3012: The Artifact

by John M Grier

The Key

  Suzie watched with fascination as the three of them fell into roles they obviously had been performing for a long time. Paul and Jack set up the camp while Janet got her gear together. The habitation modules set themselves up and required minimal effort to connect to each other. In no time at all the camp was set up in the same place as before. Janet said “Wow, that has to be some kind of record for setting up camp!”

  Paul said “It helps greatly when the camp is being set up in a place that is already established. We didn’t have to level the ground or dig a pilot hole for the shaft. Besides, I think we are all a bit more motivated than before…not to mention being much more comfortable with each other now.”

  Janet said “I suggest we split up this time. We need to show daily progress as usual or we will have a team of my fellow government people here wondering why. I suggest Jack and Suzie look for the third disk while Paul and I continue the dig for the lighthouse. We have enough of a head start already to justify a whole day, but I would like to get through to the lighthouse anyway. If we don’t, we may have repercussions later.”

  Paul said “Actually, I think you need to remain in the control center for safety reasons as well as maintaining normal procedures. As you said, we don’t want to draw any undue attention to ourselves. Jack and I got far enough to the lighthouse before that we can easily make the rest of the tunnel while also searching for the third disk.” Nodding to his partner to indicate it was time to go, they made their way down the hole to the tunnels underneath. Once there, Jack proceeded back to the barn to search for the third disk while Paul recommenced melting the hole to the lighthouse.

  Jack noticed once again that this barn was very unusual and in all rights should have fallen down many centuries ago. He couldn’t help but wonder what it was that kept nagging at the back of his brain about it. Shaking it off, he concentrated on the disk. Smiling, he couldn’t help but think of it as a hockey puck. “Here I am under a bunch of ice in an old barn that shouldn’t be here, looking for an 800 year old hockey puck. Am I nuts?” he said to himself. Nevertheless, he began his search. “Who am I kidding?” he said to no one in particular. “I love this stuff!”

  He made his way through the main area of the barn, saddened once again at the wanton destruction by the government people who were supposedly ‘helping’. After more than an hour of searching, he found nothing new. He worked his way over to the trap door and the secret room underneath the barn’s floor. Once again the lights came on as he descended the ladder. When he got to the bottom, he stepped off, turned around and just about jumped out of his skin.

  Suzie was standing there smiling. Stifling a giggle, she said “Gotcha! Sorry Jack, but I couldn’t resist. Paul has gotten used to me now and, like I said, that really never gets old.”

  “Come on Suzie, I’m an old man, you could have given me a heart attack!”

  “I can read your vital signs just fine and you are perfectly healthy. Nice try, though.”

  “How did you get here anyway? I thought you couldn’t go anywhere like that in your travel case.”

  “With my old case, I was very limited to what I could do. As you know, when loaded in the mainframe in Freedom Base, I could just pop into existence anywhere in the facility. As it turns out, I have similar freedom of movement in Janet’s new case too.”

  “That could be very helpful.” Thinking a moment, he said “Why then did you go to all that trouble when spying on the town under Freedom Base?”

  “To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t had time to read the manual yet.” She giggled again and said “I know, that should have been the first thing I did, but I simply put it off until I had some free time.”

  They both looked everywhere and found nothing. Jack said “The first disk was in a briefcase in the back of that old van. The second was under a seat in this room. I suppose it stands to reason that the third would be somewhere else, but where? The message on the second disk was rather cryptic, but mentioned a beacon and a light. Maybe it meant we would find it in the lighthouse.”

  “I looked everywhere in the lighthouse, but if you remember, the second disk had not been played yet. According to Janet, this type of disk will only be visible to us after the previous one has been played. Maybe it’s in the lighthouse after all” agreed Suzie.

  “Let’s hope so.” They retraced their steps back through the ice tunnels to Paul. Paul had made considerable progress, but it would still be another day before they could safely make their move on the lighthouse.

  Paul and Jack took turns with the Mark One Hole Melter until finally they called it quits for the day. As they were about to knock off for the day, Janet called. She said “Hey guys, I have dinner ready, if you want it. Sorry Jack, but it’s standard government issue fare.”

  They all laughed at that and Jack said “I’m sure that will be just fine, Janet.” The three of them ascended back to the surface. They entered the little shelter through the hole in the floor of the control room as usual, then proceeded to the common room for dinner.

  The irony of Janet preparing dinner for the three of them was not lost on Jack. He thought about how much she and Paul had changed, and he too, if he was truly honest with himself. In a very short time, they had become good friends.

  They sat for a pleasant dinner and discussed where they might find the disk. "The man in the recording said several things that were obvious clues as to the whereabouts of the third disk. He mentioned 'shedding some light on the situation, heed the mariner's warning, and to discover a beacon that was illuminating.' To me, this speaks of a lighthouse." Jack looked around the room at each of his friends and they all seemed to be in agreement that the lighthouse was the place they were being led to, as they initially thought.

  The general consensus was that they shouldn't waste anymore time on the old barn and its hidden room, but to concentrate on the lighthouse. The conversation then moved on to something more or less just between Paul and Janet, so Jack made his exit for an early evening.

  He closed the door to his room and fell into a deep sleep. He dreamed of families and in his dream, he was married and had children. When he woke the next morning, he felt very happy, until he realized it was just a dream. He thought to himself “Maybe it isn’t too late to start a family, if I could find the right woman.” Promising himself to look into it after this adventure was finally over, he felt somewhat satisfied.

  Jack returned to the common room to find Paul reading the Bible again. He asked “Find anything interesting in there, Paul?”

  “Actually, I am finding it very interesting indeed. I have been reading about someone with my name and what all he did. He seems like an amazing person.”

  Jack said “I really wouldn’t know. I never actually read the Bible. I skimmed through parts of it, but never cover to cover.”

  “Maybe you should. It’s very interesting.”

  Jack, feeling very uncomfortable, deliberately and quite abruptly changed the subject: "Where’s Janet this morning?"

  “She and Suzie are in the control room working on something. I think it has to do with Suzie’s new case” said Paul. “Actually, if you’re up to it, I’d like to get an early start today. I can feel it, today is the day!”

  “Sure, I slept really well last night and am actually eager to get going myself.”

  They walked together to the control room. Suzie spotted them instantly and said “Watch this, guys!” She pointed her finger and with a very dramatic gesture said “ZAP!”

  Out of the end of her finger came a ray of light that was very much like the phaser beams in all of those old space movies from Jack's youth. The beam of light obliterated the small target she was pointing at. She then made an overly dramatic gesture miming putting an imaginary gun in its equally imaginary holster at her hip. Grinning from ear to ear, she said “Hi Jack. I found a new toy!”

  “I would say so” said Jack. “I assume
that beam is coming from your case, but I am confused. How do you get it to appear to come from your finger?”

  “Must you always be such a spoil sport Jack? Why worry how it works, just be happy for me that I can now defend myself too” said Suzie. “To be honest, the beam itself is actually invisible and yes it does come from the case. The beam you actually see isn’t real at all. I’ll show you what I mean.”

  She did another of her dramatic finger snapping gestures and instantly changed into the frilly pink cowgirl outfit she had on at Jack’s castle when they were training Janet and Paul on the different weapons in Jack’s arsenal. She drew her pink pearl handled six-gun and pointed it at another target. She fired. Smoke and the expected loud ‘bang’ happened and the target suddenly had a hole in it as if it were just shot with a real gun.

  “Amazing” was all Jack could say. “I would imagine you have to be in line of sight with whatever you are shooting at right?”

  “Well, the case has to be in line of it. But, check this out.” She walked over to the case and picked it up. She walked back and as she was walking she slid the case up under her shirt and the effect was that it was actually inside her body.

  “How long can you remain like that?” asked Jack.

  “Only a few days or so but, if I am outside or in contact with the sun, I can keep it there indefinitely. One hour outside is plenty to recharge.”

  Paul said “Speaking of daylight, we’re burning ours. Jack, what do you say we get started?”

  “Sounds good to me” said Jack. They descended through the hole to the tunnels beneath. Jack took the first turn with the Mark One Hole Melter this time. They made quick work of the new tunnel and by noon were through to the light house. Paul took the lead since he was the archeologist.

  They entered and found the entrance to be completely devoid of clutter. Climbing the stairs, they slowly made their way to the top. Once there, they split up and began searching. Someone had been using the top of the lighthouse as a home of sorts. There was evidence that one person had been living there but there was no sign of who it may have been. Obviously, it had been a long time ago.

  They searched the top floor from top to bottom and found nothing. Not about to give up, they slowly descended the staircase checking every inch as they went. About halfway down, Paul found it. Attached to the side of the stairs, in a manner that only someone who was looking for it would manage to see it, was the third disk. “Finally” said Paul. “I was beginning to think there were only the two of them.”

  They took the disk and returned to the control room. Janet was surprised to see them early, although as it turned out, they were only early by a half hour or so. Jack said “We found it. Well, Paul found it.”

  Janet said “I think we should go to the common room to view it.” They all made their way to the common room. Jack and Paul following Janet a bit after due to the cold weather gear they had to stow first. Paul sat the disk on the table and pressed the button on top. The by now familiar image appeared.

  “Hi again. As you probably know by now, my name is Jesse. You have successfully found all three of these data storage devices. Now, you must locate the podium in the room that had the second disk. There is an obvious place for the three of these disks to be placed. Put them in order from left to right and press firmly on each once they are all in place.” With that, the image abruptly disappeared.

  “Well that was certainly short and anticlimactic” said Jack.

  Janet said “Let’s grab a quick bite to eat then go see what happens.”

  “Okay with me” said Jack.

  Paul was the eager one, however, and said “I say we go now. Food can wait. We’ve been trying to see what this thing is for a long time now, and we’re this close to the end. I say we stay the course.”

  Suzie said “Yeah! What he said! I mean, I’m not really hungry either, so let’s do it.”

  Glancing in her direction, Jack asked "Correct me if I'm wrong, but your new case doesn’t allow you to eat does it?”

  Suzie rather sheepishly batted her eyelashes and said “Well, not that I’ve found so far, but it’s true that I’m not hungry!” Everyone laughed and finally agreed to go to the secret room under the barn and see what the disks do.

  They all headed back to the control room and donned cold weather gear, Suzie following them and going through all the motions herself until Jack looked at her in a way that said “What on earth are you doing?”

  She smiled at him and snapped her fingers to change instantly. Jack laughed and said “I was about to wonder what you were doing, Suzie. It’s nice to see you are still the same Suzie we all know and love!”

  To their further entertainment, she changed again as they were descending in the elevator through the hole in the ice. This time she was dressed as a genie on a flying carpet, sitting crossed legged on her floating pink rug and descending alongside them. When she reached bottom, she changed back to the cold weather gear, pink of course.

  They all followed Jack to the secret room and climbed down the ladder. As they approached the podium, Jack said “Paul, I think you should do the honors.” Paul stepped up to the podium and placed the three disks into their proper depressions and pushed them as if they were buttons in sequential order. When the third disk was pressed, the front of the podium dematerialized into an empty space.

  Actually, empty was not the proper word because there was a small, ornate key floating in the middle of the space, apparently with nothing supporting it. Janet reached in and grabbed the key but came out with nothing. “Is it another hologram?” she said.

  Jack tried with equal lack of success. Paul said “I’m the one who pressed the disks, maybe it will only respond to me.” He reached in and to everyone’s surprise; the key came away in his hand, as solid as the disks were.

  Jack said “I guess we can get into the treasure chest now. Too bad we didn’t think to bring it along down here.”