by Tom Hoffman
It was in the middle of one of these marathon practice sessions that Sophia burst into the room with a wide grin on her face. “It’s time, Orville Wellington Mouse.”
Orville looked exhausted, barely able to keep his eyes open. “Time for what? More lessons?”
“We’re done with lessons for now. It’s time for some fun. I have a surprise for you. Follow me!”
Sophia hurried to the rear of the bookstore and unlatched the back door. Orville was wide awake now, his curiosity piqued. “Where are we going? What kind of surprise?”
Sophia pointed to the old ramshackle barn behind the Book Emporium. “There. We’re going in there.” She hurried over to the barn’s rickety wooden doors and put her paw on the heavy wrought iron latch. “Stand next to me and close your eyes.”
“This isn’t going to hurt is it?”
Sophia laughed. Orville squeezed his eyes shut and heard the rusty hinges squeal as Sophia swung the doors open. “You can open your eyes now.”
Orville peaked cautiously through his eyelids then burst out laughing. “What is that thing?”
Orville stood facing what appeared to be a gigantic glowbird, eight feet tall and thirty feet long, its legs replaced with two metal spoked wheels. Behind the glowbird stood a rather disheveled elderly mouse wearing a long white coat and enormous round glasses, the grin on his face even wider than the one on Sophia’s.
The mouse in the white coat waved his paw and called out to Orville. “What do you think of her? We named her The Glowbird. I guarantee there’s not another one like her in this world or any other.” He slapped his leg and gave very peculiar high pitched staccato laugh that reminded Orville of the Kukululu bird, a feathered denizen of the east Symocan jungles.
Even with this information Orville was still baffled. “Umm... what is it exactly that this very large glowbird on wheels does?”
Sophia gestured toward the eccentric looking elderly mouse. “Orville, I’d like you to meet the greatest inventor in all of Symoca. The Metaphysical Adventurers fondly refer to him as The Mad Mouse of Muridaan, but I can assure you he is far from mad and is in fact exceedingly brilliant. Say hello to Mirus Mouse. I brought Mirus the glowbird we found in the tree near Pavorak Gorge and asked if he could build a large scale version, one capable of flight, and one capable of carrying two mice. This magnificent craft is the product of his genius and of his tireless efforts, and it is also how you and I are going to get to the bottom of Pavorak Gorge.”
Orville did four things in the space of five seconds. He looked at Sophia, then at The Glowbird, then at Mirus Mouse, and then back to Sophia. “We’re going to do what??”
Half an hour later Sophia and Orville were seated comfortably in the cockpit of The Glowbird. Mirus Mouse was leaning in through the open door, pointing out the various controls of the ship.
“If you’re going to ask me how she flies I’ll tell you she’s powered by duplonium. If you didn’t know what duplonium was I’d tell you it’s a rare element that reacts in a very particular way with water. Drop a piece of duplonium in a glass of water and the water will boil away in five minutes and you’d still have your duplonium. Put that duplonium in a closed system and it will produce all the steam you need to power The Glowbird for a hundred years. She’ll fly until her wings fall off!”
“What?? Her wings might fall off?”
Mirus let out a great squawk. “No chance of that happening, my furry young friend. Now, how do you fly this contraption, you ask? I would answer by pointing to those two silver sticks on either side of your seat. It’s easier than walking, I would tell you. The stick on your left, push it forward and the wings start flapping. The further you push it, the faster they flap. Stick on the right, pull back and she goes up, push forward and she goes down. To the left for a left turn, to the right for a right turn. Ready to take her up, my fine young friend?”
“What? No! Not so soon. I have to study all this first.”
Mirus let out another raucous jungle bird laugh and slapped Orville on the shoulder. “Come with me back to the shop and I’ll teach you a thing or two about flying this bird. It’s a lot easier than it sounds, that’s what I would tell you.”
Chapter 10
Flight of The Glowbird
“Orville! You’re going to be late for work!”
“Okay, Mum, I’m getting dressed. Master Marloh doesn’t mind if I’m a bit late sometimes.” Orville slipped on his favorite red plaid woolen shirt, a pair of sturdy canvas hiking shorts and his heavy leather boots, then dashed downstairs to breakfast.
“Good heavens, are you going to work dressed like that? You look like you’re off to explore the deepest jungles of East Symoca.”
Orville laughed. “Master Marloh is sending us out on a book hunting expedition and some of the mice we’ll be talking to live a good distance from town. I’ll be gone for several days.”
“You be careful. Are you taking the train?”
“Umm... I thought instead maybe I’d fly there inside a giant mechanical glowbird.”
Orville’s Mum rolled her eyes. “Oh, you and that wild imagination of yours. You should write stories and sell them.”
“Good idea, Mum. I have to go.”
“All right, you be careful flying in that giant glowbird of yours.”
Orville hugged his Mum and darted out the door. An hour later he stood at the front gate of the sprawling complex owned by Mirus Mouse.
“Let’s see, Sophia said to meet her in the big red building.” Orville swung the tall metal gate open and eyed the maze of buildings. He spotted the long, low red structure peeking out from behind a towering yellow barn.
Orville hurried past the barn and made his way over to the red building. Swinging a side door open he spotted Sophia and Mirus next to The Glowbird. Sophia looked up when she heard the door creak open.
“Hi, Orville! Mirus took The Glowbird up for a series of test flights and it flies like a dream, nice and smooth even with the wings flapping up and down. This morning he took me up with him and let me fly it! It’s so much fun and really easy to fly! It’s not even a little bit scary. He added a set of controls on my side of the ship so you and I can take turns flying if we want to.”
“That sounds perfect. You can take over when I get paralyzed with fear.”
Mirus gave a great squawking laugh and slapped Orville on the shoulder. “You’ll do fine. Hop in! I’ll open the main doors and we’ll roll her out. Don’t forget, you two, slow flapping until she hits twenty miles an hour, full speed till she hits forty, then take her up till you’re soaring with the birds. Anything funny happens to the duplonium engine, just glide down and land somewhere smooth.”
Mirus called out to Orville, “Help me roll her out onto the grass.” Orville and Mirus lifted the tail and pushed the great bird forward while Sophia sat in the cockpit and steered the ship through the open doors.
Mirus stepped away from the craft and waved his arm at Orville. “What are you waiting for? Get in and get flying!”
Orville hopped into the cockpit. Sophia was almost bouncing with excitement. “Ready to take this bird up, Captain Orville?”
“Wait, I’m the captain? Shouldn’t you be the captain?”
“I’ll be captain of this side, and you be captain of that side.”
“That sounds fair. Okay, here we go!” Orville gave the paws up sign to Mirus and flipped on the duplonium motor, then pushed the left control stick gently forward. He watched as the craft’s long feathered wings unfurled and began smoothly flapping. “So far so good, Sophia! The wings are working just as they should.”
The Glowbird gradually picked up speed as it rolled down the grassy field. Sophia called out, “We just hit twenty miles an hour, Orville!”
Orville nodded and pushed the left stick forward as far as it would go. The wings became a blur, the wind whistling past Orville’s ears as they sped down the runway. “Forty miles an hour! Take her up!”
Orville pulled back on the
right stick and The Glowbird took to the air. They heard Mirus Mouse give a great squawking cheer. “Hoorah!! There she goes!”
Ten minutes later they were circling a thousand feet above Muridaan Falls.
Orville could barely contain himself. “This is incredible! We’re flying! We’re really flying! Look, you can see the falls. You can see the whole town! Everything looks so small from up here!”
Sophia gestured to the large compass sitting between the seats and hollered to Orville, “Head west! It shouldn’t take us too long to get there. The dial says we’re at fifty miles an hour. You can slow down if you want, now that we’re up here. It won’t be so windy then.”
Orville made a slow banking turn and headed due west toward Pavorak Gorge. Sophia opened her pack and pulled out the brass tracking goggles. She slipped them on and pressed the tabs. “I see the six orange trails from the glowbirds. Just keep heading directly west.”
Orville slowed The Glowbird down to thirty miles an hour and held it steady at a thousand feet. The sweeping vista of snowcapped mountains and lush green forests stretching out to the horizon was a sight Orville would never forget. He watched as the great forests passing below them gradually turned to green flowering pastures, and then to desolate and barren rocky terrain.
“Orville! Eyes on the sky! I don’t want to smash into the side of a mountain while you’re gawking at the scenery.”
“By your command, Captain Sophia!”
Sophia rolled her eyes. She was about to give Orville some rather rude advice when she stopped and cried out, “I see the gorge! The glowbird trails veer down into it and turn directly north, continuing on for about a mile. Take The Glowbird down into the gorge and head north. Nice and slow, Orville.”
Orville pushed the right stick forward and The Glowbird began its gradual descent. Once they were down in the gorge he banked gently to the north at an altitude of three hundred feet.
“Orville, there’s the ravine up ahead on the left. The glowbird trails go directly into it. The bottom of the gorge is smooth, so you can land here and we’ll hike up into the ravine.”
With barely a thump The Glowbird touched down onto the flat sandy floor of the gorge. Orville kept the wings flapping until they had taxied over to the ravine.
“Here we are!”
Sophia was grinning like a mouseling. “That’s the most fun I’ve ever had! I want to go flying every day!”
Orville switched off the duplonium motor and hopped out. “This gorge is spectacular! Look at all the brightly colored layers of rock running through it.”
Sophia nodded. “It’s magnificent. Let’s head up into the ravine.”
Orville and Sophia scrambled up the steep mounds of rocky debris that led into the narrow crevasse.
“Look, the ravine widens the farther in it goes.”
After nearly a mile of walking over the jagged rocks Sophia stopped in her tracks, pointing to a mammoth stone cube almost a mile away.
“What do you think that is?”
Orville shook his head. “Please don’t tell me that’s where the glowbirds go.”
Sophia peered through the tracking goggles. “That’s where they go, so that’s where we have to go. Don’t forget your shaping skills. Don’t forget to blink up a sphere of defense around you. We have no idea what might be waiting for us inside that building.”
As they approached the stone cube Orville realized its truly mammoth proportions. The structure stood close to two hundred feet tall and was made of what appeared to be polished granite. Sophia pointed to three rows of round holes running around the upper perimeter of the cube. “The bird trails lead into those holes, each orange trail going into a separate hole. I see at least twenty other trails coming in from all directions. There are a lot more glowbirds besides the ones we’re tracking.”
Orville felt a growing sense of dread. “I don’t like the feeling of this place. What do you think the cube is?”
“Well, it must have been built by the Anarkkians, but as for why they built it, I don’t have the slightest idea. More than likely it’s empty, abandoned a thousand years ago.”
“I hope so, but somehow it doesn’t feel empty to me. I suppose I could just be sensing the glowbirds inside it.”
Sophia and Orville trekked on toward the stone cube, finally arriving at what appeared to be the cube’s entrance, a mammoth set of gleaming metallic doors standing over twenty feet high. In the center of each door was embedded a large golden square, a silver spiral within it.
Orville pointed to the gold squares. “You were right, the Anarkkians built this. That’s the same symbol we found on the blue triangle. How do we get in? These doors are massive and there’s no handle or latch on them.” Orville made a half hearted attempt to push the doors open. “They won’t budge.”
Sophia was studying the door’s surface, running her paw gently across it. “Here, look at this grid of slightly raised circles on the left door. They’re hard to see, barely visible. Five across and five deep, twenty-five in total. Maybe they’re tabs you have to push.”
“Could be. More than likely you have to touch them in a certain order for the door to open, if they even still work. There are so many possible combinations it would take us a thousand years to figure out which circles to tap and in which order.”
Sophia rubbed her furry chin, deep in thought. “Try the goggles on them.”
“Why?”
“Just try it. There could be some kind of electrical field that might help us.”
Orville shrugged and slipped on the goggles, slowly twisting the brass dial.
“Creekers! You were right! Five of the circles are glowing. Those must be the ones. They’re not all the same brightness, each one is different. I’ll tap them in order of dimmest to brightest.”
Orville reached out and touched his paw to each of the five raised circles. “Nothing.”
“Hmmm... try brightest to dimmest.”
Orville tapped the circles again and was rewarded with a deep rumbling noise. He skittered back, watching as the monstrous silver doors groaned open. Orville peered into the inky blackness of the cube’s interior. “This is scary. Are MA missions always this scary?”
“Sorry to tell you this, but this is nothing compared to most of them. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. All right, let’s practice your shaping skills. I want you to create a glowing sphere that will enter the cube, float up to the ceiling and then get brighter and brighter until it’s like daylight in there. After that, pop up a sphere of defense around you.”
Orville nodded. With a quick flick of his wrist a glowing orb appeared and shot in through the open doors. Moments later it flared brightly, illuminating the interior of the cube. A powerful sphere of defense then popped up around him.
“Excellent. Here we go. Eyes open, stay alert.”
Orville gulped. He was now certain there was something other than glowbirds living inside the huge stone cube.
Chapter 11
Inside the Cube
Orville’s eyes traveled across the brightly illuminated room, scanning for even the slightest movement, but he found only stillness, echoing silence, and the musty smell of time. “What is this place?”
Sophia studied the colossal rectangular room. “The walls are covered with rows of those wide black rectangles. They resemble the old display panels we used to have on Quintari before holo screens were invented. Each panel has a long curved desk under it, and each desk has three or four high backed chairs in front of it. I’m not certain what was going on here, Orville. This technology looks too advanced for Earth, but the chairs are too large for Anarkkians. They were a scary looking bunch, with long green tusks and scales, but they weren’t especially tall. If it wasn’t Anarkkians sitting in those chairs, then who was it, and why is the Anarkkian symbol on the door? And then there’s the puzzle of the glowbirds. What in the world were the Anarkkians doing with all those mechanical glowbirds?”
Orville shook his head. “It’s b
eyond me. We should search the upper levels of the cube. We might find something there. There must be stairs around here somewhere.”
Sophia pointed across the room. “There’s an entryway. Let’s try that.”
The pair of adventurers hurried across the room and stepped through a stone archway.
“There’s the stairs. Stay alert. If there’s something else here besides glowbirds, more than likely it’s at the top level of the cube.”
They crept silently up the stairs, soon reaching the second level. Orville peered into a pitch black room, listening intently for any sound, any movement. There was neither, so he sent in a sphere of light.
“Nothing new here, it’s the same as the first level. Desks, chairs, and display panels running along the walls. Let’s keep going up.”
Sophia tiptoed up the ancient stone stairs to the top level of the building. She held up her paw for Orville to stop, then sent him a thought cloud. “The stairs end at this level. This is where we’ll find the glowbirds. I can see light coming from the main room. It could be sunlight or it could be artificial light. I’m going in. Stay here.”
Sophia hunched down and crept cautiously into the vast room. She heard no sounds, saw no movement. Finally she stood up straight and waved Orville in. “This is the glowbird room, Orville. The walls are lined with hundreds of these roosting compartments and some have glowbirds in them.”
Orville eyes were locked on the motionless glowbirds. “They’re not moving. It’s as if they’ve been shut off somehow. This building is old, really old. Look at the dust covering everything. I count roughly four hundred roosting boxes but only see about thirty birds. If the birds are autonomous bio-forms it might be that they’ve just kept doing whatever it was they were built to do, long after the Anarkkians went home. Most of the birds seem to be in that one section over there.”
