The Plasma Master

by Brian Rushton

  Chapter 1

  Nedward Simmons awoke to the sound of birds chirping in the trees around his home. He lay in bed for a time, his mind still reeling from the emotions of some dream already forgotten, the demands of the day ahead not yet a relevant concern. Ned sat up, enjoying the sound, enjoying the fact that this morning it had not been necessary to wake up by his… Oh, he thought. He hadn’t set his alarm because this was part of what was supposed to be a summer vacation. He had graduated, finally, from high school only a couple of days ago. His feelings on this fact were mixed. Of course, he was thrilled that he had completed such an important part of his life successfully. Still, the future lay before him, and the future was an ambiguous thing at best.

  Ned rolled out of bed and began to get ready for whatever he was going to do with the day, which, he realized, did not really matter. He tried to put out of his mind the fact that he had no clear idea what he wanted the rest of his life to look like. This summer, of course, he would continue to work at the pizza place down the street, earning money for college in the fall. Ned had some desire to be an engineer; he had always enjoyed designing and building things, and he had done well in the related classes he had taken in school. Which was now over. Many of the friends he had made were now gone, as well. Strange.

  Ironically, despite his intentions to sleep in, it was still early in the morning. Habit, perhaps, although Ned had been up late the past few nights, celebrating with his friends. He ate a quick breakfast and then decided to take a walk.

  Ned lived in a suburban neighborhood, although the area was rather new and there was still a considerable amount of forest nearby. Ned liked the forest, partly because it was a great place to go paintballing, and partly because it was virtually impossible to know everything you wanted to about it. There was always something to discover there, and Ned had begun to feel like the parts of his life about which that could be said were growing fewer and fewer. That was ridiculous, of course. Despite his lack of an all-encompassing goal in his life, Ned was more than reasonably prepared for his future, especially his immediate future. There was no reason to believe eighteen years had yielded and seen passed the most exciting parts of his life. But still…

  As Ned made his way through the trees, a faint humming sound off to his left prompted him to stop and listen. He supposed it could very well be an insect, or perhaps someone using an electric device, but he decided to start toward it: today’s adventure.

  The humming sound grew louder as Ned walked, and as it did it seemed to change slightly. It fluctuated in pitch and a deep throbbing began to accompany the hum. Then Ned walked around a tree and stopped. A few yards in front of him was a pulsating pillar of blue light.

  The pillar was only about an inch thick, and it was so faint that at first Ned thought his eyes had played a trick on him. But, as he examined it, Ned saw that this strange light was the source of the sound he had been following. It extended upward into the sky as far as Ned’s eyes could follow it and seemed to disappear into the ground. Abruptly, Ned realized that, although he was no longer moving closer to the light, the sound had continued to get louder. He noticed, too, that the light was growing brighter and brighter as the moments passed. A sense of warning crept over Ned; this was not at all something that belonged in the middle of the forest. What was this? This was crazy! He knew he should probably just leave. After all, what harm could come of that? Who knew what this was? For all he knew some toxic gasses were escaping from the fissure in the ground… Still, this light was rather fascinating, and there was really no reason to believe that it was dangerous. Out of curiosity, Ned picked up a stick and tossed it into the pillar of light. It snapped where the light touched it, and both fragments fell to the ground. Startled, Ned picked up one of the pieces. It was not burned; the stick seemed to have been simply snapped in two.

  Ned could think of nothing else to do to learn anything of this strange light, so he decided to sit and wait. The pillar had not grown at all in thickness, at least not as far as Ned could tell, so he decided that there was no notable risk. He found a comfortable spot on the ground and watched, fascinated anew. Ned had wondered whether the light would eventually become too bright to look at directly; in such a case he might have left. Instead, however, beyond a certain point the light pillar seemed to grow in solidity rather than intensity. The sound, too, did not become unbearable. In fact, once it became impossible to see through the light, the sound seemed to quiet down again, and Ned’s vigil was accompanied by a steady, low hum, although Ned would have described it as a “surge;” it seemed to him that there might be some energy transference taking place between something in the sky and the ground, or perhaps something under it. Whatever that means, he thought blankly. Ned was glancing upward in an effort to make out anything that might be the source of the light when he realized that it was ending. He could see the top of the pillar now, and at its top the light flared outward in a blue sphere, about a foot in diameter. Was it just dropping? The ball didn’t seem to be falling as fast as it would if it had been dropped from, say, an airplane, but of course Ned had nothing by which to make a useful comparison of the speed. He thought suddenly that he should at least hide behind a tree so that he wouldn’t get hit by anything when the ball hit the ground, but then he realized that it was slowing as if fell. As it passed through the tops of the trees, the ball was falling no faster than a leaf would. The glowing ball at the top of the pillar had shrunk to almost nothing, and Ned watched in awe as what appeared to be a blue gemstone alighted silently on the forest’s damp earth.

  Ned stared at the stone for long moments, not daring to move, not having even the faintest desire to leave. The stone gave off only a very faint light now, and Ned wondered if even that were not merely a reflection of the sunlight. It was partially transparent, and its surface was roughly spherical, although it had smooth edges all around it. It was only about an inch in diameter, just like the light pillar had been.

  Finally Ned’s curiosity got the best of him, and he stooped down and picked the stone up. It was neither heavy nor light for its size, and its surface was about the same temperature as a normal rock. Ned realized that he very well could have scalded his hand by touching something that had just fallen out of the sky and was more than a little relieved that he hadn’t. He looked around the clearing again and, seeing nothing else out of the ordinary, put the stone in his pocket and started back home.