The Time Stone (46 page)

“
How did that happen?”
Asked James shocked.

“
The scorpion has internal
deflectors.” Said Drax. “You aren’t the only one with some powers.”
With a flick of a switch, Drax drove the scorpion car into the hole
they created as the dust smoke and debris was still clearing. The
darkness was blinded by the light of the vehicle emitted from all
sides of the vehicle hovering its way into the cavern.

As they managed their way hovering
above the deep empty cavern, the lights beacons shone throughout as
Drax drove and Tina scanned with his handheld scanner. “There is
something unusual here” she said. “Like” Drax replied. “Look” she
pointed as the lights shone on some spots on the walls with cave
pictographs and archaic writings. “It’s more of the old language we
saw before.” Said Drax.

“
Another riddle?” Asked
Mercedes.

“
I don’t think so. It just
says beware thee who open the door, the winds of time will corrupt
you.” Drax said.

“
A warning?” Asked
Mercedes rhetorically.

“
Let’s keep moving” said
James seeing a more narrow passage ahead not too small to fly into
and they proceeded into it. The darkness lit only by the beacon
continued until they could see daybreak on the other side. Soon
they were exiting the cavern and hovering above a land of green
pastures and trees, orchids, sunny skies, rainbow visions in the
air, and light beacons of technological design similar to those
seen in the cavern of lights.

“
We have seen this
technology before” said Mercedes.

“
Yes” said Drax “it is the
pregivers” and they continued above the vacant land until they saw
it was not vacant miles into the terrain.

“
This is totally unlike
the other side of the great island” said Tina.

“
Blessed be” said Cutlass
“this is remarkable.”

“
Look” said James pointing
to small people below.

“
Are they midgets?” Asked
Tina.

“
Dwarves or ‘little
people’ is the politically correct term” said Mercedes
humorously.

“
No” said Drax lowering
the vehicle with a press of a few buttons so that the appearance of
the inhabitants of this land was apparent “they are
children.”

CHAPTER 74

“
What the hell did we step
into?” Said Tina. The scorpion car hovered above the terrain and
lowered itself to the small children, the lights of the
undercarriage began to glow in white and yellow pulses as the
vehicle touched base on the soft grass with a light sound as its
occupants looked around as they were being approached by the small
army of small children before them. Drax pressed a button on the
console of the vehicle and the vehicle transformed back to its
original form. The five wanderers exited the vehicle and looked at
the small children approaching. Many of them were small children
crawling around in the mud and dirt as they were too young to walk.
Their faces were ashen and dirt-filled. There was laughter,
snickering, and the sound of babies crying coming from all over for
miles around.

“
I feel bad for them” said
Tina, “their just kids.”

“
Where are we?” Asked
Mercedes.

“
You are in the land of
the forbidden.” Said a voice as they turned their attention to a
young fair-haired tan boy who looked older than the others but
fairly young still, about thirteen years old, “did you come from
God?” He asked.

“
What?” Asked
James.

“
You rode down from
heaven” said the boy.

“
Oh yeah, that is what we
call a car. You’ve never seen one?” Asked Drax.

“
Not one that flies”
whispered James.

Drax turned to him with a noxious
looked then turned back to the boy with a warm smile. “We are
travelers” said Drax.

“
I am Jose Elcamion” he
said trying to emulate a deeper more adult sounding voice. The
foursome introduced themselves along with Captain
Cutlass.

“
Ye are nothing but a lad”
said Cutlass pointing. Jose ignored him and looked at the others
one at time admiring their clothing and gear. He turned his head
still and mechanical then looked at Tina and smiled.

“
You are pretty. I have
never had a girlfriend before.”

“
Uh thanks but you’re kind
of young for me, kid” Tina replied with an awkward
silence.

“
Where are all the adults?
Your parents?” Asked Drax stepping forward breaking the
silence.

“
They are gone.” Jose
replied with a still face.

“
Gone where?” Asked
James.

“
Gone.” Repeated Jose with
a still face, his eyes appeared cold and lifeless. “Come” he turns
and starts walking in the direction that he came. Curious, the five
wanderers follow the young adolescent on foot across the terrain.
They were led across the grasses and several thousand children
stretched out in the fields from as young as newborn infants to
adolescents approaching majority. Several of the older kids were
huddled in groups talking and whispering while keeping their
distance and carefully eyeing the strange people who appeared to
arrive from the sky. They were dressed in ragged clothes covered in
ash, mud, and dirt. Some of the older female adolescents were
running around and trying to cater to the infants lying helplessly
in the field crying.

“
Something bad happened
here” said Tina as they walked with Jose. There was no sign of
anyone over the apparent ages of late adolescence except for the
five wanderers looking around in complete confusion. “Amazing” said
Tina “a land of nothing but children… some kind of Peter Pan or
Lord of the Flies nightmare.”

“
That’s biologically
impossible” Drax looked up “something bad did happen here.” Then
Drax looked up and pointed to a large metal obelisk in the distance
as they were suddenly approaching a clearing. “Look.”

“
What is that?” Asked
James. Jose stopped and turned standing on an isolated patch of
dirt in the middle of the clearing. The five stood around him as
they approached. “Why are we stopping here?” Asked James. Jose
smiled and within seconds a flash of white light engulfed them all
and surrounded them for a moment as if in a container of hot white
energy. Then when the light faded, they found themselves not in the
clearing but inside a structure with metallic walls and tall
pillars spiraling upward throughout the interior of the structure
as it twirled up into a central apex that climbed further to a
point. The base was a large well with several banisters and stairs.
Machinery and computer consoles adorned the various sides and
components lighting up with life and colors all of a sudden as if a
sleeping giant awakened from an eternal nap.

“
What be this madness?”
Said Cutlass scrambling about.

“
Relax Captain” said James
“we were transported. It happened to us before sort of like a
movement in space and time.”

“
More like just space
though we continue along the natural progression of time. Anyone
capable of making a conveyer of light and energy like that surely
has to be advanced” said Drax.

“
We might be dealing with
the pregivers again” said Mercedes.

“
Who are they anyhow?”
Asked James. “We keep coming across references of this ancient
group of space farers but no concrete proof of these ‘stone
builders.’”

“
The devil is in the
details” said Drax “we know they invented the time stone. They must
have invented this beam spot technology as well.”

“
Beam spot technology?”
Asked Mercedes curiously.

“
What else would we call
it?” James asked rhetorically.

“
So where the hell are we
now?” Asked Tina.

“
In the other side. We
have only been here and back. I never understood this. The others
are afraid to come here.” Said Jose. “The lights come on and go
out, that’s it.” They walked along the narrow confines of a
corridor curving and arching in various directions with a series of
loops and swirls, the mechanisms around them rotating in
synchronistic formation like clockwork.

“
I’m getting dizzy” said
Mercedes. They walked into a vestibule and emerged out of another
room with plain white walls and a large screen on one end connected
to a monitoring station with keys and diodes ready to be struck as
they lit up when they approached.

“
What the heck?” Asked
James.

“
Good morning!” Said a
woman’s voice echoing from the computer as an image appeared before
them, fizzing and whirling, she had deep blue eyes and short red
hair and wore a white half-buttoned shirt and slacks, her form see
through and holographic.

“
What is this?” Asked Tina
rhetorically.

“
It’s a holographic
projection” responded Drax “a form made of energy and proton
accelerators” he put his hand through her face.

“
She’s beautiful” said
James mesmerized.

“
It’s not a real person”
said Drax looking at James’ eyes goggling with amour. “Though it
could have been at one point. What is your purpose here?” Asked
Drax trying to communicate.

“
I am the complete central
repository of the Union Core Network Bibliotheca, codename
Celia.”

“
The what?” Screamed
Tina.

“
Bibliotheca means
library” said Mercedes.

“
Yes” said
Drax.

“
I am versed with over one
trillion mega quads of information relating to the historical
literature of various cultures and groups. The Union Core Network
is the history of the greatest civilization of all time. For
example, my list of databases contains the legendary feats of
heroic individuals or the dates and times of historic events, and
science and mathematics are all programmed into this installation.
Just ask me anything.” She shrugged.

“
Why is the sky blue?”
Asked Tina jokingly.

The woman responded in a
serious monotone “
The light from the Sun
looks white. But it is really made up of all the colors of the
rainbow. When white light shines through a prism, the light is
separated into all its colors. Like energy passing through the
ocean, light energy travels in waves, too. Some light travels in
short, "choppy" waves. Sunlight reaches Earth's atmosphere and is
scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in the
air. Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny
molecules of air in Earth's atmosphere. Blue is scattered more than
other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is
why we see a blue sky most of the time.”

Jose’s eyes lit up in joy at the site
of the marvel before him. He remained speechless.

“
Okay” Tina
replied.

“
That was a waste of a
question” said Mercedes sarcastically.

“
I don’t think there is a
waste” said Drax.

“
We could ask anything”
said Tina curiously.

“
Anything about the
beasts, the time stone, etc., etc., etc.?” Tina
continued.

“
The beasts: omnivorous
beings of mammalian, reptilian, and arboreal form. Various cultures
vilified same as creatures of power and chaos while attributing
them divine powers and signs of deism.” She continued in a monotone
form. “Many beliefs span cultures across the globe indicating the
presence of magna intelligence amongst many of the beasts of old
lore and belief in superior qualities.”

“
OK” said Tina, “enough…
just tell us about the time stone for real!”

“
The time stone for real…”
said Celia.

Tina rolled her eyes.

“
The legendary relic of
countless stories and beliefs reduced itself to the existence of a
myth. The belief that a powerful union of beings known as the
pregivers created a relic of immense ability and power, not just
the ability to harness energy in space but also time. The story
continues that the relic was coveted by forces of light and
darkness. It was also known as the ‘eye of the Gods” in ancient
Egyptian mythology. As a result of many struggles and a mysterious
group stole it, the device was taken away and buried. It would
later be discovered by the scientist Howard Kowalski and used by
the great hero Jack Smack, Detective extraordinaire.”

“
That’s it?” Asked Tina
angrily.

“
There is nothing more on
this subject.” Said Celia.

“
What is the Union Core
Network?” Asked Drax.

“
The Union Core Network is
an alliance of 74 nations that joined under one banner and one
charter in the year 2032 Common Era - C.E. and created the first
self-sustaining interplanetary biosphere. Men, beasts, and dozens
of extraterrestrial worlds allied under a single banner became a
force to be reckoned with in only a short number of years but
ultimately ceased to exist. The UCN met its demise on Friday,
October 13, 2055 Common Era – C.E. when a sudden denotation in the
central headquarters causes a 150 megaton thermonuclear device to
explode.”