LOST AND FORGOTTEN: BOOK THREE - ENIGMA

by Maurice Barkley

  “AARGH!” Fran yelled, “What the hell...”

  Bebe’s voice was heard next. “She does not seem to be in pain and I see no blood, but stranger things I have not seen.”

  “Are you all right?” Alice asked.

  “I experience no pain or difficulty,” Pixie said. “This causes no discomfort to my arda.”

  “Under that thing,” Heidi said, “she looks just like a Prime. A small Prime, but a Prime none the less.”

  “I think she is near my age,” Shan said. “She looks like the women of my farm in Shenandoah.”

  “What is your age, sweetie?” Camila asked.

  “I am twenty and two cycles.”

  “Can you describe the meaning of cycles?”

  “When the sun travels from high point to high point.”

  Camila addressed the other girls. “Considering the shorter year here, she is around twenty—give or take.”

  “Do you have a family?” Alice asked her.

  “Yes, I have a mother, a father and one older sister, but they are four days that way.” We assumed that she pointed. “I am lost.”

  “That’s east.” Alice said, “Could be four or five cities from here.”

  “The helicopter,” Amy said. “We could probably get her home quite soon.”

  “No!” Pixie exclaimed. “I escaped from there. My family, they are slaves. I will not go back there.”

  “Not even to rescue your family?” Alice asked.

  “You will do that for me?” Pixie asked excitedly.

  “Yes,” Alice said, “but we will have to ask you many questions before we go there.”

  “I will tell you all that I know.”

  Apparently the girls had forgotten about the poor boys out in the hallway. I cleared my throat and my chums caught on and did the same. It was loud enough and it worked.

  “Sorry guys,” Alice called to us. “Give us a minute to dress Pixie. She’s been standing here in the altogether.”

  “Here’s one of my t-shirts,” Camila said. “Help her put it on while I dig out a pair of my shorts. They’re way too big, but we have to improvise.”

  We waited a minute or two while listening to some muffled noises as the girls fussed over our charge.

  “All clear!” Alice sang out. “Come on in.

  The kid looked like the poor lost waif that she was. The t-shirt billowed around her small frame and the shorts ballooned comically, but her face held our attention. She could have been Shan’s kid sister. The shape and color were now pure Prime and her face shone with hope and gratitude.

  The reason for the big change was lying limp on the bed next to her, looking like a semi-transparent diving suit.

  “Is it alive?” Harry asked.

  “Yes,” she said, “but it is dormant when it is separate from me.”

  Alice gave a quick rundown. “She just rubbed her forehead with her finger and the thing split down the middle, including her legs and arms. It just pealed back and took her lion’s mane with it. The kid has regular hair. The rest of it is there on the bed.” Alice looked at Pixie. “What does your arda do for you and what do you do for it?”

  I could tell Pixie wanted to cooperate as best she could. “This arda is my property. It has no mind; it just reacts in certain ways. Once an arda bonds with one of my people, it will die if taken away for extended periods because they feed only on the skin of its owner. It keeps me very clean. It also can warm me when it is cold and helps me keep cool by transferring my sweat to its exterior.”

  “But you called it your companion,” Alice said. “If it has no mind, how can it be a companion?”

  “It is not a companion like an animal or a friend. It simply becomes a familiar object. Are there not familiar objects you have become fond of?”

  “My pipe,” Harry said. “Time was I’d talk to it on a lonely night.”

  “Pixie,” Alice said, “You do not have to wear these things,” she fingered Pixie’s sleeve. “If you would rather wear your arda. It’s your choice.”

  The little woman was okay with her outfit, but I was sure she’d change her mind as soon as she looked in a mirror.

  “How soon on the DNA?” M1 asked.

  “A day or two,” Camila replied. “We’re not set up here. The swab is on its way to Shenandoah, but I’ll bet a pocket full of nickels Pixie is pure Prime.”

  “I guess that’s about all we can do for now,” Alice said. “It’s twilight outside. Why don’t we troop on up to the roof. I’m sure Pixie will love the snewels.”

  Pixie left her arda on the bed, but took a couple of blankets to keep warm. We all got our drinks and settled down for the show. The male snewels had arrived, but they were yet to glow. Pixie got a White Rock soda with a straw, but no cigar.

  “You have such things as this wonderful drink whenever you wish?” she asked.

  “Pixie,” Camila said, “you have just begun an adventure into a new world. I wish I could trade places with you for a while.”

  Alice paused while lighting her cigar. “Camila, may I remind you that you too have just begun a new adventure into a new world. We’re all in the same boat and enjoying every second.”

  Pixie replied without removing the straw from her mouth. “But you are all here with your tribe. I have only my arda, but if you learn to like me it may happen you will allow me to stay.”

  The girls, on hearing this, swarmed her and settled the question of whether or not she was liked. The guys wisely sat still and smiled. Bebe was the first to return to her seat and retrieve her drink, which I had been holding.

  “James,” she said, “every few hours I ask myself how our adventure could be any better. I have no answer for myself, but as sure as sunrise, wonderful things occur as though on some cosmic schedule. Look, the snewels begin to shine.”

  “Your attention please,” Amy said. “This rooftop needs a name.” We voiced our agreement. “Therefore, since this is where we come to view colored lights, I now name this the Rainbow Room.”

  We all approved and turned our attention to the snewels. It was great fun to watch Pixie’s reaction. She forgot her White Rock and her straw dropped back into the bottle. Of course, the rest of us soon forgot to observe our little waif and lost ourselves for a while in the beauty of the lights. At the end, Pixie shivered with delight and quickly clamped her straw in her teeth.

  “I have no words to tell you how I feel,” she said to us. “Please know I am grateful for everything.”

  “As are we all,” Alice said, while lighting her cigar. “As are we all.”

  “There are some of the things that shine without fire here now,” Pixie said, as she looked at Grand Central’s glowing windows. “Do they stay that way all through the night?”

  “We call them lights,” Camila said. “Some of them we will leave on all night.”

  “You can choose to do that?”

  “Yes, we can,” Camila replied, while turning on her pocket flashlight. “See?”

  “Do you have many of these wondrous things? Can you light the whole city?”

  “Eventually we will, but since we’ve only arrived, it will take some time.”

  “Then you must have come from the other city, for it has many more lights. Can we go there too?”

  Our relaxed mood vanished. When Pixie saw our faces she drew in and tightened her grip on her blankets. “I said something you did not like? I am regretting if I did.”

  Alice leaned forward and placed her hand over a tightly clenched fist. “No, no, sweetheart, you said something very good. You told us something we did not know. This pleases us greatly.”

  As Alice spoke, Pixie’s look of dismay changed to a smile of relief. She rescued her straw once more and drew in the last of her soda. As soon as Amy heard the bubbling she dashed to the bar and returned with a fresh bottle for our little wonder.

  “Look, Pixie,” Alice said, “can you tell us what you know of this other city?”

  First, Pixie took a long pull a
t her new bottle and then burped. “It is the custom of our masters to make camp for many days until they gather in all of the easily available game. When hunting becomes hard we gather our belongings and move to a new place. The moves can be two or three times a cycle.

  It was while we were moving this last time. We set camp for the night next to the wall of a city. At dark, many lights began to glow both outside and inside of many—things. I do not know what they are called. I could see down a wide path, but strangely I did not see any movement. It was not pretty. I saw none of the beings that must inhabit that place. Our masters were very afraid and forced us to pack up and walk through the night until we were far away.”

  Pixie seemed to have finished and went back to her drink. Alice asked her if she had ever seen snewels before and the tiny Prime said she hadn’t.

  “One more thing,” Alice continued. “Do you know where this city is located?”

  Pixie answered, “One or two cities beyond from where I escaped.” She waved her hand in an easterly direction. “If you go there, can I stay with you?”

  Alice, after glancing at M1, said, “Eventually, when we think it’s safe for you.”

  Fran had been quiet up until now. “I was wondering when one of you was going to ask me if a drone can navigate our nighttime skies?”

  “Fran, darling,” Alice said, in her best English accent, “pray apprise us of the splendid capabilities of your splendid drones as they negotiate the nighttime skies of Enigma.”

  “I can fly at night as well as day. My crafts have radar and all sorts of night vision. I can launch in ten minutes, if you wish.”

  “We wish,” M1 said, while leaving his seat, “Let’s go.”

  On the way down, it was decided that Fran would launch to the east and climb as high as possible, but not go beyond the eastern edge of Manheim. Pixie came along, after a quick stop to put on her arda. Alice was busy calling in a quick report to the Colonel. He would take care of passing the news on to the director.

  According to my Ralex, it took Fran just over eight minutes to launch. She said she would be on station in less than five. Lieutenant Roy was there busy with the coffee maker. Fran set up a monitor for us on the long mess table and as soon as we got our coffee we found seats within view of the screen. Colonel Brockway joined us as a curious bystander. The man knew when and when not to take charge.

  “This monitor shows the pilots view in visible light,” Fran said. “Right now it displays the immediate area in front of the drone. The altitude is quite high to compensate for the planet’s curvature. Even in the dark, you can easily make out the Dormant Chambers building at the bottom of the screen. I’ll now signal the pilot to raise the view and extend the focus.”

  We watched closely as the camera elevated to the horizon and there it was—a dim and distant smudge of light. Alone in the dark land it revealed no details, but we all found it profoundly interesting.

  M1 asked Fran if she could determine its location. “Sure,” she said. “The craft already has one azimuth. The pilot will fly north for a bit and take another read. From that I can generate a map that will pinpoint the target.”

  M2 asked her, “Can you tell if the drone is being tracked by some other radar? We wouldn’t want to advertise our presence unnecessarily.”

  She replied, “Nothing so far. I can detect any known radiation. There might be stuff we don’t know about, but I think we’re all right.”

  Another five minutes and the drone completed its task and was returning. Fran’s boys had set up a tall net in front of Grand Central and we watched as the little bird, motor off, hit it dead center then slid down to the waiting arms of its crew.

  Alice looked around the table. “Shall we talk? All I have are questions. I hope we can dig out some answers.”

  “First thing,” Harry said, “considering our deadline, I think we should go there tonight.”

  “I am with Harry,” Bebe added. “Time is not our friend.”

  M1 had been listening. “Amy, Shan, Bob, James, what about it? Do we go?”

  Knowing we had little more than twenty-four hours, we just nodded our heads.

  Bebe stood up and leaned against the table. “Can we go right now?”

  Alice made her decision. “Preparation does sound logical, but what could we do? Do we want a flyover that would perhaps warn the occupants, if there are any? I think that nighttime is a good time to sneak in and look around.”

  “What the hell,” Harry said. “Who can sleep anyway? I know I couldn’t”

  “But how about a map?” Amy asked, “We really don’t know where it is.”

  “It’s being generated right now,” Fran said, “I’ll go get it for you.”

  Before she could leave her place at the table, one of her crew arrived with the fresh document. He laid it on the table and we gathered around. It became quite crowded as we all leaned in for a closer look.

  “Geez, Fran,” Alice said to her, “you make it almost too easy. Our target city is three up and in the same row as Manheim, maybe ninety miles from here. Pixie’s last encampment must be one closer in the wild lands to the left. That should be roughly fifty or more miles. I wish we had a bunch of helicopters for the rescue mission.”

  Fran tapped the table with her pointer. “I’ll ask Lieutenant Kelsey about that. I’ll bet he can dig up a fleet.”

  M1 swallowed the last of his coffee. “Grab your gear, kids. Camilla, take good care of Pixie until we get back.”

  “No problem,” she said, “as long as we don’t run out of soda.”

  As we got up Bebe had a question for Pixie: “I call my people Terrans, Shan calls hers Primes. What name do you have for your people?”

  “The masters have no name I know of for their people, but mine do. We are named Exiles.”

  “Do you know what the name means?” Bebe asked.

  “I do,” she replied. “We are the ones forced long ago to leave the place of our ancestors.”

  “Do you know where home is?” Suddenly Bebe had an audience.

  “There are stories told by my father’s father of a land beyond the sky. He was taken from there as a child, but the way back is unknown.”

  “Does the place beyond the sky have a name?”

  “Yes, it is called Pee-Roo.”

  “Well, I swan, Jay-ames.” Alice declared, “Our little girl’s ancestors came from Peru, but I still bet she is pure Prime.”

  “You know this Pee-Roo?” Pixie asked.

  Alice put one hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Yes, we do, sweetie. We have been there. It is on the world that is our home.”

  “This is wonderful. Can we take my family there?”

  “We can, but we must do one thing at a time.”

  M1 was standing in the station’s large doorway. “Are there any more dazzling revelations before we head out?”

  There were none.

  CHAPTER 29

  At the Phi-Phi station we hopped aboard our taxi to the subway station. On arrival, Bob called up the big map. Our target, three cities east, had its own double image that looked something like a backward letter Z except that the angles were ninety degrees. It looked like the start of a set of steps. He reached up, tapped the dot and it lit up properly. As we were discussing whether or not it needed another tap, our car appeared. The only car control, if you can call it that, was a yellow dot near the door on the inside. As soon as we were settled in, Bob touched the dot and we were off. Alice did some figuring on her fingers. “My guess is this trip will take two hours at most. We have no way of accurately gauging the speed of this thing, but I think fifty MPH is reasonably close.”

  Even our excitement couldn’t make it anything but a boring trip because there was nothing to look at other than the undecorated tunnel walls. Jesus and Blue slept the entire time. Fortunately our transport proved to be considerably faster than Alice’s estimate and we arrived at the new station in just under one hour. It was a duplicate in every respect to the one at Manheim
. At the top we found open country and a small building very similar to those back at Manheim. We walked over to the trolley station where Bob examined the console.

  “The writing is foreign to me, but the layout is the same, as is the groupings. It looks as though there are four stops on this line, the same as the others we have used. Should I call up a vehicle?”

  “Damn,” Harry said, “look at this. The writing is in good old German. How’s that for a clue.” He bent over for a closer look. “It just says this is station one—not very informative.”

  “A clue and a warning,” M1 said. “Okay, Bob, call up our taxi.”

  Three minutes later our trolley appeared. The design was identical and our loaded transport moved smoothly into the dark landscape.

  We pulled into a well-lit station and walked outside into a glowing city. The blue line continued on west, but we hardly took note as our eyes were drawn to the lights.

  “Oh, dear,” Alice said, “This is not good, not good at all.”

  “What device can create such light?” Bebe asked.

  “And why would one do so?” Amy added.

  The illumination that made me want to squint came from shaded lamps in front of each of the identical buildings—lined up row after row. It looked like a scene from an old army base or worse. The light was a grayish white with possibly a touch of dirty blue—harsh. It was intense, but somehow tended to blur whatever surface it fell upon. I would have preferred the dark.

  Alice was looking at a small device in her hand. “The meter says it’s normal light. I guess we’re safe, but next time we come in the daytime.”

  “God, it’s depressing,” Harry said, “I feel like we’ve come upon a concentration camp. I just hope to hell there are no inmates here.”

  “I detect no life signs,” Jo said. “Even the air is all but sterile.

  Alice looked all around. “This place is making me nervous. The entire view just isn’t right. Everything I see is too ugly for the likes of us.”

  I had to agree. We were standing in the middle of a pathway of sorts that ran straight into the city. My eyes told me all of this was real, but my mind rebelled. This place did not belong in my world. A strange emotion washed over me as I took in that long view. All was still and silent. The mystery was grim and dark—a bad dream. Nothing was said as we all started to move slowly into this new place. We unconsciously stayed in a close group and absorbed the somber view that surrounded us. Harry approached one building and tried the narrow door. It opened easily and he had a quick look inside. “Empty as the buildings in Manheim,” he said on rejoining the group.” Looks like the inside of a barn except on a smaller scale.”