“Hey, YDRII,” I said, “is Moses okay?”
“Yes and so am I,” he replied. “These morse animals are remarkably sensitive to moods and this one felt Moses’ concern for Mary and so it is offering its sympathy and comfort.”
A bit later, the big ear lifted from Moses’ head and we asked him to describe what had just happened.
“I really do not have the ability to tell you. There were no words and no pictures. Peaceful feelings flooded my mind and my fears for Mary evaporated. These animals may well be the most valuable things we have found so far.”
“Oh, man,” Harry sighed, “the prospects for making tons of money rain down on us. We are billionaires if we so desire.”
While Harry was talking, Blue came up to me and with those expressive eyes looking deep into mine said, “Spam?”
Before I could respond, Shan called him back and gave him a stern lecture. I was glad she did because I’m such a pushover. Although Ket Gai was high overhead, the sun had lowered beyond the far hills, so we went inside to retire.
As I was degreasing my breakfast plate with the last wedge of toast, I heard a loud WHUF and there was Donna in the doorway. As I left the table, I dropped the piece of toast which Blue took care of instantly. Amy, standing behind me, commented that I was very clumsy when it suited my devious behavior.
“Love me; love my dog-like creature.” I said.
“That I can do,” she shot back.
It was a sensory delight to push Donna back, out of the doorway. Once outside we found all the original herd plus four new morses. We had morses to spare. One of the new animals was a juvenile female. She was smaller and only had lumps where her ears would develop.
As we caressed our mounts, Amy observed that this was about the only time she could feel up an animal without a sense of guilt.
YDRII put a stop to our feel-a-thon by saying that two more animals were approaching from the forest and they were the males that were part of this herd.
I almost reached for my pistol when I saw the two emerge from the greenery. They were the rhino-like predators, just like the one we saw on our trek to the abandoned city.
“These are the males?” Alice exclaimed
“They are,” YDRII said, “but their looks belie their temperament. They are, if anything, more docile than the females and are anxious to remain with the herd. I believe that the females tolerate them only for purposes of breeding. They have consumed the pill and are ready to go.”
“How do you know all this?” Alice asked.
“It is just that my ability to communicate in concepts is improving,”
Moses joined us and in his hand he carried a box, big enough to hold a small orange. “This is the house computer who will be joining our group. I will insert it into YDRII so it can have access to external events. It will also be able to communicate with us using YDRII’s capabilities. It has much to learn.”
I mentioned to Amy that she should start thinking about a name for our new electronic friend.
We had one short meeting. We decided to stop at Shan’s village long enough to recruit the blacksmith. The idea was that if, at the end of the road of rails, we had to move on, he would bring the herd back.
It was time to go.
CHAPTER 26
We hiked to the dome with the morse herd trailing behind. Although the portal clearance for the big beauties was only inches, they walked through with no hesitation. Their behavior on Nexus was normal, except that they did what looked like a little gravity induced dance. One hour later we exited the portal near the farm. We had thought to show up unannounced. That tactic appealed to Shan, but the second we arrived, Blue was off like a shot—heading for the farm. All we could do was follow along with Shan and her mount in the lead.
The morses made it a quick trip and we met the farm dwellers as they were starting to follow Blue, back toward us. As soon as the group spotted us approaching the out buildings, they stopped dead in their tracks. It was a jaw-dropping experience for them to see such an alarming array of beasts bearing down on their farm. When they saw their own Shan astride the lead animal, their fear turned to joy and awe. Shan slid down from her mount and ran to her parents where the other members of her clan engulfed her in tearful reunion.
The celebration went on the rest of the day and far into the night. As anxious as we were to move on south, the locals were not to be denied and Shan was ecstatic with her new status as celebrity of the century. The boys, Alice, and Amy got a little drunk and made a big dent in the supply of the local cigars. I saw Harry go for a walk with an attractive native. He was absent for over two hours, but we were polite enough not to grill him on his return. We would though, in the future.
We were sitting on the bare earth, leaning on our backpacks, watching the rise of Ket Gai. Amy returned with two refills of the local wine—one for M1 and one for herself. It became interesting when she started to tease him by holding out the cup, then withdrawing as he reached for it. Alice nudged me with her foot. When I glanced at her, she mouthed what I thought was, “Maybe”. I had no clue other than it concerned the two we were watching. After the third offer and withdrawal, M1 swiftly reached to grab one of Amy’s ankles and the offering wine hand. He gently eased her down to a sitting position without spilling a drop. “Thanks for the wine, Amy.” Then he feigned total absorption with Ket Gai. This was fun. She crouched on all fours, football style, ready to spring, but as fate would have it, we had a major interruption that took the wind out of the romantic sails.
From out of the blue we heard from YDRII. “Carl Manheim, this is YDRII. If it is you who broadcast the short signal it is important that you do not do so again. Such an action can reveal the location of your world to unfriendly ears. Leave the receiver on and place a recording device next to the speaker. If we have a need, we will send a message. All is well as of this moment.”
Moses quickly explained that YDRII’s instantaneous radio had received a carrier wave signal from an instantaneous source. He assumed that it was Carl tinkering with the German creation.
“If it was Carl,” YDRII said, “I now have a direction from here to Earth, but I don’t know where here is and I cannot triangulate with only one reference. I would also need a distance and relative motions of all planets in question.”
Alice had an interesting question. “Using that known direction, can you point out the star that is Sol?”
“Oh, no. My direction is to the present location of Earth. If we could see the star that is your sun, it would be an image of where it was long ago.”
That satisfied us, so we went back to our drinks. I was hoping the little Amy and M1 drama would resume, but the moment had passed. I raised a questioning eyebrow to Alice and she whispered, “It’ll happen eventually.”
I woke up with a mild hangover that soon dissipated in the bustle of activity as we loaded up for our departure. At the head of our convoy was the blacksmith that Amy had named Arnold, after that Schwarzenegger fellow. Shan and Alice had explained what was needed and he reveled in his status as master of the herd and our worries about the future welfare of the morses were set aside. The entire population, walking with a hand touching the fabulous fur, followed us to the edge of the farmstead and waved a goodbye until we were out of sight.
This time, at the road of rails, we turned left and headed south—destinations unknown—a delightful thought. The new land looked the same as the land going north and it stayed that way for two days, about two hundred miles. YDRII would rise up every so often, only to report there was nothing in sight, other than the endless farms. On day three we woke up to a gentle rain that created a foggy mist that closed in to hide Ket Gai and obscure the countryside. About noon and fifty miles down the tracks, the rain stopped and a mild wind carried off the wisps of mist.
“Goodness, gracious—great balls of fire,” Alice sang out. “Look at that view. We’re in New Zealand. Keep an eye out for Zena, Warrior Princess.”
“Frodo Baggins
, must be out there somewhere,” Amy said. “What a gorgeous place. All of that and Ket Gai too.”
“I wish we could put up a satellite,” Harry said. “I’d love to see what this planet has to offer—could be fabulous based on what we’ve seen so far.”
On the morning of day five, YDRII descended to tell us we were leaving New Zealand and approaching a radically different landscape. “A few miles ahead I saw the beginning of a forest. The trees are much larger than anything on Earth.”
“Well,” Alice said, “this is glorious. Have I said that before? No matter, the whole place is glorious. Say, Amy, how about naming this planet, Glory?”
“Not quite good enough for this big ball,” Amy said. “I’ll have something soon, but it must be perfect.”
“YDRII, does the road of rails turn or stop there?” M1 asked.
“No, it goes straight into the trees.”
“Then the old tales are true,” Arnold said—a look of worry mixed with wonder on his bearded face.
As we drew close, we saw that YDRII did not exaggerate. If anything, his description was insufficient.
“Good grief,” M2 said. “Just look at those things. They must be a thousand feet tall.”
The rest of us just rode on, mouths open and speechless, until we passed between two titanic tree trunks. Daylight faded and the hoof steps of the morses were the only sounds allowed in that vast space.
CHAPTER 27
“Are we in church?” I asked, as I looked into the dim interior.
Great shafts of yellow light slanted down between the gigantic trunks to create theatrical pools of light on the forest floor. The trees were so tall the trunks faded into the upper shadows and the dense growth limited our vision to less than one hundred yards. The air was still. Every so often, a dust mote would float into a beam of sunlight to create an iridescent spark, only to wink out as it passed into shade. I immediately fell into a mood not unlike the one inspired by a certain rainy night in Upstate New York. It was ethereal, a place of elves and wood nymphs, a place glimpsed only in one’s most magical dreams. God, I love this planet. I wish Bebe could see it. That thought gave me pause. Why Bebe and not Jean? Something more to think about, but I’m busy.
“Sequoia!” Amy exclaimed. “I name this forest ‘Sequoia’. It’s beautiful.”
“We still need a name for the whole planet,” Alice reminded her.
“I have an idea,” she said, “but I have to see more. Maybe they have hornets and snakes.”
The rest of us just looked and felt the presence of the massive trunks, rising up to disappear in the gloom.
“Sorry to interrupt, folks,” M1 said. “If YDRII senses nothing unusual, we need to keep following the tracks. Moses, are you okay with this?”
“Yes,” Moses said, “This place is very distracting, but we should move on.”
“What about the morses?” Amy asked. “I doubt that we’ll find any grass here. This could go on for many miles.”
“I gave YDRII a sample of the grasses,” Moses said. “He can provide all that the animals require.”
Our caravan moved deeper into that mystical place. We followed the rails into a thicker forest where the shafts of sunlight were few and far between. I used the word gloom to describe the upper reaches, but I soon revised it to theatrical.
“This reminds me of reading The Hobbit when I was young enough to believe in magic,” I said. “This could be Mirkwood.”
Our pace was slow and almost reverent, as though we were walking down the center aisle of a vast cathedral. It was like the stage setting for a grand and tragic opera. At any moment, I expected to see a large and imposing woman, in a long robe and a Viking helmet, step from behind one of the pillars. She would serenade us with the backing of a full symphony orchestra. Alice must have felt the same because I heard her whisper that there should be some deep organ music floating down from somewhere above. Here and there the spaces between the monumental trunks allowed glimpses of distant galleries glowing a dreamlike blue green.
“This tunnel through these monster trees is wider than necessary,” Harry said. “I don’t see any tree stumps, but maybe they were cut down a thousand years ago and the stumps rotted away.”
Small streams cut the ground on either side into many small gullies and ravines—each hosting a tiny creek and most with fairy waterfalls. Forest debris cluttered the rails, but not enough to hinder us. Other than the road of rails, nowhere was there a trace of artificial construction or alteration of the terrain.
Blue was in his element as he trotted around from side to side with his nose to the ground and his tail bouncing up and down. On one of his short side trips, he returned with a four-foot long feather in his mouth—pearl white with an iridescent blue shaft. It was a standard feather in every respect other than its size. It looked more like an artificial stage prop than the genuine article.
He dropped it next to Shan’s mount and said, “Bird.”
Shan hopped down and picked it up. “Thank you, Blue.” Then to us, she said, “This weighs nothing at all.”
She launched it like a dart and it flew off like a tuft of thistledown and slowly sank to the ground several yards away.
“I’d love to snap a picture of the feather’s former owner,” M2 said.
“Something that big could carry off your camera and you with it,” Alice said.
The atmosphere was intoxicating. I quit trying to analyze the attractions and simply enjoyed the ride. Now that we were deeper into the forest, Moses sent YDRII aloft for a look at what was beyond our little spot. Blue trotted out from our group and sniffed the forest floor. After a few sniffs, he looked back. “Path,” he said.
We all dismounted and moved to where he was standing. Sure enough, although hard to see in the dim light, there was a wide path winding its way between the trunks.
“Hey gang,” Harry said, while scuffing aside some forest rubble. “This isn’t just a path; it’s a switched siding or maybe a branch line. It’s been out of use a lot longer than the main line we’ve been following.”
Just then YDRII returned. “The forest covers all land within sight. There are some small lakes between the hills, but nowhere did I see open terrain. I did detect some isolated electromagnetic sources, but I could not determine their function. There is a population spread thinly over the area I could scan and none of them appears to be too far from the electronic signals. I do not believe there are any towns or villages. What I have determined makes little sense. The upper canopy is unique and difficult to penetrate.”
As YDRII was reporting to us, I noticed that Amy and Shan had separated slightly from our group. They stood on the branch line or siding, looking to where it vanished into the forest. I walked up to them and asked them what they found that was so interesting.
“This place calls to me,” Amy said. “I have that lonely feeling I’ve talked about.”
“When I find a new beautiful place,” Shan said, “this is the feeling. My chest swells. I need to go there.”
“Another billion dollar opportunity,” Harry muttered. “My feet just want to start moving on down that trail.”
“Me,” M2 said, “I’d love to see what lies just beyond that bend.”
“This brings out the vagabond in all of us,” Alice said.
I asked M1 if we could put on our Gypsy hats and take a hike.
“First let me check with YDRII,” he said. “It would be easy to get lost in this forest. I don’t want to wander too far from the main line.”
The robot replied that nearby there were no large or small animals. “Overhead there are a few birds and some squirrel-like animals. About half of one mile down the siding that so interests Amy and Shan there is an electromagnetic source. I also sense at least one intelligent being. I might add that with my many senses, we will not get lost.”
“We’ll go as far as the electronic source, M1 said.
We moved out on foot, the material on the forest floor silencing our steps.
Arnold the blacksmith followed, leading the herd in single file. The morses showed no nervousness or hesitation. Around the first bend was another dome by the side of the path.
“This could be the reason for this bit of railroad” M2 said, “but it seems to go on.”
Once again, it led to Nexus, but we had no use for it. It wasn’t long before YDRII informed us that we were very close. The tree trunks still limited our view and as far as we could tell, there was nothing ahead, but forest.
The next bend in the trail exposed another interesting surprise.
“Wow,” Harry said, “this has to be the mother of all trees. Wow.”
“This is a thing I would not believe,” Shan said, “if I was not here to see it.”
It looked like Harry’s mother of giant trees had made an unsuccessful attempt to fall. The base was next to the trail and it had heaved up a hill of dirt as the trunk began to topple. Great, twisted roots hung above the trail like the spokes of a huge wrecked umbrella.
The upper limbs of its companions held it there, leaving a steep, but navigable ramp rising up toward the canopy. Rain had long ago washed the clumps of dirt from the exposed roots and smoothed the mound below. Smashed and cracked limbs lay everywhere, looking like pictures I had seen of old-time log-jams.
“That could be a very interesting climb,” Harry said, as he walked up the mound to examine the wood. “This trunk has to be over forty feet in diameter. You could build a whole town with this one tree. I wonder if the lower gravity on this planet helped these behemoths to grow like this.”
“Most everything around here is interesting,” M1 said, as he gazed up to where the trunk faded into the shadows. “I’d love to see the canopy, but the most we can do now is to put it on our to-do list.”
Reluctantly, we left that intriguing spot. Around the next giant trunk, we came upon the end of the tracks and the electronic source. What we saw was a long, low box of a building. Its color was like the soil on which it sat. There were no openings other than a single large door in the center.
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: Book 2 The Secret Path Page 19