The Emerald Tablet

by P. J. Hoover

  “So, how do we do that?” Andy asked.

  “Practice, of course,” Proteus replied.

  Andy groaned. “Of course.”

  “If you’ve mastered the algorithms, I can think of two ways off the top of my head to solve it with your eyes closed. One—memorize it in its unsolved state, and then as you solve it in your mind, simply turn the Orb to match.”

  “Okay,” Benjamin said. “And the second?”

  “Use telepathy. See the colors in your mind, feel the colors through the tendrils of telekinesis.” Proteus levitated the now solved sphere back onto the table. “Remember, you have to be many steps ahead of the Orb. Know the route to your destination before you get there.”

  In Telepathy, Benjamin decided to ask Mrs. Zen if she could explain how telepathy could be used to solve the Orb unseen. She closed her eyes and had Benjamin completely scramble it before handing it to her. She didn’t look at it, but solved it in under three minutes. When she tried to explain the process, she confused Benjamin more than before he’d asked.

  “You just have to speak to the Orb,” she said.

  “How do I speak to an Orb?” Benjamin asked.

  “It will speak to you, if only you know how to listen,” Mrs. Zen replied.

  “But it’s not alive,” Benjamin argued.

  “And what does that have to do with anything?” Mrs. Zen asked. “One truly gifted at telepathy can sense the vibes from anything, animate or inanimate.” She looked to Heidi. “I’m sure your friend, Ms. Dylan, could sense the color arrangement of the Orb without looking.” Mrs. Zen levitated it back to Benjamin. “Here, scramble it,” she said.

  He did so.

  “Now, Ms. Dylan, please close your eyes,” Mrs. Zen said.

  “But I don’t know how to solve it,” Heidi protested.

  “I’m not asking you to solve it,” Mrs. Zen said. “I just want you to tell us what the colors are. Now, please, close your eyes.” Heidi did so.

  Benjamin levitated the now scrambled Orb over to Heidi.

  “Please tell us the color order for the first phase, Ms. Dylan,” Mrs. Zen instructed.

  Heidi didn’t say anything. She didn’t even reach out for the Orb.

  “I don’t think I can do it,” she said to Mrs. Zen, not opening her eyes.

  “Well, you most certainly cannot if you don’t think you can,” Mrs. Zen snapped. “I happen to know that you can do it. With your talents, it would be completely impossible for you not to be able to sense the colors on this silly little toy. Now, try again,” she commanded.

  Heidi began to concentrate again. It took almost a minute, but then she started. “Blue,” she said.

  “Right,” Benjamin replied.

  “Don’t tell her if she is right or wrong,” Mrs. Zen said. “Just let her read the whole phase, and then she can open her eyes and see.”

  Heidi began again, starting at the upper right and moving downward. “Blue. Green. Blue again.” She began to pick up speed. “Gold.” Her hands moved as if they were holding the Orb, though it still levitated in front of her.

  Benjamin wasn’t sure what was more surprising to him—that Heidi was getting the colors right, or that she was actually levitating the Orb for so long.

  “Gold. Silver. Green. Red. Gold. White. Silver. Green. Silver. Red. Green. Blue.” Her eyes snapped opened. “Was I right?” she asked, looking down.

  “Completely right,” Benjamin said.

  “Totally right,” Andy echoed.

  “See, I told you that you could do it,” Mrs. Zen said. “Now, let’s put this toy away and get on with the class.”

  The Kinetic Orb became a fun release for Benjamin, Andy, and Gary, and quickly gained popularity with many of the other Year One Denarians. Iva didn’t take too much of an interest in it, not understanding the fascination, and Heidi was only really interested in quickening her ability for feeling the colors. But for Benjamin, the Orb was the perfect way for him to get his mind off the search for other two keys of Shambhala.

  Since returning from Bangkok, Benjamin had thought of little besides where the second key might be hidden. He tried watching the Geodine again, hoping that locating the second key would be as easy the first, but had no success. The first key had just been so simple. Almost too simple.

  Another lecture rolled around, and Benjamin still had to force himself to go. Mr. Hermes began by talking about the history of the conflict between Lemuria and Atlantis. He showed a timeline for the continents and gave some background into the initial conflicts between the two peoples. Benjamin only partially listened, not wanting to be there, still thinking about the second key. Midway through the lecture, Mr. Hermes changed the lecture’s direction just a little, catching Benjamin’s attention.

  “I’m sure many of you have heard of famous people in history whom you may suspect are from Lemuria or Atlantis. We talked about a few previously—Orion, Apollo, Artemis, and many of the other gods and goddesses. Would anyone else like to guess a few?” Mr. Hermes asked.

  Gary said, “Erno Rubik.”

  “Yes, yes. I’ve heard about the Orb craze going around now,” Mr. Hermes said. “I must say, I even dusted off my old Teleportation Orb for fun. Okay, who else?”

  “Einstein?” Benjamin guessed.

  “Yes, very good,” Mr. Hermes said. “Einstein is a perfect example of a telegen who was raised in an agent family much like yourselves. He too was encouraged to not excel at school. The stories of how he received D’s in many of his classes are famous. Some more please.”

  “Hitler?” Jonathan Sheehan guessed.

  “No, not Hitler,” Mr. Hermes replied. “Hitler was just a very evil human. There have unfortunately been many evil people like Hitler throughout history.”

  Benjamin raised his hand.

  “Yes, Benjamin Holt?” Mr. Hermes asked.

  Benjamin cleared his throat. “Are all the people from Atlantis evil?” he asked.

  “Oh, no, no, no,” Mr. Hermes replied. “That’s a common misconception, and one that the Deimos twins do their best to dispel. The average telegen of Atlantis leads much the same life as the average telegen of Lemuria. In fact, not even all the rulers of Atlantis are evil. There have been many times in our history when the ruling bodies of Lemuria and Atlantis attempted to come to some sort of reconciliation. But inevitably, there are radicals and those in the ruling councils of the two nations who are opposed to the terms of the agreement, and it’s called off.”

  “So, are agents from Atlantis sent out into the world?” Iva asked.

  Benjamin’s mind immediately flew to the guy from the chess tournament. Was he really an agent from Atlantis? And why did he happen to be in Bangkok at the exact same time they were there retrieving the first key of Shambhala?

  “Yes, Atlantis has many agents. Some we’re aware of, but not all to be sure,” Mr. Hermes answered. “Yet as many infamous people throughout history have shown, Atlantians cause much of the disruption among humans. One starts a problem. Another comes along and solves it, giving humans guidance when it’s needed the most. Soon, the humans come to depend upon the guidance, and they can’t back away. We’ve had to interfere many times to remove the bonds of this slavery. Due to the barrier around Atlantis, telegens aren’t able to escape in any great numbers. However, with the weakening of the barrier, more and more are entering the human world.”

  “So if most of the people of Atlantis aren’t bad, then is it right to keep them locked within the barrier?” Benjamin asked. He felt Heidi and Iva’s shock in his mind, and even sensed a little bit of surprise from Gary and Andy. But he didn’t care. He wanted to know what was really at stake. What would it really mean to keep the barrier shield in place? “I mean, doesn’t that sound a little bit like captivity to you?” he added.

  Mr. Hermes looked at him and nodded. “I won’t pretend that question has never been asked. I won’t even pretend I haven’t asked that very question. But I’m not the one who makes the decisions. I would gues
s that’s the kind of question Helios and Selene Deimos face every day.”

  “I can’t believe you asked that,” Heidi said.

  “Why?” Jack replied, awake now from his nap. “It’s true isn’t it?”

  “You think so?” Benjamin silently asked the Nogical.

  “Well, of course,” Jack replied. “Millions of people are encased in a giant dome against their will. All because of a few bad apples.”

  “But those bad apples could cause world destruction,” Heidi thought back. “You heard how it was in the past. The humans were slaves. What’s to say it would be any different now?”

  “Nothing,” Benjamin replied. “It just makes me think. That’s all.”

  Mr. Hermes decided to go into detail on the history before the barrier was put in place around Atlantis. Benjamin figured maybe it was to enforce in their minds the importance of keeping any sort of domination from occurring. It made him think about how best the humans and the telegens could coexist, if at all. With one race so much stronger mentally than the other, would domination always be the end result?

  As he thought about world domination, Benjamin’s mind began to drift. He’d always had special skills—or at least known about them—even when he was only as old as Derrick and Douglas. And to be truthful, he’d kind of always taken them for granted. What would it be like to be totally ungifted—like humans? Beyond all else, Benjamin figured it would probably just be really boring. No secret conversations, no levitating frogs, no teleporting …well…teleporting anything.

  But aside from the boring factor, it would take away everything that had ever been special about Benjamin. He’d always had skills none of the other kids had—except Andy of course. Of course, now that he was at summer school, pretty much every bit of specialness was being taken away anyway. Heidi was better than him at telepathy. Iva was better than him at telegnosis. Nobody could even compete with Gary when it came to science. And if Benjamin didn’t watch it, Andy would be better than him at telekinesis—if he already wasn’t.

  CHAPTER 21

  Heidi Drags them to a Museum

  The first weekend after their trip to Bangkok, Iva attained the ultimate achievement for a Year One Denarian—a field trip outside the capital city of Mu. So far during the summer, no one from their homeroom had legally been away.

  Kyri, their telegnosis teacher, had asked Iva—and Jonathan Sheehan—to visit Fortune City, also known as the City of the Oracles. She’d lectured about the city all week. Nearly every one of the oracles was female; only one percent weren’t.

  Since starting telegnosis nearly a month ago, Iva insisted she wanted to be a telegnostic. She constantly asked her friends to hide objects around the school so she could find them. Benjamin thought if he had to hide one more pair of socks he would scream. Kyri said that Iva’s knack for being able to find objects was due to her having a special ability to sense the vibes which the objects gave off. When people touched objects, they left a trace of themselves, and a gifted telegnostic could pick up on these traces.

  Iva left early on Saturday, before breakfast. Heidi arrived in the dining hall well before Benjamin, Andy, and Gary. Just as they rounded the corner, Benjamin heard her voice loud and clear in his head. “It’s about time you guys showed up,” she thought. “I’ve been waiting here for over an hour.”

  “Well, Andy wouldn’t wake up,” Benjamin thought back. “We finally had to dump water over his head,” he said audibly to her as they approached the table.

  “Yeah, and I’m not gonna forget it,” Andy said.

  “So, what have you been doing for the last hour?” Benjamin asked.

  “After I planned out our day, I talked to Leena for a while, and then decided to practice mind reading a little,” Heidi replied.

  “Who would you want to practice on in here?” Gary asked, looking around at their fellow Year One Denarians.

  “Oh, no one in here,” Heidi laughed. “Give me a break. I’ve been trying to mentally locate some of our teachers around the school and see if I can tell what they’re doing and what they’re thinking.”

  “Any luck?” Benjamin asked.

  “Well, the only thing I was able to pick up on was Proteus and Asia, talking in the teacher’s lounge again,” Heidi replied.

  Andy smirked. “Man, those two have it bad for each other. I mean, don’t you think she could do better than Proteus Ajax?”

  “I think Proteus is cool,” Gary replied.

  “But to date?” Andy asked.

  “Well, he is kind of cute,” Heidi said.

  “Cute!” Benjamin replied, looking at her.

  Heidi flushed. “Iva thinks so too.”

  “She does?” Andy asked with disbelief. “He’s a total geek. Give me a break!”

  “So, what’d you plan for us today?” Benjamin asked Heidi, changing the subject. All he could think about was how lucky Proteus was to be dating someone as pretty as Asia, and he didn’t want Heidi to pick that thought out of his mind.

  “Oh, I’m glad you asked,” Heidi said, pulling out her thought cache and her sheaf. “Here’s the itinerary for our weekend.” She pointed to the thought cache, showing a list of about ten activities. “I thought we’d start in the Natural History Museum.”

  “That sounds great!” Gary said.

  “A museum?” Andy asked. “Seriously. There’s got to be something better that a museum.”

  “Trust me. You’ll love it,” Heidi answered. “They have exhibits that actually teleport you to other places.”

  “What about looking for the other two keys?” Benjamin asked. “We need to get on with that.”

  “Shhhh!” Heidi’s response was telepathic rather than verbal. “Didn’t you notice Ryan?” She nodded her head a few tables back. “He and Jonathan are constantly trying to spy on us. They know something’s going on, but I don’t think they know what. Anyway, I haven’t heard you making any brilliant suggestions on how to find the next two keys, so today we’re going to the museum.”

  The museum itself took up two city blocks, with an invisible walkway bridging the expanse, complete with pedestrians walking on air between the two halves.

  Since it was early and the museum wasn’t crowded yet, they decided to head to the teleporter exhibits first. There were holograms along the line depicting the various destinations the teleporters were programmed to send people. Benjamin and Andy went first—to the summit of Mount Everest. Packed into thermal suits, in a flash they were suddenly twenty-nine thousand feet above sea level. The trip lasted fifteen seconds, and then they returned, breathing the oxygen rich air back in the museum. Gary and Heidi quickly followed.

  A teleporter trip to a hidden base on Mercury was next, followed by a trip to the rainforest, a space station, the center of the Earth, and finally, the North Pole. As thrilling as the teleporter adventures were, Benjamin felt like taking a nap once they were over.

  But instead, Heidi dragged them to a gem exhibit on the third floor, where, in addition to some of the most valuable gems in the entire known universe, were the more recent stones Benjamin had learned about—Ammolite, Moonstone, and even Moldavite. There was an entire cavern of sparkling, colored crystals, large enough for all four of them to walk abreast. According to the built-in museum guide, the crystals had been growing in place for millennia.

  The first floor served as the main atrium for the whole museum. In the center was the largest globe Benjamin had ever seen. They walked over to read the plaque in front of it, and Benjamin was surprised to learn that it was in fact a type of Geodine.

  “How does it work?” Gary asked, looking up at the Geodine twenty feet in diameter.

  “The Geodine shows all teleportations currently happening on the home planet of Earth,” a voice in his head said.

  “Did you hear that?” Gary asked.

  Benjamin nodded, studying the activity on the large globe. Unlike his smaller Geodine, this large model showed details much smaller in scope, He could see airplanes flying
about the world, boats on the oceans, and satellites orbiting the planet. The Geodine slowly turned. Before long, the continent of Lemuria was directly in front of them. Benjamin noticed small flashes of light all over the continent.

  “What are the flashes of light?” he asked in his mind.

  “Those are the teleportations,” a voice replied.

  “Why are some of them blue and some of them red?” Gary asked.

  “Blue flashes are natural teleportations,” the voice replied. “Red flashes are machine teleportations.”

  Suddenly Benjamin had an idea. Could the second key of Shambhala have been teleported outside of the city to its current resting place? “Can you show me the past?” he asked the large Geodine.

  “I am only programmed to show the present,” the Geodine replied and slowly kept spinning.

  “So how do I find out about teleportations that already happened?” Benjamin asked.

  “All teleportations are recorded here and transmitted for storage,” the Geodine replied.

  “And where are they transmitted?” he asked.

  “The information you are requesting is stored in the records department in the Ruling Hall,” the Geodine said.

  Heidi kept them at the museum until they were kicked out and the doors locked behind them. Benjamin didn’t share his idea of looking for some sort of historical teleportation until they were back at school in the dining hall.

  “I’m thinking maybe the second key was teleported out of Shambhala,” he said, “and if it was, we should be able to find a record of it in the Ruling Hall. Maybe we can find it that way,” he said to Gary, Andy, and Heidi. Iva hadn’t gotten back yet from her field trip.

  “Don’t you think that would be kind of hard?” Andy asked. “Like looking for a needle in a haystack?”

  “Maybe not if we all look,” Benjamin replied.

  “I guess it’s worth a try,” Heidi said.

  Just then, Iva hurried over to join them. She looked out of breath and hardly looked at the menu before ordering.