“See if there is a similar blue dot on the side of this console. The memory of that event is still with me, but it is a part of my old consciousness before YDRII reconfigured me. That is why I didn’t think of it first.”
“It’s all right, Joe,” Alice said. “We don’t expect perfection from you or any Band member.”
“Here it is, Joe,” M2 said, from a squatting position on the right side of the console. “How do you want to proceed?”
“Same as before,” he said. “Alice, just place me next to the dot. If I can connect, I will let you know.”
She unclipped him from the necklace and held his disk flat against the blue dot. After a few seconds, he told her to remove him.
“I have learned all I need to know,” he said. “This whole assembly is a storage device, but with an infinite capacity. We previously learned that, in the manufacture of a portal, a magnetic process divides the substance while in a molten state. The resulting two surfaces are still one although separated by immense distances. The splitting process does not involve any individual atoms, but the binding force between them. When we remove the barrier curtain, the gray nothing you see is the surface of that force and not the atoms behind it. The surface of this force field is not smooth, but dimpled. This phenomenon is not relevant to the function of the portals we have thus far used, but this one here is different in that it utilizes these dimples. Think of them as little cups that contain something I call the void. It is a place where there is no time, no space, and no energy of any sort. I cannot even describe it as empty space because that description implies volume and borders. This is the ultimate nothing.”
“How does one use this thing?” Alice asked.
“Turn on the right side,” Joe replied, “then jump off of the diving board. Doing a cannonball would be best because when you return from the void you will drop from the other portal face in the same position. This console records the pattern of every entrant and can retrieve any individual based on that pattern.”
“You have to know the number, like in the Dormant Chamber warehouse?”
“If you wish to retrieve a specific individual, yes, but the console allows you to select numbers at random. We could call for the retrieval of all four hundred and eight thousand, nine hundred and forty-two patterns. Of course, they would drop in one at a time.”
“Is there any sort of timer?” Alice asked.
“No,” Joe said, “As far as I can determine, someone has to be here to activate the process. It does seem rather risky.”
“That’s a lot of people or aliens or whatever. Can you tell who they might be?”
“I can make a good guess. Five groups make up the total number, but I cannot tell when they went there. They could well be the missing first order Primes.”
“That’s one hell of a sleep for an entire population.”
“Sleep is not the word for their stay in the void. They experience nothing because they reside there only as a potential. Not even a single atom is in that place. When revived, it will be to them as though they passed from one portal to the other in one motion.”
Alice scratched her head. “It’s not all that different from the dormant state, but why the jump and the drop?”
“It is critical to keep one’s body moving during transit. If the portal was vertical like the others and you went halfway through then backed up, half of your body would disappear. It would be very messy.”
“Could this be the Nazi hiding place?” Amy asked.
“I rather doubt it,” M2 said. “History tells us that the Nazi is ambitious and constantly on the move. I just can’t see them hiding here for an indefinite length of time.”
M1 asked Bob if he thought it would be a good idea to revive any of the Primes. “From what I have learned about our former rulers,” Bob replied, firmly, “I deduce they may not be desirable at this critical time. They abandoned my ancestors to the gray men and also the society they ran was very unfair and exploitative. It may be prudent to leave them where they are until at least after the invasion and occupation.”
“Our Bob is wise,” Alice said. “Me, I think it would be like reviving the upper class of Victorian England. For example, the society they ran used child labor. I think it would be very dangerous—these guys would have the knowledge to take everything back again. Also the Band should not have such authority anyway. Their wish would be to live their lives as before. I imagine they would demand we return them to their former status as pampered parasites.
“At a guess it would seem like something has gone wrong for the Primes… like something happened thousands of years ago to disturb things, like the gray men, and maybe most of them fled to the Dormant Chambers or this place with a very small number of caretakers staying awake to look after them. And it remained like that on Enigma for thousands of years. But then very recently… within the last fifty or sixty years something went wrong with those few care takers being killed or fleeing, leaving the rest of them trapped. Maybe it was caused by the Nazis.”
“I think we all can agree to that,” M1 said. “We won’t ask Bebe to test the console.”
“This all sounds good,” Nora said. “Lucky for me I have you guys to steady my course and now can we please get the hell off of this island? I never saw any Nazis, but then, I was among the last to arrive.”
M2 clicked off a few pictures then followed the rest of us up the stairs and out of the building.
“No feelings of nostalgia on leaving here, Nora?” Harry asked as we stepped out onto the turf.
“Would you ask that of a convict being released from jail? If I’m needed, I’ll return to greet those who wake up, but barring that, this place has seen the last of old Miss Bismarck. I’d like to get a bit drunk tonight, but I’ll pass on the cigarettes ’cause I’ve been without them so long the craving has vanished.” She paused for a moment and then grinned, “I would like a good meal. The provider was adequate, but it had a limited menu. My hope is that we can sit around the campfire tonight to talk and listen. I must know things like why Alice has a cat draped over her shoulder and what about your unusual dog? It looks just like one that I saw towards the end of my stay in Peru.” She glanced in Bebe’s direction, “And why do you remind me of a child I saw just before I was taken from Earth?”
“Hey, Nora,” Amy said, “since you’re leaving here, do you need to pack a bag?”
“Absolutely not,” she said emphatically. “I’d even leave this robe I’m wearing if you guys were all girls.” We guys all smiled just a bit too long, which resulted in several arm punches. “Anyway, who was it that brought me here and why? And, and, what has happened on Earth since I’ve been away and how did you find me and for that matter, where the hell am I? Things like that.”
“All in due time, little sister,” Harry said. “We know this isn’t Earth, but as of this moment we have no idea where we are in space.”
“I figured that it wasn’t Earth,” Nora said, “because of the lower gravity, but we were never told. I just hope that returning to Earth and normal gravity won’t be a big problem for me.”
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” Harry said, “but let us put that concern aside for now because the food and the campfire are waiting for us. We have some special nighttime entertainment you’ll enjoy while drinking yourself stinko. I think we’ll be able to convince you that Enigma is a pretty nice place, at least it is right now.”
“Enigma,” Nora exclaimed, “you named this prison planet Enigma?”
“Trust me, Sis,” Harry said, “just wait and see.”
“Nora, it might interest you to know,” Alice said, “that Amy named the planet, but she also named this island and the name she chose was Pinocchio.”
Nora thought about it for a moment. “Jesus, I can’t imagine a better name besides maybe Alcatraz.”
Joe spoke out loud which startled Nora. “Speaking of Jesus, he wants Nora to carry him.”
“Your shirt is talking, Alice,” she sai
d. “What’s the deal?
She undid the chain and displayed Joe’s case. “This is Lonesome Joe, a self-aware and very helpful computer. The cat’s name is Jesus.”
So Jesus got another free ride. Nora chose to cradle him instead of using her shoulder and the cat did not protest.
“I will say that this lower part of Pinocchio looks more interesting,” Nora said, “but I’m not tempted to stop and look. By the way, which way did you come in?”
“Which way?” M1 asked. “We came in through the courtyard. How many ways are there and where are they?”
“Only two I know about. I came here by way of the courtyard, but I’ve seen the other from a distance. It was in use right up until the keepers took a powder. I have no idea of why they left. One day they were gone—that’s all I know. The second entrance is a sort of elevator that comes down the face of the cliff, right over there where you see the top of that pointy building. Once it hits bottom it turns into a boat that docks right down there, to the left of the courtyard entrance.”
“That’s odd,” M1 said. “We rode that thing down, but the bubble kept us from approaching the shore line.”
“It only works the way I described when the internal barrier is off,” Nora replied, “and even then there is just the one hole in the bubble.”
Little by little we were learning more about Pinocchio, but it began to look like there would be no great revelations about the who and the why of this strange island. We had gathered a few more pieces of our limitless puzzle and formed a loose connection leading back to that wild place in Peru, but still there were no revelations about the master plan.
“My God!” Nora exclaimed, as we approached the entrance to the courtyard. “How I’ve dreamed of taking this walk to freedom. My feet are barely touching the ground. I won’t ask now, but I can hardly wait until I hear the story of how you all found me.”
“Here’s a little teaser,” Alice said. “It all began one dark and rainy night in Upstate New York when James Cagney left his house in search of cough drops.”
“Oh… oh,” Nora chirped, “what a lovely beginning. I’ll try not to get drunk until I hear the whole thing, but where does James Cagney fit into the story?”
Alice poked my shoulder and said, “This guy here is named James Cagney, but sometimes we call him a dirty rat.”
“Well I call him ‘my hero,’” Nora said, looking straight at me with wide open eyes.
Bebe also looked at both of us with wide open eyes. I looked straight ahead. What else could I do?
“You do know,” Nora said, “that, at least while I was on Earth, the original James Cagney never actually said that in any of his movies, don’t you?”
For the first time in many years, the sound of hearty laughter floated back past the archway we had just walked through and echoed up the silent pathways of Pinocchio.
CHAPTER 22
t was quite a reception and celebration. After the dinner where Nora said, “I don’t care if I puke my guts out later. I just want to stuff my face.” We went to the HQ roof where I spent most of my time dodging awkward questions about pinches and drool, Nora told us all about her time in Pinnochio. She told us about the wonders and traps of the dream chair simulations, and we oohed and aahed in all the right places. “Some time ago,” she said, “in desperation I took a ten year trip and became lost in the fantasy. When I woke up and remembered where I was, I cried for several days. After that experience I never used the chairs for more than a few days.”
When she finally arrived at the part where a ‘handsome’ prince rescued her, I was forced to interrupt her to avoid the details. “This may be premature,” I said, “but you will have some choices about where to go and what to do. You know you’re more than welcome to stay with us, but considering what you’ve been through, you have to think of yourself first.”
“You’re exactly right,” Nora said, “and those thoughts have been bouncing around in my head since James showed up. Harry, what are my choices? I’ve been lost for so long—I just want to go home, if home is still there. Can I return to Earth?”
“Of course you can,” he said. “When you decide to go, you can be there in about two hours.”
“Right now,” she said, “I’d like to talk to you about our time in Peru. You were unconscious most of the time. Do you remember any of it?”
“Just bits and pieces, Sis,” Harry said. “It’s all a foggy dream.”
“There are some blank spots,” Nora said, “but I’ll tell you what I remember although it’s not much of a story. “It begins on the day I became separated from my tour group. We were exploring some very old ruins near the coastline. Funny thing—I can’t quite remember the year, even. I think it was around nineteen seventy.”
Harry removed his cigar long enough to say, “Close enough kiddo.”
“Anyway,” she continued, “the whole area was overgrown with trees, vines and thick undergrowth. I remember getting lost and then I blanked out. On waking up I found myself in a small, one-room, white stone building that was partially overgrown with one of those banyan trees. Other than feeding me, the four tall people who were there told me nothing, but left me to my own devices.”
“We call them Primes,” Alice said.
“I wasn’t confined,” Nora continued, “but the terrain trapped me quite well.”
“You should know,” Alice said, “that we’ve been there recently, so we understand why you couldn’t escape.”
“Were there any remnants in the house?” Nora asked.
“Yes,” Alice said, “It now contains only a few sticks of furniture, an old bed frame and that curious double cross symbol on the wall. Did you ever learn its meaning?”
“I’m sorry, no,” Nora said.
Nora then asked for and got a refill for her empty glass.
“Anyway,” she said, “I lost track of the days, but it must have been one morning three or four weeks later when I woke up to see two of my tall captors entering the little white room where I was sleeping. They were carrying a man on a stretcher and I was shocked to see that it was Harry. Oddly enough, the shock was not accompanied by surprise because I just knew he would be looking for his little sister.” While she was saying this, she looked at Harry and tried to smile, but instead she burst into tears and buried her face in his chest. Lieutenant Roy walked over to hand Harry a box of tissues.
“Well, well,” Alice said, “imagine that, Kleenex out here on the frontier. Civilization has arrived on Enigma.”
Nora wiped her cheeks and once again took the floor. “Harry was unconscious and very sick. It was a fever I think. He would come around occasionally, but when he did he was always delirious.
“The next day a woman who looked like a native Peruvian appeared along with a child that looked a little bit like Bebe and a dog that looked like Blue. She and the child had no English, but I was told they brought her there to care for Harry, which she did, using herbs and stuff. All the while I was still relegated to my position of do-nothing passive observer. The tall ones did let me cool his forehead with a damp cloth, but that was it. Four days later his fever broke and although he slept on, I knew he would survive. On the morning of the fifth day I woke up to find that Harry, his nurse, the child and the dog were gone. I inquired and my captors assured me Harry was safely returned to where they had found him.
“When I asked them why they didn’t send me along with the others, they told me I was needed, but they wouldn’t say why. I begged them to let me go, but they didn’t listen. They said I was needed in the Golden City, but they didn’t elaborate.”
“You know,” M2 said, “the more I hear about these guys the more sure I am that we shouldn’t wake them back up. At least until we know a lot more about them.”
Nora nodded enthusiastically. “The next morning I woke up here in some sort of sunken arena. About four hours later I arrived at Pinocchio and became a museum piece. You all know the rest.” She looked at Harry. “Do you remember any
of it?”
“That part’s a complete blank,” he said. “When I finally woke up, I was in a small medical facility. The people there told me some locals found me staggering around in a farmer’s field. I was still pretty much out of it and the next time I came around I was in a military hospital back in the States. My recovery was complete, but it took quite a while.”
Bebe returned with a fresh drink. “I take it that you arrived here about nineteen seventy. Were there many Primes here then and when did they leave?”
“There were a few in addition to the two who were with me in Peru. For a few years, we that were awake could see other strange looking visitors, but always from a distance. It’s difficult to judge time here, but the Prime population dwindled gradually. When the last one left the visitors were not seen again.
“I told James that my fellow inmates were from the Bermuda Triangle era. That’s true, but a few were here a whole hell of a lot longer. Those few all spoke English, but they had to learn it from the Bermuda folk. We didn’t see much of them because they spent years on end in the dream chairs. A man I met just once was born in Ancient Rome. Think of the stories he has to tell.”
Alice deposited her spent cigar in a butt can. “Hmm, well, Nazis or not it seems the Primes have been dying out or disappearing for centuries. There just has to be more to this than the Nazis.”
We considered Nora’s story for a time. She had added some to what we already knew, but the information did little more than fill in some of the background. Nothing she told us pointed in any different direction.
The Colonel offered and Nora accepted a room at HQ for a few days to relax and digest what had happened. “And then,” he said, “you can decide what you want to do next.”
The male snewels had begun to light up on schedule, and the evening’s audience was in their seats. Everything stopped until the last snewel winked out. The Band was in a tight group separate from the general audience so that we could talk.
“It’s too dark to do any more today,” M1 said, “but the clock is ticking. We have two more days to show some real progress. Unless someone has a new idea, I’ll lay out tomorrow’s schedule.” He paused, but none of us spoke. “First thing we’ll go to the blue line north and if it’s working we’ll catch a ride west to that great round building. Who knows how long we’ll be there, but when we finish we’ll trolley our way east to the end of the line and that small building. If we finish there well before dark, we’ll ride back to the Phi-Phi station and hike on north to the city’s edge. I’d like to take a close look at the invisible barrier.” He stood up and stretched. “Any comments? No? Let’s get some sleep. We need an early start.”
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: BOOK THREE - ENIGMA Page 16