Bellos bowed with a respectful smile. “How do you do...?”
Then he quickly focused on the woman to the left of Dr. Pine, ignoring Swanson’s voice. He could not believe his eyes. As he started to move toward her, Swanson gently grabbed his arm and interrupted the moment, “I think you two know each other, if I’m not mistaken. Dr. Bellos, you remember Ms. Carla, do you not?”
Their eyes fixed on each other, but Swanson smiled politely and said, “Before you get too carried away, Doctor…”
Actually, before either of them could reach out and touch the other, Swanson pulled Bellos, away and to the right.
“…Mathew, may I present the last in this evening’s introductions.”
Bellos was even more shocked, if that’s possible.
“Dad, DAD?”
“Sonny?”
Richard Bellos and his wife died ten years ago. At that moment, Dr. B. felt emotions he never knew he had.
“My God, Dad, it’s you? Is it really you…How?”
“Yes, my boy; Mathew! It is really me. It’s a miracle!”
They grabbed one another and embraced. Richard gestured toward Swanson.
“Our friend, here; I have no idea how or why, but I‘m so happy. Sonny, you’re so grown.”
After a few minutes, Bellos noticed something else; flickering lights. The other people in the room began to pulsate; and their images sparkled like a strobe light. Bellos and Richard froze. Carla and the other three men wiggled, blurred and vanished. Bellos did a double take and looked back at his father. They both looked at Swanson in complete amazement.
“Mr. Swanson,” Richard said. “What just happened? We were all talking together. I only left to use the bathroom. They were as real as you or me. Professor Witt poured the drinks.”
“Please excuse me gentlemen. Have a seat. I’m sorry about Carla, Mathew. There is much both of you must learn. Our ways usually take time to understand. Unfortunately, you have to learn quickly. I want you to remember three important facts from this.”
Swanson looked at Richard.
“One is that we have the capability to give a person rebirth. Two is that you, Mathew, have a destiny with your daughter. Believe me, both you and your father are real; but, the others I introduced were solid holograms, programmed transport models. I suppose you could say it’s a sci-fi, sort of, thing. Regardless, today is a very special day. Richard, there is a very good reason you both are reunited. Let us celebrate that. Mathew, I told you I had many things to show you. Your father is one, and your destiny is the other. Your daughter is part of your destiny. There is nothing to fear. I’m glad you are both here at last. I will leave you for a bit, so you can catch up. Press the red button on that table twice, when you are ready. The first push will take you off privacy; and I will answer the second.”
Bellos was speechless. He looked at his dad in utter amazement, and then asked, “Wait, what is the third thing? You said there were three facts you wanted us to remember.”
“Oh yes,” Swanson winked, “the third is that; why we can make people disappear.”
With those words, GGM Gordon Swanson turned and left the room. Mathew and Richard Bellos sat, cried, and talked for about fifteen minutes, before considering the call button.
“Son, I know this place, somehow. I just know it. As strange as this may sound, I sense there is nothing we should fear. This is all so right; weird isn’t it?”
“They told me you worked for them.”
Richard sat back on the couch.
“Maybe I did. The more I study, the more I remember. I need to think and organize my thoughts.”
“Just take it slow; one step at a time. We should find out as much as we can.”
“Well then, I guess we better get started.”
Richard pushed the button on the table twice. It squeaked, and Swanson appeared in minutes.
“Yes, you do need to take it slow, Dr. Richard. That’s what we use to call you. I trust you two had a good, but much too brief a visit? Here, Dr. R., drink this. It’s medicinal.”
Swanson handed him a wineglass.
“It certainly doesn’t taste medicinal. It’s delicious.”
“Would you two care to take a short tour with me? I think you will find things here, more than interesting.”
Mathew nodded and said, “Yes, I guess. That’s why we are here, right?”
“Well, as I told you before Doctor; you are here because I am recruiting you to be my replacement. Actually, I am recruiting you both. Richard, it will come back to you. You just need time and a little help. Please, follow me.”
Bellos and his dad stood up looking at each other and smiled. The three walked out the far backside of the room through a glass door, onto an outside half hallway with a guardrail. As they stared over the guardrail, the newcomers were shocked and amazed at what they saw. It was a vertical cavern, at least a quarter-mile in diameter, and too far down to see bottom. Round glass like walking tubes, with no visible support, crisscrossed the chasm, like spokes on a bicycle wheel, every 300-feet, or so, down. The circumference of the chasm was tiered with levels resembling the sides of glass skyscrapers. And there were tunnels, every so often, 30-feet wide, going deep into the earth.
“Jesus, it looks like a Christmas tree only hollow instead of wood,” said Bellos.
They looked up, and the top of the cavern was at least a mile straight up, but there was no opening. Instead, it looked like a gigantic round beveled glass window, similar in design to the ones on the walls in the room they just left. The patterns were reflecting gorgeous tints and colors. Bellos tapped his dad’s shoulder.
“Look at that. How is it possible? There is no round glass structure anywhere in D.C. up there; and the light shining through can’t be coming from the Sun. My watch says nine p. m.”
“Frankly, I have no idea. My question is; where is all this light coming from? Look at the rock walls. None of this can be sunlight. It’s a lot to take in. I just don’t remember.”
Bellos counted thirty tier levels downward that he could see. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Mr. Swanson, we don’t see any lights or wires? How is all this possible?”
“It’s quite something, really; isn’t it? Let’s walk.”
They followed him holding onto the railing, looking in wonder at everything. After some fifty feet, Swanson stopped and turned to them.
“I know you have many questions; so I’ll start by saying that all of this, everything you see and much more, started many thousands of years ago, when the ‘first ones’, as we call them, discovered the underground in what you know today as Northeastern Asia. They also found a new different life form deep below. What you are looking at, the light itself, is what they found. They are alive, and far too many to count. They live in a variety of sizes and shapes here. I suppose, at this stage of their life, they could be far distant cousins to deep-sea creatures that self generate light in the dark, miles below the ocean’s surface. But, I have to say, these are far more interesting. Let’s just say the light is trillions of microscopic life forms. The strange part is, they all feed off darkness itself, and whatever the Earth’s core expels. But, that is not all they do. Also, they filter our air. They would die in sun light. They metabolize in almost the opposite way of plant life on the surface. Instead of requiring sunlight; one by-product, or, to be more accurate, their feces, is light; quite mind blowing, actually. And there is no odor at all. In fact, we have learned that their light sterilizes, it shines on. Figure that one out, Mathew, hmm. So, we live in an environment that cleans itself, and filters our air, for us. This whole place is germ free.”
Bellos replied, “So, wait; the light destroys them and then they die, no?
“No, this is not sunlight. It’s made up of different photonic, or particle components. Nevertheless, it all happens in much less than a flicker, a millisecond. It’s dark; they eat, metabolize and live, reproduce, give off light and die. Their offspring grow and so on happening
all over again. Our science engineers tell me it’s just very technical. I see it as very simple. Scientists get far too detailed; don’t you agree? While the whole process actually happens as pulses, it is so fast; we see it as steady light. Their ability to propagate is utterly remarkable. None of us has ever been able to calculate their numbers. Very few evolve beyond this stage. While some do develop into much more complex beings; those are very few in number, compared to what you see here at the microscopic level. Now come.”
Bellos was intense with interest.
“I could spend a lifetime studying this alone.”
He grabbed Swanson’s shoulder.
“Look; I’m sorry. We are so grateful; but, the ‘first ones’, who were the ‘first ones’?”
Swanson stopped, turned and he extended his arm over the chasm.
“This world is unlike the one on surface, Earth. Actually, there are countless levels of life, reaching miles below. Eons ago, somewhere in Northeast Asia, where cold was mother and father to all life; there lived a simple people, a tribe; starving. They decided to look for food elsewhere. They climbed never before known high mountains. Unfortunately, there was a great and horrible earthquake. The Earth opened and everyone fell, deep underground. Eventually, those mountains became flatlands, without evidence of the original quake. Anyway, roughly half of the tribe survived. They were the ‘first ones’. In the beginning, as they explored the cave structures underground, water was easy. It melted off the mountains and drained into the caverns from above. Then, after a time, the deeper they went; they found underground rivers, strangely abundant with life. The light that you see all around you is just one of many discoveries they made. There was no way up, only onward; so, they had to create and develop from the unknown that mystery and opportunity offered. The deeper and darker they went, the more stable the light and environment became. They found enormous chasms, of indescribable beauty. These organisms not only lighted the caves, but they also generated a mean temperature of sixty-five degrees, and they purified the air. The people endured, prevailed and began to prosper. They bypassed much of what the surface cultures went through. Frankly, their knowledge was stimulated, based on these life form’s ability to provide basic utility; rather than, as the surface did, based on conquering, industrialization, politics and stress. Within the subterranean culture, the human mind matured quicker, bypassing man’s tendency on the surface to make war and steal real estate. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean your ancestors were all bad. Your culture discovered so much from conflict. As you pointed out, Mathew; look at your race to space. Why, out of that came so many things-miniaturizations, medical applications, vaccines, Nanite research and the electronics explosion. But even that just generated political gain, to sidestep a Soviet war. War has been the most profitable venture of surface humanity. Otherwise, you would have never discovered the many facets of the atom, itself. And let us admit it; out of your wars grew your knowledge of physics’; wonderful ‘quantum theory’. No, it hasn’t been all bad, just considerably slower; and mucky, at times. Of course, you did have to propagate, to replace those you killed; all that information and learning you destroyed in each being, not to mention the repetitive effort, to re-teach the children; quite a waste of time, when you think about it, no?”
Bellos and Richard remained speechless.
“Richard, do try and remember. The truth is, Mathew, we have never made war down here; nor have we had any conflict, like humans on the surface. We bypassed all that; like your freeways bypass the congestion of inner city traffic lights. We have answered many questions that you are just starting to research, because we ‘got around things’ that still stand in your way. We learned to respect life much sooner. We found the issues of hunger, utility, ethics, morals, curiosity itself, are all issues of healthcare; improving the human condition. With good health comes progress, in all aspects of life.
Today, your people and mine may start to come together. You see, we have been working for a very long time on ‘eternal life’. These microscopic life forms, over millennia, have been a basis for our discovering many new and wondrous things, things you must learn.
Sorry, I can be a bit long winded at times.”
Swanson studied the doctor’s expression.
“Then again; consider this. By the time we did go to the surface, we preferred our own way of life. We invited very few, from up there, to partake in our culture. I’ll be honest. Over the years, those who chose to venture up, you would most certainly know if I told you. They were wrong, thinking they could bring any of what we have to the surface.”
Bellos raised an eyebrow in question; and then, Swanson looked sternly at him.
“You killed them, Doctor. You killed every single person in history, who ever let it be known they had our secret of life, to share with you.”
Then he backed off and took a breath.
“Anyway, over centuries, we developed a recruiting system for only ‘special people’, on the surface, to join us. It’s a genetic formula. Today, there has to be a damn good genetic reason, if we approach anyone on the surface. Of course, you will fill in many gaps as time passes; but, way back then, there were very few ways up, and that, in itself, was a potent driver to prosper down here; don’t you think? Come through here. Follow me.”
Bellos hung on every word.
“Wait a minute; you’re saying no one has ever stayed topside? Come on; what you’re describing is a bit too Shangri-la-ish, Utopian. I don’t believe it.”
Swanson smiled.
“Oh yes, Shangri-La; I read that book a very long time ago; and, I saw the original movie; Ronald Coleman starred, I believe. But that took place in the Himalayas. I can tell you this; way before you started assassinating our ambassadors; before humans up there recorded our time; there were dinosaurs, and then the ‘ice age’. The weather alone kept us down here.
But, here’s the big thing, Doctors; we discovered that once you give people light, oxygen, food; basic needs, they seem to sense self worth sooner. They do not get lazy, as your pompous ass media purport. Every person naturally develops their individual talents and skills, which is what has driven our culture to surpass the surface, in so many ways. We are far from Utopian. We are just different.”
Swanson stopped talking and faced them both.
“Another thing; you grew up with time cycles, as your frame of reference for all behavior. We do not have anything like that. You have day and night. Let’s face it; you have ‘habitualized’ your lives into cyclic behaviors. You only allow yourselves to produce or achieve, when ‘they’ tell you to…And don’t get me started on who the ‘THEY’is, of where you live. Let us agree that it’s your culture…”
Bellos looked like he was going to argue; so, Swanson gestured, with his right hand palm, to stop.
“…And yes, we know the cycles of work, which you live by, have become necessary for you. Anyway; as I said, ‘we’ do not see sunlight. It is all relative, I suppose; but topside is certainly different from down here.
I do not judge; live and let live, I say; you know; ‘war and let war’. Besides, even today, no one floods the Mongolian tundra with tourism. So our people kept on with life; and, just when you don’t expect it, life gives you wonder. These life forms have been below here long before anything was on the surface. They evolved too. Today, they are much more than the basis for our light, food, oxygen, and transportation; a lot more. We owe them so much.”
“…Transportation?” Richard looked as if he remembered something.
“Yes,” Swanson said. “That’s right; remember? Our transportation is based on magnetic energy. Frankly; down here; a lot is. As some of these microscopic creatures grow, their metabolism changes, and they are able to utilize Earth’s inner magnetic forces to move.
Richard interrupted, “Wait; it is a bit fuzzy, but I do remember something. Adult creatures; they are called Carrier-Units, right. They travel fast, deep within Earth, across the globe, right?”
&nb
sp; “Hmm…?” Bellos raised an eyebrow. “…Dad, you mean like the Asian speed trains, all across the far east?”
Swanson looked at them both with a grin and said, “Not exactly, my boy; these Carrier-Units are much faster; and, far more maneuverable than a train or plane. I assure you; there are certainly no train rails, of any kind, down here.
Now it is true that, like in some surface vehicles, we use petroleum based materials for many applications; just not for transportation. We refine oil differently down here. Any by-products end up as food for these creatures, rather than toxic waste.
Look you two; you are the only new ones I’ve brought here in some time. You two will know what very few here know, and that is for a very good reason.”
“Oh, and what is that?” said Bellos.
“Whatever I’ve told you is true, gentlemen, and there’s something else. We are not just a small group of outcasts, or a sect of some sort. This is not an isolated community. We are a global society. You are surface inhabitants; we are sub-surface.”
“Global? You mean you live under all of us?” Bellos snapped.
“Yes; as I said, we are a planetary society, but subterranean. We even have settlements deep within the great oceans. Think about that. The barometric pressures alone, should keep you wondering. Regardless, our transport system between our cities is far too travel-friendly and efficient for you or anyone from above to comprehend.”
“Well, you are right about that, because I have no idea what you mean. I’m completely confused,” said Bellos.
“Doctor, I don’t expect you to understand everything, I say, right now; but, I do expect you to remember most of it. If your cultures, up there, knew we were down here, and how extensive we inhabit ‘their’ planet, they would panic. That is the nature of your upbringing, fear of the unknown; you are all afraid of someone or something taking what you think ‘belongs to you’. Too many of you view cooperation as more of a concept or goal, rather than a way of life. Little by little we help change that, I hope.”
“You know, Mr. Swanson, I’m beginning to think you may have some anger management issues” Bellos said, with a smirk.
Ever-Life the Two Book Set: The C.P.T Incident and Time Trust Page 4
