The Gate

by Jennifer N Hibbert

  One day, she decided to wake up very early and wait tucked out of sight in the corner of the corridor that led to the canteen. She wanted to see Jerry and his parents pass by for breakfast. While she was standing there, she spotted the trailblazer group walking towards her. She tried to press herself more tightly against the wall but there was no more space. She felt frantic and decided to come out before they reached her, in order to avoid the awkwardness of the situation and them wondering why she was trying to hide.

  As she stepped out, her feet caught on the thick black cables secured into the grooves of the corrugated walls and she fell flat on her face. When the group reached her, she was lying in a heap on the floor. The boys tried to hide their hysterics but Monica attempted to pull her upright. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked.

  Carrol jumped to her feet. ‘Yes, I’m all right, thanks,’ she said and hurried off to her room without looking back. She felt like dying. I’m an idiot, she thought.

  She regretted having gone to look for Jerry but she couldn’t stop herself. Her heart was broken. She couldn’t afford to lose him, not now that she had finally opened herself up to a relationship. Most of all, she’d got used to having him around and it was nice to not be alone again.

  She refused to go to breakfast or lunch that day. When she didn’t show up for lunch, the same kitchen assistant knocked on her door at about 2.30pm. Carrol told her she wasn’t hungry and she left.

  Carrol had a late dinner so no one would see her. She tried to forget about Jerry, but it was impossible. I’ll just have to wait until we get to Mars, she thought. All hope is not lost. Maybe I will see him again when he gets his own house and is no longer staying with his parents.

  There was only one week left until they arrived on Mars. For Carrol the time went by very slowly. She was miserable and often cried uncontrollably in her room; she didn’t eat much and hardly read her books because she couldn’t concentrate. She had no friends to share her grief with, not even Zatol. Carrol thought about how Zatol had asked why she didn’t have any human friends apart from Jerry. That made her cry, too.

  Maybe I was wrong to shut myself off from everyone, she thought. Now what am I going to do with myself? It’s not like I’m going to be friends forever with an alien lizard on a spaceship. But it’s too late. Everyone has already chosen their friends at this stage of the journey. She reflected for a moment. But how terrible will my life be if I stay in my room for the rest of it?

  ‘There are 299 passengers on this ship,’ she said out loud. ‘Maybe it’s time I started being a little friendlier. Surely they can’t all be wicked?’ She thought about everyone she’d met and remembered Mrs Geraldine Tate and how kind, sympathetic and helpful she’d been at Station X. She could be my friend, Carrol thought. She thought she could try to get to know the woman better – but she soon dismissed this idea, concluding, as always, that she was better off alone. Who knows whether Mrs Tate wants a friend? Carrol thought. She’s already got a husband. Besides, the age gap between us is massive!

  CHAPTER 16

  KEVIN WAKES UP FOR THE SECOND TIME

  A man woke to find himself lying on a clinical metal bed in the centre of what looked like a science laboratory. He recognised that it was the same place where he had woken up the first time. He was covered with a white cotton sheet up to his neck with his hands tucked in. He noticed that he was no longer bound by a metal casing or any kind of restrictive devices like he was previously. Above his head hung a few pull-down lights pointing directly at his face. This time around, the man was fully aware that he wasn’t dead but he still had no recollection of who he was.

  He still felt minor pains all over his body but they weren’t anything he couldn’t handle. His eyes soon became accustomed to the light in the room. He gently moved different parts of his body, especially his feet; they all seemed to be functioning normally.

  He looked around and saw two men standing close to a row of computers and a workstation. At the far end of the room, an older man monitored a large computer station. His hair was completely white, the same colour as his long, full beard, although that had a few black streaks. He looked serious as he concentrated on his task. Beside the man’s bed was a slender young woman with black hair. She was observing his every move on a computer screen.

  The man on the bed watched everyone in the room carry on as normal; they didn’t seem concerned that he was awake. He tried to pull himself up but slumped straight back down again. He felt light-headed.

  The girl left the computer and walked over to him. She tried to tuck him into the bed again but he kept struggling to sit up. ‘Please relax,’ she whispered. ‘You’re not well enough to move just yet. You have to be careful and only get up when you’re ready. You’ve been lying down for quite some time now, so you can’t rush.’

  The man lay still but didn’t reply; his main goal was to stand up and find out where he was. The woman walked back to her seat by the computer monitor. Before she could sit down, the man was standing beside the bed. When his feet touched the floor, an alarm started beeping and a red light flashed. He was startled and turned to see where the sound was coming from. His eyes were quickly drawn to a small, square metal box on the floor; it had four, short, animal legs that looked like those of a crocodile in size, shape and texture. Despite its lifelike animal legs, the man was able to determine it was a robot. It was standing about one meter fifty-three away from him.

  The robot started speaking: ‘Subject alert! Subject alert! Gate Testing Project code GTP100-001 has abandoned position and assumed a new location. New location: standing on the main floor, unaided. Subject is fully conscious. Body temperature, normal. All systems in good working order. Subject is generally in good condition.’

  The man side stepped back towards the bed in confusion before looking apprehensively at the other people in the room. Who were they? Nobody said anything to him.

  The woman and the two young men moved as abruptly as the glitch of a computer image; one moment they were at their positions and the next moment they were in front of the man. He was shocked – a second earlier, they’d been about two meters and six cm away. The two men grabbed his arms and lowered him down on the bed, but he struggled. His eyes darted again to the box-shaped computer on the ground with its four crocodile feet. It marched closer to him and, beaming a laser-like light, started scanning him from every side.

  Still trying to break free, the man blurted out angrily, ‘Let go of me! Who are you guys? Where am I? What is this place?’

  They looked at each other but said nothing, though the men slowly unhanded him. One of them spoke up. ‘Please calm down and come with me,’ he said.

  The man stood still for a moment before apprehensively following. In a few steps, they both stopped in front of the older man with the long beard. Without uttering a word, the old man stood up and gestured for the man who had just woken up to follow him. The man looked back at the woman who attended to him and the other attendant by his bed. They said nothing but the woman nodded.

  He walked timidly behind the old man, who led him down a long corridor. It continued as far as the eye could see without any doors branching off it. It was well-lit and had not a speck of dust anywhere, which gave it a clinical look.

  He trailed hesitantly behind the old man. Even though he was scared to follow this stranger into the unknown, he didn’t seem to have any choice. I need answers and if this is the only way I’m going to get them, then so be it, he thought.

  The old man soon came to a halt. He waited for the man to catch up before walking into a huge room that looked like someone’s living quarters. It was a magnificent room, which had been painted brilliant white from top to bottom, including the staircase on the left that stretched to the high ceiling. The man, seeing the stairs, wondered if there was a room or a loft space above the ceiling, though there was nothing to indicate one. It played on his mind a little; why would a staircase reach up to the ceiling if it led nowhere? The room was very clea
n and organised, completely devoid of any clutter. Every piece of furniture looked strategically placed, which drew his attention to the ancient books stacked on the shelves that scaled the height of the wall. The shelves had no ladder attached to them.

  Some of the books had red or black covers; others were leather bound. The spines had no titles so there was no way to know their content. The old man gestured for the man to sit on an armchair at the table before walking over to a section of the tall bookshelves. He stretched up his arm the height of the wall and pulled a large, brown, leather-bound book from the top shelf near the ceiling.

  With the book in hand, the old man turned back towards the other man, who hadn’t sat down as instructed. He was standing in the middle of the room, looking around.

  The old man placed the book on the table, flipped it open and searched through the pages. When he stopped, he stared down at the book and then looked carefully at the man. ‘Aha!’ he said, before sitting at the table.

  The man who had just awoken became even more confused and impatient; he wanted answers to his many questions. He waited to hear what the man had to say but the old man leaned back in his chair without saying anything.

  ‘That’s it?’ the man spat out, agitated.

  ‘That’s what?’ the bearded man asked softly. He scrolled down the page with his forefinger, as though searching for something.

  ‘You know, the questions I asked you before. Who are you guys? Where are we?’

  ‘The real question here is who are you. What’s your name?’ the old man asked.

  The man looked at him but said nothing because he couldn’t remember who he was. He stood quietly, confused and ashamed, and his frustration showed on his face. His imagination ran wild. Was he a spy? Someone dangerous? Perhaps that was why he had previously been bound in a cage. He wondered what he’d done wrong. ‘I can’t remember,’ he answered quietly.

  ‘Okay, please take a seat,’ replied the old man; immediately a seat zapped behind the man in the manner of a computer glitch, much like before. Before he had a chance to look at it, his buttocks landed softly on the chair and it zapped back in front of the table. ‘Oh,’ he gasped.

  ‘Now, where were we?’ the old man asked, as though they were starting over.

  ‘You were about to tell me who you guys are. And who I am.’ He muttered the last part under his breath. He glanced at the book on the table; he was surprised to see that the pages were blank, yet the old man was still reading from it. But this was the least of his problems. He was racking his brain for details about his past but couldn’t make it past going out for a drink.

  ‘Would you rather I tell you the entire story, or would you like to read it for yourself?’ the old man asked.

  ‘Oh, please tell me. I’m ready to hear it,’ the man replied.

  ‘We are the Gatekeepers. We look after the universe. Have you heard about us before?’

  ‘No, never heard of the Gatekeepers,’ the man said.

  ‘My name is Calbas, and I’m guessing your name is Kevin. Does that ring a bell?’

  ‘No . . . not at all.’

  Movement under the table caught Kevin’s attention and he struggled to maintain his concentration on Calbas. He didn’t want to appear distracted but his curiosity was very strong. When he glanced down, he saw something that resembled a lizard. The old man put his hand under the table, as if to pet a dog.

  A moment later, a creature came out from underneath the table and walked towards the bookshelf. Kevin was startled. He’d never seen anything like it – as far as he could remember. His eyes followed it avidly. The creature stood upright to a height of one meter and twenty centimeters, with a long tail of about 0.92 meters. It walked on its hind legs with the support of its long tail, which was made of exposed tail bone like a skeleton. When the lizard reached the far shelf, its short arm elongated to a top shelf, just like Calbas’s had, and it plucked a book from the top. It walked back to the table holding the book; it looked very heavy but the lizard held it as if it were a piece of paper.

  Kevin couldn’t stop staring. The creature was basically a skeleton of a lizard with a neck, head, shoulders and two hands that were covered in flesh. The skeletal bone ran down from under its shoulders, spine, the two hind legs and the long tail. On the lizard’s front was something that resembled an exposed ribcage – but in reverse. In between the ribcage bones it was webbed with a tough leathery skin, which formed the base of a bag attached to its back. This large leather pouch occupied the whole of its spinal column, from under its shoulders to its tailbone. This leathery ribcage looked dried out and impenetrable but it also looked like it could spread open if needed.

  Returning to the table, the lizard went to Kevin and placed the book in front of him. Kevin heard the old man’s voice. ‘This is my assistant, Tobus.’

  The animal nodded its head in acknowledgement. Kevin also nodded and continued to stare at Tobus, who went back to Calbas.

  ‘The Gatekeepers have accepted you for our organisation to help us continue our work here at the southern side of Mars, called Mars Harrogate. Astrobiologists and your world government have constructed a new city as part of an endeavour to accommodate humans here on Mars. The city is in a place called Mars Rothadam. It is due to receive its first citizens from Planet Earth very soon.’

  ‘Whoa, back up a little! What did you say? Where are we? Did I hear you say Mars?’ Kevin asked, staring at Calbas.

  ‘Yes, as I said we are on planet Mars. At Mars Harrogate, to be precise,’ Calbas said.

  ‘What am I doing here?’ Kevin asked.

  ‘That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You have been selected to join our programme.’

  Before he could continue, Kevin asked, ‘Why are you taking humans from Earth, where they belong?’

  ‘Have you not heard?’

  ‘Heard what?’

  ‘But of course, you would not have heard. An experimental programme was put forward by Earth astrobiologists to Earth governments, which contacted us for assistance in trying to establish human life here on Mars,’ Calbas answered. ‘This is not to suggest that the Earth is controlled by a federal government; it was a unanimous agreement between every country's government around the world to pursue this agenda for the common good of planet Earth.’

  ‘Come on now, you really expect me to believe that people would choose to leave Earth and move to Mars? Who in their right mind would participate in such a ridiculous programme?’ Kevin asked.

  ‘Well, they did,’ replied Calbas.

  ‘I love Earth and would never leave it for any other planet,’ Kevin said. ‘Did the government and astrobiologists brainwash people’s children or take them against their will? Because I know for a fact that no human with any common sense would voluntarily subject themselves to such a hazardous experience unless they had a death wish.’

  ‘Erm . . . quite the contrary,’ Calbas said. ‘I’m sorry to disagree with your understanding of humankind but they are sturdier than you think. The human mind is pliant and humans are drawn to danger – or they are fascinated by the unknown. No force, manipulation or enchantment was used. All it took was a single advertisement. To the surprise of the astronauts who placed the advertisement, more than 100,000 people applied, 10,000 in the first week alone. No one under the age of eighteen was allowed to apply without parental consent.

  ‘After a month, they withdrew the advertisement,’ Calbas continued. ‘Only three hundred people were required for this test run, so applicants were put through a rigorous selection process. The first group is en route to Mars now. The second set of successful applicants is undergoing the six-month programme to prepare them for life on Mars. They will be on their way after the first three hundred have settled into their new city,’ Calbas explained.

  Kevin couldn’t believe how many people were prepared to leave Earth for this experiment.

  Calbas continued. ‘The astronauts carried out extensive studies on the surface and environment of the Red
Planet. After decades of planning, they finally built a city on Mars and it is now awaiting the arrival of its new citizens. The new town is called Mars Rothadam and it is located on the northern hemisphere of Mars.’

  ‘Wait a minute. Why do you keep calling it a city? There’s no way a real city could be built on Mars with its harsh weather conditions,’ Kevin said.

  ‘Well, what they built was a real city, just like any city on the Earth.’ Calbas pulled out a large roll of paper from a drawer and spread it across the table. ‘Here are some pictures – you can see for yourself if it’s good enough.’

  Kevin leaned forwards, glanced over the images and then withdrew without responding.

  ‘Despite the fact that many people were interested in starting a new life on Mars, there were also critics who asserted that humans should not be subjected to the harsh living conditions,’ Calbas said.

  ‘I’ll tell you one thing – I agree with the critics,’ Kevin said, before allowing Calbas to continue.

  ‘The critics weren’t wrong in their observations or estimates, but they didn’t know about the astronauts’ secret weapon for the success of this mission: us. We are supernatural beings. Our work with humans is kept secret from ordinary people. We are the ones who clean up natural disasters. We help take out stubborn dictators, stop unlawful interplanetary travel, prevent some powerful planets from oppressing other planets. We are the organisation that supervises interplanetary travel through our Channel of Exchange, whose staff include us and all kinds of creatures as well as humans. It’s a fascinating place where all the planetary exchanges are made.’

  ‘You couldn’t possibly be everywhere at the same time,’ Kevin said.

  ‘We get around by various means like teleportation, glitch appearance, travelling through time, technology, magic for the portal into mystical realms. You name it, we control it.’

  ‘What do you mean by realms?’ Kevin asked.