Alice was the first to comment. “I bet the people who built Nexus also built this. What a blah piece of architecture.”
“This door has a handle,” M1 said, “but I don’t see a key hole or a key pad.”
“This is a location for a fairytale cottage,” Amy said, “but I see no gingerbread.”
“What is a fairy,” Shan asked. “and what about its tail and what is gingerbread?”
“I see blank spots in the memory transfer,” Amy said. “Shan, I’ll tell you all about it later.”
“What do you think?” Alice asked. “It looks innocent enough.”
“Yeah,” M2 said, “but this could be a big bee hive so how about you all step back a ways and I’ll see if it will open.”
No one could determine a safe distance so we just backed off about ten yards and from there we called out our encouragement.
“If it explodes—duck.”
“If you hear ticking—run like hell.”
“Okay you jokers,” he said, while bending over the handle, “I’ve cracked open the door. There is no lock or latch. I don’t hear any bees, so here goes.”
He pulled the door wide open. Nothing went boom and no alarm bells sounded, so we all trooped inside.
CHAPTER 28
The well-lit interior was not wildly strange, but certainly something different. There were no inside walls reaching to the ceiling. This allowed us a complete view from one end to the other. The right half had a center aisle and on either side were cubicles with five-foot walls. M2 walked to the end wall and reported that all of the cubicles were completely empty except the first one. It had a cot and a backpack on the floor next to it.
“So there is someone in the area.” M2 said. “Any sign of that being, YDRII?”
“Yes,” he replied, “the source is about two hundred yards into the forest behind this building.”
Alice meanwhile, had walked to the left through an open space that extended to the end of the building. Large machines filled the back wall, reminding me of a fancy laundromat. Each had a TV-like control panel. A large door directly below had a counter in front, perhaps to hold what was going in or coming out.
Little signs in the wavy line language hung on all the walls and Moses was busy reading them. Since the rest of us were at a loss, we just waited for him to finish, which didn’t take long.
“The writing on these signs is a minor corruption of the original I knew,” he said. “It is what you might expect to see after many hundreds of years of isolation.”
“Interesting,” Alice said, “but do they explain the purpose of this building?”
“Most of these machines are replicators,” he said. “The signage has to do with their operation as well as requests to keep a clean and orderly facility. This building looks like a way station for travelers. The machines can provide just about any need—food, medicine, clothing and tools. As far as I can tell, even the cot in the cubicle came out of one of these units.”
“I don’t see any coin slots,” Alice said. “Is it a free on demand service?”
“I think it is,” Moses said. “I know this leaves many questions and perhaps the being who, by the way, is now heading this way, can expand our knowledge.”
“Will YDRII translate for us?” Alice asked.
“Yes he will,” Moses said, and for any situation we encounter.”
After a brief discussion, we went outside to stand in the middle of the trail, in front of our morses. The youngish man, looking like a native of Shenandoah, appeared from the forest at the left side of the building carrying a large, brown lumpy object. When he saw us, his reaction was the same as the blacksmith. He simply stopped and looked at us with an expression of mild surprise and growing curiosity.
“My greetings to you,” he said. “What is it that you celebrate? Are those large animals behind you the great beasts from the north I have heard about?”
“Yes, we call them morses,” Moses said. “It is my hope you can forgive our ignorance. We are travelers from a distant place and are unfamiliar with your ways. We do not understand your question about celebrating.”
On hearing this, the man opened his mouth as if to reply, but no sound came out. His look of curiosity intensified as he tried to think of a response. He sat the lumpy object on a nearby flat rock and turned back to us. “I do not know what to say. What you have told me makes no sense. Everyone is a traveler and the distant places are only distant from here. I know many of those places and if we were at any one of them, this spot would be a distant place. The ways of all of us are the same and according to the map, all places on this world are known and recorded.”
Moses whispered through our ear radios. “Apparently, this man thinks the forest is the whole world. This approach could take a long time. I think now I will be more direct. I judge this man to be intelligent enough to stretch his imagination.” The rest of the Dance Band just smiled at the stranger as Moses continued to speak. “We come from a place beyond this world. We ride on these animals because they can move much faster than we can walk. My friends and I know nothing about your distant places and the map.”
As Moses spoke, the man showed no fear, just more curiosity. His next question was to the point and direct. “If you come from a place beyond this world, you had to have come from beyond the forest. How did you do that? There is nothing but empty land. My people never leave the forest.”
Moses replied, “Do you know of the silver dome that lies a short distance back along the path?”
The man’s eyebrows shot up. “There are many legends about that dome. The most common is that it is a doorway to another place. Are you saying that the legend is true?”
“I am,” Moses said.
“This is wonderful,” the man said. “Will you show me? Can I go with you? Is this why some of you have different eyes and skin?”
“Hoo-Boy,” Harry muttered, “everyone wants to get on the Dance Band wagon.”
“First,” Moses said, “we will be here only long enough to learn something of your world and your ways. I hope you alone can teach us what we need to know so we may leave all the sooner as we still have far to go.”
When Moses spoke of a far way to go, I saw the man’s eyes lose focus as he clearly savored the thought, but he remained silent and listened intently.
“You will see us leave,” Moses said. “As well as exploring, we are on a mission that we must complete. There are many things that can be hazardous when you follow an unfamiliar and poorly-marked trail.”
The man was a fast thinker and an even faster decision maker. “What do you require of me?”
“Information,” Moses replied. “Do you know where the road of rails goes?”
“I only know it comes from an unknown place, goes through the forest and continues on to another unknown place.”
“Have you ever seen a machine of smoke?”
“No, but I have heard the old tales. They tell of such a thing. I do not know the truth of the matter.”
“Why did you ask us about the nature of our celebrating?”
“It is odd for me,” he said, “to explain what is normal for everyone on this world, but I will do my best. There are many of my people in this forest. We are all travelers and commonly, we prefer to travel alone. There have been times when I have traveled with another person—once with two others, but those times are rare because they lessen the anticipation of what lies ahead.”
“We understand,” Moses said, “but what about families and the children?”
“Of course,” the man said, “families stay together until the children are grown. Even after they leave, the woman and the man might continue to stay together. It depends on the people involved. Now, considering the size and makeup of your group, I assumed you had gathered for some special occasion. It is rare indeed to see so large a group traveling as one.”
Moses nodded. “This is good. We are making progress. Can you tell us the nature of this map that you mentioned?”
“Oh, I can show you,” he said. “There is one inside this Provider.”
“Provider, what is a Provider?” Moses asked.
“This building,” he said, pointing in the direction of the doorway. “Come inside and I will show you.”
“Excuse me,” I said, “but before you go inside you should know that the brown thing you were carrying is moving.”
All eyes went to the brown thing and sure enough, it was gliding away from our group at a snail’s pace.
He picked it up to cradle it in his arms. “My intention was to have some of it for my noontime meal. This is the most sought after delicacy on this world,” the man said. “There is enough here for all of us.”
“Wait a minute,” Alice said. “You mean to tell us you just eat part of the animal?”
“You misunderstand,” the man said. “We eat what grows on its back. The animal itself is this flat part on the bottom and it is only the thickness of my finger. If we did not harvest the plant that grows on its back, it would eventually become too large and heavy and the animal would die. The replicator will not make any of this food. If it did, people would not harvest the plant and the creature would become extinct. ”
“So you don’t hurt it when you remove the plant material?” Amy asked.
“No,” he said, “I will save its life. I will prepare it when we finish inside.”
“Say, Amy,” I said, “we need a name for our new friend and also the brown thing.”
“How about Bob for the man?” she said. “He seems to be a nice guy. Most Bobs I have known were nice guys except Bob in Paramus, New Jersey, but don’t get me started on him. The brown thing reminds me of a certain fish so how about we call it Flounder?”
Moses asked the man if we could use those names for convenience and he agreed. The map was a surprise. Our new friend led us inside and to the far wall past the cubicles. There he touched an obscure, blue dot and half the wall lit up with a full color map. Everywhere we saw a fine mesh of trails and Providers in the hundreds, indicated by a green dot. In a few spots, the green dot was gray. Bob told us those places no longer worked. M2 was busy snapping pictures.
“I have gauged the size of this forest,” YDRII said.
Bob jumped back, but Moses quickly explained that this was a mechanical device. This seemed to satisfy him, although he kept glancing at our little robot.
“The road of rails is shown there near the middle,” YDRII continued, “The length of its path through the forest is not quite four hundred miles. East to west it is about six hundred miles. At the western extreme, the map shows the beginning of a range named the Yellow Mountains. This is a very big forest.”
“I’d love to do a flyover,” Harry said. “All I need is an airplane.”
“What is an airplane?” Bob asked.
It took Harry a good five minutes to convince Bob that such a thing existed. As we took in the scope of the map, we realized that one person would be hard pressed to walk all of the many trails in a single lifetime. He put a finger in different spots on the map to demonstrate a feature. Wherever he touched, a large panoramic picture of the landscape bloomed to show us an amazing variety of forested terrains.
“We are here,” Bob said, as he touched a spot that blossomed into a spectacular view of the trees, “and this red dot is the dome. It is the only one in this forest.”
“Are there no cities?” M1 asked.
“What are cities?” Bob asked.
“A city is a place with many dwellings,” M1 said, “where people live more or less permanently.”
“There are only some very ancient ruins,” Bob explained. “I have seen some of them and have heard the old tales. I must tell you that I cannot imagine living always in one place, surrounded by so many people. Are there cities where you live?”
“Oh, yes,” M1 said, “Cities with people numbering in the thousands.”
Bob’s jaw dropped. He could think of no reply to that awesome number.
“Who maintains your Providers?” Moses asked.
Bob answered with another look of surprise. “I do not understand. They have always been here.”
“I am not quite clear on this,” Moses said. “Do you mean that your people do not build new Providers or repair the ones that no longer function?”
“You speak of things that never in my lifetime have happened,” Bob said. “I have never considered such things.”
Moses kept going. “Then who was it that long ago built the Providers?”
“You speak of the ancient ones. It is true that some say they brought the Providers here in the long-long ago, but such tales—they are no more than legend. We just accept them and use them.”
It was interesting to watch Moses as he shifted his approach. “Who taught you to read?”
“The first station in the Provider teaches us what we need to know,” Bob replied, “along with our parents, of course.”
Moses was silent for a while, and then to us, he said, “I believe I have the information I need from this place and it fits with our recent experiences. We can discuss this later.”
Without saying so, he told us that the discussion would take place, but without Bob. Everyone was silent for a while now that the quiz was complete. With nothing better to do, our eyes wandered back to the map until good old Harry had an idea.
“Let’s do lunch,” he said.
CHAPTER 29
“Great idea Harry,” Alice said. “Hey Bob, how about preparing some of that flounder for us?”
Bob proved to be a very experienced and efficient camper. In moments, he arranged the firewood between two flat rocks and set it ablaze. He dug a large frying pan with folding metal legs out of his backpack and set it to heat over the flames. Using both hands, he rapidly pinched pieces from the big lump and tossed them into the bubbling oil where they popped and sizzled. They looked a bit like cauliflower. Moses requested a sample that he placed in YDRII’s body panel to test for our compatibility. It was okay.
The girls and Blue got the first batch. The boys were next. The stuff had a rainbow of flavors from sweet to sour and everything in the middle. Harry managed to mutter through a big mouthful that here was yet another “billn-dollar moppormoonity”.
“Harry,” I said,” YDRII will soon qualify as a five-star restaurant.”
“I have a question for you, Bob,” Amy said, from her prone position. “How long do you stay at any Provider? Will you be leaving soon?”
“My stays vary from one to several days. I will leave when the anticipation overwhelms me.”
“How does that work exactly?” she asked. “I mean, do you just wait here at the Provider for something to happen?”
Bob looked back at her with one eyebrow raised. I think he was asking himself how the heck these odd people were so ignorant, but he took a deep breath and gave it a go. “Just a little way on down the path there is a place where it rises and curves around a small hill. The light is brighter beyond there, but the hill hides the view. I have not been beyond that spot. Although I am very anxious to see the view from the top, I must wait and savor the anticipation until it becomes too much to bear. Then I will shoulder my backpack and continue my journey. The views in the forest are not long because the trees are so thick. One day I will travel to the Yellow Mountains. People have said that from the high slopes a person can see forever.”
“I understand,” Amy said.
“Not a bad way to go,” Harry said.
“What do you call the big globe in the sky?” M1 asked.
“It is called Andoona, which is an ancient word that means, ‘The Watcher’.”
“Your flounder is escaping again,” I said to Bob.
The creature, looking more like a piece of shag carpet, was indeed creeping away and at a much faster speed.
“We have finished with it,” Bob said. “It is free to return to the forest. Now I must ask you, if you would like to join me for a time. The trail ahead could be very interesting
.”
“The offer is attractive,” Moses said, “but our mission calls us elsewhere. We need to follow the road of rails, even beyond this forest. We know not where it goes.”
“I have never even thought about where it may go in either direction,” Bob said. “Now I am curious.”
“Bob,” Amy said, “a little way back on the trail we saw a big tree that has fallen, but only part way. It looks like it goes all the way to the treetops. Would you ever climb something like that?”
“I would and did climb that very trunk about six days ago. I stayed up there for two days. It is beautiful beyond description.”
“How far does it take you?”
“To the solid place just under the canopy.”
“Ho, boy” Alice said. “It’s a temptation, but we’re not tourists. I think it’s time we got back on the road of rails.”
As we were shouldering our packs, Arnold appeared with a worried look. “Something strange is happening to the young female morse,” he said. “See how the herd has gathered to surround her.”
We hadn’t noticed, but when we looked, all we could see were the hind ends of the big girls. It reminded me of the musk ox defensive circles against wolves, but the ox stood face out. Shan was the one who moved first. She ran over to the closest morse and cautiously reached to touch its rump. The animal did not kick or react, so Shan grabbed the tail and hoisted herself up onto the broad back. She crawled forward to get a better view. “The morses are taking turns licking the bumps on the little morse’s head,” she called back. “I think they are swelling. It may be that her ears are about to pop out.”
“This is true,” YDRII said. “The morses have shown me the process. This is how they assist a young one when the time for adulthood arrives. The difficulty we now face is that the process will last until after dark. They will not move until they finish.”
“Ain’t no problem there,” Harry said, with a chuckle. “Now we get to climb that monster tree after all.”
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: Book 2 The Secret Path Page 20