“If they explode into a big fireball,” Jay said, “well, that's the way of it.”
Noah licked his lips. “Then I guess it's time.”
“It's time,” Gypsy said, and the others nodded agreement.
They brought out their Bricks and Beads. Each was different, but all had the holes. “Who starts it?” Si asked.
“Maybe do it in the order we arrived here,” Gypsy said. “Seniority, you know.”
Noah held up his Brick. Si touched her Bead to it, and they merged with their six holes. Noah let go, and the blob floated there without dropping to the floor. Then Jay touched his Rock to it, and Gypsy added her Bead. Five holes, then four, as it had been before.
“Now it gets interesting,” Jay said. “Your turn, Rex.”
Rex's Brick came into view. He had been holding it all along, but it had been invisible, per his ability to modify it. He touched it to the mass. Now there were only three holes.
“And yours, Beryl,” Jay said.
Beryl's Bead was a sparkling gem. She touched it, and the mass shook and formed into two holes.
“And yours, Solita.”
Solita had, it seemed, spent the whole night with Rex, and was visibly comforted by his presence. She lifted her glossy dark Bead and touched the mass. Noah suspected that he was not the only one holding his breath.
The mass quivered as if alive. Then it puffed into vapor. The vapor swirled in an expanding cloud. The children stepped back, not letting it touch them.
The cloud became a sphere that filled the center of the room. It became translucent, then transparent; Noah could see Rex and Solita through it, opposite him. Its surface glimmered. All of them stared into it, fascinated by its emptiness. Was this all there was?
Then a three dimensional image formed. It was a swirl of tiny lights, forming a large dish thickest in the center. The individual lights were so small and crowded in the central plane that they looked like gauzy fabric. It shrank, and other dishes became visible in all directions. All of them were slowly spinning, like saucers being hurled over a lake. Each had an especially bright blob in its center, where the lights orbited faster, until they were swallowed by it.
“Those are galaxies!” Noah exclaimed. “With black holes!”
The image returned to the first one, centering on its rim. “And that must be the Milky Way, our galaxy,” Si said, squeezing Noah's hand. He hadn't realized that she had taken it until now. He was careful not to squeeze back.
The focus continued to narrow, until they seemed to be inside the disk, among the stars, which were far more widely spaced than they had seemed from a distance. It was a though they were on a spaceship, flying into the galaxy.
They passed a relatively large red star. “Beetle-juice!” Jay said. “We're coming into our section of space.” For it was as if they were traveling through space, and the sphere was their window to the scene.
They approached a medium small yellow star. Now they saw tiny motes near it, visible only because they glowed as if artificially enhanced. Several small ones were circling the star close in, and several large ones were farther out.
“The Solar System!” Noah said. “Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn--”
“Uranus, Neptune,” Si said. “And smaller stuff out beyond. With some dust near Jupiter: the asteroid belt.”
The system retreated, and the section of the galaxy around it showed. Their ship was traveling elsewhere, now they they knew the locale. Near one star was a small bright blue light. The image closed on that, and it showed as an alien spaceship in the form of a blue four sided pyramid, orbiting a yellow/green planet.
“The Ark!” Gypsy said. “Maybe that's where it came from.”
“Or another world it visited,” Jay said.
The focus centered on the planet. It was plainly not Earth: the seas were smaller and yellow, the land larger and green, and the atmosphere was faintly red. The focus descended to a lake, where a dinosaur-like creature browsed on fern-like trees. Fish swam in the lake, but they were not like any seen on Earth; they had flippers at each end, and mouths in the center, with sucker parts rather than teeth.
Then out of the fern forest came spider-like creatures bearing ropes. They surrounded the giant herbivore and cast ropes at it, looping its legs, head and tail. It fought to free itself, but the ropes were strong; its efforts only made it lose its balance and fall ponderously on its side. Then the spiders swarmed over it, biting its skin so that it bled green ichor, which they lapped up. Slowly the spiders consumed the dinosaur, from the outside inward, until only the giant bones remained.
“Ugh,” Beryl muttered, making a face. Noah glanced at her, noting that even with that expression she was about the prettiest of the girls. And the only one not matched with a boy, oddly.
The show continued. In an evident fast-forward summary the spiders overran the planet, building huge networks of nests, until no dinosaurs remained to feed on, and not many plants. Then the spiders started eating each other, and there was brutal warfare. In the end the planet became a barren waste, destroyed by its dominant species.
“This makes me uncomfortable,” Noah said.
“Me too,” Si agreed, squeezing his hand.
But the show was not over. The focus crossed the barren land until it came to a high mountain range. Then it went into the mountains, literally: through the rock to a dark interior. Soon there was light, showing a miniature world untouched by the predatory spiders. The dinosaurs and other animals were there, and the fish in the lakes, including their predators, but it seemed to be in balance.
“They saved a section!” Gypsy exclaimed. “They kept out the spiders so it could prosper.”
“A private paradise,” Solita said, commenting for the first time. Rex, beside her, smiled encouragingly. She looked significantly older than he, but that was deceptive; she was the youngest child.
But the oddest was yet to come. The focus rose into the sky above the planet, to the orbiting pyramid, and went on inside it. And there were the spiders!
“They were locked in the pyramid,” Beryl said. “Where they couldn't hurt the dinosaurs and plants and fish.”
Except that they weren't locked in. There was some kind of tunnel connecting the pyramid to the Garden, despite their different venues, and the spiders were running back and forth along it. They had access to the Garden! But they were not molesting it; they were merely visiting it, looking at it, and returning to the Ark. How could this be explained? It was not the spider nature they had seen before.
“Somehow the spiders changed their orientation,” Si said. “Now they care about the welfare of other creatures.”
“Maybe they saw what a mess of the planet the other attitude made,” Gypsy said. “So they changed their ways.”
“Almost too late,” Jay said. “There's hardly anything left of the original world.”
“Where did they get the Ark?” Rex asked. “They didn't have that before.”
“From somewhere else,” Noah said thoughtfully. “It came to help them save what was left of their world.”
“Why would it do that?” Gypsy asked. “Why should it care what happens on a distant alien world?”
There was no answer.
There was another surprise. The blue pyramid separated into two pyramids looking exactly the same size. One zoomed away, while the other remained in orbit.
The camera followed the zooming one. The focus retreated, showing the background of stars, with the blue light speeding between them.
“It's going to another star system,” Noah said, catching on.
“How did it divide into two the same size?” Rex asked.
“Maybe it's a tesseract,” Solita said.
He glanced at her, surprised. “What's a tesseract?”
“A four dimensional cube, so it's as much bigger than a regular cube as a cube is than a square.”
“That's right,” Noah said, also surprised. “How did you know that, Solita?”
“Because I wanted to escape without leaving my home. I could do that, with a tesseract I saw in a puzzle book. I think the Ark is a tesseract. There's no telling how many more like it are here.”
A glance went around and through the holo sphere. “We thought you were all body and no brain,” Gypsy said after a moment. “Forgive us, Solita.”
“Nobody's stupid, here. The Beans and Bricks made sure of that.”
“She's right,” Si said. “We've been selected. We're all children, but we're smart.”
“I just wanted a girlfriend,” Rex said. “But the better I get to know you, Solita, the more I'm glad it's you.”
She blushed as well as her dark face could manage and took his hand. That was answer enough.
Meanwhile the traveling pyramid had found another stellar system with a habitable planet. It was taking up orbit. They settled down to watch the nature and history of this one.
It was a cloudy water world, with hardly any land. All the life seemed to be in the sea. There were fairly normal looking blue fish, red jellyfish, and green squid. It was the squid that got smart enough to modify their environment and come to dominate the world. And in due course to destroy it.
Except for the hidden realm the pyramid made, where a selection of other creatures prospered in a protected environment, minus the squid. And when the squid themselves were gone, having polluted and heated the water beyond recovery, along with the rest of the creatures, the sea took time to slowly recover. When it was suitable, the Garden was opened and its creatures emerged to repopulate the sea, guided by—a few careful squid in the Ark.
“This is weird,” Jay said. “The squid destroy it, but they also help it come back. What makes them change their minds?”
“And why don't they overpopulate and ruin things that way even if they don't mean to,” Si said. “The way they did before?”
“They must be selected,” Beryl said. “Somehow a few good ones got saved out.”
“By Bricks!” Noah exclaimed, seeing it in a flash.
“By Bricks and Beads,” Gypsy echoed. “Just as we were.”
This time the look that went around was tinged with awe. Could it be true?
“But if they're breeding,” Rex said, “they're bound to breed too much.”
“Unless there's a limit,” Solita said. “Like contraception.”
Si eyed her slantwise. “You know about that?”
“I have to! Men were after me the moment I got boobs, and it's hard to avoid them.”
“I know,” Si agreed. “And I'm not even there yet.”
“Ma took me in hand,” Solita said. “I have a coil.”
“A what?” Gypsy asked.
“It's a little curved wire that fits in the uterus. It--”
“Prevents conception,” Si said, evidently uncomfortably with this discussion. “Let's watch the show.”
The blue pyramid had moved on to a third star and planet. This one was Earth.
“We're doing it too,” Noah said. “We're ruining the world. So they're going to help us save it.”
“And we'll tend the Garden of Eden,” Si said. “That's what we're here for.”
“But we're children!” Gypsy protested.
“We won't stay children forever,” Noah said. “We'll grow up and—and--”
“Breed,” Gypsy said. “We're already paired off, except for Beryl. Only I guess we won't be able to have more than two children per couple.”
“That's not enough,” Beryl said. “If we grow up and the six of you have six children, plus our seven originals, that's only thirteen people. How could we keep track of a whole world?”
“There must be more,” Rex said.
Then, as if it heard her, the holo image shifted. It showed the world, then a much smaller copy of it. That was the Garden. They saw that it was about a hundredth the size of the real world, but the same arrangement of seas and continents, and that it had creatures on it. All except--”
“Mankind!” Noah said.
“And the other mammals,” Gypsy said. “I wonder why no mammals?”
“Because they include us, and we're too dangerous,” Si said. “We're like the spiders on the yellow-green world, eating up all the rest.”
“Or the squids on the water world,” Noah agreed. “Things were okay here, for millions of years, until we messed it up.”
“And the Pyramid aliens saw it coming, again,” Gypsy said. “So left an Ark to maybe fix it. But why didn't they stay to fix it themselves?”
“Because the crisis was not yet,” Rex said. “And they had other worlds to see to. So they gave us the tools and left it to us.”
“To children?” Solita asked.
“Yes, because adults are too stultified to use the Bricks,” Noah said. “Mom—Lyris--is a great woman, but she can't see the extra holes in the Brick. She can't do it. But I guess we can.”
“Because our minds are open,” Beryl said.
“And we won't try to steal the technology to make money,” Rex said. “The way adults would.”
Noah bridled. “Mom wouldn't!”
“I didn't say her. I love Lyris. But she needs money, and I'm going to help her get it, so she can help us.”
Noah's feelings were mixed. He opened him mouth to retort, but Si put her hand on his arm. That pacified him. “I'm—sorry. I know you didn't mean her.”
“But the Pyramid folk, long ago, didn't know who would be on the Ark,” Rex said. “So they didn't gamble on getting someone like Lyris. They went for the children. We're in control. So we can bring in Lyris if we want to.”
“And we do want to,” Gypsy said.
The holo had paused during their dialogue. Now it showed some mammals entering the Garden. Little human figures were guiding them in.
“We have to bring in the mammals,” Jay said. “Using the Ark. But not too many; just enough to maintain the species. So the world will be complete, but in balance.”
“And we'll be the humans,” Solita concluded. “While the outside world collapses.”
“That scares me,” Si said. “We can barely handle our own group. How can we take charge of restoring the mammals to the Garden? We're bound to mess it up.”
“That's another reason we need Lyris,” Rex said. “She can't use the Pyramid tools, but she's got better judgment than we do. She'll guide us.”
There was general agreement.
But the holo was not through. Now it showed an image of North America, neatly framed in the sphere. The camera's eye traveled south, crossing central America, and reaching South America. What was it up to?
There in the sky above the continent was another orbiting pyramid.
“I'll be darned,” Rex said. “We're not alone.”
The camera moved up to the pyramid, then passed through the wall without resistance to get inside.
“So it's just a picture,” Gypsy said. “You can do stuff with pictures you can't do with real things, like going through walls without making holes.”
And inside was a group of seven children: four girls and three boys.
But the holo didn't linger there. It pulled out and zoomed across the Atlantic Ocean like a supersonic rocket. Soon it reached Europe, where there was another pyramid. Inside it were seven more children: five boys and two girls.
“Oho!” Gypsy chortled. “Only two couples there, three spares. They can't make it on their own.”
One quite handsome blond boy happened to be facing their camera. Beryl jumped up and waved. “Hey, kid!”
The others laughed at her antic. Obviously they were invisible to the other group.
Then the blond boy's eyes widened. He smiled and waved back.
“Oooo!” Beryl exclaimed. “I won't be an old maid after all.”
The boy stepped forward, extending his hand. Beryl went to meet him, reaching through the sparkling surface of the sphere. Their hands touched.
And then Beryl was in the picture, holding hands with the boy while the other
s in both Arks stared. She had crossed over!
Noah and his companions looked at the other members of the other pyramid. Noah spread his hands, bemused.
Another boy met his gaze, and spread his hands similarly. None of them understood exactly what was happening.
Beryl and the boy were talking animatedly. Then she tugged him toward the edge of the picture. She reached out her free hand to Noah.
Could it be? Noah reached out to touch her hand.
And the two of them were in this Ark. “Folks, this is Sven, from Norway,” Beryl said. “He needs a girl. I'll visit him. That'll make three couples in Europe. I'll be back soon. Bye.”
Sven smiled, nodding his head. Then he turned and reached back through the sphere, where the boy Noah had exchanged looks with stood. They touched hands, and Sven and Beryl were both back in the other Ark. And their own Ark moved on, seeking the next continent.
“Maybe we better just go home and think about things for a few days,” Rex said. “So I can make those two gimcracks for Lyris.” The others were glad to agree.
And the Ark changed course and headed back toward North America. It was responding to their thought.
What a load of information they had received! Noah's mind was spinning.
Garden
Back in North America they dismantled the Sphere, putting Beryl's Bead in her room until such time as she returned for it. Lyris had visited without an artifact, and evidently Beryl could visit the other Ark similarly. She had used her prettiness to catch the attention of a handsome boy. They knew she would return; this was her home base.
They rested, and slept, and talked, trying to get an emotional grip on recent events. They had a mission to save the natural world, once they figured out the details. All because of finding Bricks or Beads!
Si, shaken by the developments, joined Noah in his chamber, and held his hand when they slept. She was trusting him more as he proved worthy of it, and he hoped never to be unworthy of it. He remained especially pleased that his mother had approved Si. He would have been heartbroken otherwise.
Rex carved feverishly, and Solita helped him in any way she could. It was clear that each of them wanted to impress the other, and they were doing so.
Noah's Brick Page 7