Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1)

by Chris Finkelstein

  “Just come over and look,” said Jan. “It’s OK, there’s nothing down here to hurt us.”

  Rebecca reluctantly followed the others, swimming with Jan. When they got to the other side, Dr. Scrib was already surveying the bookstand, and Dr. Kalep was studying the sarcophagus.

  Winoni and his crew were marveling at the technology. “Don’t touch any buttons!” Winoni barked to everyone there. “This is some kind of suspended animation system. These items have not aged one bit!” After studying the magnetic iron shafts, he said, “I think these folks found a way to power all this from these shafts! The energy field gives off this light here.”

  “Come here!” Dr. Kalep called to Jasma, “You’ve got to see this!”

  Jan and Rebecca went over to the sarcophagus as well, Jan saying, “Look at this guy,” to Rebecca.

  As they approached the sarcophagus, Rebecca took hold of Jan’s arm, digging her fingers into it. As they looked into the glass top, Rebecca shrieked, and fell on the sarcophagus, crying uncontrollably. She looked at the corpse in the sarcophagus one more time, then turned and ran away, and started vomiting at the water’s edge.

  Jasma and Jan followed Rebecca, perplexed at what had happened. So was Rebecca. She sat down at the edge of the water, shaking with emotion. Jan sat next to her and put his arm around her, “It’s all right, nothing’s wrong here, Rebecca. What’s happening? Why are you like this?”

  “I don’t know,” Rebecca howled. “I have to get out of here!” She gritted her teeth. “I can’t stay here.”

  “OK,” said Jan. “We’re not going to stay for that long.”

  Rebecca twisted around to look at the sarcophagus again, and looking at Jan, she replied, “I’ve got to leave, now.” She then dove into the water, and started swimming.

  Jan stood up, looking at her. “What was that all about?’ he asked himself, and then looked at Jasma, who was standing there perplexed as well.

  Jasma shrugged her shoulders, shaking her head. “I don’t know, but she’ll be OK, this place is a bit spooky.”

  Jan watched as Rebecca made her way across the small, trapped lake. She got out onto the ledge, waved to them and said, “I’ll see you when you come back!” and made her way up the stairs.

  Jan abruptly turned his attention to Dr. Kalep who had suddenly shouted, “Scrib! Get over here!”

  He also went over to see what Dr. Kalep had found.

  Sitting there were two thick notebooks in their own container, completely made of glass — the top book was larger than the one beneath it. Their container was sitting upon another much larger container, about waist-high. Dr. Scrib came over, and they opened the top container that held the books. Dr. Scrib removed the top book, opened it, and started translating it aloud for the others there —

  “Whoever finds this book, in this temple, is blessed. I am Natchu, King and Chief Priest of the Platac Nation. Our faith is in the order of Milchexidike of the Cathaws. This sacred temple has always remained hidden from the world of death above. Everything you see in this room has been, or soon will be, eliminated from the surface of D’ot by the Mortiks…”

  Dr. Kalep interrupted Scrib, apparently disturbed, “The Mortiks were us, the Aletians, about five or six thousand years ago. They also had another race in the Mortik nation then, the Tomaks.”

  Dr. Scrib looked at Kalep as if, “Are you done?” then continued —

  “I Natchu, seeing what has happened, and been shown what is to come, have prepared and preserved these creations for the return of the El’j — the White Dragon. It has been given for me to see, and the El’j will bring this treasure to the surface again.”

  Dr. Scrib stopped, and said, “What does that mean?”

  Jasma gave Jan a curious look, and said to Dr. Scrib, “We can find out much more about the White Dragon in the bookcase, I’m sure. Please continue, Dr. Scrib.”

  “You will be ignorant about these items in this room. Do not open any — life units — until you read this entire book, unless directed to do so.”

  Dr. Scrib looked at those around him, and read on —

  “This book’s container is sitting upon another, much larger container. You may now open that container, and observe what is in it. It is something that the violent and oppressed ones in our world can use in order to break through the negative, and begin to learn peace. It is a means, not an end. As a medicine for many ailments, it will become indispensible. As a plentiful, renewable source of clothing, building materials, and papyr, it is unequaled. As a supplemental food, it has no match.

  “As a brain-altering substance, this one is physically forgiving to leave when the lesson is learned.

  “This is Kana Bosm, it opens the way of peace and love to those who know it not, those who fear it, avoid it, and those who have forgotten it. It is not necessary for those few who have already found peace, but helpful for the many who have not. It quiets the reptile, leaving trapped minds open to expand for a while. Always remember, it is a means, not an end. A clear mind that chooses peace, truth, and harmony with our Creator, this is the end. God is sober, and He is the standard.

  “The unbalanced or self-destructive soul will not be satisfied with kana bosm. Such a personality will be overtly drawn to sedation, such as excessive alcohol or the death march of n’o, and that person will abuse the kana bosm. Because of its perceived innocence, kana bosm can become a habitual part of one’s life, which is not the goal.

  These issues are most properly addressed in the ‘Parenting Laws’, which our people have refined over many generations. I have outlined them here in their entirety. We could not escape these problems, and you will not either. We must however confront them correctly in order to have expanding lives available for all of us, without repressive laws and penalties.

  I have placed this here to be demonstrated first, so that you may know the value of this room, and so that you will pay utmost attention to the following instructions in this book.

  This will begin to help to overcome your reptilian nature, and see another way. The violence will decrease among those people who don’t listen to anything else. This gift confuses the dragon for a short time, and that is why it is I place it first before you.”

  They were all looking at the container with the kana bosm in it, in wonder.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Dr. Kalep stated, as he peered into the glass top with the lights and buttons on the upper panel on it.

  Dr. Scrib continued translating once again.

  “You may consume kana bosm in food, but this limited quantity can be used most efficiently by burning a tiny amount, and inhaling the smoke.”

  “What?” Jasma exclaimed. “What’s he talking about? Breathing in smoke? These people were very primitive.”

  “How can you say that?” barked Dr. Kalep, “Look around you! Does this technology look crude?”

  “Still,” Jasma retorted, “I’ve never heard of such a thing, we have plenty of drugs to help us relax.”

  “And they are all physically addictive!” Kalep retorted.

  “I’ll try!” offered Buz.

  Jan looked at Buz, and said to Dr. Kalep, “Why don’t we open the container?”

  Dr. Scrip interrupted and said, “Let me finish with this part,” and he went on.

  “The two jars that you find inside the larger container of kana bosm ‘kynds’ are to be used as medicines. The larger jar has ‘pikas’ that were freshly placed. Please remove that jar, open it, and pull out a pika.”

  They removed the container that held the two books from the top of the large main one it was sitting on. Then they opened the top of the main container holding the kana bosm, to get at the big jar referred to in the book. Inside, and underneath the two jars, the main container was full of round, fluffy-looking green things, about two to three inches long, and over one inch around. Those standing there all gasped as the fragrance of something amazingly rich and wonderful filled their nostrils.

 
Jasma looked like she was in a trance. “That is the most beautiful — it’s, it’s — a perfume from heaven!” and she bent down, close to the open canister in order to inhale the aroma wholly. Tears came to her eyes, “I have never smelled anything — anything —” She couldn’t finish. Jasma turned, and looked at the others pleadingly, “We can’t burn this!”

  As the fragrance filled the area, one of the machinists with Winoni snickered, “That smells like a skint!” A few of the other fellows started laughing and nodding their heads in agreement.

  After a few more remarks, they removed the big jar sitting upon the kana bosm, and opened it. It had layers of thin green pikas, about three to five inches long. They were thin, flexible, and obviously had moisture in them. They were sticky. Their smell was different from the odiferous dried lighter green things that filled the rest of the huge container. The pikas had jagged edges and each pika came to a point on one end, and on the opposite end became a firm thin little rod. After handling them, their fingers smelled strongly of them.

  Once they examined these, Dr. Scrib continued.

  “These should be in the same state as when they were harvested, and should be fresh. They are useful for healing stomach ailments, and for treating other digestive problems which are prevalent in our world.”

  “You can say that again,” said Dr. Kalep, whose old stomach was rotting away.

  Dr, Scrib looked up, and said, “It says, “Chew on five pekas per day.”

  Dr. Kalep popped one in his mouth immediately, and started chewing on it. “It is — very tingly — hot, like nako, and well, I’ve never tasted anything like it.” He continued chewing, and said, “It’s, it’s — disgusting!” He started laughing, and the others did as well. But he didn’t spit it out.

  Dr. Scrib then continued —

  “Now, remove the smaller jar from the container. This is an ointment, extracted from the kana bosm kynds. This is a great helper with the scale diseases that our people often experience. There are many different types of peta ‘sipas’ in this temple that will grow into healthy, diseasepreventing foods, which will help prevent sores from forming at all.”

  They all looked at each other in astonishment, and most started reflexively scratching their sores.

  “A cure for these sores?” asked Winoni, skeptically.

  Jasma said, “Dr. Scrib, please continue.”

  “The last thing in the container, which fills most of it, comes from the top of the kana bosm peta. These we call ‘kynds’. These are what you make smoke, medicines, teas, and ointments from.”

  Dr. Scrib continued —

  “The sipas in this room are all labeled on their containers. A container of kana bosm sipas is to the left of the kana bosm container.”

  Jan was standing in that spot, and said, “He must have meant this container of little stones,” and they all looked. Jan said, “These stones must be the ‘sipas’. They look the pretty much the same as what’s in most the other containers in here.”

  Dr. Scrib went on reading.

  “In the rest of this book, I will tell you exactly how to do this for yourselves. I have supplied you with sipas for many different petas. I will instruct on you how to prepare the ground. You will put these sipas in the specially prepared ground, give them water, and they will all grow into tall green petas. There is a limited supply here, and you must not make mistakes”.

  “This container is just a sample of the rewards awaiting you if you follow my instructions, with no deviation from them.”

  Dr. Scrib stopped, and looked around him at everyone. “I think he’s talking about raising green animals — from the ground! From these little stones! That’s crazy! These must be pieces of those animals.” He was becoming a little woozy, dropping his head and shaking it.

  Winoni chimed in, “Maybe they’re eggs!”

  Dr. Scrib was a thin, bespeckled, private fellow. All this attention and the bewildering information were getting to be too much for him. “Why don’t we take a break?” Dr. Scrib suggested. “I can take this book back with me to the city, before it becomes dark, and my secretary can type it out as I translate it to her there.” He looked at the big book in his hands, and lightly ran his fingers along the top of it. “Let me spend some time with this, and do it right.”

  Winoni spoke up, “He’s absolutely correct. That ‘Natchu’ priest was right on target, too. We should read everything and touch nothing without knowing what it is.”

  “He told us about the kana bosm!” Buz piped up.

  Nobody said anything.

  “Let’s take it with us!” Buz persuaded, and Dr. Kalep said, “Well, Natchu gave us permission to go this far, we should be able to take some of it back with us, along with the book.”

  They all agreed, and then they discussed the ‘peace’ spoken of. The mention of love was equally intriguing. They decided to leave for the day, taking samples of the kynd, the jar of ointment, and some fresh pikas. These items and the book would stay in the safekeeping of the LERN leadership.

  Since Dr. Scrib saw the water damage to the fragile first book Buz had come to town with, he had brought a watertight container in order to safely bring more books out. They were able to put all the items into the same container, with the exception of the sizeable jar of ointment, which was already well sealed when closed again.

  After swimming across the water, they all made their way up the stairs, then back down the stairs outside. Aware of the treasure in the temple, Winoni was concerned about looters. He had the supplies there to have his crew fabricate a heavy door for the entrance to the iron shaft at the top of the stairs. He would put a lock on later. They all agreed to keep this information confidential for now and then left for the city.

  The top floors of the hotel had the most security, as each floor had their own network of supporters of the particular LERN leader. They decided that one of the upper floors was the safest place for their bounty. Jan was the only LERN leader that lived outside of the hotel.

  Jan and Buz said goodbye to the others, and as they went back to the apartment building, Buz pulled a big kynd out of his pocket, grinned at Jan, and holding it out in his hand said, “Hey brother, want some peace?”

  Jan turned his head, and saw the kynd that Buz had managed to snag from the container. He smiled, surprised, but unexpectedly happy that Buz had done it.

  “I need some peace, brother,” Jan responded with a grin, and they both went down to Jan’s apartment. They passed by some people on the way home, and heard one say, “Does you smell a skint?” They both started laughing their tails off.

  Once down in Jan’s apartment, they found all three of the females in the living room. They had been sitting there and talking about the newly discovered temple. The baby was sleeping in Rachel’s room.

  “What’s that smell?” Martha asked, not long after they entered the living room.

  Jan and Buz filled the girls in on what had happened after Rebecca left. They got to the subject of the kana bosm, and the kynd they had, and Rachel said, “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s try it!”

  Buz pulled the kynd out of his pocket, and the girls were amazed at the pungent odor emitted by such a thing.

  Martha was concerned, “It might be poisonous. What an alien odor!”

  “No,” Rebecca said, “It’s not poisonous.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Martha asked, mainly because Rebecca was not usually sure of anything.

  “Because — I — I was there!” Rebecca said. Rebecca then faded again towards the condition she was in when she first came back from the temple.

  Martha shook her head. After seeing the state Rebecca returned in, she was distrustful of the “temple” they were talking about.

  “We’re going to try it,” Jan said, much to the relief of Buz.

  Jan, Buz, and Rachel went over to the stove. They discussed it for a bit, and decided to crush some on a pan, heat it over the stove, and see what happened. They did this and eventual
ly smoke started rising, and they pulled the pan off the stove. They took turns, putting their heads over the smoke that was rising, inhaling it, and they heard Rebecca say, “That smells wonderful!” from where she and Martha were now standing, watching from the kitchen’s entrance.

  After a few turns, Rebecca and Martha saw the other three grinning at each other, and observing them, Rebecca looked at Martha and said, “I want to try! You try too!”

  Martha sighed, and asked, “Jan, what do you feel like?”

  Jan looked at her and smiled and said, “I feel like —” and his eyes stared at hers as he was looking for the right words. “I feel like I want to daydream.”

  “Well, daydreaming is not good!” Martha retorted.

  Jan looked at her with a bit of surprise, and said, “That’s the NOV talking. This is — this is good, I think. Come over here and let me know what you think. I don’t feel bad, do you two?”

  Rachel had lost the point of the conversation, and Buz just shook his head in agreement because he wanted to see Jan’s mom get high. He never thought about it until now, but Jan’s mom was pretty hot.

  Martha shrugged her shoulders and said to Rebecca, “What the hell, they don’t seem to be suffering,” and they joined the other three as they were getting another batch ready for their new takers.

  After passing around the smoking pan with the Martha and Rebecca now, Rachel came up with the idea of playing some music. Martha got it going, and then she brought out some splint cheese that she had procured from the successfully expanding splint farm. Along with bread, it served for something quick to eat. Then they ended up dancing, with Buz paying almost too much attention to Martha.

  In the midst of this, Jan had the urge to go upstairs and outdoors. The elevator that Winoni recently had operating was broken down again, so he had to walk up the four floors of stairs. When he arrived outside, there was a cool breeze blowing from the west as usual, but it felt different. Everything felt different. Jan’s perspective was different. For now, different was better. It feels as if I’ve just finished a love-circle — except that I didn’t have to work for it.