Chapter 5
People crowded around us and asked both of us a myriad of questions that Cabor answered. He urged me through the crowds towards the elevators that I could see on the farthest wall. Once inside with the doors closed, the silence was deafening.
I didn’t feel anything. No movement up or down and no sudden starts or stops. I hadn’t realized we even moved until the doors slid open on a corridor with several open doorways into larger rooms that held machinery and no more than 2 to 3 people, all dressed in white coats over colored jumpsuits like what we wore. He hurried past them down the white hallway towards a blue set of doors that opened as we approached and we stood at the top of the huge amphitheater that went down nearly 75 feet. There were tiers of benches and only about half of them occupied. At the bottom was a stand with a podium and a huge flat wall behind that. Like a screen and there were equations glowing on it. It meant nothing to me except that it was very complex.
Standing at the podium was a tall man with sparse hair, pale skin and a high brow. His head was almost too large for his body and his limbs long and slender so that it gave him the appearance of a walking stick.
He wore gold colored coveralls and greeted Cabor as he gently ushered me down the ramp. Everyone turned to watch me and I lost the arrogance of my changed nature as I descended. It was nerve-wracking to be observed by so many pairs of intent eyes.
“Cabor,” the older man greeted. “Tobias Spencer.”
“How do you know my name?” I asked facing him and not the crowd.
“You told us when we questioned you. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Head Council Janic Ricbom. Director of Reyjadsk. Welcome.”
“Are you one of those that wanted me dead?”
“What would you think if some strange being dropped into your home? Wouldn’t you be a bit suspicious especially if you saw this person hunted?” He returned. “Also, there is the matter of your strange medical condition. We have vampires and legends in our database but we were under the assumption that they were only myths.”
“I’d never heard of them before, either. Or the Elassai or curses or magic. Surprise, I met all three,” I retorted. “So, now what?”
“This is the Council and the assembled Heads of our Science Departments. They wanted to meet you and perhaps do some tests with you,” he explained.
“Do I have a choice?” I asked.
“Of course,” he seemed shocked. “We’re not barbarians. May I introduce you?”
I shrugged and he turned me around gently telling everyone my name, where I’d come from and how I’d arrived in their city. He explained how I had become what he called a ‘vampire’ and that my bloodlust was controlled by the health medications and metered feedings of artificial blood. He went into a long technical explanation of my altered genetics and then opened the floor up to questions. And ask them they did. From everything on how I peed and to whether I had normal relations.
“Relations to what?” I asked and they burst into laughter and a few giggles. Serious faced, Cabor explained and I could feel the blush travel up my cheeks, which prompted a whole other range of questions.
“None of your blasted business!” I said with gritted teeth. Cabor told them as far as his testing; my reproductive system was just like any other sixteen-year-old male human. The comments on that were funny with most of them wishing they were sixteen once more. I was totally embarrassed, especially when I noticed that half of the audience were women.
Cabor changed the screen to display other charts and graphs. Some I could understand like the images of my bones and organs. Others like the peaked graphs and blue lines with darker dots, I hadn’t a clue except that it rather looked like a blueprint. There were reams of stuff; it took the med-tech nearly an hour to go through it all. By that time, I had found an empty seat in the first row and was resting. His voice put me to sleep, especially after the unaccustomed exercise. I just let it all flow over my head trying to make plans on escaping this place although I wasn’t sure where I would go once I got out.
From what Cabor had told me, my grandfather and Blackfin were trying to break into the city. That would be a coup like striking the mother lode for technology. “Do you have the knowledge of the ancients?” I interrupted and he looked down at me.
“Yes.”
“All of it? The power to destroy a city with one button? Fly through the air inside a carriage or ride a carriage on those cement straightaways. Because that’s what the people want who shot me. They’re going to invade the Borderlands, steal the lost technology from the ruined cities and bring back those days pre-fracture,” I said and everyone in the room quieted so they heard every word. I swallowed. “I won’t let that happen. Would you help me stop them?”
“Why you?” Janic asked spreading his hands.
“I don’t know. Both my grandfather, the wizard and Lyr Averon said I was some kind of catalyst they needed to start the war. Both sides want me but I don’t want this. I don’t want war. The Elassai are no more vicious than the Oldlanders. Too many people have died over this bloody land and I won’t be a part of more deaths.”
“Do you know what a catalyst is, Tobias?” Cabor asked and I nodded.
“Something that causes an important event to happen,” I answered. He didn’t say anything else and their questions were answered by the med-tech. He brought me on a tour of the city, I was amazed at the size and variety of all that existed built under the glacier. There were gardens and fields were food was grown and vast caverns covered with dwarf trees in forests thick enough in which to get lost and vast lakes where people boated and fished.
In fact, they had everything under the ice that we had above the ice. The only thing missing was the blue sky for they even had artificial sunlight.
When he brought me back to my room, I collapsed on the bed and was asleep in seconds.