The Realm of the Drells

by Kenneth Zeigler

  “My God,” was all that Hicks could say, at least at first. “Why didn’t you call in experts if you were in such a mess?”

  “Experts like who?” asked Sybil. “NASA, the CDC, the FBI, who?”

  “We were afraid that we’d end up being committed or worse,” said Ron. “Who would believe this? Even with the mountain of scientific evidence we have, who’d believe it? And even if they did believe us what would one of these government agencies do? How would they handle the problem?”

  “And what would they do about us?” interjected Wilson. “That’s an interesting question, isn’t it? If word of this got out into the general public, there might be a panic. The government might find it necessary to keep us quiet. How might they go about that?”

  “Good point,” said Hicks, leaning back in his chair.

  It was then that David was wheeled into the room.

  “This young man has something to show you,” said one of the officers, who looked awful pale. “I think you need to see this.”

  “This is David, the young man I was telling you about,” said Wilson.

  Detective Hicks stepped forward, introducing himself even as he shook David’s hand. “I’ve heard a great deal about you. It sounds like you’ve had quite an adventure.”

  “Yes, sir,” said David in a very polite tone. “I thought you might want to see these.” He handed Hicks an envelope. On the cover were the words One Hour Photo. “They were open until midnight. I had my mother rush down there and get my film developed. There are twenty shots in all, taken with one of those disposable cameras. Most of them aren’t very good, but a few are excellent and very interesting.”

  Hicks shuffled through the color three by five photos. His expression spoke of his amazement.

  “Quite honestly, I wasn’t sure that a drell would even photograph, but they do,” observed David. “Some of the images are pretty sharp. I was interested most of all in that rip in space. See the white dots like snow in the image? I bet that’s caused by high energy radiation coming from the rip. I wonder what kind of radiation it is.”

  “Gamma most likely,” said Ron, leaning over to look at the image.

  “You’re talking way over my head,” admitted Hicks.

  “We need to keep this whole thing quiet, at least for the moment,” said Sybil. “We have the resources of a twenty-billion-dollar foundation at our disposal. We can get most any equipment or expertise we need to deal with this crisis.”

  “But a young woman died here tonight,” objected Hicks. “Your security officer shot her.”

  “But he didn’t kill her,” noted Ron. “She got pulled into that hole in space. Heaven only knows where she is now. I seriously doubt that the body is recoverable.”

  “I can’t tell the lieutenant this,” objected Hicks. “He’d think I was mad.”

  “Probably,” said Sybil, “at least at first, but as incredible as it all seems we have a mountain of evidence on our side. He’d have to believe us.”

  “So what are you going to tell him, detective” Sybil asked. “You’ll have to fill out a report.”

  Hicks hesitated. “You need to be more careful. You’re lucky that only a few people were injured in that lab accident. As for Keira, she can’t legally be reported as a missing person for another 46 hours.”

  “Then you believe us,” noted Ron.

  “Doctor, I don’t know what to believe,” admitted Hicks. “One thing is for sure; my reality will never be the same again.”

  His reality would never be the same. Ron had heard that one before. He expected that he would hear it again.

  “I’ll need to type up a report,” said Hicks. “That may take a while. But understand, you can’t keep a lid on this forever. People, the authorities have to know. I have to tell my lieutenant something.”

  “Agreed,” said Wilson. “In time they must know, but not now. We’ve got to see this thing through. There can’t be a change in the chain of command right now. We’ve got to get all of those kids back to our world. After that you can report all that you’ve seen.”

  “Until then how can I help?” Hicks asked.

  “If you could keep some officers close at hand we’d appreciate it,” noted Wilson.

  Hicks nodded. “We can do that.”

  “But remember there isn’t much good a gun will do against a drell, we tried,” said Ron.

  “I know,” confirmed Hecks, “unless we have iridium bullets.”

  “You might soon,” noted Sybil. “We’re expecting a shipment.”

  “Incredible,” said Hicks. “I think I’ve had enough excitement for one night. I’ll see to it that you have a police guard at the front door until morning.”

  “Thank you,” said Wilson.

  Hicks and his entourage departed.

  “That went better than I expected,” admitted Ron.

  “We have a lot to do and little time to do it in,” said Wilson. “If there is any chance to get FENS up and working we need to find it.”

  It took the better part of two hours to assess the full extent of the damage. Dr. Wilson and Ron did their best to assess their situation. It didn’t look as bad as they’d first thought. Some of it was simply resetting breakers, replacing a few circuit boards, and plugging up a hole in the cooling unit. But then there was the main induction coil. It had been neatly split in two.

  “There’s no way of replacing it?” asked Ron, looking over the unit. “Surely the company that made it, Westbridge Electronics, could ship us another one. We have the funds.”

  “Not a chance,” replied Wilson. “That thing was one of a kind, a special order. It took months to design and build. It will take weeks, maybe a month to replace it.”

  “Those children were depending on us,” lamented Ron. “I’m convinced that Connie could have figured a way out of this.”

  “But we don’t have Connie, at least not right now,” said Wilson. “Look, we need to get some rest, tired minds don’t plan well. Connie might pull out of this yet. Until then I know a couple of engineers up in Harrisburg who could help us run diagnostics on most of these circuit boards. They helped us build them. Go home.”

  “He’s right,” confirmed Sybil. “There isn’t anything more you can do tonight.”

  Ron’s heart was at a low point. There had to be a solution, a way out, but right now he just couldn’t see it. Without them the revolution David had spoken of was almost certainly doomed to failure.

  Chapter 21

  Connie was roughly cast down two stairs into the sixteen-foot square cell. The heavy metal door was slammed shut and locked behind her. Her escort looked through the small barred window before closing and latching it as well With the door and window now closed there wasn’t much light here. A sliver of light penetrated beneath the door and through the key hole but that was about it.

  The past three hours had given Connie a new understanding of the word interrogation. The drells asked the questions but their human looking goons had made darn sure that those questions were answered. She could still taste the blood from where they had hit her in the mouth multiple times. Her wrists and ankles were tender from where she had been tied to that stake during her questioning. Apparently the drells hadn’t been satisfied with her answers.

  After all of that she was only too happy to find herself in this cell. This tattered gray dress they’d fit her with following the questioning wasn’t much but at least it was something. She’d come to know the truth the hard way. The drells were as vile as they looked. For a moment she prayed.

  There was motion in the darkness, a clanking sound. She scanned the room. Someone was there. A moment later a small dark form emerged into the dim light. It was a little girl, her feet in shackles. Even more amazing, Connie knew who it was.

  “Gwen,” said Connie. “Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you.”

  The rag clad barefoot girl cautiously moved closer. “Who are you?” she whispered.

  “My name is Connie. I’m a friend.�
��

  Gwen drew closer. “Debbie told me about a woman she met on the other side. Her name was Connie. She was a scientist.”

  Connie smiled, though slightly. “That’s me.”

  “Then the drells got you too,” lamented Gwen. “They said they would. Now there’s no hope of getting home.”

  “They got me,” said Connie, “but we got at least two of them in the process. You’re still getting home. I’m only one member of a team of scientists. The rest will be coming to get us, you’ll see.”

  “I wish I could believe that,” said another voice in the darkness. A moment later a tall dark young woman towered over Connie. Like Gwen she was barefoot and in shackles, dressed in gray rags. “Unless something happens and soon, I’m afraid none of us are going to live very long.”

  “You must be Marci,” said Connie.

  Marci knelt down to take a look at Connie. “Looks like they worked you over pretty bad.”

  “I’ll be OK,” assured Connie. “We all will be. You’ve got to have faith.”

  “I’ve come face to face with a pair of angels,” said Marci. “I still can’t tell you that I have an abundance of faith.”

  “Well, I do,” said Connie. “Let me assure you, the days of the drells are numbered. We will see the end of this, all of us. Get ready for a miracle because it’s coming.”

  It was nearly ten in the morning as Ron and Sybil wandered into the Martin Neurological Institute. Neither one had slept very well or very long. By now, a total of 61 victims of the drells had arrived and had been quartered three to a room. Ron wondered if all of their efforts had been in vain. As they stepped into the FENS lab they were surprised to see the instrument access panel wide open with Dr. Wilson and two unfamiliar men working at his side. Much of the complex guts of the instrument were arrayed over several work tables.

  “These two gentlemen are the people who actually built most of the electronic systems of FENS,” explained Wilson. “Other than Karl and Connie, no one knew these systems like they did. This is Dwayne Goss and Tom Fischer.”

  “I’m Dwayne,” said the oldest of the pair, a bearded man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties. He never so much as looked up. “You folks made an awful lot of modifications to the design. You have some of these systems bypassed like a Christmas tree. No wonder you had problems.”

  It was then that a large crate was carefully wheeled into the lab by two men in coveralls.

  “Good, it’s here,” said Dwayne. “Not that we’re ready for it just yet but we aren’t in business without it.”

  Ron looked at the side of the crate and his eyes became like saucers. “Westbridge Electronics,” he gasped. “Oh God in Heaven, please tell me it’s what I think it is.”

  “It’s our replacement induction coil,” announced Wilson, smiling broadly.

  “But how?” Ron asked.

  “Oh, this is the prototype,” explained one of the men in coveralls. “We used it to test the design of the final product that we shipped to you earlier this year.”

  “But will it work?” asked Ron.

  “Sure. It did when we crated it up in February,” said the delivery man. “I haven’t opened it since then. Biggest one we ever made, other than the one we shipped to you of course. We’d tried to pretty it up a bit, hoped to find a buyer, but there just isn’t all that big a market for these things. When Dr. Wilson called this morning asking if we still had it I was happy to make him a deal. Gave him a good price on it too.”

  Ron turned to Wilson in surprise.

  “I was certain that they had dismantled it after the tests,” said Wilson, “maybe scrapped it for parts. Turns out they didn’t.”

  “Will it fit in the cabinet?” asked Ron, turning to Dwayne.

  “You worry too much,” he grumbled. “We’ll make it fit. Once we pull all of this extra junk out of here there will be plenty of room. Just don’t expect it to give you sudden reverses in polarity. Why you’d ever want to do such a damn fool thing, I’ll never know. Doing that is what trashed your previous coil.”

  “Probably,” agreed the delivery person. “I should know, I built it. It was never designed for that sort of flux reversal. That wasn’t part of the original specifications.”

  This morning was turning out to be full of surprises for Ron. “How long will it take to get the unit up and running again?”

  Dwayne scowled. “It depends on how many questions I have to answer. It’s not a refrigerator you know. It will be done when we finish.

  We’ve cleared our calendar for the next three days. I think we can have it put together and realigned by then. I think.”

  Ron turned to his aunt. “Three days. I hope those kids over there can survive until then.”

  “They’ll have to,” she said.

  The wulver’s governing council had been in session for hours within the home of Lukor and Kadra. The day after tomorrow they would be making the journey to the arena to be retaught an old lesson that had been taught to their grandparents and who only knew how many generations before them.

  “Yer sure of the route to this crystal?” asked Lemnock.

  “Yes, mostly,” said Kadra.

  “Mostly,” repeated Lemnock.

  “I’ve never been there,” said Kadra, “at least not all the way there. I’ve seen in my mind’s eye but it wasn’t clear. And it isn’t just a crystal it is a thing, a device. The crystal globe is at the heart of it. It is found within the great temple that brought Asmodeus and Lilith to this place. It is within the great cavern, on the far side of the sea. The route is neither easy nor safe.”

  “I gathered that,” said Lemnock.

  “Her map is correct,” assured Abaddon. “From what I can see the route is passable. I will meet you there.”

  “But you won’t be traveling with us,” deduced Camron.

  “No,” said Abaddon. “There are places along the way that will be indeed tight. I have large wings. I am not at all certain that I can navigate those tunnels. I will take another route, fly in over the sea, perhaps soften up the resistance for you.”

  “Lemnock, we need you to lead the expedition,” noted Lukor. “I can think of no one else I would trust more.”

  “I agree,” said Debbie.

  “So do I,” said Camron.

  The support of the humans was clearly moving to Lemnock. It was one of the rare occasions that Debbie had ever seen him smile.

  Lukor continued. “You’ll be taking Satar, Camron, Marlock…”

  “And me,” interrupted Kadra.

  “You?” gasped Lukor. “Why you? Your place is with me.”

  “Not this time,” argued Kadra. She hesitated. “Long ago, I actually traveled this route you propose to venture down.”

  “You did what?” asked Lukor.

  “I traveled as far as the great cavern, following this route. My mother, who was the high priestess before me, spoke of it. She showed me a map. She should never have done that. I was only sixteen years old, I was bold and curious. I copied it and one fine day followed it. I had to see if the giant spider really existed.”

  “You went alone?” asked Debbie.

  “Of course,” said Kadra. “Had I taken someone else with me it would have been twice as likely that I’d have been caught. My father and mother would have whipped me had they found out. The drells would have probably executed me on the spot.”

  “Yet you did it anyway,” said Lukor. “You ner told me of this, not in all of the years we’ve been together. Indeed, you told me that you had never traveled to that place.”

  “Tis not the thing you tell your husband,” said Kadra. “Anyway, I did not lie, not exactly. I did not travel all the way, only most of it. I think the other drell priestesses suspect something, but I keep it well hidden within me, a wisp of a memory. Not that it would matter to them at this point. I’ve served them well, provided them with all the blood they require and more. My past is just that; in the past. I was close enough to see the Great Koth.”


  “The great what?” asked Debbie.

  “The Koth,” replied Kadra. “It is what the drells call their temple, their most holy place. It is said that Lilith and Asmodeus came to this world in the Koth. It takes the form of a great teardrop as white as the lime that coats the great daggers that hang from the ceilings of the caverns. It took about half a day to get there.”

  “Is it a difficult journey?” asked Lemnock.

  “It is not easy,” said Kadra. “Sometimes the passageway got pretty narrow. I could tell that it hadn’t been used much. Near the end the small tunnel led into a very big cavern with a very bad smell about it. I guess I’d been smelling if for some time during the journey. It was the odor of death. This large cavern was almost like a very big pipe. The great cavern was close. I know, I could hear the sounds of the waves feel the moisture. But right there at the entrance to the great cave, across the whole passageway, stretched a gray spider web so large ya can hardly imagine it, five times the height of one of us. Its strands were as thick as yer finger. It is like the picture of the web in the leaching chamber but bigger, much bigger. Around it were bones, lots of bones. Mostly cave beasts but there were some of wulvers and humans. Some of em were hanging from the web. That was when I got scared, really scared. Still I reached out to touch the web with my finger. It was sticky, I had to pull hard to pull my finger free of it. Through that web I saw the temple I spoke of, off in the distance. Then I heard a screeching sound. I don’t know what else to call it. I lost my nerve and ran. Even though I was really tired, I got back in a lot less time than it took to get there. I never told anyone that story until now. But I need to go on this trip. I have to.”

  “She is right,” agreed Lenar. “She must go, not only because she can be your guide but because she must face this thing that she fears. She has more knowledge than you know.”

  Abaddon nodded in agreement.

  “Anyway, I think I might have an idea as to how to get into the temple where the source of the drells power lies. I have to go.”