by SJ Davis
“Push! We need a little more clearance,” Susie shouted.
Pen followed her directions, placing his hand beneath the base of the statue and pushing upward as the moai attempted to right itself.
Together, Pen and Susie guided the moai to an upright position, moving the several ton statue like an oversized balloon. The Harriet hovered overhead, keeping the force of the magnet over the statue. By changing the polarity, they had utilized the molten metal core of the earth as an opposing pole, and the force of magnetic repulsion lifted the moai. The pushed the behemoth down and settled his feet against the earth.
“Alright, shut it off.” Pen instructed. Hitch turned down the dial and turned off the machine. The moai connected with the ground with a solid thud, like an anvil had been dropped from the gondola. Once more the Rapa Nui ancestor gazed upon his land. Pen roared with laughter, jumping with excitement. He took Susie by the hands and danced a delightful jig.
“We did it, buddy!” He exclaimed as he looked up to his mentor above him, arms outstretched.
Hitch could feel his chest swell, his face warm with pride. Although he had no children, he imagined he then understood the pride a father felt for his accomplished child.
“Well done, my friend!” He called down, saluting him. “Well done, indeed!”
***
Only a handful of Copper Ridge pedestrians noticed the Harriet Quimby floating silently at a low altitude over the city. Susie leaned close to the window by the pilot seat. She could see Pen had already taken his position in the University courtyard garden, nervously pushing his hair out of his eyes. Hitch paced the gondola, rubbing his hands together. Susie positioned the Harriet directly over Pen’s head, and the enormous Key to Wisdom statue behind him. They watched Pen and waited for his cue.
Pen drew in a deep breath and held it, looking across the landscape of the city he loved. Was he ready to turn everything on its head? Was he ready to be vilified, accused of being a hack, a usurper, a liar? Did Hitch fully understand that there was no going back from this action? Hesitation left him with the escaping breath. It was too late for doubt. He picked the megaphone and held it to his mouth, perspiration on his upper lip.
“Good morning, citizens of Copper Ridge. I am Pen Yates, and on behalf of myself, Dr. Peter Barnsley, and Dean Exeter, I want to formally thank you for coming to our presentation. A special note of consideration is also given to Ms. Susan Forge for her invaluable assistance with this expedition,” Pen proclaimed with every ounce of charisma he could focus. He sounded like a traveling snake oil hustler.
He knew it was only a matter of time before University security caught on that no such presentation had been approved by campus officials, and he would be taken away. His father would not be there to stop his arrest, as he had done before in times of outburst or protest. Today, he and his friends would stand, or fall, where they stood.
“We are all aware of the wondrous technological advances of the generation before the flare, but what of the eons of civilizations of early history? We live on a planet of mysteries, many of those whose roots stretch back to the times of pre-history, to the times of the Mayans, Aztecs, ancient Egyptians, the Rapa Nui, and many more. Often the genius and resourcefulness of these ancient peoples is overlooked, because our own technology cannot explain how they were able to achieve such accomplishments. But today stands before you, a man whose entire outlook on the Earth has changed.
“I am a student of history, of archeology, of discovery, and I can tell you that I possess the knowledge of these great cultures. Today, Dr. Barnsley and I, present to you their secret, that in our ancient history, our Earth’s great civilizations were visited by advanced extraterrestrial explorers. I found evidence of this truth in a temple in Cambodia, a space craft and a corpse of an ancient astronaut. It is undeniable evidence that this University has kept hidden from you. Today, I will show you something they cannot hide.”
The people who had clustered around them gasped and whispered. The women fanned themselves and spoke to one another secretly behind their fans. Many of the men huffed, straightened their vest, and outwardly showed their outrage and disbelief. He caught a glimpse of a disturbance coming from the University, and spotted a handful of determined security guards pushing through the crowd toward him.
It was now or never. Pen raised a thumbs up to Hitch, who switched on the machine. The Key to Wisdom began to vibrate in its concrete base. Hitch turned up the power and the bolts that secured it to the concrete pad began to work loose. The enormous key groaned and lifted from the ground, suspended three feet over its resting place. He only had one minute, perhaps less, until campus security was upon him.
“An antigravity device, hidden for thousands of years on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, given to the Rapa Nui by ancient extraterrestrials to help make their mark on the world. Their moai, stone statues that weigh several tons, were lifted into place by a culture we would consider primitive, yet we can hardly replicate this feat with our most advanced machinery.”
Two large men from the group wrapped their arms under Pen’s and began to drag him away from the floating sculpture. He kicked and struggled, determined to speak a moment longer to the crowd that the security officials were desperately trying to dissipate.
“This University wants to keep this knowledge from you, wants to keep you ignorant to the truth because it is afraid of the changes it will bring. It cannot be hidden any longer! My father would have wanted you all to know the truth. Demand to know the truth! Demand to see the servant of Orion!”
The distinct whooping scream of sirens sounded behind Susie and Hitch. Checking the perimeter, Hitch could see the flashing lights of police dirigibles closing in on them.
“We got to go, Peter. Drop the key or keep it?” Susie asked, squeezing the steering wheel.
Hitch looked down at the mystified crowd, watching them move like the tide as Pen was dragged away from the scene. A curious man touched the side of the key, causing it spin. The realization passed through the crowd like wildfire. There were no supports, no tricks, only the truth Pen had promised.
“Take it up with us, just mind the smokestacks,” Hitch smiled. “We’ll let Exeter know he can have it back when the charges against Pen are dropped.”
“You got it, baby.” Susie smiled with a wink.
Hitch blushed, but felt braver than he had since before the accident that claimed his limbs. Time spent with the marvelous Ms. Forge would never be dull, and would always be possibly illegal. It was a risk Hitch was more than happy to accept.
***
Three weeks later
Susie sat draped across her pilot’s seat aboard the Harriet, fanning herself. The heat of the American southwest was unbearable. Pen and Hitch labored over another table full of maps, different locations pinpointed, and a new set of locations to scout. After quickly dropping the vandalism, theft, and disorderly conduct charges against Pen, Dean Exeter had awarded the intrepid duo with an unprecedented, unrestricted offer to research more sites relevant to the Ancient Astronaut Theory, so long as any public presentations were sanctioned by the University. After overwhelming public demand, all evidence uncovered by the Cambodian and Easter Island expeditions was made public knowledge, presented to the city in the newly christened Professor Robert Yates Hall, honoring Pen’s father.
The dry, dusty heat blew through the gondola windows, rustling the abundance of papers and Susie’s already dehydrated patience. Hitch momentarily left Pen to take Susie a cool drink.
“Are you going to make it, dear?” he asked, crouching down to gaze into her wonderfully green eyes.
“I’ll be fine, just not used to this heat,” she answered, holding the cool glass against her face.
Hitch smiled, wiped a smudge of red sand from her cheek, and leaned in to steal a kiss, awkwardly bumping her nose with his.
Pen chucked despite himself.
Hitch flustered. “What’s so funny?”
“Look who�
�s the damn amateur now,” he teased.
“Shut up,” Hitch snapped.
“Shush, shush, you too. The quicker you figure out the locations of Orion’s bow, the quicker we can move on. It looks to me like your hunter is aiming north and Canada sounds pretty good right now,” Susie scolded. “What constellation is he aiming at?”
“That would be Taurus the Bull,” Pen informed, his nose stuck again in the maps and notes.
Hitch nodded in agreement.
“Shooting the bull… you two should have no trouble finding it.”
The Stormling’s Invention
Lexi Ostorow
Chapter One
The machine whirred to life, and Mia took a small step backwards, her breath catching in her throat. She lifted her hand, even from a distance, in attempts to touch the metal carriage in front of her. It appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary carriage, a gilded gold coach, but similar nonetheless. The upholstery was a deep, lush blue. However, there was no harness to hook up a horse, and where the driver sat, a complex set of colored crystals glowed with life. Purple, red, green and blue—all indicating a dateline. Purple for the past, red for the present, green for the future and blue, well a return backup of course. She dropped to her knees and peered under the carriage, she watched the intricate device—smaller than her palm—that was causing the carriage to shake and rock.
She could see her reflection in the polished metal, and the woman that stared back at her was tired and cold. Lines traced shallow paths through her cheeks and under her eyes. No spark of life remained in their blue depths, there never was. She was always dreadfully serious looking, even when she was having fun. Her brownish-blonde hair was swept to the side and braided. Her corset was too tight, her breasts utterly flattened and her skirt a deep green that trailed to the floor. A servant’s garb. No matter what her gifts marked her, she was a servant and would always appear so, as to not take away attention from countable women in society.
“There’s no way this will work.” Awe filled her voice and she couldn’t look away.
“That’s what they all said when the lightning storm brought the magic, Mia.” Jase, her childhood friend, winked at her and ran a hand over the crystals. His blue eyes twinkled as much as the blue crystal did. “Can you imagine the things we could see, Mia? The places we could travel?”
Glee radiated around Jase, and his energy was infectious. She soon found herself smiling as well.
“That’s different, Jase. We’ve had decades to learn the magic. Decades of ways to produce electric currents and raise people from the dead.”
“Precisely. Don’t you think it’s only natural that someone finally tried time travel? It’s been thirty years.”
In 1856 the world had tipped on end when a drastic lightning storm had raged for days on end. Six days after it had begun the lightning stopped striking the ground in America, and after ten days, it ceased in Britain. What was left behind from the storm could never be explained. People had seemed to develop certain powers, elemental control of a sort. It hadn't affected everyone, only certain people. There’d been no luck discerning what had caused it. Physicians from all over the world had traveled on newly invented mechanized carriages to talk and think. The result was a governing board to monitor the development of the powers.
Mia had never understood how magic allowed for crazy designs to spring up out of the blue. Twenty years ago, she’d been three at time and living in a modest dwelling in London, she’d gained control of lightning currents, or electricity as they had taken to calling it. Her mother and father had been terrified, both of her and for her. They’d sold themselves into service work for a well-to-do American family and had moved them here.
Jase was the youngest son of the family, and Mia may not have deserved it, but his mother had been kind. Everything he had gotten, she had as well. She’d always just thought she was liked, until she stumbled onto Jase communing with a dead soul one night.
Nothing was the same afterward.
The Americans were more her people than those of her homeland, but she’d never heard of Great Britain forcing the Stormlings, the name someone had decided would befit them, to use their powers for financial gain. She’d overheard many debates that had taken place at Jase’s home during dinner parties about how such powers led to the creation of things that no mind should have been able to harness. When she was only eight, she and Jase had been sent away together to a school, where they learned to control what they could do. Soon after, they were hustled away into careers that left them involved in a never ending stream of tests.
Tests. A series of tests designed to use The Stormling’s for power and gain, that’s why they were here. The Americans believed that a combination of spiritual raising and electrical current could propel a machine, and a small number of people, through time.
She and Jase had been placed together, as had seven other teams, all trying to make it work. The process had nearly made her sick more than once, but Jase was a wonder to watch. When he raised a spirit, his black hair would fly behind him and his eyes would go stormy, almost as if he was the one that controlled the lightning. However, what happened next always churned her stomach.
Each crystal held the spirit of someone they had raised; one old, one young, one at the prime of life by American standards and the final contained one of each. Six spirits in total existed inside the crystals. Her job was to harness the electricity and fill it into the crystals.
Jase’s thoughts had been that the spirit would indicate the direction it could travel and it the electric current would power the motorized carriage through time.
“I can’t believe we are going to do this, Jase. I just can’t. Have you thought of the millions of things that could go inexplicably wrong?”
He walked over to her and placed his hands palms down onto her shoulders, his smile was downright evil. “Have you thought of all the millions of things that could go wonderfully right, Mia? If we’re able to travel in time think of the things that could be fixed. We wouldn’t need to just rely on the slow workings of the Physician’s to get us by. Or the technology we could bring back. Or the disasters we could stop.” His eyes twinkled, and his enthusiasm was so infectious, she almost missed the last part.
Mia shook her head and stepped out of Jase’s reach. “We aren’t allowed to change the past. You know the rules. We could alter something that makes it so that lightning storm never happened.” She threw her hands up and growled in frustration at him.
He never thought further ahead than the next game to play. Ever since they had been little, he’d made a habit of infuriating his parents’ guests at the estate. He was never caught or blamed of course, which only added to his mischief making.
“Yes, mother, I know. Do you think, for once, you could remember what we are to one another?” His tone was still all play, but the words startled her anyway.
Since she had been old enough to want a man, Jase had been the only one she’d ever dreamed of. They were friends, and his daring, disastrous personality was everything she hadn’t been, but then they grew up.
His black hair, worn long for the fashion, called out for her to run her fingers through it. His cheekbones were strong, and she longed to run her hands over them. She’d spent countless hours staring at his thin lips as he spoke, wondering what it would be like to kiss him. But that was all it had been, longing. He was a son of the merchant class, not an indentured servant.
It didn’t matter how close to wealth her family had been in London, in America, they were nothing. They had long since worked off the required debt, and they lived in a modest home outside of Williamsburg, a few minutes ride on the motor cars that could be powered by lightning, to Jase’s family estate.
“Mia? Are you all right? If you’re feeling faint from trying yesterday, we don’t have to do it today. You’re more important than making it work. Even if I want to be the one to say we figured out time travel.”
She shook her head and f
orced herself to focus on the machine in front of them. “I’m fine Jase. I guess I just checked out for a moment.”
His eyes turned gravely serious and his voice lost some of its upbeat tempo, “It’s ok to be scared, you know.” He leveled his eyes with hers. “I am.”
The confession startled her. She’d been under the impression since they were kids that nothing scared Jase. She let out a breath and sat down on the footman’s step of the carriage.
“I am scared, Jase. I’m scared of so much more than making this carriage work. I’m scared of the ramifications of using people’s souls to further this. I’m scared of thinking about what succeeding would mean for the world. I can barely even remember it as it was when we were young. I feel like things have gotten so much less simple because of that storm.”
He put a hand on her back and massaged a slow circle, something she had always done for him since he’d taken to long drunken nights with others of the Stormlings. He told her it was to unwind from being stuck in the church all day, but she had a feeling it was to drink away the souls. He was beautiful when he pulled a soul from the ground, but she would watch his face contort as they captured it into the tiny glass jars or directly into a gemstone or crystal shard.
“We can’t think about that, Mia. It’s not for us to decide. I, for one, am grateful for the storm. I would have lost you otherwise.”
Her eyebrow raised and her heart pounded so hard in her chest she feared it would jump out and slap her on the face for daring to think his words might hold a hint of romance. His hand reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind her ears. She never wore it down while they worked—an accident setting it smoking once had been warning enough. As always, strands had fallen down while they’d toiled on creating the carriage and not just her powers part. His hands left a trail of sparks down her face where his knuckles brushed.
Mia pulled back, breaking the contact, but unable to tear her gaze from his. She looked at him as she always did, but she saw the same emotion mirrored in the depths of his eyes for once.