Jump Starting the Universe Book Bundle

by John David Buchanan

  Only after he had taken several steps did he realize a wispy shadow was hovering over the Nomad’s roof.

  “Man, are we glad to see you.” Wayne’s statement immediately shook the others out of their stupor.

  “Anonoi,” screamed Amelia.

  Wayne cast a nervous glance around the peak and Amelia apologized for her loud outburst, then everyone approached the car hoping to find out why Anonoi hadn’t accompanied them on the last jump.

  “Anonoi, where did you go?” whispered Amelia. “We thought we’d lost you.”

  “I remained on Tristian,” replied Anonoi.

  “Why would you do that?” asked Blackie.

  “While you were watching the Fire Hounds of Borreama approach from the beach, three more of the Ara-figniscanis circled and were charging your transport from behind. Just before you jumped I bent space before them and shifted them back to the beach. By the time I returned to the ridge you were gone.”

  “How did you find us?”

  “I followed your Jump Starter’s particle trail,” he communicated matter-of-factly. “Jantoids are not the only creatures in the universes that can see the particles.”

  Joules was sure there was a tinge of pride in Anonoi’s response. Somehow the group seemed to regard him as lifeless and emotionless, but obviously he was neither. “Maybe Desredeedese Shades just have a smaller range of emotions; so small it usually goes unnoticed. That’s just wrong,” thought Joules, “I’m going to treat him just like everyone else. At least until he tells me to stop, and I know he means it.”

  “I’m sure your time here without me has been thrilling,” said Anonoi, displaying a subtle note of sarcasm to which Joules smiled broadly, “but we must move immediately before you tell me about it. You can’t drive down the steppes, there are several Sifter pits in the road. And a pack of Picosaurs tracking a Belkie who fled into the hills behind you lost their prey but are very close to finding another – you.”

  “Say no more,” replied Wayne who immediately grabbed the blanket and food, folded it into a ball and tossed it into the back of the Nomad. “I’d like to be alive to eat later, thank you very much,” and he opened the driver’s door of the Nomad, got in and rolled up the window.

  Amelia scurried into the front passenger seat as Blackie and Joules climbed into the second bench seat.

  “Take us away maestro,” yelled Wayne as the wispy cloud over the top of the Nomad thickened and they were shifted into a thick stand of grass in the plain below.

  “We can use the Jump Starter here,” said Anonoi, “there are no predators close enough to attack during the jump sequence.”

  “Look up there,” said Blackie; nodding toward the location they had just left.

  Joules slid across the seat to peer out Blackie’s window at the peak in the distance. It was far away, but she could tell it was swarming with Picosaurs. A large group of them were clustered at a spot near the edge where minutes before Joules had stood pointing toward the road. Another group was clinging to the rocks below the edge, sniffing and trying to locate the source of the foreign scents hanging in the air.

  “Anonoi, your timing is impeccable,” said Blackie as he watched the animals race frantically around the highest steppe. “They remind me of spotted hyenas, in the worst possible way.”

  “Amelia, please get us out of here,” said Wayne, “I’ve had enough of this place. Anyone who would voluntarily come here, to go on a Belkie hunt or for anything else, is an absolute fool.”

  With Anonoi hovering close to the top of the Nomad, Amelia pushed the Jump Starter’s red button and they heard the familiar sound of a golden ring wooshing by. It glinted brightly in the sunshine, and it didn’t go unnoticed. Seconds later Picosaurs on the mountain abandoned their frenetic searching and rushed down the rock face onto the next steppe, pouring across its surface toward another rock face and then another. By the time they reached the fifth steppe a white haze had enveloped the Nomad and silver flashes lit it so brightly it could have passed for a light house beacon, even in bright sunshine.

  They were on the third steppe when the Nomad, its occupants, and a large stash of music equipment faded to a translucent state. The Picosaurs were now tearing across the last steppe with speed you would have thought was reserved for more streamlined creatures.

  “They must be desperate,” said Joules.

  “No,” replied Blackie, “they are relentless. They don’t pass up any opportunity even when the chance of catching something is remote. They press, and press, and press, and somewhere along the way they find food.”

  “I’m happy to disappoint them,” said Wayne.

  “Me too,” added Joules as another golden ring flew by her window.

  The Picosaurs reached the final rock ledge and swarmed over it with their pack leaders fronting the charge. In the few seconds it took for sixty Picosaurs to descend the final rock formation, the white haze surrounding the car was slashed repeatedly by violent silver flashes. One of the pack leaders shuddered to a stop on the edge of the plain and raised its head high in the air. The Nomad and all its occupants faded from translucent to transparent. As the two packs joined him, he gave a tremendous blood curdling howl as the source of the scent he was tracking vanished into thin air.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  THE LONG ROAD TO CENTORIA

  “Amelia, will you come see me in prison?”

  “What? What are you talking about, Wayne? What prompted that?” asked Amelia

  Blackie leaned over toward the center of the car, “You are going to LOVE this Joules, this will be classic Wayne,” he whispered.

  “I’m going to kill him. The very next time I see Prenetian, I’m going to throttle him.”

  “Wayne, that’s a horrible thing to kid about.”

  “I’m quite sure I’m not kidding at all.”

  “Are you still mad about something Prenetian did?”

  “No. I’m mad about this,” he replied as he raised his hand toward the windshield and gestured toward the scene before them. “You would think the guy would have at least told us how to use the Jump Starter. Just maybe there is a way to entice it to take us someplace absolutely, positively, and completely civilized for a change. What are we now, one out of five?”

  “This is where we let Wayne let it all out,” said Blackie pretending to whisper but saying it loud enough for Wayne to hear. “We find that a good purging is best when it’s unconditionally accepted, with solemnity and mostly uninterrupted.”

  Wayne completely ignored Blackie’s comment, which was exactly what Blackie thought he would do.

  “With the exception of Gafcon-49 I think we have managed to miss every hospitable city on every planet in this universe, and possibly in several other universes since we have no idea where we’ve been.”

  Wayne raved on for several minutes before he finally got everything off his chest, or possibly he just ran out of air.

  “You feel better now?” asked Amelia, who had listened to Wayne’s every word attentively, and watched as he worked himself into a lather, then ran out of steam.

  “No, not entirely.”

  “I didn’t think so,” she said with a smile, “but there’s hope isn’t there?” She patted his arm and smiled.

  Wayne didn’t want to smile back, but he couldn’t help himself.

  “You ruined a really good fit,” said Blackie, interjecting himself in their conversation. “He was just transitioning to phase two, which I’m sure would have been spectacular.”

  Joules laughed, “Are you filling in for Mark?” she asked.

  “I do what I can,” replied Blackie. “But right now, as out of character as it may seem, I’m actually going to agree with Wayne. He opened the car door and stepped onto the dusty ground, “It looks terrible out here.”

  The Nomad had been deposited in the middle of a gray colored desert. Dust on the ground was three to four centimeters deep and the consistency of extra fine talcum powder. It seemed to stretch out before
them in all directions endlessly into what must have been the flattest piece of terrain any of them had ever seen. There was no wind, not even a hint of a breeze, and there was even less of a hint of moisture.

  “This could be a scene from The Grapes of Wrath,” said Amelia who had stepped gingerly out of the car. She tapped the deep layer of gray dust with the soles of her leather hiking shoes to make sure there was something solid underneath. “This is pathetic; I think I agree with Wayne.”

  “Another convert comes hesitantly to the inevitable conclusion; like moths in the dark drawn to brilliance.”

  “Poetic, Wayne, you might want to write that down and work it into a song,” said Blackie.

  “We’ll never hear the end of this will we?” asked Amelia.

  “If never means eternity, then yes. But if it means for a repulsively long 'I told you so' time, then no,” said Wayne happily. He suddenly didn’t want to murder Prenetian quite as badly as before. “Anonoi, do you have any idea where we are?”

  “We are on the flats.”

  “Say again.”

  “Your Jump Starter has brought us to the flats; a system of planets unlike any others in the universe. They are shaped like huge flat slabs and linger in their positions on the edge of the void. There are no other planets in all the reported universes such as these; pallid and barren, flat and dusty, sometimes windswept and sometimes the air is still and heavy. These are the final representations of terrestrial worlds before everything stops.”

  “What’s on the other side?” asked Amelia. “Of the void I mean.”

  “There is no other side,” replied Anonoi.

  “Surely somewhere out there are more planets?” stated Joules, although it was as much a statement as a question.

  “There is no other side,” repeated Anonoi. “No ship has ever reported reaching planets beyond the flats. Probes have been launched into the void only to go missing. They never send back data; no pictures, no sound, no scanner readings – nothing.”

  “What are those?” asked Joules, pointing to the horizon ahead of them. Three enormous funnel clouds were swirling and dancing across the flat surface. Their tops were so high you couldn’t distinguish them from the ashen sky but their bottoms couldn’t be missed; great clouds of dust were being blasted into the air as the funnels darted and danced across the plain.

  “They look like tornadoes,” replied Blackie.

  “Excuse me?” said Joules.

  “On Earth funnel clouds form when a layer of cold air runs over a layer of warm air then falls through it. Sometimes they get huge, but small or big they are incredibly powerful and destructive.”

  “These are not caused by weather,” replied Anonoi, “they are Gurges. They lay dormant for thirteen years and then when the wind blows just right they rise, twisting in the air and racing along at incredible speeds to suck up everything in their paths. When they are through they return to the ground for another thirteen years.”

  “Those things are alive?” asked Wayne.

  “Yes, they are alive,” said Anonoi, “and hungry. They haven’t eaten in a very long time.”

  “I don’t want to spook anyone, but those Gurge things look like they are headed this way,” said Amelia.

  Wayne watched the funnel clouds edging closer. “Do we have time to jump?”

  “I can’t tell how fast they’re moving,” replied Amelia, who shielded her eyes trying to get a better view of the horizon.

  “Anonoi, do we have time to jump?” asked Wayne. “Or can you relocate us?”

  Anonoi looked at the horizon in front of them, then turned to look at the flat plains beside them and behind them. “Today is the rising day,” replied Anonoi, “trying to relocate won’t help.”

  Wayne followed his gaze and realized there were Gurges behind them as well. “They’re everywhere,” he said loudly, “I think we should jump now.”

  Without hesitation everyone showed their agreement by getting in the Nomad. When they were all secure, Amelia pushed the red button to start the jump sequence. The first golden ring slid by the car with a familiar wooshing sound as Wayne closed the car’s air vents and the front windshield caught the first blast of windborne dust particles.

  The stillness surrounding them only seconds earlier gave way to torrential gusts of wind. Another ring slid by as the Nomad began to rock from the force of the oncoming gale. Before long, dust beating against the car was so thick they could barely see the golden rings as they passed.

  The front windshield was being scrubbed by a continuous blast of particles that all but concealed the wispy shadow hovering over the hood. As quickly as it started, the rush of dust against the Nomad subsided. Amelia leaned forward and looked up through the windshield to see a long tube of dust rotating violently around the car.

  “I think we’re in the eye.”

  Dust raged around the car as it slowly floated off the ground. Through the onslaught, Wayne could see Anonoi better; he appeared to be thicker and more dense. The area around them began to oscillate and with a twitch the Nomad was back on the ground in the middle of the Gurge’s eye. Again, the car slowly began to lift off and again Anonoi thickened, oscillating the area around the Nomad and with a twitch returned it to the ground.

  The Gurge widened its funnel then snapped it tight against the Nomad, sucking it off the ground. Once again, Anonoi prevailed and returned the car to the surface. The white haze around the car and silver flashes became almost invisible as the Gurge renewed its attack. The funnel widened again, but this time the speed of its rotation increased causing the Nomad to spin in the dust. Amelia closed her eyes to prevent getting motion sickness as the Gurge’s funnel again collapsed on the Nomad, sliding it in the dust and lifting it into the air.

  “It’s trying to get in,” said Joules quietly.

  Dust and sand beat against the Nomad trying to penetrate the windows and doors but it couldn’t blow past the new gaskets Wayne had installed; his attention to detail during the car’s restoration may have saved their lives. The Nomad rose to one and a half meters above the ground before Anonoi was able to stop its ascent.

  It hovered there momentarily with the Gurge straining to lift the car up the funnel and Anonoi constantly shifting space to neutralize the upward lift. Wayne leaned against the steering wheel trying to glimpse the long tube of dust swirling around them. The top of the funnel was open, but while he watched the open portion at the top collapsed into a thick dark plug that plummeted down the funnel.

  Wayne yelled for everyone to brace themselves and just before impact, with absolutely no warning the Nomad dropped to the ground and the Gurge was gone.

  “What happened?” yelled Blackie as the car bounced around and one of the tires blew out.

  “I don’t know; the Gurge is gone and so is Anonoi.”

  “It’s not gone, it’s up there,” yelled Joules, pointing toward the horizon through the front windshield where once again three funnel clouds spastically darted over the ground.

  Amelia opened her eyes just as Anonoi returned to the car’s hood. He was thin. He was always wispy looking but he looked very thin, like his essence had been diluted somehow and stretched over too much area. A silver flash lit the white haze like a lightning bolt as a tornado-like funnel cloud stormed across the surface of the planet straight at them. She watched its approach as the white haze around them was energized by another silver flash and the Nomad disappeared.

  “Wayne, I think the Jump Starter must have heard you,” commented Amelia, as Wayne examined the tire.

  It hadn’t blown out but it was flat nevertheless; the seal around the rim gave way when the Nomad dropped to the ground. Wayne and Blackie took turns on the manual pump until the tire was re-inflated

  “Yeah this is more like it.”

  The Nomad was sitting in a green grassy area adjacent to a road that overlooked a small village lying in the valley below. The village was surrounded by hills covered in deep green grass. There were no trees, only the
thick lush green grass and an occasional stand of bright red flowers. On the opposite side of the village a small herd of creatures watched the Nomad nonchalantly from a perilously steep slope as if it were perfectly flat. When their curiosity lapsed they returned to munching grass.

  “Those animals on that hillside across the way – they look exactly like mountain goats,” observed Wayne.

  “They do, don’t they?” replied Amelia. “You don’t think we might be on Earth, do you?”

  “Let’s go find out.”

  Wayne started the Nomad while Blackie stowed the tire pump and a few minutes later they were driving past the Welcome to Denswinka sign and down Main Street.

  “I guess that answers your question about Earth, Amelia,” said Blackie as they passed a few people on the sidewalk. They looked like earthlings, but they were all bald and none of them had ears.

  Amelia looked disappointed. “Yeah, I’m guessing we’re not on Earth, based on the no ears and no hair thing.”

  “I could use a shower,” said Joules. It wasn’t that she was disinterested, her hometown on Gafcon-49 often had interstellar visitors. She was always fascinated to meet new ones, but at that moment, all she could think about was rinsing off the layer of fine dust on her skin and hair in a hot shower.

  “Brilliant idea,” replied Wayne, “and there is a hotel,” he finished pointing to a beautifully ornate building in the next block.

  Amelia jumped out to check on room availability and before long they were unloading their personal things. “We have two, two room suites.” Amelia told Wayne the desk clerk said he could park the Nomad next door at the Space Saver. “He said it was the most technologically advanced parking facility in the universe; the only one of its kind. How 'advanced' can a parking lot be?”

  Wayne and Blackie drove next door to the parking garage while Amelia and Joules carted all their belongings to the elevator and stowed them in their rooms.