Chapter 7 — Following the Path
“OK.” the perturbed father attempted to regain control to organize their efforts, “I’m not saying aliens did it; I’m saying at this point we have to consider all possibilities that have any connection to what we know. What do we know of Atlantis?”
Blank faces stared back at him.
Abby stumbled for a reply, figuring none of the children had any, “Um, nothing really. I mean there are some individuals in my field who are convinced it existed, but even they have to admit there is no proof of ‘the lost city’ at all, just myth and rumor. I can try to find someone who studies the myth.”
“Abby, what do you know of the myths?”
“They suggest that Atlanteans were extremely technologically advanced, some theories are that they lived under water for thousands of years to avoid some cataclysm on Earth. Some suggest they just happened to have expanded to underwater before the human race was annihilated by a meteor and they lived there for thousands of years until Earth was habitable again and repopulated the planet. Some say they actually lived on what is now Antarctica before the Earth’s axis shifted and put them under ice, and some believe they lived on a continent that sank during an exceptional period of tectonic activity. So you see, there’s not a lot to go on—”
“That’s what they said about the Mayans a hundred years ago, just a myth, right?”
“Well, that’s true—”
“So when do they think this civilization existed?” Rick asked.
“Anywhere from 500 BC to 2,000,000,000 BC.”
“Hmm… are there any ‘dates’ on the cube that happen to go back an extremely long time?”
“I may have seen a five-digit, possibly a six-digit number or two. Those could be up to 64 million years.”
“Wow,” Alex muttered, “this is big…”
“Check to make sure, could you?” he asked curiously. “Then perhaps we can consult with some of these myth-chasers to see if anything clears up or gets cloudier.”
“The only fantasy nuts I know are asleep right now, but I’ll do that tonight,” Abby promised.
“That still leaves us with the enigma itself: the cube. What could it be? A message? An actual time machine? A clue? Directions?” Rick speculated.
“I want to know what’s in it,” Alex stated.
“I think I can answer those questions…” Kaylie submitted confidently.
All ears suddenly turned to her expectantly.
“I didn’t say I could solve everything! Chill everybody. I just said I think I can answer those questions!” she straightened back up and calmed herself as the others waited expectantly for her answer.
When she was sure she had their attention, she started, “Well, is it a message? Definitely: ‘time is critical.’ Is it some kind of directions? Yes: ‘follow the path.’ A clue? ‘The vortex is the key’ and it’s even possible that a time machine is inside. But, we don’t know why time is critical, where this path is or what it leads to, or what this vortex is the key to.”
Jessica strolled over to Rick, cupped her hands around his ear and whispered something for about ten seconds, then stood back, proud of herself.
“Brilliant!” Rick congratulated. “Best idea I’ve heard all night!”
A chorus of “What?” came from each mouth in perfect harmony.
“Jess decided we should all go out for ice cream, and then rent some movies, and Abby could leave right now and be here in time to watch them with us and stay for the weekend!”
As if someone pulled a plug and let all the air out of the room, everyone released their breath in one big sigh.
“Well, I don’t have any plans this weekend, why not? It’ll take about two hours to drive there, ninety minutes if I fly…” Abby decided quickly.
“In a space ship?” Alex asked.
“You could be here an hour ago in a time machine,” Christy contributed.
“Go to the future first and tell us what this thing is!” added Kaylie.
“And don’t forget to write down the lottery numbers for tomorrow,” Anna suggested.
“OK girls, let’s let Abby get moving; it’ll already be 9:30 or 10:00 by the time she gets here!”
“Yes. I’m going to hurry. I’ll see you all shortly. Bye.” Abby waved, blew a kiss and signed off.
“I haven’t seen Abby in like a year, I thought maybe you broke up,” Kaylie said.
“She didn’t even recognize us,” Christy observed.
“We’ve gone to see her the last four or five times because she was busy, and you girls have grown a lot in the last year. Don’t be hurt by it. We went to two digs with her last summer and back again to the second one just two months ago for spring break. She’s been there nearly nine months and just finished.”
“Oh,” Christy seemed to understand.
“Hurry up, go get ready, girls!”
Rick climbed the stairs, shoved his feet into his shoes, and exited through the kitchen door into the three-car garage.
The ‘65 Mustang was out of the question, as was the Dodge Viper. “Looks like door number three!” he announced. He punched the third button on the wall to open the farthest door, housing the beastly old Dodge Caravan. At least it was pimped out with a DVD player and an X-box, he mused. He climbed in and wheeled around front to await his five passengers.
The gang leisurely consumed their ice cream in the minivan then spent thirty minutes in Wal-Mart before hitting the video store, returning home just before 9:30. They filed downstairs to wait for Abby. Again, the strange relic was the center of attention, each trying to magically awaken the secret power they knew it possessed.
The doorbell rang at 9:45 and Anna hopped up with Jessie to race recklessly up the stairs. Jerking it wide open, they startled Abby. She stood there in worn blue jeans, knees and cuffs frayed, and a light brown tank top. A duffle bag that appeared to have been dragged through the entire Amazon jungle was slung over one shoulder like a sack of toys on Santa’s back. She had a leather purse flapping loosely over her other shoulder and a giant bag of cheese puffs in her arms, hugged to her body like a pillow. The girls quickly ushered her in and guided her down the stairs. She abandoned her purse and duffle bag near Rick’s door.
When she reached the couch downstairs, Abby attempted to squeeze between Rick and Kaylie, then Rick and Alex, but neither would give ground so she finally settled in between Anna and Jessie; Jessie was all too eager to get some space between her and her cousin.
The entire gang continuously poked and prodded the cube, trying to figure it out. Nobody seemed to be in any hurry to watch the movies they had selected. Jessica finally grabbed the cube from an off-guard Christy, stared intently at the spiral design on one side and announced, “Watch this!”
The other girls began teasing her as she intoned, “Follow the path,” over and over. She then began tracing the vortex with her finger from the outside to the inside.
“You’re so stupid!” Alex uttered scornfully.
The cube suddenly started to vibrate, and Jessica hastily dumped it on the table, backing off slightly. Then they all edged closer for a better look as the sides appeared to split and unfold.
Rick pulled all the curious heads away from it. “Don’t get near or touch it; we don’t know what’s happening,” he warned.
The top unfolded to the left and each side slowly peeled away and laid flat. One of the flaps unfurled further, completing an eighteen by 24-inch rectangle with a six-inch square attached to the right containing another spiral. All seams vanished as if on command, forming a smooth surface. The square at the bottom contained seven curious items, and the entire surface of the rectangle was riddled with maps, diagrams and instructions, all in English.
Curiosity overcoming apprehension, Rick came forward to examine the contents. The others clutched him and held onto each other in both fright and wonder, staying well behind Rick, but peering around and over him.
Rick cautiously touched one of the it
ems on the bottom square and when it didn’t explode, he hesitantly picked it up. The object looked like a deep red crystal, about two inches long, shaped like a finely faceted teardrop. He held it and closed his fingers around it; it seemed to radiate heat. Satisfied it was not dangerous, he passed it around.
“Maybe we shouldn’t touch this stuff, Dad,” Alex timidly protested.
“I don’t get the feeling this stuff is meant to be harmful,” Abby replied for him. “It came with instructions.”
Rick then plucked a thin device off the square. It resembled a cell phone without a display. It had five buttons arranged in a cross pattern. He laid it back down on the table and lifted what appeared to be four necklaces with shiny crystal sphere pendants. Under the tangle was a coin — a shiny and barely worn gold coin.
“It’s dated 1755,” he read, “I wonder if that was when it was buried?”
“It couldn’t have been earlier,” Abby declared, causing a groan from the others.
Each of the girls, except Alex, picked up a necklace and checked them out. The chains appeared to be made from some sort of metal fiber, but were flexible as a thread, only slightly thicker. There was no clasp, obviously fitting over the head. The spheres attached to them were completely reflective; one silver like a pinball, one gold, one blue and one red. Like the mysterious metal of the cube, the spheres appeared impervious to damage; their shiny surfaces were an awe-inspiring display of perfection.
Alex picked up what was once the cube, it now appeared to be a solid, unbendable piece of metal. While the outside of the box had seemed holographic, the inside was finely etched, much like her trophies and plaques, but with unimaginable detail. “Dad,” she nudged him, “how big will your projector magnify?”
“I think 25 times. Why?”
“I guess that’s better than nothing, but we might need a microscope,” she said while rising to her feet without taking her eyes off of the metal. She shuffled over to the projector, positioned it as far as possible from the wall, flipped the switch on, and laid the metal across it, dialing in the maximum zoom. She began to adjust the image to fit the entire wall, and then studiously approached.
“Kill the lights!” Alex demanded, “I think I can read this… maybe!”
Abby immediately flicked off the lights, while the others continued to study one item or another, remarking, questioning, and imagining their purpose. Abby took the opportunity to steal Alex’s seat by Rick, settled in and watched over his shoulder as he tried key combinations on the slim device. She looked down at the last item on the table, the coin, while the girls each marveled at their reflections in the globes and the odd, silky feel of the necklace chains.
“What could be the significance of 1755?” Abby pondered out loud.
“There was a ‘date’ matching that on the cube. Maybe it’s a clue? I don’t know. This is all a bit difficult to comprehend!” Rick shrugged. He sat back, put his arm around Abby and exchanged items with her, “See if you can figure this one out.”
Abby turned, inspected, poked, rubbed, tapped, spoke to and breathed on the piece like a caveman trying to figure out an MP3 player. Nothing seemed to work.
They all continued to trade items, each inspecting while Alex intensely scrutinized the inscriptions on the former box itself bit by bit until she was satisfied. The rest of the group had forgotten her in their obsessive attempts to make sense of their piece of the puzzle.
Alex suddenly strode over and held out her hand, “Give me the Universal Chronicler, please.”
Twelve eyes stared at her like puppy dogs at a whistle.
“The what?” Anna finally questioned.
“This—” she indicated the slim device which Christy was currently examining, holding it up to her ear like a shell, expecting to hear something. Christy warily handed it to her. Alex continued, “—is a Universal Chronicler, it records information and everything the omni-directional, four-dimensional recording devices observe when activated.” She looked into the crowd of eyes appraising her as if she were juggling bowling balls with her feet. Alex pressed her thumb into the center button and counted, “One, two, three—”
Seemingly from nowhere came a display screen roughly six inches above the top of the chronicler, leaning at a 45 degree angle. A menu appeared with options of record and playback.
She explained, “It’s really quite easy to use — simply select which, or all, of the ODFDs (necklaces) you want to start recording, and it will record everything it sees until you turn it off. Or, it will automatically copy any recordings from them while they were ‘displaced.’ I assume that means ‘in another time.’ These things are made to keep records of time travel. The ODFD’s record 3D images for ten yards in every direction at all times and can hold up to four centuries of video—”
“WOW!” Kaylie exclaimed.
“That’s not possible!” Christy concluded.
“Maybe not now…” Rick intruded, “but thousands of years in the future…”
“Well, smarty, what about this?” Jessica challenged, holding the red teardrop.
“That is the time stone. It operates the ‘displacement machine’.”
“Uh, the what?” Anna was still totally baffled by the whole thing.
“The time machine, you dork!” Jessica rudely clarified.
“What time machine?”
“The time machine the map leads to,” Alex revealed.
Stunned, everyone swiveled their heads toward the wall at once.
“But I don’t quite understand it all,” Alex admitted.
“Well, let’s take a look at it,” Rick said as he got up and led the crew to check out the display.
The ‘map’ was no more than a hand-drawn bunch of squiggles with two main lines intersecting another at different points and traveling in different directions with an X near the farthest left line. It then had an inset of a simple maze, twisting to another X.
“Well,” Rick said after a brief study, “that makes perfect sense!”
“Really?” Alex excitedly asked.
“No,” he admitted, squishing her hopes.
“So like, uh, what do we do now?” Kaylie sighed.
“I know a treasure hunter who works with USGS; he’s had a lot of success decoding treasure maps,” offered Abby.
“I should have guessed,” snickered Rick, “You know someone who does everything, don’t you?”
“It comes with the job.”
He rolled his eyes, motioned to the computer, “Lead us to your King Arthur.”
Abby hopped in Rick’s chair as he stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. The girls gathered on both sides. She punched in a new name, ‘ICKU,’ and saw he was online. She quickly typed a message, “Rob, got a map for you — it’s algebra, your favorite!” She then asked Rick to take a picture to send Rob.
Rick wasted no time getting the camera and snapping a few pictures, trying to get a shot without the writing, now more deeply concerned with anyone knowing what they may have found.
“What’s ICKU stand for?” Kaylie asked curiously.
“What do you mean about algebra?” Christy added, interested in math.
“Well, ICKU stands for ‘I seek AU.’ AU is gold.”
The girls giggled at the acronym.
“Algebra is just a joking way treasure hunters refer to maps where they have to ‘find X’.”
“Oh!” Christy said, amused.
Rob finally answered just as Rick came back, satisfied with a picture to send, which he quickly loaded for her.
“What? Found my map to the Holy Grail at last?”
“Indiana Jones found that already,” she replied. “But this may still intrigue you. Sending…”
“Got it… printing it out...”
She gave him a brief rundown, including where they found the map and Rick asked her to add that a coin from 1755 was with it.
“What is this? Someone draw it with a crayon?” Rob finally asked.
“What’
s the matter, Rob, intimidated?” Abby challenged.
“I’ve found treasures buried under a hundred feet of volcanic rock on the ocean floor with only a description from a nearly blind and drunk monk about an island passed two days prior to the sinking of the ship that held it. This is a piece of cake!” he boasted.
“I’ll leave the line open for ya.”
“Who’s paying the bill on this one?”
“Um... Rick’s daughter found this one, we don’t know what it’s for.”
“Figures...” he harrumphed.
“Rob, the coin is gold — Spanish, I think — 250 years old. Do you think it has possibilities?”
He didn’t respond for a few seconds, then “What condition is that coin in?”
“Looks brand new. We have reason to believe it was sealed up the entire 250 years. Why?”
“That, alone, would pay more than five times what I would normally ask for my services… hint hint.”
“You looked it up, eh? Well, we’ll consider it,” Abby wrote.
“So I don’t get paid otherwise?”
“You know I’ll find a way, Rob. In fact, if you find this one, I’m almost positive Rick will part with that coin real quick.”
“There’s something you’re not telling me, Abby,” Rob accused.
“And that alone should drive you, right?” Abby came back quickly.
She was right. Rob loved a challenge and intrigue doubled the fun. “You know me too well. Now I won’t sleep tonight until I find it. Thanks a lot!”
“That’s what friends are for…”
“Tell Rick not to get his greasy fingerprints on my coin. Seal it back up for me please. Thanks,” Rob replied confidently.
“Thanks, Rob!” Abby answered.
“Thank me at 4:00 AM when I wake you up.”
“You would do that? Here, here’s Rick’s number…” she gave him the number and told him to quit wasting time. He left to start his search, promising to keep them up to date through messages, and promised he’d call if he found it.