The Time Stone

by Jeffrey Estrella

  “We’re doomed” said Tina.

  “I got an idea” said Mercedes. She grabbed the glowing time stone from James and turned it.

  “You’re gonna ‘time jump’ them?” Asked Drax.

  “Not them… us” she yelled as the temporal wormhole opened up in a flash of light before them and in between the two ships. The crews of both shipped stopped in awe as the Gorge Hunter maneuvered slightly towards it.

  “We need more speed” said Drax.

  “Now” Cutlass gave the order and struck his hand down like the hammer of God as the ships helmsman turned the wheel with a mighty stroke sending the ship lurching towards the roaring vortex as the Marauder continued its assault. The Gorge Hunter received numerous blasts and caught fire on one of the masts disabling the holographic sails.

  “We’re dead” yelled Ricon.

  “Not yet” said Mercedes as the entire Gorge Hunter amidst in flames and all its remaining inhabitants came within close proximity of the vortex and transformed into a ball of energy being sucked into the vortex that soon then quickly vanished to the behest of the crew of the Marauder left in awe. The captain of the Marauder rested on the deck of his ship with a serious grit on his face showing his sharp teeth in anger.

  After being released from the roaring vortex, the Gorge Hunter travelled along the water slowly. The crew hustled about trying to fan the flames with rags while Ricon ran up to the main control panel at the helm of the ship and pressed the emergency red button that caused a stream of coolant to flow from the beacons as they turned towards the masts and sprayed their water vapor that generated the electrical components putting out the flames. The crew cheered.

  “We made it” said Tina.

  “Quick thinking, I am impressed.” Said Drax to Mercedes.

  “Thanks. Seemed like a leap of faith” Replied Mercedes.

  “Where or when are we?” Asked James.

  “Land Ho!” Yelled the ship yeoman from the mast bucket high above the ship.

  “It’s the great island” said Cutlass slowly.

  “The Island looks weird. It is not at all like I envisioned with more greenery and taste.” Said Tina.

  “This isn’t some Robert Louis Stevenson novel, sometimes life is funny.” Said Drax.

  The great island was dark and desolate, appearing like a lone piece of charcoal in the blanket sea, and a harbinger of great mysteries cloaked in absolute darkness in the midst of daylight.

  “Wow” said James. “We are the first to see this?”

  “Well we don’t know. Legends were told of the great island as a place of mystery and wonder but also fear and dread. Those who were supposedly able to arrive here have never returned. I fear we may soon join them.” Said Cutlass nervously.

  “Don’t worry we got time on our side” said Tina smiling.

  “Look guys, I think this ‘map’ is more, a possible storage device” Drax pointed to the stone in Tina’s hand holding his handheld scanner over it.

  “It’s more than a battery?” Asked Mercedes. “I think the alter was the battery but the stone was for storage of information. We just have to access it.”

  “How do we do that?” Asked James.

  “Well, if it has info, Drax and I can probably translate and read it on my scanner if finding the right frequency it is pitched into. We could find the map to find the dark star in the great island.” Tina said.

  “The great island has many secrets” said Cutlass “and is rumored to hold a weapon of great invincibility and power.”

  “The dark star!” Said Mercedes.

  “Yeah” said Drax.

  CHAPTER 73

  The ship arrived anchoring down near the island. “We can make our way via shuttle boat” said Cutlass as the small vessel was released from the lower decks after the front bow lowered and opened.

  “Well go alone” said Drax.

  “No,” demanded Cutlass, “I go with you. I lost seven men on that battle and want to make sure we don’t lose anymore. Yulelka you be in charge until I return.”

  “Yes, Captain” she replied and ran back.

  “Alright. Let’s go” said Drax. The five adventurers boarded the small shuttle boat on the side of the ship. Drax felt nervous that Cutlass insisted on coming.

  The shuttle boat like a miniature version of the Gorge Hunter rode across the water to the deserted dark beaches of the great island, a large tapestry of inlets that curved landscapes near rocks threatening to tear them apart if they dared venture too close. The waves rocked them back and forth but the trail of energy vapor emitting from it kept them on course until they touched based. Cutlass joined the foursome on their quest for the dark star as his skills in leadership and fighting may prove beneficial thought Drax.

  After docking on the shore, the five adventurers marched towards the inlets in the mountainous region to the north using only Drax’s handheld scanner and their wits as their guide. Then suddenly they observed several objects in the sky like dark dots getting closer and closer before approaching close enough.

  “It’s those vampire things” said Mercedes.

  “The beasts” said Drax standing ready to fight.

  “They can fly” said Tina.

  “We can see that” said James.

  “We shall prevail” said Cutlass with his large raspy voice as he was reaching for his sword and swinging it towards the nearest beast. The beast repelled itself against the wind. Drax reached for his elfin glove, put it on, and began firing several intense projectiles of hot white light from it. As his colleagues ducked and dodged the blasts and ran for cover on the sandy dunes ahead, Drax continued to fire from his glove and emit hot white piercing beams of energy towards the prey floating above them viciously snarling as they swooped down to attack. The beasts moved around until one was struck and fell. The rest flew off into the distance.

  “They were the same beasts we fought in the woods but with wings.” Said Tina.

  “That was close” said Mercedes.

  “We should keep moving” said Drax. They walked for miles until reaching the base of the mountain at the far side of the great island. Drax led the way with his wrist device’s light beacon.

  “Spooky” said Tina.

  “Yeah, but I am not afraid” said James, “I will protect you.”

  “My hero” said Tina.

  “We need to get up there” said Mercedes looking up at the caves on to either side of them built into the mountain walls at the end of the island passing but with no precipice just openings in the rock face.

  “I know just the thing” said Drax.

  “Yes.” Mercedes responded knowing what he was referring to.

  “Am I going to see the Scorpion car now?” Asked Tina jokingly.

  “Indeed” Drax said fiddling with his wrist device and pressing the right keys. Over twenty-five minutes passed and James became restless.

  “What exactly are we waiting for?” asked James.

  “Patience my young pupil” said Drax sarcastically. “Good things come to those who wait.”

  “You’re summoning the scorpion car again” said Mercedes.

  “The what?” Asked Cutlass.

  “That…” said Drax as within a few more moments the vehicle they used to ascend the cavern of lights was hovering towards them with its underbelly lit up completely like a baseball stadium shining down into the waters below making great movement on the Gorge Hunter as the crew and Cutlass began to imagine as he conveyed that they were magicians who can summon things at will. “We are not magicians” Drax replied, “just very lucky. Lucky it had enough ultra-power to cross the oceans at full speed to get here in almost no time at all.”

  “Lucky the signal was not too far to summon the car here” said Mercedes smiling.

  “Lucky we didn’t die of boredom waiting” screamed James.

  “I told you, there is no distance too great.” Said Drax. “Let’s go.”

  “Awesome” said Tina. With that and Tina expres
sing a shock of joy and bewilderment, the five adventurers squeezed into the scorpion car and flew upward levitating against the wind currents into the inlets of the mountain range. Hovering near the cave opening above, they noticed that the cave opening was too small and narrow for the Scorpion car to fly through. “This is just great” said Tina sarcastically.

  “Don’t worry” said Drax. Drax saw a weak spot in the rock he detected with his scanner. “I think there is something there” Said Drax as he pressed a series of commands on the console and the primary weapon illuminated the sky before them, Drax pulled the vehicle in reverse and back away a few yards, and a flash of brilliant white light emanated from the Scorpion car’s primary battery weapon and mark striking at the core of the cave wall crashing forth the air before them in a horrific explosion. The weapon blasted a hole in the side of the mountain in a terrific explosion. The debris flew out at them but moved to the side avoiding them. The smoke cleared and the crew realized the opening was much larger now.

  “How did that happen?” Asked James shocked.

  “The scorpion has internal deflectors.” Said Drax. “You aren’t the only one with some powers.” With a flick of a switch, Drax drove the scorpion car into the hole they created as the dust smoke and debris was still clearing. The darkness was blinded by the light of the vehicle emitted from all sides of the vehicle hovering its way into the cavern.

  As they managed their way hovering above the deep empty cavern, the lights beacons shone throughout as Drax drove and Tina scanned with his handheld scanner. “There is something unusual here” she said. “Like” Drax replied. “Look” she pointed as the lights shone on some spots on the walls with cave pictographs and archaic writings. “It’s more of the old language we saw before.” Said Drax.

  “Another riddle?” Asked Mercedes.

  “I don’t think so. It just says beware thee who open the door, the winds of time will corrupt you.” Drax said.

  “A warning?” Asked Mercedes rhetorically.

  “Let’s keep moving” said James seeing a more narrow passage ahead not too small to fly into and they proceeded into it. The darkness lit only by the beacon continued until they could see daybreak on the other side. Soon they were exiting the cavern and hovering above a land of green pastures and trees, orchids, sunny skies, rainbow visions in the air, and light beacons of technological design similar to those seen in the cavern of lights.

  “We have seen this technology before” said Mercedes.

  “Yes” said Drax “it is the pregivers” and they continued above the vacant land until they saw it was not vacant miles into the terrain.

  “This is totally unlike the other side of the great island” said Tina.

  “Blessed be” said Cutlass “this is remarkable.”

  “Look” said James pointing to small people below.

  “Are they midgets?” Asked Tina.

  “Dwarves or ‘little people’ is the politically correct term” said Mercedes humorously.

  “No” said Drax lowering the vehicle with a press of a few buttons so that the appearance of the inhabitants of this land was apparent “they are children.”

  CHAPTER 74

  “What the hell did we step into?” Said Tina. The scorpion car hovered above the terrain and lowered itself to the small children, the lights of the undercarriage began to glow in white and yellow pulses as the vehicle touched base on the soft grass with a light sound as its occupants looked around as they were being approached by the small army of small children before them. Drax pressed a button on the console of the vehicle and the vehicle transformed back to its original form. The five wanderers exited the vehicle and looked at the small children approaching. Many of them were small children crawling around in the mud and dirt as they were too young to walk. Their faces were ashen and dirt-filled. There was laughter, snickering, and the sound of babies crying coming from all over for miles around.

  “I feel bad for them” said Tina, “their just kids.”

  “Where are we?” Asked Mercedes.

  “You are in the land of the forbidden.” Said a voice as they turned their attention to a young fair-haired tan boy who looked older than the others but fairly young still, about thirteen years old, “did you come from God?” He asked.

  “What?” Asked James.

  “You rode down from heaven” said the boy.

  “Oh yeah, that is what we call a car. You’ve never seen one?” Asked Drax.

  “Not one that flies” whispered James.

  Drax turned to him with a noxious looked then turned back to the boy with a warm smile. “We are travelers” said Drax.

  “I am Jose Elcamion” he said trying to emulate a deeper more adult sounding voice. The foursome introduced themselves along with Captain Cutlass.

  “Ye are nothing but a lad” said Cutlass pointing. Jose ignored him and looked at the others one at time admiring their clothing and gear. He turned his head still and mechanical then looked at Tina and smiled.

  “You are pretty. I have never had a girlfriend before.”

  “Uh thanks but you’re kind of young for me, kid” Tina replied with an awkward silence.

  “Where are all the adults? Your parents?” Asked Drax stepping forward breaking the silence.

  “They are gone.” Jose replied with a still face.

  “Gone where?” Asked James.

  “Gone.” Repeated Jose with a still face, his eyes appeared cold and lifeless. “Come” he turns and starts walking in the direction that he came. Curious, the five wanderers follow the young adolescent on foot across the terrain. They were led across the grasses and several thousand children stretched out in the fields from as young as newborn infants to adolescents approaching majority. Several of the older kids were huddled in groups talking and whispering while keeping their distance and carefully eyeing the strange people who appeared to arrive from the sky. They were dressed in ragged clothes covered in ash, mud, and dirt. Some of the older female adolescents were running around and trying to cater to the infants lying helplessly in the field crying.

  “Something bad happened here” said Tina as they walked with Jose. There was no sign of anyone over the apparent ages of late adolescence except for the five wanderers looking around in complete confusion. “Amazing” said Tina “a land of nothing but children… some kind of Peter Pan or Lord of the Flies nightmare.”

  “That’s biologically impossible” Drax looked up “something bad did happen here.” Then Drax looked up and pointed to a large metal obelisk in the distance as they were suddenly approaching a clearing. “Look.”

  “What is that?” Asked James. Jose stopped and turned standing on an isolated patch of dirt in the middle of the clearing. The five stood around him as they approached. “Why are we stopping here?” Asked James. Jose smiled and within seconds a flash of white light engulfed them all and surrounded them for a moment as if in a container of hot white energy. Then when the light faded, they found themselves not in the clearing but inside a structure with metallic walls and tall pillars spiraling upward throughout the interior of the structure as it twirled up into a central apex that climbed further to a point. The base was a large well with several banisters and stairs. Machinery and computer consoles adorned the various sides and components lighting up with life and colors all of a sudden as if a sleeping giant awakened from an eternal nap.

  “What be this madness?” Said Cutlass scrambling about.

  “Relax Captain” said James “we were transported. It happened to us before sort of like a movement in space and time.”

  “More like just space though we continue along the natural progression of time. Anyone capable of making a conveyer of light and energy like that surely has to be advanced” said Drax.

  “We might be dealing with the pregivers again” said Mercedes.

  “Who are they anyhow?” Asked James. “We keep coming across references of this ancient group of space farers but no concrete proof of these ‘stone builders.�
��”

  “The devil is in the details” said Drax “we know they invented the time stone. They must have invented this beam spot technology as well.”

  “Beam spot technology?” Asked Mercedes curiously.

  “What else would we call it?” James asked rhetorically.

  “So where the hell are we now?” Asked Tina.

  “In the other side. We have only been here and back. I never understood this. The others are afraid to come here.” Said Jose. “The lights come on and go out, that’s it.” They walked along the narrow confines of a corridor curving and arching in various directions with a series of loops and swirls, the mechanisms around them rotating in synchronistic formation like clockwork.

  “I’m getting dizzy” said Mercedes. They walked into a vestibule and emerged out of another room with plain white walls and a large screen on one end connected to a monitoring station with keys and diodes ready to be struck as they lit up when they approached.

  “What the heck?” Asked James.

  “Good morning!” Said a woman’s voice echoing from the computer as an image appeared before them, fizzing and whirling, she had deep blue eyes and short red hair and wore a white half-buttoned shirt and slacks, her form see through and holographic.

  “What is this?” Asked Tina rhetorically.

  “It’s a holographic projection” responded Drax “a form made of energy and proton accelerators” he put his hand through her face.

  “She’s beautiful” said James mesmerized.

  “It’s not a real person” said Drax looking at James’ eyes goggling with amour. “Though it could have been at one point. What is your purpose here?” Asked Drax trying to communicate.

  “I am the complete central repository of the Union Core Network Bibliotheca, codename Celia.”

  “The what?” Screamed Tina.

  “Bibliotheca means library” said Mercedes.

  “Yes” said Drax.

  “I am versed with over one trillion mega quads of information relating to the historical literature of various cultures and groups. The Union Core Network is the history of the greatest civilization of all time. For example, my list of databases contains the legendary feats of heroic individuals or the dates and times of historic events, and science and mathematics are all programmed into this installation. Just ask me anything.” She shrugged.