Chapter 172: Transformations

Wednesday, June 23, 1971

Looking back, it’s difficult to describe what happened to me over the course of the next few hours. Somehow, the combination of the sword and the ring started a transformation inside of me that day. Suffice it to say that it was so significant that I barely recall anything at all about my first supersonic jet ride.

It all began shortly after they buckled me into the T-38. There wasn’t a lot of room in the cramped cockpit behind Colonel Rivers, so I ended up standing my sword between my knees, the point resting on the floor of the cockpit. And it had been a natural reaction to grasp the sword’s hilt with both hands as the supersonic jet rolled onto the runway.

The moment my hands touched the hilt, it felt like my body had suddenly become a conduit for the energy flowing between the sword and the rings. It was as if it made both objects happy to be joined together. I didn’t understand it, yet somehow, I didn’t think of questioning it either. It just seemed natural for them to be together. Too many unexplainable things had occurred in my life over the last six plus weeks.

I knew now that it had been the joining of the twin rings and the sword that had allowed me to become invisible when I erected my shield yesterday on the train. As if it was taking something I did and ramping up the power to make, not only my mind invisible to others, but my whole body as well.

I didn’t try to test my new understanding, figuring it would probably freak out Colonel Rivers to suddenly find his passenger missing in mid-flight. Instead, I just let the energies from the sword and the ring flow through me. And as they did, I began to sense things, kind of like fuzzy images. The longer it went on, the clearer the images became, until soon, it was like looking at a silent film, as the images unfolded, telling me the history of the T-38 that I was riding in. Its own story.

I quickly figured out that every scene I saw was filled with emotion. Most were new pilots, taking the stick for their first supersonic flight. And many more were scenes with the heightened emotions of simulated combat. There was even a scene dealing with a mechanical problem, causing one of the engines to flame out. At first, I found myself wondering if it had ended okay, but then I realized that I was flying in that very plane.

The whole experience reminded me of the first time I had entered my grandfather’s office in New York. As I moved around the room, touching the many items he had collected, each of them, I felt, had a story to tell. If I had only been able to read them.

Then, as we started our descent into an unnamed airfield somewhere in Colorado, I began to feel the sword and the ring speaking to me, urging me on in my quest for the codex. Not with the same intensity as the voice I heard yesterday in the Dining Car. This was more of a plea, a definite sense of yearning for me to understand.

My last thought, before the Colorado flight crew raised the canopy on the T-38, was to try even harder to locate this codex. This seemed to make the sword and my ring very happy.

The General must have been in a hurry to get me to the ranch, for he had a helicopter waiting for me when we rolled up to the hanger.

The blades of the Air Force UH-1 or Huey as it was usually referred to, were still spinning over my head as I hurried across the grassy landing area next to the parking lot at the main entrance to Twin Springs Ranch. It occurred to me that the General and Jaye might need to install a permanent helicopter landing pad if this keeps up.

Before I could make it to the office, Anna pulled up beside me in an electric golf cart like we had used to pick up laundry that time. I noticed immediately she was wearing her holster over her T-shirt and that it wasn’t empty.

“Get in,” she said tersely. Then, without even a kiss hello, Anna headed down the asphalt path towards the guest area of the ranch. While we drove, Anna filled me in.

“Sometime, after midnight, Tabita and Wilheinda pried up a couple of floorboards, then crawled out under the cabin and took off. They headed out the old logging trail, but when they got to the turnoff that goes up to the Pointe, their trail disappeared. We had to wait until first light to track them anymore, and I didn’t have a way to contact you on the train, so Daddy arranged to just bring you back here,” Anna explained.

While she was talking, I was scanning the ranch to make sure Tabita and her mother hadn’t doubled back, but I could find no sign of them. That didn’t worry me. I think I had figured out where they were. I just needed to get a little closer to confirm it.

“Can you sense them?” Anna asked anxiously.

“Not really. I’m pretty sure they’re still here though. Are they armed?”

“We don’t know. It appears that they may have gotten hold of something they could pry up the boards with, but as for weapons, we don’t think so,” Anna replied as we pulled up to the stables. There was a ranch hand holding the reins to a couple of horses, already saddled and waiting for us. One of them had a rifle in a scabbard attached to the saddle.

“I figured horseback would be faster,” Anna informed me.

I just nodded as I looked hungrily down the trail towards the Dining Hall. It may have been my imagination, but I thought I could detect the faint smell of Mable’s fried chicken, even from here. The smell reminded me I hadn’t eaten since last night.

“Don’t worry,” Anna added. “Mable wouldn’t let you go hungry. In fact she insisted on fixing your saddle bags herself.”

Anna and I mounted our horses and headed out. Thankfully, we weren’t riding fast and Anna didn’t say much of anything else, letting me focus on scanning the area. Soon, we came to the cutoff that led up to the recently named Michael’s Point.

I jumped down and just stood there, holding the reins as I looked around. The first time I had wandered out this way, I had sensed an animal of some kind, hiding in a cave. I hadn’t bothered to explore it at the time, but I knew the cave was close by. This time, I didn’t have the luxury of an animal to hone in on, so I had to search with my eyes. Anna was following my movements silently, but I could tell she was getting antsy.

Acting on impulse, I drew my sword and holding it with both hands, drove the point into the earth. Then exhaling slowly, I went to my knees, my hands still wrapped around the hilt. I could feel the ring pulsing on my finger.

One of the first things the old one had taught me was how to relax and become aware of my surroundings. At first, I could only sense living things. But as my skill grew, I was able to sense the rocks and even the earth.

I practiced that now, just as he had taught me. In no time at all, I could sense the cavern buried beneath the hillside, just to my left. The two alien females were huddled there, hiding, so I promptly put them to sleep. I was still trying to decide the best way to reach them when something else captured my attention. I could sense its existence, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

I guess you could compare it to watching a pretty woman walk by. Then, after she’s gone, you still detect a faint scent in the air, one you hadn’t noticed before, but you can’t quiet tell what it is. That’s the way this was. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it had an attractive aura about it. I was about to give up on it when suddenly, it came to me.

Opening my eyes, I saw Anna, still mounted, staring down at me. I just smiled up at her. I’m sure I looked like some sort of religious fanatic or something, praying at the makeshift cross I had created with my sword.

“Are you about through?” she snapped at me. “They’re probably long gone by now and you just had to stop and play with your new toy.”

I continued to smile at her, ignoring her verbal jab. I just hoped my sword would be forgiving as well.

“I’m going to have to do something about her attitude before long,” I thought unenthusiastically, remembering the last time, in her father’s barn.

Then, leading my horse, I began walking through the scattered pine trees that dotted the base of the hillside. It didn’t take me long to spot the small opening. Anna followed me skeptically, still mounted.

“This is good,” I said when I found a small clearing with enough grass for the horses to graze. We were less than fifty feet from the mouth of the cave but you couldn’t see it unless you knew what you were looking at.

“Let’s eat,” I told her as I removed the blanket that was tied across my saddle. Spreading it in the little clearing, I sat down and began to check out my saddlebags to see what Mable had sent me. I was starved.

Anna still in her saddle, looking at me slightly incredulously.

“You’re stopping here? To eat?” she asked irritably. “What about Tabita and her mother.”

“I wouldn’t worry. They’re not going anywhere,” I told her, without supplying any further information.

I could feel her trying to penetrate my shield, but after a while, she gave up and slid from her saddle. After tying off her horse so it could graze, she removed the rifle from its scabbard and the big pack that was tied on the back of the saddle and came to sit beside me.

I could feel her frustration. She was worried because Tabita and her mother had escaped. But it was bothering her more that I knew something and wasn’t telling her. That meant her dander was up for some reason. Also, she had decided she wasn’t going to ask me anything else. I’ll say this; she sure has one hell of a stubborn streak.

Finishing the big lunch Mable had sent me, I made a mental note to thank her when we returned. I noticed that Anna hadn’t said a word throughout my meal. She also hadn’t eaten anything. As I packed everything we hadn’t eaten back in the saddlebags, Anna stood and walked over to her horse. After tying the large pack back on her saddle, she turned to look at me.