Land of Nod, The Artifact

by Gary Hoover

  “Heh, heh, heh.”

  Chapter 51:

  Jeff watched the lengthening shadows nervously.

  He scanned the woods. He had heard several unusual noises along the way, and now the hair was standing up on the back of his neck.

  He felt like they were being watched.

  “Are we almost there?” Jeff asked a bit shakily. His need to be reassured overwhelmed his desire to look calm and cool.

  “Should be,” Dave said.

  Dave didn’t seem certain enough for Jeff’s comfort. Every noise, every shifting shadow grabbed Jeff’s attention. His head snapped left, then right . . . up . . . and down.

  Dave noticed his nervousness and grinned. “Relax,” he said, putting a hand on Jeff’s shoulder. Then he leaned in and said – in a voice too quiet for anyone else to hear: “Anything around here comes after you . . . seeing it first won’t do you any good.”

  He smiled ominously.

  That hadn’t done Jeff’s nerves much good, and he went back to scanning the tree line – even more furiously than before. He felt his hands going numb from gripping his bat too tightly and made a conscious effort to loosen his grip.

  Within a few minutes his grip had tightened again.

  “HOLD!”

  A loud, forceful voice startled Jeff.

  Three soldiers stepped from behind some trees. “This is a restricted area.” The one in the middle said. The soldiers had VERY large guns. They held them angled toward the ground . . . but that didn’t make them any smaller.

  “I’m Dave Kimble . . . and I’m with Artimus Winfred. We need to see General Blackbuck.”

  The two soldiers on the ends were stone faced. The one in the center looked skeptical. “Is he expecting you?”

  “No. But he’ll want to see us. Trust me. You don’t want to be the one who doesn’t let us through.”

  The soldier continued to appear skeptical but seemed to think it would be better to turn the decision over to someone at a higher pay level. He spoke into a microphone on his shoulder. “This is Jenkins. I’ve got a Winfred and Kimble here who want to see the General.”

  “Understood. Checking now,” a voice crackled from the other end.

  “Nice weather, huh?” Dave said, looking at the sky.

  The three soldiers were expressionless.

  Jeff didn’t know Artimus or Dave’s exact status, but he found it a little strange that a general would take time to meet with them. He began to wonder if they were a little irrationally optimistic . . . or downright delusional.

  Then he started to wonder what would happen if the General wasn’t interested. He didn’t want to end up in jail again.

  After about 5 uncomfortable minutes, the voice crackled again.

  “Transport on the way.”

  Chapter 52:

  The transport vehicle reminded Jeff of the type of tram cars that shuttle amusement park visitors from large parking lots to ticket booths. It had hard seats molded into it, and it was open to the elements. But it was a single segment instead of a string of segments, and it had 4 pairs of large, off-road tires.

  They bounced along the dirt road for about 3 miles, and then Jeff could see a huge encampment spread out in a large, open area. There were thousands of armed, uniformed soldiers. Some looked alert and ready - eying the transport as it passed - but others seemed to just be killing time - talking, playing games, eating, drinking.

  The transport approached a dense grouping of tents. The driver stopped and spoke briefly with a sentry. The sentry motioned for Jeff and the others to follow him.

  They walked wordlessly to a large tent. At the tent entrance, the sentry said simply: “Winfred, Kimble” to the armed guard at the entrance. The guard pulled the tent flap open and stepped aside.

  The four walked through and saw three men in the room. Without being able to recognize the ranking insignia, Jeff immediately knew the one on the left was the general.

  His face and stance projected . . . power. His expression was stern and unsmiling . . . yet Jeff sensed a certain, latent . . . kindness in him.

  “Artimus!” While the general didn’t actually achieve a smile, his face did brighten noticeably.

  “General,” Artimus nodded soberly, but then was a little less able than the general to hold back his smile. “How are you?”

  “Been better. What brings you out this way?”

  “I was hoping we might be able to help,” Artimus said.

  “Well . . . based on what I’ve heard, I assume you didn’t bring the Caesurmia army with you?”

  “No . . . just us.” Artimus seemed a bit embarrassed.

  The general rested his hand on Artimus’ shoulder. “I appreciate the gesture. . . really . . . I’m not just saying that. But unless you have a way to disable the pheerion’s shield or guns . . .”

  General Blackbuck, turned and walked distractedly to a brightly lit table-top that had a glowing, electronic map projected onto it. The general moved his hand around on it absent-mindedly, and the image jostled and moved matching the movement of his finger.

  “Well . . .” Artimus looked at Jeff but seemed reluctant to take the next step. “This boy . . . I believe he’s . . . The Raja.”

  Balls

  General Blackbuck’s head snapped around and his eyes went from Artimus’ to Jeff’s. His eyes narrowed as he examined Jeff’s face more closely.

  Jeff could tell he didn’t believe it for a minute.

  “What . . .” the general began but stopped himself.

  Jeff could tell he was about to ask Artimus what made him believe Jeff was The Raja, but he could also tell that he wanted to talk to Artimus about it alone.

  “Would the rest of you please give me and my old friend a few moments alone?” the general asked.

  Jeff, Dave, Nahima and the other two soldiers who had been with the General all left the tent. The two soldiers took up a position just outside the door, but Jeff, Dave and Nahima put a little more distance between themselves and the tent.

  “He thinks Artimus is crazy,” Jeff said after they had walked about 20 feet, “I can . . . sense it.”

  Dave laughed. “Well it don’t take a psychic to figure that out . . . this whole ‘The Raja’ thing,” He rolled his eyes and waved his hands in a theatrical gesture. “Is getting old and annoying. Tell me - if you’re so good at telling what people are thinking - what am I thinking about right now?”

  Jeff thought for a moment.

  . . . “Nahima’s back-end.”

  Dave’s face fell abruptly. “Well it don’t take a psychic to figure that out either.”

  Chapter 53:

  “Well, I got a little bit . . . not a lot, but a little bit,” Artimus announced to the others when he had finished his meeting. “Let’s head back to Princess Trina and I’ll fill you in.”

  The four loaded onto the transport which headed back toward the armored vehicle.

  When they arrived, Artimus thanked the transport driver and sent him back.

  “Let’s get inside, and I can tell you what’s going on,” Artimus said.

  Once inside, Artimus had them crowd around the map table.

  “Here’s the situation. Blackbuck says the pheerion fleet is anchored here.” He pointed to a spot on the map. “Blackbuck has troops and armament stationed all through here.” Artimus indicated a broad arc that was positioned to fend off any landing by the pheerion troops.

  “General Rasp is leading the pheerions. He’s the one we saw demonstrating the gun on that video message. Rasp has been sending out very small scouting groups. Blackbuck suspects that Rasp is trying to determine troop positioning . . . Not for a landing attack, but so that he can tear them apart with the cannon . . . Blackbuck is very concerned about that cannon. He feels that he can easily out-match the pheerions . . . but not with the shield and cannon in place.

  “Blackbuck’s missiles, shells and energy weapons aren’t getting through the shield at all. He feels completely helpless. He is sendin
g his own scouting troops down to meet Rasp’s scouts, and he says he’s having good success with that . . . but he feels he’s just delaying the inevitable.

  “This,” Artimus said as he held up an electronic box. “Will help link us with Blackbuck’s troops. This shows us their locations.” There were red dots scattered on a map. Artimus used some buttons on the side to zoom in, and the dots became sharper and more scattered. Then he zoomed out and the dots blended together into less clearly defined red patterns.

  “This green dot is us,” Artimus pointed to a dot on the screen. “As long we have this box, we’ll show up as friendlies on other troop’s screens, so . . . hopefully . . . they won’t be shooting at us.

  “Now I need to scan all of your retinas into this. If I get killed, you’ll need to be able to use it. The screen turns off every 15 seconds and if you want to view it, you need to scan your retina and type in code ‘3281’. It will also periodically vibrate to indicate you need to verify yourself.” Artimus scanned their retinas as he was speaking. “With proper verification, we can use this device to request support. . . I’ll make sure you all understand the details when we have a few spare moments.

  “So . . . that’s where we are. If, by tomorrow, the shield and gun are both still active, it’s likely General Blackbuck’s troops will be wiped out. Jeff thinks the gun and shield are located on the small ship in front of the flag-ship. As far as we know, the shield is impenetrable and the gun is more powerful than anything we’ve ever seen before. . . . any ideas?”

  Artimus scanned the assembled faces, lingering on Jeff’s each time he would catch his eyes.

  There was an awkward silence.

  For several minutes nobody said anything. They just looked at the map, the floor. What possible options could there be?

  “I think I know . . .” Jeff said, but then paused.

  All eyes focused on him.

  “Know what?” Artimus previously sullen face brightened.

  Jeff shook his head. “I don’t know . . . it’s like . . . it’s like I know the answer but I can’t think of it. It’s like when you know someone’s name, but you just can’t think of it.”

  Artimus’ face sank again. “Well, see if you can figure it out.” He scanned the other faces to see if anyone else had anything, but again the awkward silence filled the vehicle.

  “Under . . .” Jeff said tentatively.

  “Under?” Artimus’ face brightened again. “What does that mean?”

  “I think we can get under the shield. . .” He suddenly got more excited. It seemed to be coming very clearly to him. “Can we get a submarine?”

  The others looked at him puzzled.

  “Submarine?” Dave asked.

  “Submarine . . . a . . . a . . . boat that goes under the water.”

  Baldwin laughed, but Artimus shot him a stern look.

  “There are research vessels that go under the water to observe sea-life . . . but they’re typically tethered to a ship and can only go where the ship goes. We’d have to find a ship, get it to where we need it to be, and use it without getting spotted.” Artimus shook his head. “I’m afraid we just don’t have enough time to put something like that together.”

  “Well if the shield doesn’t go below the water, we could get up to the edge, and swim under.” Baldwin suggested.

  Jeff didn’t like that idea. He was a decent swimmer, but swimming under a force shield and then attacking a ship . . . from the water . . . in the middle of the night. It didn’t sound like his idea of a fun way to pass an evening.

  “I like it,” Nahima said. “How could the shield extend under the water? I’ll bet it just comes down to the water’s edge. . . The lift-car should be able to take us right up to the edge, and then a couple of us can swim under and try to get to the ship.” She looked around at the others.

  Everyone seemed to think it was at least something. Though, like Jeff, no-one seemed overly enthusiastic about the idea.

  “Well,” Nahima said, “maybe we should check it out. We could head to the water’s edge, get a good look at the fleet and see if it seems possible and then go from there.”

  “I think that sounds like a good idea,” Artimus said.

  “I agree, at least we’d be doing something,” Dave added.

  Baldwin and Jeff looked nervously at each other.

  Chapter 54:

  Princess Trina eased toward the water’s edge. Nahima, Baldwin and Jeff were crowded behind Artimus and Dave. They could make out the vague outline of the pheerion fleet on the front screens. Artimus’ troop locator indicated they were far from any troops.

  “Well,” Artimus said, “should we go get a better look?”

  Dave swung Princess Trina around so that the rear door faced the fleet.

  They readied their guns and cautiously exited the vehicle. Dave set up a viewing device on a tripod and focused in on the suddenly greatly magnified fleet.

  Dave tapped the screen. “Is this our boat?”

  Jeff looked at Dave, then at the screen. “Yeah . . . yeah, I think that’s it. So you believe me now?”

  Dave rolled his eyes. “No. I still think you’re full of plooch . . . but what do I have better to do? Heh, heh, heh.”

  The others crowded around the screen to get a good look and alternated between looking at the screen and looking out across the water.

  Jeff thought it looked . . . SO far away. Am I going to have to go? He wondered. Probably. . . after all it’s my idea. Do I have any idea what I’m actually talking about? In some ways, it feels . . . right . . . but am I just kidding myself? Have any of my feelings really meant anything?

  Jeff realized that, while he had many “feelings”, none of them had really been proven correct beyond any general common sense. But I can communicate with Benji . . . right? Or am I just imagining that too?

  He began to doubt himself and he began to shake nervously. Am I just leading all these people on?

  He started to really wonder if he should just quit. Just admit he had no idea what he was talking about and end it there. What would happen then?

  Jeff heard a strange noise in the distance. . .

  . . . And then all hell broke loose.

  It was so quick, that it was mostly a blur to Jeff, but he heard several shots coming from his right, and there were ‘pinging’ sounds coming from the vehicle as ammunition hit it.

  We’re under attack!

  “GET DOWN!” Artimus shouted as he and Dave drew their weapons and began returning fire.

  Jeff dove for the ground and got a mouthful of dirt.

  The flashes of light illuminated a number of pheerions at the tree-line. When Jeff saw them, his heart started beating furiously. He fumbled for his own gun, but his hands didn’t feel like they were working.

  Benji roared furiously and CHARGED toward the pheerions. Artimus and Dave Jumped up and ran after him. Jeff wasn’t sure if they had intended to do that before Benji charged . . . or were just reacting to him.

  Dave and Artimus fired furiously as they ran. Jeff saw a couple pheerions fall, a couple others fired off shots while many others seemed to be fumbling with their guns but not firing. There were at least 20 of them.

  Do they only have single shots? Jeff wondered. Unlike Artimus’ guns, the pheerions guns were loud and sounded much more like the guns Jeff knew from home. Gunpowder? Muskets?

  “Come on!” Nahima jumped up and started toward the action. Baldwin jumped up to join her.

  . . . But Jeff was frozen. He wanted to jump up and join the others, but his body simply wouldn’t.

  Pop, pop, pop. The pheerion guns were loud, but far enough away from Jeff that their reports were dulled and muted.

  “Are you coming?” Nahima shouted over her shoulder with a puzzled expression as she gestured for Jeff to follow. Then she turned back to the action and ran to catch up with Baldwin who was getting ahead of her.

  Jeff wanted to go with them. Jeff felt like he had to go with them, but his legs an
d arms simply wouldn’t obey his command that they move. With great mental effort, he willed his arms and legs to push him off the ground, and . . . slowly . . . with great effort, he began to move forward using all the mental energy he could muster.

  Eventually he was able to make some forward progress and once he had broken through the barrier, he was able to continue moving, somewhat normally. He drew his gun and tried to catch up with Nahima and Baldwin who were closing the distance between them and the others.

  Jeff could see the pheerions scattering. Some were running, some were falling. A few stood their ground and fired. Jeff saw Benji lurch a few times and Jeff had the sick feeling that he had been hit fairly badly.

  There was a pheerion to Jeff’s right who was a good distance from the main group . . . but frighteningly close to Jeff. The pheerion raised his gun and took aim at Jeff.

  What did Artimus say when he was showing me the gun? Setting 3 will stun a pheerion, and setting 8 should be enough to kill one, but use 10 . . . just to make sure.

  Jeff fumbled nervously with his gun as he ran and dialed his to “4”. Artimus wouldn’t have approved, but he was too busy, at the moment, to yell at Jeff.

  Jeff raised his gun and aimed at the pheerion. He flinched as the pheerion fired, but Jeff didn’t feel any bullets cutting into him. He realigned his shot as the pheerion fumbled with his gun – apparently reloading. Jeff fired once.

  Missed!

  He fired again, and that time the pheerion dropped.

  Ahead of Jeff and to his left, Benji had reached the tree-line and was swinging furiously at the pheerions who remained. Bodies flew into the air as Benji flailed.

  By the time Jeff made it to the tree-line himself, there were no pheerions remaining standing. He saw a pheerion body and shuddered. He wasn’t sure if it was dead or just unconscious, but either way, it was still frightening. Jeff had the nervous feeling its eyes were about to snap open and it was going to attack him.

  Probably watching too many bad movies.