LOST AND FORGOTTEN: BOOK THREE - ENIGMA

by Maurice Barkley

  “The devices are a blessing and a curse. At first we used them for short adventures. As time went by, more and more of us used them for longer adventures—some lasting years. Others use them as a form of escape to oblivion. I’m the only one who wakes up frequently. I won’t give in or give up, but lately even I am losing my grip on reality.” Her look intensified. “Promise me; promise me this is not a dream, that I’m not strapped into one of those machines right now.”

  “I promise,” I said, “and I have a bruise to prove it. I raised my arm to check my Ralex. “I know we both have a lot to talk about,” I said, “but Harry is waiting and as pleasant as this is, perhaps I should go and fetch him.”

  She made no reply, but I read her face as it dawned on her that here she was, lying on the floor, on top of a perfect stranger. I saw the beginnings of a blush, but then she saw the humor in the situation and favored me with another of her lopsided smiles.

  “There are a dozen women in our population. There are no rules about sex, but one thing and another; I haven’t indulged, other than in a cell, since I’ve been here.”

  Talk about conflicting emotions. Here I was with a beautiful princess, straddling me in a most intimate manner and once again the female was in control. The direction of this encounter was entirely in her hands and I’m sure she knew it since, as I said earlier, we were breathing each other’s air and lots of it.

  Maybe she detected my reaction to her and so, hoisted herself up. “This will have to wait, Sir Galahad. I’m overwhelmed by all of this and I have a thousand more questions, but right now you must go and get Harry.” She leaned over to haul me to my feet. “By the way, you know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

  I told her to just call me James.

  I had one question before I left. “You must have some protection from the barrier; otherwise you would be in considerable pain. How does it work for you?”

  “The barrier ends at the edge of this area. Didn’t you know that?”

  “No, but I do now,” I replied. “Anyway, give me just a few minutes to go and get your sibling.”

  She held my cheeks with both hands, planted a solid one on my mouth and said, “Hurry. I’ll wait right here.”

  Joe had a thought as I left the building. You have admirable self-control, James. Your emotions were very strong.

  Please, Joe, do not mention that to anyone. No good could come of it.

  As you wish, James.

  CHAPTER 20

  I ran all the way. They saw me, still moving fast, as I reached the top of the second bank. At first they thought I was being chased and several guns appeared, but I waved them off as I braked to a halt.

  “I knew what fun you all must be having down here,” I said, “so I hurried to join the party.”

  Bebe took my arm. “You make light of this, James, but you should know I have not been able to breathe while you were gone. This is not a good way to do our business.”

  “We all agree, Bebe,” Alice said, “but speaking of business, James, please report.”

  “I have good news,” I said, “but bear with me for a couple of minutes. I have something to show you at the entrance.”

  I turned and began to walk down the hill and as the group fell in behind me, Alice said, “Another dramatic exposé, James? This had better be good.”

  “Much better than good,” I replied, as I returned Joe to her.

  She gave me a shove to increase my speed. Blue bounded ahead, thinking perhaps we were out for a jog. I had them stop in front of the archway to the courtyard while I went on through.

  Once inside, I turned to face them. “Had I known, this is what I would have done when we first arrived.” I walked to the right side of the arch, reached around and pushed against the gargoyle. It moved easily and I felt a clunk as it disengaged. “Okay, Joe,” I said, “You can relax. The field is deactivated.”

  It worked. The barrier was gone and everyone’s sight and hearing improved. Now it was my turn to release my own synapses. I didn’t need to tell the others what I was doing. I just relaxed—and bent over sideways as I reacted to the sore spot on my side.

  “Ow, Ow, Ow!” I said through clenched teeth.

  “What is it?” Bebe asked.

  I realized right away that my, now active, nerve pathways were reacting to Nora’s pinch, and what a pinch. This was neither the time nor the place for a detailed explanation. I just said that I fell down up there (which was true), and I would explain it all later.

  This would be delicate, I thought. Out loud, I said, “While I was blocking that final barrier, parts of me felt no pain. I didn’t even know I had a bruise until I relaxed my control.”

  “Guys,” I said, “I have one more surprise for you. Let me do this my way and you won’t be disappointed. Follow me back up to the top.”

  On the way I repeated most of what Nora had told me about her stay here. When we reached the location of the now inactive final barrier I halted the group.

  “You should go up there first, Harry,” I said. “When you reach the top of the bank, you’ll see just one building. Turn off your radio and go there. When you’re ready, turn it back on and invite us to join you.”

  He was looking at me intently and as I finished he just nodded and turned to the steep incline. He started slow, but when he reached the top of the bank he was running. Bebe, by then, was clinging to my arm, making little hiccup noises. Alice appeared in front of us with watery eyes. “James, you son of a bitch, you did it to me again.”

  Bebe buried her face in my chest and began to sob, so I put my arms around both of my girls. Shan and M2 were standing to my left and her face, like Bebe’s, was obscured by his chest. He looked back at me with a tolerant, “what can I do?” smile.

  To my right, there was Amy doing the same with M1, but he only had eyes for her. His often-stoic face was lit up with surprise and pleasure.

  At last, I thought, score one for old James.

  Not even Alice could deny me credit for this. Bob stood off to one side, watching with amusement. When one has nothing to do but count the seconds, a minute can be a fairly long time. None of us moved for about two of those minutes. Jesus, the smart one, fell asleep and began to purr. I was wondering how long this would last when Joe broke the spell.

  “Alice,” his voice floated up, “the view from here is not all that interesting. How long will this last?”

  Alice sniffed a couple of times and wiped both cheeks on my shirt. “We just have to find a body for this pest.”

  “Pest!” he exclaimed. “Is that all I am?”

  “Come on, Joe, it’s a joke. Well, you do have your uses now and then. I suppose.”

  While this was going on, my attention remained with Amy and M1 and by the turn of their heads, I knew Alice and Bebe were focused on the same as me. The objects of our attention were locked in a tight embrace, their arms wrapped around each other, taking no notice of their surroundings. That is until M1’s training allowed his peripheral vision to break through the romantic fog and inform him that we were watching. He reacted by glancing our way, then he pulled back a bit. As we looked on, Amy did something curious, but totally Amy. She reached up, pulled his head down and whispered something into his ear. His response was to lift her up and turn away. All we saw was his broad back. Amy was hidden except for her hands and a little of her boots. Their embrace was still intact.

  I repeat that when one has nothing to do but count the seconds, a minute can be a fairly long time. After the first long minute, I saw that the Band members were looking to me for guidance.

  “So, you two,” I said to M1’s back, “do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?”

  M1 did not respond. The only movement in our little world was the extended middle finger of Amy’s left hand.

  Women rule, guys drool. Except, of course, for Nora, but the circumstances were exceptional.

  Alice snorted and Bebe added her trademark chuckle. All I did was to pull them back into our g
roup hug. It was only fair except for poor old Lonesome Joe, but before he could complain again, I heard a short snap in my ear as Harry turned on his radio. However it was not Harry’s voice, but one only I, among those present, had heard. “Hello, Dance Band,” Nora said. “Please join Harry and me to celebrate our family reunion.”

  Instantly, my girls abandoned me along with the rest of the Band. Even old Blue was left in the dust as they scrambled up the bank. By the time I reached the top, the unruly mob was halfway to the Padlock Palace. Blue had caught up to the crowd, but I didn't stand a chance. Since my work was finished, I took my time and arrived to a noisy celebration.

  Amy ran up to me, grabbed both of my arms and said, “Soob!” or something like that.

  “You’re absolutely right,” I said.

  That seemed to satisfy her, so I took a seat on the blue mattress and watched the show like a director of a successful play enjoying the fruits of his labors.

  I am unable to report on any dialogue because all I heard were four or five loud voices, simultaneously expressing their joy of the moment. I didn’t consult my Ralex, but it must have been five minutes before the noise level reduced and the tight circle of celebrants began to expand to a more normal separation. Alice, seeing me sitting alone, left the group to join me on the couch.

  Bebe was next. “James,” she said, “I am witness to these miracles, but I have to keep pinching myself to make sure I am not deep in some fantastic dream. Can I see that wound in your side?”

  Once again I found myself figuratively standing on that frozen pond in the dead of winter. Once again I heard the cracking sound and once again I must find some way to wiggle to solid ground. To stall for time, I said nothing while pulling up my shirt to expose a purple welt about the size of a silver dollar.

  “My, oh, my,” Bebe said, while closely examining my booboo, “did Nora punch you a good one?”

  “No,” I said, “she fainted and fell forward. I tried to catch her, but we both landed on the floor. You would have enjoyed watching the whole thing.”

  “James,” she said, while tucking in my shirt, “We shall not pursue this further. I accept the fact that women fall for you, but I will be watching.”

  “I’ll be watching too,” Alice said.

  Using both of my index fingers to point at both girls, I said, “You spiders, me fly, and speaking of fly, I caught a glimpse of Fran’s drone between the pillars. I think she’s trying to see what’s happening in here.”

  “M2,” Alice called out, “can you call up Fran from here?”

  “No such luck,” he said as he joined us. “The big bubble around this place is still intact.”

  Harry tore himself away from his sister to engulf me in a giant hug that aggravated my sore spot, but I did my best not to react. Alice saw that he was too emotional to speak, so she spoke for him.

  “We know, my friend,” she said, with one hand on his shoulder. “You owe James the world. He’s become our central bank of gratitude.”

  “Yeah,” he said, as he released his hug. “Yeah. Good job, pal.” And to Alice’s second button, he said, “You too, Joe.”

  By that time the gang had surrounded the couch.

  “Now I know,” I said to him, “why you reacted so violently when General Shants allowed the cannibalization of Nora.”

  “What’s this?” Nora exclaimed. “Cannibalization of who? Is there another… No, I’ll be quiet.”

  “Your brother, Alice said, “has a great big airplane. He named it Nora, but he never told us why until very recently.” She shifted gears as quickly as Bebe and said, “We should make a toast. Nora, you got any booze here?”

  “Nothing,” she replied. “No alcohol or tobacco. The accursed provider knows nothing about earthly delights. It’s a magical machine that can make most things seemingly out of thin air, but it needs samples.”

  “I have a small provider,” Harry said, “and it can make vodka, but I left it back at HQ—our camp.”

  CHAPTER 21

  M1 called a halt to the festivities by saying, “We’ll do our toasting on the roof of HQ tonight, but right now we need a quick tour of this facility. We’ll have some reporting to do, once we’re outside.”

  “Outside,” Nora said, with an ecstatic sigh. “What a wonderful word—follow me please. This won’t take long.”

  She led us through the arch, into the interior of the big structure and kept us moving through several large rooms while maintaining a running commentary about the things we were looking at. “This is our lounge. The library wall over there is loaded with classic books. That big screen is for our movies. We have just about every Hollywood product available at the time. These smaller rooms are bedrooms. Each has its own bathroom and here is our dining hall and the provider that cranks out food and clothing and stuff.”

  There was a device we had not seen before. It looked like a floor stand with a slender post mounted in the center. At the top, which was about chest high, there were crossbars that supported a four-foot diameter horizontal ring. The whole assembly looked for the entire world like a department store clothing rack.

  Alice grabbed the ring. “What’s this thing for?”

  Nora quickly reached over and pulled her hand away. “That was a close one,” she said. “Another few seconds and you would have been off to dreamland. This thing is used for quick adventures for two or more people at the same time. The real time durations for this device are just a few seconds. The perceived adventure can last up to several days. All you have to do is gather around and take hold of the ring; it has enough capacity for all of you. The adventure is based somehow on the mind of the first person to touch the ring.”

  “Have you tried it?” Amy asked.

  “A few times,” she replied. “Mostly it’s fun, but sometimes it’s just weird because it pulls stuff from your memory and your dreams. And it can be totally out of context. It only takes a minute if you’d like to give it a try.”

  “Tempting,” M1 said, “but this too we’ll save for later.”

  We continued our tour and Nora picked up the thread of her narrative. “We call this last room our junk room. It’s for stuff we no longer use.”

  “Alice had a question. “Your provider looks to be a small unit. What do you do, for instance, if you need new furniture?”

  “No provision was made for things like that,” she said, “We simply do without. I could tell by the behavior of those who brought us here that something unusual was happening and although they treated us fairly well, they only told us they had to leave for an unspecified amount of time. There were four other inmates awake at that time and they showed me the ropes. The four told me that up until my arrival there were visitors from the outside almost daily. Those visitors were not allowed to interact with us or even approach the top where we were confined. Many looked very strange, but they only saw them from a distance.

  “For a time, there was a lot of speculation about why we were left alone here. Another constant topic was about how we might escape but, as you know, nothing came of it.”

  Amy asked her if there was always one person awake at any given time.

  “It varies a lot,” Nora said, “we’ve never had a real routine.”

  She then led us through a doorway and down a curved stairway to the basement. It was a huge room, full to capacity with rows of dream chairs similar to those we saw in the Viking building. Many of these were occupied by customers. Each had the blue glow surrounding them. Nora explained that these devices were able to provide dream adventures. They also could link to other devices for a combined adventure.

  “Some of them,” she said, “have been on joint adventures for a very long time.”

  M1 asked, “Do you have a release code to wake them up?”

  “No,” she replied, “the occupant can’t initiate a wake up, nor can it be done from outside. A few will be waking in the near future.”

  “We’ll need to help them after their release,” M1 told he
r. “We can’t just return them to Earth and turn them loose. They’ll need time to recover.”

  “I have one more thing to show you,” Nora said. “It’s through that door over there. We don’t have any idea what it is or what it does. We have tried to turn it on, but with no success.”

  Once inside we saw two oddly oriented, egg shaped portals and one large console.

  “What the hell!” Alice exclaimed. “I feel a headache coming on.”

  “Ain’t nothing simple,” Harry muttered, from in back of the group, “maybe the one on the right has a hot tub or a swimming pool at the other end.”

  The reason for our confusion was that both portals lay horizontal, side-by-side. The one on the right lay face up on the floor with a diving board apparatus sticking out over the middle. The one on the left hung from the ceiling face down. A thick, spongy looking green mattress lay on the floor beneath.

  “Looks like one jumps in here,” Amy said, “and returns by falling from the ceiling.”

  M1 studied the podium for a minute then invited the rest of us to take a look. The surface was the same as the others we had used except it was larger. It had two white rings along the top and a series of fifteen small rings in a row below.

  “I’m nervous about this one,” he said. “Let’s think about it before we tinker with anything. Ideas anyone? He looked around. “No? James, are you and Joe working on this?”

  “Working on it, yes,” I said, “but ideas, no. I’m curious about the oversized console—Joe ?”

  “This is something new. I can only urge you to use caution.”

  “That’s our middle name, Joe,” M1 said. “It’s tempting to have Bebe touch the first circle, but I think not just yet.”

  “I just thought of something,” Amy said. “I recall that, at the Dormant Chambers, Moses was able to attach Joe to some sort of a service port at the side of the console there. Maybe this one has such a port and maybe Joe could use it.”

  “You get an A this semester,” M1 said. “How about it Joe?”