“Au contraire pal,” I said. “Without you and the things you have done, none of this would have happened. No one would know, perhaps forever, of the Egyptian tomb and the Hollow Mountain. But most important, without your persistent hunt over the years, we would not be here talking about the first alien contact.”
Carl looked down at his cup. “If you had not interfered when you did, Roy Kilbourne would most likely have eliminated me and looted the tomb.”
“You have more than made up for any debt you may feel that you owe,” Alice said. “The books are in balance.”
The timing could not have been better. The day I finished my writing, Amy informed us that the hole was now large enough for our purposes and Moses was preparing to leave. She also said that Moses asked her to explore the ruin just a little to see if there was an exit to the outside.
“I found one,” she said—her eyes wide, “but the sky is a dirty orange and it shimmers some. It scared the hell out of me and I won’t go there again unless you guys are with me.” She earned herself several more hugs, but nothing from M1.
“Pay attention to your instincts kiddo,” Harry said. “If you feel that something is scary bad, behave accordingly.”
Alice made a final call to the Director then the entire Band picked up our luggage and made the trip to the pink Quonset hut. Carl said he would wait until we were safely on our way before he returned to the Hollow Mountain to take up his lonely vigil. Moses took a small bottle from YDRII’s midsection and opened it to display several round pills. They were blue on one side and yellow on the other, about the size of sweet pea seeds.
“I had YDRII formulate these based on your DNA,” he said. “They will boost your immune systems to combat foreign organisms and eliminate the native, but harmful organisms you carry. This is to protect you and the life at other places. In addition, the pill will optimize the function of your other organs. One side effect is that your life span will increase by about thirty years. Those of you middle age and older will also look significantly younger.”
“Moses, you have just given us the keys to the Kingdom,” Alice said. Her voice was low and steady. “This is incredible.”
“I must add,” he said, “that the formula cannot repair damaged organs or grow missing fingers. If you have a damaged liver it will remain damaged. If you have cancer, you will still have the disease.”
It was Amy’s turn for a question. “By optimizing other organs, wouldn’t it tend to help the damaged liver or enable the body to better fight the cancer?”
“I am sorry, but no,” he replied. “In fact, in practice, it has made matters worse. An otherwise healthy body would make demands on a damaged liver that could prove to be fatal. This is why there will be strict limits on who may receive its benefits.”
Amy asked, “Will they make me smarter?”
“No,” he said, “making you smarter would be dangerous.”
We all looked wide-eyed at him. Moses had told a joke.
“Let me be the first,” I said. “I need it most and if I survive, the rest of you can take yours.” I popped my pill without hesitation. After about a minute I shrugged, “Well, I don’t feel any different.”
The rest of the Band popped theirs and that demonstrated a good deal of confidence and trust in Moses and his partner. YDRII was unchanged except that he had muted his colors and somehow shrank his size. Moses was wearing a new outfit that was more similar to ours, but his backpack was not so large.
“I don’t see any weapons, Moses,” M1 said. ”We have shotguns and pistols. Are you going unarmed?”
“I have YDRII,” he replied “he is exceedingly well prepared for any eventuality.”
He also had a basket that contained the material for a proper send off and at his request; Alice made a final toast with Harry’s vodka. “This adventure to find and follow The Secret Path has been like a grand moving banquet. We finished the first course in Egypt and the second course in the Hollow Mountain. Now we are shoving off for the main course, which we will find in a faraway place. The best part is that being without a menu we don’t know how many more courses we will find before desert. So here’s to our chef, Moses—may his recipe book be long and interesting.”
Amy’s lengthy task allowed me to finish recording my notes of the recent past. Just before Carl left for the Hollow Mountain, I gave him the record for safekeeping. I was sure he’d read it, but I just hoped he’d resist the temptation to alter the parts that referenced the Manheims.
Carl asked me if it would be safe for him to tinker with the strange radio in one of the side tunnels. Since it was so far underground, there was little chance of a signal going anywhere. I couldn’t see the harm so I gave him the okay, with the caveat that he not take it to the surface. He also mentioned that he just discovered that there were operable skylights in the cavern. This was a plus for the lonely vigil. I looked in Carl’s eyes and did not see a happy man. His new friends were leaving him behind.
“Buck up, old pal,” I said, while shaking his hand. “This is just so long for a while, not goodbye.”
“I know,” he said, with a mournful voice, “but I will miss all of you.”
Alice walked up to him and put one hand on his shoulder. “Every day I thank my lucky stars that our paths have crossed. Because of your curiosity and tenacity, we are leaving for an adventure greater than any I could have imagined. I promise that you will join us on our next journey.” She turned and lay, feet first, on the slide that extended through the portal to the rubble below. “Until we meet again, Carl.” She said, while pulling herself through the gray nothing.
One by one, the crew went through until only Carl and I remained. I took the position on the slide, gave him a final thumbs up and pulled through the portal. As the new gravity took over, I had to use my hands as brakes. M1 and M2 were there to catch my legs and ease me down to stand on a slab of broken rock.
Part 2
CHAPTER 17
Everyone was there in a tight group. A bright, glowing band just under YDRII’s head provided enough light to illuminate the cavern. I looked around and sniffed the flat air as the boys dismantled the slide. Since the control panel on this side was buried somewhere in the rubble, we had no choice but to leave the portal open.
Moses was technically in command. Although he had never been to Nexus, he knew the general layout and went first to the exit that Amy had found. After a cautious look, we all crawled out to stand on the surface of this small planet under the disturbing orange sky. It was the strangest of sensations to feel the lighter gravity as I tried to take in the alien landscape. The sky remained a solid, unchanged, dense orange to the horizon. The exception was an occasional shimmer that washed over large areas followed by a distant rumble of thunder. I saw gently rolling hills on all sides that were so uniform they had an artificial look. The complete lack of animal or vegetable life intensified the impression. Nothing moved. No birds flew by and there were no leaves to flutter in the gentle breeze.
The rubble we had just crawled out of was the shattered remains of a Quonset hut, but it was a dark gray rather than pink. Everything solid was a dark gray stone including the flat surface on which we stood. Our hut was one of a line of huts that stretched out of sight in both directions. Across from it was another row, which created a roadway of sorts although there were no markers or road signs. Every tenth hut had a tank-like turret sticking up from the center front and every so often there was a larger, single-story rectangular, but featureless building. From what I could see, each structure had one central doorway, but no windows. In the distance, I saw the rolling hills completely covered by uniform rows of damaged structures identical to those nearby.
M2 was the first to comment. “This reminds me of a super-sized electronic circuit board. The air smells lifeless, like a clean room.”
“This is very much worse than I had imagined,” Moses said. “The damage is incredible. Although I have never been here, I do know the general history and mak
eup of this place. YDRII is now doing an electronic scan of the surface and near space to gather information. When my people discovered this planet, it was a sterile and waterless globe with but a small molten core. It was exactly what they wanted—a lifeless place with no seismic activity. Our location is somewhere on the equator and what you see is part of a four-mile wide band of Quonset huts that girdles the entire planet. When I began my journey, only about one third of the huts had active portals. A single hut can house up to twenty portals depending on the need.
“Just beyond the huts on either side there are a series of very large lakes. They contain a form of imported plankton and other small life forms that maintain the atmosphere. The water too came from other worlds. Great machines that used the rock we stand on for raw material formed much of what you see. These machines shaped the surface to drain rainwater back into the lakes. I also understand that the material scooped out to create the lake basins formed some or all of the buildings. Everything beyond the lakes on both sides remains undisturbed because it had no use. The weather at the poles does vary a lot, but here at the equator it is uniform at all times.” Moses paused to gaze at the landscape. “Apparently some sort of selective weapon destroyed the structures—possibly a disruptor beam from near space. It hit each structure in the exact center, collapsing roofs, but leaving most walls standing.”
“Did anyone actually live here?” Amy asked.
“Only a relatively small maintenance crew and most of them simply returned to their home planet at the end of their daily shift. The turrets that you see are the equivalent of a motel on earth, used by people in transit. The large buildings are trolley stations that also contain maintenance and repair equipment.”
“Trolley stations?” Alice asked.
“Yes,” Moses said. “Often, people arriving at one portal find that the next one is at some considerable distance so several trolley tubes wrap the entire equator. They are all underground and automatic. Hopefully, they escaped the damage done to the surface structures.”
“How about power requirements? Generators and that sort of thing,” I asked.
“Everything on this globe has minimal demands on power. The portals need no power other than the shields and for that, they use planetary induction coils in their frames. The trolley tubes, in addition to guiding the vehicles, act as an induction coil as wide as this entire world. The lighting inside a Quonset a hut is solar, when working. I’m not sure about the orange sky.”
YDRII, who had been floating off to one side, moved closer and gave his report. “Other than our group, some low forms in the lakes and some moss there is no other organic life I could detect. The orange color in the sky is a planetary defense force field, probably powered by the small molten core. It is now extremely weak and erratic. There are many small objects in orbit above the shield, but they are bits and pieces of debris. I did detect a few larger satellites, but they all are without power. As far as I can tell, the damage is uniform and it happened at the same time. Somehow, the attack was instantaneous and overwhelmed the defenses. Small pieces of space debris impacting the shield are causing the occasional shimmer and thunder.”
“I wonder,” Amy said, “if there were people trapped here when all this happened?”
“I imagine,” Moses said, “there were many trapped and many casualties when the roofs collapsed. My hope is that enough portals were undamaged to allow the survivors to escape.”
I turned to YDRII. “Can you estimate how long ago all of this took place?”
“I have no way to measure precisely, but there is moss well established in places where the builders did not intend it to grow. Based on that I believe that this all occurred in the more distant past.”
“Another thing,” Alice said. “It’s obvious no one has sent repair crews which leads me to believe that we’ll find bad news on the home planets if we can get to them.” She turned to Moses. “I note that your vocabulary is now up to snuff. Okay, what’s our next move?”
“I possess a lot of general knowledge, but very little practical skills. I know how to call up a trolley, but I don’t know how to fix it if it breaks. Although I am nominally in charge, I still think it best that you retain your own command structure and use me as source for information. Situations will arise that will require fast decisions and I believe your strengths are more suitable for what we face.”
“Very good,” Alice said, as she stood up. “M1, it’s your show.”
M1 got to his feet. “All right—first we’ll examine some nearby huts to estimate the damage. I’m sure YDRII can locate our entry hut, but to be sure M2 will spray some color near the entrance. When we come back, I don’t want to have to hunt for it. For now, we’ll all stay together.”
As a group, we moved to the next hut to the left. We clambered over the partially blocked doorway with little difficulty. The damage was severe inside, but at either end we found undamaged portals. M1 asked Moses to test one to be sure they were operational.
“Is a code required for any of these?” Alice asked.
“No,” Moses said. “Once established there is only the patterning requirement and the patterning is universal, allowing one to use any portal in the system.”
“I wonder,” Alice said, “how you know where a particular portal will take you? I haven’t seen any names on the consoles.”
“Look on the top edge of the frame. Those wavy lines translate into a portal number, but I don’t have a list that translates into a name. If the need arises I will give you the ability to read my language, but impressing information directly into your minds is a major intrusion.”
Moses moved close to the portal in question and pulled a small green object from a pocket. It looked like nothing more than a green dowel, not much larger than a big pen. He placed the tip against the green barrier and watched as the opposite end displayed a grouping of narrow blue bands.
“This device is a probe,” he said. “It penetrates the barrier and reads temperature, air quality, gravity and a few other minor items. In this case, conditions are near normal on the other side. If for instance, a deep ocean was the home of this portal’s mate and there was no dome at the other end, opening the barrier would result in the delivery of a large, rapid volume of water. My people used that method, by the way, to fill the newly dug lakes.”
Moses withdrew the probe and stood back.
“That’s encouraging,” M1 said, “but I think we should first complete our investigation here at Nexus. We need to understand as much as possible while we’re here. We’ll do what we did in the Hollow Mountain and just go down the line and take a look in the Quonset huts. Later we can go to a trolley station.”
The next four huts also had undamaged portals at either end. Alice asked Moses if portal assignment was in any particular order. He replied that the builders numbered the portals as they came on line. Two side-by-side portals could link to places on opposite sides of the galaxy.
“Do some link to places in other galaxies?” Amy asked.
“No,” Moses said. “Our history is extremely lengthy and some parts are vague, but I have never heard of any destinations other than those in this galaxy.”
When we finished examining our fifth hut, we walked across the open space to examine one with a turret. It had sustained minor damage. Just inside the doorway, we found a room that had the look of an office. Other than desks holding strange looking electronic equipment, the room was quite spartan. Moses pressed a few buttons, but everything was long dead.
“These are simple communication devices,” he said. “They link to other huts, to trolley stations and Nexus Central, which is the trolley terminal where we will find portals back to all five of my people’s home planets. We can only hope some of them are operational.”
“How far are we from this Nexus Central place?” Harry asked.
“I won’t know,” Moses said, “until we visit a station.”
A second doorway led to the interior and that had damage s
imilar to what we had seen so far. After a quick look, we trooped up the staircase to the second floor. It was a miniature motel with several cubicles containing beds, a bathroom minus the running water, and a kitchen minus any food or water. The only illumination was from an opaque orange skylight. There were two solar panel strips, but they were not functioning.
“This looks like a good place to spend the night if we need it,” M1 said to Alice.
“I agree,” she said. “How about we leave our packs here and travel light?
M1 shrugged out of his pack. “Good idea. There’s a trolley station about a tenth of a mile on down the road. We should find out if things are working below ground.”
Without our packs and in the lighter gravity we tended to bounce a bit as we walked along, but it was invigorating. I felt as though I could leap over a tall building in a single bound. Could it so soon be the effects of Moses’ pill? I wondered.
“You know,” Amy said, as we moved toward the station, “the thought of where we are thrills me to pieces, but one feature is bothersome. Even before the disaster, it must have been dullsville all day long. Here we go down Apathy Avenue past the humdrum huts and a couple of miles over there is the Boring Sea.”
“Keep in your mind,” Moses said, “this entire sphere is nothing more than a point of transfer, like a bus stop on Earth. The simplicity was very deliberate.”
“Oh, I know,” Amy said. “It’s just that my expectations were more romantic and adventurous.”
“Great galloping ghosts!” Harry exclaimed. “Here we are, the first human beings to reach Jupiter and then to leave the solar system. We’ve gone where no Earthling has gone before. We are Star Trek, Close Encounters, Stargate, Star Wars and maybe Aliens all rolled into one and still she is unhappy.”
She moved behind Harry and in the light gravity hopped up to sit on his shoulders.
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: Book 2 The Secret Path Page 11