Time Travel Universe, page 9
“Parts of our world disappeared,” Kira cut in.
They stood silent for a moment before Quinn spoke. “That fits with what we know. They destroy worlds and return them to the Stone Age if possible. Usually, they don’t do it so quickly, but I guess every world is different. I only know bits and pieces. We came here because we followed a group who sent us a distress call. I think they may have been looking for the beacon. This world could be the center of their big plan or at least part of it. Do you know how we can get inside?” Quinn asked.
“We can show you the path, but it’s heavily guarded,” Kira added.
Quinn motioned for them to continue, and then slowly advanced down a torchlit corridor. As they moved ahead, the tunnels expanded in all directions. Several hundred yards down the pathway, they emerged into a large maze-like complex that was more brightly lit and bustling with activity.
“This is some kind of underground village,” Dr. Green said.
“What exactly happened?” Quinn asked.
“Section by section, they transformed large tracts of land. Not just the land, but everything above and below. They stole what was here and traded places with what was on another Earth. Piece by piece they stole our world, the best of it, and replaced it with theirs,” Kira said.
“Did they do that over the whole planet or just here?” Quinn asked.
“They did it everywhere. They started with mines and water and then moved whole cities.”
“Why would they do that?” Jeremy asked.
“Their universe is dying. And there are different versions of them from different universes, some in different stages of decline. From what we’ve gathered, they’ve been mapping out a network of Earths and other worlds across this multiverse and others that they can plunder. We had spies in their camps once before, but now they are all gone.”
She paused before Ubuntu added, “Killed.”
Quinn reflected on the implications. The web The Way wove in his head was simply too vast to comprehend. There must be countless iterations of the organization, and they all might be doing things uniquely. He wondered if they coordinated with the different versions or if it was just some chaotic mess that played out across the vast expanse, a free-for-all between whoever had access to the same technology. There would be limitless universes to plunder but also infinite worlds on the brink of death.
“Do you think there’s anything you can do to stop them?” Quinn asked.
Ubuntu’s face changed. “I honestly don’t know, but their power comes from within the Great Pyramid. It’s the most dangerous and safest place to be. That’s why we’ve built this here. We can take you to the edge of our new home, but from there, you will be on your own.”
Quinn wondered what kind of safeguards were in place around the beacon and only wished he could risk scanning the area more thoroughly. “I think there’s only one way we’ll find what we need. We have to go there,” Quinn said.
Chapter 11
Earth 2/Multiverse 732, beneath the Great Pyramid, loop 14
Jeremy trotted closely beside Kira, doing his best to make small talk as she led the way forward toward the Great Pyramid. “You have a lot of interesting stories, and I hope you find what you’re looking for, for all our sakes. But I have to leave now and stay with my people,” she said.
“I hope this isn’t the last time we see you,” Jeremy said.
She smiled, but a haunting glint appeared in her eyes. “We’ve lost many friends who’ve tried to stop them, so for your sake, I hope you’re right.”
Jeremy stayed glued to Kira’s face until Ubuntu spoke, “You’ll need to follow this path a hundred yards until you come to a small bend. Follow it all the way left until you reach a false dead end. You’ll need to push until it opens. Once it closes, you won’t be able to return this way. You’ll be on your own,” he said.
With that, Quinn and his group took their leave in the direction of the Great Pyramid. Jeremy waved to Kira. She smiled again but didn’t return the gesture.
“I feel for you, man. I do,” Axel said.
“Quit playing with me,” Jeremy replied.
“I’m not messin’ with you, man. She might’ve been interested.”
“What makes you think we won’t see her again?”
“You’re right. Maybe we will. There’s hope for you yet,” Axel replied.
Quinn ignored the banter and led the way forward. The corridor grew narrow and dark. Once they arrived at the bend, the temperature dropped ten degrees, and an eerie sound emerged.
The air buzzed as scarab beetles flooded from the passage. Their mass movement drummed loudly in their ears. Clicks and hums blended seamlessly into a continuous hiss that enveloped the surroundings.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Dr. Green said.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got your back,” Axel said.
The swarm rushed toward them. Axel lifted his leg and stomped.
“Don’t,” Quinn said.
Axel stood on one leg as the swarm rushed by, leaving them alone.
“They’re harmless. But I’m pretty sure it’s a sign we’re getting close. My guess is we’re getting closer to the beacon. It may emit a frequency that’s scaring them,” Quinn added.
“I think you’re correct,” Dr. Green said.
The swarm receded and the walkway grew quiet once more. Quinn scanned the nearby area and strode a few paces. The pathway ended a few more steps ahead, and the last few beams of light emitted from the closest lantern faded to pitch.
Quinn touched the cold, solid wall. “I think it’s here. Let’s push together.” They placed their hands on the center of the wall. “Now push,” he said.
The stone wall slid forward with a harsh scrape and moved unexpectedly long before revealing a space where two side walls then converged. Quinn sauntered in, and the others followed suit. Every few meters, the forward wall retracted and the side walls closed in. The process quickened as they delved deeper and forced them to sprint at the end.
Just as they approached their limits, the transformation stopped, and they found themselves in another larger corridor. Faint specs of light filtered in from above in a linear path. Dr. Green attempted to get close enough to one of the light beams to peer outside. “Somebody give me a lift.”
Axel interlocked his fingers and placed his palms facing up. Dr. Green used them for a step and thrust himself up, getting as close to the small crevice as possible. He steadied himself against the wall. “I can see open ground on the left. We’re underneath the base of the left-corner entrance to the pyramid. It should extend 230 meters forward and to the right. So I think we should move down the right side of this corridor and then take the first left when we find one,” Dr. Green said.
Quinn turned behind him. They were sealed off from where they had come. The only direction they could move was left or right. “Right it is then.”
On Tier 1, Cameron returned to the simulator. She activated the visor and almost immediately controlled her breathing to slow her heart rate and create the desired brainwaves needed to enter reverse mental time dilation.
“Welcome back. I’m assuming you want to help Quinn on the ground,” Sentry said.
“I want to discover what’s causing the energy field and see if we can disable it or shield ourselves so we can communicate with the surface. Heck, I’ll settle for a basic scan. We’re still not exactly clear on how or when it gets activated. I know using the spheres activates it. But there’s more to it than that.”
Sentry changed the environment settings and brought her to the same French chateau she found herself in when she first fully accessed the program. She exhaled.
“Yes, I do sense you like this place. I’m fond of it myself.”
Cameron sat for a moment and inhaled the fresh scents around her, the strings of flowers, the slight aroma of fresh honey and milk in the small kitchen.
“Have you told us everything you know about the spheres and how they work?”
“I have on a conscious level, but I may be missing some less obvious subtleties with this form. We can run a simulated environment and see if the construct might reveal something my conscious mind has missed. My biggest benefit is that I can tell you directly, but only if I can see it on the conscious level. Sometimes to synthesize knowledge and see all the possibilities, you have to look beyond the conscious.”
“In that case, put me back in the simulation.”
“As you wish.”
Near the underground edge of the Great Pyramid, Quinn’s group traveled a hundred meters right, and then the corridor grew shrouded in darkness. “Quiet,” Dr. Green said.
The chatter and footsteps halted. All that remained was the whispering wind, like a faint whistle. “You hear that? We must be close. The passage to the way in should be on the left side of this wall.”
Jeremy shifted left and cupped a hand behind his ear, stepping forward. The whispers increased to a howl. Suddenly, the wind ceased and gave way to the faint click of pincers cutting through the darkness. The rhythmic scuttling of tiny exoskeletons echoed with each calculated step. Minute vibrations reached Jeremy’s right foot. He tilted his head down, and the swarm engulfed his shoe. “Scorpions!” he shouted. He danced in a janky motion, shaking right and then left.
Axel aimed his light toward Jeremy’s feet, where a swarm of around ten Egyptian fat-tailed scorpions, each around three inches long, made their way up the neck of Jeremy’s shoe. Axel elongated a baton and swiped at the two with pincers retracted and ready to strike.
Jeremy jumped up as high as he could and huffed, coming down on two or three at a time with a crunch. “Those will kill you,” Dr. Green said. Jeremy kept hopping a while before Dr. Green added, “And unfortunately, we don’t have any anti-venom.”
“Not helpful,” Jeremy said, still dancing the janky dance.
Axel and Quinn stomped on the remaining scorpions that scuttled nearby. Axel kept swinging the baton at the few that found their way up Jeremy’s shoe.
“Why is it just me? Why aren’t they crawling up your legs?”
“Must be your animal magnetism,” Axel said.
Jeremy said nothing but continued to hop a while longer until the swarm stopped and all visible scorpions ceased all but the slightest motion from a few stingers near-death.
After the dust settled, Dr. Green turned left to face the open corridor that lay in front of them. There, in the flickering torchlight, a baroque golden sarcophagus appeared. Its surface mirrored the reflected light in a dance of fiery patterns.
“Hooooly . . . crap,” Dr. Green said.
The crypt stood tall and regal, adorned with intricate engravings that told ancient tales of gods and pharaohs.
As they drew closer, the surface painted fleeting patterns upon the walls. Jeremy stretched his hand forward just over the brim. “Don’t touch it. It could be booby-trapped,” Dr. Green said.
“Yeah. You don’t want any more of those scorpions swarming all over you.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” Jeremy said.
“You sure about that?” Axel asked.
“I doubt what we’re looking for is in this room. This must be bait,” Quinn said.
“Can’t fault your reasoning there, Boss,” Axel said.
For a few moments, they stood motionless. Quinn analyzed his options, and then an odd color of the room became apparent. “Are you guys seeing what I’m seeing?”
The crew stood staring at the center of the bejeweled sarcophagus, inspecting it closer. “You’re going to have to be a little more specific,” Jeremy said.
“The shade of the room keeps changing. It’s a shuttle shift, almost as if . . .” Quinn stopped himself.
“Something is flashing,” Dr. Green finished.
“Yes. Something is flashing.”
Axel and Jeremy shook their gaze from the center of the room and eyed the walls, hunting for the slightest change in tone. “I see it, too, Boss.”
“Yeah. I see it. It’s like a slight red or orange, and then it disappears for a second,” Jeremy added.
Axel dropped to the floor, scouring the ground. Dr. Green inspected the corners and around the sarcophagus. Jeremy and Quinn eyed the walls. The process continued for several minutes. Jeremy lightly punched a wall with his closed fist. “Where the hell is that thing?”
No one replied, but Quinn roamed around the same section. “I think I see a subtle difference in intensity on that wall, which means it should be coming from over here,” he said from the opposite side of the room.
Axel met his gaze but from the floor. He felt with his hands until he hit the corner perpendicular to where Quinn kept his focus. “Under here. There’s a gap.”
Everyone dropped to the ground.
“I think I . . .” Steps marching toward them interrupted him. Quinn shot up and twisted in the direction of the approaching feet.
Four strangely clad men strode into the room. Their attire was a fusion of sleek metallic fabrics and flowing, iridescent robes, shimmering and shifting with every movement.
Goosebumps rose on Quinn’s arms. The men’s piercing eyes swept across the assembled group. Quinn felt as if he’d just fallen into an episode of Stargate SG-1. One of the men spoke. He couldn’t understand him, and then he realized the language was something completely foreign.
Dr. Green squinted. Quinn assumed he was attempting to recognize the language patterns without success.
The men charged forward right up to Quinn’s face. “Come with us now,” the man closest said.
“I guess they know English after all,” Axel said.
That remark earned him a knock against the back of his head.
“Ay, what the hell, man?”
Quinn gave Axel a look that told him not to do anything just yet. He signaled them to follow, and they turned. Dr. Green stayed behind a few feet and took his time. All the men wore sheathed swords, which clashed with the robes that Quinn suspected were coated with exotic material. One of the men tapped a square object on his side. The walls beside them lurched away and revealed a well-lit large chamber.
Jeremy gasped. He first saw her exposed bronze leg and the ropes tied around her ankle. Kira lay bound on the floor with a man standing over her. She writhed from left to right, attempting to wiggle free from the thick rope that bound her waist and wrists. A gag in her mouth quelled her speech to muted, intelligible notes.
The leader of the guard group motioned for them to sit down. When they hesitated, his hand went for the butt of his sword. “We get the message,” Dr. Green said and sat down first. Jeremy went next. Axel grumbled but sat down next to Quinn.
Once seated, the men tied up each of Quinn’s group. Quinn sat on the hard ground as they grabbed his arms, placed them behind his back, and wrapped a thick twine tightly around his wrists. Once secure, they secured each member.
The twine chafed Quinn’s wrists with barely any movement, like rough burlap. He wasn’t sure if that was just what they used to tie up prisoners in that situation or if they were just doing it to add a little more discomfort. The longer he sat, the harder he found it to maintain a position without irritating his skin.
The men left Quinn’s group squirming. After a few minutes, Quinn wondered how long they would need to sit there before someone returned. “At least they didn’t gag us,” Axel said. “You know,” Axel continued, his voice carrying a playful tone, “if I had known we were going to a bonding retreat, I would have brought some marshmallows and graham crackers. We could’ve turned this into a proper campfire gathering.”
“But they did gag her,” Jeremy said, nodding to Kira. “Are you okay, Kira?” he asked.
Kira continued to struggle. She mumbled something, but the gag prevented her from saying anything they could recognize.
Jeremy gritted his teeth. “I want to punch them,” he said, stopping as if he were about to say something more.
“Easy there, tiger. I’m pretty sure we’d get clobbered without some extra manpower. We need to use our brains on this one,” Axel said.
“They must have her people too unless they’ve done something worse,” Jeremy said.
Kira squirmed, mumbling. Jeremy clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms. The next few moments stretched out for everyone. Eventually, Kira relaxed as best they assumed she could, and Jeremy relented his rants.
Dr. Green’s eyes strained and forehead wrinkled, which Quinn assumed as deep thought. Jeremy remained hypnotized by Kira’s plight, and any escape attempt currently eluded Quinn.
“Hey, guys,” Dr. Green whispered. Once he had their attention, he wiggled free a small object he’d tucked between his waistband and hip. “I found this underneath the wall just as we were being captured. We might be able to use it to get out of here.”
Quinn leaned in to get a better look at the small metallic device that featured a series of buttons and a tiny display screen. His eyebrows furrowed as he studied the mysterious object.
“What is it?” he asked.
Dr. Green’s eyes gleamed. “I’m not entirely sure, but it appears to be a high-tech keycard or hacking device. It must have been dropped or hidden here by someone who came before us. It might even be connected to the beacon we’ve been searching for, or maybe . . .”
The march of steps interrupted him and grew louder. Silence fell over Quinn and his companions. Dr. Green’s eyes met Quinn’s. With a swift motion, Dr. Green returned the mysterious object to his waistband, concealing it once again. The footsteps drew closer, and the group braced themselves for the arrival of their captors.
The door swung open, and a burly figure stepped inside. He was followed by two more armed men with hardened expressions. They surveyed the room, their eyes lingering on Quinn and his companions before settling on Kira. “Stand up,” the burly man commanded.
One of the armed men approached Kira, removing the gag with a swift, almost careless motion. Kira coughed and took a deep breath, and her eyes darted around the room. “Where is it?” the burly man demanded. “Don’t bother pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about. We’ve been watching you.”
