The boys look at each other again, the unasked question being, to trust this figure or not?
The figure continues to advance and is now only about two and a half metres away. Almost close enough to touch them and advancing still closer.
He looks human, has a human face, eyes that even in this light have that human sparkle that shows life. his movements appear very human like. If it is a replica it is a very good one.
Almost a metre and the figure stops. At least it understands personal space. The hand still extended in a friendship gesture. Although it is gently lowering now, as if the man, if it is a man, has given up achieving that demonstration of friendship. He speaks again, "Don't blame you, being carted around by these hulking great things and then greeted by me. You do understand English?"
Stuart finds himself involuntarily nodding in agreement. The figure says, "Oh good, thought I was going to have to struggle with trying to piece together some other earth language and languages not really my thing you know. How did you get here?"
Stuart looks at Andrew as if for permission to speak. Andrew shrugs his shoulders. This is not good for someone who was usually the more confident of the pair. Stuart takes it that the decision is his to take, he pauses a moment then says, "We could ask you the same question. Presuming you are not native to this place."
The figure laughs, "Do I look like I'm native to this place? Nothing like. I came from England, my arrival here was an accident. I was experimenting with cross modulated radio waves, when I opened up some sort of, what would you call it? A sort of corridor through space that swallowed me up and brought me here. How about yourselves? Oh please delight me by saying that mankind has developed some sort of sophisticated long distance travelling machine that will take us all back?"
"You don't even pause for breath, are you a machine?" asks Andrew, taking Stuart and the figure completely by surprise.
The figure smiles as it replies, "Well I have been called many things in my time, but a machine is not one of them. Tend to get rather excited when I speak and forget about the breathing bit, just tucking it in between bouts of speaking. So I can see why you would think that."
Andrew remarks, "It could be a machine that believes its a person."
The figure has a very surprised look on its face, "My what a furtive imagination you have young sir. Do you have such things now in your day and age? We would not even have dreamed of such things, let alone have the capability to make them."
Stuart says, "I think he's genuine, his explanation of how we got here would seem logical."
"Well thank you for your vote of confidence and your name would be?" the figure asks.
"I'm Stuart and this is," he pauses and looks straight at Andrew as if seeking his permission to mention his name. As Andrew's ace is wearing a rather don't care less look, Stuart continues, "And this is Andrew. We came across your device by accident."
"What year do you come from?" the figure asks.
Stuart replies, "Twenty Eleven."
There's a silence for a while, then the figure replies, "Ah I see two thousand and eleven, wow what a considerable leap in time, I came here in nineteen twelve. Nearly a hundred years between the two journeys, my goodness, that long."
There is another pause, then the figure continues, "I suppose my granddaughter will be dead by now. Certainly my son and his wife will no longer be around." another pause, the figure's face contorts as if in pain, then it continues, "How, how did you get into my house in the first place? Do you live there?"
"Well not live there, we are staying there." replies Stuart.
The figure smiles as he asks "Are you related to the family?"
Stuart is quite surprised by the question and asks, "What family?"
"My family of course."
"No we are just staying at the hotel, your house is now a hotel."
"Why? What happened to my family? Or do they own the hotel?"
"I don't know I'm only a kid. I don't know who owns the hotel."
"A kid? What do you mean?"
"A child, I am only a child." Stuart's face clearly shows his fear, fear of what this man will do to him.
There is a long silence as the figure tries to make sense of the exchange that has just taken place. Stuart and Andrew look nervously at each other.
The figure speaks again, "Sorry it is just a shock to find out that your house is no longer your own and also there is no trace of your family. I did not mean to scare you. What also amazes me is the fact that my apparatus still works. I could not believe it when I got the report that you had arrived."
"Did you try to get back home?" Stuart asks.
The figure seems quite surprised at the question at first, but then replies, "I did at first, but this place is very different to our own world, there is no electricity, you see. So I was unable to replicate my apparatus. I could not set up another sympathetic field to trigger a tunnel back home. I missed my granddaughter, dreadfully at first, but it is surprising how you adapt, especially when you have things to do, such fascinating things. Why the things I have invented and made will have your eyes out on stalks. There am I waffling, let me take you there and show you."
Stuart whispers to Andrew, "Still think he is a machine? Only a man could show such emotion. Did you see the tears?"
Andrew whispers back, "Granted it all looked genuine, but I am still not 100 percent convinced. For someone who is over a hundred years old, he doesn't look that much older than your or my Dad. It could still be a robot duplicate. For the time being however, I am prepared to admit it does seem quite convincing and if it is a duplicate it is a really good one.
Henry has turned and is walking back the way he had come, he is so confident that the boys will follow, that he doesn't even look round to check.
~~o~~o~~o~~
Chapter 4 - Eyes On Stalks
Andrew starts following Henry.
Stuart asks, "Do you think we really should?"
"I thought you were the one who trusted this Henry fellow." Andrew replies in a low voice, with a somewhat despairing look.
"I just said I thought he was genuine, as in, it was him who built the stuff that brought us here. I didn't say I trusted him." Stuart whispers back.
"Well I suppose we haven't got anything else to do, might as well find out what Henry has been up to in the 99 years that he's been here. Hey that's a long time isn't it, you could achieve a lot in that time couldn't you?"
Andrew replies, then continues to follow in the direction that Henry disappeared.
Stuart follows suit. Andrew disappears round the corner and Stuart picks up speed. As he draws up level, Stuart says, "For someone who is over a hundred years old, he doesn't look, sound, or even move like someone that old. When you think my Granddad is eighty four and can just about get to the newsagent and back, this fellow moves as quickly and easily as my dad."
Andrew pauses a moment and replies, "Yes, which is precisely why I'm not so sure he is the original Henry Englefield. Perhaps whoever owns this place has made a robotoid copy of the original Henry, to keep themselves amused.
Perhaps our Henry is the companion of whoever owns this place."
"What like a servant?" asks Stuart.
Andrew pauses for thought, then replies, "Probably not a servant as such, more like something to talk with." It is then that he notices that they are being followed by the two large creatures. "I don't like the look of that, those things are following, presumably to make sure we follow Henry."
The boys jump, as they hear Henry say, "Oh do not worry about them, they are quite harmless, I assure you. The Saysestrians let me have them, to help me with my work. It would be good, though, if they had more than a basic intelligence, but however, they are quite strong and having so many limbs often comes in handy."
The boys continue to walk, getting closer by the moment, to Henry, as he stands still waiting for them to catch up.
Andrew asks
, "These Say whats-its."
"Saysestrians." Henry corrects Andrew.
"Yes them, who are they?" Andrew continues.
"They are the natives of this place." Henry smiles.
"Will we be meeting them?" Andrew asks somewhat nervously.
"Inevitably, but do not worry." Henry had obviously detected the sense of fear in Andrew's voice. He continues, "They will not harm you. They are a totally peace loving race. Not far to go now, just down to the end of this corridor."
The 'just down to end of this corridor', is actually quite a distance and the boys are finding it tiring to keep up.
Finally they reach what looks like a dead end, but as Henry approaches it, the wall slides to one side. Before them is what looks like a shimmering curtain.
As the group exits the corridor, they enter a massive area, it is well lit, the walls so far away and roof is so high up, that at first the boys think they are outside the building. There are so many strange and fascinating things around them, some taller than others and each seems to have a vibrancy and dare I say it, a life of their own?
The shimmering curtain that is just inside the door, is almost like a waterfall On closer inspection, it doesn't actually look like it is falling, or that it is a liquid in the conventional sense. It almost appears like a mixture of liquid and gas.
Stuart holds out a hand to touch the substance.
Henry quickly warns him, "Do not touch that, unless you want to lose a hand or worse. It looks harmless, but it is in fact quite dangerous. I had to abandon all my experimentation on that, as we were losing too many limbs."
The boys look at each other, the fear in their faces, quite unmistakeable.
"What is it?" Andrew asks.
"Some sort of life form of a lower order, it seems to eat most things that it comes into contact with. Luckily there are some things that it doesn't eat, in fact I found it contained in one such substance. The basin that it is standing in is made of the same stuff. I only keep it as it is fascinating to watch and I love throwing it something to digest every so often. As for a name neither I nor the Saysestrians, have come up with a name for it. Open to suggestions if you have any."
Henry heads off to another of his exhibits. He waits for the boys to conclude their fascination with the last one and join him.
"This was one of my earlier discoveries, I call it a problemator. I have played around with the materials of this place and found uses for most of them. Some when combined with others can produce quite interesting effects. The four components that this is made of interact with each other and can switch states depending on what state the segments before it are in. Sometimes it will let light through and other times it will not. Not making myself clear am I?"
Andrew replies, "On the contrary, quite clear, it's like a computer."
"A what?" asks Henry.
"A kind of thinking machine." Stuart adds.
"So you have also discovered a logic switch." Andrew suggests.
"Now you have me confused." Henry replies.
"A switch can be in two states, on or off, add sufficient switches each dependent upon those before it and you have a device capable of making decisions."
"Right I understand now. You are quite correct. I have long since moved on with tri-state. In fact these the Kelidons." Henry points to the two large insect like creatures following them. Then continues, "The Kelidons work on tri-state. It was the Saysestrians that taught me about tristate."
Stuart fascinated by Henry's problemator, asks, "So how does it work?"
"Well you have these inputs here."
"It's like an unlabelled keyboard." suggests Andrew.
"Most disconcerting young man, the way you throw in these names. Anyway, the inputs are made here and the outputs appear on this screen here. Mind you it is so long ago since I built this thing that I forget exactly how it works now. I can no longer remember what the displays mean. I used it for quite a while to solve various design problems. Then when I discovered tri-state it seemed to be pointless to continue with this antiquated machine, but I kept it out of sentiment more than anything else." Henry moves onto the next exhibit, the boys following closely at his heals.
The latest item is a large transparent cylinder with a large tube going in at the bottom and snaking its way towards a wall and disappearing through the wall. At the top of the cylinder are several short lengths of pipe sticking out and curving downwards, the open end pointing towards the ground.
Stuart remarks, "Wow the air seems to be quite different here."
Henry replies, "Yes, this is an air cleaner, it takes that awful metallic taste out of the air and makes this room more comfortable. If you look closely, you will see small creatures crawling up or down the interior of the cylinder, or on that circular net about half way up. They filter out the metallic elements, they actually eat the stuff. Then if you look down in the lower half, you will see somewhat larger creatures, they actually drive the pump that circulates the air. Those creatures feed on the, what should I call it? Hmm, waste products that the others produce. A very dependent partnership, that works really well. The end product being a much more pleasant air as you have noticed."
Andrew says, "How clever. How did you realise that these two creatures could
help you out like this?"
Henry most pleased at Andrew's enthusiasm replies, "Well I had noticed that one creature appeared to eat anything metallic, the Saysestrians suggested that I could adjust the creatures so that they could extract the metal from the air. It worked, but the creatures couldn't get enough air to keep them alive. So I needed to make some sort of pump, I had noticed that there were some creatures that liked crawling and in so doing, they expanded and contracted. I had an idea that I could use that movement somehow. The Saysestrians suggested that I could modify the creatures so that they drive a sort of bellows arrangement. I also managed to alter their diet so they feed on the waste products of the first creatures. As you can see from their size, they thrive on it. Oh I am forgetting, you didn't see them when I first put them in the apparatus. Anyway, this arrangement works rather well. One creature extracts its metal diet and their waste feeds the others who in return provide enough volume of air to keep the first set well fed. I in turn, get metal free air. A truly symbiotic relationship."
Andrew says, "Sounds like something that they are messing about with back home, genetic engineering."
"What did you call it?" asks Henry.
"That's right, genetic engineering, where they alter the genes, the building blocks of life." adds Stuart, pleased that he had something to say on the subject.
"Does sound similar, except we adjust the cells that the creature is made of." replies Henry.
"It is very clever." says Stuart.
"You will like this next one." Henry walks off towards another of his exhibits.
The boys can see that it is giving out a rather attractive light that it is a light orange in colour similar to the skin of an apricot.
"These are very small creatures that you need a really strong magnifier to see. When I first discovered them, they gave out a very faint green light. I managed to modify their diet and now the light they give off is much stronger and towards the red end of the spectrum as you can see. I have made lots of panels of these things, they just need to be fed with water. In fact if you look at the tops of the walls they are lined with them. Extends my day nicely."
"Reminds me of some of the sea creatures that glow in the dark." Stuart suggests.
"Really?" asks Henry.
The tour of Henry's laboratory continues, much to the amusement and fascination of the boys.
~~o~~o~~o~~
Chapter 5 - The Saysestrians
Henry leads the way to what he has referred to as the chamber of conversations. He has promised that the boys will meet with the Saysestrians. They arrive at a very ornate doorway, the rectangular frame has quite fanciful figures carved into it.
The door itself has a rather exotic scene that looks like a tropical garden.
Stuart says, "Wow this is amazing, who made it?"
Henry replies, "Well don't look at me, I have no artistic talent at all. This was done by the Saysestrians, before the time of conversion."
Andrew asks, "The time of conversion, what is that?"
Henry smiles as he replies, "You will understand when you meet the Saysestrians. Now stay here, I just have to go in on my own and let the Saysestrians know that you wish to meet with them. They are really nice, but sticklers for protocol, so I will have to make petition on your behalf for an audience."
The door opens as Henry waves his hands before a dull looking bump sticking out of the carved patterns of the right hand vertical frame element. The room beyond is totally white, but never-the-less looks quite luxurious, decorated to the hilt with flowing curved cloths and items of furniture with delicate carvings. The boys do not have time to take it all in, as the door slides shut again.