Smith, this is Gunner, Commander Astrid, Joseph, Duncan...” Ayla paused for a second looking at the boy, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but I was never given a name for either of you?”
The boy looked up and said, “Stephen and Ariel.” It had taken some serious consideration to settle on Earth names for the brother and sister, despite having assistance from Joseph, who admitted to nearly settling on Pythagoras for himself, and Duncan who really didn’t seem to care what he was called and just wanted people to understand him. But after nearly a day of contemplation and guidance, Stephen and Ariel had been decided upon.
“Nice to meet you all,” he said with a smile and courteous nod of the head. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to intrude, but the accommodations here are amazing,” he said as they entered what everyone assumed was the living room. “Not since Petra have I seen such a thing. You think these were the aliens that helped them carve that city?” he asked lightheartedly.
“That seems to be a common question all us Earth people have,” Gunner said.
The room was twenty feet wide by forty feet deep and was adjoined by a room to his left and a hallway adjacent to his position. He put his head next to the wall eyeing it up, “The walls are smooth and perfectly straight. I do not see a flaw. The ceiling,” he said pointing upward, “about twelve feet and is perfect too.” In the center of the room hung a large light fixture, which in itself was not remarkable. But the Doctor noticed that he did not cast a shadow. This caused him to look about the room for perimeter lighting, but there was none. He lifted his hand and waved it while looking at the floor, “There are no shadows.”
“I know, it’s weird. Bloody light seems to go either through or around us somehow. None of the rooms have any kind of shadow. Watch what else you can do.” Ayla walked back toward the doorway and said, “dator.” The stone wall lit up like a large keyboard with colors and symbols. “Logan is a chap who likes the water,” she said as she tapped on a few icons. The room came alive as if they were in an underwater aquarium. Exotic fish that no one in the room had ever seen before swam over and around them. Everyone in the room jumped when two Nekarks appeared to swim toward them and turned at the last moment to disappear below the floor.
“I’ll take sharks any day over those things!” Logan said.
“Agreed,” Gunner replied.
Ayla tapped another button, ran over to Logan and pointed up, “Look at the chandelier and smile.” She looked around the room, then the floor plan of the room illuminated on the stone wall. She quickly tapped the display and on the other side of the room, a living portrait of the two appeared as a framed picture on the wall. “There is really nothing you can’t do with this. I turned my lounge into some exotic jungle with trees and flowers that I have never seen before. Can’t figure out what to do with the loo. It’s all kind of crazy.”
Ayla motioned to the right and guided Logan to the large window. At her command, two transparent plates slid apart and disappeared into the wall. The thunderous sound the Auslet waterfall made as it pounded the boulders and riverbed filled the room. Whitecaps coated the surface of the dark angry waters of the river as it rushed northwestward past the room through the channel it spent years forming between the two sections of the red mountain. In the distance on the opposing shore of the river, they could see similar openings on the mountainside on multiple levels. “It’s like some exotic resort. I’m not sure how many rooms there are,” she said.
“How in the world did you learn how to do all of this?” Logan asked staring at the illuminated panel glowing in the rock.
“During the orientation, they showed me how to activate the dator…which means computer. Going round the bend at first. I just played with it for a while. A completely customized room for a completely unique stay.”
Ayla gave the command and the ten-foot-wide transparent plates slid back into place and the room was silent again. Dr. Smith continued to walk around observing the detail and architecture of the alien structure.
There was a tap at the door that caused everyone to pause as they were not expecting anyone else unless Sonia had felt up to leaving the hospital. Logan looked over at Ayla then moved over to the door. He tapped the control pad and a two-foot by two-foot section of metal became transparent allowing him to see and communicate with the unknown visitor on the other side.
A uniformed Viennin man with a bandage across the bridge of his nose and two black eyes was staring back at him. “My name is Einar Akre, I am a SINSTER agent. May I have a word with you?”
Logan opened the door and stepped outside. After a few seconds, he reentered with Einar. Ayla instantly read the apprehension displayed on his face, “This is Einar Akre, a SINSTER agent. I know the whole purpose of our meeting here is to get to know each other better and to talk about and learn and ultimately prepare to return. But there is so much to learn so that we can all…make it through this situation,” he said before stepping aside to yield the floor to Einar.
He looked directly at the children, “I am here on my own. This is not an official mandated visit. You are never under any obligations. If you are up to it, we really need to ask some questions about the Roo’kall and this dimensional travel. Any information you can provide, if you are ready to discuss it, will be very much appreciated and may prove to be a monumental help in our being successful.”
The kids looked at each other. Joseph seemed cautious but conceded after a moment of reflection. Logan walked into a second room and came back with what seemed to be an impossibly heavy chair for its size. It had the look and feel of finished wood but was far too heavy to be constructed of any kind of wood he could recall. Einar met him halfway, thanked him, then relieved him of the chair carrying it effortlessly to an opening in the center of the living area.
“Look, we don’t want to put any added pressure on any of you. That is not why we are here. You have the right to answer any question and not answer any question you want. You can help or if you decide not to, we understand. You four have been through far to bloody much at your age. You don’t and didn’t deserve anything that has happened to you. This is probably very difficult for you to understand or believe, but we are here to help and support you. We are not your enemies. We are your friends…your family, now,” Ayla said sincerely while kneeling and looking each one in the eyes.
“I need to ask you about this ability of yours to travel in…well, we refer to it as dimensions--” Logan said cautiously.
“Tamtu etutu or etutu is what they call it,” Joseph replied.
To Logan Joseph had the appearance of a boy, the voice of a boy, but there was nothing about his mannerisms that would lead anyone to believe he was ten. When people spoke, he stared intently into their eyes, reading their faces and quite possibly their minds. He listened to every word and seemed capable of following several conversations at once. Joseph rarely spoke, unless addressed and emotion was subtle to non-existent during a conversation.
Dr. Smith turned around and was suddenly very interested in the kids. Everyone, even the staff were talking about them but had no idea who they were. He was no longer interested in the architecture and turned to study them.
“Okay, tamtu etutu,” Logan conceded, “how do you get there? How does this happen?”
The three stared blankly at him, “How to tell?” asked Duncan, “I not know how to tell. Look in mind at place. Go.”
“So, you just picture a place in your mind and go there?” Ayla asked.
Dr. Smith asked Joseph if it was okay to look at his hand and lower arm. He agreed and the doctor walked over to his side and knelt. He put out his hand and Joseph raised his forearm. Dr. Smith put two fingers over the inside of the wrist and counted, “Your pulse seems to be low and your body temperature seems a little low.” He asked permission and proceeded to do the same with Duncan and Stephen resulting in the same conclusion. “While I was captive, I did notice one thing. One of these things appeared out of nowhere and was standing by me with some sort of da
gger to my throat. It was a message by my captors that even if I were to get away, they would get me. I’ve been fortunate so far since being here. You can tell when they are near.”
“You know how to tell when they are close?” Einar asked as he turned to face the doctor.
“Well, I can. I am not sure that everyone else can. You see, it seems that to make these jumps into this etutu, it requires a lot of energy. Those capable of it are able to both generate high levels of energy within themselves or siphon it out of a source that is near them. Even the warmth in the air can be converted into energy.” He turned to the three, “Would either of you mind demonstrating?”
Duncan stood and looked at the Doctor. Dr. Smith motioned for Ayla to move to the center of the circle of people in the living room. “Mr. Duncan. Will you please step into the etutu, stay there for a few seconds, and then return anywhere near Ms. Ayla that you wish?”
Duncan looked at her as if seeking permission. She gave a nod of assurance and the boy took a step and was gone. After a few seconds, Ayla’s eyes widened as she turned to look behind her. She saw Duncan as he appeared, “The air behind me was suddenly cold. The hairs on my arms rose up like when I’m around static electricity.”
Dr. Smith quickly walked over and asked for his forearm again, “Right, he was taking energy from every available source to generate the ability to get back. He doesn’t realize what he is doing, but that is what is happening. His body temperature is excessively high and his pulse has increased tremendously.”
“So, you can tell when they are close?” Einar asked sitting at attention in his chair.
“Yes,” Ayla replied.
“The air behind you lost its heat?” Einar asked. He abruptly felt the cold on the back of his neck. He turned to see Joseph standing behind him. He was a little unnerved that the kid was able to get the jump on him, but he understood why he had done it. The experience, he knew, would prove valuable. He thanked Joseph for the demonstration and asked, “How close do they have to be in order to feel them?”
Universal Code Page 57
