A majestic sight, and for Timothy’s purposes, somewhat distracting, as he felt his guard’s grip on his arm lessen ever so slightly. As the light brightened, Timothy gave a glance to Ata, showing the rock he’d tucked into the palm of his hand. And Ata was immediately aware of what Timothy wanted, and he gave a nod in return to show he was ready: Reaching into his back pocket and discreetly twisting open his mechanical sphere, so it would be primed and ready.
This was it. It might be his last chance to stop them, Timothy thought (And why his grandmother would chose to freely assist such criminals was beyond his understanding).
Timothy clenched the rock tightly in his fist, but before he could strike, he let his eyes scan the group to see if he’d been noticed. And he saw Barbara at the opposite side of the globe, with her inhospitable guard holding her arm in a tense grip. All of a sudden their eyes met each other’s, and she saw in his expression a look that she had only seen one other time (when they were both atop the walls of Ismere during the Giant War, and Timothy was leaving to face against Darius. It was a desperate look that would say, ���I may not return, but I should like to be brave in spite of it.���).
And Barbara knew instantly that Timothy was about to try something foolhardy, although she could not know what, exactly. She shook her head quietly, from side to side, as if to say, ���Please, no.���
But Timothy had it in his mind that this was his duty, he could not stop. There was no way he could let them have access to the globe, and to all the Worlds of men.
���Sorry,��� he mouthed across the room, as the globe was fully brightened.
And with the speed of a true knight, Timothy held the rock up, and bore down upon the meaty backside of his guard’s unsuspecting hand.
Whack!
The sound of stone against skin, and the fracturing of the small bones above the wrist, echoed off the cavern walls. His guard bellowed out in agony, too hurt to fight back, so that Timothy easily broke from his reaches, and flung his rock through the air. A decent throw but not exactly on the mark, it nicked against the edge of Ata’s forearm bracelet that sat upon the stoney cave ledge. The band spun around several times in a circle before teetering off the stone shelf.
Though, Timothy did not stay to see it drop, he was in dire danger, and the other guards still had their guns. He was off in a flash, sprinting across the smooth water-formed stone of the globe lit cavern, so that he was many strides away from the group by the time the order came, like a flame of anger from the man in gray’s gaping mouth.
���Fire!��� he screamed at his befuddled henchmen. ���What are you waiting for?��� And he lifted up his own handgun to be the first to aim at the boy.
Flashes of blasting, horrible light and sound shot from their guns. It followed up the steps behind Timothy.
Only a few more paces: One, Two -
He dove feet first on a portion of slick stone and dirt, where his own forearm bands had been stowed, grabbing them as he twisted, and purposefully now slid on his back across the cave floor: The bullets only a footstep’s length behind him. He’d twisted to face his attackers, holding the armbands together in an ���X��� shape over his face, a shield of thick glowing electrified blue instantly appearing in front of him.
A shot from the guards ricocheted off his force field shield, bouncing back toward the ceiling. Timothy’s breath shook within him, only a half-second sooner and that bullet would have struck him, he’d have been horrendously wounded, too close a call to be handled lightly. Timothy’s eyes were wide and animal-like, but at least he’d had his shield back.
Though he would certainly have been hit much sooner than that by Ata’s guard, who was the sharpest shot of them all, if he had not had the foresight to throw the rock. The rock that had grazed the edge of Ata’s armband, causing it to topple off the cave ledge, and to fall in the exact right spot, directly onto Ata’s other armband that lay upon the floor. In the instant the bands touched, they were immediately shot flying through the air across the room to be reunited with the electromagnetic ball.
The metal bands flew through the air, like tiny golden battering rams. Seeing this, Ata held his mechanical sphere up behind his guard’s back, as the bands rammed at a full speed into that unsuspecting henchmen’s gut, the blinding force of it knocking him from his feet; Only a split-second before he was to pull the trigger, and this is why Timothy was still alive.
And like a bird who’d had his feathers back, Ata threw his ball towards the high cave ceiling, and faster than you can imagine, his armbands were clipped on, even before his ball hit its peak. And he was up in the air, weaving and cleverly evading the burst of gunfire from the remaining guards. He ducked in the air and dodged, making it to the other end of the room, where their bullets deflected against Timothy’s translucent force-shield.
They were still being fired upon, and the shield surged electric sparks of energy each time it was hit; Though they only felt a measured amount of the bullets force, and not the bullets themselves.
���That could have gone worse,��� Timothy yelled to Ata, who was crouched behind him.
���It’s not over yet,��� Ata replied. And he continued, saying, ���I think I have a plan. Keep our shields up.���
And he threw his electromagnetic ball across the cavern, over the head of one of the remaining guards, Barbara’s guard. Ata wrapped his arms around Timothy’s torso from behind, like you would do if you were trying to lift someone off the ground.
���Wait, you think you have a plan? Is that supposed to be comforting?��� Timothy said loudly, as their shield sparked, taking the blast of another bullet.
���Hold on!��� Ata yelled in return, clicking his metal bands together, and the two rocketed through the air, being pulled violently across the room and using Timothy’s shield as a ram.
They blasted Barbara’s guard from his feet.
Next was Mrs. Wolcott’s guard as he fumbled with his ammo clip, trying to reload his gun.
And done faster than could be properly reacted to, and more quickly than they could make a plan against, the duo picked off each remaining guard using their shield to barrel them off their feet.
Leaving the only villain who’d remained standing, the man in gray, with a drawn pistol, wedged into Professor Asim’s back.
���You try it, boy, and he dies,��� the man in gray said to Ata, who looked like he might try to throw his ball again.
And as they stood there trying to work out the remainder of their plan, all those very badly bruised and infuriated guards began to pick themselves off the floor, quickly gathering their weapons. One of them near to her tried to snatch at Barbara, to hold her as a hostage as well, but she pulled free, ducking behind Timothy’s now overcrowded shield.
However, at the time, both boys had been backed up against the globe, because they’d had only a forward shield which was capable enough to withstand bullets, so they’d used the globe as a decent enough shield for their backs. Which left however, little room for Barbara to squeeze into, so that she could not fit herself behind Timothy’s force-shield properly or completely, without being pushed too close to the ready and charged globe. So that the tiniest strands of her straight blonde hair, skimmed across its ancient surface.
Without warning, light burst upward from the globe, and immediately Barbara knew she’d been clumsy.
���Sorry,��� she said to Timothy, knowing what she had done.
Though Timothy did not have time to answer her, because the man in gray began to speak, raising his voice in the sudden raucousness of the room; Seeing the globe had been activated he spoke haughtily, and like he were surprised that they would try to get away. ���You can’t run from me. Nowhere on Earth is safe from us,��� he said, with a deadly venom.
���Then I guess we should better get a head start,��� Timothy called out from behind his shield, for he’d had an idea.
&n
bsp; ���Quick, everyone grab the globe,��� he said, speaking over his shoulder to Barbara and Ata, and loudly, to get above the noise of the room. They did as he said, both holding tightly to the globe, and Barbara, because she knew a good deal about light travel by then, grabbed onto Timothy’s ankle as well, so that they would all be connected.
���If you leave, I’ll kill him,��� the man in gray shouted as he twisted his gun more aggressively into the Professor’s back.
The fiendish nature of the man in gray was almost palpable, and Ata saw his father’s eyes, noticing how they may have been the most frightened he’d ever seen.
���I have to stay,��� Ata yelled to Timothy, nearly pulling his grip from the wooden rim that spanned the center of the globe.
���If you stay, you’ll both die,��� Timothy said, turning to look at his friend, and seeing Ata’s eyes also frightened.
But it was too late, the light of the orb had solidified around them, and the three light travelers and their globe were being pulled off the floor.
The man in gray shouted, firing his handgun at their orb of solid light, but his bullets dissolved like dust against it, and none of the sounds of the shots were heard inside of it.
And within the dense quietness, as they were raising into the air to leave Gleomu behind them, it was then that Barbara noticed something terribly strange about their stolen globe, and the vignettes in the glowing cave painting upon the wall.
Within the painting, all the images of that new world were purely blue: from a cold arctic ocean blue to a transparent tropical blue. But all of them, images of a planet that in a vast part was made up entirely of unforgiving water.
And all the surface of their globe, from what they saw, had taken the appearance of a completely watery planet.
It was something that both Barbara and Timothy noticed most of all.
���I don’t think this is Earth,��� Barbara said softly, looking deeply at Timothy who could most sympathize with her fright.
And at once they blasted through the cave painting, as if they could break the barriers of sound, traveling out of Gleomu, even further away from the safety of our Earth, to what danger they could not be sure of, except for this one obvious certainty, it would be wet.
Chapter Eighteen
Into the Sea
Unfortunately for them, the distance from Gleomu to this new planet was minimal compared to the distance between our Earth and Gleomu; Which is a roundabout way of saying, that they had little time to prepare themselves for a crash landing on this unknown water planet.
They spoke over each other in a panic, all agreeing that they could not both swim and hold the globe at the same time, but fully agreeing on nothing else, as they came through a misty atmosphere, through billows of clouds that blocked most of their clear view of that world.
And as they were nearly fallen into the dark blue waves, Timothy and Ata were arguing about whether or not Timothy could use his force-shield as a rudimentary boat for them. (And they were arguing specifically about whether or not the electricity of the shield wouldn’t also electrocute them all, or if whether like Timothy argued, that they would be kept safe from it.)
In the end, they decided not to take the chance (for it’s those sorts of theories that you only get to test once), and they fell with a heavy splash into the open unfamiliar ocean, both Timothy and Ata, Barbara and their globe, dropped from high above into the waves. The water was warm, as oceans go, but they knew they could not stay afloat forever.
And the globe, which was not hollow but filled with all sorts of mechanics, instantly began to sink like a rock would fall to the bottom of a pond, and they were left alone on the surface.
For as far as they could see in any direction, there was no land, nothing to swim toward, so that the most that they could do was to kick off their shoes and try their best to tread water.
���I’m going for help,��� Ata said, holding his magnetic ball above his head to drain the water from it.
Though Barbara was irritated, and mad at herself for putting them all in such a mess, so that she was not entirely pleasant.
���Help from whom?��� she asked. ���The fish people?���
It was not the best way for Ata and Barbara to make their acquaintance (these being the first words they’d ever spoken to each other), and he was immediately frustrated by her, and gave her an awful glare.
Although, Timothy tried to make some peace, looking at Barbara as he said, ���Who knows… we couldn’t see that far through the clouds, maybe he’ll find something.���
By his voice, he wanted to sound convinced that they might find something. However, in a way that Ata could not tell, Barbara knew he was only being blindly hopeful, not as convinced as he made it sound. And when they looked at each other, their glances said without words that she was not being so overly pessimistic to think they had little chance of being rescued.
���I’ll be back soon. Keep your heads up,��� Ata said, before hurling his ball into the sky above and exploding from the water with a blast of sea spray and droplets.
In a matter of seconds, he was high in the air, too high to be seen, lost in the sea mist and cloud cover above them.
And when he was gone, there was nothing to distract them from how tired they’d felt. For even in this relatively short amount of time, their muscles were growing sore from making circles with their feet and hands, trying to keep their heads above the waves.
And it was dreadfully quiet, just the sound that water makes as it splashes against you: no sea birds, or the noise of crashing waves, like you would find at a beach. (It is a thing that is hard to imagine, unless you have swum in the open ocean, and have felt the depth and the absence of land beneath you. There is an uneasiness to it, an unnaturalness, like anything could be hiding in the quiet seabeds below you, and you would never know it by the peaceful silence of the surface.)
Further, it was that level of silence that betrayed Barbara’s shaking voice, and fragile emotions, as she tried to think of things worth saying (for she had just before then realized the notion, that even though she’d disliked her parents, she hadn’t wished to never see them again, and that made her nearly tear at the thought, though she was good at keeping things like crying locked away, so that even here she didn’t cry. Instead, she tried to lighten their mood and make the best use of what time they may have left, and so she tried to think of things worth saying.)
���I counted down the days till we could come back,��� she said, willing herself to smile.
���Really?��� Timothy asked, though not surprised, remembering how centrally Barbara had wanted to be back in Gleomu, ever since they’d first returned to Earth a year before.
���Yeah,��� she said, using her strength to wipe droplets of salty water from the side of her face. ���I even kept a calendar in my room. I’d stare at it at night,��� she continued, ���and mark a big ‘X’ over each day as it passed.���
Timothy smiled at her. ���If you only knew,��� he said.
���Yeah… I’d have brought my swimsuit,��� she replied. And they both let out huge laughs, but Barbara had to stop laughing when she took in a bit of seawater, for her mouth was not so high above the waves as it had once been.
And Timothy could do little but ask if she was alright, until she stopped choking on the bitter salty water. However by then, the tips of their earlobes were touching the surface of the sea, and they had to tilt their heads up to keep above water.
���It’s not your fault, you know,��� Timothy said, after a long pause.
Though Barbara looked at him as if she had no idea what he’d meant.
So he elaborated, pushing to get his mouth high enough above the waves, so that he could speak in full sentences, saying, ���It’s not your fault, you touching the globe. They would have killed us if you hadn’t… this jus
t gives us a better way to die, than if they were to do it.���
Barbara glanced at him, waves lapping by her eyes. ���I’d rather not die, either way, if I could help it.���
���Yes, but if we had to,��� Timothy replied, his head sunk down now, closer to the water.
She smiled a sad smile at him. ���Yes, if we had to,��� she said.
Chapter Nineteen
A Rescue
I do realize that if this should be treated as a bedtime story, then you may have had an awful time sleeping last night, and if that is the case, then I do hope you will forgive me for ending our previous chapter so abruptly.
But be encouraged, this is not a story in which our heroes were died and drowned in the ocean. (Not that that couldn’t happen, but it is not what did happen, and as this is a history of events, I shall try to keep it as true to life as possible.)
And so, without further fanfare, whether by chance or by miracle, this is what had happened next:
Yet, first you must remember that the billowing cloud layer above them, and that thick sea mist, limited their visibility considerably. Which had a dual effect: that they could not see at all where Ata had gone to after he flew off into the sky, and also he [Ata] could not easily find them again. Because on the sea of course, there are no natural landmarks, that being the nature of open ocean, and on it no way to distinguish one plot of salty waves from the other.
So that, in the end, all that had appeared to save them was Ata’s above average sense of direction.
From out of the white clouded sky, nearly crashing onto their weary heads with torrential splashes, fell a pair of balloon-like objects that floated on the crests of the waves. These objects being ship’s buoys�� (which in a pinch, like this was, could be used as a rudimentary life float).
���There you are,��� Ata yelled, appearing in the sky above them. ���Did you miss me?���
Though they did not answer him directly, with all the strength they had Barbara and Timothy paddled to the buoys before the current could carry them away from their reach. With wearied legs and arms they pulled themselves up, so that their stomachs rested on the floats, and they wrapped their limbs around them tightly, indescribably grateful to have something that should keep them from sinking.
The Histories of Earth, Books 1-4: In the Window Room, A Prince of Earth, All the Worlds of Men, and Worlds Unending Page 31