Hoping on a wing and a prayer, John dug down inside and tried something new. He pictured himself trapped in the vines of the tree and then cast the image out of his mind like a giant net.
Nothing. He sensed nothing back. He knew Kyle and Glennay hadn't been wearing their bands. Even if Ashley or Jessica were wearing one, they had no point of reference and no way to reach him. It was a heck of way to go. Plant food.
Just then something pierced the cocoon he was trapped in. A section of it was ripped off around him. John could move his arms and legs again, but to where? His suit was working to remove the slime covering him. All he could see was a blur that faded in an out of darkness as the lights from his Ksync began to fail.
In that moment his mind began to fail him. He wasn't sure what planet, or for that matter what plane of existence he was on. The outline of a winged angel filled his vision. As his helmet cleared John was certain he had been saved by something ethereal. The figure wrapped him with some sort of giant leaf. He then felt himself hoisted out of the cocoon and up the tree. His leafy harness was guiding him high up into the canopy. Another bright light flashed like a strobe light beside him. Between the flashes he saw the image of another person.
His ride to the top came to an end. When the leaf released him, he rolled onto something resembling a giant platform. It was flat, but had the give of a trampoline. He tried to stand, but his legs didn’t wish to cooperate. A flashing icon on his helmet’s visor explained his disorientation. A toxin was in his system, some form of anesthetic was putting him asleep. He retracted his helmet to get a fresh breath of air, but he could still smell a horrible stench in his nose.
Chapter 37 Where Eagles Fly
His eyes slowly opened, but his nose had already awoken to a host of sweet smelling fruits. The smell was far better than the horrible stench earlier. John slowly sat up. He was in a hut of sorts. Much like the floor he rested on, it was woven out of a variety of plant materials. The shape reminded him of an oblong igloo though it clearly wasn't made of snow. The walls were covered with a resin that smelled like rubber.
A large wooden bowl was set in the middle of the room. It was filled with a strange variety of sweet smelling fruits. Some of them looked vaguely familiar; others were unrecognizable. He knew better than to take a bite of strange food, but his body cried in hunger. It was as if something had drained every last ounce of energy from him. Rummaging through the variety of fruit, he found something that smelled like pineapple. He put his manners aside and feasted on the fruit. It was sickly sweet yet so delicious. He immediately felt the sugar restoring his body’s energy.
John tried standing, but he had to bend over as the hut's ceiling was low. A breeze passed through the opening of the hut making it obvious he wasn't wearing his MARC suit anymore. He was wrapped in a fabric of sorts though he couldn't say what it was. It was wrapped around him like a toga.
“I don't think I've worn this since my academy days,” he joked to himself.
John stepped out of the hut and stood up stretching his back. He reached for the hut as a stiff wind nearly blew him off his feet. Regaining his balance, he was able to take stock of his surroundings. The view was absolutely amazing! Scanning the horizon, John saw a string of huts across tiered platforms. They rested at the very top of the forest's emergent layer. Tree-tops swayed as far as the eye could see in all directions. Trying to establish his bearings on Mars, John saw the trees gave way to the inlet of water they travelled along.
“Well at least I know where I am,” he mused to himself. “Sort of.”
John grabbed the hut again for support. His balance had left him. Still feeling the effects of his capture, John shook his head and rubbed his eyes. It was as though he had to reorient his sight. Rubbing his eyes even more, John’s vision slowly returned.
Several figures dropped from the sky. John shook his head, concerned his eyes were playing tricks on him. If they weren't, then the only explanation he had left was hallucination. John's thoughts flashed back to his capture. Something with wings had pulled him out of that plant trap.
He strained his eyes, yet the people before him kept their wings. Two more of these winged men glided to a landing on the platform. Once on the ground, their wings tucked snugly behind them allowing their arms a slightly greater range of motion.
The group of...people, approached him. They were dressed in an odd combination of a wrap, much like his, and what looked to be their natural feathers. All of them wore a cord of jewels around their neck. The shimmering jewels reminded John of the necklace the admiral had presented Jessica. The man leading the group easily had the greatest number of stones, but their colors were muted. They made him appear elderly compared to the rest of the group. John wondered if any of these necklaces were representative of rank or position.
The elderly leader stepped forward and sang what might have been a greeting. Though his speech was song-like in quality, it clearly was broken into word-like parts. John could only wave and offer a “hello”.
A small boy came around from behind the men and stood next to the leader. Reaching down to the boy, the leader gently removed the boy's necklace. He extended the necklace toward John with one hand and pointed at the sky with the other. At the same time he made more of the song-words as though he was asking a question.
John nearly missed the fact this necklace was different than the others. It was made of metal and the stones that hung upon it were different from theirs. John took a step closer, making a closer examination of the necklace. Then it started to make sense. Ashley had a video of Jessica's "encounter". It wasn't great quality, but it showed something flying up into the trees. He had wrote it off as some sort of large bird, but the story she relayed was very convincing.
“That's Jessica's necklace,” John said to them. “She told her mother a boy with wings flew down and spoke with her. She said something about trading necklaces, but you know, how am I supposed to believe that? Sounds like crazy talk, right? But then here you are,” John rambled a bit as he chuckled. “I guess parents really do need to listen more.”
The men made a strange squawking sound. John hoped they were laughing along with him. Then the leader pointed up at the sky again.
“Yes, we're from the sky,” John agreed. The leader stopped pointing at the sky. It was clear that both sides of the conversation were lost in translation. For a second, Even on the face of the avian, John recognized the facial expressions of disappointment. He placed the necklace back on the boy. With a call of sorts from the leader, they took a jump into the air and flew away.
“Hey, hold up there!” John called out to no avail.
He walked closer to the edge of the platform, holding onto the hut as he went. Looking down, he wondered how exactly he was going return to the surface. John decided to error on the side of caution and made his way back to the middle of the platform. He walked across the platform and stepped up to another connecting one. From inside the hut ahead, John heard a snoring sound that was strangely comforting in its humanity.
“Stop sleeping on the job,” John scolded Kyle as he wafted one of the stronger smelling fruits over his nose.
Kyle was lying on his back, dressed in the same kind of toga as John. His snoring ceased as he blinked his eyes and tried to sit up.
“Hey, what in the heck?” Kyle sat up perplexed at the sight of John's dress.
“I'm not the only one at the toga party,” John replied. “Take a look at yourself.”
Kyle grabbed at the wrap he was wearing in disbelief.
“I'd like to say we've made it past the pearly gates, but no such luck,” John informed him. “I’ve gained a bit of heavenly insight though. Turns out I need to be a better listener as I've been informed many a time in the past.”
“Stop speaking Greek already, unless we've traveled back in time,” Kyle demanded.
“OK, you want it, you got it,” John replied. “We're stuck on a giant platform, way up at the top of the jungle, sitting in a hut
made by bird people.”
Kyle just starred at John.
“You asked for it, sorry if your brain wasn't ready yet,” John finished.
John suddenly reached up and felt his hair, “Yes!”
“And they say being absent minded is a problem,” John said jokingly. “They left me my neuroband. I guess they figured it was part of me since everything else is gone.”
“It probably smells like you by now as much as you wear it,” Kyle made a joke of his own.
“That must be how we're here,” John mused. “I was trying to call out for help with the neuroband. Wasn't quite the response I was expecting, but we're alive.”
“My brain hurts, and it's not from wearing this,” John added. “I don't think we could go for coffee and donuts without running into an exploding volcano or a rip in time.”
“You wanted adventure my friend, you got it.” Kyle replied feeling more like himself. “My head is pounding too, and I still have a disgusting taste in my mouth from whatever that plant-thing gassed us with.”
“Well if we could find our gear, that would be a good start,” John stated. “I don't want to have to explain a toga party to Ashley after all.”
Kyle smiled in agreement as he tried to stand up, but failed, hitting his head on the roof.
“Watch out for that roof,” John said.
“Thanks for the warning buddy,” Kyle thanked him for nothing.
Both men stepped out of the hut onto the platform outside. They were greeted by an overzealous fit of laughter, clearly coming from a woman who had been waiting outside.
Bent over at the waist and having a difficult time standing was a divine looking woman. She wasn't dressed in wrap like theirs, but in an actual Greek looking white toga. Her long hair, brushed aside by the stiff breeze, revealed a glimpse of her tanned perfections.
Both men looked at one another with raised eyebrows.
“Were you saying something about dying and going to heaven?” Kyle asked under his breath to John.
The lady managed to compose herself. Whisking her hair back as she straightened, they saw the face of a very beautiful woman.
John took one look at her and froze. They had caught each other’s eye and were locked in a gaze.
She seemed to glide over to John and said, “Laughter really is the best medicine.” Then moving even closer she waved her arms at their clothing and added. “I mean, have you two seen yourselves?”
Taking another step inside John's comfort zone, she spoke to him in a soft tone. “For five years I tried to get you into one of these. If I had known you were going to dress up on your own, then I wouldn’t have worked so hard.”
Kyle's face contorted into a very puzzled look.
“Do you know her?” he asked.
Recovering from shock, John nodded.
“I think we overshot heaven and went straight to hell,” John said plainly, “because if she isn't a devil, then I don't know who is.”
#
Glennay brushed the soot from her eyes and looked over to Tyler. He was wedged under the console, uttering a few curse words she knew and a few she didn't, as he tried to get the converter free.
“Whatever happened to the good ole days of 'Made in China'?” Tyler mumbled as another part broke.
“All these international console parts look good, but they've no soul,” he complained. “It's like the fourth version of 'We are the World' at the Grammys. Right in the middle of the song, the auto tune lost power and you could hear their real voices. My Nanna was running around yelling 'stop the noise' with her ears covered. It wasn’t pretty.”
Glennay's Ksync was paging her to answer. She took it off her belt and activated it.
“Any luck so far?” Ashley asked, checking in at the designated time.
Glennay wiped her forehead and answered, “Tyler is close to pulling out ‘a perfectly fine substitute’ for our power converter from a console we found.”
Standing over the console, she wiped another streak of dust off her uniform and added, “I've managed to pull some files off the drives here, but I'll need your code breaking skills to read these. As for Kyle and John, actually, they've been gone for a while.”
She checked the time on her Ksync and said, “It's been a bit too long. They went into the outpost to explore. I'll check back with you in a few after we've finished this and then we can grill them for playing around while we worked.”
“Thanks Glennay,” Ashley said with a bit of relief. “They won't page me back which isn't surprising at this point. Go ahead and send me those files so I can put my mind on something else.”
Glennay made a few swipes on her Ksync and informed Ashley, “OK, you have them. Good luck.”
Several groans, grunts, gaffes later, the two techs finished their tasks.
“That should do it,” Tyler proclaimed. “The duck may move like a turtle, but this converter should work.”
“Sounds good,” Glennay affirmed. “I’m not a big fan of the jungle.”
“You sure about that?” Tyler questioned her. “I'd make a pretty convincing Tarzan and you could be Jane.”
“What exactly are you suggesting?” she replied.
“I'm merely stating that you have the qualifications for the part, don't go getting your hopes up,” Tyler replied. “Help me get this to the ATV and then we'll roust those slackers from wherever they wandered.”
Glennay eyed Tyler for a moment before grabbing onto the power converter. They each took an end of the machine and carried it outside. Once they had secured it to the top of the vehicle, Tyler took out his Ksync and paged the sentinels.
“Okay you bludgers, it's time to stop poking around and meet us at the ATV,” Tyler said. He waited a few seconds and paged them again.
Glennay looked at her Ksync and said, “I see their signal, let's find out where they're hiding.”
“Right,” Tyler agreed. “I'm getting a funny feeling about this, I don't think even John would pull our leg for this long.”
Tyler slung around his pulse rifle from his back and Glennay drew her pistol as the two of them reentered the building. They proceeded in the direction the sentinels had delved from the main bay. After a few minutes of looking through adjoining areas, they found the great tree.
“The Ksync says they're up there, seventy-five meters up,” Glennay informed Tyler as she pointed through the hole in the ceiling.
“Now how in the world did they get up there?” Tyler asked. “You'd need a lift pack or some climbing gear to have a chance.” Tyler circled the tree searching for another way up.
“That's a heck of a mushroom looking thing growing up there,” Tyler announced as he pointed to a plant that had attached to the bark.
Glennay yelled up the tree calling out to John and Kyle. She heard only the jungle noises seeping through the hole above.
“My Ksync is saying the same thing,” Tyler said to Glennay. “They must have found another room with a lift.”
Glennay nodded and the two of them conducted another search for a way up.
“There's not another hall or room of any sort here,” Glennay said winded from moving wreckage.
“Not even a bloody trap door or hidden lever,” Tyler added. “They must have just sprouted wings and flew up there.”
A page from Ashley came across Glennay's Ksync.
“Hey you guys,” she said over the comm. “The natives are getting restless and hungry, pack it up and head back unless you want them marching to the outpost on foot.”
Glennay looked at Tyler not exactly sure what to report.
“Ashley,” Glennay replied, “we haven't quite found the boys yet.”
After a pause, Ashley inquired, “What does that mean?”
“Well...” Glennay stammered.
Tyler jumped in. “We're in a bit of a pickle here. Seems they've gone climbing up a tree without us and we can't find a way up.”
“They're still not replying to me,” Ashley stated then added �
�up a tree? What do you mean up a tree? Can you see them, talk to them?”
“Not from here,” Tyler replied. “They're way up in the canopy somewhere.”
Ashley's voice fluxed between frustration and concern. “Just get back here with the power converter. I have an idea.”
Chapter 38 EX-citing Clues
John tried to disbelieve what he saw.
“Is that any way to talk about your wife?” Elizabeth sarcastically prodded.
“Ex-wife,” John corrected firmly.
Kyle had stood confused for a time, but with this revelation he became very animated.
“Whoa, John,” Kyle interrupted, “this is your ex? This is Liz?”
The woman turned in Kyle's direction and asked, “So John still talks about me?”
“Just to warn off others,” John countered. “I have half a mind to arrest you here and now.”
Elizabeth shook her head slightly and replied, “Here I was hoping time may heal all wounds. Either way, I think you're a thousand kilometers or so out of your jurisdiction.”
“Mars is under MARC jurisdiction,” he replied.
“Spoken like a true imperialist,” she countered.
Kyle began to chuckle and said, “OK, you two don't have to convince me. I can tell you've been married.”
On cue, both shot Kyle a deadly look.
Ducking their gaze, Kyle added, “Hey I'm sure it was wedded bliss...”He couldn't finish as he laughed and choked at the same time.
“So what cause are you backing these days Liz?” John questioned her. “Benevolent dictator, Communist, or some other hokey cult? Last time I saw you on a vid feed, you were training 'freedom fighters' in the desert.”
John could tell he had landed an effective swing.
Liz's eyes narrowed as she took aim with a counter punch. "I've been fighting for the people, John. I've been creating a place where commoners can survive without fighting for scraps of food. What have you and your father accomplished? All you've done is bleed every last coin from the people for your fanciful MARC program. You think I'm the one living in a dream, well John, you're the one living in LaLa Land."
Curious Sols (The Sol Principle Book 1) Page 25