The Otherlings and the Crystal Amulet

by S V Hurn

  Dr. Venturini exhaled heavily. “Yes, how ironic, that her funding this project would also lead to her demise.”

  Hans said with a bit of a chill in his voice, “Her own arrogance would be her undoing—very unfortunate.”

  “Let me know when the team has been cryogenically frozen. Also, when you are finished with Dr. Kern, dispose of his memory.”

  Hans kept his thoughts to himself and reflected on how he might accomplish that task. “When the time comes, I will take care of him personally.”

  Lucca responded, “I trust everything else will go according to plan.”

  Hans reply was simple. “Only time will tell if this mission actually goes as planned.”

  “Yes, time will tell, my friend.” The screen went blank.

  Hans pushed back from the desk, stood and straightened his suit jacket. He knew it was time to get things done. He exited the offices and determined that it was also time for a serious conversation with Dimitri.

  As Hans entered Dimitri’s room, he noticed something was not as it should be—then Dimitri attacked him from behind. The Russian was a large man, but Hans was bigger and highly trained. Hans grabbed Dimitri’s arm and twisted him to the floor face down, then held him in place with a knee firmly planted in his back, arm contorted in a way that left Dimitri helpless to defend himself.

  Hans said, showing no signs of exertion, “We really need to discuss your attitude.”

  “Let me go you fucking Nazi!”

  Hans moved away from him and said calmly, “Now is that any way to talk? For God’s sake, get up you blubbering idiot!”

  “Why am I here?” Dimitri shouted.

  Hans picked him up off the floor and pushed him to the bed before starting in on him. “For once will you just listen. Your expertise is needed for what could be the most important mission of all history. Furthermore, most people would jump at the chance to have the opportunity of a new start in life and a chance at immortality.”

  “I am a very important man in Russia!”

  “Yes, I saw that when we had to go to Northern Siberia to fetch you from your miserable existence; very important, indeed. You must ask yourself, Dimitri, why you think you are here after such an important discovery. Could it be that the powers that be are indeed a part of this organization? The decision that you should be here came from the top, for your President is just a subservient member of a far more powerful order. So, you see, my friend, you are not as important as you believe yourself to be.

  The others are here mostly because they are at the top of their respective fields, but also because each of them found themselves in a bit of a bind in their home countries. We rescued them and offered them a new start on an important mission that may change the future of our existence. So you see, you must ask yourself this question—knowing that your past life of parties and women is, to say the least, no longer viable; would you rather be part of the future and set forth on a mission that will, no doubt, be history in the making? Or would you rather make a feeble attempt to return to a life you once knew, knowing what you now know? Because, my friend, you will surely have your memory erased before you ever left this place alive. Then where would you be?”

  Dimitri sat on the edge of his bed and started to sob. Hans stood in front of him and said, “Be brave my friend, for courage is the only thing that will get you beyond this horrible feeling of isolation. I encourage you to embrace what has been bestowed upon you. For your resistance to your new life is futile.”

  Dimitri had been whipped into submission. He felt hopeless and helpless, stripped of control over his own destiny. Imprisoned in some kind of hellish nightmare. Trapped like a caged animal without the ability to escape. His head was swimming in the horrid depths of sheer uncontrollable dread.

  Hans said, “I will return, and I hope you will have made the decision to stay.”

  Dimitri needed to know only one thing. He had only one question to ask, his eyes swollen and trembling with the kind of fear he had never experienced, “Will we be returning to Earth?”

  CHAPTER 20

  After a long few weeks of working diligently to bring the project to completion, the first “FREE” (Frozen Remains Encapsulated for all Eternity), as it was christened, was being prepped for delivery to Arizona from JPL.

  Alex and Dorathy were lying in the sand soaking up the late day Polynesian sun in front of her cozy beach house. “God, this is heaven, Alex. I never want to leave this place; I want to stay here forever with you. Even if a giant storm swept it all away, I would live in a tree with you.” She turned to point at a tree. It was old and large with a few thick sturdy branches that spanned out to create a perfectly symmetrical canopy. “Oh honey, wouldn’t it be great, I always wanted a treehouse up there. We could put a deck with an old brass telescope and spend our evenings with a good bottle of wine gazing up at the stars. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

  Alex leaned over to slip his arm under her head and kissed her. “That would be wonderful my love. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my days living in a tree with you.”

  Alex had made other plans for the time of his proposal, but this seemed to be the right moment. He had been carrying the ring in his small backpack knowing she would never happen to find it there. He sat up and unzipped a small side pocket, hiding it from her view. He removed the ring from the box and clutched it in his hand.

  “I have been waiting for the right moment but every moment with you, Dora, is perfect.” He rolled to his feet and bent down on one knee in the sand. He took Dorathy’s hand in his. Tears began to shine in his eyes. “I never thought this kind of happiness existed until you walked through my door and into my life. I love you, Dora, with all my heart. Will you please do me the honor of being my wife, for better or for worse, ‘til death do us part?”

  Dorathy started to sob tears of happiness. “Yes, my darling, YES!” She tackled him and lay atop him in the sand. They laughed and embraced, covering each other with kisses. The ring sparkled in the fading light of the sun as he slipped it onto her finger. They sat in the sand wrapped in the safety of each other’s arms and watched in silence as the sun dipped below the horizon, covering the sea with a beautiful, eerie green glow.

  Dorathy looked into her fiancé’s eyes and said, “At the end of a perfect day the beginning of the rest of our life together.” They kissed passionately and fell back into the sand to make love with a billion stars as witnesses to their true, unfading love.

  The cryogenic tubes arrived in the cavern twenty-four hours later. They had been stored exactly where Stuart had said they would be found. The team flew in armed only with night-vision goggles and a moving truck. In and out within thirty minutes, they headed to the secret base without incident.

  Stuart was busy with Brenda, preparing Henry’s new SELF, when his cryogenic tube rolled through the lab doors. Stuart had coached Brenda on the stages of freezing. “Great, they’re here. I’ll get the first capsule prepped and ready to go. Can you handle the rest of the procedure by yourself?”

  “I’m sure I can,” Brenda said with confidence.

  When Stuart had completed his task, he and Brenda worked together to carefully position Henry inside the tube and seal it. A renewed sense of commitment flooded through Brenda. “One down, three to go.”

  A bit apprehensive, Brenda stared at Henry’s cryotube. She needed to confirm what she thought she already knew, and she needed to clear the fog from the tangled thoughts spinning in her mind by laying the facts out. “What we are doing here is basically removing our soul and repositioning it into our SELF. Then we die, we get frozen, and what you have been saying, Stuart, is that our soul goes to the other side . . . heaven . . . another planet, another reality.” Brenda stopped to think for a moment. “We get shot out into space in a ship capable of finding its way to that reality. Then, if all goes as planned, we are revived and can go searching for heaven. With any luck, we can maintain the proper frequency and return to Earth.” She emitted a
nervous, uncontrolled laugh and said, “There are so many things wrong with what I just said, I don’t even know where to start! Earth . . . people on Earth have been searching for answers that have eluded us since the beginning of time. We come back . . . IF we come back—what and when are we coming back to? With the time slippage will there be anyone left to report to? It ultimately seems a bit pointless, don’t you think?”

  Stuart thought for a good while before sharing his thoughts. “What I think is irrelevant. What I know is that man has always sought to find what lay just beyond the horizon. Without that yearning we might still think the planet is flat. As you said, the search for the answer is part of our DNA, encoded there by another, far more advanced being. Deep down there must be a part of you that wants to go on this mission, otherwise why would you be here in the first place?”

  “Well Stuart,” she began, “How about it, given the choice would you go?”

  Stuart took a moment before answering, already knowing his answer. “If not for my family, yes, I believe I would.”

  A look of concern crossed her face, her eyes filled with a sudden sadness. “Your family—you must be very angry that you were brought here. Dimitri screwed up in the final hour so to speak. He’s a brilliant man behind that drunken stupor, but he did figure it out, the higher dimensional frequency, thank God. Better late than never.”

  Stuart needed a straight answer, “Brenda, do you think they will let me go?”

  Brenda sighed and looked into Stuart’s eyes. She saw a good, kind man. “Hans is a standup guy and I think you will go home, but not until he has your memory wiped clean.”

  “What!” Stuart was distressed. “What do you mean wiped clean?”

  “Listen to me carefully. I’m the only one who can calibrate that machine. The order of how things must be done is simple. I must set the machine for you then I have to adjust the machine for myself since someone else will have to perform the freezing process on me. Once they believe your memory has been erased, they will prepare you for transport back to Arizona. What if I told you to fake it? In fact, don’t say a word, keep a blank look on your face and go down for the count. I want people to know what’s going on here; I want our lives to count for something. Can you do that, Stuart, can you do that for me, for us? We are in an underground sinkhole in the French Alps outside of CERN.”

  Stuart began to tear up. “For what it’s worth, thank you.”

  “It’s not done yet buddy,” she said with new-found hope.

  The next morning Dorathy couldn’t wait to go to the south side of the island and meet Athena and Kevin and the rest of the people who had been flown in for the small ceremony on the beach. Alex had let her in on the surprise that Athena had orchestrated the whole affair. Lucy and Roger, along with Jack, Melanie, Hugo and his wife and Hendrik and his family were all there. Lori and her father, Alex’s oldest friend, and most of the crew from Lifecor made it as well.

  As Alex and Dorathy entered the adjoining courtyard, Athena caught sight of them and ran over, hugging them both. “Surprise, Mom!”

  Dorathy smiled from ear to ear. “How did you keep this a secret? You’ve never been able to keep anything a secret!”

  “Oh, I’m good when I have to be. You look great, Mom, you look so happy. I’m so excited for you, for you both!”

  Dorathy was bouncing with happiness. “I’m excited for me! Where’s the rest of the gang?”

  “Over at the pool bar, half in the bag.”

  “Great, let’s go join them!”

  Arm in arm, the three of them went tripping down the steps to the pool area. It was a beautiful day—the warm trade winds were blowing rustling the fronds of the palms in the surrounding gardens. The soft sound of Polynesian music whispered in the background and the smell of exotic flowers drifted in the air.

  Lucy was the first to greet them. Holding up her glass she yelled, “To the future Dr. and Mrs. Alex Mason!” Everyone turned and cheered, raising their glasses in a toast. Dorathy was all smiles and, laughing, and Lucy jokingly announced to the bartender, “All drinks are on me, spin the bar!”

  Dorathy called out, “So, can someone fill me in on when my wedding is?”

  “Lucy climbed up on the bar and yelled back, “It’s Saturday and it’s just us special people on this tiny, little island in the middle of the big blue ocean that get to see you get married, yay!”

  Jack wadded up some wet napkins and threw them at Lucy in fun. “Okay maybe I should get off the bar, although I do have underwear on.” Jack bent his head as though he was trying to sneak a peek and Melanie whacked him on the arm.

  Dorathy was laughing so hard she was crying. She leaned into Alex and looked into his eyes and said, “Thank you.” Alex burned the image of his future wife’s face at that moment into the depths of his memory because he never wanted to forget her smile, her beautiful smile.

  It was Magnus’s turn; his SELF was now ready for transference. He and Brenda sat up half the night, talking about their lives. He was a good man but suffered the same consequences as the rest of them. The ambition to succeed in life meant that they were alone in this world, no one to miss them and no family to love them. They had each accomplished so much, but in the end, who really cared if they left this life?

  Magnus was being prepped by Brenda. He was lying on the table, his bright eyes glowing against his ebony skin, stricken with fear as his thoughts turned to the unknown voyage ahead. “Tell me again,” he said, his voice cracking and barely a whisper, “what you think we will see and feel when we have gone to the depths of the unknown?”

  Brenda smiled and said, her voice laced with hope, “I think it will be a wondrous place and I bet we are met by everyone we once have known and loved.”

  Magnus felt a comforting peace wash over him in his final moment and said, “Sounds heavenly, my dear.”

  She smiled back and injected a sedative into his IV line. “Sweet dreams, my friend, and I’ll be seeing you on the other side very soon.”

  “Cheerio . . . old . . . gal,” and he was out.

  Brenda took the controls and started the procedure. Within a few hours she and Stuart were placing Magnus’s SELF into a cryotube.

  Dimitri, the last to show up at the facility, still had some time to wait for his SELF to be ready. He had reluctantly agreed to cooperate. Brenda had to baby him through detox, as he was falling apart at the seams without his precious vodka. She gave him mild sedatives to calm his nerves and she consoled him. She had started to care about his well-being and found common interests that would follow them to the other side.

  “Good morning, sunshine. How are you doing today? Still having bad dreams?”

  He growled back at her, “I am fine, get me some water!”

  “Oh God, please don’t start that macho bullshit with me again, I’m so over it! You might be able to talk to poor Stuart like that, but don’t try and intimidate me with your false sense of superiority. Why don’t you get yourself a set of balls already!” Just then there was a huge bang and roar from above. Dimitri almost started to cry from the stress.

  “Get a grip, will ya? They’re testing the rocket launchers today, you big fat baby!”

  Brenda shook her head and decided she had better things to do than hang around Dimitri when he was like this. Instead she went into the lab to check on the cryotubes and how their SELFs were progressing.

  Stuart was standing in front of the two canisters, mesmerized by what was taking place in front of him. “How is this possible?” he asked Brenda as she sidled up next to him.

  “Bioprinting has been going on for decades; even the ability to peer into one’s thoughts. I just took it all a colossal step forward.”

  “I know about bio fabrication. I’ve seen the results first-hand,” Stuart said. “but not on this scale. Arms, legs, kidneys, even a few hearts, but not fully functioning bodies. Then the added factor of recreating alien/human DNA . . . It’s mind-blowing.”

  “It’s not really, Stuar
t. You punch in the right sequences and inject the proper bio-codes into the molecular solution; it’s not any different than punching a few keys on a keyboard, putting paper in a printer and ink in a cartridge and pressing start.”

  Stuart looked at her in amazement. “It is very different, Brenda; you’re creating a human being!”

  “Well someone was going to eventually figure it out, why not me?” As she walked away, she said in dramatic fashion, “Remember, it’s written in the stars.”

  Stuart took a chair, spun it around, swung his leg over the seat, and rested his chin on its back. He sat deep in thought, contemplating what the next fifty years would bring. What was it going to be like when he became an old man, in what kind of world would his son be living? He prayed that Brenda was right about the sequence of events that would lead to his release. But deep down he thought if not for his family would he really consider being a part of this mission? Maybe.

  After a couple of days of planning the ceremony and celebration with Athena and relaxing while enjoying everyone’s company, Dorathy’s wedding day had arrived. It was a balmy, late afternoon and Dorathy was standing in front of a full-length mirror dressed in an elegant but simple white dress that had small pearl bead embellishments on the bodice. Her hair was loosely pulled up with fresh island flowers adorning her black hair. Athena came up behind her and, as mother and daughter peered into the mirror, said, “Mom, you’re beautiful and you look so happy. Alex is a great man and your soulmate. I can see it the way he looks at you, he loves you so much. I’m so happy for you, Mom. You deserve to be happy.”

  Dorathy was tearing up, “I love you, baby girl. I want you to be happy in your life. I’m so proud of you and the woman you’ve become. Kevin is such a sweet young man. I know that the two of you are happy together and that pleases me so much.”