Aurona, page 45
Finally over her fright, Elena joined in. “How does it actually work, Duron,” she interjected. “I mean, how do you form these bubbles?”
Duron smiled enigmatically. “I can only tell you this, Elena, in a way that you might understand. Eons ago, we conquered the force of gravity by using the opposing force of antigravity, of which you have seen only the elementary principles. Only after fully understanding antigravity could we begin to merge it with the dual phenomena of superconductive magnetism and surface tension. It was an extremely difficult balancing act combining the three, but as you can see, we have succeeded. This undersea city will soon be nearly eight hundred Earth-years old. Our next frontier is space, using similar methods.”
Adam had become lost in a fog, uncharacteristically quiet and gazing into the distance. The old one noticed his faraway look. “What is it, Adam?” he probed, gently.
“Oh, nothing,” he whispered, his voice barely audible. “It’s just that all this talk about bubbles suddenly reminded me of a dream I had, long ago.”
The elders spun toward Adam in rapt attention, their dark eyes wide in anticipation. “Please!” Movon urged. “Share this dream immediately! We must know!”
Adam shook out of reverie, his questioning eyes turning to Duron. He’d never seen such intense emotion coming from these passive Bandors!
The old one was equally excited. “Yes Adam, please tell us,” he urged. “To us, any dream is rare. We view such unusual phenomena as prophecy.”
“Prophecy? Really? Well, here goes,” he began, warily. “Like I said, it all happened way back when I was a kid….”
As they crowded closer, Tola nudged him, discreetly shaking his head. “Keep it plain, man,” he whispered. “These guys are dead serious!”
Adam paused, rethought his approach, and then started over. “Okay. I-I was only about twelve years old, during spring break in my senior year at Oxford.” He held up a finger. “Oh. Wait, guys. I’m sorry, I just remembered this was really a-a series of dreams that happened over a two-week period. Are you sure you have time to….”
His voice trailed off. The elders’ hands had flown up over their slit-mouths; whatever he’d said sure looked like it had tremendous significance. “A series of dreams?” they chorused. “Most definitely prophecy!” They urgently motioned for him to continue.
Shrugging, he took a deep breath and plunged in. “Okay, here goes: In the first night’s dream, I was standing up on the roof of my grandfather’s penthouse apartment, trying to get as high as I could. Something bad was happening down in the city. In the distance I could hear a loud wail of sirens. As I looked, I saw people running in panic for underground shelters. Evidently, the same thing was happening all over the world. How’d I know that?” He shrugged almost apologetically. “I-I dunno; you can just, ah, tell those things in dreams. You-you kinda sense it … somehow.” He looked up.
As Duron and the elders nodded at each other, great throngs of excited Bandors were appearing on the run with expressions of fascination and wonderment on their faces.
“Hey!” He looked Duron straight in the eye. “Is this being simulcast??”
The old one shrugged. “Why, all dreams of prophecy are shared, Adam.”
“But this isn’t prophecy! I-I’ve always had weird dreams!”
“Please continue,” the elders urged, firmly. As the crowd settled to an expectant silence he scowled, suddenly nervous with all the attention.
“Well, all right. Here goes: As I looked down from my roof, I wasn’t scared at all. The deafening sirens had stopped and there was this long, hollow-sounding silence. The people were all gone; no one dared to come out.” He shaded his eyes with his hand. “I looked way into the distance….” As the faded memory unfolded, he started to get caught up in his own story, acting it out almost involuntarily and painting a vivid mind-picture with colorful narration. The Bandors appreciated it deeply; it was their style.
“There were these, ah, bubbles. Yes, clear bubbles just like the ones all around us, but different, enclosed by an outer, larger bell shape. Millions of them were swarming over the horizon in long ‘V’ formations like transparent, migrating birds. An-an alien invasion was beginning!” he paused, then lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “And they could see me,” he continued. “They knew I was standing there, and that I was the only human on Earth who was curious about them! How’d they know?” Pausing for emphasis, he aimed his words directly at the assembled multitudes. “They could read my mind, just like you!”
As one living, mind-linked organism, the Bandors drew in a collective breath, their eyes wide and their slit mouths agape.
Adam was totally floored. Was this all true? Taking a chance, he broadcast a quick runic mind-message, his heart thudding loudly in his chest. “This is scary to me! Are you really the ones? Are you Bandors the invisible aliens in my dreams?”
The sea of eyes blinked, then motioned impatiently for him to continue.
As he tried his best to collect himself, he saw that Duron’s hands were trembling. What was going on? Gathering his thoughts, he pressed on.
“Well, one of the bubbles spotted me and peeled off the formation, diving right at me at a tremendous speed! It was weird, but I wasn’t afraid at all! I just stood there on the roof and watched it come! In seconds, it hovered in front of me, a ramp came down, and this voice … this single, fragile-sounding voice beckoned from inside.”
They were now hanging onto every word, every gesture. He squared his shoulders, then copying Elena’s expressive ways, raised his arms over his head to form odd shapes with his hands. “The saucer was nearly invisible, like a ghost. The ball-shape in the center was constructed like a transparent orange with all the sections packed around a tapered core. In turn, the core had tiny, honeycombed tubes running up inside the center, wide at the bottom and drawn out extremely thin at the top. They looked like they might be some kind of a clear alloy of ceramic.”
The elders were starting to fidget uncomfortably; the description of his mystery ship seemed to be striking a chord. Watching them out of the corner of his eye, he traced out another imaginary form in the air. “Where the sections joined in the outer seams, a clear fluid was trickling downward inside these channels, looking almost like blood inside capillaries.” Fingers wriggling, he made sweeping, downward motions with his hands. “It circled underneath to the core and then turned upward at 90 degrees, shooting up inside the tapered honeycombed tubes at a tremendous velocity!” He watched Duron’s face. “You know, thinking back on all this, that ‘fluidic’ propulsion system might have been just a pictorial representation of an abstract theoretical principle….” His eyes popped. “Hey, that’s right! The antigrav ball must have been a supermagnetic ion driver with pulsed core resistance! Fusion-powered, of course, and-and omnidirectional!”
Wide-eyed, the elders exchanged looks of alarm.
“Yes, yes, omnidirectional!” He was breathing excitedly, now. “That’s right! The orange-sectioned assembly fit snugly into the bell shape like-like a ball in a socket, almost like our starship but way, way different! It could rotate freely, directing the core’s flow in opposition to gravity!” Strangely, he was becoming convinced that he, as a child, had indeed experienced a vision from the future, just as they’d surmised! After all, time travel, telepathy, and now concentric bubbles of water-within-air-within-water were all possible, so why not prophecy? He grew reflective, his voice becoming quieter, firmer.
“Listen to me carefully, all of you. I believe now, after seeing this city and these Seaquariums, that the aliens in my dream were indeed you Bandors. You were trying your best to represent to me in the simplest of pictures a very complex fusion-powered force of antigravity interacting with superconductive magnetism, resulting in the ultimate intergalactic starship of the future!”
Everyone, including Tola and Elena, stared at him in numbed silence. He continued, confidently. “And I believe that the translucent shapes were represented to me in a schematically visible form so I could understand how they moved and worked. As the ship accelerated through the atmosphere, the slow rotation of its outer hull correspondingly speeded up, too! That way, the bell-shaped exterior of the symmetrical lifting body could always present a cool leading edge to the airflow….”
Moving quickly, the old Bandor reached under Adam’s chin and tapped down his translator button’s volume. “That is enough,” he whispered, his mind-shields up. “You may continue later, but only in utmost secrecy!”
“Why?” he stopped, exasperated and alarmed. “I-I was on a roll, Duron!”
The old one pulled him away from the group and leaned toward him confidentially. “I know you have not yet mentioned the way we can tip the whole ship on its side to become an air brake, or shoot at 90 degrees to the direction of travel! I know there is much, much more….” His voice fell to a hoarse whisper. “The others cannot hear us now, so listen to me. This entire city of Meseo was created as a research lab! It is five miles beneath the surface and safe from enemy eyes, but not ears!”
He paused a moment, pondered thoughtfully, and then sighed. “What I am trying to say is your dream-ship is real, Adam. Your grandfather initiated the concept and was instrumental in its complicated production. At this very moment it is sitting inside that building over there!”
“My-my grandfather?”Adam stuttered. His round eyes followed Duron’s slender finger to an insignificant dark structure occupying an entire bubble on a distant ocean ridge. Yes, there was a definite air of secrecy about it; he could see armed guards everywhere.
“As to your dream,” Duron continued, “there is now no doubt to me that another being has been present on Aurona. Somehow, the cloak of time has been torn open by this entity. You had this dream-series at approximately twelve years of age, right?”
“That’s right! But how…?”
“Think, now. Your planet was in the rim of the Milky Way galaxy nearly seven hundred sleep-years from Aurona! Try to understand what I am saying: someone on Aurona beamed these visions to you in your past, taking the form of, as you say, a series of dreams.”
His mind was racing. “M-messages from the future beamed into the past? And my grandfather was the one who thought up and directed this dream ship? You know, at one point in my life I would have disagreed with you, Duron, but now….” He sighed, shrugging his shoulders. “Hey, anything’s possible, but one thing’s certain: I have to see this dream ship. Only then can I believe all these fantastic hypotheses.”
Duron was adamant. “Believe me, it is real, Adam. Your mystery starship will be ready for its maiden voyage very soon. I, for one, am aching for your brilliant and valued input into this project, but unfortunately, I still need to convince Movon and the rest of the elders to grant your wish.”
“I understand what you’re going through,” Adam nodded, averting his eyes. “Although your vote carries more weight, you can still be vetoed, right?”
“Correct.” Duron turned to join the elders. “Wait a moment, please.”
The elders circled, threw up their mind-shields, and turned off their translator buttons. As they conferred, their tone became more and more argumentative. Their sibilant language crescendoed steadily in volume, rose to a peak, and then there was silence: the vote had been cast. Duron solemnly turned, tapping his translator button. A slow slit-smile spread over his face. “They like you, Adam. They agree that you are a man of great integrity, as was your amazing grandfather.”
“Thanks, Duron.” He bowed graciously to the elders. “And…?”
“And your prophetic dream has been received as a great sign. We feel you are indeed the one who will come from afar to change the direction of Aurona’s history. You alone, with the aid of the Rasheen, have the intellectual potential to absorb every detail of our known past in our dream libraries and then chart our future with a firm hand. We have observed your unequalled qualities of trust and leadership, and are therefore prepared to grant your request.”
He grimaced. “All that? I-I just wanted a peek!” As a roar of laughter went up from the Bandor multitude, Duron spun to face him, his face flushed.
“Adam!” he yelled over the tumult. “Just look at them! I have never seen such emotion in my life! What is it that you have that I … ah, I mean we don’t have?”
Adam traced his mouth, turned upward in a smile. “This,” he shrugged. “I always tend to look for the humor in most situations.” He pulled Elena closer. “I mean we do. We’re a dream team, you know, and it’s for life. Oh, by the way, we have two more in here….” As he patted her stomach, he was met with a quick slap.
“Adam!” she hissed. “You’re embarrassing me!”
A stunned silence fell over the crowd. Duron spun to him, his eyes wide, his voice trembling. “Twins? So-so it is definitely true! You are the ones spoken about in our prophecy! It is genetically impossible for a Bandor woman to conceive twins, so the approaching birth of your fraternal twins.… Yes, Elena, a boy and a girl … will be the final, conclusive link to our future! We are truly overwhelmed! It all seems to be happening, but it is much, much too soon! We are very confused….”
Suddenly, Duron stopped short. It looked like he’d just been shot! He rocked back on his heels, his great, dark eyes rolling back in his head. As he slumped, Adam grabbed for the edge of his cloak.
In moments, the old eyes fluttered open and he looked up uncomfortably into the concerned, trusting faces of his adopted family. “I-I am truly sorry to tell you this, but as you know, news travels fast on Aurona, literally at the speed of thought….”
“What is it, Duron?” Adam prompted.
“There are evil ones in our midst,” he hedged. “They have been plotting against the unshakable course of our nation and the fulfillment of these prophecies for thousands of years. They will stop at nothing for the right opportunity to reshape history with their own hands!”
Adam’s gut had started to quake. “W-what are you saying?”
Duron stood up decisively. “I am afraid I must be the bearer of bad news, Adam. Your new city, Prima, is under attack!”
He staggered backward. “No!!”
“Yes, right now, at this very moment! Some of your crew have been concealing an alien on your starship who has formed an alliance with these Bitron outlaws. They have extremely strong mind-shields!”
Turning on his heel, Duron began to issue telepathic orders, firing them off in rapid salvo to the other elders. One by one they sprinted away to perform their assigned duties. He spun to Adam. “You and Elena must leave at once. I am sending Tola and several regiments of armed guards behind you. They will follow a distance, shielded and cloaked.”
Adam’s brows lowered. “Why are we alone? Are we some kind of targets?”
“Frankly yes,” he answered cryptically. “We are setting an ambush. I am sorry to tell you this, but once you are out in the open you will be both the hunters and the hunted. This outlaw group is crafty and may spot our trap, so you need to act as if you are alone!”
Elena pressed tightly against him. “Adam, I’m….”
“It’s okay,” he whispered, hugging her reassuringly. “I’ll protect you.”
Tola’s voice was quavering. “T-timing is everything! As M-Movon said, you two gotta move on!”
Adam’s brow raised questioningly. “Huh?”
The round man shrugged. “Vamoose! Skedaddle…. Pronto!”
Chapter 25: CRISIS
As serpentine ribbons of smoke writhed upward into the low flying clouds, the chill rain dissolved them into a watercolored blur. Out on the great semicircular wharf, the lights were blazing in Adam’s new commander’s quarters: clothes, furniture and equipment were flying through the air and his room was being thoroughly ransacked.
Abruptly, a darkly clad figure entered and walked purposefully to a far wall. He seemed to know precisely where to look: as he slid a heavy jungle speaker aside, Adam’s holo-discs and glowing keys tumbled out. He punched the air in triumph, stuffed them into a valise, and glanced up at the ceiling: a stolen Spyder skittered across the surface and settled into a crevice, awaiting further reconnaissance commands. It had done its job well.
Looking around furtively, three figures stole out of the back of the cooling tower with their arms full of communications gear, threw it onto a utility barge, and sped toward the main compound. The disturbance in Adam’s quarters brought Kron on the run. As he reached the door the mutineers poured out in a great wave, their sheer numbers overwhelming him. There were shouts, scuffles, then a loud retort of gunfire. Clutching his chest and bleeding profusely, he slumped to the floor unconscious.
In the starship’s control center, there were maniacal cackles of glee. A stooped, hooded figure paused to study the instructions on the holodiscs for several minutes, then shoved the glowing keys into their slots. His hands trembling in excitement, he twisted them in a newly memorized sequence.
There was a loud crack and a dazzling shower of electrical sparks as the ship severed its moorings and slowly lifted away from its form-fitting nest. It rose silently to two hundred feet and paused, then another twist activated the cloaking device. The saucer dissolved out of the sky, just like the smoke in the rain.
Adam and Elena had finally reached the edge of the rainforest and peered uneasily into the clearing. There were signs of a great struggle. Off to the side, an antigrav barge lay toppled against a tree, its lone occupant twisted unnaturally under the smoking wreckage.
“Oh, no!” Elena turned away quickly, tears of recognition welling up in her eyes.”It-It’s Jon!!”
Adam hopped off and knelt next to him, glancing anxiously over his shoulder. “Where’s Tola? Where are the guards? They’re supposed to be right behind us!” Trembling, he groped for a pulse, then looked up grimly. “I’m afraid he’s gone, hon. What in the world do you think happ….” His voice dropped off abruptly.
