by Vicky de Leo
Joseph sighed, walked over to one of the chairs, and sat down. “I thought we were up until that point. There were only the two of us. My parents married late and I was born nine months later. After several years, Harry was something of a surprise. Of course, we all spoiled him. My parents discovered he had a talent for the piano at a very early age. He spent most of his childhood in lessons or practicing. That didn’t leave much time for friends or socializing. In spite of that, he seemed happy. He could be charming and he had a wonderful sense of humor. I spent as much time with him as I could. However, when he came back from Julliard, he changed.” Joseph stared at the fire crackling in the fireplace.
After a few minutes of silence, Joshua said, “I noticed we had some pictures of Harry in the Music Room.”
Joseph blinked. “I’d forgotten about those.” Turning to Helen he said, “Would you like to see some pictures?”
“Yes, I would,” said Helen eagerly.
He led them into the music room and showed her the portrait of the family that Joshua had first seen hanging there. Joshua went to the side table and pulled out the album with the later pictures including Harry’s graduation picture.
Sitting down on the velvet loveseat, Helen studied the pictures. “I’m sure this is the man I knew,” she said finally. Looking at Joseph who had taken a seat opposite, she asked, “You said he changed when he dropped out, when was that?”
“That would have been in 1967. At first, he was withdrawn and moody, refusing to talk to anyone. The next year when he turned 21, he came into a trust fund set aside by my parents. He said he thought it was time he had some fun. From then on, he played. He was out most days and every night, determined to experience anything and everything he felt he had missed as a child. I am afraid we drifted apart. I was just beginning a career. I wasn‘t home much. I’m afraid I didn‘t have much patience with his new carefree attitude. I thought he was wasting his time and his talent.”
“That must have been about the time I met him. That’s what our relationship was like. We were always going somewhere, doing something new and exciting. He seemed happy, but it was as if he had a secret that he couldn’t share. There was always a part of him held back. Every once in a while I would see something in his eyes, sadness, melancholy . . . I don’t know, something,” she said shaking her head.
“Now that you mention it, he went through a period of what I thought of as grieving. Then for a while it seemed like he’d come out of, like he was happy. I hoped he’d gotten it out of his system and would finally settle down and go back to school. He started playing the piano again and he was composing.” Joseph walked over to the piano and picked up one of the yellowed sheets of music. “He wrote this.”
Joshua went to where his grandfather was standing. “That’s the music I was playing for you the other night, Sara.” He took it from his grandfather, sat down at the piano and began to play.
Sara sat beside him on the piano bench.
When he finished the piece, there were tears in Helen’s eyes. “I heard him play that. I didn’t realize he composed it. What happened to him?”
Leaning back in the chair, Joseph shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve often wondered if he was sick. He started getting headaches.”
Joshua and Sara exchanged a glance.
“He became irrational and paranoid. He thought people were after him. The last time I saw him was in October of 1968. He warned me to be careful, said that he had to go away so I would be safe. I tried talking to him, but he wouldn’t listen. Just said he couldn’t explain. I never saw him again. I thought eventually he’d come back, but he never did. I didn’t know any of his friends. I didn’t even know where to start looking for him. Did you see him after that?”
“No, that’s about the time he stopped coming to see me too. I assumed he dumped me. Eventually I moved on. The last time I saw him, he seemed worried about me too, but I was angry so I didn’t listen. I knew about the headaches, but I’d never seen him irrational or paranoid. I guess we’ll never know what happened,” she sighed.
Chapter Fifteen
Sam found himself still holding on to Maria. They had materialized in the park. He recognized it. Like Joshua, The niche had transported them to Boston, just a block from the house where Sam had grown up. He hadn’t blacked out but he felt extremely dizzy. When Maria blinked and wobbled in his arms, he lowered her to the ground and sat next to her.
Within a minute, the man who had rescued them appeared out of nowhere next to them. Tall and fit, he had dishwater blond hair with a touch of gray at the sides. He looked to be around forty, casually dressed in jeans, tennis shoes, and a sweater.
“Surging takes some getting used to, so you’re probably still a little dizzy. If you can walk, I need to get you out of here now,” he said with some urgency. “You better give me the crystal. The less exposure you have to it the better.”
“Who are you?” Sam asked helping Maria up before handing him the crystal.
“My name is Lrence. I’m sorry all explanations will have to wait. I need to get you somewhere safe first. I’m hoping I destroyed the portal, but if not, they’ll be right behind us. Follow me,” he ordered striding quickly away.
Sam held on to Maria as they struggled to keep up. When they reached the street, he said, “I think we’re fine now. My father lives just down the street. I’m sure we’ll be safe there,”
Lrence put his hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I’m afraid not. It won’t take them long to find out where your relatives live. They’ll be checking everywhere you’ve lived, and anyone who knows you. I know it’s asking a lot for you to trust me. If you’ll just follow me to my house, I promised to explain everything.” He walked to a nearby car and motioned for them to get in.
Maria stopped. Steady on her feet now, Sam let her go. “We have to get Joshua and bring him with us. He’s the one they’re after. He’s here living with his grandfather.” Maria started down the street pulling Sam with her.
Lrence moved quickly to stand in front of them. “If they find you here, you’ll lead them right to him. For the moment, your son is safer without you. It’ll take a couple of days before they can locate your father. He should be safe until then. Please, let‘s get out of here.” He was begging now.
Not quite convinced, but unwilling to endanger Joshua or his father, Sam helped Maria into the car.
Lrence drove away quickly. He seemed to relax once they were several blocks away. He pulled over and parked on a quiet street. Getting out of the car, he said, “I’m going to make a phone call to check and see what’s happening.” He was gone only a few minutes. “I managed to destroy the portal so they don’t know where you are. That should give us some time to plan.”
About ten minutes later, he pulled up to a large gated area with a three-story brick home set back away from the street. He punched in the access code and drove up the long tree lined drive to the house. Pulling around to the side of the house and into the garage, he explained, “My neighbors keep to themselves, but it would be better if no one sees you arrive.”
He led them through a door that led directly from the garage to a mudroom and then through a hallway, and into the kitchen. It was a modern kitchen with stainless steel appliances. The cupboards were white washed maple set off by green walls. A wooden table and chairs for four sat in the center of the room.
“You should be safe here. They don’t know about me, or this place. This is my house. I’ve installed quite a few security measures. Are you hungry? I’m not much of a cook but I can make sandwiches. Please sit down.” He pulled out chairs for them and then turned away, setting out bread and getting mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, and cold cuts from the refrigerator.
Maria sat down, but Sam moved around the room restlessly. Questions swirled in his mind. How did they get here? Who was this man? Was he dangerous? How would he get Maria out? He stopped in front of Lrence so that he would have to look at him. “Look we appreciate the fact that you got us out of
that situation, but we don’t know who you are or what your intentions are. If you want us to trust you, I’m going to need some answers.”
Lrence stood still, looked at him calmly, and said, “Yes, of course, what do you want to know?”
Brushing his hand through his hair, Sam said, “I’m not sure where to start.You keep talking about them. Who are ‘they’? For that matter who are you? Why do they want this stone? How did you know we were in trouble? How did you get there? For that matter, how did we get here?”
Lrence set the things from the refrigerator down on the table. “It’s a very long story. For you to be able to understand, I need to start at the beginning. You might as well sit down, get comfortable, and eat while I tell you.”
Reluctantly, Sam sat down next to Maria.
Lrence put out plates, silverware, and napkins and then pulled out a chair for himself. Once everyone had food and a drink in front of them, he began. “Your first question who are ‘they’ is really the hardest question to answer, because it’s the most unbelievable. We are what you would call aliens. We come from the planet Qashur. It lies several light years outside your Milky Way.”
Both Sam and Maria stopped eating.
“You’re telling us that you’re not human?” Maria asked, putting down her sandwich.
Lrence motioned for her to continue eating. “My physiology is very close to yours, but there are differences. I don’t know whether that’s due to evolution, or whether we are in fact a separate species. The important fact is that neither I, nor those men who threatened you, were born on this planet. You won’t be able to understand why they want the power crystal until you understand some of the history of Qashur. So please be patient with me.”
Sam and Maria exchanged a look that Lrence caught. “I know I sound crazy,” he said. “But consider that you just left Guatemala a few minutes ago, and you are now sitting in my house in Boston. If you tried to tell that story to someone else, you’d sound crazy. Yet it happened. Is it easier to believe that ancient Mayans built a time and space portal, or that aliens from another planet built it?”
Sam conceded, “Aliens’ visiting this planet many years ago isn’t exactly a new concept. I just never expected to be sitting across the table from one, especially one who looks so human. I can’t see any differences between us. You aren’t short or green. You don’t have bug eyes or antennae. In fact, you look more like a college professor than an alien. However, I can’t deny that building a transportation portal was probably beyond the capabilities of Mayan natives. You said there were differences between us. What kind of differences?” Sam asked.
Instead of answering Lrence stood up and with one hand, reached down, and lifted both Sam and the chair he was sitting in to waist high. Lrence wasn’t breathing hard and it looked as if it took no effort at all. When he set the chair back on the floor he said, “Physical strength is not our only difference, but it’s the easiest to demonstrate.”
Shaken, Sam motioned for Lrence to go on.
Satisfied that they would at least consider the possibility that he was telling them the truth, Lrence continued, “The Qashurians discovered space travel eons ago. In the beginning, when visiting a planet they were careful not to interact with any life forms. They wanted to study planets in their natural state. They found a few planets that had advanced life forms, but none had advanced to space travel so there was no point in interacting with them. After awhile they became bored studying the flora and fauna and the physiology of the people, and became fascinated by how societies and cultures evolved. Probably for the same reasons you chose archeology,” he said addressing Sam.”
Sam only nodded.
“Our scientists wanted the ability to look back through the years, to watch as societies and cultures developed, to be able to see the causes and effects that led to the makeup of the current societies. To that end, they developed time travel.”
Caught with a mouth full of soda, Sam coughed. “You’re telling us you have the ability to time travel?”
Lrence smiled. “The portal that you used today can, powered by the crystal, not only transport someone from one spot to another across a planet, but it can also transport you back and forth in time. We call it surging, because it takes a tremendous surge of power to skip through time.”
Maria’s eyes were wide. “Did we travel to a different time?”
Lrence shook his head. “No. I set the portal simply to transport us from Guatemala to Boston. Other than traveling between your time zones, we remained in the same time period.”
Sam held up his hand. “We examined this portal as you call it. I could have sworn that it was just a niche carved out of solid rock. How exactly does it transport people?”
“The portal itself is fairly insignificant in the process. Portals are simple to build and in most cases can be built using local materials. It’s really the crystal that powers the portal that’s the key. It creates a circuit between the portal and the body. It’s hard to explain.”
“You’re talking about the crystal that you gave me? Where do they come from?
“The power crystals are mined only on Qashur. Even with all our exploration, we have yet to find another planet with crystals such as these.”
Sam said, “That would explain why that man was so eager to retrieve the one Joshua used.”
Lrence nodded. “Yes, but that’s not his only reason for wanting them. Once our scientists picked a secure location on a planet and built a portal, a team of them would spread out. Each selecting a specific group of people to study and then they would surge back and forth between the past and present time, documenting how each culture developed, again without any interaction. This was strictly for observation. Inevitably, we made mistakes. A miscalculation and someone watched a person appear out of thin air. Procedures were set up to deal with these contingencies. One was supposed to take whatever time it took to allow the natives to become comfortable and not feel threatened, tell them nothing and let the society make up their own stories to account for your appearance and then to disappear. They were dealing with primitive cultures so in most cases the scientists, who were not only physically stronger but had better reflexes, were in no danger, but were treated like Gods. Once the scientist returned, the team discontinued incursions into that society.
“When all the planet cultures had been thoroughly studied, the portal was dismantled and the scientific teams moved on to another planet. It all worked very well until they came to earth.
“Here they discovered that earthlings had a very close physiology to Qashurians. At first, they were intrigued, and spent more time studying earth’s evolution. However, because Qashurians are stronger, use more of their brain and have a longer life span, soon the people of Qashur began to regard the lesser developed natives as less like themselves, and more like animals. The procedure of non-intervention gave way to experimentation. Doctors began using earthlings as test subjects for new medicines or procedures, much as you use monkeys today. They introduced germs and diseases into populations to study how they were transferred from one body to another and to develop cures that could be used on Qashur.”
“That’s horrible,” said Maria getting up to rinse her dish.
Lrence rose too putting away the food and wiping off the table. “Yes, it is. I’m deeply ashamed of what my people have done to yours, but that wasn’t the worst of it. They even allowed some earthlings to surge, so they could study the effects it had on the body. Qashurians exposed to the crystal had decreases in the aging process, and increases in muscle strength. But, they also developed irregularities in the brain. Once they discontinued the exposure, all the effects ceased. The doctors were looking to find a way to cure the brain irregularities so our people could enjoy the other enhancements for longer periods of time.
“They discovered that earthlings exposed to the crystal also aged more slowly. They developed more muscle strength. However, the irregularities in earthlings also distorted brain wave activit
y, which led to increased intelligence, megalomania, and eventually insanity. Some earthlings thus exposed began thinking of themselves as Gods. They became leaders, wreaked havoc on earth societies, and eventually became self-destructive as insanity took over. The earthling brain continued to deteriorate, even after we discontinued the exposure. If you look into your history, I am sure you can name some of the people we experimented on.”
“Adolph Hitler?” suggested Maria.
“Exactly. Qashur is responsible for many of earth’s despots,” answered Lrence.
“Have our brains been affected by traveling through the portal?” asked Sam.
Lrence nodded. “Yes, but because you didn’t time travel, the effect will be minimal. You shouldn’t experience any noticeable differences.”
“That’s why you took back the crystal once we came through.”
“Yes, I’m sorry to have exposed you at all, but it was either that or you would have been killed. I assumed you would consider it an acceptable alternative.”
Maria and Sam nodded.
Chapter Sixteen
Lrence stood and stretched. “Why don’t we go into the living room, where we can be more comfortable?”
Sam and Maria followed him in to a large room. A plasma TV hung on one wall. Bookcases lined another. Several chairs and tables sat around a large area rug in the middle of the hardwood floor.
When they had each taken a seat, Lrence continued. “Not all our people were the monsters that I’ve described. Many were just uninformed or apathetic. However, the extent of the experimentation became widely known after the introduction of the Black Plague of the 1300s, which killed thousands. A vocal faction grew in Qashur that felt that doctors and scientists had gone too far. They wanted to put an end to all earth studies, arguing that it had become inhumane and that especially on the earth, there was no point in studying the culture because it was no longer a natural evolution. It had been warped and distorted by all the incursions and experimentation. They called themselves Earth Advocates or the EA. They recommended leaving the planet entirely alone for at least 1000 years.