by David Byrd
They walked up to the energy shield and touched it. It was just like the technology Hollis had used to shield the habitats.
“Kai, this shield is the same type Uncle Hollis used before…they were built from enhanced KT generators…” she started.
“And of course we can access those generators, is that what you’re thinking?” He asked.
She smiled and mentally said a thank you to him for being understanding. They merged thoughts which always made their abilities stronger and reached out to the shield. They traced the shield and found the telltale energy behind the door that controlled it. It appeared to be a small KT reactor. Using their innate abilities on the reactor they ordered it to shut down but were stopped by a challenge.
“What’s this?” He asked “I’ve never seen a reactor with a challenge. It’s so outdated since you can simply control with your link or thoughts.”
“Yes but this is Uncle Hollis we are talking about,” she said. “He created the new reactors and knew they were vulnerable. So he used something so old and simple no one would be able to access.”
They tried sending various combinations of words, phrases, mathematical formula, symbols and anything else they could think of. Fortunately for them, there were infinite retries and the reactor didn’t just overload and blow up. Sitting with their backs against the smooth surface of the wall the young couple were beginning to get discouraged. With such a random password, they might never stumble on the correct key.
Kai and Elia were still merged mentally. Elia was still throwing random words and phrases at the reactor but Kai was taking a mental break and just letting his mind wander over the last few weeks. Setting out on their own, the camping trip, this new adventure and possibly finding what happened to Hollis. He marveled at the tenacity of his new wife and reflected back to their ceremony in Serenity Park thinking of all the warm wishes from the firstborn, Faye and Noel and his new adopted parents Jean and Max Barlow.
Accepted…reverberated in their minds as the reactor shut down.
“What did you do?” She asked.
“Nothing…I was just thinking of our ceremony and the people there like Jean and Max.”
“Of course!” She said. “Dad told me how Uncle Hollis always felt guilty when they nearly died in the attack. He always felt responsible for that. We were merged and the thought was sent to the reactor while I was trying to access it.”
To be certain they sent an activate signal followed by the challenge response of Jean and Max Barlow and the shield re-appeared.
“Well Mr. Zale, you seem to have done it,” she said playfully.
“Was there ever any doubt?” He asked while standing up and offering her his hand.
They once again shut down the shield and walked to the door. After a moment it slid silently upwards and they passed through. It was dim ahead but after a few steps they entered what appeared to be a very large room. At that moment, 10 meters overhead a brilliant light came on from some type of crystal hovering near the ceiling. It didn’t seem to be attached to anything but was just stationary in the center of the ceiling a yard or so from the top.
“It’s beautiful,” she thought mentally. “This is some kind of place. No wonder Uncle Hollis had been coming out here.”
The walls of the room were made of the same smooth rock like material and there were consoles arranged in the center of the room arranged in a circle. The center of the circle was empty. They used the word consoles because they obviously had some kind of purpose but nothing anyone from Earth had ever seen. The consoles were taller than average for a human and were gold in color. Almost like Gold on earth but this was shiny and new as if just created and the hue was lighter. The tops or work areas had different shapes, sizes and colors of what appeared to be multi-faceted crystals similar to the light source.
“Well Mrs. Zale,” he thought mentally. “We now know other races exist in our universe?”
They split up and wandered around the room marveling at other odd looking pieces of equipment. The surface of the consoles were glassy smooth seemingly resisting even dust particles. As they finished exploring the main room they found the door opposite their entrance and assumed this was the original door in the switchback canyon. Continuing around the room a hallway suddenly lit up going off in the distance. They walked through and there were several of the odd skinny triangle shaped doors closed down the hallway. The doors opened as they approached each one. The first room contained stacks of translucent containers shaped like octagons. There were other containers stacked in different areas of the room of all different geometric shapes and colors. They named this the supply room. The next room held consoles of some unknown purpose but before leaving…
“Kai…look,” she thought. “It’s a human cot…and over there a mini food rehydrator. This is all for a human.”
The door at the end of the hallway would not open and they could not detect any mechanism mentally to open it so they moved on to the last door. The door slid upwards with that same silent motion and they entered another large circular room.
When the light crystal activated they were startled to see cylindrical shapes arranged around the room. They appeared to be standing up and about 3 meters tall. The material was like clear faceted crystal and as the light refracted off the surfaces, it sent shards of different colors around the room. There were 7 of the “tubes” in a semi-circle around the wall with a pedestal of the shiny gold material in the center of the room. A red crystal about the size of a fist hovered above the console and pulsed slowly with a pale light from within.
Three of the shapes or containers were clearly empty. Two were dark red and another dark blue. They were completely opaque so you couldn’t tell if anything was inside but in the last container at the end of the room, a shape less than half the height of the unit could be seen. Walking over to the unit, the couple could clearly make out the angular features of Hollis Meska inside still looking as he did more than a decade before.
Chapter 27
Elation…Concern…Satisfaction…Unanswered questions. All those emotions flowed at once through the couple and they shared those through their merge.
“How do we get him out of there?” Elia asked. “I don’t sense anything inside…but this tube or whatever it is could be blocking that. If he is still alive somehow I don’t want to do the wrong thing.”
“Look we don’t know what happened or if he is even alive in there,” Kai said. “At this point what do we have to lose by trying?”
The couple looked around the room and couldn’t find any machinery except for the pedestal in the center with the floating red crystal. They tried touching it but nothing happened. The crystal hovered but it could not be moved out of position being held by some unknown force. Elia took a closer look at the faceted tubes. They were more or less cylindrical starting in the floor and ending in the ceiling. With a heavy sigh, Elia peered through the crystal at Hollis once more. He looked completely fine but just asleep. She reached out and touched the surface near his cheek. At the same time she noticed above his head a series of indents in the material.
“Kai…I can’t reach up there but it looks like small indentions in the surface above his head.”
Kai walked over and being much taller than either Elia or Hollis owing to his father’s ancestry was able to look directly at the indents. They were not quite round but more elongated and there were 6 of them equally spaced.
“I don’t know what these are but they have a slight spongy feel,” he said. “Let me try…there I have five of them.”
Kai used his other hand and placed a finder in the last indent. At once a tone sounded. It was like a musical tone and the interior of Hollis’ cylinder brightened.
“Kai, back up something’s happening.” She said.
The cylinder shot upward silently and with great speed into the ceiling. Hollis was still like a frozen statue, but wavered slightly and started falling forward. Seeing this, Kai caught the scientist and gen
tly laid him on the floor. A few seconds later his eyes fluttered open staring upwards but not really seeing anything yet.
“Uncle Hollis can you hear me? Are you ok?”
“Uhf..lng…ow lngg.” Hollis was trying to speak but gibberish was coming out. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and then when he opened them again he seemed more centered. Elia could feel his energy was calmer and had a grip on reality once more. Kai was able to prop Hollis up against the wall while Elia ran out to the rover to get water. When Hollis had consumed most of the container of water he was visibly better.
“How long have I been in that thing?” He whispered.
“At least 12 years Uncle Hollis,” Elia said. “We’ve been looking for you ever since.”
“Nonsense…I only just walked into the bloody thing a minute ago…and why did you call me uncle?” Hollis asked.
“Because Sir,” Kai said. “This is Elia Za...Hasten, daughter of Noel and Faye Hasten.”
“But…that’s impossible young man,” Hollis said. “Elia is just a small child, why I saw her only last month in Jean’s primary school.”
“Uncle Hollis…look at me,” she said. “Look at my face. You know me. Remember the time in your hab when I spilled a solution in your lab? You told me…that it’s quite alright my dear, all the best scientists make mistakes.”
Hollis looked at Elia seemingly for the first time and with a dawning acceptance knew she was telling the truth. He could see the resemblance to the child she once was and her parent’s features.
“Twelve years, you say…remarkable device,” Hollis said. “I can only assume that it’s some kind of stasis tube. And who might you be young man?”
“Kai Zale Sir,” he said.
“Kai Zale…Kai Zale…Son of Nick and Alison of course. Are your parents here as well?” Hollis asked.
Elia felt the mental pain from Kai at the mention of his parents and stepped in to delay this conversation until Hollis was fully rested.
“No uncle Hollis, we came looking for you alone. Why don’t we go back to our hab and get something to eat. When you have rested a bit we can catch you up on all that’s happened. And then you can tell us what this place is.”
Elia and Kai took Hollis back to their hab and after resting and eating, they recounted all the major events that had happened in the past 12 years including the attack that killed Kai’s parents.
“My dear boy I’m so sorry,” Hollis said. “Your parents were lovely people and quite good friends of mine. It’s still so hard to imagine since for me I just saw them a few weeks ago.”
“About that Uncle Hollis,” Elia said. “What happened, and what was that thing you were in?”
“That was my own fault my dear,” Hollis said sheepishly. “It was undoubtedly a stasis device of some sort. I’m afraid I have only myself to blame. I was conducting research in this area of the complex and the base of that tube was open. So I walked over on the base and the tube slammed down over me in seconds. I just had time to turn around and that’s the last thing I remember before seeing you two bending over me. As to what this place is…that is something I’ve been studying for many months. As far as I can tell it’s seems to be a research station. You’ve no doubt seen the height of the doors and controls inside. I suspect that the beings that created this were far taller than average humans…even taller than you my boy. I’ve not found any visible record of their appearance yet but I’ve just scratched the surface of knowledge. I have been learning bits and pieces of Plakorii language though.”
“Plakorii…is that who built his place?” Elia asked.
“That is what they call their race although I could be misinterpreting some of the data because there seems to be some sort of division with references to two factions,” Hollis said. “Of course it’s just speculation. This base could have been here one thousand or one hundred thousand years. There is no way to tell. The interior is absolutely untouched by time.”
“Do you think we could find a way to protect the colony in learning more here?” Kai asked. “If we have the opportunity, we owe it to everyone who is left to make sure no one ever has to worry about living here.”
“I will do everything in my power to find a way to protect this world, you have my promise on that,” Hollis said.
Elia looked at Kai and they had a quick mental conversation. The outcome already decided between them.
“That’s simply remarkable,” Hollis said. “You two were just communicating were you not? I must learn more about this ability…”
“Uncle Hollis I promise I’ll tell you all about it. We are going to be spending a lot of time together until Kai returns.”
“Returns…returns from where might I ask?”
“Kai is going back to the colony to inform everyone that we have found you and we also need to resupply. If we are going to be working here, we need a much larger stock of supplies and I for one need a change of clothes and I think you do too uncle after twelve years in those.” Elia said raising her eyebrows and pointing to Hollis.
Chapter 28
Elia and Kai hugged and then he was off. They had uncoupled the hab and left it in the area they were calling the cave. Elia went back inside to find Hollis. When she entered the large chamber Hollis was sitting on something like a tall chair that seemed to flow out of the floor. He was making motions with his hands over various crystals and in the center a large three dimensional display appeared with a lot of alien symbols.
“Ah there you are my dear,” Hollis said. “Come over here and I’ll show you how to access this device. Stand just there by that console and reach out over the yellow crystal.”
A shape sprang out of the floor like molten metal and morphed into the same type of chair that Hollis was perched on. Perched being the operative word since it was so high.
“Now then, move your hands over this one and the language data as I call it will display.” Hollis said.
Elia followed the steps and the large display appeared. She linked with Hollis and installed the primer he had already decoded. Since her link was in her DNA, the process was seamless and she absorbed the material readily. Suddenly the shapes hanging in the air had meaning and she was intrigued by the beautiful nature of the symbols that shaped the Plakorii language. There were swirls and curves and the whole thing seemed to have a grace and fluidity like art. Elia accessed the data Hollis had sent her and used the motions in the primer to alter the display by moving her hands around the crystals.
“Did you hear that sound?” Elia asked. “When I changed the display, there were two high pitched tones.”
“No I’m sorry my dear I didn’t hear anything…But then again I’ve been in cold storage for a decade so my hearing could be suspect.” He said laughing quietly.
Perplexed, she changed the display again and heard different tones. Either her mind was playing tricks or the tones were too high for Hollis to hear. She continued learning how to use the consoles based on what Hollis had already discovered, and after spending the day, she had learned a great deal of the alphabet that Hollis had discovered. Her natural learning abilities as well as all of the firstborn were much greater than their parents.
Hollis and Elia fell into a regular routine for the next week. Rising early, having a morning meal and then spending most of the day learning what they could of the Plakorii language. With Elia’s help, they were making good progress and were able to actually read partial displays.
“Uncle Hollis,” said Elia. “I’ve been wondering why you setup a small energy shield around this place. I mean sensors can’t penetrate the cave material and the planet is essentially empty except for the colonists.”
“Ah, well my dear it was not for my protection,” he said. “It was for all of you. You see whoever created this facility was as far advanced above humans as we are above…oh…an amoeba. After I started learning the language I realized that there could be things discovered here that I might inadvertently set off. I wanted to make sure tha
t if some calamity occurred from my meddling and misunderstanding of the technology, that it would be contained inside the energy shield.”
“That was quite thoughtful of you,” she said. “It was a good idea too. So I’m going to re-activate it now. I’d hate to stumble on some self-destruct that would destroy half the planet.” With a thought, Elia modified the reactor output to extend further into the cave past the hab and reactivated the shield.
Hours later, Elia was tiring after a long day of study and while she loved her uncle and loved being here in this new and exciting adventure she missed Kai. They had never really been apart this long without using their mental communication and abilities, and she found that she missed him greatly. It was going to take at least two weeks for Kai to return since they would need to build a trailer of sorts to bring back enough equipment. Elia was kind of daydreaming while thinking about Kai and not really paying attention. She had been hearing the high pitched tones all day and while thinking of Kai, she was using her abilities to sort of project them outwards…almost like humming a tune in your mind or singing in your mind. But in her case the tones were being projected. At once the 3D image changed to a sphere.
“What happened?” Hollis asked. “Where did that come from?”
“I…think I did it,” she said. “I was mentally humming those tones that I kept hearing. Look, that’s our world…see the energy shield around it? I wonder…”
Elia reached out with her arms to the image hovering in the air and made a motion with both hands like opening your arms wide for a hug. The image expanded to fit the entire room and…it was live.
“Oh my,” she said. “Look, the planet is rotating; I can see the colony site.”
“Incredible,” Hollis said. “This is a real time image.” He walked over to the colony site and expanded that area as Elia had done and the site grew with clarity and magnification down to people moving at the site. He reversed his motions and the site retracted back into the rotating planet.
