EarthUnder (The Meteorite Chronicles Book 1) (14 page)

We remained there with the sea window behind us and watched as several individuals approached from various directions. Soon there were several dozen Terans standing in front of us. They all wore robes with bare feet. Mina told me that the robes were for my cultural benefit since Terans find no need for clothing. This group of representatives appeared to have the same diversity that one would find in a group of humans. They did not show the same smiling face that I had grown accustomed to seeing during the time with Jasmina. They were calm and studied me with obvious intensity.

Mina introduced me to them and many of them nodded knowingly as if they already knew who I was and why I was there. One of the older looking men moved forward to face us. Mina told me that this was Talleyrand, one of the eldest of their kind. Talleyrand looked at both of us, back and forth. He reached out to take my hand and put one above and below mine as he gave me his blessing. He looked into Jasmina’s eyes for an extended time and I could see that they were speaking to each other. The others nodded several times in unison and smiled as a group while this took place. Talleyrand looked back at me, welcomed me to his world, and wished that I find ultimate success in our endeavor. He bade us farewell as he turned to rejoin the rest of the group.

Just as he met the front of the group another individual came forward from the group. As he approached, I recognized him. My spine tingled. It was me! Now, this was my idea of weird. The closer he came, the more I felt that this had to be some kind of trick. He too stopped to take my hand. Mina introduced us and told me that this was my twin. She wanted me to know that part of my genetic line had come from Teran strain and that throughout time there had been uncanny parallels between members of his line and mine. She thought I might enjoy knowing this phenomenon existed. She could see that I was a bit put off by meeting myself. It did feel strange knowing that I actually had a real live doppelganger. She told me that beyond appearance there was very little similarity. Then Jasmina told me as she waved her hand across the group that these Terans would be there to help us in many special ways, and not just this group, but that they would lead if the strength of others was ever needed during our quest. There was a strong sense of security in the air, knowing that these and others would be helping to keep us on task and safe from harm. They all moved forward to encircle us with arms outstretched; it felt to me that this had created a special bond of familiarity and friendship between us all. A moment later they all moved off, and blended into the colorful forest around us. I turned back to look again at the barrels of waste resting there on the other side of the window next to us. My thoughts grew heavy with the importance of our pending mission to save the world.

Chapter Seven

The Tube

T
he main goal had always been to live a simple life gathering rocks and traveling to unfamiliar corners of this big blue marble. Now, after half a lifetime of learning how big the planet really is, I am put to task helping a group of aliens save the planet from its pending doom. My simple life had just rocketed to the opposite end of the simplicity spectrum. There was no choosing to be done. I had to help make this all happen immediately. With confidence and conviction I began to rehearse in my mind how we would make this project come together. The first hurdle to cover was getting to the Natural History Museum.

Mina in reply said, “I will get us there.” She detailed how there is no need to return to the surface until we get where we are going next. This was a priceless asset since no adversary on the surface can predict where we will appear and we can avoid any hazards along the way. So the plan would be to position ourselves as close as possible to the museum and make arrangements for a meeting. Once we met with the science team, we would need to remain close to respond to their reaction. I don’t want to say too much, but rather allow the specimen to impress the right people. Then when they come running with a flurry of inquiries, we can give specifics. The idea should be to put together a small group of scientists and government officials to bring to New Tera for an orientation similar to mine.

I heard once in a seminar that to complete a large task the best way to begin is with small slow steps. There remained a sense of urgency, but we will want to take it slow. We needed to build a network of believers who can educate others. Jasmina said it was time for us to begin. I checked my pocket to make certain the stone was still there and glanced one last time at the dead water holding down the rusting barrels of nuclear waste. As we began to rise and move on, I surveyed all of the colorful life moving around us. When we drew closer to the ceiling of this world beneath, I could see trees and other brilliant plant life growing down from the top as well as animals and people standing there as if wearing gravity boots. The top and sides of this cavernous world were as actively populated as the floor.

We used the Vug once more and I soon learned why. Mina asked me if I would enjoy crossing through an ocean rather than under it. She could tell instantly that I was all for it when I replied, “Heck, yeah!” I was surprised; we didn’t head for a window and instead turned to a side wall and into the Gray. Before long we emerged into the ocean. Jasmina said this was our Atlantic Ocean. She explained that the sea creatures can sense our approach and move away from the path of a Teran traveler so there are no concerns for collision with creatures. She also pointed out that this deep underwater, there were few creatures and no human mechanized vessels. We shot through thousands of miles of ocean in minutes. I marveled at our movement and what a gift this was to be able to traverse the planet this way, and how it lowered the risk while making our way to the museum. Mina told me that the Vug would carry us through stone again and come to rest in a dark abandoned tunnel, part of the London subway system. We would check into rooms at a hotel near Heathrow airport and then immediately take the Tube to the Museum. Our hope was to meet with one of the meteorite collection curators, to show them the fragment of brain bone meteorite and get them interested enough to rush the making of a thin section.

We were at the point in our journey where things needed to fall together flawlessly. But I could see too many things wrong with going back to the surface. If any scientist were to get a view of this stone with a microscope, the excitement would build rapidly. Someone needed to be there on this day for that to get started. As people begin to realize what we had brought here, the din of curiosity would be an endless flood of needles pricking at the skin of Man’s limited knowledge. No human could imagine where all this might go. There was no idea of how the people would accept or deny the truth of what we were about to bring into the light of this sun-scorched planet I call home. I knew where to take this stone, whom to talk to and whom to trust with invaluable scientific research material. I had zero clue of what to expect in response to a specimen so beyond the boundaries of this physical world.

The Vug made its way through the Gray to an opening. There was light and movement showing the direction to the Tube. As we made our way towards the light I could hear the familiar roar of the Tube. When we drew closer to my “former” world, I struggled to get my head around the fact that I was an alien. It was already beyond imagination that I had been chosen for this mission, but learning that this had been planned many years before my time, and that DNA stuff, and then meeting the body double, it was a lot to comprehend. Why was I the one? Jasmina splashed ahead through the pooled water of our temporary parking spot.

“Not one,” she said; “there are many like you within the Teranian population. This is a byproduct of DNA culmination and sequencing techniques. Your mental processes are uniquely yours alone as is your overall personality, and combined with your terrestrial DNA and your birth and growth development here on the surface of Earth. You are our best hope for the success of this endeavor.”

I stumbled, saying, “Whoa, way to make me feel special, Mina,” just as we stepped into the illuminated portion of this side shaft. Jasmina turned to make a gesture behind us. I could only guess that she had activated some sort of barrier to hide the Vug.

“Yes,” she said, “it is secure.” We continued out into the subway. I felt embarrassed for my world, much like the feeling from a messy desk, bedroom, or house when surprised by visitors. The flavor of the air was a thick blend of diesel fumes, cigarette smoke, concrete, stagnant water, and essence of human. One could feel the air on the tongue: a syrup of aromatic signature that morphed from moment to moment and place to place. How quickly I had forgotten the subtle nuances of my world. Maybe I had learned to ignore them and being away opened my eyes to all they had denied. I began to notice how the surface light had no vibrancy or color. My world seemed stark and lifeless except for the roar of noises and the movement of people and machines. As we walked out of the Tube and onto the gauntlet of streets and structures, Mina reminded me that she too had lived her life here as if to comfort and remind me that I was not alone. She took hold of my hand as we wove our way through the crowds of pedestrians moving about their selfish lives. I could feel her strength in the warm glow of her hand wrapped around mine.

We only had to cross the bustling street and walk halfway down the building to get to the main entrance. There we would ask a docent to call down to the catacombs below this majestic storehouse of historic treasures to ask one of the curators to come to the reception desk and escort us to the laboratory. Since I had been here many times, there would be no need for ceremony. Anyone in the department of mineralogy would assume the reason for the visit. As we waited in the great entry hall, Jasmina began to show a concerned look in her eyes. She stepped very close to me and asked that I break the stone again. She wanted me to keep the larger fragment and let the scientists do their work on a much smaller piece. Her suggestion was that we hold back material for the sake of posterity. This made sense, as a probe session and thin section would not require much material for what we were trying to accomplish. As long as they had a convincing amount of fusion crust in order to establish authenticity of origin, the rest could be held back for a plethora of reasons. My instincts told me that there was a deeper, more specific concern in her eyes.

Mina responded to my thoughts: “Ah, that’s the Teran in you coming through. Your feeling for what you see in my eyes is correct. Later, when we can, I will share with you my worry.” I felt a twinge of discomfort listening to Mina refer to the alien blood coursing through my veins. I felt like a decaffeinated brand of human; I still looked like a human or a Teran but I wasn’t all there. Mina shot me a look I hadn’t seen since we were kids, and I got the message immediately.

As we waited, we slowly gravitated out of the flow of traffic coming into the museum and stood next to the wall, where we labored to break the fragment again. A small, perfect piece broke free, and this piece had a very nice representative section of glossy, bubbled, black fusion crust on one surface. This piece was just what was needed to get things started. A few minutes later we noticed an official-looking person wearing a lab smock with an ID badge walking briskly towards us from the far end of the great, main hall of the museum. She was dwarfed by the distance and the height of the walls on both sides. This building looked as though it was built by giants for giants. We were greeted with handshakes and guided to a marble staircase behind the security kiosk that took us below street level several floors down to the mineral department and the meteorite collections room. There we met with several other researchers and students who were busily working on labeling parts of the collection. I reacted as the proverbial “kid in the candy store.” Laid out on various work surfaces were countless world-renowned specimens, many of which I had seen photographed in books I had read through until the pages fell out. These people were in the midst of a large project reorganizing the collection and labeling pieces before moving them to new drawers.

Our arrival seemed to instigate an impromptu break for everyone. Many moved off to get a bite to eat and coffee or tea. We remained there in the room with a small group of interested onlookers that moved to a small workstation with a microscope. The fragment was placed under the microscope and everyone took a turn looking at the new arrival. One would have thought we had brought in a newborn baby the way everyone ogled the fragment under magnification. Immediately several people noticed the bonelike structure of the matrix and others commented on the lustrous, thick fusion crust. This was the first of many steps that we hoped would lead to the inevitable outcome we were there to instigate. I told Vanessa, the head curator, to please pay close attention to the extraterrestrial age of this specimen. Beyond that, I knew all of the other standards were soon to be broken or seriously violated. Mina stood back and watched as everyone took a turn at the microscope. The curator promised us that a thin section would be started the next day and should be finished quickly. I felt the question before it came. Vanessa queried, “Where is the rest of the stone?”

I replied that the main mass was with Mina’s people. As usual, any answer would have been accepted as long as there was a chance to obtain more for research. There are set guidelines implemented for classifying meteorites, and a piece would have to be donated for a repository research sample. I knew this could be taken care of later, but for now it was critical to get people to see this stone up close and to get them to start probing the matrix. Once scientists have seen this specimen in cross-polarized light under magnification and have compared the matrix to a terrestrial standard in a microprobe, an endless list of questions will arise.

I could feel the sense of urgency emanating from Mina. It seemed there wasn’t much time to get from the research phase to the part where world leaders would come forward with concerns, inquiries, and action. We needed to turn the world around now, not later. If Jasmina and I couldn’t make it happen, then something more dramatic and cataclysmic would need to be done and soon. The hope was that a great deal of this sales job would be done by the scientists. When Vanessa finished her turn at the microscope, she stood up and stepped out of the anxious group crowding the work station. You could hear the comments as normally calm and reserved research nerds finished their turn at the view. The excitement grew exponentially as comments flew and suggestions were made. I could hear the wheels turning in their heads. This specimen made no sense to anyone.

Vanessa pulled us away from the group and asked us to explain this joke. She had the half look in her eyes of someone asking a dire question while hoping it was an impossible, almost unforgivable prank. I leaned into her suggestive grip on my arm and replied that this was very serious business. She lowered her face to look deeper into my eyes over the rim of her glasses as if this was her way of seeing into the truth of my expression. She pulled the gloves from her hands as she moved swiftly back to the microscope. A few clever words disbanded the group and people went back to their projects.

Vanessa took another peek through the scope, carefully took the sample from the stage, placed it in a Teflon specimen bag, and labeled it for the technician that would start the thin section. A small crumb was still under the microscope, which she bagged separately. Vanessa looked at us through the bag as she stared closely at the tiny crumb. She told us that she couldn’t wait for the technician to finish the section and that she had time reserved on equipment that night and the crumb would be examined by her through the night. This was a good sign that its special, unique characteristics had gotten their attention. The curator urged us to stay close to the museum and to call her when we got settled as she might have questions for us.

We climbed the stone stairs again to leave the historic building, but just before reaching the ground floor flight of steps Mina grabbed my arm as she stared into the steps with the far-off look of a dreamer. “Laurent is here,” she whispered with acute intensity. “He has many men and they are in and around this building! There is something else; I cannot see what it is but it is not good. The Elders are calling to me, but I cannot hear them clearly. We must make our way to the Vug; it will help amplify their thoughts.”

Hanging from the walls of the stairway at each landing was a thick plush curtain. Jasmina pulled me behind the curtain next to us, took a firm hold of my arm, and pulled me into the stone wall. Here we were again in the soup. I found myself growing more comfortable with moving through stone as a ghost. It felt much safer than walking the streets and corridors of a city on the surface. Knowing that we were being hunted made the cool, dark dank of the Gray that much more comfortable. I felt something also; I felt fear and concern in Mina’s grip on my hand. As we drifted through the Gray, I could feel her energy more than ever before. I could not hear her thoughts, but I could feel them changing and I could sense the level of her emotion. My strong, fearless little Jasmina trembled.

In seconds, we reached the Vug. Inside the Vug there was an air of comfort and security like a warm campfire on a cold winter night. We lay against the side and slipped down into the cradle of its egg-shaped form. I didn’t ask any questions. Mina began explaining what she had seen and felt. While she was talking to me, she was explaining to the Elders and others in our watch group what had transpired. Somehow our pursuers knew where we would emerge and they had been in position, preparing to intercept us. She had sensed the presence of a number of bandits which she had tracked before when they were after me. She recognized several of them specifically, but there was one she did not know and there was something about this individual that caused her to feel alarm and dread.

Suddenly, Talleyrand appeared in the Vug. He sat across from us and silently listened to Mina speak of her concerns. When she finished, Talleyrand reassured us that we were safe. He had sent a pair of our doppelgangers off in the direction of the airport to our hotel room there. There was something else he hadn’t covered yet and I could feel it wasn’t pleasant information. I tried to imagine how this could get any worse, but then it really did. Talleyrand divulged a long-held secret that had been kept from Jasmina and her family: the Teranor had found their way to Earth and were infiltrating humankind with their own genetic line. Somehow, the dark ones had mastered the ability to shield their thoughts from the Terans. The Elders felt that the Teranor were plotting to instigate a conflict between our two races that would result in our self-destruction through a minimal effort by the Teranor. Our encounter with one of them confirmed for the Teran Elders that this was plausible. Our mission was now a dangerous race. There were so many clocks ticking to the same destructive end, and any one of those clocks could be the first to run out of time. Talleyrand assured us that he would bring unlimited support to our aid as needed. As he faded away Mina called him back. She asked him why his image was so dim in the museum and why their thoughts were blanked in a shroud of darkness. He replied that this was how it was confirmed to be the dark ones. We were being isolated, jammed basically. The Teran’s power comes from the power of thought. Disrupt their communal thought and you break their strength. The Teranor were using a rudimentary military strategy; divide and conquer. Talleyrand was gone and we slumped there in our Vug, staring and thinking.

Now the questions began to ignite in my mind. The first question was how would we call Vanessa to leave our phone number? Mina told me to visualize myself calling the museum to speak to Vanessa and she would take care of the rest. I could hear the phone ringing and the voice mail greeting. When the machine beeped, I spoke, leaving my business number, and ended the call. Mina told me I would hear the ring if she should call. We lay there for hours thinking and talking. Now Jasmina was as full of inquiry as I was. Our concerns and fears felt as if on the same page. We both had issues with the unknown, and it seemed that Terans did feel stronger emotions than humans. Claus Laurent was not my only adversary in this business of recovering space rocks, but I didn’t wish to share with Mina how many jerks there really were out there who would do anything to trip me up. The only silver lining to this cloud was knowing that they were all trying to beat each other out as well.

While I lay there pondering my own thoughts, Mina was asking questions of her community. She shared with me that many things made better sense now, and that because she was of the surface Terans, she had been left out of some parts of the communal knowledge as a precaution in the case that the Elder’s suspicions were correct. Turns out that for as long as the Terans had prepared a genetic line for this day, so had the Teranor, and the Teranor had mastered mind isolation to prevent being discovered. The most recent concern for all was that there might be Teranor disguised within the Teranian population in EarthUnder. I began to understand how I could feel Mina’s fear. She was feeling the emotions of an entire race of people. She was recalling their ancient past and the nightmare her people lived with prior to their jump to our world. She was responding to the paranoia developed over millions of years of concern that this day might be realized. This was all flooding into her thoughts while we lay there trying to figure out what to do next.

Just then the Vug filled with the rattling clang of a telephone ringing. Mina gestured to me to respond to the sound. I said hello and Vanessa replied without hesitation. “Hello, Bryce, are you sitting down?” Vanessa inquired.

“Yep, ” I replied in brief slang.

“Well, again you have brought us a unique, exciting, yet puzzling goody.” Vanessa continued with the conservative air of a true nerd scientist. “So far there is no way to tell what this is. It breaks all the standards and it will require a lot more tests before we can even hint at what it might be. Still, it is so unusual that I have already made some calls to other institutions and I got several emeritus curators out of bed to come take a look. I’ve never done that before, so I am truly hoping that I haven’t shot myself in the foot. What you have here appears to be a piece of biological material, not fossilized, not of this Earth, and definitely covered with fusion crust. Would you mind please telling me, my dear Mr. Sterling, what do you know about this specimen?!”

Vanessa has always had this powerful, magical way of getting right to the point—a delightful personality with a huge, infectious smile and a gentle spirit, the kind of person that everybody enjoys spending time with. I love working with this woman. But when the scientist in her comes to the surface, she turns into a tigress and will go for the throat to get her job done. Her passion for the study of meteorites is matched by my passion for finding them.