The Navel of the World

by P. J. Hoover

  Iva tried to wipe her eyes. “But what if they are? What if my dreams do come true?”

  “Your dreams will only come true if you let them,” Heidi said. “Just because you’re really good at telegnosis doesn’t mean every dream you have is real. I have no intention of dying anytime soon, and I’m sure Andy and Benjamin don’t either.”

  She could say that again. Benjamin almost telepathically agreed but managed to stop himself in time.

  “You have to get past this, Iva,” Heidi said. “You’re destined to be the high oracle; I know you are. You can’t let these dreams get in your way.”

  Iva leaned over and hugged her friend hard. And then Benjamin felt Heidi think about what Iva had said. About the horrible death thing.

  Benjamin jumped back, and left her mind, severing all telepathic links. He felt dirty all over—like he shouldn’t have been listening to the conversation at all. If Iva hadn’t told him about the dreams, there was probably a good reason. Truthfully, now that he knew what she was dreaming about, he almost wished he didn’t. What kinds of horrible deaths had she dreamed for him? And who was killing him?

  But still, even with his curiosity, he shouldn’t have been listening. Talk about just plain wrong. Iva always had a reason for everything she did. At that moment, Benjamin decided, unless it was absolutely necessary, he would never intrude on his friends’ privacy again. Ever. Turning out the light, he headed back to the bedroom to get some sleep.

  CHAPTER 13

  The Tourist Almost Steals the TPT

  “Couldn’t you guys try to be on time just once?” Iva glared at them when they walked in for breakfast five minutes late. Seriously, with the way she tapped her foot, you’d have thought the world would come to an end.

  “Couldn’t you cut us some slack just once?” Andy said. He’d hit snooze like five times, but seeing as how he wasn’t the one time traveling, Benjamin kind of understood.

  Benjamin opened his mouth to agree with Andy when he remembered the conversation from the night before—the one he’d eavesdropped on. It was hard to forget how upset Iva had been. It was also hard to forget she thought he was destined to die in some torturous way.

  So instead Benjamin laughed. “You know, maybe we could try to be on time, just once. It probably does get annoying having to wait around all the time.”

  Heidi and Iva said nothing—just looked at him like he’d told them the dome was imploding.

  “Who’s ready for a little temporal phasing?” Gary looked like he might start dancing at any moment.

  “Shhhh!” Iva said. “Do you want the whole school to know?”

  “Iva, the whole school is asleep,” Andy said. And then he yawned just for effect.

  Gary angled his ear upward. “That’s not quite true. I can hear at least twenty Year Two Denarians up already.”

  “Yeah, well I’m pretty sure they aren’t spying on us,” Andy said.

  “If everything goes well, it won’t seem like we’re gone long at all,” Benjamin said.

  “And if everything doesn’t go well?” Iva asked.

  Benjamin shrugged. “Everything will be fine. We’re only going back a thousand years.”

  “Just be careful,” Iva said.

  “Yeah, and bring us a souvenir,” Andy added.

  “Seriously, Andy, it’s not like we’re going back in time to shop,” Heidi said.

  Andy laughed. “I thought girls always wanted to shop.”

  Heidi smartly refrained from answering, and Andy smartly refrained from saying anything else.

  “So you’re sure these are the right kind of clothes?” Benjamin motioned down at the baggy pants Gary had insisted he put on.

  Gary nodded. “Everyone wore baggy pants back then. Trust me.”

  Which Benjamin was prepared to do. If Gary had taken the time to research fashion trends from one thousand years ago, who was Benjamin to argue?

  “Ready?” Benjamin reached out and grabbed Heidi’s hand. He placed his other hand on Gary’s shoulder. And before anyone could change their minds, he teleported them away from the school.

  A pile of rocks crumbled under Benjamin’s feet when they arrived. He fell and only managed to keep himself from hitting head first by grabbing hold of a round piece of column. But his weight threw it off, and it started rolling down the hill.

  “Wow!” Heidi said.

  Benjamin thought she must’ve been talking about the giant column rolling away, but she wasn’t even looking at it. And once he looked up, he saw why. Green grass grew up around the ruins of the giant temple, and a statue as big as a Titan stood over them.

  “So this is Tunisia,” he said.

  “It’s not as popular as some of the temples in Rome,” Gary said, “but this was one of the most important temples in ancient Tunisia. It’s rumored to be built on the ruins of an even older temple to the god Baal-Hammon.”

  “Right, Gary,” Benjamin said. “Good information.” No matter the situation, Gary always had useless trivia to supply.

  The ruins were big, but totally in shambles. There probably used to be tons of columns, but now there were six; only the outline of the temple was still intact.

  “Iva was right about there not being too many visitors here,” Gary said.

  “We have to watch out for other tourists.” Heidi motioned with her head to the columns on the other side of the ruins.

  “Hey, where’d he come from?” Gary asked.

  “He walked up from over the hill,” Heidi said. “I saw him just when we reached the perimeter.”

  “Well one tourist shouldn’t be too hard to avoid,” Benjamin said.

  The tourist, a young guy with dark, curly hair, looked up across the ruins, smiled, and waved. They waved back, and he turned away.

  Benjamin pointed at a bunch of rocks that looked like at one point they might have been a wall. “Let’s say the TPT is inside the temple boundaries. Assuming that, let’s walk the perimeter and see what we come up with.”

  But after a half hour, they’d found nothing. Benjamin sat on a broken off column and wiped his dripping sweat with the “Nogicals Rule” t-shirt Jack had given him for his birthday.

  Gary sat beside him on a low wall. “Does it ever fascinate you guys to think this used to be a state-of-the-art place of sacrifice and worship built two thousand years ago?”

  Benjamin thought for a moment before answering. He used to think recorded history was only eight thousand years old. But Lemuria went back 900,000 years, which really changed his views on everything.

  “You know even though Lemuria is older than dirt, it’s still cool to be somewhere like this.” Benjamin nodded at the ruins. “This used to be a really important place, and now it’s just a crumbling ruin. Two thousand years is nothing compared to Lemuria. But here we are walking where others before us dreamed their dreams and worshipped their gods. Someone took the time to build this temple which was a big thing; I mean—look at this place. The temple was probably perfect when it was built. And now it’s in ruins. And we come along and wonder about the people. What would they say now if they saw their temple destroyed?”

  Benjamin stopped talking and realized both Heidi and Gary were staring at him.

  “Whoa,” Gary said. “That was really deep.”

  “Yeah. Really intense,” Heidi said. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  Benjamin felt his face heat up. Great. With the emotions he’d been putting off through the Alliance bond, Heidi probably thought he was some kind of softie.

  “I’ve always thought history and archaeology and stuff were pretty cool.” Benjamin hoped it didn’t sound as dopey as he knew it did. “We’d never really visited anywhere like this before. And now we go to a different archaeological dig each week. But this seems so real, so perfect. Like a moment of time that’s been captured and preserved.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, let’s keep looking. Where’s our tourist?”

  They looked up. The tourist was ten feet away from them holdi
ng a shiny brass plate. Benjamin felt the telenergetic power sparking off it.

  “That’s it!” he thought to them. “He’s got the TPT.”

  It took a moment for realization to dawn on Heidi and Gary.

  “What do we do now?” Gary asked.

  The tourist looked up at them, still holding the plate. “Are you kids here all alone?”

  Benjamin hesitated. What kind of creepy question was that? Was this guy some rogue time-traveling telegen also looking for TPTs?

  “Uh, no,” Benjamin said. “We’re actually part of a field trip.”

  The tourist passed the plate back and forth between his hands. “Funny. I haven’t seen anyone else.”

  “They’re down the hill,” Heidi said. Guess she felt the creep-factor, also.

  Benjamin pressed on the man’s mind. Nothing. It felt like a blank slate. Okay, so this guy wasn’t a telegen. But he still had the telemagnifier. And who wouldn’t walk away with an ancient Tunisian brass plate given the chance?

  The man looked down at the plate again. “Did you kids see this rock?”

  “What rock?” Benjamin asked.

  The man held up the plate. “This one. It looks like it should be heavier than it really is.”

  “He must see the plate as a rock,” Gary said silently. “He doesn’t know it’s a telemagnifier.”

  “Oh, that boring old rock,” Heidi said. “Yeah, we saw it. Talk about ugly.”

  “I was thinking it may be petrified feces,” Gary said. “Which would explain why it’s so light.”

  The man smiled. “Well in that case…” and he tossed it Frisbee-like clear across the ruins.

  Benjamin watched as it sailed away, hit the ground, and started rolling down the hill. The tourist looked at them and winked. “I hope you enjoy the rest of your field trip.” And then he walked away.

  Once he was out of earshot, Benjamin jumped up and started running toward the plate. “Maybe only telegens can see it’s a telemagnifier.” Either that or the man was blind. Not that it mattered. They needed to get to the plate before it vanished. Benjamin didn’t bother to look behind him; he knew Gary and Heidi would be following. And when he ran down the hill and saw the sun reflect off the bronze, he smiled, reached down, and picked it up.

  “Got it,” he said.

  “Good.” Gary walked up. “Kronos put this thing here for us to use.”

  “So let’s not disappoint him,” Benjamin said.

  “Aurora told us to think of the time and place we want to go, and then just hold on to the telemagnifier,” Heidi said.

  “So just to be sure, we’re all thinking about Mu, capital city of Lemuria, one thousand years ago. Right?” Gary asked.

  “Right,” Benjamin said.

  They grabbed onto the brass plate. Looking around, Benjamin made sure the dark-haired tourist was gone. Which he was. After all, who would want petrified feces?

  “Okay, ready, set, go.” Benjamin began to concentrate on the location and time they were seeking. In his mind, through the Alliance bond, he felt Heidi and Gary doing the same. He felt some of his energy transferring to the TPT, and then the world changed.

  CHAPTER 14

  The Chess Set Gets Traded

  The first thing Benjamin noticed was his shadow get smaller. And then he felt his body start to bend—almost like it was collapsing in on itself. But before Benjamin could think too long on it, he felt a giant crunch and heard a snap, and then everything disappeared.

  The world only vanished for a second, but when it reformed, everything had changed. Benjamin felt the crunching again—actually kind of decompressing this time—and then it was over. He looked down at himself. Everything seemed to be in place, and nothing hurt. He’d wound up in a park surrounded by a bunch of trees, and Gary, Heidi, and he still had the plate. So far so good.

  “Are we really in the past?” Heidi asked.

  Benjamin didn’t answer for a second but then replied, “Check your heads-up display. Looks like it gets updated with the local time.”

  “No way!” Gary’s eyes glazed over. “You’re right. It must synchronize itself to a global satellite.”

  “You’re telling me it’s backwards compatible to one thousand years ago?” Heidi said.

  “Or that it’s forwards compatible to one thousand years in the future,” Gary said. “I guess it’s just how you decide to look at it.”

  “Do you think the Deimos Diner was in business now?” Heidi said.

  “I doubt it since it’s named after the current—I mean the future—rulers of Lemuria,” Benjamin replied. “Any ideas who the rulers are now?”

  “Of course,” Gary answered. “If we really are exactly one thousand years back in time, then the rulers aren’t twins but actually a married couple—something pretty much unheard of.”

  “Why?” Heidi asked.

  “Well, history shows us that when the rulers are married to each other, it ruins the objectivity each of them would otherwise provide,” Gary said. “The current rulers only stayed in office for a few years, at which point they were forcibly overthrown.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Heidi asked.

  Gary shook his head.

  “So you’re telling me that here, in Lemuria, the rulers were overthrown?” Heidi said.

  When Gary confirmed her statement, Heidi continued. “Lemuria is just so advanced. I just can’t imagine rulers getting deposed.”

  “Look at history everywhere,” Benjamin said. “It happens all the time. People won’t stand for bad government.”

  “How do you know all this, Gary?” Heidi asked. “How do you know that the current rulers are going to be overthrown?”

  “I read a book on the governmental history of Lemuria,” Gary said.

  Just then, Benjamin noticed someone watching them. The man must’ve overheard. Why hadn’t Benjamin put up a mind shield? Seriously, when would he learn?

  “Look, let’s stop talking about it,” Benjamin said. “I don’t want to cause the next revolution.”

  The eavesdropper hurried off.

  “It may be too late for that,” Gary said. “I’m pretty certain that telegen was Ichabod Icter—the man history credits with starting the revolution.”

  “Well, if they deserve to be overthrown, who am I to stop it?” Benjamin said.

  “So now what?” Heidi asked.

  Benjamin smiled. “The Silver Touch. We need access badges to Geros.”

  The surprising thing about the past was how few things had changed; it made one thousand years seem like no time at all. They walked down Mu Way until, just like in their own time, they found the three dimensional floating cube hanging in the air.

  Heidi headed to the front door and it automatically opened, and Benjamin and Gary followed her in.

  “Amazing,” Benjamin said. “The world outside is in the middle of the crusades, and the doors here in Lemuria open on their own.”

  “Remember, Benjamin, one thousand years is only point one one percent of the timeline of Lemuria,” Gary said.

  Benjamin nodded but didn’t say anything. He left most wise-cracking comebacks to Gary’s vast fountain of knowledge up to Andy.

  Once they got inside The Silver Touch, they found it empty. But at this Silver Touch, not even the shopkeeper was around. Heidi made a beeline for a display case full of jewelry. Benjamin shrugged, and he and Gary followed her.

  “Doesn’t anyone work here? Because I totally need to look at that.” Heidi pointed to a hideous, green star bigger than Benjamin’s palm hanging on a rope.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Gary asked. “Because that thing is uggg-lyy.”

  “Ugly! I’ve been looking for one of these forever,” Heidi said. “They’re so rare and so hard to come by. If I don’t get this one now, I may never find another one.”

  Benjamin kept to himself the fact that it might be a blessing. “I thought we weren’t here to shop,” Benjamin said, but only got a smirk for a reply.

 
“What’s it for?” Gary asked.

  “I don’t know,” Heidi said. “But I saw a picture of it in our Empathy study guide.”

  And then the chime sounded. Someone had come into the store. Benjamin turned to look, expecting to see a shopkeeper, and froze. He knew the man who’d just walked into the store. Walker Pan—Magic Pan’s dad, and the owner of the Ammolite chess set.

  Benjamin’s reflexes took over. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but without giving it more than a microsecond of thought, he teleported himself, Gary, and Heidi to the opposite side of the store behind two bookshelves.

  If Walker Pan hadn’t just walked into The Silver Touch, the looks on Gary and Heidi’s faces would have been priceless. Heidi was still staring down at the ugly green star which was no longer there. And Gary was grimacing. But then they looked up.

  “Don’t say a word.” Benjamin threw up the strongest mind block he could—which was pretty strong, if he did say so himself. Telejamming had paid off after all.

  Thank God his friends were smart and caught on to things quickly. There was no “What are you talking about, Benjamin?” or “How did we get way over here, Benjamin?”

  “Who just came in?” Heidi asked.

  “Take a look,” Benjamin said.

  They peeked their heads out from between some books. And then Benjamin actually heard Gary’s heartbeat speed up.

  “What is he doing here?” Gary asked.

  “Ah, my friend,” a voice said, coming from the far back of the store. “You’ll have to excuse me. I was down in the basement and didn’t hear you come in. My door chime has been acting up. I hope you weren’t waiting long.”

  The man looked like Morpheus—kind of. More like Morpheus on steroids. With long hair.

  “I actually just arrived.” Walker looked around, and Benjamin could have sworn his eyes rested on the bookcases for just a second longer than necessary. But then they moved on. “I have a business transaction I would like to make. Is the store empty?”