Praetorian Series [4] All Roads Lead to Rome (35 page)

***

And just like that, we were back in Ancient Rome.

It was like stepping through a wall of water that separated a dark house from the outside world.  There was only the slightest bit of resistance, no sense of the passage of time, and, thankfully, no pain.  Also, no water.  In the course of a heartbeat, we’d went from Remus’ prison to Rome.

It was night now, perhaps very early morning even, but I hadn’t a clue what day it was.  For all I knew, weeks had passed.  But at least there were still Praetorians cordoning off the area around the portal, about two dozen individuals creating a circular perimeter around us. 

I turned to one who looked somewhat familiar.  “How long were we gone?”

“Eleven days,” he said immediately. “The empress nine.”

I looked at Agrippina.  “How long were we even there, including the time I was hooked up to that device?

She pursed her lips in thought.  “No more than an hour.”

“Only an hour?”  I asked in disbelief. 

All that time traversing the desolate volcano world must have passed in only the blink of an eye – real time.

I glanced at Remus, who stood beside me and gazed out over the cityscape of Ancient Rome.  Except, it wasn’t Ancient Rome to him.  It was
Future
Rome.  Rome seven hundred years in the future from when he’d last seen it.  It had gone from a tiny army camp, to a small village, to an impressive city, to the glittering jewel at the center of vast, imposing empire – although I guess he’d also seen it as a broken ruin in my mind as well.

He didn’t even seem to care.

Nor did I, as I had another more pressing question in mind.

“Was Merlin’s little hideout the same as you’re pocket universe prison place?” I asked.

He shook his head.  “It’s his sanctuary, how he’s managed to stay alive all this time.  Indeed, it operates along the same principles, although perhaps the time differential may not equate.”

“A sanctuary?”  My head tilted to the side on its own in confusion.  “Why would it be in Britain?”

Remus walked away from me as he answered, heading deeper into the Forum.  “He can move it.”

Move it
, I mouthed silently.  He could just pick up a universe and move it around?  Carry it in his pocket like a wallet?  What was it, like the Bottle City of Kandor that could just be picked up and moved around by a…

No, Kandor was a miniaturized world, not a parallel realit…

Or was it Avalon? 

My mind churned, but it made perfect sense, or at least some kind of sense.  Avalon was supposed to be some kind of mystical heaven-like place.  It was supposed to have existed in another plane of reality, if I remembered correctly, and a pocket universe would serve that purpose nicely.

I reached up and kneaded my eye sockets roughly with my fingers, realizing that my actual brain was starting to hurt.  To remedy my discomfort, I jogged a bit to catch up to Remus, who had pushed through the Praetorians without hesitation.  They backed away from the nine foot tall man, expressions of outright terror on their faces as they finally got a good look at him.

They didn’t even seem to notice as I hurried past.

“Where are you going?”  I asked as I fell into step beside him.

“Somewhere safe,” he replied without further clarification, and I didn’t dare press him.

Interestingly, his version of a “safe” location seemed no different than the spot we’d just abandoned, and only a short walk away.  Remus had taken us to stand beside a small temple that seemed about as boring as every other building in Rome once you’d seen them all, and I was fairly certain he wasn’t interested in supplication.  I was just about to question him when he pulled up short, whirled around so that he could see me, and held out his hands, palms up.

“Retrieve your orbs, Jacob.”

“Okay…” I said, drawing out the word but doing as I was told.  “What are we doing?”

“Your training,” Remus stated matter-of-factly as I pulled them from my bag and held them as Remus suggested.  He nodded at my swift response and continued.  “Your memories suggest this is a good location to begin.  I wish for a convincing display but not one that is too difficult.  This spot will not require much adjustment.”

“Adjustment?”  I asked, glancing at my surroundings.  “I don’t understand what…”

“Take us to your home.”

“Home?”

“Home,” he reiterated.

“As in… 2021?  My time and my reality?”  I scoffed.  “If only it were so easy!  I’ve been trying for…”

“It
is
that easy, but first you must try.”

I shook my head, refusing to believe that after all these years, all the trials and tribulations my friends and I had gone through, that it was all so easy as Remus suggested.

“I don’t understand how these things even work,” I pleaded, shaking them in his direction.  “I can’t even
imagine
how they could
possibly
work, so how can you just expect me to operate them as easily as you think I can?”

“Did you understand how the engine in your car worked?”

“No,” I admitted, understanding the logical argument he was trying to posit but unable to see how it was relevant, “but I had some basic understanding of its mechanics and physics.  I understand engines and how they work even if I don’t know the specifics.  With this, I have nothing.  I’m not even certain any of this is possible.  Even after everything I’ve been through, I still can’t really bring myself to think of all this as anything but magic.”

“And you never will unless you try,” Remus said patiently.  “As I told you before, you think in such three dimensional terms, using twenty first century logic and science as your foundation.  You must let go of these blinders and expand your mind.  You have seen and experienced far too much to simply fall back on the concept that the orbs are magical artifacts in a fantasy novel.  They are technology, Jacob.  Understand that.”

“So… what?  I should just click my heels together and think of home?”

“If you’d like, but clicking your heels will not aid you in this exertion.  Your mind must make a conscious leap onto something real; your physical actions have nothing to do with this connection.  Like the devices Faustulus and I used on you, the orbs subconsciously connect you with the means to operate them.  They are simply the bridge between your mind and the science and machinery needed to travel in time and through dimensions.  It is all in your head, Jacob, as many from your world would suggest in a situation like this.  The human mind is one of the most powerful machines in all of time and space, even underutilized though it may be by your kind.  So use it.  Connect with the orbs.”

I looked at them suspiciously but quickly glanced back at Remus.  “So they’re telepathic?”

Remus shifted his feet impatiently, but his voice didn’t quite suggest that he was ready to snap my neck and be done with me.  “Put it in whatever terms you wish that make you comfortable… but no.  Your suggestion of telepathy implies supernatural elements, as though your mind can manipulate the world actively, but that is not the case.  The orbs are the active machinery in what you are trying to do, your mind simply operates them.  Now concentrate.  Think of home.  History, politics, culture, locations, friends, family, sights, sounds, tastes, smells.  Concentrate on what you remember.  Nothing specific, just: the essence of home.”

I closed my eyes and did as I was told, but then shook my head.  “But I never visited Rome back home.  If the orbs can’t move us to another location as well, how am I going to…”

“The orbs cannot move you about the planet, Jacob,” Remus said.  “They cannot physically transport you somewhere, but when traveling in time or between dimensions, your actual location is a trivial concern.  A point in time and a particular dimension is so much more than a simple geographical pinpoint. In time, you will be able to travel to any dimension, in any time, even if you cannot already comprehend how it appears.  But for now, focus on what you know.  What you remember.  It will come to you – quite literally, in fact.”

Still skeptical, I sent Remus another childish look of annoyance before I turned my eyes back to the orbs and concentrated, slowly closing my eyelids to channel my focus.  Maybe I really was too old to understand all this, too jaded and closed minded to open my mind to the wonders of the unknown.  One would think after all the movies and television shows I had seen and the hundreds of novels and non-fiction books I had read, that I should have be ready for this.  I should have been fully capable of embracing the ideas of interdimensional travel through the use of wormholes, connected to a pair of glowing Christmas ornaments via black holes and powered by the geothermal energy of an entire planet’s molten core, channeled through a volcano the size of France.

This was something I should have seen coming.

It seemed as though I’d been preparing for this all my life, groomed by some unknown force to be open minded and accepting of all conclusions.  Ever since my science teachers had proven time and time again how unseen forces are actively at work in our world, hammering into my mind that there was always more to learn about the physical world.  Ever since my history professors had opened my blind eyes to entire universes of stories, worlds, and possibilities, drilling into me the idea that all may not always be as it seemed.  Ever since those instructors in the art of philosophy had enlightened me to conflicting perspectives and ideas, how the vagaries and intricacies of the human mind was always at odds with itself, filling me with open ended questions about life, the universe, and everything… none with answers, but meant to simply challenge instead.  And then there’d been those individuals with too much time on their hands who had conspired about everything from aliens to mole people.  There had been so many of these individuals, far more than the educators in my life, and far too many to name.  Many, if not all even, had been cranks and frauds, hack snake oil salesmen out to get a buck, no matter how much they really believed in their concepts.  Some had been learned individuals, existing on the fringes of science, and others had been legitimate thinkers, modern day philosophers who focused more on the physical than metaphysical.  That was my home, a place of great interest and debate, where…

“Open your eyes!”

I’d gone on long internal diatribes before, often times to the point where I found myself so distracted that I literally lost minutes of my life, but this one had been particularly long.  I’d completely forgotten Remus had even existed.  I was barely even aware of my own existence, let alone…

“I said open your eyes!”

With my eyes still closed, I cocked my head to the side as my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.  The voice didn’t sound like Remus’, and it was clearly masculine, but what really caught my attention was that it was spoken in English, in an accent I hadn’t heard in what seemed like forever.

I peeked through the smallest of cracks I’d ever allowed in my eyelids, almost afraid at what I’d see.  A man stood before me dressed in dark clothing, maybe navy blue, with a number of
things
attached to him. It was an interesting sight, but I wouldn’t see much more with my eyes nearly closed, so I snapped them open.

When I did, I fell back a number of steps, bumping into what I assumed was Remus as my eyes took in the world.

We were still in Rome, but this clearly wasn’t Ancient Rome.  This was, in fact, Ancient Rome in
modern
Rome.  My head flew left and right, up and down, my eyes flitting uncontrollably.  All around me were decayed and decrepit buildings, arranged very similarly to how I’d last seen them in their pristine condition.  I gawked at them, my mouth moving to form words but coming up short of actually finding them as I started seeing other things as well.

Beyond the immediate ruins was a city, a modern city, a sprawling, congested, dirty, beautiful city.  It was then that I finally realized that it was day time, allowing me to see everything in great detail.  Like any European city stuck somewhere between modern and old, this city was a mishmash of architectures, all of it familiar, but too incredible to believe.  And then a final sight came into view, peeking over a low hill.  It was a dome with a small, spiky thing at the top.  My first instinct was that it was the Capital Building in Washington D.C., but I immediately knew better.  I knew what it was.  And I knew where we were.

It was St. Peter’s Basilica.

We were in Rome.

Circa… God knows when and who the hell cared?

It was clearly thousands of years from whence I’d came.  I was home.  I was…

“Drop your fucking weapons!”  Came the voice again in heavily accented English.

I looked down, noticing for the first time a man wearing a blue uniform with a patch across his chest emblazoned with the word
Polizia
.  He wore SWAT gear and held what appeared to be a Beretta, but I couldn’t be sure.  My once extensive knowledge of gun porn wasn’t what it used to be, along with my mind, apparently, as I must be dreaming. 

I pulled away from Remus, ignoring the police officer completely, and stared daggers at him.  “This is a trick, a fantasy, an implanted memory, or you’re still actively warping my mind.  Where the hell are we??”