Alex The Inventor - Chapter 12 (Pt.5)

Ebooks 1 and 2 (to date) can be read at: Deep Sky Stories

Chapter 12 (Part 5) - Speaking to a Ghost

He took a deep breath and shut his eyes in anticipation of the cold splash of water, but what happened next shocked Alex more than if the pool had been ice-cold. There was no splash; in fact, there was no water at all. Instead Alex felt a twisting, turning force pushing and buffeting him about as though he was a leaf on the wind. It seemed like he was falling yet it was hard to tell whether he was falling down or falling up. Soon, however, an equilibrium was reached where the forces acting on him were doing so in equal measure. Alex at last felt a calm, slow, floating feeling. Still holding his breath, he chanced a peek at his new surroundings.

From his viewpoint, he was now a feather floating softly downward on a breeze. The element he was falling slowly through though felt as thick as jello and Alex held his breath for as long as he could, hoping that he would somehow come out of it. I'm going to drown - I just know it, he thought helplessly as he continued downward to certain doom. But when finally he had to let out his breath and sucked in the strange, thick goop, Alex was amazed to discover that he was still able to breathe!

After the first few frantic gasps, he began to breathe normally again. Somehow, by some wonderful trick of chemistry, the thick, almost syrupy material he drifted through was able to become air-like upon entering his lungs. The feeling though was still quite uncomfortable because, even as it entered his nose and mouth, it was still felt uncomfortably like Jello. I'm a Jello-fish, Alex thought and laughed a quietly muffled laugh as he continue down through the dense yet breathable substance.

What was more, he was able to see quite clearly all around him as he descended. As if looking through clear tropical water inside a huge whale's aquarium, Alex was just able to see the distant glowing wall of the deep hole he was quietly floating deeper into. So wide was the crater hole though that the surrounding, curved wall was very hard to see and it wavered like a distant and fluid watery mirage all around him.

The wall of the deep, round pit had also been smoothed perfectly all round and was now covered by a thick glass wall that glowed and pulsed bright green before Alex's dazzled eyes. Every so often, Alex would fall slowly passed one or two of the small winking and crackling blue or green lights which fell slowly downward from the small central hole of the glowing dish far above him. They, like Alex, were slowly sinking into the huge well, all suspended within the syrupy Air-Gel and Alex noticed more and more of the lights, the further down he sank. The two different colors - blue orbs and green glass - also created an aquamarine glow throughout the fluid which shaded deeper and deeper the further Alex descended into it.

The more of the lights that he saw, the better Alex understood the reactions that occurred among them. These reactions often began with a group of four green lights drifting close to a group of three blue lights. A fascinating interaction between the two groups then began and ended in the blink of an eye. The green lights performed an intricate, multi-orbital "dance" around the fewer blue lights which seemed to cause a fourth blue light to pop into view for a moment as well. The two groups then swirled about each other in a blur of motion until the blue lights changed into green ones as well. This highly energetic reaction also caused the strange, dense fluid they (and Alex) were suspended in to burble and crackle violently in the immediate area around the lights.

The whole cycle of events soon ended though with a bright flash as one orb vanished and the whirling lights became still and stable for a few moments. This swirling of bright orbs and their resultant release of crackling energy was repeated time and time again. Looking down toward the bottom far below though, Alex noticed that the energetic crackling and swirling reactions were becoming more and more frequent and dangerously so. It was like looking down on a lightning storm while flying high above in a plane, except that, for Alex, there was no escaping the slow fall down into the midst of the lightening.

Looking up at the hole in the huge spider's web that he had jumped into, Alex noticed more and more of those same lights dripping slowly down toward him as well. He was becoming slowly crowded from the top and bottom, and on all sides. Alex did not think those swirling and popping lights were safe to touch either. What does all this do, he wondered as he gazed at the countless sparking, whirling orbs all around him. And what did it all mean?

((Over here, this way)), a familiar voice sounded in his mind, ((be careful, do not touch the orbs.)) Turning slowly around in the transparent medium, Alex again sought out who the voice belonged to. Then looking down, he noticed he had drifted near to one wall of the deep glowing well. He was now approaching a large, round opening in its side and Alex knew he had seen that opening before. As he turned all about Alex saw the same round openings spaced in a line, at regular intervals all the way around the vast crater wall. They were just as he had seen them when he was inside the Biosphere Dome with Miss Vee. Alex knew that there would be exactly twelve such round openings spaced evenly along the large curve of the crater wall. Thinking quickly, before they passed by him, Alex began to swim through the Air-Gel toward the nearest opening and he soon passed over the threshold and inside a tunnel made entirely of glass.

The Glass Tunnels! I've found them, Alex thought excitedly as he swam deeper inside. Sure enough, he again saw the same crystal-glass tunnel wall curving under and around him that he experienced on the first occasion he slid through one with Rainah to find the hidden Martian Biosphere Vessel. There was one very striking difference however: the threshold of this tunnel was coated now with an evenly spaced layer of the same blue orb-lights that Alex had seen as he floated down into the depths. There were no green lights inside the tunnel but at regular intervals, a blue light would wink out and disappear entirely. After several seconds though, it would appear again, just as it was changing back from a green to a blue coloured light.

Alex noticed this odd behavior and wondered if, perhaps, there was a connection of sorts between the individual blue tunnel lights and the clusters of four green and three blue lights that swirled madly about just outside the mouth of the tunnel. Another oddity that Alex soon noticed was something he felt rather than saw. For, inside the tunnel, he felt a gentle current pushing him forward as if he was swimming downstream in a slowly flowing river. He was, after all, floating in a fluid medium of sorts, even though he could still breathe in it. The only difference with this thicker, breathable Air-Gel was that, instead of a typical breeze blowing against him, this current was a liquid breeze which pushed him as he floated along.

The blue glow from the off-and-on winking lights at the tunnel’s threshold gradually faded as Alex was carried deeper and deeper inside it. There was never total darkness though because, here and there on the tunnel walls, the little evenly-spaced blue beads of light could still be seen winking off and on in regular intervals.

Alex tried putting his feet down onto the floor of the now dimly lit tunnel and to his happy surprise, he discovered he could easily keep his feet on the glass wall. He did not float back off the smooth surface as he imagined he would. Then to his amazement, Alex also discovered that as he walked, he could go anywhere on the curvature that he wished to. Up and down within the glass tunnel soon became lost and irrelevant to Alex as he walked in slow-motion, pushed ever onward by the gentle fluid-breeze at his back.

"This is very cool," he chuckled out loud, though his voice had a muffled, under-the-blanket sound in the viscous Air-Gel medium.

"Alex! Friend Alex! Over here," said that same voice that he had heard calling him several times during the adventure. Peering into the dim shadows ahead, Alex thought he saw a figure slowly appearing. But it was not someone standing in the tunnel that he saw - no, this person was standing and waving at him from inside the curved glass wall of the tunnel itself!

His eyes went wide as Alex cautiously approached then looked down (or up) at the image of the boy waving and smiling at him from within the glass wall, at his feet. Slowly drifting down till he was crouching, Alex stared, awestruck at the new magic he saw before him.

"Halden," he called as the recognition sent a thrilling shiver down his spine. The boy from Alex's dreams smiled happily back in greeting but he also seemed to be anxious about something because he kept looking from side to side as though afraid of being watched; his happy face within the glass changed to one of deep concern.

"It is well to see you again, Alex," he said, "but our time grows short and the enemy of our kind grows bold and prepares to strike soon. We must close the portals before they can be used."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked, still trying to make sense in his mind of the living image of Halden within the glass. But Halden seemed to have little time to try explaining this strange science to Alex as he pressed on.

"We must meet, quickly, in the Place of the Pillars, it is a secret place where the enemy cannot find us." As Halden said these words though, a small, blue light popped into existence on the glass, beside Alex's hand. Curiosity got the best of him and Alex reached over to touch the little odd, glowing orb. "No don‘t," Halden cried suddenly - but too late. Alex's hand passed over the light and just as he touched it, the light winked out as the other blue bulbs in the tunnel had done before.

"What - ow... my head," Alex gasped and he shut his eyes tight from the sudden sharp pain, then without more, he slumped down, unconscious on the floor. From the other side of the glass, Halden muttered an oath in Martian which clearly sounded similar to what an Earther might say when something most unfortunate had just happened. Then, after another furtive glance over his shoulder the Martian boy took a single step to one side then blurred away, like a swiftly flying ghost, with astounding speed.

As for Alex, the slow yet forceful current of the thick Air-Gel flowed on toward the end of the Glass Tunnel, taking the deeply sleeping boy along with it. You see, Alex's mind was literally somewhere else now, because teleportation and time-travel within the Nethlin Glass Tunnels was an ultimate reality; teleportation, not of one's body but of one's mind; perhaps even of the soul itself.

_____

The New Regime...

Meanwhile, on the large, glowing dish far above, the Spider and his brethren, the Flies mused among themselves over this unexpected turn of events. The Weaver, being not as cunning or sophisticated let the Flies whisper and wonder whether something more needed to be done or if, perhaps the young human had perished inside the machine.

"He-ssaw, he-saw," muttered one, "our plan is revealed to hhummanss!"

"Nay, Giand," another replied, "it came alone and it has surely not survived the elements within yonder well... hhummans exisst onnnly withinn aaiirr," the Fly gestured all around with its exo-nerve ganglia wires to emphasize its point. The first Fly still muttered, unconvinced as it skulked back into the milling crowd of the Others who were concealed by the shadows just beyond the glittering crater dish.

Shuk, the Spider clicked its black-tipped steel mandibles together with finality as it turned to finish its work. Such guesses and conjectures were, from its point of view, without value since the human was now gone. All else was merely a waste of time and energy and it would listen to the gossipers no longer.

"Ssst," hissed a new voice among them. "Hold and belay," crackled the voice of Zin, the Wasp as she rose up from the crowd of muttering, hopping Flies. Her burning, red, slit'd eyes pierced the dimness and the violet eyes of the black, scuttling Flies drew back fearfully into deeper shadows. She was indeed a new and different creature from her original form. Orange and black stripes adorned her hard metal body now, and she had become stretched wire thin, giving her a more threatening, whip-like appearance. Zins 's long, black wings buzzed and beat the air in a blur as she flew toward where the Spider stood.

Alighting in the gap between the two very different beings, the Wasp, who had once been a Fly, proceeded to take command as no Other had done before. "I will take rule now," she hum-buzzed with a dark tone to her voice. It served notice to anyone who would think to oppose her will, and her will was to take full control of the remaining Flies, harshly and absolutely. Only a fraction of the original horde remained after the terrible defeat of a week ago. Now Zin, the reborn Fly, who was now a Wasp, initiated a cunning command-override signal she'd secretly developed and sent it as a network packet throughout the H.I.V.E. Network. It defined her status as being the highest above all Others within their military command structure. Immediately after she sent the new signal, several Flies abruptly shut off and turtle’d over onto their backs and became still, their legs curling stiffly inward. The 'Kill-Virus' which Zin had piggybacked onto the signal immediately dealt with all others who dared ignore the new rank she had created for herself. Henceforth, the H.I.V.E. Network (and all those depending on it) would be under her ultimate control.

"Find the Earther who possesses the Remnants and Luss Powers," she buzzed wickedly, "Further failures will no longer be tolerated!" At her command, a large group of Flies fanned out from the crater in all directions to search for the boy who had escaped their clutches yet again. And they sensed Zin’s growing displeasure as a dozen more of their number fell dead in their tracks. Their hunt for young Alex began in vicious earnest. And fear of their new Queen spurred them on toward a swift ending of it.

Sitting atop a large pile of trash, Zin then paused and basked for a moment in the glory of her new-found power. This will be marked as a pivotal moment in our glorious history, she thought triumphantly, it shall be hailed by all our kind as the beginning of a new dynasty and a new order of authority.

My authority!

Then, as she reflected on her greatness, Zin recalled the trap which had been set for the Earther-boy several days before. The trap was meant to be one of cunning deception which would ideally snare both the boy as well as his Guardian Dragon as he sought to rescue it. That ruse, ingeniously as it was laid, was no longer necessary since the foolish boy had now stumbled upon them of his own accord. Therefore, it was time to bring the “dead” Flies in the Nest back to life once more to reinforce the army horde. Zin wanted the full might of all her troops for the invasion which she knew must commence shortly.

The Others around her sensed this as well and the air was electric with their vicious will to be released upon all the Earthers beyond the scrapyard. Zin idly sent Kill-Viruses to a few Flies here and there among the milling, buzzing horde to temper their impatience and remind them who it was that now had ultimate control. The humming buzz settled down to a low, constant drone like that of an enormous hive of killer bees. Zin, the Queen then sent a Resurrection Signal through the network and felt an acknowledgement from the first corpse-Fly lying silently in the old Nest, not far away. The chain of events had begun and soon the Queen's deadly horde would number twice the troops that she now had.

A message from the first reborn Fly told Zin of the snaring of the last of the troublesome Dragons as well. It would be dealt with shortly as more of the dead in the Nest re-spawned. "Excellent!" Zin hissed to the air, causing a few of the nearest Flies to draw back fearfully. "There is now no one left to protect the Earther-boy, he is ours," she finished with satisfaction. At that, the Flies again were roused to a new fever of vicious rasping and jostling among themselves. The moment of triumph over all the Earthers was so near they could fairly taste it.

Meanwhile, the Weaver resumed its task of completing the machine that the greatest One of its race had begun building 10,000 years ago but had, for whatever reason, been unable to finish. No matter, the Spider from the past had done an admirable job and completed the most difficult part of the construction.

It had spent weeks carving and smoothing the crystal walls of the original tunnels for Shuk, the Weaver. Then, with magnificent patience, the first Spider spent another month or more spinning the delicate strands of its superconductive thread all around the curved inner walls, first one way then the other, until a sleeve of finely meshed and cris-crossed fibres was formed in all twelve Glass Tunnels. He and his smaller comrades had been searching for the tunnels since the first day they were reborn, and now the humans had unwittingly revealed all to them. Such a treasure, such a find.

The Spider from yester-year had indeed been the first invader to this world, as well as the greatest Weaver of her kind. She was the Spider who was not only able to land and explore the Nethlin World while it drifted close by Mars, she also found the Glass Tunnels on that world and analyzed how and why the tunnels did what they did. Then, before leaving for Earth, that Spider, the greatest One, beamed all the data she had collected back to Shuk and the Others in the hopes that they could duplicate how those marvelous tunnels worked.

With that treasure trove of data, they had done so, and very well indeed. That first Weaver had also been Shuk's mate who was named, “Tine.” The Weaver gave a single satisfied, "harumph," of pride and remembrance as he finished building the machine, spinning the final, winking and glowing steel-silk threads from his posterior spinneret. He would do justice to the fine work that Tine had begun for him.

Sharply glowing orbs identical to those that Alex witnessed beneath the surface of the central pool emerged one-by-one with the thread as well. Each was separated from the other by a specific length of the Weaver's thin, glimmering silk and every so often they emitted unsettling electrified sparks which brightly lit the gloom of the night. A constant high-tension, crackling hum which belied an awesome power potential frizzed energetically between the orbs.

Most of the orbs were of a bright green but, every so often, an odd blue bead emerged into view as well. The blue orbs often winked on to become a blinding green and it was then that the air snapped with buzzing power. The small green orbs were magnetized matter particles but the flashing blue ones were rare ‘Anti-Magnets’ which possessed much stronger and stranger properties than did the green ones.

Most of the blue beads were already deposited down inside the deep bowels of the glimmering machine. The blue Anti-Magnets had the uncanny ability to unlock the great potential electric energy from the surrounding Nethlin Glass shell, then multiply that energy, to a million-fold higher level than it what it could normally attain. After drawing sufficient electricity from the glass, the blue anti-magnetic beads were then physically summoned by their green, opposite twins. When this occurred, the blue beads popped out of existence then reappeared close to their twin and released the pent-up electrical energy into the syrupy medium of the fluid Air-Gel.

The pulse of electricity was then fed back into the Nethlin Glass via the superconductive threads but now at an even higher energy level. The result was a closed but steadily increasing energy loop which grew stronger with each flashing blue or green bead that slid down the thin web of guide wires and fell into the central pool of the teleportation dish.

The electricity that was being multiplied would very soon enhance the basic property of the Nethlin Crystals within the special glass - that being the power to teleport the mind and soul across time and space.

Shuk carefully fed the last magnetic and anti-magnetic beads from his spinneret onto the semi-solid super-conducting guide wires that converged down to the central pool from every direction of the vast web-like structure. The Weaver finished the masterpiece that Tine had started for him ages ago.

It was an old creature, very old, and this would be its last but also its best design before it went on to join its mate in the cradle of death. Its large bulbous body was darkly silhouetted against the bright, sparkling glow of the massive web-like machine it crawled about on. And the Flies sat surrounding it, their evil, violet eyes aglow with bated anticipation. Like some other-worldly bon-fire, the sparking and snapping machine that Shuk had completed held them transfixed by its wondrous glow.

"Soon," they all rasped dryly, "Soon..."

Next: Chapter 13 - Revelations From the Map

Sergeant Cash and Elliot Jansen pay Wallace Chater at visit, looking for clues to the dying words of Professor Strikt, "Save the boy with the map." What they discover though is only a new layer to the mystery that is Alex Faraway.

As of 2019-09-25, Chapter 12 (Part 5) can be read at: Deepskystories.com