Jessie woke laying face down on a stone floor, her hands and feet free of the ropes. The stone altar was empty and the metal rings her ropes were tied to were broken. Feeling tears cold on her cheek made her remember her meeting with her dad. It all seemed like a dream.
‘How did I get out of those ropes?’ She looked down at her wrists… then seeing the papers in her hand, she nearly cried again as she slowly unfolded them to see her dad’s handwriting. “It really happened!” She said aloud, shocked by the sound of her own voice as she quickly looked around to see the room was thankfully empty.
‘This is real... all of it’ the thought made her feel uneasy… if meeting her dad was real… then so was her meeting with that creature, Yellow Teeth and his goons… even the Cheorgh must all be real. ‘Sofie... the crew, they need to be rescued!’ that was real too… and their lives depended on her.
She ran to the door and found it locked. She then turned, looking for another way out. The room was windowless and there was only the one door. The walls were made of large stone bricks and there was no other furniture other than the large stone altar. ‘They’re probably waiting outside anyway… to take away my dead body.’ the thought made her shudder as she hopelessly sat on the floor, not sure what to do next. Then closing her eyes, she tried searching her memories of the ship. She examined hundreds of schematics and floor plans then suddenly jumped to her feet where she paced out 7 steps to the right of the door. There she dropped to her knees, not totally sure what she was looking for. She wiped away dust and dirt while closely inspecting each brick. “Bingo” she mumbled seeing a small mark on one. Something in her memories told her the mark meant something… but couldn’t recall exactly what. Looking around, she grabbed one of the broken rings and scraped the mortar from around it. The mortar crumbled away easier than she thought, and in a matter of minutes the brick came loose. This was all so unreal she thought ‘it was like playing a video game and having all the cheats locked away in your head.’ And just as she expected, she found a chain inside the opening and gave it a pull. The large altar-stone behind her silently slid aside revealing a hidden shaft below it. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” she said with satisfaction and as she was about to climb down, she hesitated, then taking one of the broken iron rings she looped it around the door handle to lock it shut.
Working her way through the labyrinth of corridors, ladders and crawlspaces gave her time to think, her memories of the ship, the schematics, plans and technologies were definitely given to her by that chair. But the knowledge of the chair itself was hidden from her. She tried recalling memories of before the building of the ship, but it was like looking through a foggy window.
She soon found herself on the same path Yellow Teeth had dragged her through, she remembered every place she tripped and fell, every kick and her every step. It seemed that not only did the chair give her new memories, but had also sharpened her own.
The control room was just as she left it and she went right to work. She now knew how to operate the controls as her mind pictured the circuitry behind the panels. Her ability to see the circuits in colors enhanced those memories.
“There.” She said satisfied the mechanics on this side of the ship section were still shut down. She looked to disable the mechanics on the other side. ‘I wonder why these systems aren’t integrated.’ she thought while digging through her new memories as she tried analyzing how the ships systems were tied together… along with and their computer systems. With a shock, the realization came to her that the Kan-ji were not computerized. There was a main computer in the core of the front ship section that handled navigation, storage of ship data and communications, but not many smaller computers. No servers, no laptops, just the equivalent of micro processors, which were by no means micro; that worked in combination with hardwired control systems. “How can a spaceship this big not be controlled with computers?” She shook her head in complete bewilderment. With that knowledge, she now understood that she wouldn’t be able to find where her friends were by just hacking a local computer… or to be able to shut down the mechanics on the far side of the ship section. She needed to move fast to find a way to tap into the main computer in order to find her friends, and to build that weapon her dad gave her.
A switch underneath one of the consoles opened the entrance door, not by just a crack like before, but fully open, filling the entire chamber with a bright light. Jessie found nothing but some footprints in the sand. Suddenly remembering, she ran back through the control room into the hidden chamber and grabbed the backpack she had left there… in what seemed like ages ago. Once back outside, she made the decision to return to the caves of the Cheorgh, hoping that just maybe they would help her. She jogged all the way without rest. Her stamina surprised her and she wondered if it might have come from their hike through the ship, but in the end she just attributed it to her fear and concern for her friends.
Reaching the caverns she found them eerily quiet. She searched the chambers and found no sign of the Cheorgh. In the room where she had her private talk with Chander, she noticed markings on the wall… and they seemed different. These were beautifully etched and seemed almost alive, reminding her of waving grasses glinting in the sunlight with hints of animals or insects moving within. She could almost hear the sound of the winds blowing through the grasses as she cautiously placed her hand on them. A feeling of warmth and contentment spread through her filling her with a sense of being home, or more like, going home. “No!” she said as the etchings faded along with her feelings, leaving her empty and alone. She wanted to try to make the etchings come back but her sense of urgency returned and she reluctantly pushed on. The rest of the chambers were empty except for a larger one near the caverns entrance. In its center was a large patch of light, brightly colored green grass. It almost seemed the grass itself gave its own light. Thinking it strange, she bent to touch it, and as she did, a tingle ran through her hand and arm. The grass quivered and re-arranged itself, forming into a miniature landscape scene. She kneeled and watched, amazed, wondering what it was trying to show, if anything. Fascinated, she touched the maps center and to her surprise, a jagged line formed on the map from her finger to the map’s edge; next to what looked like a lake with many rivers flowing into it.
“Wow, a GPS made out of grass.” Jessie thought as she touched different spots on the map, making new lines. She soon found that if she touched the corners of the patch, the map could be zoomed in or out, and if she slid her hand across the edges, the focus of the map would move in the direction of her movement.
“If only I remembered where the ship is parked.” she tried adjusting the map. “It was by a huge rock with a cave.” she zoomed the map back out.
“Whoa!” Next to a rock outcropping she actually saw a small silhouette of their ship. Zooming in, she could even make out its markings “ALEC’S DREAM” written on its side. Zooming back out, she touched the area where the ship was and saw the line form to the ship. “A path, just what I needed… thanks Chander.” She rummaged in her backpack for a notebook and did her best to copy the map.
As she stepped outside the cavern, a sinking feeling came to her… she would never be able to find her way through that thick jungle, with or without a map. “I wish uncle Clay was here, he’d know how to get through this jungle.” The thought of Sofie’s dad made her think of Sofie… and the crew… they needed her. She plowed ahead to the forests edge and to her surprise she walked right into an opening in the woods… that led to a path… a well worn path. With a renewed sense of hope she lunged forward into the forest.
Another stream. Like all other crossings, the path always seemed to find a spot where the water was wide and shallow. She sat to rest on a log next to the stream while nibbling on one of Chander’s fruits and studying her map again in despair. She was angry at herself for not having written down more detail as her drawing didn't show half of the rivers and streams she crossed. She had to admit that she was lost and all she cou
ld do is keep following the path. Tossing the rest of the fruit in the woods behind her she happened to spot another patch of the bright green grass along the border between the river and the woods. Curious, she knelt next to it, and felt the familiar tingle run through her arm as she brushed her hand over its top. She watched as the grass formed into another map. “No wonder the Cheorgh were able to get around so easily.” She adjusted the map locating the ship again… and found it only about a hundred yards away. An idea came to her and she recreated the path from the Cheorgh caverns and compared it with her map. They matched. “Why should I be surprised?”
Deciding to try an experiment, she set her backpack at the opening of the path she came from. Returning to the grass patch, she made another path to the ship from where she was while erasing the one to the caves. Walking back to her backpack she found the opening to the path she came from was no longer there! The grass patches were not only maps; they actually manipulated the forest itself! Her knowledge of the ships systems didn’t include any of this… this must be Cheorgh technology. She wished she would meet them again one day.
Another idea came to her and she refocused the map. After messing with the adjustments, she found what she was looking for… tiny figures moving through the forest, and they were only halfway to the other side! “How can they still be here? Its only 10 miles across, they should have made it in half a day. I wonder what's going on.” If this map was correct, she no longer needed to tap into the main computer to find her friends. As she looked at the map again, she realized that unless they follow one of the generated paths, their trek through the forest would be a nightmare… as she recalled their original walk from the ALEC’S DREAM.
“I wonder…” She drew a line filled with twists and turns from in front of the figures to the wall. With hope that they would be enticed by her new path, she watched the figures as they slowly moved through the forest. It didn’t take long before they took to her roller coaster path. Satisfied, she grabbed her backpack and jogged the last stretch to the ship.
It didn't take Jessie much more than an hour to convert a couple of mini flashlights and some spare ship parts into 2 of the weapons her dad drawn up. He called it a Gravity Pulse gun, which she could only guess at what it would do. She really didn't understand the circuits, but according to his instructions they needed time to build up a charge, mainly because of the small amount of energy generated by the thin strips of gravity blanket she used for power. As far as she knew it could take anywhere from a couple of hours to a day.
Satisfied that the weapons were complete… without actually testing them, she stowed them in her backpack. All she needed now was to find another grass patch to map out her route. Stepping outside, she found it turned dark… and realized she had converted their only two flashlights into weapons. As it turned out, the grass was not as hard to find as she thought as it seemed to glow a bit in the dark… almost as though it knew she was looking for it. Checking again for the whereabouts of her friends she found that her roundabout path was working as they were still a good distance from the wall, camped by the looks of it. She looked back at the ship, thinking again about trying to fly it, but soon gave up the thought… not without help. Turning her attention back to the map she wondered if there was anything else she could do to stop or hamper their progress. After some thought she concluded that her only option was to get to them before it got light… and hope the gravity pulse weapons worked knowing that if she freed them, the grass maps would give them the advantage.
Loading her backpack with some food and supplies, she left at a full run down her newly made path, trying to make the 10 miles to the camp before dawn.
Two hours later, she was lying on her belly underneath some bushes surveying the darkened camp. She needed to free her friends who were sleeping on the ground, bound and tied together. Four of the Kan-ji sat on a log next to a fire just a few feet away. Remembering that there were at least a dozen of them when they were captured, she wondered where the rest were. She slowly backed away and once out of earshot, she took out one of the gravity pulse weapons and started a slow walk around the camp. As she passed the Kan-ji on the log, she tried listening in on their conversation, but they were just sitting in silence, staring into the fire. She had counted only eight aliens altogether, four awake and four asleep. Four were missing.
This was her chance. Four guards were sleeping and the other four were not paying attention. If she could just sneak her friends away, she could use the green grass patches to cover their tracks. Rumblings from the four sleeping Kan-ji made her back up underneath the bushes again. “Rats” she said under her breath as she could only watch helplessly as they rummaged around for breakfast as she listened to their complaints about another day of trekking through the wilderness… she had to laugh at that.
Soon, all eight Kan-ji were sitting on logs around the fire. “Perfect” Jessie thought seeing an opportunity to try out her new weapon and crawled as close as she could. Hiding behind a tree, she braced herself as she aimed the flashlight and pushed its switch. Nothing! She hoped they would have at least been knocked off the log… or something. But nothing happened. ‘Needs more time to charge’ she guessed in disappointment. ‘Well I guess I go to plan B.’ She backed out of the bush and quietly worked her way back to her friends who were still sleeping.
Hiding under another bush, she threw a small stone at Sofie who was closest to her. Though not yet daylight, it was still light enough for Sofie to see her. Her eyes widened in surprise and she tried inching closer, at least as far as her ropes would let her. Jessie crawled out from the security of the bush to meet her.
“Jessie, I'm sorry I trapped you in that room, I didn't know if you'd be able to get out.” Sofie whispered. Her face was swollen but she didn't have any cuts or scrapes, at least on her face. By her smile, you couldn't tell she was hurting.
“Sof, if you guys can sneak out, I can make sure they can't catch us.” Jessie said. Sofie nodded and jerked on the rope to wake up Jade who was on the other end. The rumblings of a jet caught their attention and they looked up to see a flying craft dropping down. ‘So that's where the other Kan-ji went.’ Jessie thought. She quickly reached in her backpack and grabbed her other flashlight weapon.
“Sofie, this is a weapon. I built it about 4 hours ago and it needs to charge at least 8, maybe more. The other one I built didn't work yet, so if you need to use it before the 8 hours are up, it may not work.” Jessie placed it in Sofie's hand. Sofie carefully slipped it in her front pants pocket.
“Oh Jess, it's so good to see you, I don't know what they're planning on doing with us, but they're sure not treating us very nice at all.” A tear came down one eye. “Can you get help?”
“I've talked to my dad, help is coming... I'll get you guys out, don't worry.” Jessie replied. Sofie smiled but didn’t look very confident. Jade sat up just in time to see Jessie backing into the woods waving goodbye. Before losing sight of them, Jessie saw Jade and Sofie leaning together in conversation as the Kan-ji guards walked over from the fire.
From her vantage point in a tree, Jessie watched the aircraft land in the camp’s center… right on top of the fire the guards had hastily tried putting out. As it was, there was no need for them to douse it since the jets from the aircraft obliterated the fire; throwing sparks, ash and burning wood over the area. Once its engines shut off, she quickly worked her way back to the camps edge for a closer look. It pained her to watch as the Kan-ji roughly pushed her friends into the aircraft, especially seeing that Sofie needed Jades support. Before disappearing inside the craft, she saw Sofie searching the woods for her. Jessie wanted to jump up to tell them everything was going to be OK, but forced herself to quietly hold her position. Only four of the Kan-ji entered the small craft with her friends, leaving the other four behind. As the last Kan-ji was about to close the door, Jessie overheard one of them yell over the sound of the jets about someone meeting them at the main interrogation cells in the forward ship
section. Jessie almost whooped for joy as she recalled from her new memories at least one interrogation room.
Already planning out her route, she slipped away to find her way to the nearest transportation tubes.
Alec's Dream Page 47