Jakob’s house was nothing like what Pat was used to in Denver. Almost everything she saw was handmade, not produced by an automated factory. The windows were framed the old fashioned way; the glass even had minor flaws. The banister leading to the upper floor had curved stringers and looked very solid, as did the cupboards and the big kitchen table. The floors were made of thin boards that squeaked slightly as Pat walked across them. A round hand-woven carpet with detailed patterns lay in the center of the living room. Small embroidered pillows complimented the large four-seat sofa, while a grandfather clock ticked quietly in the corner.
Pat caught herself looking in vain for a light switch or an electric ceiling lamp, but candelabra-like lamps and the blackened glasses of vegetable-oil lamps appeared to be the only source of light available in the evening and the dark times of the year.
She took a deep breath.
›What’s that I’m smelling?‹ she pondered. ›I’ve never smelled that odor before …‹
Pat hadn’t, because this kitchen smelled of a mixture of bee-wax, vinegar, apple, a touch of cinnamon, lemon, mesquite and other scents she had hardly known in her childhood.
Jakob noticed that she crinkled her nose.
»Is there something wrong, Patricia?«
»No … no, not at all, I just didn’t expect these nice fragrances. Honestly, I thought everything would smell like cow dung … uh … sorry.«
Jakob and Lisa laughed out loud.
»Welcome to our kitchen,« Lisa invited her to come closer.
On top of the massive wooden kitchen table stood a porcelain pitcher filled with crystal clear water, surrounded by six cups.
»Are you thirsty?« Lisa asked.
Pat nodded.
»Lemonade or water?«
Pat smiled at her.
»Water’s just fine, Lisa.«
»The water came from our village well! You can drink it with no problem,« Jakob invited her as she skeptically eyed the filled cup. »We all drink from it. You won’t get sick.«
Pat sipped the water, held back a frown at its slight iron taste. Then she looked around.
»Hmm … you don’t have a house computer?« It was more a statement than a question; she couldn’t see anything that resembled a computer.
Jakob shook his head.
»I don’t know what that is, nor what I could use it for. We live without those technical things,« he replied.
»It can make breakfast and wake you up in the morning with strange noises or messages,« she explained.
He looked at Pat doubtfully.
»We make our breakfast ourselves – and we get up early … 5 o’clock in the morning. We need to milk the cows and work in the house and in the barn. You’ll have to get used to our way of life and our working rhythms. You’ll have to work here like everybody else, and you might not have much time for your technical knick-knacks. Can you milk a cow?« he asked bluntly.
Pat was flabbergasted for a moment.
»I’ve never even seen a living cow!«
Jacob couldn’t believe his ears. He just shook his head.
»That’ll change,« he assured her. »As of tomorrow, you’ll feed the animals in the morning – and then you’ll get to smell the cow dung,« Jakob chuckled. »We get up very early. Breakfast is at 7 o’clock. There’s a chicken coop behind the house. You’ll collect the eggs and bring them into the kitchen every morning.«
»What … real eggs? Not synthetic?« Pat asked in surprise.
Jakob looked like he didn’t understand.
»Let me show you your room. You can rest a little and freshen up, then we’ll eat,« he suggested.
»Is it all right if I make some notes for my research?« asked Pat, pointing at her bag with her wireless notebook in it.
»I think you should leave that in your room. It’s not a good idea to let the others see it,« Jakob curbed her enthusiasm and led her upstairs by the wooden steps. They arrived at a small bedroom which appeared sunny and fresh. It was a cozy and tidy little place with a big bed. A colorful quilt covered the bed, hanging over the sides. The quilt was pulled a little aside, allowing a glance at the down-filled blanket and pillows beneath.
»This was Lisa’s late mother’s room. My sister prepared it for you,« Jakob explained proudly.
Pat sat on the bed and bounced up and down a little.
»This bed is really comfortable, better than my own in Denver. I’d like to thank you for your hospitality, Jakob,« Pat remarked, moved.
»I’ll let you be for a moment. Lisa will call you when the food is ready.« He nodded and turned around.
Galactic keys
»Look at that, Pi …,« Maya Ivanova whispered. She sounded depressed.
Pi was speechless for a moment. They looked at ten coffins arranged in a circle around a large console in the middle of the room. The coffins looked exactly the same as the one Vasina had been found in, but these contained mummified bodies. Pi identified them as Progonauts, no doubt.
»They’re all dead!« he announced.
The corpses were partially decomposed. Their skin looked like tight vellum. The clothing had been transformed into dust that filled the nooks and crannies of the coffins.
»What happened to these people? Why are they lying in these coffins?« Maya asked in shock. »They must have died inside these containers. Were they murdered?«
Lai Pi didn’t have an answer.
»I don’t know, Maya, but, no, it doesn’t look like they were murdered. It looks like they laid down voluntarily inside the temporal fields. Maybe there was some sort of a malfunction,« he assumed. The thought was deeply disturbing.
He approached a coffin and peered inside.
»Look … the bones are barely visible and covered with dust. Whatever tragedy occured, it must have been thousands of years ago. It’s lucky that the coffins were sealed, or there’d be nothing left of them.«
Pi could see several metallic objects inside the temporal coffins. They almost looked like burial objects or maybe personal belongings.
»At least we know who built the mini portal. They were Progonauts like Vasina, maybe some of the ones the Rexas had deported to Earth,« Maya suggested.
»Hmm … that doesn’t make sense, Maya. The deported Progonauts didn’t have any technology when they were dumped here, let alone combat robots!« Pi countered.
»The ZyClonians have examined the coffins and come to the conclusion that temporal re-polarization had occurred,« Kuster~Laap announced. »Instead of slowing down time, it was accelerated, rapidly! Since the coffins were sealed, the people inside were preserved. Later, the energy field surrounding the coffins failed and collapsed … subjecting the dead people to the atmosphere.«
»A horrible way to die!« Maya commented aloud and looked into all of the coffins. The skeletal remains were male and female, Progonauts who had trusted to the temporal fields. In some of the coffins were weapons and short ceremonial daggers like the one Vasina wore.
Pi turned around and addressed the Prophet.
»Kuster~Laap, I think it’s time for an explanation.«
The Chiropter looked at Pi but did not reply.
Pi was getting angry. He wanted answers, especially about this find.
»You talk to us in the main Progonaut lingo, and tell us about our important part of the Brotherhood’s long-term plan. You brought us here with the mini portal. You can’t even prove that this installation is below the ocean surface.«
»I have told you the truth!« the Prophet replied in a very deep voice. »We realized that this was a Progonaut installation, but that is irrelevant to our mission.«
»That depends on the perspective!« Pi railed. »We’re talking about our home-world. We … never knew anything about such an installation.«
»The Progonauts in this room were not as important as you might want to assume. They were not brought her by the Galactic Brotherhood but by our adversary! These Progonauts in their coffins were part of their counter plan … against
their free will!«
»Then we have something in common with these unfortunate people, haven’t we? We’re also intertwined with all these plans and counter plans and whatever … involuntarily!« Ivanova snapped at the Prophet.
»The Progonauts’ original mission was to protect the people of the galaxy from our enemy and to guard the five galactic keys. They failed!«
Lai Pi’s pulse was racing.
»Did you just say five galactic keys? Do they, by any chance, look like golden hair combs or clips?«
Kuster~Laap stretched out his right hand and projected a holographic picture. Pi immediately recognized the item displayed inside the small holo.
»That’s one of the combs Vasina of Atlantika wears!«
»Who is Vasina of Atlantika? You had mentioned her just after we arrived on the portal platform,« the Prophet inquired, fluttering his ears excitedly.
»Vasina is the last Progonaut queen … and the last surviving member of her people. We found her inside a temporal coffin like these,« Pi explained, pointing. »She was buried under the Antarctic ice, but her coffin had worked fine. She possesses a Jamal-Comb, or galactic key, as you call it. And we found a second comb on the planet Coip-Pertyl.«
»Vasina of Atlantika …,« Kuster~Laap repeated Pi’s words slowly. »This Progonaut woman needs to be present at the conference!«
»You bet your furry ass she will!« replied Ivanova in Russian, which the translation device fortunately failed to render correctly.
»Oh … is there something wrong with my fecal matter discharge organ?« Kuster~Laap asked in a higher pitched voice, looking consternated, while the ZyClonians were bent over, looking at a spot on Kuster~Laap’s lower back.
»Never mind …,« Maya chuckled, covering her mouth with her right hand, while Pi just shrugged, not understanding Maya’s sarcastic comment in Russian.
»What I wanted to say is that Commander Daralamai will make sure that Vasina and Toiber Arkroid will be present at the conference.«
Maya approached the coffins again and examined them. With the energy field gone she went through the dust with her hands and checked each body. Suddenly, she stopped and re-examined the coffin she had just looked at. The hand of the dead Progonaut was clenching an egg-shaped object.
»Surprise, surprise!« she murmured, and broke the mummy’s hand bones to get the thing. Ignoring Pi’s warning, she picked up the egg-shaped item and slipped it into her pocket. »This looks like one of Morgotradon’s memory crystals. I’ve used them before. Maybe we can learn something important … that is, if we can get out of here.«
The healer
»My name is David. I am the village healer,« the old man introduced himself. Like Jakob, the old man had a long but grayer beard and was wearing a big, black, soft felt hat with a wide rim, which he didn’t take off indoors. His dark gray suit was simple, but fit as well as an expensive mass produced one. Pat noticed the respect with which Jacob treated the old man. It was obvious to her that the elders were very much respected in Amish circles. Pat estimated his age at about 60 or 65 years.
»You must be the English woman Jakob told me about. I can tell by your clothes. If you want to stay here with us for a while, then you will have to change into more suitable clothing. Our women don’t like the modern fashions such as you wear it in the city. We prefer natural, simple colors without buttons.«
Pat frowned but shook David’s hand.
»I’m glad to meet you, David. My name is Patricia. I’ll try not to disrupt your daily work.«
»You already have. Everybody is talking about you in the village. We don’t like to see a young and unmarried woman living in this house together with Jakob,« he scolded her.
›Would it be different if I were married?‹ she thought surprised about David’s strict remarks.
»She’s our guest, David,« Jacob tried to mediate in Pennsylvania Dutch an old adapted German dialect still spoken by the Amish. »We don’t want to be unfriendly.«
»How is Lisa doing?« David quickly changed the subject matter. »Did my ointment work? Is she applying the cream three times daily as I told her?«
Jakob nodded.
»Lisa is following everything you told her, but the skin discolorations have only become worse. I’m very worried.«
Davis looked at Pat and then at Jakob.
»Why is the English woman here?« he inquired with Jakob in his dialect, deliberately not saying her name.
»She wants to know how we live and learn our traditions. She is also interested in how we treat our sick people.«
David stroked his gray beard and mumbled something that Pat didn’t understand.
»I will permit her to watch you … but only if you don’t mind,« Jakob suggested.
David nodded hesitantly and went to Lisa, who was sitting at the Kitchen table. He checked her pulse, touched her forehead and examined the red spots on her skin.
»These spots on the neck are new, is that right?« he asked.
»Yes, since your last visit a week ago,« Jakob replied truthfully. »As you can see, it is getting worse and spreading over her entire body.«
»Do you know these symptoms?« Pat asked the healer cautiously.
David briefly looked at her, but continued his examination. While he was assessing Lisa’s arms and legs he was again mumbling something into his beard.
»This discoloration is not new to us and happened several times in the past to our brothers and sisters who work the fields. They occur mostly on unprotected skin sections. I will give her an herbal extract to apply before the ointment.«
Pat just wanted to shout and tell David that his ointments were a waste of time against skin cancer, but she bit her tongue.
David had noticed her reaction and faced her confrontationally.
»You don’t agree with my treatment, English woman?«
Pat looked at Lisa, who had bravely endured the examination.
»Maybe we should talk outside, so Lisa can rest?« she suggested.
David and Jakob agreed and they stepped outside.
»I know what you’re thinking,« the old man began the discussion moodily. »You don’t think I can heal her?«
Pat threw a quick glance at Jakob, but he was silent, waiting for her answer.
»I think you’re a good healer, David,« she tried a diplomatically. »You have a lot of experience and you’ve helped your people for many years …«
»… I’ve been the village doctor … healer, whatever you want to call it, for over thirty years. I’ve had more than a lot of practice in the treatment of my brothers and sisters. If an ill brother cannot recover despite my care, then it’s God’s will! The entire village is praying for Lisa. I’m certain that God will hear our prayers!«
Pat trembled; suddenly painfully made aware of how different she was from these God fearing people. She hoped that Lisa wasn’t about to become another example of God’s will.
»I’m sorry … but let me speak frankly: prayers won’t do anything in this case, nor will your ointments and herbal extracts. This is not a simple skin rash. She needs to go to Denver … to a hospital. I’ll gladly drive her there ...«
» … never! We will not take her to an English doctor!« David interrupted in an uncompromising voice. »We take care of our own here in this village! If the ointment doesn’t work then I will consult Abraham and ask him to see the girl.«
»Would you do that for us?« Jakob asked, looking surprised.
»Certainly!« David replied harshly and turned toward the door. »I’m not a heartless man. If the extract doesn’t work, then Abraham will have his chance.«
»Thank you, David,« Jacob responded relieved, and held the healer’s coat for him as he put it on. Before he left, David quickly turned around and addressed Patricia again, »May God be with you, young lady. You really should wear different dresses – and put something on your head!«
Pat grimaced and waved a meek goodbye at David.
When Jakob returned to he
r, she only looked at him inquiringly.
»Who’s Abraham?«
Jakob put his index finger on his lips, signing her to be silent for a moment, as if he feared David might still be standing behind the door listening. After a moment he looked out the kitchen window and saw David walking away from the house.
»Abraham is a wonder healer. He lives among us but is otherwise not much involved in village life,« he told her.
»Do you really want to trust Lisa’s life to a quack? I can’t believe this!« Pat responded angrily.
»He’s very successful,« Jakob tried to appease Patricia, but it was clear to her that he considered this the end of the discussion.
Doubts
The ZyClonians had opened another exit by simply disintegrating a wall. They cautiously peered into the adjacent room and sent two clouds of nanopods into the darkness. Maya looked back to the dead Progonauts, and then followed the ZyClonians through the wall opening. If she had been in charge, she would have taken more time to examine this spectacular find.
»I’d like to know if we’re running away from those robots, or if the ZyClonians have a plan to get us out of here?« Pi inquired with Kuster~Laap.
The Prophet quickly flattened his ears and said, »Nood and Naad know what they’re doing. Since we now know the robots’ energy signatures, we can avoid further encounters with them. They’ve also learned that there’re only a handful of the robots still functioning. Most of the combat robots are without energy – dead.«
»Uh ... so,« replied Pi mockingly, which the Prophet didn’t get. »How do you communicate with Naad and Nood? These guys haven’t said a word since we met them.«
Kuster~Laap raised his left arm slightly and revealed a small, metallic plate strapped around his wrist.
»The ZyClonians communicate through the nanobots. This is a special communication interface,« he explained, showing them the plate closer.
Lai Pi nodded, impressed.
»Well, then you can certainly tell us what their plan is, right?« Pi kept pushing.
»We will go to the highest point of this installation, avoiding security traps, then the ZyClonians will cut a hole into the outer skin and create a tunnel through which we will reach the surface,« Kuster~Laap explained calmly.
NEBULAR Collection 4 - Second Reserve: Episodes 17 - 21 Page 4
