3012: The Artifact

by John M Grier

The Briefcase

  Paul began pacing the room in obvious distress. “Jack, this is just too much to think about right now. I’m going to need some time to sort this out. Obviously, you believe this happened, but you have to see it from my point of view. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but it sounds crazy.”

  Fully understanding his friend’s hesitation to believe his fantastic story, Jack said “Yeah, I know. If you had told me the same story, I’d have a hard time believing it as well. Just please keep an open mind and consider the possibility that I’m not crazy, okay?”

  Paul stopped his pacing and turned to face Jack. “Well, I suppose I can just set it aside in my mind for now, and maybe in time it’ll make more sense.” Looking at Jack with the obvious concern of someone approaching a friend who was recently diagnosed to be mentally incompetent, he said “I do have one question, well many actually. But first, what on earth is a lottery ticket?”

  Jack laughed heartily. “A lottery ticket is something you bought for a dollar that gave you one chance in billions of winning a financial jackpot. The lottery I spoke of had a very lucrative payout, but was nearly impossible to win. As I said, I went back one more day, bought a ticket with those numbers on it and the next day, when the drawing happened, I was the sole winner. I never wanted for anything my whole life because of that one ticket, and my time machine.

  “Now,” Jack continued, “Let’s look at that briefcase before you start looking like Alice just after she fell down the rabbit hole.”

  “Jack, I have no idea what you mean by that reference, nor do I know who Alice is, but sure, let’s get to that case. Maybe the distraction will do us both some good.” The two friends made their way back to the workshop. As they walked, Paul couldn’t help but gawk at the things Jack had in his home. Many of the items he had seen only in photographs of a historical nature. But, Jack had the actual items right here.

  He stopped in the long hallway to pick up one item that caught his attention. He held it up and examined it from every angle before asking “This is a gas mask, right?”

  “Yes, there was a box full of them when I found this place. I kept one out in the event it becomes necessary. As a new arrival to this time, I had no idea what to expect and prepared accordingly, as I located things.”

  “I can’t imagine why we would need them. In fact, I don’t think there has been a call for a gas mask in the last three or four hundred years.”

  Jack took the gasmask from Paul and tossed it back onto the table where it had laid untouched for ten years now. “How was I to know that?” he asked as he turned back toward the workshop.

  Paul wasn’t sure what to make of that little display. But, the more he thought about it, the more Jack’s wild story began to make some sense. When you put it all together, like his quick answers on digs about the use of an item, or this gas mask, his story started to become plausible…or he was seriously deranged and Paul was starting to fall for Jack’s delusions.

  As Paul walked through the door, Suzie suddenly appeared in front of him, seemingly materializing out of thin air. He stopped short in an effort to keep from bumping into her, forgetting for the moment that she was a hologram. She smiled at his apparent discomfort in her presence. “Don’t be scared Paul, I’m really quite harmless”

  Ignoring her for the moment but maintaining eye contact with her, and not really sure how to address someone that appeared to be there, but really wasn’t, he asked “Jack, if you are from the past of a thousand years ago, how is it you know about holograms when they are obviously some deep dark government secret?”

  Jack watched Paul’s encounter with Suzie and his apparent discomfort with fascination. Committed to telling Paul everything, he answered “In my time, holograms were in the early stage of development. In many ways, the world of my day was just as advanced and at times more advanced than today’s world. Suzie here is far more advanced than what I had ever heard of, but the concept is similar enough for me to understand. Also, in my day, it was not a secret.”

  “Isn’t he sweet?” said Suzie as she struck a pose reminiscent of a runway model displaying the latest fashions. “Here I am an obsolete military hologram that has just been hanging around undisturbed for more than two hundred years and Jack here thinks of me as advanced.”

  With a smile on his face as he recalled his first encounter with the hologram, Jack said “You should have seen her when I first found this place. She was not as beautiful as she is now.” He actually blushed before continuing “The military, in it’s infinite wisdom, had her appear not only as a man, in full uniform but completely lacking a sense of humor, as is typical of military men in uniform, as a general rule.”

  “When Jack found me; he literally fell out of his chair backwards! If I had been represented in my current state, I would have laughed. As it was, I did not. But it was very funny.”

  Turning to Jack, she said “I’ve been thinking about the dilemma with the briefcase you want opened. The hinges are internal, but the advanced age of the case may work in our favor. If we can slip a molecular knife blade through the bottom of the case, it certainly should be able to cut the hinges. The molecular blades theoretically can cut through anything, this case should be no problem.”

  Intrigued, Jack asked “Do we have such a blade here? I’ve never heard of one and having never heard Paul mention it either, I’m thinking it’s another military item we are not aware of.”

  “Although my memories of that part of the base are incomplete, due to a lack of proper maintenance of the database for so long, I do seem to remember a cache of them stored here just before I was put into suspended sleep mode.”

  Frustrated at what that meant, Jack muttered “Great. I guess that means we need to search. What does it look like?”

  “It’s cylindrical in shape, of a diameter sized to fit comfortably in your hand, about ten to thirty centimeters in length, depending on it’s intended use, with a control that activates a blade, adjustable in length from ten centimeters to nearly a meter. The blade itself is a material that is virtually indestructible and only one molecule thick, hence the name ‘molecular blade’”

  Jack couldn’t help but think of Star Wars as Suzie described the fantastic blade. Barely able to contain himself at the thought of one of his favorite movies coming true, at least in part, Jack said “So, basically it’s just like a light saber?”

  Looking more confused than ever Paul had to ask “What’s a light saber?”

  Grinning from ear to ear, Jack replied “It was a prop in a science fiction movie from my time.”

  Suzie said “Not really like a light saber, more like a sword with a very thin, collapsible blade. But, the theory is sound for a light saber, Jack. We could probably make one right here.”

  “That would be too cool!” exclaimed Jack who was obviously very excited. “But, for now the molecular blade will suffice…any idea where it was stored?”

  “As I recall, it was in the warehouse where the HumVees are kept, in the part of the room that is partially collapsed, on the lowest level that the stairs reach.”

  “Great. With my luck, it’ll be under the rubble” said Jack. “Come on Paul. If you think the gas mask was cool, wait until you see this room.”

  They descended the staircase to the lowest level it would go to. Suzie chose to avoid the stairs and simply materialized just inside the door. Paul just about jumped out of his skin while Jack laughed. Suzie giggled and said “That just never gets old!”

  Paul said “I beg to differ.”

  Jack said “Give it a minute for the lights to come on fully.” They waited while the room slowly got brighter. As he began to see, Paul was shocked to discover just how big the room was. It seemed to go on forever.

  Jack disappeared to the left and returned riding on a vehicle that vaguely resembled the van in the barn under the ice in eastern Canada, although much smaller and with sides open to the air. Before Paul could as
k about it, Jack said “This is an Electric Golf Cart, Paul. It has a bank of batteries that are recharged and can run for quite a while before needing charging. Don’t worry; it does not have an internal combustion engine.”

  Jack said “Suzie, why don’t you ride up front with me and direct me to where you think the blades might have been stored.”

  One thing Jack had learned very early in his residence here at Freedom Base was that sometime in the past, the inventory program had been deleted or simply became too corrupt by time to function anymore. As a result, the only way to find anything was simply driving around and looking for it. And based on the vast dimensions of the room, that task could take quite some time.

  “Sure thing, Jack. As I recall, they were near the far end of the warehouse.”

  Jack started down the massive center aisle into the heart of the warehouse. After what seemed like nearly an hour, they came to the collapsed roof. Astonished, Paul noticed that a floe-stone formation had developed over and around the collapsed area, along with many stalactites and stalagmites, much like what would be found in a cavern. Obviously, the stuff underneath and around the formation was from the time that Jack claimed to be from, but he had always been taught that formations such as these took tens of thousands of years to form.

  “Well, now what, Jack” said Paul. “And take a look at these floe-stone formations! They have every appearance of being much older than what you are telling me about the age of this place.”

  Suzie spoke up and said “Actually, I think we are at our destination. The box should be to the right, somewhere on this shelf. It should be labeled ‘Military Use Only, Blade, Molecular, Utility. And, yes, Paul, the floe-stone formations have only been here since I was put to sleep two hundred years ago. Obviously, they do not take thousands of years to form. I know what modern science tells us, but in this case, they are apparently wrong.”

  “Sometimes you really need to learn to question what you are told and take a look for yourself. I have encountered many things in my travels that would indicate we are being misled much of the time when it comes to subjects such as history and science. Besides, these formations form a great barrier to whoever may be on the other side” Jack said. Then looking at the shelves next to him, said “Man, you have to love the military’s way of being as cryptic as possible in their labels.”

  Paul, having no experience with the military at all, said nothing. Actually, he was still in shock at the shear volume of artifacts here in Jack’s basement.

  Soon enough, Suzie located the correct box. She pointed it out to Jack. Jack had to climb the shelves to get to the box. He scurried up the shelves using other boxes as a ladder. When he reached the third shelf up, he reached up and grabbed hold of the box lost his balance and promptly fell right through Suzie onto Paul.

  Paul broke his fall enough to keep him from any serious injury, but the box broke open and the blades rolled everywhere. Paul and Jack each gathered several blades and returned to the cart. Ignoring the mess he made, Jack said “I’m gong to take us back another way so Paul can see the HumVees.”

  Still in shock at everything he had learned today, not to mention the vast storage facility he now found himself in, Paul said “I know I seem to be the one asking all the questions, and as an archeologist, it pains me to ask, but what is a HumVee?”

  Continuing his low speed tour of the ancient military warehouse, Jack replied “A HumVee is a military vehicle that was in use in the last part of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st. They were in the process of fazing them out when I jumped here. In fact, I had several on my island, purchased as surplus for nearly nothing.”

  “Your island?” asked Paul, not sure he could take in any more fantastic stories from his friend.

  Adopting a sly grin, he said “Yes, I have my own tropical island complete with a stone castle…I’ll tell you about it later. Someday, I hope to return there.” Shifting his eyes toward his holographic companion, he said “Suzie, I would love to figure out a way to take you along as well.”

  “Why Jack, I’m flattered. All you need do is ask. I have a portable transport case that is not much bigger than your briefcase. I can be rather self sufficient in it, as long as I am in contact with sunlight once in a while.”

  “Well that will certainly make it easier. How far can you travel from the case?”

  “Depending on the terrain, I can travel three to five kilometers from the case.”

  “That is great news! I was really regretting the thought of leaving you behind when I go back.”

  Crossing her arms and stomping her foot in an obvious pout, she said “You better not leave me here, Jack!”

  Smiling at her, he spoke over his shoulder to Paul “Okay, just around this next corner are the HumVees.” As Jack turned the corner, Paul let out an audible gasp. It was not unexpected. There were nearly one hundred perfectly preserved military HumVees parked in a row. They stopped at the first one, parking the golf cart next to it.

  He opened the door and climbed in. “How would you like to have a short ride in an actual one thousand year old vehicle with an internal combustion engine? Somehow, the diesel fuel they have stored here has not decayed at all and is still very useful.”

  “Although the thought frightens me to be around the toxic fumes from an engine that burns fossil fuels, I have to say that I would very much enjoy the experience, Jack. Promise me you won’t let Janet know” he said with a chuckle.

  Jack had unwrapped this particular vehicle back when he found it and came down here to drive it on occasion. It helped relax him when he was feeling homesick. He fired it up and Paul jumped at the noise. He was used to the silent vehicles of today. The two of them piled in and Jack drove around the corner and got it up to about 40 miles per hour. Paul was speechless.

  Finally, Paul said “How on earth did you ever figure out how to operate this thing, Jack?”

  “Like I said, in my day, everyone drove vehicles similar to this one. That van we found in Canada is just a different version of this same basic type of vehicle. This one is more robust and can go places that van would never go, but they operate on the same basic principle.”

  “I have to say, with all of your knowledge of the ancient world you are starting to make a believer out of me.”

  “Good. I was hoping you would come around” he said as he parked the HumVee and they got back into the golf cart and drove back to the stairwell where Suzie was waiting for them.

  They climbed the stairs to the workshop and in no time at all made use of the molecular blade to slice through the hinges of the case. As expected, it nearly fell open. The latch never did give way, but was flexible enough to allow the contents of the case to come tumbling out.

  Three things fell out of the case. One was what appeared to be an electronic book reader. However, it remained to be seen if it would even work after all these years. Second was something about the size and shape of a hockey puck with a single button on the top and lastly, another box. The box was very ornate and held closed with a simple key lock.

  Jack set the ornate box aside and looked at the hockey puck. He said “Paul, any idea what this is?”

  With a stern expression on his face, and feeling like a child on his first day of school after a full day of Jack’s impromptu education, he asked “Isn’t that usually my question to you?”

  Laughing, Jack said “Yes, I suppose it is. However, this time the dig happens to be younger than my era of specialization. This thing was created after I made my time jump. If it weren’t for the control on top, I would swear it was a hockey puck. I know, you have no idea what that is, right?”

  “Actually, I understand the reference. A few years before I met you, I was on a dig that turned out to be an arena where hockey was played. If not for the pictures that were preserved, we would never have figured out the equipment we found.”

  “I can imagine!” said Jack. “That stuff
is big and scary enough when you already know what it’s for.”

  Suzie spoke up and said “Jack, simply press the button on top and step back. I believe it’s a rudimentary holographic recording.” Following her instructions, Jack pressed the button and a man appeared about eighteen inches tall, wearing a suit and tie. He began speaking.

  “Hello. My name is Jesse. I hate to sound so cryptic, especially since you will have no way of knowing me and may have no idea about a great many things I am trying to preserve. However, for reasons of security, I must remain rather vague. Again, my apologies.

  “If you are watching this, then my secret is ready to come out. But I must insist that there be a bit of sleuthing on your part. I have been entrusted with the greatest truth of all time! Quite simply, our government is trying to not only take complete control of the world, but wants to eradicate the very memory of certain ideas.

  “I wish I could be more descriptive, but again, I fear I must remain vague. If the government gets hold of this recording, then all would certainly be lost. Along with this, you should have found an electronic reader. It is incomplete by design. It is my hope that you will have access to the technology to repair it and retrieve the information it contains. If not, all is not lost. The ornate box contains written instructions as to what you should do in order to proceed.

  “Please do not try to tamper with the lock as it is set to destroy the contents if not opened properly with the one and only key. The key must be used. Find the key and the contents are yours. It is my sincere hope that you are victorious in your quest.” With that the recording ended and the man disappeared.

  “Well that was certainly interesting. It sounded to me like the tiny man was leading us on a treasure hunt of some sort. Now what do we do?” asked Paul.

  Smiling, Jack said “Paul, I think we need to revisit that dig in Canada. Apparently, there’s a key somewhere that we need to find. But first, let’s check out this electronic book reader.”

  Suzie said “The hard drive itself appears to be corroded beyond repair. I’m quite sure that retrieval of the data it contains will prove impossible.”

  Paul said “Then our only way of finding out what is inside the box is to find this mysterious key, which may not even still exist.”

  Still smiling, Jack said “There’s only one way to find out.”