The other side of beyond, p.11
The Other Side of Beyond, page 11
part #2 of Mitch Mythic Series
The sound of two hands clapping echoed out through the fog and Robert looked around frantically for the source. He peered into the mist underneath the light and saw a single figure approaching him from the direction of the lights. He gripped his pipe with two hands and readied himself for a fight. The figure neared him and he saw that it was humanoid. It continued to clap as it approached him and as it emerged from the mists Robert saw that it had a female form despite its strange appearance. A full figured woman walked towards him and she seemed as tall as he was. Her build was muscular and lithe. Robert gasped as she approached him and he almost dropped his defensive posture. She had bright blue skin and dark black hair. Her black eyes stared directly into Robert’s while she strode forward. A strange set of ornaments hung from her neck and a belt of shining gold sat atop of her black body suit. The belt swayed with her hips as she came forward.
“You’ve made it up. Hardly anyone ever get’s past the clackers,” the woman said as she cast a glance at the mangled bodies of the creatures that lay to both sides of Robert. “Perhaps you’re not as weak as they said you were.”
“Who said what?” Robert said and he instantly regretted opening his mouth.
“Oh, I did hear that you are somewhat indignant, so that matches your profile,” the woman said as she stepped in front of him and sized him up. “You are an absolute mess and that smell is unbearable. We’ll need to get you cleaned up so that you can prepare.”
“Prepare? Prepare for what?” Robert said.
“Didn’t Commander Holrathu inform you? You are being re-educated and I am your instructor,” the woman said as she turned on her heel and began to walk away.
“Instructor? What is going on here?” Robert asked in astonishment.
“Oh you really are as difficult as your file says,” the Woman snapped as she turned back and glared at him. “Do you really need me to spell it out for you? You belong to the masters now and I have been instructed to sort you out or get rid of you. You have failed us once already, but that was because you lacked discipline. The masters have determined you hold some value to the cause, but only if you submit to our will. I have been tasked with teaching you how to follow orders and comply with the wishes of your Emperor or destroy you if you fail.”
“So you’ve come here to kill me,” Robert shot back. The woman’s eyes turned a deeper shade of black and Robert knew he had made a mistake.
“I could cut you down a thousand times with my sword and I would relish each swing, but I am not here to kill you, that is, unless you make me,” She said as she stepped right up to his face. Robert could smell a deep and strong fragrance emitting from her skin and he felt light headed as she stared into his eyes.
“I’ve studied you for some time now. You are a very capable individual and you are an asset to out cause, but you have never learned submission. This is your great failure. You’ve been told since birth that you have been brought forth into your domain to dominate all other living creatures and this attitude has served you well, that is, until you failed. You failed to contain your problem because you thought you could go it alone and ignore the council of the Masters. Throughout your meagre existence you have believed yourself to be above the law and unbound by institutions, but now that you have been brought down from your lofty orbit perhaps you’ll see things differently. We can help you regain all that you have lost, but only if you submit to our will. There is strength in submission and once you’ve understood this lesson everything else will fall into place.’
“Do you really think you can teach me to submit?” Robert asked with a snarl.
“It’s either that or you die at my hand,” The woman said.
“Are you sure I’m the one that’s going die?” Robert said as he gripped his pipe.
“Yes, you are,” The woman said and she drew a sword off of her back and held it in her left hand.
Robert gulped for a second and then two handed his pipe. Perhaps he had been wrong to call the woman's bluff, but he had just taken out a half dozen snarling beasts, what could one blue skinned woman do to him that they couldn’t.
“I’d like to see how you plan to dominate me. I’ve never submitted in my life and as you can see I’m not interested in submitting now,” He said and a grin of defiance spread across his cheeks.
“As you wish,” The woman said and she stomped the ground with her thick black boots. The ground shook in front of her and a wave spread out across the stones. The force of the wave slammed into Robert. He was sent reeling backwards and he hit the ground with a thud. The woman leapt forward and brought her blade down inches from his throat. She pressed the blade into his skin and looked him over.
“Who are you?” Robert managed to say as his head dropped back onto the rock.
“You can call me Kalis and I am your Re-Educator,”she said before she drove the blade into his neck.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SOHEE’S COULDN’T BELIEVE how tired she felt. The jet lag had taken hold and she just wanted to crawl onto the floor and sleep, but She had been loaded back onto the cart with several of the people from the meeting. Her body guard sat next to her in a huff. She could smell his breath, cigarettes and Kimchi. She was overwhelmed by everything she had seen and heard in the meeting and her head ached when she opened her eyes. The cart started with a lurch and SoHee squeezed her eyes shut. She could hear the whirring of the cart’s electric engine and voices speaking in English.
“We’re heading to the science lab now,” a woman’s voice said. “We’ve hoisted the device from the incident site and brought it into a contained environment. We’re going to demonstrate its capabilities and reveal several other findings.”
The cart lurched forward again and SoHee felt a pang of nausea pass over her. She pulled her legs up to her chest and buried her face into her knees. The whole thing was so confusing and SoHee didn’t know what she was supposed to think. Seeing Mitch standing in the middle of that Chaos and destruction had been gut wrenching. She had seen the look on his face before he ran into the blackness and she knew it must have been just awful for him to have had to make that choice. None of it made any sense. How had he gotten himself involved with those people? He had been handcuffed later on so they were obviously taking him against his will, but who they were and what they wanted with Mitch was a mystery. Whatever the reason, the damage had already been done and Mitch was gone. She desperately wanted to help him, but she had no idea how.
The cart came to halt and SoHee’s head snapped up. She wiped drool from her check and pulled her hair out of her face. Every body was getting off of the cart and walking through a wide doorway. Her security guard grunted and stepped off the cart. She sighed and found some strength to shove her body into a standing position. She watched her legs lifelessly fall towards the ground. The only thing she wanted to do was sleep, but she was prodded forward by Evie’s cheerful demeanor and the grunts of her security guard. She stumbled through the doorway and saw she was in a large laboratory. There were all kinds of microbial specimens stored along several long shelves. A large electron microscope sat amidst an impressive rack of equipment. As tired as she was, SoHee’s curiosity took hold. She looked around in wonder and awe at the impressive lab and the variety of specimens.
“Do you like what you see?” a voice said from behind her. She whirled around and saw Gerald Tobero standing to her right.
“I’m not sure. It looks like you guys have been cherrypicking my research,” SoHee said as she looked at the tag on one of the containers.
“Imitation is the greatest form flattery, as they say,” Gerald said as he stepped to SoHee’s side. “We’re trying to understand all of the anomalies present during last year’s incident and the one thing we could study extensively was Miss Science’s contribution to event.”
“So you are stealing my research,” SoHee said. “If that was your plan, why did you bring me here? Were you planning to rub my nose in it?”
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Gerald said as he stepped away from the container. “Your work has been an inspiration to scientists of all backgrounds and you’re owed a tremendous amount of recognition for your contributions. Unfortunately, we’ve had to work under a veil of secrecy during the last while due to the sensitive nature of the event. As you can see, things have escalated heavily and we’ve hit a few snags in our research.”
“And you want me to fill in the gaps,” SoHee said as she approached the electron microscope at the centre of the room.
“Precisely,” Gerald said as he followed behind her. “Although your specimen from last year sadly perished along with the CEO of MindHIve, we were able to build a clone based on the data we gathered while it was briefly held in our facilities.”
“Don’t you mean imprisoned?” SoHee asked.
“That’s entirely subjective and you received an apology from the President, if I’m not mistaken,” Gerald said.
“Yes, he said a few words, but that doesn’t change the facts,” SoHee said.
“Miss Moon, let’s stop going around in circles,” Gerald said.
“That would be nice,” SoHee said. “Why don't you tell me what’s really going on here and what you want with me?”
“We need you to bring your sample back to life,” Gerald said.
“What do you mean, back to life?” Sohee said as she looked at him sideways.
“The specimen has been cloned, but we haven’t been able to get it to interact with the device in the same way as last year,” Gerald said.
“Are you insane? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?” SoHee said as she turned and looked Gerald directly in the eye.
“We are aware of the risks and our security protocols are as tight as can be. Believe me, after last year we are prepared, but even though a tremendous amount of damage occurred, we cannot turn away from the scientific breakthroughs that took place. That is why we have continued to research what happened and how we can prevent further incidents from taking place,” Gerald said.
“It looks like all your hard work payed off,” SoHee said.
“I’m well aware of the irony here, but there’s no need to be sarcastic. What happened yesterday is exactly why we need to be ahead of all this. If we can understand just how this stuff works then we’ll be better prepared to handle any future crises. There are all kinds of people out there who are accessing the information and data pertaining to the event. Look what happens when the wrong people get their hands on this stuff: bad things happen,” Gerald said.
“Yeah, I know. You do remember I was there last year? But what exactly do you want me to do about it now and why did you drag me all the way over here to tell me about it?” SoHee said while she struggled to keep her eyes open.
“I want you to replicate what you did last year,” Gerald said.
“How do you think I’ll be able to do that?” SoHee said.
“We have an exact clone of your specimen in our lab, but we are unable to achieve any type of response from it. As I said earlier, we replicated the experiment from last year, but we have not been able to achieve the same results,” Gerald said as he began to walk away.
“You have a clone of my specimen and you replicated the experiment?” SoHee shouted as she paced after him.
“That’s correct. Come, I’ll show you,” Gerald said as he pressed a button on a panel next to a door. The door opened to reveal another lab complete with a group of scientists that were actively checking equipment. In the centre of the room was a strange looking contraption assembled using found parts and loose welds. General Vargas and his underlings were all assembled in front of the device.
“Ladies and Gentleman, I’m sorry for keeping you waiting. I was just having a chat with Miss Moon. I see you’ve had a chance to look over exhibit “A.” Although it’s not the most sophisticated looking piece of machinery we’ve come across there is one piece of the device that is absolutely extraordinary.”
“It better be,” General Vargas said and he folded his arms.
“Are we ready for the demonstration?” Gerald shouted at the scientists working on he equipment.
“Almost, Sir,” one scientist shouted back. “We just need to calibrate the device with our equipment.”
“I see. Well, while we wait let me tell you a little bit about what we have learned in the last year and what this device has revealed. Scientists are still puzzling over what makes our universe work. There is a whole bunch of stuff out there called Dark matter. It’s called that because we don’t know what it is, but it accounts for a huge percentage of the mass of the universe. Now it appears that this dark matter has enough mass to exert a force on particles that are visible and this force is known among scientists as dark energy. It’s literally anti gravity and it is active all around us. This theory has essentially turned science on its head. Everything that we thought we knew was wrong, the visible universe is only a fraction of what is out there,” Gerald said and he paused for a moment, he seemed lost in thought.
“Just tell us how it works,” General Vargas said, he seemed to be losing his patience with Gerald’s thoroughness.
“Well, that’s precisely it,” Gerald said as he turned and looks the General in the eye. “We don’t know how it works. The development of Robert Chapman’s generator from the last year was so compartmentatlised we have been unable to successfully reproduce it. From what I was able to learn from my time with the device last year was that it pushed back against this dark energy with enough force to create the phenomenon we think of as a worm hole. By pushing against the dark energy the device was able to bend time and space making it possible to travel to impossible locations with a single step.”
“That’s madness,” The General said. “No wonder that guy got himself killed, only a damned fool would want to start messing around with that kind of thing.”
“Well, that is precisely what happened yesterday. Some damned fool was crazy enough to mess with the space time continuum again and we have all witnessed the results. This is why we need to be out ahead of this. It is the greatest challenge of our age. There are unknown enemies out there on the other side and we have terrorists and rogue elements present on earth that are rising threats to our security here.”
“So what the hell did they do, just spit it out already,” Vargas said.
“This machine, while not as sophisticated as the one built last year by Robert Chapman, has the ability to create the necessary forces required to cause the dark energy to pushback. MindHIve’s inReal device worked on these same principles. The device emits a strong surge of concentrated electromagnetic against. This surges pushes against the dark matter. One device alone couldn’t possibly create a standing wormhole but this large contraction is capable of boosting the energy present,” Gerald said.
“It looks like a bunch of car batteries rigged together, how is this thing capable of creating a wormhole,” Vargas asked.
“That’s a good question General and one we’re still figuring out at the moment. The car batteries are connected to this massive coil of copper. Combined together they create a crude yet effective energy funnel. The power produced by the magnet is enough to work against the dark energy but it is not enough to create the wormhole, but when you connect an inReal device to the magnet the signal is radically amplified,” Gerald said.
“So you’re telling me any body could rig something like this together and make a worm hole,” Vargas said.
“Yes and no,” Gerald replied. “Above and beyond any device, what matters most is the energy source. It appears that dark matter is not evenly distributed. It is present in some locations and not in others and like all things it can be heavily concentrated in a particular place. We have discovered that the network of caves beneath the city of Kingsford are excellent conduits of this dark energy. We’re not sure exactly how or why this is happening. Like I said, the scientists are still trying to figure out how dark matter and dark energy work, but we have witnessed the phenomenon first hand and we’re about to give you a demonstration of it now. Adams, Are you ready to show our guests what we’ve discovered?”
“Yes, Sir. Everything is in place,” one scientist said looking up from a console.
“This better not blow up in our faces, Mr. Tobero,” General Vargas said.
“We’ve taken all of the necessary precautions and the procedure will take place inside a secure tank,” Gerald said. “If you’ll all follow me to the next room we’ll begin the demonstration.”
SoHee had watched Gerald speaking with a feeling of dread. Memories from the year before flooded over her and the thought of revisiting what had happened had sent spasms of anxiety up her spine. Perhaps she was delirious from a lack of sleep, but he had forgotten all about being tired. She walked forward with the rest of the people and she watched her legs moving. She felt like she had lost all control of her body and it seemed like she was watching herself moving from outside of herself. She could still see Mitch’s face from the video and there was something about it that reached out to her. She had seen that look on his face when Robert Chapman had made him join the inReal ball game.
They had entered a large empty space that seemed big enough to house airplanes or other military equipment. A concrete floor reflected back pale overhead lights and an immense panel of glass and steel stood at the end of the room. Beyond the panel sat a stack of blue containers and a massive spool of copper wire. There were several thick panels stacked on top of each other on the other side of the device. The panels were made of some type of metal and they rose up above the device to just below the ceiling. A few people in military jump suits were attaching some pieces of equipment to the spool. “We’ve made a copy of the contraption and we have been able to iron out some of its kinks. We’re going to insert an inReal device and send out a surge of energy. We’ve done several rounds of tests on this equipment and we’ve had nothing but stunning success. This time we’re going to see if we can open and close a standing field,” Gerald said.
