Ascension Discovery

by Amy Proebstel

  “Really?” Petre said in exasperation as he stared at the mess all around him. Not wanting to set Jena down, he awkwardly knelt on the ground and picked up the towels and deposited them back into the basket. He managed to open the door, grab the basket, and enter the telepod without further incident. Then he realized he did not know where Jena was going to stay in the telepod now that she was awake. He dropped the laundry basket in the hole left from where he had kept Jena on their previous trip.

  With no other option available Petre decided Jena would have to sit on his lap during the teleportation. As he maneuvered toward the operator console, he asked Jena, “Are you ready to go for a ride?” He sat down in the operator seat and settled Jena on his left knee keeping her curious fingers furthest from the activation module. As soon as he had shut the exterior door and began the activation procedures, Jena started slapping the metal panel in front of her.

  Petre was finding it hard to concentrate on getting the sequence correct to start the telepod. He wondered if he should find another place for Jena to sit until after they arrived at his water craft. Inspiration struck and Petre decided to shift Jena from his lap up to his shoulder. She was facing the other direction now and was interested in the head rest on the seat.

  Petre used her distraction to complete the start up. The telepod rose from the ground and Petre had to close his eyes to visualize the coordinates of the uninhabited strip of land where he had left his water craft. It took him longer than usual, and with a little less clarity, with Jena bouncing her legs up and down on his lap and her knees jabbing him in the stomach. With as much confidence as he could muster, he placed his hand on the activation module and they were gone.

  As soon as they blinked into the air above the ground beside Petre’s water craft, Petre began to set the telepod onto the ground. Jena had been startled by the sudden blanking of her senses, her legs lost all of their strength and she sat down hard on his lap. As soon as she was sitting all of her breakfast spewed out of her mouth and dripped down the front of Petre’s shirt and pants.

  “Eehw,” Petre screamed even though he could not move to escape the smelly mess. His hand jerked on the manual override navigation stick and they hit the ground hard. Petre immediately grabbed Jena harder as they struck the ground and he heard cargo falling in the back of the telepod. He took a steadying breath and finished the shutdown procedures faster than he ever had before. He hit the button on the console to open the cargo door and jumped up from his seat.

  He had thought he would be able to get outside swiftly, but the shifting cargo had obscured the path he had left to the door. The odor from the vomit was becoming too much for Petre, he turned around and hurled all over some of the boxes of cargo. Of course, the smell did not improve with his addition so he had to move boxes out of his way with a foot and one hand to escape the noxious stench in the telepod. When he finally reached the door, he inhaled the fresh air from outside.

  He strode down the ramp and set Jena on the ground. Quickly pulling his shirt off over his head, he walked over to the water’s edge and dunked his shirt in to rinse it out. He then used the sopping shirt to sponge off his neck, chest, and pants as best he could. Petre rinsed his shirt again and wrung it out.

  When he turned around to head back to the telepod, he realized Jena was not where he had left her. Immediately he searched the area near the telepod, broadening his search to include the beach, then the dock where he saw Jena reaching over the edge, lose her balance and fall head first into the water. It all happened so fast he could hardly believe what he was seeing. Not only had Jena tumbled into the water, he felt sure he saw a dark shadow push her from behind.

  “Jena!” He screamed and raced in a straight line to where she had entered the water. In his haste, he threw his shirt to the ground and charged through chest-deep grass which was growing in the sand along the beach. Petre felt the abrasive ribbons of grass cut through the exposed flesh of his arms and chest, but he did not care. Jena had not resurfaced in the water.

  After what felt an eternity, he ran into the water and slogged through several slippery steps before he dove into the water where he had last seen her. The water was murky, but he was able to make out Jena’s white body as she was starting to float back up to the surface. Petre grabbed her arm and hauled her up as fast as he could. As soon as her head broke through from under the water, Jena took a great lungful of air and started screaming. It was the best sound Petre had ever heard.

  He hugged her to his chest and said, “Jena, you scared me to death. Don’t you realize you could have drowned? Why did you wander away from me?” He held her away from himself and looked her over to make sure she was going to be okay. Her breathing sounded good, her crying sounded healthy, and her life was safe once again.

  He was amazed at how rapidly everything had happened. He almost watched his daughter die right before his eyes. He was mortified. Petre now realized he was not going to be able to take his eyes off of her as long as she was awake. Twice, today alone, she was almost seriously injured on his watch; three times if Petre included crashing the telepod. Petre had to wonder if there was something about Jena which brought danger into both of their lives.

  Petre wearily pushed through the water to go back to the telepod. He needed to get Jena into something dry, or she would catch a cold. A sick child was about the last thing Petre needed. Holding her close to his bare chest, he hoped he was generating enough body heat to keep the little girl from going into shock from almost drowning.

  Just as he reached the cargo door of the telepod, Petre felt a gush of warm fluid running down his side soaking into his already wet pants. All Petre could do at this point was laugh at how angry he would have been before Jena almost drowned, now he was glad she was alive to even make a mess on him. Besides, he was already soaking wet and would have to change his clothes once he got back on his water craft.

  Petre hugged her tighter to himself as he entered the telepod. He reached over several fallen boxes to grab the basket of blankets he had deposited there earlier. With a dry towel wrapped around Jena, they crossed the beach and walked down the dock to where his water craft was located.

  Sensing as though he was finally home, Petre stepped onto the water craft and looked down into the big blue eyes staring back at him and said, “Welcome home, Jena.” He hurried below to get Jena out of the wind. Setting her on the floor, he shut the door behind him so Jena had nowhere to go in the room. He was learning his lessons pretty promptly that Jena was mobile, and she could get into trouble in mere seconds.

  Feeling secure for the first time, Petre rummaged through his pile of clothes until he found a new shirt and pants in which to change. He started to remove his pants but then noticed Jena was sitting on the floor watching him. Suddenly feeling embarrassed, he took his dry clothes into the bathroom, closed the door behind himself, and then struggled in the small space to remove his wet shoes, socks, and pants. He had to sit on the toilet to finally be able to strip his pants off inside out. He was panting and cursing at how long it was taking.

  Petre grabbed a washcloth from the cupboard beside the sink to clean up the urine on his side before putting on the clean clothes. Using some of the purloined soap from the Golden Jesisca he lathered up the washcloth and gave himself a quick sponge bath. After rinsing a couple of times, Petre felt clean enough to get dressed in the dry clothes.

  Not knowing what Jena had been up to while he was in the bathroom, he threw open the door to investigate. As the door swung open, he felt a small thud and then heard Jena start screaming. He stepped through the narrow opening and looked on the floor behind the door. Jena was lying on her back with bloody fingers balled up in her mouth.

  “What happened, Jena?” Petre asked as he scooped her up off of the floor. He noticed the tops of her fingers were all scraped up, and then he looked at her face and saw a lump forming on her forehead. Petre realized she must have been crawling behind the door when he had opened it. The bottom of the door had
scraped her knuckles just before it struck her head knocking her over onto her back. Petre felt sick as he realized he had just caused injury to his daughter. “This is awful,” Petre cried to nobody in particular. “I can’t seem to get anything right with you, Jena.”

  Still holding her he went back into the washroom and retrieved the wet washcloth. He gently dabbed the blood from the knuckles of her scraped fingers. He rinsed the cloth out with cold water and then held the cool fabric to the lump on her forehead. With light streaming down from the bathroom skylight, Petre looked deeply into her eyes. For the second time she stared up at him during his gentle ministrations, and he realized her eyes were the exact unusual shade of blue as his own. If he had needed any further confirmation that Jena was his daughter he certainly had it now.

  Petre realized he would not be able to do anything until Jena was asleep and he was anxious to get going. Now that he was on his water craft with all of his previous supplies he concentrated on making a cup of warm foxl broth and laced it lightly with epeny.

  He picked up the cup of liquid and held it to Jena’s mouth. “You need to drink this, Jena,” he encouraged by tipping the liquid into her mouth. She automatically swallowed and, liking the new flavor, she leaned forward for more. Little by little, Petre fed her the drugged broth and was relieved when she finally started to droop heavily in his arm.

  Learning from past experience, he looked around for the lowest spot in the cabin for her to sleep. Petre pulled a drawer out from the bottom of his chest of drawers. He removed several hands full of clothes and unceremoniously dumped them on the floor. With as much gentleness as he could, he nestled her into the open drawer and used a clean towel to cover her for warmth.

  Trying to walk as quietly as possible Petre left the cabin, shutting the door behind him to keep Jena safely on board. He returned to shore to get the boxes of stock moved onto his water craft.

  Every several trips, Petre felt the need to check in on Jena. He quietly opened the cabin door and peered in at Jena. She appeared to be sleeping peacefully and had not moved from where he had settled her. He closed the door with a sigh of relief and continued transferring the last few loads into the cargo hold of his water craft.

  When Petre was grabbing the last box from the telepod, he wearily exited the cargo ramp and palmed the door shut. He set the box down and made a half-hearted attempt to gather branches from around the site and throw them on the top and on the sides of the telepod. He thought about leaving the key with the telepod and then reconsidered that he may come back at some point and want to use the telepod. Petre picked up the final box and trudged across the sand, over the dock, and finally onto his water craft.

  With one hand he pulled the rope tying his water craft to the dock. He wanted to get away from the telepod as soon as possible. Concentrating on the navigation system of the water craft, he set a fast course across the bay to make it to the calm, open water of the ocean. He mentally set his newly purchased anti-collision system so he would not have to worry about staying awake to navigate the waters.

  The idea of making another trip into the cargo hold for just one box seemed like too much effort, so he decided to bring this last box into the main cabin with himself. Petre was so tired, he felt as though he could sleep for a week. He carefully opened the cabin door, making sure Jena was not behind the door, and clumsily dropped the box on the floor beside the door. He winced as the box fell over onto its side with a loud thud.

  He closed the door behind him, automatically looked over to make sure that Jena was still comfortably asleep, and took the few steps to his sleeping platform. Petre dropped onto his back on the soft platform, he did not even have the will to cover himself up before he, too, was fast asleep.

  Chapter Fifteen

  AMANDA WAS NERVOUS. Shemalla had told her they were ready to go. Every contingency was covered, they hoped. Shemalla was happy with the progress Amanda had made with the use of her diamond ring. Amanda looked down on her left hand and once again thanked Neal for the means to a safe journey to get back to their children. Sitting on Shemalla’s couch, Amanda once again patted her pants pocket to assure herself that the packet of papers was still securely in place. She checked the top tie on the carry sack on the floor between her feet to be sure the contents would not spill out.

  Shemalla entered the room and saw each of the nervous motions Amanda performed. She could totally understand Amanda’s concern. This trip was not without dire consequences if she failed. Amanda could be putting herself in grave danger, possibly even death, if she were unsuccessful in passing through the gate. Shemalla was waiting to tell Amanda the last piece of the puzzle until they were at the gate. As much as she trusted her, Shemalla felt that her own knowledge of the gates could not be trusted to a resident who remained living on Earth.

  “Are you ready to go now?” Shemalla asked, trying to sound confident.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” Amanda replied with a weak smile plastered to her lips.

  “Okay, let me tell you what to expect from the first part of our journey,” Shemalla spoke slowly. “I know I’ve already told you before, but I want it fresh in your mind so you don’t create a ripple in our transfer with your fear.”

  Amanda nodded solemnly. She was both excited and scared to teleport without a telepod. She had always wondered if it were possible to achieve after watching science fiction shows on television, now she was going to experience it first-hand. My dad would be thrilled to do this, Amanda thought with a smile. She looked up at Shemalla and said, “Go ahead, I’m ready to listen.”

  “We are going to drive out to the hills. Once we get there we’ll have to hike until we get to a particular cave I know which has hieroglyphics of the type indicating a special status to the ancients. From that location, I will have the most earth energy to be able to translate both of us to the gate at Campeche. During the translation, you will have to keep your mind clear of fear or confusion, no matter what happens. I will need all of my concentration to make sure we both get there alive. Do you understand?”

  “That sounds pretty straightforward to me.”

  “Okay then, pick up your bag and let’s get going.”

  They silently walked out to the car. Amanda sat in the passenger seat with her bag on her lap. She fastened her seatbelt and stared straight ahead out the windshield. Should I really go through with this? Amanda asked herself. Bryon and Alena will be good parents to the girls. Really? What am I thinking? I’m their mother, and they need to be with me. I am going to do this. I have to do this.

  The ride in the car was only about twenty minutes. Shemalla turned off the engine and said, “There’s the trail over there,” she pointed out Amanda’s window to where the trail head was clearly marked.

  Amanda opened her door and put both her arms through the drawstring ropes and slung her carry sack onto her back. It was a little awkward, but she did not have to worry about dropping her bag if she lost her balance and fell. Hiking had never been her forte.

  Shemalla took the lead on the trail. She set a brisk pace since she wanted Amanda to have as early a start as possible when she finally got to Tuala. Making sure Amanda was still close behind her, she continued along the path until they reached the cave. She carefully walked into the dim interior of the cavern and followed the left-hand wall until she reached the back of the cave.

  Amanda had paused at the opening to let her eyes adjust to the dimness within. She had to take a few quick steps to catch up when she realized Shemalla was still moving away from the entrance. Only a few moments had passed before she came to a stop beside Shemalla at the back of the cave. She had to concentrate to calm her nerves. This was the point of the journey where she would have to be relaxed and focused so she would not interfere with Shemalla’s concentration. Amanda needed this part to succeed so she could use the gate nearest her daughters. She could not wait to take a flight to Mexico; it had to be now or never.

  Shemalla drew Amanda closer to her until she w
as hugging her. She felt Amanda put her arms around her waist. While she knew she should make the transfer swiftly, she wanted to be careful that she was clear on her coordinates before she initiated the process. She whispered in Amanda’s ear, “Keep taking calming breaths. I’m going to begin the visualization of our destination’s coordinates. It might take me a few minutes to gather the elemy needed for both of us to go, so don’t worry. Okay?”

  “I’m okay. Do whatever you need to do. I’ll wait.”

  Shemalla had felt a difference inside the cave from the moment she had entered the dimness. It was a good sign that, when called, the energy almost seemed to leap up out of the ground to surround both of them, centered around the bright, clear birth crystal nestled on her chest just above her breasts.

  She heard Amanda’s intake of breath and knew she had also felt the energy. She felt ready and said, “It’s time, Amanda. Remember to concentrate solely on holding onto me. Keep any fear away from your thoughts. We might take a few seconds in the void before we arrive at our destination: this is normal. Ready?”

  Shemalla could feel Amanda nod in affirmation more than she could hear her whisper, “Yes.” Tightening her hold on Amanda, Shemalla closed her eyes and used the all-embracing elemental energy surrounding them to initiate the teleportation for the both of them. She maintained her focus through the void even as the seconds passed by slowly. Suddenly they arrived at their destination, surprising in the brightness of the sun after the dimness of the cave.

  Letting go of Amanda, she stepped back and smiled at their success. She wished she were able to accompany Amanda through the gate, but she was sure that her presence in Tuala would be noted by an Elder and reported back to Elder Vargen. She would have no way to keep her participation a secret from the Elder and that would jeopardize Amanda’s opportunity to reunite with her daughters. She only had a few minutes left to instruct Amanda with the final procedures before she had to return to the cave. Already she could feel the excess energy melting back into the earth.