“I wish we could go
on vacations like that all the time,” Greg said as he collapsed on one of their
comfy sofa smiling to himself.
“Tell me about it,”
Liam agreed, while stretching out his legs on the other sofa. “I feel a little
weird though,” Liam said feeling a little concerned, “I don’t know what it is
but I’m getting this tingling feeling in the pit of my stomach like something
is about to burst.” He said stroking his belly softly. “It must’ve been what I
ate,” Liam said nonchalantly. “To top it off I have a throbbing headache, it
feels like it’s piercing through my head,” Liam groaned while massaging his
temples. “Didn’t you say you had a headache as well, Greg?” Greg looked at him, nodding his head in agreement, and Liam couldn’t
help but notice that he was also massaging his own temples. “Not to mention the
nauseous feeling I began feeling not long ago.” Greg added. He then looked at
John, waiting for his reaction and also to try and figure out if John was
feeling the same weirdness as they both were.
John, however, knew there was more to this feeling, and if you would
look at his face, you could tell there was something more there; he looked like
he had just found out something.
“I think I might know
what it is you guys are feeling,” both his teammates looked at him in
anticipation, “I think our little trip, to that strange new world, made us a
little different and feeling things we didn’t before. It wasn’t a dream, Liam,
it really did happen.”
“No way,” Greg said
laughing. “That can’t be possible, can it? True, that place was something
beyond anything we have ever seen before, it was definitely so illuminating to
me. Almost unreal, so it can’t have been real, right?” Greg looked at Liam for
approval. “Okay, let’s say that it was really real, how different could it have
made us? I mean there can’t have been any side effects from it, right? I mean
we were barely there!”
“Well…to be honest
there might be,” Liam said thoughtfully.
“Think about it, you guys,” John said reminiscing to that time,
“whenever we go on vacation and come back we’re a bit tired yes, but both of
you feeling weird in your stomach, isn’t normal, right? Our dream, or whatever
that was, happened as soon as I touched the device. How can it be that all
three of us had the same dream of the same place? It just doesn’t make any
sense to me.” John said looking at Liam. Liam started to nod in agreement while
John continued with his hypothesis, “What I think actually happened is that in
fact we traveled to another place. I just know it, and I’m sure it’s because of
the device.”
“You know I think
you’re right, it just seems a little too strange for it to be all just a dream,
we all felt the same way when we were there, wherever there might be, and saw
the same things so it wouldn’t make sense if it weren’t true,” Greg said
smiling at the possibility that this may in fact be something beyond their
wildest dreams.
“What about you?”
Liam asked John, “What happened to you?” There were two meanings to that
sentence John realized, one being right now what he felt and the other being
what had happened to him at the time of their little adventure.
“Well…” John trailed off. There was so much he
needed to tell them, and now was the time to say it all. John looked up at his
two teammates who were eagerly waiting for his tale. “I don’t know where to
begin. I mean as soon as we entered this new world-” John was suddenly
interrupted by a phone call. Greg and John turned to look at Liam.
“What a timing, it’s
Jessica again. It must be urgent.” He answered the call. In the meantime both
John and Greg decided to leave the conversation as so and continued tidying
things up around the place.
On the following
morning, the three of them left quite early for the university. One of the
reasons it made them do that was, of course, the device; they wanted to begin
studying it as soon as possible and no doubt that their labs, back at the
university, would prove to be the best place to do exactly that. The other
reason was also for them to finally find out, what exactly was going on at the
university and why was Jessica so eager to have them back there. It didn’t take
them long to find out, since Jessica was already waiting for them in the lobby
of the university’s main building.
“Good morning, docs.” Jessica greeted.
“Good morning,
Jessica.” Liam replied; the other guys nodded at her.
“You will not believe
the discovery we made!” Jessica said, gesturing for them to follow her.
A few moments later,
they were all standing around a table, studying various documents spread out in
front of them.
“Watch this.” Jessica
said, while she was turning on a UV lamp.
“Wow!” Greg
exclaimed.
Jessica was now
hovering over the UV lamp that was beaming on top of the documents, and once
she did that, some sort of writing could now be seen embedded within the
documents’ text.
“Yeah, we found this
by accident.” Jessica said sounding excited.
“And do we know the
meaning of it?” John asked, taking a closer look at the embedded writing.
Somehow, the more he looked at the documents, the more prominent the embedded
text became, almost camouflaging the main text that in a way seemed to only be
there to hide the embedded text.
“Somehow, this writing seems familiar…”
“What do you mean,
John?” Jessica said. “We have tried to figure out its meaning, but so far we
found nothing similar to it. It seems like some sort of new alphabet or
something.”
“The thing is…” John
trailed off.
“John… so that you
know, you didn’t finish that sentence out loud…” Liam said.
“Oh sorry… yes… as I
was saying, I think I have seen something similar to this writing before.”
“For real?” Greg
asked feeling surprised.
John nodded. “Yes.
Now, if only I could remember where…?
The four of them
stood still, just looking at the various documents spread out in front of them.
***
“Taylor!” One of the
technicians called out, gesturing to the dot on the screen that had started
blinking. Taylor approached the console, circling it once as she took in the
blinking lights on the screen. “They began broadcasting the signal.”
“It seems they made
it.” The technician said.
“Yes, they did.”
Taylor said. “They managed to locate Elizabeth.”
***
Lizzie and James were
gawping at Elizabeth as she was analyzing a document in front of her. Elizabeth
took one glance at the two and gave out a soft laugh.
“If you stare any
harder at me you might just shoot me with your laser,” they both laughed at the
comment still fascinated by her every action and speech. “Come to think of it,”
Elizabeth said, thinking back at the encounter with them, “you almost did laser
me.”
“I am sorry for
that.” James blurted, Lizzie gave James a jam in the stomach. “We weren’t sure
what you would do to us, so in a way we had to be on alert. I mean you attacked
us with your magnetic wave balls. Sorry about that.” Elizabeth laughed softly
again.
“Yeah I guess it was my fault,” she said nodding to the situation and
continued with her analysis, “but if you had told me that the governor sent you
two as my assistance then it wouldn’t have been a problem. I don’t understand
why I didn’t receive an alerted message though, that’s strange.” Elizabeth said
thinking if everything was ok. Lizzie panicked at the thought that Elizabeth
just might try to make a communication connection to make sure everything was
ok.
“Oh, no you don’t have to worry. The governor said that he would have
sent you the message but he didn’t want any other prying eyes to find out.”
Lizzie lied quickly just to assure her.
“Yeah that does sound
like him,” she laughed again and continued with her work.
***
“I can’t believe
this!” John said, his teammates looked up at him from their documents,
“What’s up?” Greg asked.
“I knew I had seen it
somewhere!” John said smiling to himself.
“What are you talking
about?” Liam asked curiously,
“The writing under
the UV lamp we saw, I knew I saw it somewhere,”
“Where?” Greg asked,
moving closer towards where John was; Liam did the same.
“Here!” John took out
the device from his bag.
“Wait a minute!” Liam
whispered urgently, he tiptoed over to where the door was opened and closed it.
“The whole reason why we’re in your lab room, John, is so that no one else
listens in our conversations, especially when we are talking about that.”
“I know but look at
this,” John said eagerly, “the writing is the same on the device.” Greg looked
at the device and then at the writing on the documents.
“You’re right, they
do look the same,” he said in agreement, “Let’s look at the rest of the
documents and check what exactly is the writing trying to tell us.”
“I have a better idea,” Liam said, “Let’s take it back home with us. We
don’t really need to be here for this. I think it’s safer this way. Plus we already have the okay from the University to use the
documents since we’re the best team in what concerns solving this sort
of thing.” He smiled. John and Greg nodded and started to clean up, eagerly to
get started with the decoding.
“And John can finally
tell us about what happened to him back at the ‘place’, too.” Greg said
lowering his voice. John felt relieved to know that he would finally be able to
tell them what had happened to him during their short “trip” to that strange
world.
“Yeah, I really want to know it,
too. It’s been bugging me since we came back.” Liam said in agreement and they
left the lab, heading straight home.
***
“I don’t know how
much longer I will be able to trick her.” Lizzie admitted.
“We have to find a
way to get out of here for ourselves. We can’t wait any longer.” James said,
standing up.
Lizzie was pressing
her hands on Elizabeth’s temples; she had managed to finally break her firewall
and was now connected to her. The conversation they were both having was only happening
in their minds, it wasn’t exactly real. Both Lizzie and James hoped that by
maintaining Elizabeth on this illusionary state they would be able to gain time
in order to find a way to get out from that planet on their own, since waiting
for them to be rescued would be almost impossible now. They were in a sort of
advantage now, and they couldn’t waste this opportunity.
***
“Okay.” John said
settling down on the couch with a drink in his hand. Greg and Liam were seated
opposite to him, eagerly waiting for John’s explanation.
“Once I got to that
strange place, I actually thought that I belonged there. Don’t ask me why, but
it just felt right, felt good. But at the same time I panicked and was feeling
lost. It was a storm of feelings all happening at the same time.”
“Okay, but why was
that?” Greg asked.
“I don’t know… I
really don’t know.” John said. “Once I started looking at the surroundings of
that strange place, they looked quite familiar to me, but at the same time, I
could tell I had never been there. But the more I think about it, the more I
wonder whether I actually had been there before or not.”
“Okay…” Liam drawled. “But how could you
have been there, I mean, we were only able to get there because of the device
we found.”
“Yeah, I know… that’s
why I really don’t know how to explain what I felt. It was all so weird.”
“It sure is.” Liam said.
The doorbell rang.
“Pizza is here!” Greg
said all excited.
***
John opened his eyes
slowly; the sun entering through the window was almost blinding him of how
strong it was. John blinked a few times and then turned his head to look at his
surroundings. A delicious smell reached his nose. A few moments later, John was
levitating downstairs.
“Good morning, sleepy
head!” She greeted him with a wide smile on her face.
“Breakfast will be ready in a minute.” John
approached her and encircled his arms around her waist, and then he lost
himself on her scent.
“Smells good.” John
said nuzzling her neck.
“Well, thank you.”
She teased, knowing perfectly well he wasn’t referring to breakfast.
She turned around and
placed her arms around his neck, placing a light kiss on his lips.
“Now, you sit down,
while I will call the kids in.” She said.
John turned and
walked towards the table. “Where are they?”
“Guess?” She winked.
John just shook his
head. Then a shadow passed by the window and giggles were heard from outside.
“Kids, breakfast is
ready.” She was now calling at the door.
“James, careful. I am
almost falling!” Lizzie chastised.
“Hold on tightly,
Lizzie.” James said.
The two kids were
both on the backs of their new pet. A small green dragon with huge grey eyes,
that seemed almost as happy as they were and was now hovering near their home.
The kids giggled once again.
“Let’s go, Sparky.
Mom is calling.” James said.
Sparky, the dragon,
obeyed his command and soon after they were all on the ground.
“Mom!” Lizzie ran to
her mother’s arms.
***
“John… don’t make
things any harder than what they already are, please.” John’s wife said.
“I still think there
must be something else we could do…” John said.
“There’s not, John.
And you know that.” His wife told him.
“Now, John. It’s time
for you to go.” His wife said, making a huge effort not to cry.
“The pod is ready.”
Taylor said.
John’s wife nodded
and so did John. “I guess this is it.” John said.
“Now John, when the
time for you to return comes.” Taylor began to explain. “This device will find
its way to you.”
“But I will not
remember anything!” John said.
“Don’t worry, you
will.” His wife said.
Taylor decided to
leave them alone. “Safe journey.” Taylor said before exiting the chamber.
“Go, John.” His wife
told him. “We will be together in our dreams.” She tried to smile.
“Yes…” John was
feeling his chest tightening. “I love you, Elizabeth.”
“I love you too,
John.” Elizabeth said and then gave him one last kiss.
***
“John! Wake up!” Greg
yelled.
John groaned from the
noise that Greg was making.
“Give me a minute.”
John mumbled.
“John, get up now!”
Greg said again a little more urgently. John opened his eyes straight away.
“What’s wrong?” He
asked sitting up abruptly and looking a lot more alert.
“You are.” Greg said
concerned.
“What do you mean?”
John asked; Greg pointed at the clock.
“Oh my God! How did
it get so late?” John panicked.
“You slept for half
the day and both me and Liam have been trying to wake you up but you wouldn’t
budge. This isn’t like you, John. What happened?”
John started to
gather up his thoughts, thinking what he did. He tracked back his actions; he
remembered talking to the guys of his experience and then the pizza came and
then they fell asleep...sleep...his dream!
“Greg, you would never believe what I dreamt!” John said excitedly.
“Where’s Liam?”
“Whoa, calm down,
John. Liam is in the other room going through the writings and the documents.”
John jumped off his
bed heading towards the study room to find Liam intently looking at one of the
documents.
“Wait for me!” Greg
said from the bedroom heading towards them.
“You guys wouldn’t
believe what I dreamt of.” John said excitedly.
“Just a minute, let
me just recheck this part again.” John walked over to what Liam was doing he
looked at the writing again.
“That’s strange,” He
said with a bewildered look on his face.
“What?” Greg asked.
“These markings are
sort of a code.”
“What do you mean?”
Liam asked looking up from his work.
“This is really
strange...” John said trailing off.
“No, it’s not. It’s genius! It must be a passcode or something.” Liam
said getting excited.
“Yeah, you’re right.
Maybe it’s the way to unlock the device or something.” Greg said eagerly, as he
joined Liam.
“No. That’s not the
strange part.” John said looking at the code.
“What is it then?”
Liam asked.
“The strange part is
that I think I understand it.” John
said.
***
"Here, John.
This is how we're going do things." Elizabeth began to explain.
"You really
think this is the right thing to do?" John asked her, still full of
doubts.
"Yes, John. If we want to prevent the Thwrai from stealing our
knowledge and technology, we must do this. No matter how painful it will be for
us..."
John just hugged her
and placed a kiss on the top of her head.
***
"Lizzie, you
need to focus, if you ever want to learn how to do it." Elizabeth said.
"I know, mom,
but no matter what I do, I will never be as good as you." Lizzie said
feeling a little bit frustrated.
"You don't have
to be like me. Each one of us ends up developing a new ability. I'm just trying
to help you find yours, that's all, sweetie." Elizabeth smiled to her
daughter. "Now, just try to connect with me, and tell me what you see."
"This is easy,
dad!" James said all excited.
"Yep, now let's
try something harder." John told his son.
"I'm worried
about Lizzie." Elizabeth told her husband after another day of training.
"She's still not
able to focus, is that it?" John guessed.
Elizabeth nodded.
"In order for the plan to work, she needs to be able to connect with me
and bypass my firewall."
"Don't worry,
she will be ready." John reassured her. "She kind of reminds me of
someone, in the beginning."
Elizabeth looked at
John and smiled. "I wasn't that bad."
"Neither is
Lizzie. Once she manages to focus, she will be able to do it in a
heartbeat." John said.
"I'm sure you're
right." Elizabeth agreed. "And James?"
"He's doing
great. He's a natural, almost just like me. So I'm allowing him to work on his
own on the device." John explained.
"You think
that's wise?" Elizabeth asked.
"I am
supervising it, of course. But we need them to be able to work on their own. We
will be away from them for a long time...” John trailed off.
"I know..."
Elizabeth said and placed her head against her husband's chest. "I just
hope we're doing the right thing..."
***
Elizabeth walked away
from the new comers' cell. She couldn't exactly explain what happened, because
she herself was feeling confused. "What's happening to me?" She asked
herself.
***
"Now, we just
have to wait for night to come. And hope that dad, will be here in time."
James tried to reassure Lizzie.
"Yeah, I
guess." Lizzie said. "If he's not here at the rendezvous point, we
might not be able to escape."
"He will be
here. I know he will!" James said full of conviction.
***
"Guys, I have a
feeling that I need to do something." John said standing up from where he
was seated looking at the documents.
"Sure, you need
to end up deciphering the meaning of that code." Greg said exchanging a
sarcastic look with Liam, who shrugged.
"I'm serious! I
don't know how to explain it, but I have to. And sooner rather than
later." John said.
"Wow, calm down,
Bro." Greg said now with a more serious look on his face.
"I can't calm
down. I don't know what it is, but I feel that someone is depending on
me." John said feeling all alarmed.
"Who?" Liam
asked.
"I don't
know..." John replied.
That night, Liam
and Greg went into the kitchen to make a midnight snack,
“I’ll have a small sandwhich,” Liam said as
he passed Greg the bread, meat and condements. Greg nodded and proceeded with
their sandwhich.
“You know I’ve been thinking,” Greg said
while he added a nice thin sliced turkey to his bread, “don’t you think John
has been acting rather strangely?”
“You know, I was just thinking the same
thing!”
“Right?”
“He’s been like that since our little trip
back when we were in our holiday.”
“I just don’t understand him, and what does
he mean by this ‘I need to be helping someone’ attitude? I mean it doesn’t seem
like him at all.” Greg said feeling a little upset with John.
“I think he might have been a little effected
by the teleportation incident. He was so quiet and he was sleeping way more
than usual too. He’s been acting strange I don’t understand why.” Liam sighed.
“You know what’s the strangest part, is when
he said that he was able to understand the writing, and his dream too. What’s
that about?” Greg said feeling a little puzzled.
Liam knew there was something really off with
John, he wasn’t being himself. He seemed to be sleeping, acting suspiciously
quiet. Liam wanted to know what it is that is changing one of his closest
friend. Has he alsways been like this and just hasn’t realised it? I mean all
three of them grew up together and had the same asipirations as each other, so
why does it seem like John is not the way he is? Liam was determined to find
out what was bothering his friend,
“We should look into finding out what’s
happening with him. He must need our help.” Liam said to Greg. Greg nodded in
agreement whilst taking a bite in his sandwhich,
“He’s our closest friend we’ve got to help
him out.” Greg said with enthusiasm.
“You read my mind,” Liam said as they both
went into the living room where John was closely looking at the writing on the
device.
“Hey John you need any help there?” Greg
asked as he came over stuffing his face with his sandwhich. John continued to
work but did not say a word, both Greg and Liam looked at each other and then
at John again.
“John?” Liam said placing his sandwhich on
the table and looking at his friend, “did you hear us?”
“...Yeah...I did...” John mumbled barely
audible. It was as though the vibe he was giving was of anger ready to surface
any moment.
“John what’s up?” Greg said, “Why are you
acting so weird all of a sudden?” John stopped what he was doing and looked up
at the two.
“Is that how you see me as? Weird?” He asked
Greg with a serious look on his face. Greg laughed,
“What are you talking abo-“
“YOU DIDN’T ANSWER THE QUESTION!” John yelled,
the sudden rise from the voice made both Liam and Greg startle.
“What’s the matter with you?” Liam said
feeling a little nervous.
“What’s the matter with me?” John repeated as
though he was insulted. “I’ll tell you what’s the matter. My two so called best
friend, think that I’m crazy! They don’t seem to trust me at all in what I say
and also think there’s actually something wrong with me!” Both Greg and Liam
froze on the spot. He heard them. “Yeah that’s right, I heard you two alright.
I can’t believe you guys!” John said as though reading their minds. He looked
hurt and upset with the two. He needed to get out of here. Get some space.
Just as he was about to leave Liam grabbed
his arm trying to stop him. “Wait a minute John,”
“Let go of me!” John growled whilst trying to
shake off of Liam’s grasp.
“John we were talking about you like that
because we wanted to know how we can help you,”
“You mean some sort of mental help!” John
said feeling more offended
“No! We wanted to know why you were acting so
strangely we were going to confront you. Plus you knew you were, you were
telling us about it. Remember?” John went quiet. It was true he was acting
strangely and he was going to tell them about it too.
“That’s true.” Liam let go and John stayed
put.
“What’s wrong?” Greg asked, coming with his
sandwhich. “You aren’t the type to get angry like that. In fact, I don’t think
I’ve ever seen you this mad before.”
“I don’t know,” John said while massaging his
temples. “I feel like I’m going through some wave of emotions. It’s crazy.”
“Hang on a minute,” Greg said thinking, “how
did you hear what we were talking about? The living room door was shut, and we
were whispering.”
“No you weren’t, I could hear you guys loud
and clear,” John said. Greg and Liam both looked at each other with concern and
then at John.
“John I think-“ Liam started but was
interrupted by John yelling.
“Oh my God! Greg you’re going to choke!” John
said.
“What?” Greg said confused, “I’m not going
to-“ Just when he was about to finish off his sentence, with his mouth full, he
ended up choking. Liam ran toward Greg and gave him the heimlich manauver. Greg
spat out a small piece of his sandwhich onto the floor and breathed heavily.
“You ok Greg?” Liam asked, Greg nodded and
then looked up at John
“How did...How did you know?” He asked. Liam
also was curious to know what was going on and found it really strange as well
as terrifying too.
“I..I...I really don’t know,” John said
scratching his head and feeling slightly frieghtened by what just happened.
“What’s happening to me?”
***
“Hey, you better not put that in
your mouth!” John warned her.
Elizabeth was about to try one of the delicacies set
on the huge table that was set at the banquet room. She stopped taking it to
her mouth, just a few millimeters away and then she glanced at the person who
was daring to address her.
“I think I can handle it.” Elizabeth said and was
about to place the delicacy once again in her mouth, when suddenly it literally
flew away from her hand.
“Hey!” Elizabeth wasn’t pleased.
“Trust me, you wouldn’t have liked it.” John told her.
“And who are you to
tell me what I would like and what I would not…” Elizabeth paused for a second
and then continued. “Unless…I know you, you’re the son of the chancellor from
Sittlan, and as a Sittlanean you can predict the future within a short limited
period of time.”
John nodded. “Yes,
you’re correct. My name is John.”
“Elizabeth and I’m…”
“You’re the daughter
of the governor of Sarusa.” John interrupted her.
“Hmm… have you been
spying on me?” Elizabeth teased.
“No, that wasn’t my
intention. And I am sorry…” John sounded all alarmed.
“Relax… John. I was
just teasing you.” Elizabeth laughed.
John stayed for a
moment looking at her and then started laughing as well.
***
“But, father. I know
John, and I know neither he nor his family would resort to such course of
action. I have spent some time with them, and I can assure you...” Elizabeth
tried to explain.
“Silence!”
Elizabeth’s father ordered. “Maybe that’s the problem, you’ve been spending too
much time with them, and you’re losing sight of what’s important to your own
people!”
“That’s not true,
father!” Elizabeth defended herself. “And you know that perfectly well, you
know I would never do anything to harm our own people!”
“But you’re willing
to ally yourself with our enemy!” Elizabeth’s father was furious.
“No, father, I am
not. And for a single reason, they’re not our enemy. Don’t you see that?
Father, what happened between our two peoples, happened millennia ago, things
have changed; I believe both our peoples have the means to try and live
peacefully with one another.”
“Elizabeth, I’m
warning you…” Elizabeth’s father said adamantly.
“No, father. Please
listen to me!” Elizabeth pleaded. “I know both our people had differences in
the past over our technologies. But isn’t there a way for us to coexist
peacefully, I mean, if we look carefully at the circumstances, it would only be
proven helpful and more advantageous if both our people would work together
instead of against each other.”
“They have stolen our
technology, Elizabeth. I am just trying to get back what’s rightfully ours,
nothing more, nothing less.”
“But father, that
happened a millennia ago, the people who inhabit Sittlan now, aren’t the ones
who stole our ancestor’s technology, and okay, although what they did at the
time was very wrong, the fact is they ended up improving our technology and
they also learned how to work with it much efficiently. And what’s more, they
didn’t use it against us, whatsoever!”
“Silence! That’s enough,
Elizabeth. I don’t want to hear anything else about it, anymore!” Elizabeth’s
father was furious. “But I’ll tell you this, my child. If you continue to
insist on visiting… them, I will arrest you for crimes committed against our
people, do you understand?” Elizabeth’s father threatened.
“You wouldn’t dare to
do that to your own daughter! Besides I’m not doing anything wrong!” Elizabeth
was surprised at her father’s reaction, she had never seen him treating her
like that before, and she had given him plenty of reasons to do so, many times
before.
“I said that’s
enough. Guards, please escort my daughter to her quarters!”
“No, father, please listen to me!” Elizabeth still tried while two
guards started holding her by her arms and walking her away from her father’s
sight.
End of Chapter 3.
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