Chapter 36

We missed supper as we chiselled out the areas around the frames. Osston found the first globe and when we finished we saw that there was only one. The rest did not even have the cup arrangement attached to them. This meant that one globe controlled all four gates.

I could see a way of bring warships here now without cutting them up, or at least not much. There was still no key to activate the links and as Osston said it was doubtful I could find a way.

I thought again about the keys. Somebody or some being had to use a key to get through a portal. For all I knew it could be in his home. He came to a place like this and walked into a large room and walked out another portal. That could be to a location on his own world or to a different complex. Perhaps station would be a better word. Eventually he stepped out a portal at his destination. I could not see a conductor accepting the exact change or punching tickets. It had to be the computer or one like it that controlled the antigravity elevators.

Computers had to be fancy if they matched this level of technology. It made sense that if I could contact one computer, I might be able to talk to another. After half an hour nothing happened but I had no real job so I picked one of the nearby portals that were blank and I asked to have the other half activated.

I was getting a headache but I continued. I reluctantly changed my method to ask to be just directed to the nearest operable portal to Earth. My luck didn't help here. Getting the computer to open a portal for me looked a long way off.

The next day we chiselled out all four portals. We could not take them far because of their size. I got a brainstorm and thought of setting up the chain portal and sending a unit to the area where our portal was but the exit was still too small. I guess we could push it out like we had done before. I used a headband and a coin to view the blacktop outside the shed that housed our portal. I reasoned that if we were connected through an open portal then the chain gate may work. Even I was surprised when it did.

In ten minutes we had three of the four pieces in Woodland, then Osston went up and closed the main portal and opened the small original one to this site. The forth portion made it just as easy as the first three.

All this gave us something to consider because it gave us a lot more opportunities to attack the Church.

I got out the measuring tape and saw that the portals I transported were square. The inside dimension was 19.8 metres and I knew the original placement ignored the crossbars so I figured I could pass 40.4 metres if I put all four together.

We had few radios suited for civilian purposes but we found all that were available. The portals in world #5 were scanned and scanned again and again. Short wave worked well at night so we had to try when it was dark there. This meant all the time because we did not know where each portal was except for the few we already found.

Selna, Matra and Caiti arrived the next day. Selna had been wounded but was now doing fine. The family had not said anything to me because of the way I reacted. It hurt to think that something could happen to her. She was so young by Earth standards to be doing any fighting. Caiti had been shooting too and Matra had been their spotter.

"Selna, tell me how this happened?"

"It was stupid and we made a mistake."

"Tell me, Sweetie."

She gave a little smile and said, "An Anguy squad had tried to infiltrate our lines. Matra used her night glasses to spot them for us. While we took out the squad, we had failed to notice that there were two squads approaching. We started taking fire but they were not good shots. They tend to go in auto mode because of the firepower. Our own security team had not seen them, either, but security finished off the group for us."

"Any of your team hurt?"

"A few small wounds. I was hit across the back of the leg. Mom came over quickly and worked on me. It wasn't that serious to begin with."

"Enough to sideline you from having fun tonight?"

Her expression changed rapidly, "Not on your life." I knew she was ok now.

It was fun to show the girls how I could levitate them. There was a lot of squealing and they hung to me tightly as the security detail chuckled. Osston came with us as we investigated this site. I was shocked to see children hurrying to a pit and jumping in. The gravity was low but it still shocked me. Other children stood at the bottom of a tube and shot upward faster than I would have attempted. I still had a fear of falling and could not see the children acting this way.

Selna had seen the children and smiled so I had to tell her mentally how to get up and down as well as sideways. As she tried I had to tell Caiti and Matra the same thing.

Matra was first and she spoke quickly to the other two and in a moment Caiti rose off the floor only to settle back down. There was more excitement in the air and Selna was urged to try harder but it didn't work. I cheated a bit and tried to elevate Selna without her knowing. I did a centimetre and she broke out in a grin and jabbered at the rest.

I said, "I took an hour and a half to elevate. You guys work a lot faster than I could."

Selna grinned at me and said, "Let's find a quiet shaft. We can get naked and you can give me two types of rides at once."

Caiti said, "Try it. If it works then I have to try it with Matra."

"What about our guards?"

"Can they float yet?"

"No."

"Why not?"

That was a good question. The Church found people that had some mental powers and took them. They left the rest. Perhaps with all the use of the silver icons a lot more could do this. I thought of Mom and Dad trying. I assumed a person had to be able to talk mentally to the computer but perhaps a computer was sensitive enough to not need somebody that could use telepathy. If there was any ability in my security detail it would be good to encourage it.

I turned to the detail and said, "Caiti has a point. You will be better able to fight and protect if you can use the grav shafts independently."

Caiti said, "What's a grav shaft?"

"A shaft that has some type of gravity control."

"Did you make that up?"

"Sure."

"Ok, just asking."

I turned back to the guards and I said, "I'll give anybody that can float up as high as my head a copper penny from my land." This got a lot more excitement and the detail got into the centre of the opening.

Only one guard got off the ground and she yelped so loud that she frightened the rest of us. Matra and Caiti went to the top of the shaft and came down only to do it again and again. They were getting more adventurous all the time. Soon Caiti and Matra left the top and I heard the girl say, "We have to try something. We'll be back in a few hours."

Selna almost cried, "What about me?"

"You come up here now and I'll make it worth your while."

I started to go up the shaft and in a moment Selna did too. She wanted to clutch to me but wanted to be independent. I left the security team down below to give them some incentive to try harder.

We made it to the top and I saw Caiti and Matra waiting for us and both were wearing big smiles. The three girls kissed and then I had to get some of that too. I looked behind me and saw two of my team so I was happy for them even though they looked white.

I said to the family, "Go have some fun and learn to use the shafts better. I still have work to do, especially opening that chest."

Selna said, "I'll go with you."

I gave her a kiss and said, "I'll see you tonight. Just save some for me."

I got a bashful smile and said, "I'll save lots for you."

The two women that made it here with me were picked up and we started to descend. I said, "Concentrate on your own bodies."

One said, "We'll fall."

"I won't let you and you got up here by yourselves."

We remained stationary until the two got control of themselves and we went down together. By the time we were down, they had smug looks on their faces.

One of the younger trainees found me and said, "We found something."

I squatted down and said, "What did you find?"

"All sorts of stuff."

"What kind of stuff and where?"

"Where you were digging."

"Oh, then let's go and check this out."

A small chain portal was seeing a lot of use. The detail, my young trainee, and I stepped through to see that the cliff I had worked on was radically changed. The opening was now thirty metres across and extended all the way to the top of the cliff. Wooden scaffolding was nearby but the loose rock had been moved quite a distance away. The ceramic wall was now much easier to see.

The people around were dirty but still excited at their find. More trainees came and one said, "We found two openings. Come and look."

I was shown another wall but this one was only three metres high. The end had been damaged which I could see by broken doors that looked more like a hatch on a military ship. The wall was actually a tube like the Eskimo had to his igloo but this was much larger.

"We're digging here but there is another opening."

"Where is it?"

I was shown the back side. Not all of it had been separated from the cliff and I saw that there was still a lot of rock and soil above the ceramic walls. I got closer and saw the opening. Two girls, about ten and twelve, were using hand tools to dig out some soil where some ceramic had been at one time.

I called the girls down as well as the other students. Most were from the school but not all were from there. I had hopes for the students to eventually graduate.

I pointed to the ten metre portion of rock above the wall and said, "You have done a wonderful job of digging this out but it looks like a building that has obviously collapsed. I want you to completely stop digging into the structure until you remove the rock and dirt that is above it.

One of the young girls said, "It won't fall in."

"How did you get to be an engineer?"

The girl knew she had overstepped herself. She did not answer though. "Remove the rock above first. That's an order."

You would have thought that I had squelched all their fun. I added, "I don't like going to funerals and there have been too many of them. Work safe. You're important to me."

Three adults looked embarrassed and I saw that one was a teacher. Instead of causing a rift, I said, "A true archaeological dig takes a long time to do right. I have some DVDs on this subject and you should look at them first. You do not want to destroy some small clues that you will need later to find out more information. When we first started to investigate the portals, we photographed and made notes of everything we found even if the details were minor. Try that here so you can learn and remember, the information may help save our lives one day."

Everybody seemed to have been chastised enough and I was shown the details that had emerged so far. I was handed a fifty centimetre length of tube that had collapsed. It would be roughly four centimetres in diameter if it were round. The dirt in it was gone and the material was strangely light.

Another exhibit was another portion of the same material but it was broken open. Inside was some green material that looked a lot like copper sulphate. It was in a straight line, though, and I could see more below it.

These facts started to fall into place. I used my knife to scrape the original tube and found it to be black in colour as was the tube that surrounded the copper. I poked out some of the copper compounds and found a streak of pink below that and then I found green and yellow.

This was some type of building that at one time had electric wiring. It now occurred to me that the wars on Bejek may not have kept civilisation from gaining a high level at all. It could have been as good as Earth was now or perhaps higher. I had only seen it as a poorly developed world that had some alien artifacts among the barbarians.

The present scarcity of copper could be because Bejek had little of the metal or over time the existing veins had been mined out. The Iron Age on Earth came about because copper became scarce, not because iron was better. It was actually a poor substitute until it was eventually converted into steel.

I said to those around me, "This site is now very important. The people here used copper wire. It looks like they used electricity like we are now doing. Copper may have been much more plentiful at one time and it was used for common articles in the home. I have no idea how old this place is but it has to be thousands of years at a minimum."

I looked at the teachers and said, "You hold the keys to your past here. If you screw up you will lose it. I know there is a gate in there someplace but there may be something even more important even if we cannot see it right away. Document everything and go slow." The teachers assured me that they would do so.

Before I left, I said, "Keep me posted as to what you find." Again I got assurances that they would.

We searched where the artifacts were found. The tube and the conduit had to be made of plastic. This could mean petroleum but plastics could be made from plant products too.

The doors on the tunnel looked to have been strong and thick but also looked to have been blasted off their hinges.

I stayed for a few hours and left. There was still lots to do and I could not be spending my time as an amateur archaeologist. The chest still had to be opened or at least investigated. The now partially functional portals drew me almost as hard.

I went looking for my map-maker. It would be expected that he would be on Woodland investigating the portals with the rest. I asked a few questions and had to go to Shreff. Loca was in the library sitting at a desk and reading.

He got up quickly when I came in. "Hello, my King. May I be of some assistance to you?"

"I hope you can, Loca. You remind me too much of a man by the name of Modak Clova. He was on the run from the Church but we did not have as much security then as we do now and he was murdered."

The man was worried now and asked, "Why do you think I am on the run from the Church?"

"The way you act when we mention the Church. Like now, you are sweating in fear. I'm not here to harm you. All I want is your help to find out more about the chest."

"I know almost nothing, my King."

"Will you assist me? I'm not asking for miracles, just an honest effort."

"I will try, my King."

"Good, now what are your ideas about opening the chest?"

"To open it may bring destruction on our country if not our world. The power it contains is too strong to imagine."

"Ok, let's start with the history of long ago. I heard that there were great wars that almost destroyed everybody. They happened at least two times. Do you think the chest could have one of those weapons?"

"I don't know, my King."

"Let's be honest Loca. What do you know and can we work from there? I want to learn all I can just as you are trying."

Loca did some thinking and then seemed to collapse within himself. "I was not quite a priest when I was taken in a raid with some other trainees. For fourteen years I was a slave until a chance came when my village was attacked so that I could escape. I ran for years. Partially from the Church and partly from the people that might take me back. I was lost more times than enough and learned the value of maps. I guess you don't want to hear about that but about what I learned from the Church."

"Oh, no. I want to learn about your experiences too."

"Thank you for saying so but I will start with the Church. I believe I was given up by my parents when I was a baby. I have no recollection of them. I learned fairly quickly and was applauded for my dedication. My master said that I was slated to become a priest sooner than most. I probably would have made it at about the same age Osston did.

"I went many places my master took me but I learned nothing that I think can help you open the chest."

I asked, "Then tell me about the Church. What do you know of who runs it and where they live? Were do you think they do the most research and where are most of the books kept? Is there an area where only some people may get certain books? I need information about how to gain all the knowledge I can, Loca."