“These are items used in the development of anti-gravity, but they are very unstable and dangerous. Many people on my home world lost their lives during this process, but Earth will not need to duplicate these experiments. There is a complete and working anti-gravity unit in my starship on Ganymede. My intent is to give your scientists complete access to the ship so that they can learn its many functions and reverse-engineer the devices. YDRII has a small unit you have seen him use.”
M2 described the bar of soap we found in Panama and the one Carl gave us. Moses said it was a variation of a standard anti-gravity unit. He referred to it as a lifter.
“I am glad you found them. I must have given the Nazis too much access to Ganymede and the Enterprise.”
M1 leaned forward and asked what we had all been thinking. “Just how much access are we talking about here? Did you allow them through to the Nexus? Were you with them? And what about that thing that attacked us? That was a botch job if ever I saw one. Who the hell made that? It looked like something from Earth.”
“I have no answers, only suspicions. I know the Nazis gained some unapproved access. They were able to steal the lifters. The moment YDRII discovered them on Ganymede I closed the portal. I thought that ended it. It was at that time I discovered the damage to the Nexus portal. Up until then I had no reason use it so I don’t know when it was damaged.”
I don’t know if that satisfied M1, but he said nothing more.
“This is a little off topic,” Amy said, “but I’d like to know if your people developed any sort of time travel?”
Moses smiled. “Just one type, Amy. I am a time traveler. I have traveled into the future more than once. Of course I did it by becoming dormant and of course I cannot go back.”
Our little meeting burned up the rest of the afternoon. Then the farm folk served us a genuine feast. This time the meal featured a large roast that we quickly demolished. I did notice that Amy conveniently sat next to M1 and then proceeded to ignore him. I don’t get it and probably never will. Part way through stuffing my face I felt a nudge on my right leg. Alice was sitting at my right and I thought at first that she was signaling me. When I glanced at her, she was busy with both greasy hands, gnawing away at large chunk. I leaned back a bit to look down. There I saw only two big, sad eyes looking at me in an agony of desire for a portion of the bounty on my plate. I didn’t know the customs here regarding the feeding of animals at the dinner table. I would possibly be teaching the mutt some bad habits, but what the hey—we would leave tomorrow. I glanced around to see that no one was watching and delivered a small hunk to Old Blue. Of course, this only made matters worse. By the time I finished my food, I had delivered at least a quarter of my ration to the bottomless pit. I leaned over to rub his belly and whispered into his ear, “Sleep well tonight.”
While we were sampling a variety of strange fruit, Moses’ young patient woke up. Despite her parents protests she got up from her sick bed and came over to our table. She stood at the side of Moses—her folks hovering in the background, as were most of the rest of the farm population. Obviously, as ill as she was, she remembered him administering the pill.
“I feel wonderful,” she said, “even better than before I was bitten. Thank you—thank you all.”
We acknowledged her gesture and invited her to eat.
She sat down next to Amy. “I am very hungry.”
Moses had to assure her Mother and Father that it was all right for her to eat so soon after recovery. At this point, his word was law to them. Oh, oh, I thought, as I looked at their faces. These people are going to build a shrine to our Moses. They happily sat in the background and watched their daughter behave like Old Blue who was now sound asleep at my feet.
The change in her was remarkable. She was still very thin, but it was the leanness acquired by athletes, especially runners and her color was as good as her appetite. They must have rough-cut her straw-colored hair in anticipation of the amputation, but the boyish style along with her natural curls fit her well. Alice commented that she looked like a blond Shirley Temple.
Unlike Old Blue, the young lady did not have a bottomless pit and before long she joined us sampling the fruit. Then her questions began. “Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here? Where were we going? What was in the pill?”
Alice and Moses teamed up on her and were able to answer her questions to a degree although we knew that she wanted more. When the dust settled a bit, Alice turned things around and began to question her. “Why do you want to explore? What are you looking for? Where do the rails go? Did the animal bite change your attitude about exploring?”
As Alice continued to talk to the little lady, a thought grew in the back of my mind, but old James kept his own council. She was avidly interested in the outside world. Her eyes gleamed as she leaned close to Alice, asking her question after question about this thing called travel. I was thinking of the morning that Alice showed up at the airport with Amy in tow. I asked myself, “Could our team be getting a recruit?” I looked across the table at M1 and M2 and did the mind reading thing and they both nodded. Harry just smiled. The conversation between the two girls lasted over an hour. The rest of us just took it all in and in the process got a fairly complete picture of our new little friend.
We were in a relaxed mood until she told us a couple of her adventures. The blacksmith and the village leader had assured us that this world was nothing but farms, other than perhaps where the tax collectors lived. But they had never traveled much beyond the borders of the farm.
“I have two things to tell you,” she said. “At one time I followed the road of rails to the north. I carried food and water so that I could go to see what is beyond where I live. There are many farms, but after nine days, the farms ended and there was only forest and open land. It is very beautiful there. Five days later, I came to a place where the road of rails ends. There are several white stone buildings there. Just as I was about to look closely at them, a great beast appeared. It was much bigger than our animals. I did not wait to see if it was dangerous and I had only a small amount of food, so I came back. I told of this to some people here, but they did not believe me.
“Long ago, when I was much younger, I saw the smoke beast that took away our produce at tax time. I followed the wagons to the road of rails and saw everything. The tax collectors were six tall men like Moses. I saw a long line of wagons with small wheels that ran on the rails. The men from the farm loaded the grain onto those wagons then they drove away.”
“What happened next?” Alice asked.
“The six collectors walked a distance to the front where there was a much bigger something. The front part spouted great clouds of smoke. They climbed aboard and it went away to the south.” She was unable to describe what she saw in any detail, but it was obvious that it disturbed her.
“Is there anything else you noticed?”
After some thought she said, “One man, leaning out of the machine of smoke was small with gray skin. He was short, but wide—like our blacksmith. I only saw him because I was still following the tall ones.”
The sun was low in the sky when the party broke up. The little girl was fighting sleep, but it finally overtook her and her father carried her to her bed. It was too early for the rest of us so we went to the outside bench where the old man was waiting with more of those fabulous cigars. This time Amy and Alice crowded on the bench with us. We used our packs for footstools and puffed away with deep satisfaction. All the time Old Blue parked himself at my feet. Minutes later Moses appeared with his own cigar and another short bench to join our group.
It was quiet for a time, then Alice broke the spell. “I think it would be awkward to explain our luxury items to the Director. I’d bet my bottom dollar this stuff is a distant relation of wacky tobacky.”
“Mmm-hmmm,” we all murmured around our smokes.
“I think that this gathering is an event best left out of the official report.”
“Mmm-hmm
m,” we replied.
“Maybe we should discuss our next move,” she said. “We have a whole world here, just look at the sky. It’s an interesting place, but all we have is our feet. Thanks to our little friend, we know there’s something different about a two week hike to the north. I don’t object to the trek—this is nice country, but I wish we had some transport.”
“We could always go back,” Harry said. “We could squeeze motorcycles through the Ganymede portal in pieces and assemble them on Nexus.”
“Something like that sounds good to me,” M2 said. “The travel to someplace can be boring. I like to get there fast.”
“What think you, James,” M1 said.
“Me, I’m reluctant to return to the Hollow Mountain,” I said. “The minute we show up there will be reports to fill out and a thousand questions to answer. We’ll be stuck there for weeks and get barrels full of advice as to what we should do and where we should go. I vote that first we go north to the end of the line. It’s the first possible lead we’ve had. Once there we can decide our next move. Maybe there’s a rail car there. At worst, we will have wasted a month.”
“More important,” M1 said, “is the fact of the tax collectors. They carry, or used to carry produce somewhere to the south. There could be a city of tax collectors or it could be a transfer point to send the goods to one or more home worlds. Even if it’s a city and the food stays there, they may well have the portals we need. Take another look at that sky.” The sun was below the horizon and the gas giant colored up and became more dramatic against a star-filled background. It was fantastic. “Frankly my friends, if we’re here much longer, I’ll be tempted to stay. It’s just too gorgeous.”
We kicked the idea around for half an hour, but ours was a one-way street. Our answers lay ahead, not back in the Hollow Mountain.
A few puffs later, the young patient and her parents appeared and stood before us in a triangle with curly head in front. On exiting the building, all three looked at the sky and then made the pinching motion with their right hands. She was still bleary eyed from her short nap. She took a deep breath and spoke to us: “I would go with you when you leave. I have talked of this with my parents. Although they are sad, they agree there is no place for me here and their wish is for me to be happy.”
I thought right away that she just assumed we would be exploring on this world. I doubt that she had any concept of travel to other planets. The leader and his wife remained silent, but their expressions spoke volumes.
“You must understand,” Moses said, “that we travel to places very far away and we do not know the length of our journey. We also may well face unknown dangers and you won’t be able to return without our help.”
She did not reply to this and silence reigned while we contemplated the glowing tips of our cigars.
“I defer to the Dance Band,” Moses finally said.
Alice blew out a long plume of smoke. “Do we need to discuss this?”
“Check with your gut,” Harry said.
“I’m for anything that improves the ratio of women to men,” M2 added.
“I’ll give her my spare jacket,” Amy volunteered.
“All in favor say nothing.” Alice said.
No one said a word and in the silence, I discovered that this planet had its own version of crickets.
“Welcome aboard, my dear,” M1 said, as he moved to make a space for her.
She sat and plucked one of the now famous cigars from a large pocket in her shirt and fired up from the metal pot. My guess was that all the people there smoked these sticks and I didn’t need to ask why.
“We leave in the morning?” Alice asked M1.
“Mmm-hmmm,” he replied. “We’ll get a good night’s sleep and leave fresh. We’ll have a talk with the head man now rather than in the morning. I just don’t think he has any helpful information, but we shall see.” He turned to the village leader. “Have any other travelers passed through here?”
The leader had a faraway look as he dug through his memory. “Not in my lifetime,” he paused. “There was a tale told by my father about two groups that were here for a short while. My people called them ‘the black legs’. They did not stay and never have we heard of them again.”
M1 asked a few more questions, but we learned nothing more. He had a question about the pinching gesture when they looked at the sky and did they have a name for the gas giant.
“The great globe in the sky is Ket Gai, our guardian. This motion is to signify that we are small and weak. We are to Ket Gai as a bug is between our fingers.”
The leader and his wife thanked us again and retired to their home. Moses told us that Ket Gai meant roughly the Great Spirit.
“When will we bring what’s-her-name up to speed on the mission?” I asked, Moses.
“If Amy agrees,” Moses said, “I will give the new member a portion of her memories. I will include some history of Earth and information about the equipment we carry and I will do all of this as she sleeps tonight.”
“Okay by me,” Amy said, “but the kid is in for some big surprises.”
The kid just sat there with a smile on her face, taking it all in. She reminded me of Amy when first we met.
The silence returned and I continued to work on my half-burned cigar. The sun had set and the night sky opened up with a thick blaze of unfamiliar stars and constellations. For a time I lost myself in that vastness. I noticed a particularly bright star and used it as a target for my smoke rings.
“I like your smoke rings, James,” Moses said. “Notice how ideal they are at first as the smoke rolls in a perfect ring, but see now, an appendage begins to protrude from the bottom. Watch it extend down and then the tip rolls and forms another, but much smaller ring. Have you ever wondered about that?”
“As a matter of fact, I have,” I said, “and I also have a feeling that you’re about to explain it to me.”
“I am sorry I can’t give you the details,” he said, “but I can tell you what my instructor told me in a class on celestial mechanics. He said that if one could truly understand the behavior of a smoke ring, one would understand the movement of galaxies. I think he was serious.”
“Now this is more like it,” I said to all. “This is real cigar talk. We could be on the bench in front of BVs on a Friday night, but instead we’re at… Amy, have you thought of a name for this place yet?”
“Yep,” she replied. “It’s so neat I’ve been saving it for the right moment.”
“Well, this is the moment,” I said. “Amy Bassett, name this place.”
She stood up, holding her cigar like a baton, struck her Charlton Heston pose and said, “I christen this place, Shenandoah.”
“Shenandoah?” M2 asked. “You mean like the valley or the river?”
“A little,” she replied. “More like the feeling you get when you hear the song.”
“How about a name for our new member?” Harry asked.
“Done and done,” she replied, “Her name is Shan with an a. Shan that rhymes with ‘tan’ rather than Shen that rhymes with ‘hen’.” She turned to our new member. “Is that okay with you?”
“I feel honor that you would give me a name and a place in your tribe.”
“Actually,” M2 commented, “she now has a complete set of names: Shan Ann Doah.”
“Yes,” Harry said, “I know the Doah family quite well. They run a truck stop just outside of Montgomery, Alabama.”
“He’s kidding—right?” Amy said, to Alice.
“It’s part of his job description,” Alice replied.
“When we get back,” Harry said, “just google Doah. You might be in for a surprise.”
“You can google anything,” Amy shot back, “even a nonsense word and get results. By the way, Harry, when I first met you, you smoked a big old briar pipe, but I haven’t seen it for quite a while.”
“You don’t see it because I don’t need it now,” Harry said, “Before the Dance Band, I was pretty much a
loner and the pipe was my companion.”
“So,” Amy smiled and raised her eyebrows, “are you and I companions?”
“Absolutely, kiddo. Companions and comrades forever.”
The love-in went on until bedtime. Cigar talk is great.
Harry and I had a short stroll around the compound while we finished our smokes. At the corner of one building we came across the old man who made the cigars. I had an idea. “Since you are the oldest person we have seen so far,” I said, to him, “perhaps you know more of the story of the black legs.” I repeated the little bit we had learned from the leader.
“I was very young when first they came,” the old man said. “For some reason that I do not know, my people did not like them and they soon departed, but I know not to where. I was very young. It was the same with the second group that came here soon after the first group had left us.”
“Do you know why they were called the black legs?” I asked.
“Because their legs were clad in black leather. As I remember, all of their clothing was black”
“Is there anything else you remember?”
“Only that one arm had on it a strange symbol. I can draw it for you.”
I nodded and with his staff our cigar maker quickly drew the symbol in the smooth dirt. I thanked him and he went on his way. Harry looked at me bug eyed as I quickly scuffed the dirt to remove any trace.
The old man had drawn a perfect swastika.
CHAPTER 22
We stood silently, just looking at each other. We couldn’t talk. YDRII could easily hear our words. Harry pointed to the pen in my shirt pocket. I quickly pulled out my small notebook and wrote what had just happened. I tore out the page and we walked casually back to where the rest were lounging. I furtively slipped the note to M1. Minutes later, without rousing any suspicion, Alice, Amy and M2 were up to speed. The trouble was that we couldn’t talk about it.
A bit later, M1 passed us a new note. It’s obvious some Nazis made it through the Ganymede portal. Maybe Moses knows, or maybe not. Amy left with the paper. She returned and circulated her message. It’s possible Moses really doesn’t know. How about we tell him, ask him if he could figure out how it’s possible? Alice was next. Her note was blunt and to the point. No—not a word. For now, we just stick to the plan and keep our eyes open and our mouths shut. This was an uncomfortable situation, but I saw no alternative.
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: Book 2 The Secret Path Page 15