PROJECT 43432
Page 16
“I have no time for that. I am going now. I have nothing to lose.”
” I was afraid of that,” thought Kane. “I am coming with you.” He instructed the Dorg to call the rest of the group and join them as soon as possible. What they saw on the monitor was Anika tied to a metal pole, laying on the floor, with her body inclined on one side and her hands on the other.
CHAPTER 28
The End?
Alan and Kane rushed downstairs. This might be a hologram, a trick, an easy way to capture them. Nevertheless, there was a small chance that this could really be Anika. Both men were feeling the pressure of the whole situation. They were here to accomplish a different task, but instead they were risking the whole operation. Soon they reached the ground level and quickly saw the direction to the building and the building itself. Alan and Kane started running towards it. While running, both were looking around to see if there were other people or creatures following them. G5 was a huge three—floor premise, but there was no entrance at the front. They checked all sides but nothing. It was a building without a door. Alan stood in front of it and looked up. He spotted a light coming from one of the windows at the top floor. ” All right, we are here, we see the light. Where is the entrance?” thought Alan.
“Maybe this is just an extension of another building, but I can't see anything which indicates that…,” said Kane.
“What now? Where do we go from here?” filled with anger Alan shouted and kicked the wall with his foot. They were standing there not knowing what to do, desperately trying to find a way to enter. The time was pressing them.
“We must search from below the surface. We should go back to the command center and find the plans of the facility including its underground tunnels,” suggested Kane.
“I agree. We must move quickly.” Both started running back to where they came from. Almost reaching the command center, they met the others coming to join them. “We were unable to enter because there was no entrance and came back to check the plans of the building.” As soon as the group entered the command center, they heard a loud noise of helicopter blades coming from outside. They saw a military helicopter suspended in the air, when a loudspeaker voice was heard: “Surrender now and no one will get hurt.” At the same time, military soldiers wearing gas masks and heavy armory surrounded their room. ” That is the end,” thought Alan. The armed soldiers forcefully moved the captured out of the room and brought them to the ground level. They moved all of them in the center, surrounding and pointing their machine guns at them. No one was moving. The weapons were still. They were apprehended and possibly would be shot dead. Another soldier appeared who seemed to be the leader. He pointed his weapon at one of the Dorgs and asked him to come close to him. When the Dorg was close enough, the soldier took out a knife and stabbed him in his stomach. Alan tried to help but another man immediately pointed his weapon at him. He could only look at his friend feeling pain, kneeling from the stabbing and issuing heavy sounds. The man who stabbed him looked pleased and finally spoke:
“I couldn't be happier to be here now. Finally we captured the people who were delaying our plans,” he looked at his fellow soldiers. “I have always wanted to kill a Dorg, but unfortunately, never had the chance to see one in person… until now. It felt good hurting a creature that is supposed to be much stronger than human and is now kneeling in front of me. But let's not forget about our little mission here.” The man's name who stabbed the Dorg was Kahn. He made a sign to one of his crew to separate Alan from the rest. The man took Alan away and forcefully pushed him towards a building named K12. It was a facility made for experiments with different subjects. The rest of the group was placed in building S3.
After a couple of hours, Alan opened his eyes finding himself locked in a room without windows, just a table and two chairs. The walls were made of dark raw concrete as well as everything else. He sat on one of the chairs and waited. For him, there was a little hope, although the situation looked hopeless. It was one of these desperate times, when he could use what he learned from Alberi. He placed his feet firmly on the ground, straightened his back and neck, closed his eyes, placed his hands on his knees, palms facing down, and let the time pass by him. In a couple of seconds the muscles of his face started twitching and especially around his eyes. From the inside of his head, at the back of it, he felt as if a vacuum was pulling his conscious awareness away to another place. His eyes turned up. Everything was pulled from this vacuum from the middle of his head. Suddenly he started seeing golden bright light in different shapes, moving slowly in front of his eyes. Gently changing its shape, the golden energy was floating, slowly coming closer and then moving away. It was conscious. Alan established a connection with the source.
He was going deep inside his inner world quite often, and connecting to it was taking couple of seconds. Anything could be done there, without restrictions or limitations. He found himself flying in a dark empty space. With relaxed body, he was moving forwards, but then the direction of his flight changed to vertically downwards, descending extremely fast, passing different energy levels, which were expressing themselves in their unique way. He went down a little bit more when a ground appeared underneath him. In a couple of seconds, he landed and stood up looking forward. He was standing on an edge of an abyss. From his right side, he felt a strong presence. He turned around and saw a giant figure wearing a black mantle covering his head with a hood. In fact, the mantle was covering not a physical but energy body of an entity Alan knew very well. This huge figure was Alan's interpretation of the source energy. He could speak and discuss his ideas with it whenever necessary. This time Alan did not ask anything. He just stood on the edge looking forward. The communication with the giant was done through mental connection. No words were necessary where words were nonexistent. The figure physically seemed to be looking forward. There was no wind. The time was not present there. Alan moved his arms sideways up to the level of his shoulders and left them there to rest for a second. He turned the palms of his hands upwards and slowly lifted them higher. When his hands were above his head, he turned his palms downwards and started lowering them slowly, as if he was gently touching the energy around him. He brought his arms down to his legs and then he looked at the figure. He knew he was ready for anything. This was a symbolic ritual for him, preparing his mood for all that may come to him… even death. He opened his eyes and heard footsteps approaching the room. He was eager to meet with whoever was coming to interrogate him. The door opened. It was Dr. Rob. He slowly entered the room, closed the door behind him, and sat in front of Alan.
“Welcome back Alan! We were worried about you.”
“You are the man with the tattoo, the one who was on our meeting.”
“Indeed that's me, but that's not what we are here to discuss. You are here because we need you. You are the key to our development and our progress in the field we are most interested in, but first things first. After we captured you, I allowed myself to do a little surgical operation on your head,” hearing these words Alan clenched his teeth in anger. “In fact you should thank me. We removed all devices that were placed inside your head from our previous experiments. Yes, there was more than one device. I may say you are completely free man now. Well, the word freedom must be defined, as it has many meanings these days. Remember, we offer you your life, in exchange of information. We will be able to receive the data while you live your life, as you would do any given day. The current situation in the world must be forgotten,” Dr. Rob tried to continue but was interrupted by Alan:
“What are you talking about? You have been experimenting with me for more than ten years. I even don't know, which decisions have been mine and which yours. How can I live a free life when you were interfering with my thoughts? How can I truly know who I am, when you have been controlling me? We have a different concept of the word freedom I guess.”
“That is not true. You had your life as everyone else on this planet. However I see you need a little bit o
f encouragement for accepting my preposition.” Dr. Rob stood up and made a signal to Alan to follow him
“Come, I would like you to meet someone.” Both men left the room and walked through the corridors. When they reached an elevator, Dr. Rob pressed the only button on the wall. The corridors as well as the whole building were made of dark concrete. Cold feeling was surrounding every living thing walking inside. The elevator had only three buttons on the right side. Dr. Rob pressed the bottom one and they moved down. Although there were three levels, the space between them was enormous. Both men were descending for about a minute before they arrived to the first level. The concrete walls were gone. ” We are deep underground,” thought Alan. It looked like an ancient city built centuries ago. The ceilings of the corridors were low and the walls carved with strange symbols. Dr. Rob was silent, leading Alan to a place unknown for the young man.
“What is this place? Where are we?”
“Patience, soon you will find out” They were passing narrow and wide passages, some covered with strange depictions of figures with huge bodies. Alan noticed that they were continuing going down to a lower levels. Soon they arrived at the entrance of a huge hall with enormously high ceiling. He saw three human—like creatures standing close to the entrance. Both men walked inside. There were two figures in the distance, talking to each other. As they were getting closer, Alan recognized them, but was not able to remember their names. He remembered them from the time when Alberi showed him the experiments. They were standing next to his bed. He was right. These were Mr. Elred and Mr. Basilius.
“Ah, here you are Mr. Basilius. I would like you to meet our friend Alan. As you know he was the successor of our first experimental program and is going to help us again.”
“It's an honor to meet the man who is changing the course of our lives.” Mr. Basilius said.
“I will not play your games anymore,” Alan said firmly.
“Oh absolutely not, we do not want to play a game,” assured him Mr. Elred. “We will even give you your freedom back and the freedom of your friends. In exchange, we would like you to help us with one additional task. We…” Before he finished his sentence, Alan interrupted him.
“You must let my friends go.”
“I see you are impatient. We all have our insecurities and sometimes cannot control the events around us. Here is what we can do. You will assist us with one last thing, and we will release your friends including your beloved girlfriend. After all, she was saved by an unexpected visitor,” then Mr. Elred pointed at a person sitting on a chair, who was with his back at them. Alan could not see who that was. Mr. Elred called him:
“Naz!”
” Naz? That is impossible. How did he manage to save Anika?” thought Alan. The figure from the chair stood up and came close to them.
“As you can see Alan, you have to thank Naz. He saved your girlfriend from a certain death. Fortunately, Naz is an intelligent being who agreed to help us and gave up Anika. We were most pleased to help him with his ideas about his life,” mentioned Mr. Elred.
“Naz… I don't know what to say,” Alan started.
“Now my life is much more than what it was underground. I can finally do something important.”
“Ok now,” Mr. Elred decided to put the focus of this conversation back to his topic. “It's your choice Alan. You agree to our proposal and we let your friends go, or you will all die here… What would it be?” As much as Alan wanted to stop the project, he was with tied hands and had no other choice.
“I agree.”
“Very well. See Mr. Basilius, I told you that Alan is a reasonable man.” In front of Alan, Mr. Elred ordered to release the captives, or so it seemed. After that, Alan was led to a room where he was going to spend the night. The place had only a bed made of stone. The door was however made of old dark heavy wood with something like a peephole in a rectangular shape, which could be opened with a metal plate, sliding from left to right. Alan was resting on the bed when he heard a knock on the door. He stood up and looked through the peephole. It was Naz.
“May I come in?”
Alan opened the door and let him in.
“How did you…? When did you…?” Alan was trying to ask the right question, but his mind was full with possible versions of what could have happened.
“When all of you left I went back to Keran and asked for his permission to leave the group and to follow my path. He agreed and I followed you. The distance between your group and me was around twenty meters. I didn't want you to know that I was there. It could have created unnecessary conversations. Anyway, when the heavy sounds started and the ground was shaking I became more cautious with every step. I suspected that the tunnel might collapse if the banging continued. In the past, the Megors did not build only this tunnel but a network of tunnels. Some of them were leading to dead ends and some were leading to other places. The aim of this was to confuse pursuers if they were chasing us. When the roof began to crumble, I waited a little bit because I was hesitant to follow you. Fortunately I was with you long enough to see that Anika was hit by a stone. When your way back was completely blocked, I rushed quickly and picked her up, went back a little bit and took another path to the “Company”. She was unconscious and I was not sure how hurt she was. I started carrying her underground to the “Company'” building. The rest of the story I will keep to myself… The main reason to be here now is to thank you for coming down to our world and showing me that there was another side of the coin. You helped me find my path and I am grateful for that. However, from now on, I am your enemy. Nothing personal, just our paths are crossing and during that time, we are on different sides. Maybe one day we will be both on the same side of the river. ” Naz stood up and left the room without saying anything.
CHAPTER 29
Sokrahnaluth
Mr. Elred and Mr. Basilius were walking through a long corridor. They were seemingly pleased with themselves and from the recent events. Everything they needed was in their hands. The corridors made from soil and rocks changed into dark gray concrete. The temperature gradually started dropping. A light was coming from the end of the tunnel. The sound of both men's black leather shoes touching the concrete could be heard at a distance. The light, coming from the end, was reflecting on the black surface of their polished shoes. Mr. Elred slowly extended his right arm to see if his white shirtsleeves were ok. He checked every part of it by slowly pulling the shirt's end. At the same time Mr. Basilius was making sure his tie was presentable, gently checking its knot and length. Their faces were getting more serious with every single step they were taking. There was no other noise in the tunnel except their breathing and the tension in the air, which they were slicing with their bodies. In couple of minutes, the men reached the end of the tunnel, which ended with a terrace made of smoky glass. The view from there was spectacular. In front of them was a metallic colored space ship in the shape of a tube, lying in something like a huge cave—like hole, fifty meters in height, leading to the surface. Many engravings of unknown signs and symbols were carved on the spacecraft. On the right side of the two men was an elevator leading down to the craft. They pressed a button on the wall and a door opened. They got down, even though there was little hesitation in their actions. The ground was rocky, covered with dust. Just now, they realized that huge cone—shaped crystals were placed around the ship. Stepping slowly was not enough to keep their shoes clean. Particles dust were covering them with every step. The more they were getting closer, the more they felt this tension of energy pressing on their chest. The tube—like ship seemingly lying on the ground was actually suspended in the air. From one of its sides both men heard a sound of a sliding door. They headed its way and slowly got into the ship. For their amusement and shock they found themselves in a much bigger space than the ship was originally occupying. One of them, from disbelief stepped out to see if he was still there.
Yet, the ship presented them a different view from inside. They were wondering what kind
of technology could mix two frequency ranges to accomplish that. The door behind them closed or rather disappeared. Mr. Basilius swallowed nervously. Out of nowhere in front of them appeared a floating creature. It looked humanoid to them but it had an elongated head, green cat—like eyes, dark greenish skin, very long hands, and no legs — only head, arms, and torso. The being had also little nose, little mouth and the ears were elongated upwards. Mr. Elred thought this being was from the Felidae family. The creature looked at them and lifted his right arm signaling them to follow him. The three were walking through different corridors with no design or any additional engravings. They were in the middle of a long corridor when the cat—like stopped, but did not turn back, just evaporated in the air… Both men looked at each other seemingly surprised from the disappearance of the being and decided to continue walking to the end. Stepping slowly not knowing what to expect, they started noticing in front of them something like a square. Slowly, Mr. Basilius and Mr. Elred reached the center and in front of them stood a very high metallic building. Even stranger was the moment when they thought of the size of this structure and the size of the ship they were in. The architecture had enormous gate with only one huge hall. In the distance, they saw a big animal with tiger looking head but with human body structure in terms of shoulder neck and torso. Instead of legs, it had a thick tail on which it was standing. In his hands, it was holding some kind of a weapon, which both men did not recognize. Suddenly from their right side, an unknown creature approached them. It spoke in a strange language to them, but somehow they understood every sound of it. The translation of their conversation was the following:
“My name is Voiran, welcome. I hope you feel comfortable for your human standards.”
“I don't know what to say. Even though you speak an unknown language to us, I am able to understand you,” shockingly responded Mr. Basilius.