Adventure to Destiny: The Unity Objective Series

by Sandra Golden

  “Wait, Stop!” Helaina yelled feeling terrified.

  Seeing the fear in her eyes, Jennifer went to comfort her. “Dear what’s wrong?”

  “I remembered something. In my dream, they glowed; I don’t know what that means. I don’t know why they do that. Or if it means that something will happen if they do. Maybe we shouldn’t take them out of the boxes, not yet anyway. I’m afraid.”

  Helaina was shaking from fear. William went to her, trying to calm her down. “Don’t worry; this is what we will do. First we will take a look at them one at a time. Then we will put the balls back into your closets for safe keeping. Tomorrow we will take the balls somewhere they will be safe and they can be studied. Someplace where the rest of the parts to your machine can be found and some of your questions can be answered.”

  The kids nodded in agreement, and Helaina felt safe with that idea and stopped shaking.

  “That sounds like the perfect plan to me. Now let’s take a look at those the balls then put them back where they can be safe, and let’s watch this movie. I am dying to see it,” Jennifer said trying to ease the tension she felt in the room.

  After the balls were taken back to the closets, the family returned to the den and settled in with popcorn and drinks to enjoy the movie. Half way through the movie Jennifer looked around the room, discovering William was sound asleep in his recliner, and J.R and Helaina were sound asleep in bean bag chairs.

  “Well! I am just going to have to tell them the ending tomorrow,” she thought, laughing to herself, then went back to enjoy the rest of the movie.

  Later she woke everyone up, sending them to bed. Tomorrow would be a very important day in J.R and Helaina lives. She hoped that her plans for tomorrow came together without much trouble. Of course she didn’t worry much about that, her plans always worked. Jennifer was quite confident about that.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  UNDERSTANDING

  William was up a little earlier than his usual time the next morning. He was very curious about something, he had asked Elijah to meet him at the Pier for a brief swim. Donning wet suites and headlights the two went looking for the small hatch that had hidden the two balls J.R and Helaina retrieved the previous day. They searched, and as William suspected the hatch was no longer in existence, just as the waterfall.

  After a breakfast of blueberry muffins, ham, orange juice and coffee, William helped Helaina put the two balls from the waterfall, carefully stacked one on top of the other, in her back pack. William and J.R carried the other two cases and placed them side by side in the back seat of the jeep. From the weight of the gold colored ball, William assumed that the ball was of pure gold. The lightness of the other, and its pure white color, he assumed the other was a giant pearl. All the balls would be tested in a lab for their mineral content; other tests would determine what power they might possess. When he saw Helaina’s reaction last night, he felt it best to get the four balls, as the kids called them, away from his precious grandkids and put into a controlled environment; the sooner the better.

  “Isn’t Grandma coming with us?”

  “Not today dear. It’s her day to volunteer at the hospital.”

  “Will we be back before one; I promised I would meet Dylan and Mark to go fishing.”

  “Call them and tell them you will go fishing with them tomorrow.”

  As J.R called his friends informing them of the change of plans, Helaina asked William question after question.

  “Where we going?”

  “Into town, then somewhere special.”

  “We found the balls; do we get to keep them?”

  “They’re yours, I promise, but first we have to make sure they can’t harm you or anyone else,” he answered patiently.

  “Because in my dream they glowed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why do you think they float in the crystal boxes?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “A couple of them are really heavy, yet they still float. Do you think there is jell in the boxes?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “Think the gold colored ball is gold? It would be worth a lot of money.”

  “Could be.”

  “We have lots of money, so maybe we can sell the balls and give the money to the wildlife foundation, or maybe…”

  J.R heard this last question and stopped talking on his phone for a few seconds to remind his cousin that they needed the balls for the machine. Then he went back to his conversation. William knew she could go on like this all day so he decided to distract her.

  “Helaina sweetheart, I know you have a lot of questions. I can’t answer them all but where we’re going, answers can be found, so be patient Princess.”

  “In other words you are driving Granddad crazy with all your questions, so you should shut up for a while,” J.R said after completing his call.

  “Granddad didn’t tell me to shut up.”

  “That’s right I didn’t, but you did ask me way too many questions,” William laughed.

  “Sorry I just have a lot of them, and I am excited but I don’t know why.”

  “We are all excited; this is all new to both of you. I am so happy that I am the one who is able to share this with you.”

  “We are too!” said the kids in unison, just as William pulled the jeep into his parking space in front of the large office building in the middle of town.

  It was the oldest building in town and was used as one of the main headquarters for the Unity Cooperation, which had offices around the United States, as well as in every country of the world.

  “This isn’t someplace new. We’ve been here thousands of times.”

  “J.R you’ve been in the upper part, today you discover “What’s Below”.

  “But Granddad, J.R and I explored the basement countless times, we even played Hide Go Seek there when we were little. There’s nothing down there but boxes full of old records.”

  “Get the balls and let’s get to my office. We can get where we going from there and please be patient for just a little bit more.”

  William picked up the heaviest bag and J.R the other. Helaina still carried her back pack carefully, making sure the two she carried stayed vertical. William allowed Helaina to bring Peanut along, she traveled in one of her carrying bags, securely zipped in and was probably right now curled up into a ball sound asleep. Entering the building they were greeted by the receptionist who they had known since they were babies. They took the elevator up to Williams’s office.

  “Sit down for a minute, kids. There are a few things I must tell you before we go below.”

  The kids sat down in the two leather high back chairs that faced William's desk; a beautiful handcrafted piece of furniture, which had been a gift to his Great Grandfather. Made from a redwood tree, it was hand carved and sanded; the top so smooth to the touch it felt like it was covered in satin. William sat down in his chair, made from the same soft brown leather as the ones that where now occupied by J.R and Helaina. This was a big moment, he didn’t want to scare or confuse them, but he wanted them to understand why they were different.

  William began, as his father and his father’s father had begun before him. “Today you learn something about yourselves that you must not share with anyone. Not even with your friends. When their families think they are ready they will be told. You must never talk about this place, or the secrets it hides, and the good things that happen there. Those who know about it, are chosen, not everyone who carries our genes have this knowledge, only a selected few. Those who work there never speak of it, or talk about what they do. You are chosen, because you have something special inside you. You must promise to never speak of this, never! Do you understand this?”

  “Yes Granddad.” J.R and Helaina looked at each. A thousand more questions just raced into their heads.

  “This is a sacred honor, not everyone who carries our genes knows their true heritage. For ten generations now we have been at our new home. Many of the or
iginal travelers married and produced children with those who were here before us. Those children grew, and the two gene pools mixed as our population grew. Few families have produced new generations with 100% of our gene within their DNA make-up. I have that gene, so do your fathers. And so do you two,” William explained.

  “That's what is making us special?” J.R and Helaina asked in unison.

  “Yes we believe so. Sometimes but not often, a person who carries the full gene, or the 100% as you say, and a person with let’s say 50% of the gene make-up, like your Mom J.R, can produce a child who carries a pure 100% of our gene.”

  “I understand. When we studied hereditary in school we learned all about how genes are shared.” Helaina assured her grandfather.

  “I am very glad you understand. Now that you have promised to keep our secret we can go on our journey. You two ready to learn who we are?” William asked J.R and Helaina.

  “Yes we are.” They answered in unison, but for some reason it didn’t bother them this time. Helaina put a protective hand over Peanuts sleeping form. Before she could ask her question, William answered it for her.

  “It's alright that Peanut comes with us. There are other entrances but our family has always used this one when taking down a new generation. Are you two, or rather three, ready to go?”

  J.R and Helaina simply nodded then William positioned J.R and Helaina in front of a paneled wall, and stood behind them. He waved his hand over a nearby figurine, a crystal cat that his mother had given him. A panel slid up into the ceiling revealing an elevator that neither of them had ever seen before.

  “Let’s go!”

  Getting into the elevator the kids noticed there were no buttons. J.R even looked for a panel that might be concealing them but couldn’t find anything. The doors closed, the elevator began moving downwards with J.R and Helaina silently anticipating what they were about to see. The elevator traveled for about five minutes, an extremely long time for an elevator, but it was still going full speed and not slowing down.

  “This has to be the longest elevator ride we have ever been on,” remarked J.R.

  “Are you forgetting the time when we got stuck on one two years ago with Cassie and Tina and how scared they got? We had to make up stories for them for two hours before they got that stupid thing fixed. The worst part was that we missed seeing “Fiddler on the Roof.”

  “I remember.”

  “This ride takes exactly fifteen minutes, so be patient,” their grandfather told them.

  The elevator began slowing down. William waved his hand, the solid door of the elevator folded to the sides, revealing a glass door. Suddenly the talkative teens’ became speechless, now that they had a clear view to where they were being taken. They couldn’t believe what was now being revealed. Still moving downward, through a glass tube, they were headed for the ocean floor. They saw buildings, taller than those on the island; it was like an underground city, enclosed in glass from the bottom of the island to the bottom of the sea. With Hope Island sitting on top of the dome; being the large, but beautiful blanket that camouflaged what was below. It reminded the kids of the Sea Station, but much bigger. They saw moving sidewalks, and vehicles flying from building to building. They saw a park where they could see people eating their lunch. The trees and the plants were different from anything they had ever seen before. They saw a circular building made of glass, which looked like a donut. Inside the outer ring was sea life of all kinds, the inner ring looked like some sort of laboratory. Everywhere they looked they saw things that were new to them, but somehow familiar. Instinctively they felt secure, like they were meant to be at this place.

  “I want you two to look over there.”

  William pointed in the direction he wanted the kids to look. They looked, and what they saw didn’t surprise them, or didn’t even scare them. In fact they smiled and looked up at William.

  Together they spoke the all important question, “Is that how our ancestors came to Earth?”

  “Yes it is.”

  You would think that finding out that your ancestors came from another planet would be cause for a lot of questions but for J.R Black and Helaina Unity it answered them, they now understood, and they accepted who they were. The understood completely.

  A noise was heard coming from Peanuts bag, everyone looked down and saw wiggling.

  “Helaina, I think that Peanut would like to come out and see where we are taking her,” said William.

  “I completely forgot about her. She always likes to explore new places.”

  Helaina unzipped the bag and picked up the leash, then pulled Peanut to her shoulder. The little animal attached herself to the shoulder strap of Helaina’s tank top, she looked around to see where her best friend had taken her.

  “This place is huge!” observed J.R

  “This is one of the smaller bases that our people operate. But it was the first completed.”

  “You mean there are others?”

  “Do you remember I told you that ten families became the Guardians of our new home? And how now each family now has two Guardians born every generation?”

  “Like you and Grandma Hanna, and Uncle David and Dad!” J.R correctly answered.

  “Right! Each family built a Station like this, a few are hidden in mountain ranges, a few like this one are under islands. There are ten total. These Stations are where we make discoveries about this planet, and try to make adjustments, try to make things better for everyone. The home our ancestor came from was called “Unity”; and the city where they lived was called “Eden”. We have made Earth our home for the last ten generations. You kids are the tenth generation to be born here.”

  “Eden was in a bible story, where Adam and Eve lived, they ate something and it was wrong.” Helaina recalled her mother reading her the story.

  “Yes, the book your mother read that from was written by many people. These people where known by the first of our kind to come here…”

  “Watchers!” injected J.R.

  “Yes! Watchers, who tried to teach and prepare these people for our coming. The Watchers told stories, and some were told to predict what would happen if they didn’t protect their home. Those who had heard these stories wrote them down, hoping that all who read them would learn.”

  “Unity was the beautiful garden planet, which was destroyed because of a black virus, just like the Eden in that book was destroyed by Adam and Eve because of sin.”

  “Correct.”

  “Granddad?”

  “Yes dear.”

  “Does that ....”

  Before Helaina could ask her question, the glass elevator came to a stop. Jennifer had called yesterday to prepare the Station for J.R and Helaina’s visit, so when the doors opened they were greeted by several of the top scientists and a few of the department heads that ran this base of operation. Of course, there were a few special people who had travel all the day before just to be a part of this special occasion. Everyone was there to welcome a new generation, the youngest yet, into their hidden world.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  A SURPRISE WELCOMING

  John Garfield and Selena Blanchard, the President and Vice President of operations, stood the closest to the elevator doors, ready to welcome the two future Guardians (that is if the kids decided that was to be their future). They also were there to retrieve the mysterious balls that they possessed and put them into a secure area. John Garfield had the boyish good looks that any actor would be envious of. He was tall, about six foot four, very toned from using the gym three hours every evening, and doing heavy lifting in his lab. John was a MIT graduate, had a mechanical engineering degree, doctorates in computer sciences, and was a physicist. He also happen to be Kellie’s dad, Helaina recognized him right away. Selena Blanchard was a tall woman, just a quarter of a inch from being six feet tall, about one hundred forty five pounds, with curly dark brown hair. Selena was a graduate of Memphis State University, and held degrees in Education, Business, Zool
ogy, Genealogy, and Physics. She also baked the best bread and cakes then beautifully decorated them, giving them out as gifts to friends and family. Selena did beautiful needlework that had won her countless ribbons at the annual Unity summer fair. Both kids recognized her as a family friend who they visited with many times at their Grandparents home.

  As soon as the doors open John and Selena stepped forward. First William and J.R shook hands with John; Helaina gave him a hug instead. Selena Blanchard also preferred hugs as a way of a greeting and proceeded to hug William and the kids. Many others stood nearby, some wearing lab coats, some just in jeans and tee shirts, others in suits and dresses, all applauded when the family stepped out of the elevator welcoming the new comers, for this indeed was a very special occasion. It was not every day that an Elder educated a new generation of Guardians about their heritage, welcoming them into this special community.

  “J.R, Helaina welcome to Station One. We have so much to show you. Isn’t this exciting? We never had anyone as young as you down here.” Selena being the extremely talkative type welcomed them excitedly with a huge smile that made her whole face sparkle.

  John Garfield looked intently at William, not sure if he should proceed as usual in this circumstance, seeing that the kids were so young. William smiled, and gave a nod, assuring him that he could make his presentation.

  “Helaina, J.R, I also welcome you. I am sure you recognized Mrs. Blanchard and I. As you step into Station One for the first time, (Smiling down at the two-young people he continued) I am proud to be the one to present each of you with keys that work on any elevator or port of entry to this Station as well as those positioned around the world.”

  John Garfield handed J.R and Helaina each a solid gold key ring, engraved on the two-inch round gold piece was the Unity crest, around the edge ten little diamonds, representing the ten original families, and the ten stations. On the back of each one was of course the motto that everyone lived by. “Guide with an open heart and an open mind. A World United in Peace.”