by A. D. Nance
the steep angle, to get to the very top. Once there, they stayed for awhile taking in the Blue Ridge mountaintop vista.
"This is one of the greatest sights in this part of the country," Dad exclaimed.
"It sure is," the son agreed, and added, "thanks for stopping here."
No one else was around. This mountain was theirs. They had conquered it. This was their rare day of adventure.
"It is more beautiful than I imagined," Dad said as he wiped a tear from his left eye.
The son pointed and said,
"Look at that Dad!"
An eagle took flight from the top of a high pine tree. It flew seemingly effortlessly, yet majestically to one of the near peaks. It was indeed worth the time and effort today to see these awesome things.
Now as Eldon was watching the eagle, he was 'carried' closer to it until he could see it close up. Now his view was the same as that eagle's. It turned its head toward the sun and there was the high mountain again. He had a view of the top with a castle, closer than ever. Eldon was now some great winged creature, flying up to its goal – the grand shining castle. It approached a high terrace of the castle. In the center of the terrace was a pole with crossbars – a perch made especially for the flying creature. He landed on it. A royal dignitary with his attendants came near to him.
The Dad was looking across the Blue Ridge valley and yet he was still at the mountain castle. The royal person was right in front of him now. The 'king' was given a medallion or something shiny like that and spoke some words which were unfamiliar except the name Eldon. He held it out toward the winged creature who was now a winged human-like creature.
Suddenly a screaming sound shattered the sky overhead. A ball of light with a flaming tail passed over the castle. At once the sky was lighted with other fire streamers. Some hit in the courtyard and on the walls. It was an attack! And from no particular direction came all the fire. The party there ran for cover. The king spoke again to Eldon. This time he understood what he was saying. He told him to 'defend us.' Eldon knew exactly what to do at that moment.
The Eldon as a dad with his son did not find out what that defense action was because that was the end and last 'castle vision' that day. Eldon knew this was a view of his future that was progressively being revealed to him. The mountain climb with his 'son' was special in itself, but now it had an added dimension. This synchronicity of times was a rare occurrence, provided by a higher outside source. Eldon felt certain that it came from the ones he knew as the Celestions. He knew there was a definite purpose why the two times, both involving a mountain, were running concurrently for him. The exact reason he did not discern yet, but he knew it was a positive one.
The chronometer read 14:21. An alert signal sounded on his monitor: 6500 for today, 22,000,000 total. Eldon had just closed his commentary on an account of a mountain rescue. It was an impossible situation – a fall from a high cliff. The victim's survival was attributed to a 'miraculous wind.' But wait, 14:23 stood out in his mind. For some reason he felt that something would happen at 14:23. He stared at the chronometer. He meditated on what he had learned from his travels and others about time. Some had told him that time is only an illusion, a game to keep us busy until we can rise up out of it somehow. No past, no future, only present is real in a twinkling of an eye. The eye of a dancing baby sparks the never-ending hunger of ibee minds as it all swirls, flows and merges together. He slowly rose and walked to the window. The gray sky was accented by wandering light and dark patches. A faint beep signaled a new segment – 14:23.
Now he knew what 14:23 meant. He had the memory of the mountain climb with his son on Earth. It happened and it was all in his head now.
The next day in the factory, Eldon was apprehensive and especially alert to details. He suspected that the Celestions, or whatever power sent him the 'vision', was not finished with him yet. Maybe he would see clues as to the meaning of what he experienced.
Something else did happen to him that morning. He was watching a formation process on one of the lines when there was a malfunction. The material that was to be the cube shell of some of the seemarks, did not come out of the applicator ports. Several seemarks were melted, smashed, and spread over the conveyor. The inside silicon and 'brain matter' was splattered around with sparkling fire rolling over it. An unusual occurrence, which Eldon wondered about. Was there something behind this incident? It was apparently a time marker, because just then Eldon got that sensation of expectation again. Just as he had at his desk yesterday, he knew something was coming in the next two minutes or so. He noted the time on his chronometer – 9:10. At 9:12 it was revealed to him.
It was a memory of an event. But it was not just an event, it was a ten year period. He had been taken again to another place, time, and dimension of space, and returned two minutes before he was taken. But he had not aged. He had only the memory which revealed more in detail the closer he looked into it.
The ten year period was at another manufacturing plant. But it was very different. Primitive physical labor in a hot, dirty and dark environment was a burdensome impression to bear. The 'slave' workers were driven by harsh automaton masters. Serpentite had to be extracted by hand with small tools from veins in the Khorda stone. It was put in bags on the backs of stout workers and taken to a collection station. There it was 'smelded' down to a size and shape that could be used in the power units they were making. Those units were vital to the power needs of a community that was near, perhaps directly above, Eldon suspected.
After two solar years, Jalon (Eldon in this place) was given his fourth assignment in the 'Incubus', a name given to the place by one of the masters. At four times during the work day, he was to leave his mining routine and inspect various tools and Serpentite bags of the workers. If any were defective he was to take them to the store and get them replaced. As tool inspector he was able to get to know most all the workers and gained the respect of many. His position was envied by some since he was not required to be in the tightest, dirtiest, most dangerous areas because he had to be able to make his rounds in the Incubus. At inspection time the tools were passed up the line out of the pits so he could examine them. The regular workers were not allowed to turn in tools.
One day when the work stopped, Jalon was called to come to level B3 tunnel 8 to inspect something. When he got there, two workers had just come out of tunnel 8 into the main shaftway, running as if in a race. Jalon saw this as quite unusual. Halfway into tunnel 8 Jalon found one of the mine masters standing over a worker lying face down. The master was removing the Serpentite bag from his lifeless body. Then he stepped back and said to Jalon,
"Take the tool from his front side."
Jalon turned the body over. It was Elicriss, a longtime miner. Sticking out through his beard was the handle of a small sharp digging tool. Jalon slowly moved away the beard to show the tool firmly planted in his neck. He carefully extracted it and stood to face the master.
"What happened?" Jalon asked.
"Self-termination," was the cold reply, adding, "He removed his throat filter and terminated." The master's artificial voice had an even heavier breath sound as it hissed out of his face mask. Jalon made a quick scan of the floor but did not see a filter.
"I don't understand..." Jalon mumbled in disbelief. He knew Elicriss and did not believe that he would terminate himself.
The master emptied the contents of the S-bag into a small bucket and then handed the bag to Jalon.
"I would like to send this bag to his grandson on the surface, his only living relative that I know of," Jalon said sadly.
"The bag must stay here," came the reply through the dark mask.
"This was on his body for years. It was the only thing he had –" Jalon protested.
"No, Jalon. It is needed here."
Jalon just stood there defiantly keeping a grip on the bag. T
hen the master snatched it away from him and said,
"Go. Return to your duties."
Jalon sighed, turned and walked away from, as he saw it, another murder scene in the Incubus. But there was nothing he could do about it. The master hissed, tossed the bag to the side and called for a team to dispose of the body.
After some days, the bag was still on the side of the tunnel but out of sight in a crevice. Two of the miners were using it to store Khorda root. Whenever they would come upon some of those roots when digging, they would save some. It provided some extra bio-energy. But they had to hide it because it was not allowed. When there was a cave-in at the leading end of tunnel 8, it had to be evacuated. Later the bag was found along with others. The bags were piled at the entrance to the tunnel. The next day workers were ordered to quickly take the bags to the collection station in the main shaftway and dump them into the smelder hopper because they were behind schedule now. All the bags were dumped into that hopper without checking the contents. They just assumed all of them had Serpentite. The bag with the roots in it was dumped there too. No one knew or imagined what would happen when those roots were mixed under heat and pressure with the Serpentite.
The smelding machine started to vibrate violently. A worker on the
