ENCOUNTER

by Hep Aldridge

  “The display will monitor his progress and alert me if there are any problems, and the glow is a stronger version of what you experienced in our bathing facility. It will restore his body and help finalize the healing process. He needs to rest now, and we have much to discuss,” she said.

  Doc asked, “I saw the bullet, and then it disappeared; what happened to it?”

  “I broke it down to a molecular level and then removed the particles. I was locating the object when the beam was blue. The purple color indicated the particles were being removed. It turned back to blue when the process was complete.”

  “That’s amazing. What a revolution to the field of medicine that would be in our world,” Doc said.

  “We can talk more of this later,” she said as she left the building.

  We walked out of the building just in time to see the cloak being restored over the city. It was like watching the ocean rolling up on the beach and momentarily covering the sand with water, except this little wave continued until it met the canyon end and the top of the platform. As the sunlight was being blocked out, the luminescence reappeared, and the light level remained the same.

  We were heading back to our usual meeting place when Jeannie said, “No, let us go here; you need food,” and led us into the eating hall we had previously visited. The long table in the middle of the room once again had numerous dishes, pitchers, and goblets spread out on it. The room had more art on the wall, and the bench was now covered with soft cushions. Against the far wall were five basins of water with towels next to each.

  “Please, take time to refresh yourselves,” she said and pointed to the basins. It was then I realized I still had Dimitri’s blood on my hands and immediately began scrubbing them clean. The others followed suit. We all had accumulated dirt, dust, and grit from our recent encounter, and the water was cool and refreshing.

  We took our seats at the table; I looked at everyone and shook my head. “I can’t believe a couple of hours ago we were involved in a life or death battle, and now, here we are sitting down to a meal. I mean, it seems surreal—almost like a bad dream.”

  “It was a bad dream in real-time, Colt. Luckily, we all managed to wake up from it unscathed, except, of course, for Dimitri,” Doc said. “Thank you, Jeannie; you are truly a lifesaver,” he added and raised his cup in salute. We all did the same and thanked her with sincerity.

  She nodded in acceptance and said, “You have provided a great service to me and my race. You saved the Watcher, and for that, I will be eternally grateful.”

  She was standing at the end of the table and had not put the hood to her robe back up. Her angular features with the long flowing hair accenting them made her all the more beautiful, I thought. She turned and looked at me and smiled. Oh, hell, I keep forgetting she can read our thoughts. I felt a warmth come over my body as I looked at her, and she laughed—a delightful, light, soft tinkling bell kind of laugh, and I laughed with her. The adrenaline rush of the gun battle and Dimitri’s injury was leaving, and the fact that we had just survived this harrowing event began sinking in. Before long, we were all laughing, releasing our pent-up emotions, and it felt good. The horror of the attack began fading slightly, and the fatigue started setting in as we continued eating.

  Joe was the first to ask the question that had been on everyone’s mind. “Jeannie, how were you able to move Dimitri like you did? It looked like a form of teleportation.”

  “It was,” she replied. “It required a significant amount of energy to accomplish it. That is why I had to divert the power from the cloak, as you call it. Using the power from it, I was able to move him to our care facility. If my normal power source was active, such drastic action would not have been necessary. I would have had enough energy to move him easily and do much more.”

  “So, there are many additional things you could do if you had access to more of the energy?” I said.

  “Yes.”

  “And the power source you speak of lies outside the Citadel?”

  “Yes, it is beyond my reach, I am afraid.”

  Doc said, “We got a good look at your city while the cloak was down. It was magnificent and much larger than I had thought. The material—it looked like the buildings were made of polished metal.”

  “It is a material we manufacture using the energy. It is very strong and long-lasting. Most of the buildings you saw were constructed thousands of years ago.”

  “That is amazing,” Joe said. “They look brand new. Does the cloak protect them?”

  “Yes, now it does. But the cloak hasn’t always been there. It was created to protect us from natural seismic activity, rockslides, and attacks. It also makes the city invisible from the air and space.

  “Attacks?” O’Reilly asked.

  “There is so much you do not know about your world and its inhabitants. I will answer what I can, but it would take many of your years to begin to fill your educational void.”

  Dumbstruck by this answer, my mind returned to more immediate issues.

  “We need to get back outside, do something about the bodies, and police the area,” I said. “We can’t leave them there.”

  “No need,” Jeannie replied. “It has been taken care of.”

  “What do you mean?” I responded.

  “The Watcher you saved has seen to it. There is no indication that the conflict occurred. It is as it was before.”

  There she goes with those enigmatic explanations again. She gives us an answer but few if any details in explanation. When it came to Jeannie, it seemed best to accept her response and leave it at that. Some things just needed to go unexplained.

  “Well, if that’s taken care of, then I guess we need to call Fitz and Uncle Harold and let them know our problem has been taken care of and we are proceeding as planned. O’Reilly, you want to do the honors again?”

  “Will do, Colt. You want me to call them both?”

  “Yes, when we get back to the campsite, no rush.”

  “Roger that,” she said.

  “Jeannie,” I said, “may we use your bathing facilities again? I’m sure we could all use the refreshing break.”

  “Of course, you may; I will make the arrangements, and we can resume our conversations tomorrow if that is acceptable?”

  “That would be fine. It will give us some time to re-group our thoughts.”

  “Then, I will see you in the morning after your meal,” she said. “Oh, and would you please bring the crystal with you? We need to discuss its disposition.” With that, she was gone. I looked at Doc, who was looking at me with a surprised expression.

  “Did you mention the crystal?” I asked.

  “No, did you?” he responded.

  Reggie laughed and said, “Guys, she can read our thoughts, remember? And I’m sure the crystal has crossed both your minds at some point or another while we’ve been here.”

  I looked at Doc rather sheepishly and said, “I’ve got to remember that. It’s almost gotten me in trouble a couple of times.”

  “How so?” Doc asked.

  “Never mind,” I said, “just suffice to say, I caught myself in time… I think.”

  That got a chuckle from everyone, and I may even have blushed slightly.

  As things were wrapping up, I had a chance to corner Joe, whom I had noticed had been spending a lot of time with Eduardo.

  “How’s the kid doing?” I asked in a lowered voice.

  “How do you think he’s doing after being thrown into this mess?” he said rather unhappily.

  “I know; I feel bad about it, but what choice did we have?” I asked.

  “Sorry, Colt, that came out a little harsher than it should have. You’re right; we really didn’t have a choice, but I think he’s holding up pretty well. He held up his end of things down there during the gunfight. He’s a tough kid; growing up on the streets alone, he’s seen a lot. So, I think he’ll be okay, but maybe you should talk to him some. I think it would help.”

  “Can do
,” I said, “I’ll find a time a little later and talk with him. Thanks for taking care of him, Joe; I’m pretty sure you’ve got a friend for life.”

  “Hell, Colt, I think we all have a friend for life, a good friend.”

  Things started winding down as we took some bread and cheese and a couple of pitchers of the beverage we had been drinking back to our campsite.

  On our return from the bathhouse, feeling much refreshed and clean, we kicked back at the base of the platform and shared our after-dinner refreshments, trying to relax in the twilight. Talk, of course, turned to the day’s events, and I commended Reggie and O’Reilly on their stellar marksmanship. Reggie commented that she was glad she saw the sunlight glint off the sniper’s scope, or she would have missed the shooter’s location until it was too late.

  “So, you aimed for a fifty-cent-sized piece of glass from what, a hundred and fifty yards or so?”

  “Yeah,” she replied, “it was enough. I think he was repositioning to take a shot at one of you guys down below.”

  “Damn, girl, that’s some nice shooting,” Joe said, his voice conveying a level of awe and respect.

  Reggie blushed slightly and said, “Hey, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

  I said, “And O’Reilly took out our runner trying to get away.” I raised my goblet and said, “Damn glad we have you ladies on our team,” and saluted them with my drink. The others did the same.

  Joe laughed and said, “And Doc, your thespian moment played beautifully. For a minute, I even believed you might have been out of ammo.”

  “Oh, Joseph, my dear friend, my delivery didn’t hold a candle to your momentous death scene. I was convinced you had expired until you set the Claymores off and Dimitri’s “Alamo Surprise” got delivered.”

  We were all laughing as O’Reilly said, “I think we can say both your performances were explosive.”

  And so that’s how our day ended, with the Citadel protected, our friend in recovery, and laughter around the campsite. Not too bad, I thought, and tomorrow’s another day in an amazing paradise…

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  We arrived at the meeting room the next morning with the strange crystal in hand. Ever since it was given to us by Father Gonzalez, along with the cryptic notes he had found with it, we had wondered about its origin and use. There was a table set up in the meeting room, and when Jeannie appeared, we were instructed to place the crystal on it. And there it sat for the next three days as our questions about it went unanswered.

  Jeannie did spend the time, as promised, educating us on the ancient history of our world and telling us more about hers. She obligingly answered our questions and provided information we so anxiously awaited, except about the crystal. We learned her home planet was called Theria, and it was over eight thousand light-years from Earth. She also explained, in basic terms we could understand, the functioning of their Star drive. They used the Zero-Point Energy to create a bubble around their ships that bent time and space and allowed them faster than light speed, but it required a tremendous amount of energy. She said our scientists were on the right track with the concept of space being malleable and not just a linear concept. The drive they created, powered by Zero-Point Energy, allowed them to fold space and travel in a non-linear fashion. The time it took to cover that eight thousand light-years from her planet to Earth was therefore accomplished in days, not eons.

  We understood the basics of what she was saying, but she had to stop her explanations when she got into areas beyond our comprehension. She did, however, let us know our static laws of physics were one of the things holding our scientific advancement back, and it would take some time for us to realize that our laws were constraints more than benefits.

  Joe got all excited and said, “I knew it! Remember when I told those scientists at Fitz’s lab that maybe our laws of physics didn’t apply to our understanding of the silver cubes? I was right, Ha.”

  She also informed us that there were many space-faring races; many of them had, and still do visit Earth. When questioned about their mode of travel, she answered that it is as varied as their cultures are to our own.

  We found out that her planet’s scientific discovery of increasing life expectancy quickly led to an overpopulation crisis, and necessity was the driving force behind the creation of interstellar space travel tens of thousands of years ago.

  I felt like a kid watching a Sci-Fi movie as these revelations and concepts bombarded my brain, yet some of them seemed very familiar.

  Jeannie said that the first group of visitors to our planet were scientists and colonists. They found humanoid lifeforms but observed them from afar for thousands of years, not wanting to interrupt the evolutionary development here. They established outposts and flourished without interference or intrusion in either direction, totally unknown to the indigenous races. Many planets were found to be habitable, so their civilization was able to expand without destroying their home world. A balance had been achieved. Unfortunately, not all expansions or population resettlements went smoothly, she pointed out.

  She projected a 3-D image of Earth in the room. As it slowly rotated, red dots began appearing on its surface in every continent, including Antarctica and the North Pole. She informed us that these were the locations of the early outposts. Over the millennia, many outposts had to move due to severe climate change and rising sea levels. Some became too inhospitable for them to continue, so they were abandoned, and the settlers moved to other areas.

  I asked Jeannie, “How large were the outposts, and are there any remnants or buildings left?”

  “Some were large and some smaller, from thousands of settlers to a few hundred. The larger ones did leave structures intact, but they have been ravaged by time, and little if anything remains. Some have been covered by water and others by ice, shifting sands, and earth, and others by the jungles and vegetation that has engulfed them.

  By the end of our first day of “class,” we were all going into information overload. Our minds were having to make room for these new revelations and try to build mental bridges between what we had been taught and what we had just learned from Jeannie. More often than not, we were introduced to contradicting concepts or facts as we knew them.

  We were standing around, shaking our heads, and trying to sort things out when Jeannie informed us Dimitri was awake and ready to rejoin the group. Now, this was something that we could easily grasp, and we turned our attention to seeing him as we excitedly headed to the medical building.

  Jeannie, of course, had beaten us there and had Dimitri sitting up. She was still looking at the display overhead as we entered but seemed satisfied as it winked out.

  “He has done well, and his recovery is complete,” she told us as a grinning Dimitri greeted us.

  “Hey, guys, miss me?” he jovially asked as we greeted him with hugs, handshakes, and a couple of kisses from the ladies.

  He had been cleaned up since we saw him last. His clothes had been swapped out with a long tunic and pants of a pastel blue color and slippers. His old clothes, those that could be saved, had been cleaned and were next to him, folded in a neat pile with his boots.

  “Welcome back, you crazy Cossack,” I said, “you’ve got some catching up to do.”

  “Naw, I’m up to speed. Jeannie has kept me in the loop, even when I was sleeping. I have heard and seen everything you have, so I’m good to go. Pretty cool, huh?”

  I looked at Jeannie, who was smiling, and back at my good friend, whom she had snatched from the arms of the Grim Reaper himself and said, “Yeah, I’d say it was pretty damn cool,” and slapped him gently on the back.

  As we headed out of the building, Dimitri looked at Jeannie and said, “I’m kinda hungry; you got anything to eat around this place?” with a laugh.

  She responded with that magical tinkling laugh and said, “I’m sure we can find something. Besides, I’m sure everyone else is, too; it’s been a long day.”

  We headed ba
ck to the—I guess we’ll call it the dining hall—where the table had been set even more lavishly than before. There were several new dishes, including some strange-looking fruit that tasted like a cross between bananas and oranges but looked more like dragon fruit. It was deliciously refreshing, and the drink that was provided in the tankards had a pungent new flavor and more kick than anything we had had before.

  As everyone jumped in and began eating and drinking, our spirits lifted, with everyone laughing and smiling, and Dimitri was right in the middle of it, showing off his new scar. I thought I guess this can be considered a celebration as well as a much-needed decompression of emotions.

  I immediately felt a warmth come over my body and a tingling sensation that filled me with joy. I looked to the end of the table, where Jeannie was standing, staring at me, smiling. Then, the thought came to me, “It is indeed a celebration, Colt, a well-deserved celebration,” and she inclined her head to me.

  No-one stopped their laughing and drinking, and I realized that thought was meant for me only. I responded with as much emotion as I could and said, “Thank you, Jeannie; you have no idea what your trust and friendship means to me.”

  Still staring at me, she slightly nodded as she touched her fingertips to her forehead, then to her heart, and extended her arm open palm upwards to me and said, “Oh, but I do, Colt, and you are most welcome.”

  I cannot begin to explain what happened next, but it was certainly an experience I will never forget.

  Doc’s voice broke the spell as I heard him say, “Hey, Colt, you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine; why?” I answered, jolted back to reality.

  “Well, you’ve been sitting there like a statue with your drink in your hand, smiling, for a while. I just wanted to make sure you were okay; you looked kind of spaced out.”

  I looked at Jeannie, who smiled and slightly turned her head away. Can blue chicks blush?

  “I’m just fine, buddy, couldn’t be better,” I said and turned my attention back to my friends and the party, smiling in somewhat of an incredulous daze.