Psyatoan's Aperture

by Chad T. Nelson

  49

  “This thing is a whole lot larger than I’d envisioned.”

  50

  “Well, it was something like a hundred and eighty-seven feet tall, and the dome at the top was said to weigh over fifty tons,” I said a little absentminded.

  Tessa stopped dead in her tracks. “Found it,” she said, placing her foot on a large cement pylon.

  “It’s a lot closer to the fence line than I would like, although there is a thin line of trees somewhat blocking the view of the houses across the street.”

  I noticed with relief that she was being methodical about achieving our goals. “I’ll dig here and text you when I find what we’re looking for, OK?”

  51

  “I should be at the other side of the property with the metal detector to provide a bit of cover for you. Text me before you take it out of the ground.” She kissed me and glanced back at me afterwards, which was allusive to her excitement.

  The foundation of the legendary Tesla tower was made mainly of three-feet by three-feet cemented pylons of unknown depth, all placed in a circular configuration. The style maintained a certain charm defining the dawn of the twentieth century.

  As I reached roughly three and half feet down, the soil became lose. I slowly started to make out the top of a hollow square in the center of the pylon.

  I felt a familiar hand on my left shoulder. “What did we find?” Tessa asked with a wide-eyed expression.

  52

  She was exuding so much energy, that she jumped into the shallow hole with the remaining shovel.

  She proceeded to slowly dig out the remaining dirt, making a vertical channel along the pylon. There was a box in the channel that was wedged in by dirt on all sides.

  “I could use your knife,” Tessa said with a hint of nervousness in her voice. The remaining earth gave way with very little effort. She pulled the box out and handed it to me.

  I realized instantly that for a box the size of an over-sized shoe box, it had an insane amount of mass.

  Tessa made her way out of the shallow pit with very little effort. I found myself musing: “what was Tesla’s secret?”

  53

  “Where’s my water?” Tessa asked, preoccupied with her own thought.

  I slowly cleared off all sides of the eerily thick black metal box. There was a hint of some kind of engraving on lid of the box that I couldn’t quite make out.

  “Tessa, I could use some of your water over here.” I motioned in the direction of the box. The instant the water contacted the rusty body of the box, I started to make out one simple engraving left by the seductive Nicola Tesla.

  “What’s it say?” Tessa asked while taking a knee to get a closer look.

  “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.”

  Nikola Tesla

  54

  “I’m sorry, Kale, but Tesla was so freaking cool! We’d better get out of the open, right?” She motioned in the direction of the factory before I could answer.

  With very little effort we found a floor to ceiling window that was broken out of the factory some time ago. Tessa set down the two metal detectors without a sound. I, why of course, let go of the canvas bag without thinking.

  The very instant those damn shovels hit the floor, the reverberations throughout the old workshop were deafening.

  “Kale, why don’t you put the box down over here on this bench?” she asked as she knocked all the old pipe fittings to the floor. “So how do you think we should open it? There aren’t any seams or latches.” She seemed a little bewildered.

  55

  “No, there’s a faint seam around the right side of the box. I believe that side slides out of the left side horizontally like a tray, though I have no idea how to open it.”

  “Like a tray, right?” she asked with that intense smile of hers that I love. “I know how it works.” she said with sincerity. “It’s an old nineteenth century magnetic puzzle box. There are spring loaded pins on all sides that lock. To open it you simply have to use magnetic source on all four corners to pull down the pins.

  “Do you have that rare earth magnet set you told me about on the plane, or did we leave it in the rental?”

  “No, they should be in the bag with the shovels and water,” I said, my mind racing.

  “Be a dear and get them for me, and I’ll try to find the right points to place them,” she said,

  56

  sounding a little out of her element.

  I was taken aback by how little time it took Tessa to unlock the box. “Are you ready?” she asked playfully.

  As the capsule slid free from the enigmatically engraved case that Tesla abandoned decades ago, Tessa and I were both entranced by the possibilities of the contents within. In the words of Winston Churchill, it was “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

  Once I saw that the capsule contained an interior cover plate, a sense of infatuation accompanied by a well-meaning wave of annoyance rushed through me and I could see in Tessa’s eyes that she shared my convictions.

  57

  “That ought to answer why it was so cumbersome, it’s lined with lead,” she said while holding the wafer thin cover plate.

  “Are they crystal?” Tessa asked when she saw the intensity of the ebony and cobalt blue contents.

  I was in awe of the seven pyramidal shapes with inverted tips protruding through their bases.

  The cobalt blue items were filling the inner ebony cavity and all were pulsing with the same pure white light. “They can’t be … you see the pulse, right?” I asked Tessa.

  Reaching to examine the contents, Tessa’s hand made contact before mine, but she sharply jerked back before I could understand why.

  “It socked me!” she said with anxious astonishment.

  58

  “The luminescence is dimming on all but one. It’s becoming brighter,” she said as she favored her painful index finger.

  I’ll never know why, but at that same instant, without thinking, I picked up the only illuminated object.

  “Tessa, feel this, it’s vibrating and humming,” I warned her as I handed it over.

  “It feels like the texture of shell, yet you can see its glass is smooth.” As she continued examining the anomaly before her, I placed the remaining six blocks in order on the bench.

  “Where’s the S.E.S.I. terminal?” she asked as she set the illuminated edifice down next to the now totally dissipated six others.

  59

  “Inside pocket of my jacket.” I was now disturbed by the dimming light of the seventh block. To my amazement the white light was returning equally to all seven centers.

  “You’re aware the self-appointed, morally dejected so-called beguiling prophets are going to see these objects as nefarious at best, right?” Tessa said as she looked at me out of the corners of her eyes and simultaneously booted the S.E.S.I. Terminal. “Before we start counting the acts of derision, we should control our disdain of the mentally rigid.”

  Of course she was right. Whatever this was, it was way beyond any mainstream perceptions.

  “So, should we scan the blocks or are there other features on this toy of yours you've yet to show me?” she asked, holding the S.E.S.I. Terminal.

  60

  “I think we’d better follow Tesla’s engraving. Think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration. When one holds the seventh block, it does all three, right?”

  “So how do we go about that?” Tessa asked. She was, now, truly moments from jumping out of her skin.

  “I think we should record it in hand and see if the S.E.S.I. terminal can locate anything. Ready?” I asked, trying to break her concern of getting shocked once again.

  I could see a twitch in her left eyebrow the instant she made contact with the seventh block.

  “Yeah, I was ready this time, so it wasn’t as harsh this time. The other six are just about dissipated. I can hear the harmonics and
feel the beginning of the vibrations.”

  61

  “S.E.S.I., record and analyze any repeating tones.”

  “Recording…”

  “So how old do think the edifices are?” Tessa asked a little perplexed.

  “I don’t really think anyone could tell. They’re not any type of crystal or for that matter, any type of material man has seen.”

  “What I can’t comprehend, was a glass smooth surface that feels coarse; and the energy transfer. What hell is that, right?”

  “Annualizing recording,”

  “Thank you, S.E.S.I.,” Tessa said with a sense of relief. She could now set the seventh edifice down.

  62

  “See, there is the energy transfer to the other six,” I said in awe.

  “Analysis of recording revealed a rotating harmonic sequence, depicted of prime numbers corresponding with harmonic pattern. A rotating spectral plus from within the edifice’s unknown energy source was detected beyond the eyes rendering spectrum.”

  “S.E.S.I., what would you conclude from analysis?” I asked, looking in Tessa’s eyes.

  “Repeat the rotating harmonic pattern simultaneously with rotating special plus without missing prisms.”

  “So, what do you think?” I asked Tessa, reaching for her hand.

  63

  “We haven’t come this far to not walk into the abyss. You know neither one of us will ever do anything more important than this in our life. This is our one chance to make a real tangible difference in our time.”

  “S.E.S.I., repeat all patterns and replace all missing prime numbers.”

  “Calculating … repeating sequence … all spectrum's…”

  “Do you see that?” Tessa asked, backing away from the bench.

  “Yeah, the pulsing white light within each edifice is dimming, equally illuminating each of the cobalt blue centers,” I said completely dumbfounded.

  64

  To my surprise a cobalt halo started overtaking the bench, emanating from within each edifice. Without direction from either Tessa or me, the electric orange hand held data scan activated, emanating out horizontally under the now radiating halo.

  “Primer located, data transfer complete … translating data…”

  “I believe I know what they are. They have to be some form of a Quantum computer,” she said in a reverent voice while looking directly at the edifices.

  “Translation of data complete … message pending…”

  “S.E.S.I., what are the edifices?” I asked hesitantly.

  65

  “The edifice’s closest human equivalent: the NASA voyageur probe’s gold invitation recordings.”

  I could see Tessa bracing herself as she came closer toward the bench and looking conflicted from the answer.

  “S.E.S.I., play message.” I knew I’d succumbed to the echoing of my inner convictions. Tessa and I then silently backed away, taking each others hand and musing in our own mystified delights.

  “Analysis of data as follows:

  “We the Psyatoan are a passive race of this realm. We walk freely on the ashes of those who choose to deny freedom to any sentient life.

  66

  “Though we choose peace, we are no more than an evolved species of this realm. To our disdain, violence is evolutionary genetic. Walk lightly if you denounce sentient life. If you sustain sentient life, proceed freely through our aperture to our new realm of life.”

  Tessa and I weren't just transfixed by the open-ended message, we were, in a sense, transformed ourselves. The sudden realization of life other than man, released a sense of reverence in both of us.

  “S.E.S.I., what is the Psyatoan evolutionary realm?” I asked already knowing the answer.

  “Earth constellation drift of Psyatoan's star constellation markers indicates approximately an excess of 1.7 million years.”

  “S.E.S.I., what life form are the Psyatoan?” Tessa asked as if she'd read my mind.

  67

  “Unidentifiable species of existing ecosystem. Closest evolutionary similarity – Aves, bird-type species.

  “S.E.S.I., what is the Psyatoan aperture?” I asked, suppressing my imagination’s runaway cadence of hopeful possibilities.

  “Analysis of data as follows:

  The Psyatoan aperture is a dimensional ribbon made possible by unknown organic technologies.”

  “S.E.S.I., how would one open said aperture?” Tessa asked, exuding an infectious curiosity.

  68

  “Analysis of data as follows: Align the seven edifices in an H configuration with the control edifice in the center. Transmit rotating activation tones to commence atmospherically assisted energy transfer.”

  Tessa and I were both stunned by the amount of energy the aperture required. And I guess I subconsciously felt a sense of sympathy that Tesla was denied discovering such delights.

  “So we’re doing this tonight, right?” she asked, intoxicated by the taboo of the last twenty-four hours.

  “It’s only fitting we open the aperture out in front of Tesla’s facility. It was after all his discovery. We should honor the genius that he was, right?”

  69

  “Dusk isn’t that far away, Kale. Before we proceed, I have an idea.” She emphasized her thought by biting her lower lip.

  “We should record a video message on the phone explaining what we’re about to do and send it out to every self-indulgent social media site man has ever envisioned.”

  That way the truth can’t be suppressed by any three-lettered agency.”

  “You know, you’re just intimidating at times,” I said as I lost myself in her unrealized beauty.

  “Think about what you want to say, Kale. I’ll enter all the websites. Facebook, YouTube, everything,” she said after taking a moment to pause. “OK, ready over here, Kale.” Tessa motioned from a tool counter, across from the old workbench.

  70

  “Not a chance, Tessa. You’re not going to skip out on this and just record me. I really need you in the message with me. You’ve played an integral part piecing this whole thing together. I’ve found in you what I’ve searched for throughout my solitude of tribulations.

  “You unknowingly possess an elegance and beauty lost to days gone by. You treasure the essence of a generation, which was nothing less than everlasting romance. Your grace of character gives validity to what we need to express.”

  Walking over to her, I could see she was elated by how hard she fought to fight her slight smile.

  71

  “OK, Kale, we’re recording.” Tessa motioned to me to return to the old workbench quickly. “You’re on,” she said playfully while bumping me slightly with her shoulder.

  I then had a moment of unexplained clarity, recalling an old Walt Whitman quote that always inspired me.

  The powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

  “Guided by a discovery made by Nikola Tesla decades ago, I, Kale Kaufman with Tessa Keegan, would like to ask the world to witness our verse here at Tesla’s facility in the next hour.

  72

  “For reasons unknown to me, I’m the so-called A.I. equation source. My dream on the eve of my eighteenth birthday led to the evolution of A.I. technology. Today is my thirty-fourth birthday and last night’s dream led Tessa and me to a discovery Nikola Tesla made decades ago.

  “Aided by the help of an A.I. terminal, my best friend, and love, we discovered this box made and engraved by Tesla. Tesla left this cover plate engraving as a guide and these are the seven edifices contained inside.

  “These edifices are a type of ark and invitation from a sentient race called the Psyatoan. The Psyatoan are a lost species of earth. They existed here long before modern man. They left this message and invitation.”