Cells of Immortality

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. It always preceded the flocking sky fish as they returned to their ariel nesting grounds in the floating mountains. Normally, observing this daily spectacle was part of his evening ritual, but this night, Brian’s mind was preoccupied with his latest attempt at dimensional travel. Making the final adjustments to the modified pod cell, he stepped inside. The purple energy shield shimmered into existence and then everything went dark.

Brian awoke cold, shivering in the early autumn dawn. His dreams had been strange and distorted, fragmented, like seeing his world through a shattered mirror.

“What is going on here?” he said aloud, disoriented and confused at waking up in a strange and unexpected place.

Obviously the force field containment system still had some bugs to be worked out.

“And where are my cloths?” he asked disgustedly, looking down at his naked body.

Brian squinted at the twin suns just beginning to appear over the desert horizon.

Damn, he thought irritably, getting to his feet. This is just great. I must be 5 hours from Central City.

He brushed the sand off his sides and buttocks and started the journey back. His muscular frame moved swiftly through the desert landscape, sidestepping cactus and other obstacles.

Scott and Paula will get a big kick out of this one, Brian thought, keeping an eye out for any poisonous creatures.

Stuck in the middle of the Redack desert without food, water, or clothing. Despite his ¬embarrassing and rather humbling situation, Brian couldn’t help but laugh when he pictured his arrival in Central City.

So much for modesty, he thought shaking his head.

***

“Well that’s one way to draw attention to your work!” Paula teased as she pulled Brian over to her side of the table. “Renown scientist found naked in Redack Desert,” she quoted from the afternoon paper, tossing it aside.

“Not quite what I had in mind though. “ He raised his eyebrows and looked at her with a helpless smile. “But my dating life has certainly picked up. The phone’s been ringing off the hook.”

“That’s been me calling to check up on you!” she said with mock indignity, turning her head away

“Please forgive me, my lady,” he countered, bowing deeply and taking her hand. He kissed it gently, tilting his head up to fix her with his gaze. “I won’t let it happen again,” he smiled, a twinkle in his eyes.

“You’d better not,” she said, taking his head in her hands and tenderly kissing him. She looked at him a moment, concern etched across her face.

“It’ll be alright, Paula. Really. Don’t worry.”

“But this could seriously jeopardize grant money coming into the project.”

“It won’t,” Brian said emphatically. “They need this to work as much as I do. Maybe more.” He turned and looked out over the Central City skyline, a large domed metallic structure dominating the foreground. “Our world needs it to work.”

“True enough,” Paula said, standing beside him. “But we both know the project is at a standstill.” She stared at the huge dome, wishing it were gone. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to pull Ryan through,” he answered. “We need his help.”

“When?”

“Three days from now. I’ve worked out the last of the bugs. It’s impossible for it to fail.”

***

Ryan opened his eyes, finding himself on cold bare ground. He raised his head up painfully, staring at a chestnut sky.

“Where am I?” he asked, scanning his new surroundings in an attempt to orient himself.

The color of the sky was disturbing.

How did I get here? he thought, with a twinge of fright. And where is here?

In the next few moments habitual thought patterns raced through his mind. The alien environment was vaguely familiar, and maybe the sky’s color was just an oddity of nature.

My muscles are sure stiff this morning. It must’ve been a long night.

Then like the first beams of a sunrise, reality filtered into his fuzzy sleep-filled mind.

I should be home in bed.

The long night had suddenly become an object of mystery.

What happened last night? What was different?

He hadn’t noticed anything peculiar. Nor had the previous day stood out in his mind. It was the same as any other. Most of his daytime hours had been spent developing theories and conducting experiments on his force project. Dinner had been an uneventful and lonely occasion, as usual. Cooking for oneself has its disadvantages. After cleaning up the dishes, he had watched the news, read part of his novel and gone to bed. Now suddenly there was no bed. In fact the whole city seemed to have disappeared.

I have to go through last night step by step and retrace my every move, his analytical mind told him. The sun was bright in the morning sky. Sounds of birds started to creep into the air. Ryan slowly got up, brushing the dirt off his nude body. This place looked vaguely familiar but the sky puzzled him. He had never seen a place without a blue sky. Everything else seemed normal enough.

Could I be in a research testing ground? he wondered. That would explain the sky. Or have I been kidnapped?

A million possibilities flashed through his mind.

If someone had tried to break in last night an alarm would’ve gone off. I locked up the house when I went to bed. So how can I be here? There has to be something different about yesterday.

His mind flipped through the events of the day before, each memory being scanned for the desired data.

The shower. That was pretty weird. OK. Let’s start at the beginning. I took my cloths off and turned on the water. I stepped in. Oh, that hot water felt good. I wasn’t tired, just relaxed. As I started soaping myself down my muscles felt weaker, like I’d been straining them for a long period of time. That was when I started to feel sleepy. It all happened so fast. My muscles became exhausted and I couldn’t stop myself from yawning. All I could think about was going to sleep. Then I must’ve blacked out because the next thing I remember I was on the floor, shower door wide open and water everywhere. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes or the floor would’ve been flooded. I cleaned up the bathroom and finished my shower. Now why couldn’t I remember that before?

As Ryan was pondering this odd event, he saw a man walking towards him. He was a little over than six feet tall, had blonde hair and a muscular build. The man was not large but gave off an air of authority. As he drew near, Ryan saw he was carrying some clothing. They stared at one another for a few minutes. The stranger extended his hand in greeting.

“You must be Ryan, “ he said as they shook. “Please forgive the unpleasant surroundings. I was unable to calculate your arrival precisely.”

“My arrival?’ Ryan looked at the stranger, bewildered.

He handed Ryan the clothes he was carrying. “These are for you.”

“Thanks.”

“You were brought here because I need your help. My name is Brian.”

“How do you know my name?” Ryan asked, slipping on the shirt and pants.

“I’ve been observing you through a dimensional viewer the last few months.” Ryan gave him a puzzled look. “Let’s go back to my lab. You’ll be more comfortable there and I’ll answer all your questions.” He turned and walked away calling over his shoulder. “It’s not far.”

Ryan walked in silence behind the man who called himself Brian.

Was he a man? He’d said something about a dimensional viewer. Another dimension? A parallel Earth? That would account for the sky. But what am I to help with?

“Where am I?”

“You are on the planet Shaydolon, a parallel world to your own.”

So I’m not on Earth, he thought. But why me? And for what purpose?

He followed without further questions, silently filtering every detail of the alien planet. Everything, except for the sky, was just like Earth. The possibility that this could all be a hoax had not been ruled out of his mind. Anyone with the capability to break into his house and bring him here without his knowledge could probably manufacture an artificial sky. Just look what Hollywood could do.

When they arrived at the laboratory, a cold chill ran down his spine. It looked like a carbon copy of Ryan’s floor plan for his own lab. Brian signaled for him to take a seat.

“Fire away!” he said with a smile on his face.

“How did I get here?”

“Through a dimensional doorway I created.”

“So you just kidnapped me last night while I was asleep?” Ryan asked.

“No,” Brian said, shaking his head. “I have never been on your world. Because of the different vibratory frequencies our planets have, a doorway forming from this direction is very small. Thus, it was necessary to create a doorway from Earth to Shaydolon. Since you don’t have that kind of technology yet, I had to do it for you.” He paused to take a drink of water.

“Go on,” Ryan urged, quite curious now.

“Do you remember your shower last night?”

“Yes.”

“While you were watching TV I used our small doorway to teleport a variety of chemicals into your bar of soap. They became active on contact with water and then instantly absorbed into your bloodstream. The chemicals were designed to collect in the muscle tissues of your body. I’m afraid this caused an unforeseen side effect, namely almost instant fatigue and sleep. I apologize for that. The chemicals went unnoticed in your body until you slept. At that time they combined with your life energy along with your neurotransmitters, which slowed electrical impulses in your brain to create a dimensional doorway through which you were irresistibly drawn.”

“That’s quite a trick. I assume I can get back the same way?”

“Unfortunately that isn’t possible at this time. My laboratory testing grounds were destroyed two days ago, shortly after I had discovered a method of safely teleporting you here. In theory, you should be able to return to Earth in a similar manner, since your body carries the same electromagnetic charge as your planet. I was working on that phase of the project when my research was forced to a stop.”

Ryan paced around the lab contemplating the situation and its possible outcomes while Brian poured him a drink.

“So I can’t get back to Earth?”

“Not at this time,” Brian repeated.

“How extensive is the damage to your research testing grounds? And what caused it?”

“It was almost completely ruined. I salvaged a few instruments and about twenty pages of notes. The rest of my research will have to be pieced together from what I can remember.” He paused for a moment looking out the large arched window. “As for what caused the destruction, it was a riot by the shades.” His piercing blue eyes stared into Ryan’s. “And they are why I brought you here.”

“The shades?”

“Come,” Brian said as he stood up and walked toward a large open door. “I have something to show you.”