As we walked in a casual group down the stairs I heard Amy whisper something to M1. When we reached our sleeping porch Amy and M1 were conspicuously absent, but we pretended not to notice.
CHAPTER 23
Blue was busy licking up the last few fragments of his breakfast when the gang straggled in, picked up their food and joined Bob and me. M2 informed me that Amy named our new latrines, ‘Stoop and Poop.’ Moments later Colonel Brockway appeared in the company of a woman I had not seen before. She could have been a body double for Bebe except her face was quite narrow. Her large, black-rimmed glasses gave her an intellectual look, much softened by her warm smile.
“Folks,” the Colonel said, “This is Camila, fresh in from Earth. I’m told her DNA is virtually identical to Bebe’s. The hope is that she too will be able to manipulate those special white rings and if so, she will be stationed here with me and this time, my friends, there will be no transfer to the Dance Band.”
“Where ever did you find her?” Alice asked.
“She was working in a university lab in Colorado that was contracted to run samples of likely candidates.”
“Are you Peruvian?” Alice asked her.
“I was born in the US,” Camila replied, “but my parents were immigrants, from Peru. My DNA was already on file and as soon as I learned of the purpose of the tests it was only logical I run a comparison of mine with Bebe’s. The other tests are underway, but I happened to be first in line, lucky me. I’m thrilled to be here.”
M1 extended his hand. “Welcome to Enigma, Camila. I’m sure you’ll find your stay here very interesting, to say the least.” He turned to the Colonel. “Sir, we’re traveling this morning to that giant building at the end of the north blue line. Perhaps you or one of your people could take her to the Peru portal. That’s as good a test as any of them.”
“Will do,” the Colonel said. “Even if she can’t work the rings, I can use her here as my science officer. We’ll swap stories when you get back.
M1 stood up. “Remember to look for any sign of Abraham. He may have left some clue as he passed by. Now let us depart.”
After a quick equipment check we headed straight north to the Antarctica station.
“Here we go again,” M1 said as we arrived. “Let’s hope that the track cleaners have finished their work.”
The podium behaved properly and after about two anxious minutes, a sleek trolley pulled to a stop and opened its side for us. The ride to the humongous building was scenic, but uneventful. No monsters or rocketing over waterfalls, although we did cross the big river twice. The last stop was a tiny station, very similar to the one at the Dormant Chambers, tucked in close to the giant building. We knew it was round, but standing close to the behemoth, it was difficult to see the walls curve away. Had we not known, it could have been a colossal, straight wall. The big difference was the doors. One was like the door at the Dormant Chambers with a walkway to the blue line and the other was a massive affair, large enough to pass a blimp in flight, but there was no roadway leading out. Both were unmarked, closed and there were no handles. We quickly determined neither had any sort of panel. I gave both doors the old clicker treatment, but to no avail.
Lonesome Joe had something to say. “This place is significant to me. Look for a blue dot.”
With all of us looking, it took less than a minute to locate the dot, just to the left of the human-sized door. Alice unhooked him from her neck chain and touched him to the dot where he firmly stuck. Based on past experience we expected his contact would last a matter of seconds, but this time it was much longer. About two minutes in, Alice leaned close and asked him if things were okay.
“Communication is progressing properly,” Joe said. “Just be patient.” At that point I started to time the event with my Ralex. It was four minutes and thirty-two seconds before he spoke again. “Alice,” he said, “you may remove me now, but do not attach me to the chain. There are things I must do.”
She plucked Joe off of the wall and held him in front of her, palm up and open. As she straightened up, the smaller door slid open and revealed a good-sized room with but one device on the right hand wall. It looked a lot like the door to a dormant chamber except there were no visible controls.
“What now, Joe?” Alice asked.
“You may all enter. Go to the round door.”
By the time we arrived, the round door had swung up to reveal an empty, square chamber, about the size of your average oven. Without being told, Alice placed the disk that was Joe, gently in the center.
Joe spoke: “This is the place of my creation. This room and a larger space behind the great door are the only open spaces in this, for want of a better word, facility. It was built to create a host of robots. A point of interest is that this place has no machines as such. You might consider it to be organic, a stew of varying density.
“The reason I was in communication for such a long time is that the controller of this facility is very interested in my current state. It seems I am quite different from the robot I was when I left here and it wants to examine me further.”
Alice leaned forward, a look of alarm on her face. “Hold on, Joe. Could this be risky for you?”
“Relax, Alice,” he said. “The controlling entity could have captured me at any point. It does have amazing powers, but I have struck a bargain with it. In exchange for examining my current programming, it will in turn provide me with a highly mobile body that will be of my design.”
Bebe couldn’t resist. “Ricardo Montalban perhaps?”
“Not just yet,” Joe replied, “I may eventually request an all organic form, similar to the structure of this facility, but for now, I will probably go for an organic/metallic. The power requirements are more efficient.”
M1 was the next with a concern. “We’re with you, Joe, but how long will this transformation take?”
Joe’s voice from the chamber was a bit hollow. “The new body, not long at all, but the time for the examination of my program is unknown. It is best you leave me here and continue your explorations.”
We, especially Alice, didn’t like the idea of separation, but logic prevailed and we agreed.
“When I leave this place,” Joe said, “I should be able to locate you wherever you may be on Enigma. If you are absent, I will report to Colonel Brockway.”
We said our goodbyes, but as we were leaving, Joe added two more bits of interesting information. “This facility manufactured millions of robots for many planets, but it has no knowledge of YDRII or other robotic extensions, if indeed they exist. It is also very specialized and knows nothing about why Manheim and Tiberius are deserted. That is something to think about.”
And think we did, it was our topic of conversation as we boarded the trolley for the trip to the Antarctic station.
M1 added some new information. “Colonel Brockway told me that so far the Primes revived from the Dormant Chamber knew about extensions and assumed that there were many of them, but none had ever actually seen one.”
“Perhaps we should ask YDRII directly,” Bebe said. “That method usually works well for me.”
Alice fiddled with her second button as she worried out loud. “I hate leaving him behind. I’m not overly worried, but somehow I feel responsible for his welfare.”
“I imagine you feel that way about all of us.” Amy said.
I was expecting a snappy reply, but Alice was silent. Amy had spoken the truth. The boys then phoned in a report to the Colonel and brought him up to date on our adventure.
“We still have plenty of daylight,” Alice said. “Let’s hop the blue line to the east. That tiny building is intriguing.”
CHAPTER 24
The station at the east end was identical to the one at the west. The small structure next to it was about the same size as the station and not more than ten feet high. There was a single open entrance guarded by a panel set about six feet out from the opening.
Amy pegged it. “Looks like the entra
nce to your average latrine. I wonder if it’s unisex.”
M1 walked behind the panel and looked in the doorway. “Looks all right. I see a stairwell. M2, you stand here and watch me. I’ll step in and check it out.” Seconds later, his voice floated out. “It’s just stairs going down to an empty, I think, room.”
“Shades of the Hollow Mountain,” Amy said. “Can we come down?”
“I guess so. Alice, will you let Fran know what we’re doing?”
As soon as Alice made her report the eager crew entered to begin the descent. The staircase was comfortably wide with human-sized steps leading down into the gloom. At about the forty-foot mark the walls started glowing to show us the end of the staircase.
“This is a subway platform,” Alice said, as we entered the open space to join M1.
She was right. We were on a wide platform with blue tubes on either side. Both tubes entered at one end and exited at the other by way of dark tunnels. I saw no podium. The place was clean and empty.
“Looks like the cleaning robots maintain this place too,” Amy said, “but where’s the podium. I see nothing but four blank walls.”
My friends looked at me. I shrugged. “I’m just a country boy. I don’t know nuthin’ about no subway.”
It was our Bob who came to the rescue. “That wall,” he said, pointing to the surface at the platform’s end, “looks like the wall in the providers at Sequoia Provence.”
“Good show, Bob,” Alice said. “Give it a go and see what you can do.”
“If it is the same,” he said as he approached the wall, “I will see a pattern when I am close—and here it is.”
He touched the seemingly blank wall and the entire surface lit up with a series of blue lines, yellow dots and lots of writing. M1 asked both Shan and Bob to read the writing to determine what we were looking at.
Without thinking, I said, “It’s a map of the system. The stations are named and that bright yellow dot is labeled Earth, along with the double cross symbol. Here’s something very interesting on the bottom—like a legend box. It says that a unique double symbol at any location denotes intelligent life.”
“That’s huge,” Alice said. “Our mysterious symbol means the planet Earth and intelligent life. We’ll pass that on right away.”
“But I see a few with single symbols,” I said. “These must be unpopulated planets. Anyway, the map is oriented east on top and the instructions are very simple. Just touch the yellow dot associated with your desired destination. Those green dots on either side move the map up or down if your station is further away. There are quite a few stations and by inference, they are located at the other cities that may well wrap this entire planet. I count about twelve rows of cities, right to left.”
I suddenly noticed Alice standing directly to my front, giving me the bug eye. “You read that, didn’t you?
“Yes, I did. Why?” I replied.
“You do know,” she said, “that the only writing on that wall are the wavy lines, don’t you? Since when have you acquired that skill?”
“Son of a gun! I didn’t even think about it, I just read it. It must be a part of the package that Moses gave me in that cow pasture in Shenandoah.”
“Creepy,” Amy said, “Do the places have names we can pronounce?”
I looked, then said, “Mostly the answer is no with a few exceptions.” I pointed to one dot. “This one is pronounced Genkari, but I can’t translate it into anything meaningful to us.”
“Some of the names are preceded by a glowing orange dot,” Alice said. “Can you read what it says next to them?”
I read the lines a couple of times. “They’re all the same and they tell the traveler that, at that station, there will be articles for safety or comfort.”
“We shall go to those places with due caution,” Bebe said.
“Look here,” Bob called to us. He touched a small illuminated square and it expanded to fill half of the wall. It was a display of hundreds of symbols. Here too the Earth symbol was brighter. “I expect this is a master list of all symbols. I would like to test it if you all agree.”
“What’ll you do?” M1 asked.
“I will touch a symbol far from Earth and observe what happens to the main map.”
“Should be all right. Let M2 get some pictures then go ahead.”
When M2 finished, Bob touched a symbol near the edge of the display. It vanished and the main display returned, but everything was reduced, showing a greater number of stations with the symbol he touched centered and brighter than the rest. The Earth symbol, still bright, was now on the bottom, near the floor. It appeared the system was working properly and all one had to do was to press the bright dot and a trolley would arrive to transport us to another city.
“I feel somewhat overwhelmed,” Harry said, while exhaling a large breath, “our way is now open to hundreds, possibly thousands of cities. Each one is perhaps a museum containing the history of its associated planet and planets.”
“What say we ask Bob to call up a trolley,” Alice suggested, “just to see if the system is working. I’m not recommending a trip just yet. We’re on a deadline here as it is. We need to find some evidence of you-know-who.”
There was general agreement and Bob touched the glowing dot. I looked at my Ralex to begin a countdown, but our chariot arrived in a matter of seconds. It was the same model used elsewhere on Enigma.
“We’re good to go,” M1 said, “but for now we’ll have to settle for M2’s pictures. It’s time to leave. I looked for any sign of Abraham, but there’s nothing here.”
Almost reluctantly, we turned and climbed the steps to the surface. On the way back to the Phi-Phi station we speculated that each one of the cities might have portals to their own exclusive version of Nexus. If that proved to be the case, our universe of habitable worlds would expand to an unimaginable size. M1 radioed his report and M2 sent the pictures. Bebe asked Amy if she had considered naming the central plaza. “Not really,” she said. “The problem is we don’t know the meaning or the purpose of the monument, which is the dominant feature. Once we make that discovery, naming the place should be easy.”
CHAPTER 25
Once at Phi-Phi we decided to hoof it to the midpoint, opposite the monument. From there we turned to the north and began our three-mile hike to the city’s edge. As we walked along, the buildings became smaller, but no less elegant and intricate. Here and there we had to climb up or down to a different level, but always there were stairs. Once in a while we heard the sound of Fran’s drone as she tracked our progress.
It was easy to see the city limits of Manheim. The barrier was completely transparent, but a razor straight line of wild growth defined its location. On our side was the relatively sterile soil of Manheim, but just beyond was a lush panorama of strange grass, trees and undergrowth. It wasn’t exactly jungle, but I could think of no better description. M1 pulled out his portal probe thing, but the results were negative.
“If this is a barrier like Pinocchio,” Amy said, “why doesn’t it turn those big boulders over there gold?”
“Remember,” Harry said, “Pinocchio’s barrier is a dome. We think this is more of a wall because the snewels fly in every night and if so, it has no top.”
We spent some time pushing at it, but it behaved like the surface of a closed portal. No one had any ideas other than M2. He took some pictures while we looked out at the untamed scene.
So sudden we all jumped, a small grayish figure exploded from the undergrowth to the right. Going full tilt, the figure streaked by in front of us and in a second or two vanished into some trees at the left. Streaked was the appropriate word because the tiny figure was a small, but full-grown woman and other than her long black hair streaming behind her like a lion’s mane and some sort of belt, she was completely naked.
“Well,” Alice said, “that was quite a treat for the boys. I hope she isn’t in trouble.”
“I don’t know what we could do if she is,” M1 said.
To M2 he said, “Did you get a picture of her?”
“No,” he replied, “She moved way too fast.”
“I wonder,” Amy said, “what was chasing her? Look, she’s back. She’s coming back.”
We all looked to the left and there she was, moving hesitantly out from the trees. She was looking at us intently, but I couldn’t read her face. Even standing straight she couldn’t be more than five feet tall. With arms spread, she advanced at a crouch that would do well had she been dribbling two basketballs. The barrier was the only thing that halted her progress and from there we assessed each other from five or six feet. It wasn’t a standoff as such; it was that none of us had any idea at all of what to do next.
Up close her skin, dripping with sweat, was not truly gray. It seemed to be basically golden with an irregular cloud cover of lilac tinted gray mist. The theme carried over to her face, but there it was symmetrical and balanced. Everything male in me said that here was an exquisite creature. The odd part was her nakedness was so natural that my eyes stayed locked on her intensely golden irises.
She straightened up and began to signal to us with her arms and hands. After a minute or two of gesturing, we got the idea she wanted to join us on our side of the barrier. Every few seconds she would point back in the direction from which she had come and the pointing was accompanied with an unmistakable look of fear.
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: BOOK THREE - ENIGMA Page 17
