Heart of the Sphere

Heart of the Sphere

Undisclosed Moment in Time

​A woman tucked the metal canister beneath her arm, keeping it as safe as a mother would her newborn baby. She struggled to breath as turbulent atmospheric winds heated up the world around her. Kneeling to the ground she gently placed the bundle into a long abandoned beginnings of a well containing only a small fraction of water. She pushed an opened bag of white powder into the water covering the metallic vessel and the precious contents within. She quickly looked up as the sky exploded with bright red hues. As a torrent of super heated waves came upon her she felt a singular moment of intense pain and then all was dark.

July 2010, North Dakota

​Percy pulled his shirt off revealing a tanned tank top underneath. Using his over-shirt to wipe at the steady stream of perspiration from his brow that saturated his tousled brown hair he wondered yet again why he didn't have the unruly mop chopped off. He stepped back a few feet and looked down at what appeared to be the leg bone of a humanoid. Quick observation of the pelvis, or rather what was left of it, appeared female. The Universities team of archaeologists had already uncovered the complete remains of a juvenile and two children several meters away and at a lower elevation. What had surprised him the most was not so much the layer of strata in which they were discovered, but rather, how modern they were for being as ancient as they were. According to the fossil record they just couldn't have plausibly existed. He scratched his head in deep contemplation and jerked around as a hand touched his shoulder. This was proving to be an unquenchable question that would be hell to finding an answer to.

​“Doctor Oliver”. A wiry girl, one of the University volunteer archaeologists. Molly couldn't afford the classes but she loved playing in the dirt and digging up dead things. “What do you make of all this”? She asked with her hands on her hips.

​Percy shrugged and ran his hand through his hair. Reminder to cut this mop. He momentarily tried to remind himself. “I...” he stammered. He flung his over-shirt over his shoulder and shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “Shit if I know Molly”. He looked her in her eyes. “Did you get the ice pick and brushes I asked for”?

​She cocked her eyebrow and smiled “Sure did doc”. Molly shoved a folded cloth at him and then turned to walk away.

​“My name is Percy, for the gazillionth time. I told all of the students, and volunteers to call me that. I have a name. Use it”. His order was lacking confidence.

​Molly turned back toward him and her smile turned tight lipped as she stood for what seemed like several awkward minutes waiting on him to say something else. “Uh... yes... doc... uh... Percy”? She broke the silence and turned to walk back off.

​“I need you to”. Percy stopped as someone shouted for him. He looked down just a few feet from where he was standing. The 19 year old was in his first year of University and sharp as a tack but obviously lacked the ability to judge an objects distance from himself. “I'm right here Jeep”.

​Jeep was a lanky boy, about like Molly. He was down brushing off what looked like a small metal tube of some sort. He sucked in his bottom lip to keep himself from saying something that might embrace him “Doctor, I found something, that metal thing that the detector picked up maybe? I don't know”.

​Percy got down to where Jeep lay and looking over at him with a stark expression took his brush from him, forgetting all about the ones Molly had just given to him. “Really, you kids have got to stop calling me doc, doctor, and other such terms for which I am not. Professor yes, doctor no”.

​“Not Doctor No, that's James Bond. We are referring to...” Jeep's words were stopped by a hand over his mouth.

​“It was a hat, I have stopped wearing it.” Percy looked from Jeep to the object. “Go back over to the leg bone and start exhuming, excavating that will you”. He reached for the cloth that contained his ice pick and started to chip away at the hardened rock material that encased the object. He paused momentarily as he heard a deep sigh from above him. “Can you be a deer and fetch me some water”. He asked Molly silently snickering as he chipped away. The sound of irritated stomping grew lighter.

​Percy finally pulled the thing from its earthen cradle. He dusted it off as he sat up. Immediately he pulled his phone from his pocket and began to make a phone call. “I need to speak with Allen Oliver”. His voice was gruff when the other party answered. “This is doct... Professor Percy Oliver over in North Dakota”. He face palmed as he verbally corrected himself.

​“Yes, Percy. What can I do for you son”? The voice responded. His father, Allen Oliver was head of the Archaeology Department at the Smithsonian Institute.

​“I don't know how you did it dad, but planting shit at my dig sight is no longer humorous. Is this whole thing some kind of joke? Because I would have thought you'd have lost interest in this silly shit”. Percy's irritation escalated.

​There was a pause on the other end. “Son, that was during your tenor. I haven't messed with anything. What's up”? Allen's love of practical jokes and attempts at grand humor annoyed Percy and he knew it.

​Percy took his phone off of speaker and held it to his ear. “This dig is unlike anything I have ever seen. I cannot explain it. It doesn't make any sense. Modern human remains do not exist in million-year-old stratum. Neither does what looks like concrete for that matter. Fuck, throw some chrome in with the mix and I have all the elements for a really bad acid trip”.

​Allen's eyes searched around his office as he sat in his office recliner. He leaned toward his desk phone and picked up the receiver deactivating the speaker function. His voice lowered and instructed his son to leave the site exactly as it lay and cover it with tarps. He informed him he would be on the next flight to North Dakota and to get all of the student's and volunteers away from the area. He ordered him to not let anything out of his site. Standing, he hung up the phone, grabbed his hat and travel bag, then walked out the door.

​Jeep had heard bits of the conversation between Percy and his father and set his ice pick and brush down. He looked up at the professor as he started to stand. He opened his mouth to begin speaking but was halted by Percy as his hand came up to stop him. Jeep and Molly were to tarp over the exposed remains and then heard everyone to the van and back to the University. Jeep watched Percy walk toward the small trailer that was set up beside the dig site stopping to quickly inform Molly of the change in plans. He exhaled loudly as he noticed Molly stamp her foot as she began to walk toward him in relative disappointment.

​Percy sat up not realizing that he had been asleep for far longer than he'd anticipated. Stretched out on a small sofa with his legs hanging off the side he jolted as the trailer rattled from steady knocks on the the door. The canister which lay in his lap, rolled off the sofa. Percy was able to grab it while it was still in the air before it hit the floor. Opening the door, his father stepped inside nearly knocking him over as he did. Almost immediately he handed the metal artifact over to Allen who observed it critically.

​“Take me to the area where you found this”. Allen instructed walking back out of the trailer and toward the tarps. Percy walked ahead of him and toward the tarp that covered the leg bone and partial pelvis. Both men pulled the tarp away from its resting spot and Percy pointed down toward the hole and broken cement type rock that it had been encased in. Percy's father reached down and picked up a piece of the cemented rock. It was night and hard to see anything with the small lights illuminating the area. He turned and began heading back toward the trailer. When they had made it back inside he placed the stone and canister on a small table and began to examine them. “A weld”! He exclaimed in excitement and confusion. Allen went to look for a hammer. Soon, both men stopped as they heard what sounded like the whirring of helicopter blades.

​Allen opened the door to the trailer and saw a helicopter land and the engine shut off. The turbulence from the blades threw up dirt and debris from all around and threatened to blow the tarps completely off the excavated site. Soon, three men emerged from the copter dressed in expensive black suits. Percy backed up into the trailer and knelt down rolling the container gently under the sofa and then made his way out the door with Allen. This was a situation that didn't look good, and the look that Allen gave his son was not one of relief.

​One of three men stepped forward with a tablet in his hand as the other two went to survey the area. The man looked to be about in his early 50's the other two it was hard to tell from the darkness. He ordered both Allen and Percy to leave the dig site. His glasses gleamed as his eyes shifted from the tablet screen to both of the professors. “We have jurisdiction and are closing off this area. The town will be under quarantine until we are done taking samples and running tests. We have reason to believe a biological agent has been released and the town is at risk of exposure”. He then turned toward the other two men who had made their way back. The other two pulled out pistols and motioned for both Allen and Percy to head toward Percy's truck and leave. Percy made his way back into the trailer quickly dropping to the floor and grabbed the canister. He pushed it into the front of his shorts and slid back toward the door and stood up. One of the men headed toward Percy with his pistol pointed at him. Allen rushed the man dipping low to grab him by the legs. Percy pulled his hand out from behind his back holding up his wallet. A shot rang out as the third man fired. A barn owl hooted and its wings flapped frantically at the noise. Horror struck Percy's face as he saw blood flowing from his fathers head soaking the ground beneath. The man with the tablet came upon Percy and grabbed his wallet to examine it. The son didn't even break from the vision of his father. The owl stared down at the scene below. As loud as the noise had been the owl remained seemingly transfixed at the commotion in relative safety from its perch a top the camper door.

​“We are not so unreasonable. Such a senseless death”. The man shoved Percy's wallet back at him. “I suggest you leave before another life is lost here tonight”. He quipped as Percy backed away while still gazing at his father in disbelief. Percy ran to his truck, started the engine, and left. A way down the road he pulled his phone from his back pocket and called Molly. He informed her that he was headed toward her apartment. Before she could speak he hung up.

​After a couple of hours Percy pulled up beside Molly's parking space. He was still in shock from what had happened and began to wonder if it really even did happen. Making his way to her apartment door he tried the knob and walked in realizing it wasn't locked. “Molly”? He shouted for her.

​“In the living room, Jesus Christ! Ever heard of knocking? Like, it's a thing ya know”? She sat up from her sofa and pushed pause on her game system. “You just interrupted my awesome lazy girl guitar solo”.

​Percy shook his head. “I don't even... anyway. Thanks for compliment although I am not quite Jesus”.

​Molly looked a bit perplexed for a moment. “We really need to work on effective communication and response timing”. She smiled widely. “Yo, pro! What's up doc”? Her bubbly self bounced off the sofa and into the walkway where Percy still stood. The look of confusion on his face even more pronounced. He mouthed the word pro to her. She shook her head and shifted both of her index fingers between them a few times. “That whole communication thing...”.

​Percy's hands went to the front of his shorts and slipped inside. He grunted as the length and width of the canister began to protrude from the crotch area. Molly grinned a little. “Whoa doc! I had no idea we were to that level and can I just say OMG! That thing would probably split me in half”. She laughed away creeping anxiety.

​Percy rolled his eyes and snorted. “Not even close Molls”. With that he pulled out the canister and placed it in her hands. “This is what we found at the dig site, which by the way has been restricted by... a few someone's”. Looking down at Molly's hands he sighed. “They killed my father and I know there isn't a damn thing that I can do about it”. Gazing back up at her he noticed she reflected the pain he felt. As he looked away Molly noticed a bead of weld across the middle of the canister and she immediately ran into her utility room and grabbed a hammer. Before Percy could stop her she smacked the seam several times causing it to come loose and she slid one part up and out of the other. He stood at the door of her utility room as she poured a few pieces of items onto a folding table. A metal sphere, a cubed quartz type crystal, and small gold “wires” of some sort rolled out of the container. It was all freezing cold and yet the outside of the canister was as warm as the outside air. Percy looked at the contents and then at her.

​Molly stared for what seemed an eternity trying to make sense of it all. She reached out to pick up the sphere and she immediately pulled her hand back with a hiss. “It's freezing and somehow looks kinda familiar like I have seen something like this on some movie or something”. Percy scooped everything back into the canister and slid the top back on. He walked into her kitchen and placed it in the back of her freezer. She stamped her foot and followed him. Percy informed her he didn't feel right exploring it further at that time and it would have to wait. As time passed they became close and fell in love and everything in the canister became forgotten by them both. Sometimes it funny how things work out that way. That night though, they went to get a burger and learn about each other.

April 2030, North Dakota (old dig site)

​It took twenty years for Percy to make it back to the dig site. He and Molly pulled up to the site with a tiny toddler in tow. Getting out of the truck he walked around to the area where the trailer was, now completely covered in grass and wild flowers as far as the eye could see. A sadness came over him as he envisioned the spot where he had last seen his father. Everything was gone. It had been dug up and covered over, he suspected, to cover up something that people were not ready to know. He remembered the canister and its contents and knew the answers had to do with those little cold things. He bent down and picked up his daughter as her and Molly came up beside him. She rubbed her eyes and he handed her to Molly and she took her back to the truck to lay down. Spring in North Dakota saw cool breezes and refreshing showers, in some parts anyway. He stared across the open field and pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket. The land was theirs. Where he would build his lab and try to discover the mystery of the container. The University lab wasn't a safe place for anything that he needed to do with what he had. He knew that very well.

​So it happened that he built his house with the help of Molly and a few others. Jeep had become more of a friend as well with he and Molly and Jeep's husband was just as much of a crackpot goofball as Molly was. Plus, their baby girl loved both Jeep and his husband Lucca and called them both onkee for she couldn't quite say uncle. Lucca was always on top of the latest scientific news and had come barreling into their newly built home talking about how some celebrity scientist had uploaded the first human consciousness into a computer. The world was changing in leaps and bounds.

​

September, 2046

​“Hey honey”! Percy called from the basement lab. “I think I figured it out”! He continued as the crystal started to produce a blurry image. After fiddling with it, the image faded. Percy pushed his chair away from his work bench with his foot in agitation. Using a towel and tongs he removed the metal sphere from a jar of dry ice and laid it on a metal surface. Very carefully he twisted the top and bottom of the sphere until it came loose. Liquid poured from the ball. A small golden locket fell from the sphere without a chain. That's when he noticed two tiny holes and an indention on the inside bottom and and indention on the inside top. He attached the small gold wires to the holes and placed the crystal inside and the top of the sphere upon the standing crystal. Instantly a holographic image appeared at the top of the sphere. As it did, his fingers worked the sealed clasp of the delicate heart shaped trinket. When it popped open he saw a photo of a woman, a man, and three children. On the other side was a photo of two gentlemen. Tears began to flow. Three tiny bundles of hair with roots attached fell out.

​“I can only hope with my whole heart that someone someday may find this in the future. We have destroyed our planet and did something we should not have done. The year is 2046 and Percy, if you have found this. Somehow stop the upload into the computer. Somethings, are not meant to be done”. Percy grabbed his chest as he tried to call out to Molly or the others. On his way down to the floor he pulled the sphere and everything down with him but the small locket he held in his hand. As Molly came running down the stairs she gasped. She screamed and reached for her phone and Percy took her hand. “I love you Molls”. Then all went black.

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