Aurona, page 62
“Wow, come see this, boy! They did a great job following my plans!”
Adam squeezed in behind him and peered over his shoulder. Thousands of gold wires were reflecting brightly in the tiny pin light and a small, star-shaped opening gaped in the center of the great tangle of converging, printed circuitry. He squinted closer: there were five tiny pinholes punched into the perimeter.
“Ready?” With gloved hands trembling, the old man slid the Warper out of its protective sleeve, rotated it a few degrees, and snapped it securely into place.
There was a loud electrical snap. The floor vibrated and all the lights went out, even the tiny pin light clipped to the old man’s sunglasses.
“Wow, Grandpa, what’s going on?” In the pitch-blackness, Adam reached out and grabbed the walls for support.
“Shh, wait and listen, boy! You’ll hear it coming any second!”
Stifling his eruption of questions, Adam closed his mouth. Soon, his excited breathing quieted until there was only the faint, muffled thump of his heart.
An elbow nudged his ribs. “There it is! Hear it?”
Adam bent his head, listening intently. Yes, far away, there was a distant rumble, almost as if a mighty locomotive were approaching. Abruptly, a great wave of energy passed through the Cruiser, wobbling the ship on its axis.
“Bingo!” his grandfather shouted, holding onto the walls. “We’re in sync!”
As the lights came back on, their eyes met. His grandfather’s hood had been thrown back and the fuzz on his domed head was standing straight out in a ball of powerful static discharge. Adam let out a snark. “Hey, you’re a porcupine!
His grandfather silently pointed at Adam’s reflection in the monitor: his hair was even wilder. “Yikes! And I’m a poodle!” He tried to slick it down, but the static persisted. With a shrug, his grandfather pulled his hood back up over his head, shut the big monitor, and fastened the latches. Trying hard to stifle his persistent snickering, Adam settled into his gimbaled chair to watch his grandfather poke at more hidden switches. Another seat suddenly appeared from nowhere, smoothly unfolding and self-adjusting to the old man’s lanky form. As he slipped into it, the room’s surround sound returned with a roar, and with it, a cacophony of excited chatter rose from the crew below.
“Wow, what was that?” a voice quavered. “Some kind of dynamo revving up?”
“Yeah, it sucked all the energy out of the ship and made the lights go out!!”
A female voice cut in. “Eeww! My hair’s all poofed out!”
Chuckling, the old man bent low to his headset. “Get used to it, girl. That hair thing’s gonna happen every time we enter and leave the QDF!”
Adam scowled. “Ah … grandpa, the Q-what?”
“Oops, sorry. Too many acronyms. I mean the Quantum Distortion Field. By the way, guys, the whole Cruiser’s now enveloped in a space-time bubble.”
“Huh?” they chorused.
“In a way, we’re not here,” he shrugged. We don’t exist. We sorta disappeared.”
Adam slowly turned toward him. “What did you just say, Grandpa?”
“You named the Phantom Cruiser very aptly, my boy: it’s invisible. We’re ghosts, floating free from time and space. We can travel anywhere in the universe at any time, totally at our choosing.”
Everyone was listening in awed silence, their minds reeling.
Tola posed a question. “Um, we’re inside some kind of ‘parallel universe’?”
“You got it. And in spite of all those brainy physicists who put up red flags when they discovered pear-shaped nuclei, time travel is real and the time-space continuum is still linear in its trajectory,” he answered levelly. “While it might be a lot easier to go back in time than to go forward, the Cruiser’s really tough and has a lot of redundant systems. It handles the ‘forward’ part effortlessly. By the way, guys, there’s a lot more controls up here that I never had the time to figure out. The Cruiser may be able to step in and out of the QDF at will. You know, do weird things like appear, take some samples, and then disappear…,” he paused, waiting for them to catch up.
Tola let out a long breath. “Wow, that means we can actually see history happening, see our stupid mistakes face to face, and then change the way things are going in our present time, right?”
“Excellent observation,” the old man smiled. “This ship can be a tool to remodel our future. We’ll witness the real scoop: no historian’s research, no iffy legends, no second-hand guesses or intellectual opinions. But far more than that, we’ll be able to go prehistory, way before anything mankind has ever observed or conjectured!”
After a long, thoughtful silence, a small voice arose. “Um, what actually happened when you used your TimeWarper to get to Aurona, sir?”
“Why do you ask?” he prompted. “Are you puzzled by the timing?”
“Yes, sir. This is Ariel. I’m sitting next to Peter. And yes, the timing’s way off! You zipped to Aurona, and then after a few years, you zipped your weird body-clone back to Earth with the keys to our starship. In real time, those two trips would’ve taken our big starship fourteen hundred years! Your TimeWarper must’a really been bookin’!”
The old man let out a whoop. “You got it, girl! But, ah, ‘bookin’ isn’t the term I’d use, here: it’s more like the trips were instantaneous. All of you had to go into sleep mode for seven hundred Earth years, but I just stepped aboard the TimeWarper, pushed the wrong button, and found myself hovering outside Aurona’s shields.”
“Rats!” Peter groaned. “We wasted seven years of our lives sleeping?”
“To gain thousands more, living here on Aurona,” the old man finished quietly. “Just ask Adam. He’s already started his long journey. With guidance, you can, too.”
Adam had been thinking, and turned to his grandfther. “Um, I have another big question. Get ready, ‘cause this one’s a doozey. I’m-I’m just gonna take a chance, here.”
“Uh-oh, here we go again,” he grimaced. “All right, I’ll give it my best shot.”
“Does this Cruiser have any way to plug in a holo-cube? I’ve got one right here in my hip pack.” He patted his zippered pocket. “I took it outta the Tomb minutes before Elena and I left. I think it contains info from their earliest explorations of the Earth.”
“Wow! You actually found one? I’ve heard of ‘em, but I’ve never seen one!” He raised a finger. “You know, there is a holo-cube reader aboard, but I don’t know how it works. I am guessing it locks onto the cube’s space-time coordinates.”
The crew had lost him. “Huh?” someone squeaked. “What are those?”
“They’re really, really big numbers: long strings of numerical codes woven together and folded in on themselves, like DNA. Remember how your old Earth smartphones tagged photos with their GPS locations? Well, a similar kind of coordinates are recorded into Adam’s holo-cube, but they’re way more sophisticated. It doesn’t create images because it doesn’t need to. The Warper just … takes us there!”
Duron had been trying his hardest to catch up. “Adam, you found a holo-cube? You have actual records?” His voice wavered unsteadily over the surround sound. “Why, Aquan was our very first outreach! We modeled all our voyages from that one!”
The old man held out his hand. “Give me the cube, boy. I’ll plug it in. The coordinates should bring our Cruiser right to the source. Wait, just lift your arm. The controls are hidden under your armrest. That’s right, pull. It’ll flip it open….”
Adam whispered to his headset. “Um, could you give us a second here, Duron? This might take a bit of doing….” As he opened his armrest, there was a small touch screen glowing; a square indentation was off to the side. “Holy cow, Grandpa,” he scowled. “This stuff has been here all the time, right under my arm? We have a portal to another dimension?”
His grandfather turned red. “Um, ah, I gotta confess something here, boy: I pulled this whole chair, as is, out of the TimeWarper. I handed the assembly to the Elders as a package because it was way, way too complicated for me to reproduce. There are more buttons and gizmos under the other armrest, and I’m sure everything has some hidden mind switches, too. Anyway, here goes….” His big fingers shaking, the old man dropped the tiny cube into the hole.
Immediately, everything faded to black. Somewhere in the distance, there was a faint gibberish: the hissing, sibilant cadence of a strangely familiar language.
“W-who’s that, Adam?” Elena’s voice drifted out of the surround sound. Where’s all that talking coming from?”
“Let’s find out, hon.” Adam raised his mike a notch. “Everyone, turn on your translator buttons and listen!”
There were exclamations of surprise, followed by a flurry of tapping noises as they activated their buttons. As the whispering drifted closer, a blinding light suddenly enveloped them. Shading their eyes in the brilliance, they found themselves skimming across the surface of a phantom desert, right down at ground level.
Peter let out an exclamation of surprise. “Hey! I-I can’t see my hands!”
“Me either,” someone echoed. “Or my body! What’s going on?”
Adam intervened. “We’re not here guys, remember? Just wait and see….”
The Bandorese whispers had been growing steadily louder, more coherent. Over the din, a single, stronger voice started to narrate: “Yes, that is right, Namron; I am now recording this onto one of the new holo-cubes.… What? Yes, I think this should be called ‘Journey to Aquan, Trip Number 1.’ Remember to return it to the library module in our new underground dwelling when we return to Aurona. That’s right, Antechamber 6, Drawer 27. Let me see … yes. To open the drawer, press code ZZ-9799/SEQUENCE.”
Adam whispered into his headset. “That’s exactly where I found it, guys!”
The voice continued: “Wait! Are those trees in the distance? Yes! In the midst of this vast, dry land there is actually a swath of green! Our mothership’s cameras show the shape…. It looks like a large crescent.”
Suddenly, a forest was in front of them. The crew leaned forward excitedly. There seemed to be a tall spire towering over it. The Bandors quickened their pace.
“Amidst this extravagant vegetation there is an extremely tall tree growing in the center of large, circular clearing. It is spectacular. Our mothership’s subsurface mining scanner shows that the roots of this amazing tree spread unbroken to the north, south, east, and west for hundreds of miles! But wait! What is this? Upon closer examination, our metal detectors are revealing something we have never before experienced: the sap of this great tree contains traces of the common substance, gold!
The crew nodded knowingly. Yes, there was no doubt about it; this enormous tree was indeed the Motherlode. It soared far above them, its branches lost in the clouds.
Suddenly, quite unexpectedly, the scene fast-forwarded. The operator of the new holo-cube didn’t seem to be familiar with the controls. After a few minutes of thumping and rustling the sound came back on, but this time with a different narrating voice.
“We do not know what to do! A week ago, our leader accidentally ingested a small piece of the tree’s mature fruit and went into a coma. We examined it and found it to contain a mind-expanding drug that was impossible for our labs to synthesize. Upon recovery, our leader discovered his cognitive powers had increased at an exponential rate, and strongly urged us to take a cutting of this interesting tree. We rooted it, then placed it in suspended animation with the other amazing specimens we have collected.”
The narrating voice clicked off, the holo-cube’s camera went dark, and another scene opened. They crew found themselves outside a second, smaller clearing. Dark forest loomed in the background. As the Bandors entered cautiously, a blinding light suddenly enveloped them. A human … no, not a human, an apparition formed out of hot, glowing coals was swinging a fiery, laserlike beam!
A frantic voice cut in. “What is happening?? We can go no further! We are terrified! This-this great phantom creature is guarding what appears to be a second, smaller tree in the garden-forest.”
Amidst a lot of shouting, the scene went blank. As it reopened, the holo-cube recorder was rising off the ground. The operator seemed to have been in some kind of scuffle. “I-I have just been attacked! Although we are approaching the tree with great caution and from many directions, the guardian will not let us get close enough to obtain a specimen! Our weapons are proving useless against it, passing right through its body! The creature is permitting us to record this beautiful tree on our holo-cube, however. We respect and hold in utmost admiration this superior being. Ensuing generations will indeed see and hear of this, our first and most remarkable encounter with another race on Aquan, for we are recording it for all time in the Great Book of Spirits.”
Apparently, the Bandors could look at the tree but not touch it. The crew watched in silence as the scene unfolded softly, like a flower. Perfectly symmetrical and deep, rich green in color, a small tree swayed in the breeze, its pendant lilylike blossoms a translucent, glowing white. The crew squinted, leaning toward it.
The branches seemed to be hollow: some kind of radiant light was pulsing from within, bathing the clearing in a shadowless brilliance. There was fruit in abundance, clinging close to the branches in soft, peach-colored hues. A gurgling sound emanated from somewhere under the dewy, small-bladed grass. They searched intently for the source, listening and turning in their seats. The clearing seemed to be swept clean and manicured to a velvetlike sheen. As the gurgling grew louder, they looked straight down.
Water! Clear, pure water flowed outward in all directions, away from the trunk! As they watched in shock and bewilderment, there was a swift, rushing sound somewhere behind them. They turned barely in time to see a blur of enveloping wings, then darkness.
In the long, awestruck silence, there was a subtle movement in their midst. A lanky Bandor warrior politely stood up, cleared his throat, and turned to face everyone. “I believe this is the point where I come in,” he explained. Without another word, he removed his helmet and gloves, closed his eyes, and concentrated. As they watched him in total confusion, his features began to bump around.
Kron leaped to his feet. “Jaban? Could it be…. Is it actually you?”
The tall Bitron raised a finger. “Hello, Kron, my dear friend. Yes, it is. I have disguised myself as a warrior to join your group. I needed to see how this remarkable development unfolded. Now that you’re all so close to getting some real answers, I believe that I have the extremely important missing pieces of your great Aurona puzzle. I’m sure they’ll unravel any remaining mysteries.”
He turned to Duron. “As your primary means of transportation, you Bandors used TimeWarpers in your early days of exploration. Wherever or whenever you traveled in time, you borrowed freely from your observations: languages, architecture, ideas or inventions, you absorbed them all and wove them into your daily life, establishing them as part of your great culture. It all stopped right after that great seaquake and tsunami destroyed the great underground structure you called the Tomb. All your leaders died in that disaster, and your people called an abrupt end to all planetary exploration. What’s more, though, and quite troubling, is that they voted to erase all memory of those trips.”
The elders pulled back in surprise and shock. “W-we did?” Duron stammered. “That must mean Adam’s small holo-cube is the last remnant.”
Jaban nodded. “It is, and that’s why it’s so priceless. But as to your real origins, where you actually came from, I believe Tola and Adam’s grandfather have the answers.” He turned to the little round man expectantly.
Tola stumbled and then began. “Well, Jaban’s right. I’m going to attempt to put everybody’s wild, racing thoughts into words. I-I don’t know what to say here, guys, but I think we’ve just been given the Ultimate Privilege…,” he paused, thinking. “I’m very familiar with this subject, so let me try to paraphrase the actual words for you: ‘Then God planted a garden in Eden, in the East. He made all kinds of trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat….’”
“You’re kidding, Tola!” Adam interrupted. “All that stuff is just….”
“Is it?” Tola cut him off. “Let me finish, sir, and then you decide.” He paused a moment to collect his thoughts and then continued. “The Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil was in the middle of the garden, and also The Tree of Life. A river flows out of the garden, and then divides into four great rivers: The first is named Pishon. It flows through Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold in this land is good….”
Tola paused. “Is that enough? Do I need to continue?”
Duron raised his voice haltingly. “But-but I do not understand. How is it possible that you humans have a written record of this encounter? Our ancestors did not mention they came across any of your race on Aquan; this was their very first outpost!”
Adam’s grandfather had been listening quietly. With a sigh, he cleared his throat to speak. “Duron. Tola. Everyone. Think carefully now as you look at me.” He switched on the big monitor’s cameras, flipped back his hood, and removed his dark glasses to show his face. He raised a thin brow questioningly.
“Maybe everything was … the other way around?”
They stared at him a minute, and then it sunk in.
They were looking at a Bandor.
BB Prescott, Aurona
