by Leon Castle
He approaches tentatively and slowly lifts the lid. ‘What’s in here?’
‘Come on Dave!’ Maxxy urges ‘just open it.’
Inside the blue velvet lined box it glows gold.
Dave stared, ‘Wow it’s solid gold no wonder it’s so heavy!’
Maxxy clamors to get a closer look. ‘Can we hold it, Granddad?
‘You and Dave each get to hold the slab, it will eventually belong to you both.’ I reply.
Maxxy stares wide eyed. ‘It belongs to us?’
‘Sort of, I’ll explain it all soon enough,’ I promise.
‘You hold it first, Maxxy,’ whispers Dave quietly. He seems almost afraid to touch it.
‘No, that privilege is yours, Dave. Take it.’ I instruct.
‘That’s not fair, Grandad!’ protests Maxxy. ‘Dave always gets to do everything first.’
Reluctantly, Dave reaches in and with both hands lifts out the golden slab, its size and thickness is about the same as an A4 ream of paper, it weighs 34 kilograms, Dave sits down resting it gently on his lap.
‘Hey, the slab has writing on it.’ Dave reads aloud the lettering on the top of the slab:
‘the Croc’s Prophecy.’
‘What is this?’ asks Maxxy.
‘Read the rest, and your dad and I will tell you all about it.’
‘Dave looks at his Dad. ‘So you knew about this?’
‘I told you something was going on,’ says Maxxy with smug satisfaction.
A stiff breeze stirs the coals in the fire, a small tongue of flame licks at the tinder dry twigs just thrown in. In the silent desert night, four faces glow golden in the darkness, as the fire takes hold, throwing shifting shadows through the camp.
Dave, with his head bent over, reads the finely inscribed lettering on the slab.
When Dave finishes reading he looks at me, questions written all over his face.
‘So what is this all about?’ Dave asks.
‘Give it to Maxxy to hold for a while and I’ll explain.’
Dave places the slab on his brother’s lap. ‘Feel the lettering,’ he instructs his younger brother.
Maxxy strokes the lettering, murmuring: ‘It is beautiful.’ After a short time he hands it back to me, and I put it back into the box which is still in the briefcase, relocking the case I carry it to the 4x4 to put back into the small car safe. The auto lock mechanism whirls and clunks as it activates the lock.
‘Granddad, it’s just us out here,’ says Dave, ‘why do you have to lock it away?’
‘He probably thinks Skippy is going to take off with it in her pouch!’ Maxxy giggles.
‘That was not funny, Maxxy, plus it is disrespectful to your grandfather!’ scolds Alex.
‘Maxxy stops laughing. ‘I’m sorry, I was just joking around,’ embarrassment in his voice.
‘All jokes aside, this is serious. ‘The Croc’s Prophecy’ describes a discovery 250 years before it happens, this prophecy is written by the very First Croc.’
‘So what is the discovery?’ Dave inquires.
‘staronium.’ I answer.
‘So who named it?’ asks Maxxy.
‘I did.’ I answer again.
‘Then you must be the First Croc!’ both boys chime in together.
‘That’s correct. Your dad is the second and Dave you will be the third.’
‘Blast! I miss out again!’ whines Maxxy.
A tear of pain forms in my eye as I glance at Dave, recalling the future loss of my grandson with his lovely young wife. My great grandson survives the crash and is raised by his uncle Maxxy, who then becomes third Croc in his brother’s place.
‘No you don’t, son, you will have a major part to play in all of this,’ as I discreetly wipe away the tear.
‘Let Granddad tell you the story, and you’ll find out how it all happens.’
Dave stands up. ‘Sorry Grandfather, I have to go see a man about a dog first.’
‘That’s OK Dave, it’s waited this long, another five minutes won’t hurt.’
Maxxy looked at me thoughtfully as Dave walks a short distance from the camp to relieve himself.
‘Granddad, if the Croc’s Prophecy is telling us about the future, and it has been handed down for generations of our family, then how come it’s only us so far? And how come you know about staronium being found 250 years from now?’
I know Maxxy won’t be satisfied with half the puzzle.
I sighed. ‘You tell him son.’
‘Your Grandfather has a friend who is an ELF.’
‘Bullshit! How can my granddad have an ELF as a friend? You got a fairy friend too, granddad?’ smirking nervously after a long pause.
‘Maxxy, don’t be scared.’ I reassure him. ‘You know how sometimes you wish you could know the future. Well I do, my friend Mozaz is an energy life form, or ELF, not the same as you see in fairy tales. He has the ability to travel back and forth through time and space and he showed me the things that would happen in the future. He put the briefcase in the car safe, then when we finished with it, returned it back to the vault in the asteroid city of Sky Jewel in the future. He did this to let you see that I’m telling you the truth.
Maxxy turns very pale and starts to tremble. Returning to the camp, Dave notices his little brother, concern in his voice.
‘Are you OK mate?’
‘Did you just hear Granddad?’ asks Maxxy, his voice still trembling.
‘Everything.’ He looked at me and the questions tumble out.
‘So it’s true you know about the future? Why? How?’ panic starting to rise in his voice.
‘Take it easy boys!’ I implore ‘The purpose of this trip is to tell you how our future unfolds and to find the gold for the slab.’
Slowly, a stunned Dave opens his hand to reveal a nugget, the dull yellow color flickering in the firelight.
‘I found this in the creek bed,’ he barely whispers.
I take it from his outstretched hand, turning it over, recognizing it as the 60oz nugget I had planted earlier. I then return it to him.
‘Good one Dave, it’s all working out just fine.’
‘What about the slab, Granddad?’ Maxxy asks recovering a little from his earlier shock.
‘Mozaz has already taken it back. Check the safe, the combination is 3978.’
Dave and Maxxy race over to the 4x4 and unlock the safe. They open the door to see the safe is completely empty: no case, absolutely nothing!
Coming back over to their chairs, Dave and Maxxy just sit and stare at me, too stunned to speak. Alex leaned back in his chair getting comfortable, he just smiles at me.
It’s time for the revelation, time for the boys to grow up and take their place in history.
Now that I have their attention, I gaze into the flickering flames and begin to explain what had happened so long ago…in the future!
‘You see lads, I meet Mozaz a long time ago when we camped up on the tablelands one winter when your dad and your aunty were still very young. After Mozaz woke me in the wee hours, we sat on the escarpment cliff edge talking long into the night. During our discussion he stood up beside me, his head level with my shoulder, and laying his hand on my shoulder he said:
“‘Close your eyes.’”
‘I did as instructed.
““Now open them.’” he said.
‘I nearly died of shock! There…rapidly disappearing far below me was…me, sitting on the edge of the cliff and the camp with everyone else asleep!
“I have converted you to an energy lifeform,” said the tiny speck of light blasting skywards alongside me.
“I will take you to see each generation of your son’s future, up until you are reanimated.”
‘As we streaked skywards we blasted out of our atmosphere into outer space, Thera now shrunk behind us. Rapidly our speed increases until in a blinding flash we arrive in your future!’ I continue.
‘So…let me tell you what Mozaz showed to me.’
Chapter 2
6
‘I’ll begin with a brief future history.’
‘First, the Croc’s Prophecy is written during the next world war, because we refuse to be involved in the war. Many people are attracted to our kingdom and become citizens of it. The technology that is developed makes this kingdom very wealthy and powerful. It’s during this time that our attention turns skywards again, specifically, to the asteroid belt. Available minerals are starting to run out here so there is a real need to find more. Now you will need to build a ship to get you out there and back, a big one. The ship you will build is huge, it’s 25 kilometers long, 10 kilometers wide, and 1 kilometer deep.’
‘Grandfather, will this ship be powered by nuclear power plants?’ inquires Dave.
‘Yes, son, it is, but not the type that you are thinking of. You will be using the Boddington Reactor.’
‘How is the Boddington reactor different to normal nuclear reactors, Grandfather?’
‘To answer your question Dave, I’ll tell you about a vital discovery that makes the Boddington reactor possible. It all starts 16 years from now.’
‘A small team of geologists are looking for uranium, 3 or 400 kilometers north of here. They search for a full two months, finding some small iron and nickel deposits but no uranium. Then halfway through the third month they strike pay dirt, they find a sizable uranium deposit. Dressed in their radiation suits they start to gather some samples. Out on the edge of the deposit one of the geo’s called Skoota notices a white flash, then another. They look very much like miniature lightning bolts running across the ground!
“Come and check this out!” Skoota excitedly calls to his mates. Of course they all run over to check out this unusual phenomenon.
“I’ll take some samples back to the lab,” grins Skoota, organizing a suitable storage unit and extraction tool.
‘After studying and analyzing the sample, they make an extraordinary discovery. The sample is full of little microbes that are absorbing the radiation from the uranium and excreting a gel that forms and hardens into pure uranium! And it is the chemical reaction of this happening that produces the white flashes.’
‘What are the white flashes for Granddad, what are they?’ asks Maxxy.
‘Obviously electricity you dummy!’ smirks Dave at his younger brother.
‘You’re nearly right Dave.’ I reply. Maxxy sticks out his tongue at Dave.
‘The electrical power the microbes produce is pure electrical energy.’
‘So how is that different from normal electricity Grandfather, it’s all the same isn’t it?’ inquires a not so smug Dave.
‘Not quite Dave, as you know raw electricity leaves its power source blasting along with electrons flying off in all directions. So by the time it reaches your home it’s lost more than 25% of its original power. With pure energy, however, the electrons conduit, spinning around each other meaning no loss of power, so we are able to use much thinner cables that are able to carry massive volumes of power. Imagine using a cable as thick as your dad’s arm to run raw power, then using a cable as thick as Maxxy’s drinking straw for the same amount of pure energy.’
‘Far out Granddad! That’s awesome! So we could get rid of all the ugly big power lines and have smaller ones instead.’
‘That’s right Maxxy, but that’s not the end of it. The little microbes are put into a special little box about the size of that matchbox there on the table. They are genetically modified to live in a special gel solution, inside the box a small pellet of uranium is placed for them to feed on. The cable plug is on the bottom of the box. Now something extraordinary happens!’
‘The more power that is drawn from the little bio nuclear reactor, the more power the microbes produce. So you could run a low voltage pacemaker for a heart patient or an entire city from a single tiny Boddington Reactor, theoretically forever!’ I reveal.
‘That’s just mind blowing Grandfather! I’ll bet the dudes who develop this will be super rich!’ Dave enthuses.
‘Well…it does drop a few coins into the kingdom’s account.’ I comment, matter of factly.
‘Are you kidding, those guy’s work for us?’ asks a surprised Dave.
‘No not yet, they are still crawling around in nappies, but they will.’
Now an excited Dave leans forward in his chair, his head buzzing with questions and ideas.
‘OK that takes care of the power supply, but how the hell are we going to get this huge ship off the ground? We are going to need some big arse rockets to lift it!’
‘Well…this is where our mates in the city of Gera come to the rescue. They allow us to purchase the blueprints for the Amialik collider device.’
‘How come Granddad?’ asks Maxxy.
‘Quite simple really, they have finished with their experiments and are happy to recover at least some of the billions of dollars they have poured into it.’
‘You guys just adjust the blue prints to make it a proton accelerator.’
‘Isn’t that the same as what they already had?’ asks Dave.
‘Not really son, it may be just a small difference, but it has a vastly different outcome,’ I answer.
‘Maxxy what do you think you would use the proton accelerator for?’
‘I don’t know Granddad, maybe a weapon or a shield.’
‘You play too many computer games Maxxy,’ quips Dave, laughing at his little brother.
‘Well actually, Maxxy you are on the right track a shield for the ship is a byproduct.’
‘Oh come on, Granddad! What does it do?’
‘OK Maxxy. It accelerates protons at a controlled speed, in either a clockwise direction or an anti-clockwise direction.’
‘So what does that do?’ asks Dave, his head still buzzing.
‘First let me ask you a question. What direction and at what speed does the earth spin?’
‘That’s basic physics, Grandfather, clockwise at just over 1000 Kph.’
‘OK then, if I put a proton accelerator belt around the 4x4 and had the protons going anticlockwise at just over 1000 Kph, what would happen?’
‘I don’t know Granddad, probably nothing?’ Dave answers, not quite sure.
‘Think equal and opposite reaction to any action.’
Scratching his head Dave tentatively answers: ‘Maybe still nothing, I mean it would still sit there wouldn’t it?’
‘That’s totally correct. It would need some extra force applied to make it move.’
‘What exactly are you driving at, Grandfather? I’m not sure I see what you are on about?’ inquires Dave, a little confused.
‘Let me ask you another question. What if…I increase the speed?’
Looking intently at Dave, I could see the light bulb eventually flash on in his head.
‘It would…rise off the ground?’ his brow furrows in thought, still not completely sure.
‘Eureka! You’ve got it! You’ve just created a gravity control system! Now you know how to get your massive ship airborne.’
‘Grandfather, this is just too much! I need a break,’ sighs Dave, heading for the ice box.
‘That’s quite alright, son, grab a beer and I’ll tell you both about your ship’s maiden voyage. I’ll leave you my chronicles as a guide for running our kingdom, I’ll also include the blue prints for the technology that you’ll need out on the belt.’
‘But isn’t that kind of cheating Granddad? Knowing everything that’s going to happen?’ concern wrinkling Maxxy’s brow, knowing the moral values he has been taught as a babe.
‘No son, everything in those chronicles was written during my lifetime. I guess this is as good a time as any to explain, seeing we are going to approach things just a little differently than usual.’
‘How’s that Granddad?’ asks Maxxy as he opens a can of soft drink.
‘Well up until now we have been bold and sharing. This time we will be bold and smart.’
‘Not so sharing this time, Granddad?’ Maxxy asks a little surprised, but wi
th a grin slowly forming, he loves a secret.
‘No, I wouldn’t say that in a total sense son, just some things we’ll keep to ourselves. Like the antigravity device, building the ship, our mining gear, and last but not least the existence of staronium.’
‘Why do you want us to hide this information Grandfather? Dave asked his arms folded, subconsciously trying to shield himself from the answer.
‘Well, not to put too fine a point on it, our entire family’s future depends on it!’
‘Follow the instructions in the Croc’s Chronicles to the letter, select with great care what you share with the other clans. We want to help our neighboring clans, but at the same time not put ourselves at unnecessary risk.’
‘Granddad…’ Maxxy whispers frowning in deep thought.
‘Yes, son.’
‘Can you see when you are going to die and stop it happening?’
‘No son, I can’t.’
‘But you know what’s going to happen in the future, how come you don’t even know when you’ll die?’
‘Maxxy!’ scolds Alex.
‘It’s OK son. I can’t see what’s going to happen to me from now until the time of my death, that part of our future is not available to me. If I could access it I may change something and totally change our future. That’s why I can only tell you future events as they happened without any of my personal details. I can give you a reference guide written as the Croc’s Chronicles.’
‘You must take control of your own personal destiny, son. Like me, you will make some costly mistakes, but do not despair, this is all part of your learning experience, your training. You will both achieve great things during your life’s journey.’
‘But that’s not fair, Granddad! I don’t understand, how can you not know?’
‘It’s both fair and wise Maxxy, we have a mission to accomplish, this stops it becoming compromised.’
‘Now…would you like to hear about the maiden voyage of your ship?’
‘You bet, Granddad!’ fires a now excited Maxxy.
‘Yeah…that would be cool. What will we call it?’ asks Dave, forcing a smile, still recovering from the shock.
‘I should think the Sobek should be a suitably powerful name after the ancient Croc King.’