“When do we get our benders?” Quinn asked. “I can’t wait to be invisible.”
“All in good time, Mr. Quinn, all in good time. But first, we need to get you downstairs for some training.”
“Stairs?” Logan asked. “We have to go down some stairs to get to your Isle?”
“Nine hundred years ago, maybe,” Glute said, as he materialized in front of us. “But not anymore. It’s just a figure of speech, Logan. We have an aquavator now, so we can sit in comfort as we travel up and down. But first we need some freshly-picked blueberries. Any volunteers?”
I ignored his request for berries and asked a question. “What’s an aquavator?”
“After we have picked our berries,” Glute insisted, “I will explain.”
“Sounds like a water-elevator,” Quinn observed.
Glute smiled and pointed at Quinn. “You are correct, sir, and I will tell you everything you want to know. But first, BERRIES!”
“Aren’t there berries on your Isle?” I asked, as we all headed toward the berry bushes.
“Oh yes,” Glute said, “We have all kinds of berries. But they aren’t the same as your blueberries, and a handful will cost you twelve Lamnas. On the surface, they’re free!”
“What’s a Lamna?” Logan asked.
“Okay. Okay.” Glute stopped in his tracks and looked upset. He was more interested in berries than anything else at the moment. “Let’s focus, people, focus!” He said, as he clapped his hands together. “Repeat after me- BERRIES, BERRIES, BERRIES!”
“BERRIES, BERRIES, BERRIES!” We all repeated, as we laughed and marched to the berry bushes together. There were four of us picking. Three of us were picking and saving, Glute was picking and popping them into his mouth! We filled a backpack in no time.
“Time to move, people!” Glute instructed, as he marched away. We headed out across the clearing, not exactly sure where we were going, but we were all anxious to see Glute’s home.
As we neared the far side of the clearing, I noticed a small hill next to a huge oak tree. A dark area appeared on one side of the tree when Glute approached. He walked directly into the dark spot. We followed, but had to bend over to fit inside. After a few steps down, we found ourselves in a small, circular room with a low ceiling.
“Have a seat, team, have a seat.” As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we could see the outline of a low bench that lined the inside of the entire room. After we were seated, the door disappeared and the bench slid together, and went continuously around the room. A soft, warm glow filled the compartment. The light did not come from one particular spot, and it seemed like the entire ceiling was glowing. The small room was amazing! The bench we were sitting on was definitely built for people Glute’s size. It was made of some kind of shiny red material, and felt warm to the touch. The room’s walls looked like a dark wood, with intricate, detailed carvings on the wall, all the way around. The carvings depicted what looked like people gardening, eating, talking- generally doing everyday tasks. Everything we could see looked new, but was intricately detailed, and lovingly crafted.
“This is amazing, Glute,” Quinn said, as he looked around. “What do these carvings mean?”
“First things first, my roundy-eared friends,” Glute instructed. “Please sit all the way back in your seats, so the keepers will fit properly.”
“Keepers?” Logan asked. “What’s a...”
Just then, the floor, which was also made out of the same shiny red material we were sitting on, started moving. The center section raised up above our knees, and expanded out until we were all sitting at a round table, with thick, soft edges. The edges settled down across our laps, like a safety bar on an amusement park ride.
“Is this going to be a bumpy ride?” I asked.
“Most of the time, it’s very smooth, Trinity,” Glute answered. “The restraints are J-I-C, or just in case.”
We could feel the room moving downward, but there was no motor noise, or any other noise for that matter.
“So tell us about these carvings,” Quinn asked. “What do they mean?”
“Oh, they’re just pictures, really,” Glute said, as he helped himself to some berries. “Piffures uf us doowin stuff.” Glute paused to swallow. “The People from the Isle of Acer do our decorating. Most of our artists live on Acer.”
“Tell us about the aquavator, Glute,” Quinn asked. “It looks really high-tech, but it also looks really old.”
“Yes and yes,” Glute answered. “Very old and very high-tech. The aquavators were built hundreds of years ago. Each Isle has several that go to the surface, and hundreds that go from one Isle to the others. They are really quite simple. They are a series of tubes, made from a sand, salt and metal oxide mix, heated to 5,460 Calor, or 3,800 degrees on your Fahrenheit scale. These tubes are filled and emptied with water, through a simple valve system, all controlled by what you Ex-Isles call computers.”
“So we are in a capsule, being pushed around in a pipe by water?” Logan asked.
“You got it!” Glute said, reaching for the backpack and another handful of berries.
“And since the tubes are a hundred times stronger than the rock and soil around them, earthquakes and ground movement does not affect them at all,” Quinn concluded.
“Righty-Oh, my little Einstein!” Glute said, as he swallowed small groups of berries, one after another.
“You must know what’s happening on the surface,” I suggested, “since you know about our calendar, and you know who Einstein is.”
“Yes, I knew Einstein,” Glute said. “We used to take tea together when he was working in the patent office... in Bern, I believe it was. Bern, Switzerland.”
“You knew Einstein?” Quinn asked. “Why were you in Bern? What was he like?”
“I used to help work on the clock in Bern when I lived on Dico. And Albert was the most curious Ex-Isle I have ever met,” Glute said. “He asked a thousand questions an hour, just like you. He never stopped wondering about stuff. And he questioned everything.”
“So you taught him about physics and relativity and made him famous?” I asked.
“Absolutely not!” Glute answered. “We are not allowed to reveal secrets like that. Besides, he promised never to tell.”
“Oh, I see,” Quinn winked at me. “You would never tell an Ex-Isle a secret.”
“That’s right,” Glute said. “Now be ready, we are about to change direction. The inertia dampeners should compensate, but you still might feel a slight bump.”
We all noticed a change in direction, but nothing drastic.
“So where are we, exactly?” Logan asked.
“You, Logan sir, are over three miles underground,” Glute said proudly. “Deeper than any Ex-Isle has ever been.”
Chapter Nine- The Isle of Cogito
The aquavator stopped. Our cushiony table returned into the floor, and we left our little capsule, following Glute into what looked like some kind of holding chamber. After a minute or so, the outer doors opened. None of us were prepared for what we were about to experience. As the outer door cracked open, a flowery, sweet smell entered our chamber. The air seemed to be easier to breathe.
“Wow,” Quinn said. “Everything smells fantastic here!”
“And sounds better, too,” Logan said. “My ears popped when the door opened. And my stuffy nose just cleared up.”
We ducked through the short doorway and followed Glute through some kind of wide hallway or tunnel. It was well lit, but the light was not coming from any visible source. The floor was perfectly white and smooth, as were the walls. Fortunately, the ceiling was much higher than in the aquavator. There were a dozen or so people standing nearby, watching us as we passed. One or two were dressed similarly to Glute, but the majority of them were in some kind of uniform. The uniforms were black, with matching shirts and pants, and a hard, shell-like black vest over the top. We also noticed a few spots of shimmering air. I assumed they were people with running benders.
>
“Don’t worry,” Glute said to us. “These guys are Terra Troops. They are our security against the upper world. They have never seen an Ex-Isle in their territory before, so they might be a little jumpy.”
We passed several intersecting hallways with directional arrow signs, but the signs were written in an unreadable language. At the end of the hallway were double doors. These were as tall as the hallway, probably ten feet in height.
Glute paused at the doors, probably for dramatic effect. “Ex-Isles, welcome to Cogito, the Isle of the Acree Smarties.” With that, the double doors opened on their own.
Wow!
We walked through the doors of an ultra-modern hallway, and out into what looked like a bustling, 14th century village! The streets were smooth, rather than cobblestone, but the buildings were right out of a picture book. They were close together, with sharp-peaked roofs and overlapping shingles. Everything was neat, clean, and crafted together like a work of art.
“This is one of the smaller aquavator villages,” Glute said. “There is a village like this at the entrance of each aquavator station. They serve as welcome centers and a shopping stops for aquavator travelers. Aquavators from Cogito travel to Acer and Humus, plus the small aquavator to the surface that we used.”
“This is such a cool little village!” I said, spinning around to look at all the sights. “I love it!”
There were flowers everywhere! They decorated the edges of the pathways, and almost every house window had a flowerbox directly below it, full of the most amazing, colorful flowers I had ever seen! All of the colors were brighter here. Comparing our world’s colors to theirs was like comparing an old photograph to High-Definition TV. Everything seemed alive and moving.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Glute promised. “Pass that backpack up this way, will you?” I held it open to Glute, who immediately reached in and pulled out some berries.
“The lakefront is only two blocks away,” Glute said, popping a few berries in his mouth. “You can see more from there.”
I was still in amazement. The sky was blue, just like it was on the surface. And clouds! And the sun! This is impossible, I thought. I could feel it’s warmth on my face. How can there be a sun underground?
Glute seemed to be reading my mind. “Our scientists have simulated the sun, the moons, and even the stars, over each of the Isles,” Glute explained. “All except Ferus, which is uninhabited and wild, and lit only by starlight. And both moons are here, too- just like it was before the great upheaval.”
We were approaching the lake. It was more like an ocean, except Glute said it was fresh water, like the great lakes that surrounded Michigan. It was so big, you could not see the other side.
“Each of the Isles is in what you would think of as a huge cavern,” Glute explained. “Our ceiling is over a mile high, and hundreds of miles across. We have an unlimited supply of fresh water, contained in the underground rocks and these lakes. Our farmland is fertile and plentiful, especially on Humus, where most of our food is grown. The animal species survived with the people during the upheaval, all but the snakes. None of the Isles have snakes, not even the lost Isle of Ira.”
All we could do was wander along behind Glute, and look around in all directions.
“We are in a new world,” I said to the others. “Isn’t it amazing?”
“Actually,” Glute pointed out, “This is the old world. You Ex-Isles are in the new world, so-to-speak.”
We continued along the waterfront until we arrived at a huge, wooden building. It was bigger than any I had ever seen! It had to be the size of several football fields, all under one roof.
“This is our training center, former Ex-Isles,” Glute announced. “This is where the fun begins!”
We entered the stadium, not knowing what to expect. We were met by several Terra Troops, who seemed to be waiting for us.
“Ah, my friends!” Glute said, as he approached the troops with our backpack, now only half-full of fresh blueberries.
“So, Glute,” One of the troopers said, “You actually saved us a few berries today? Or will you be requiring a medic to cure your stomach pain again?”
“Okay, heh, heh... alright,” Glute said, slightly embarrassed. “Captain Dux, these are our surface recruits. It is up to us to prepare them for mission success.”
“You know how I feel about this, Glute,” an obviously annoyed Captain Dux replied. “Our youngest troopers could have handled this problem, without exposing ourselves to Ex-Isles, and without lending out our technology. But I know how to follow orders, especially orders from the council. They will be prepared.”
“You’re staying with us, right Glute?” I asked. This Captain Dux didn’t sound or look too friendly, even though he was less than three feet tall.
“Of course I’ll be here, Trinity, of course. It’s been about 200 years since I did my surface training. A little refresher might be a good idea.”
“A great idea, actually,” one of the other troopers said, rubbing his hands together. “We can work off some of that surface food tummy you have there.”
Logan looked worried, and so did Quinn. “Don’t worry, surface team,” Glute assured us. “They’re just kidding around. All you need to learn is how to handle our equipment. After we do some basic re-programming, that should be easy, since our hardware is thought-controlled.”
We were ushered from the large field in the center of the building, to a side room, which contained racks and racks of expensive looking electronics.
“We need a brain scan from each of you, and then it will only take a few minutes to program the hardware,” Glute explained. “We are outfitting you with a bender, a sender, a defender and an offender.”
“A what? And a what?” We all asked together.
“A bender, to make you invisible. A sender, which is a communications device. A defender, which is a weapon. And the offender, which is the device you need to plant at Jackson-Boswell,” Glute explained. “Their drilling device is called the Terra-Bite. It literally ‘bites’ into the earth when it drills. Normally, drilling is done by using pipe extensions, and then adding sections as you go down. When you drill this deep, pipe sections are not practical, because they twist and break. This new unit uses pressurized water, pumped to the drill through the well bore, to power the drill rotation. An additional line carries epoxy to the Terra-Bite device to line the bore wall and keeps the hole from collapsing. This new device can drill down and turn wherever they want it to go, using a GPS guidance system.”
“So what’s the plan, Glute?” I asked. “What do you want us to do?”
“The plan is really quite simple,” Glute said. “The offender needs to be planted in the epoxy mix at the drill site. You just have to throw it in. It will speed up the hardening process. The Terra-Bite will be buried, sealed, and rendered useless by its own epoxy! Your senders will transmit all the necessary information and locations you will need as you go. Your benders will make you invisible, and your defenders will be set for ‘stun’, in case you run into trouble.”
“So why is this something you couldn’t do?” I asked Glute. “Everything you described could have been done by one of your people.”
“Not really,” Glute explained. “If one of us were to enter the drilling site without permission, it would be a suicide mission. We are prohibited from causing mischief on the surface by an ancient treaty. A treaty that was forged when the Ex-Isles were locked out of our world. Even though the drilling company is breaking the treaty by drilling into our world, they are doing it without knowledge of breaking the treaty. We, on the other hand, would be willfully breaking the treaty by sabotaging their drilling process. Enlisting other Ex-Isles to stop the drilling was the only way to save our world.”
“So what would have happened?” I asked Glute. “Is there some enforcement police or something that watches over the treaty agreement?”
Yeah,” Logan said. “How would anyone know?”
“
We would know,” Glute explained. “And our bodies would automatically turn to Ex-Isle age if we were on the surface and violated the treaty. I would become 300 in Ex-Isle years if I went on the mission. I would turn to dust.”
Chapter Ten- The Training
The next day was reserved for practicing with our new equipment in the woods, and the day after that was going to be mission day. The drilling had already begun, but Glute had estimated it would take several days for them to reach Cogito Isle. We all woke up early and assembled in the clubhouse with our equipment.
Logan was putting on his bender. It looked like an ordinary belt, but it was too wide to fit through the loops on his pants. “How do you ‘think invisible’ again, Trin?” Logan asked as we were getting ready. “I forgot.”
Super Kids! The Forgotten World Page 3