11: The Parting Of The Ways
‘What the hell were they doing?’ was just one of the questions running through Philip’s mind right then.
But thinking wasn’t doing anything for the pair in trouble. As they watched, the smartly dressed man pushed the other men aside and pressed his face up to the pair, by the looks of it interrogating them.
*
Mr Gauthier didn’t like the look of most of his workers, so his opinion of these intruders was best left unsaid. The workers of course backed away from him, they all did, which allowed him to get up close and personal with the teens. He relished in their fear which showed in their pitiful eyes. But instead of snapping and cursing, he spoke calmly and softly, which came as a surprise to all present, having seen his face growing crimson.
“Well now, I presume you two have become lost, separated from your tour group. Is that right?”
Jimmy nodded, while Cary remained resolute, glaring back at the man.
“I see. Well, why don’t you scurry on back to wherever you came from, and forget this sorry event ever happened. Agreed?”
Cary’s expression still remained sullen; she wasn’t used to not getting her way. But then Jimmy did something which did change her expression...to something similar to an effigy of a wrathful ancient goddess.
“But our friends are down there. We only followed them,” he burst out, pointing in the direction of Philip and Noah.
*
They had a split second to decide what to do, and in that second Noah whispered, “You get the henchman, I’ll get the boss.”
As Gauthier looked over, following Jimmy’s finger, the Mancynns entered transit.
*
Cary almost jumped out of her skin when Philip suddenly appeared out of the rippling air, instantly knocking out the men in uniform who had forced them to the wall. Maybe under other circumstances he wouldn’t have been able to, but he had the advantage of surprise and what he could only surmise as a temporary dose of supernatural strength on his side. Meanwhile, their new science assistant, Mr Mason, appeared in an equally impossible manner, and just like that he was gone again, along with their interrogator. She and Jimmy looked, stunned, at Philip, who stared back at them. No one dared break the silence. But they didn’t have to, for just then Mr Mason reappeared, crumpling to the floor. Philip rushed over to him, kneeling down and supporting him. Cary and Jimmy didn’t move, watching the spectacle unfold before them.
“What’s wrong with him?” Cary asked Philip eventually.
“Entering transit even twice in quick succession can be taxing. Three times can take it all out of you,” the American replied, weakly, not looking at her.
“What are you?” Jimmy whispered.
“None of your concern,” Noah moaned. “Why couldn’t you just keep your damn mouth shut?”
Jimmy whimpered, Cary continued watching.
*
Mr Gauthier was beside himself with anger. The Mancynn had left him in a corridor, it could be any corridor. Quickly, he ran to the nearest office, knocked the workman aside and luckily he found there was an intercom button.
“I want everyone near the ATLAS siphon to search for a Caucasian white adult male with three teenagers, two male and one female. If they escape, I will personally punish those responsible. Is that understood?”
*
Alerted by these words, Noah tried to get up, but collapsed once again. It took Philip’s support to get him to his feet.
“Just go back to the group,” Philip hissed.
“No way,” Cary laughed, but her voice was laced with fear.
“I really don’t care what you do,” Noah’s voice was weak. “You’re not my concern.”
“Oh thanks,” Cary snorted.
Tired of arguing, Philip took the stone from Noah. The map was still upon its surface. He zoomed it in further, finding their corridor.
“Here,” he pointed at the map, “there’s a room we can hide in just down the walkway. There’s a ventilation shaft leading off it that goes around the cavern to what looked like the main control centre. If anything other than searching for subatomic particles is going on in this facility, we should be able to find it out there. I suggest we head in that direction.”
Not waiting for a response, Philip turned, Noah still leaning on his shoulder. Cary and Jimmy looked at each other, still not completely certain what was going on, before hurrying along behind them.
Luckily, they ran into no one on the way to the room shown on the map, which was surprising, considering the warning over the intercom. Philip smashed down the door, and led them inside.
It was your typical, small, grey office: a cheap desk, tatty chairs and filing cabinets, furnished from an office supply catalogue. Philip sat Noah down in a chair, before moving over to the filing cabinets.
Over his shoulder, he ordered, “Cary, stand by the door. Warn us if anyone’s coming.”
Not questioning him, though still resentful for not getting to stay next to them, Cary did as she was told, moving over to the once-whole door. Looking out into the corridor, she heard Philip pushing the cabinets aside.
He found what he was looking for: an air vent leading into the heart of the complex. The one thing the map hadn’t made him realise was its size. There was no way he was fitting through there.
“Why don’t you just teleport down there?” Jimmy asked.
“The map doesn’t seem to show where the people are, God knows why. We don’t want to materialise within a person,” Philip said, keeping calm.
“I’ll explain why it doesn’t do that later, maybe. But first, who’s going down there?” Noah groaned, leaning over. “We’d need someone really short and thin.”
Philip thought for a second, and then looked at the short and thin boy beside him. Jimmy looked up at him. His round eyes widened.
“Oh...But I’m not thin...”
“You’re thinner than the rest of us,” Philip insisted.
“Here, take this,” Noah called, weakly.
Jimmy turned in time to catch the phone Noah had thrown him from the inside of his pocket.
Cary turned to see what was going on, “You realise you won’t get any signal down here.”
Noah glared at her, “After what you’ve seen so far, do you really think I’d give him something that didn’t work?”
Before Cary could retort, Jimmy spoke up again, “So what do I do with this?”
“It’s modified so that I can stay in touch with it with the other phone in my pocket. So as you go through the tunnels, we can guide you. Once you’re down there, the phone will be able to download information from the computers.”
Philip ripped the grill off of the wall, proffering the open vent to Jimmy with his other hand.
The boy shuffled back rapidly, his head shaking from side to side just as fast, “Wait...what? But...no...b’I don’t want to.”
Philip didn’t move or change his position or expression, save his eyes, which appeared to get slightly blacker, “Look, we didn’t bring you with us, you chose to come, and now you’re here, in the same boat as the rest of us. Now pay the price for that and get in the damn vent.”
Nervous, and probably guided more by peer pressure than common sense, Jimmy got to his knees and wriggled into the vent.
Philip got the stone out, and the map of the complex was visible before him once more. Noah tapped him on the wrist, and handed him the other phone, already with Jimmy on the line.
“Okay, Jimmy, just keep going until you reach a fork in the tunnel.”
Jimmy made some sort of response, and the three of them waited for his next confirmation with growing anxiety. It surely wouldn’t be long before someone walked in on them.
“I’m here,” Jimmy’s voice suddenly crackled through the phone.
No matter what the modifications, the quality of the line wasn’t perfect.
“Okay, take the left turning and go ten metres before taking the second right.”
Cary knelt down next to him, leaving her post at the door, wanting to listen in.
“Why aren’t you guarding the door?” Philip mouthed.
*
And so it continued, Philip gave directions to Jimmy, he turned left and right accordingly. If it hadn’t been for Philip’s constant guidance, Jimmy felt he would have soon become lost in this labyrinth of twisting ventilation shafts. As it was, Jimmy was just going around the umpteenth corner when he suddenly heard through the radio...
“Not far to go now, Jimmy. Up ahead you should see a...”
...Silence.
Jimmy put the phone close to his ear, then his mouth.
“Hello, is anybody there?”
There was no reply.
“Philip...” he whimpered, his voice growing higher.
*
The phone lay in his limp hand, forgotten in that moment of confusion. Philip stared up in wonder from his crouched position by the air vent, Noah and Cary also looked up, but rather with a look of bewilderment on their faces.
“How did I know it was going to be you they were talking about on the intercom?” the figure at the door asked.
“Strange, you were the last person I’d expect to see here,” Philip said, slowly.
This odd exchange of greetings was meaningless to the other two, and they only understood who the intruder was when Cary finally plucked up the courage to ask, “Who are you?”
“Her name,” Philip said, indicating the girl standing in the doorway, “is Eve. She’s is a girl I met on my holiday in Venezuela, which brings me to my question: how did you get here?”
Eve pulled up a chair, “Do you not realise what they’re doing here?”
“Not really,” Noah answered.
“Well,” Eve didn’t take her eyes off of Philip, “A few days ago I took the helicopter over to Auyantepui to check out where we were found.”
“Oh, like you could fly a helicopter,” Cary laughed.
“Actually, I can drive as well as fly. You learn a lot working for my father. Anyway, after searching the forest for a while I found a large hole which led into the mountain, surrounded by construction vehicles. Sneaking past them and climbing down, I entered a large cavern. Going down further, I came to the lip of an abyss.”
“Hello? Please say something,” Jimmy’s voice sounded faintly from the phone.
Eve continued, not hearing him, “It was then that the machines operating the rope pulleys started up and the vibrations shook the cliff, making me fall. Luckily, the thing they were lifting up broke my fall, even if it hurt. They didn’t see me, they were too busy shifting whatever it was and getting it transported. I was able to hide. And I was taken away on a large plane and have been here for the past few days. Speaking of which, do you have any food?”
No one knew how to respond to this speech. Realising no one was going to break the silence, Eve sighed.
“So how’d you get here?”
Philip raised his eyebrows, “Well, with me and Noah, it’s complicated. As for Cary and Jimmy...”
He paused, thinking for a second, before turning to Cary.
“How did you get in?” he asked her slowly.
“What?”
“How did you get into this section of the facility?”
“He has a point,” Noah realised. “We saw the door was security locked. There was no way either of you could have broken through.”
Jimmy called through the phone once again, “Hey, guys, I’m getting scared. Say something...”
“Well as it turns out we didn’t need to break through. When we went back after noticing you were gone, we saw some workmen coming out of the door, and we managed to sneak in,” she said, smartly.
“I would have thought any worker would have made sure a security door would have closed properly,” Philip wondered aloud.
“How else do you explain me getting in here?” Cary demanded, crisply.
Philip took his time replying, “I don’t know.”
“Please!” Jimmy shrieked, “Say something!”
“Just one minute,” Philip said to those around him, turning to the phone. “Jimmy, we’re fine, nothing to worry about.” He continued, talking over Jimmy’s sighs of relief, “Where are you?”
*
Jimmy quickly looked around, “I’m at the sharp right turning.”
“Wait a second...okay, you’re nearly there. All you need to do is go down to the grill. There, you have to check if anyone is in the room beyond. If it’s empty, then push the grill aside, it should be as easy as the one on this end. Have you got that?”
“Down to grill, check room, go in. Got it,” he muttered, before putting the phone in his pocket.
*
Philip didn’t know exactly what the sound of rustling fabric against the reciprocal phone was, but he assumed it meant the call was over. Putting his phone in his pocket, he turned to the group, then Cary.
“Go on, get back by the door.”
She pulled a face and sighed, but did as she was told.
Noah looked at the newcomer, who still looked out of place in the group, “So what did you manage to learn about what they took from Venezuela? What does it look like?”
Eve’s eyes drifted upwards as she tried to remember as much as she could, “Area wise, it’s about half the size of the posada back home. Most of it is a flat, shallow incline, on one side there is a large, thick wheel, with smaller wheels within it, and behind that stretching along the length of the thing is an equally thick bar, which at the end bends down and spreads out to cover the top of the incline. As for what it does, I have absolutely no idea.”
“Well it’s not something I’ve ever heard of,” Noah admitted.
“There is no guarantee that it will be used for good. If it is not, if it is to be used by the Brethren Lords, then we may have to destroy it. Did it look like we could do so?” Philip asked, earnestly.
A noise came from his pocket, and Philip took the phone out.
“...do from here?” was the end of Jimmy’s question.
“Sorry, so the room’s empty?”
“Yes.”
“Are there any computers on in there?”
“Yes.”
There was a pause where Jimmy didn’t hear anything as Philip asked Noah what he was meant to be doing.
“Jimmy, go up to the computer,” Noah heard the boy’s footsteps. “Now, on the side of the phone you should be able to extract a cable. Plug that into a port in the computer terminal and press the download icon on the phone. If you hear anyone coming, press the abort download icon, pull the cable out and get back down the vent. If no one comes, wait until the download is complete and then come back here.”
He disconnected, and finally put the phone properly aside.
Philip swivelled on the desk to face Noah, “While we’re waiting, why don’t you answer some more questions?”
Noah looked across the room at Cary before deciding it would be okay.
So happy that he could find out some more about...well, everything, Philip’s next question nearly spilled out, “So what is it with Gryal and the others? What’s their back-story? Why are they...you know...?”
Noah rubbed his neck, “You know what, I might as well just tell you everything, to save time. Okay, well, you must understand that although I was taught a lot on this subject during my time with the Lords, I don’t know every fine detail.
“To start off with I have to explain to you the basic structure of the universe. It is not, as scientists believe, infinite or indeed entirely linear. All the modern theories: quantum; relativity; that of an expanding universe, all of these require the human perspective of reality to be correct. But the thing is, the multiverse isn’t quite as we perceive it. Think of it like a living organism. Within it are millions upon millions of ‘cells’, or in this case, universes. I believe there are around 871,655,167,200,000,000,000,000,000 universes in our multiverse. And within these ‘cells’ are two planes of existence: the Alpha Realm and the Inner Region.
“I assume you know that the majority of an atom is empty space; well within these spaces are in fact other atoms, just out of phase with us, which creates the Inner Region, what you would call a parallel universe. There is in fact a third plain between these two, which consists of pure energy created by friction between the atoms fighting to exist in the same place. But I digress. The universes are not unique and individual, as humans suppose. Not in the way they think. If you were to take a universe, the one next to it would be identical, except for a few, very slight changes. Only minute, but they’re still there. And every one is absolutely motionless. This is where time comes in. You see, our consciousnesses, you could call them souls, are in fact energy pulses, which move between the universes at a rate which we cannot detect. Our perception of this movement is like a stop-motion movie. We move so fast between the still realities that we appear to be moving fluidly.
“Now people before us have realised that this model of the universe allows for time travel. For if one could move from universe to universe outside of the main soul flow, one could travel to the Tudor era, or some unknown period of the future. Though this does bring up a problem. To do such a thing would inevitably change the course of history. And theoretically this would spawn a new string of universes which would follow a logical course after the new historical event, yet keeping as close as possible to the original storyline. Think of it like a detour. You are redirected, but sooner or later you will get back onto the main road. From our point of view, nothing will have changed. In fact, for any pulse beyond the altered universe, nothing would change. They would go around the circuit of universes before coming to the new event, at which they would join the rest of the pulses in going in the new route. Once no more pulses are going through the old universes, it is thought that they would go cold and dormant.
“But that’s not all there is to the multiverse. Think back to the organism analogy. In a living thing, there are spaces outside the cells, such as the plasma in the arteries or the inside of the oesophagus. In astronomical terms, such space is called the Outer Region. Things in the Outer Region can move of their own accord, at a speed irrespective of that which we perceive in the Alpha Realm. This is where the Brethren Lords exist; this is their place of work and operation. It is also where a race of beings referred to as the Entities live. They are creatures of pure energy. You may call them Gods. However, they did not create the multiverse as such, they’re more like caretakers, making sure everything within it works properly. But for most of the multiverse’s existence they have been the dominant race, the undisputed rulers who lived in a grand city made of energy just like them, the Cortex.
“There was a time, by our perspective it would been up until about ten thousand years ago, when there was no movement between the universes. They were all silent and still. But there was always movement in the Outer Region. And after aeons out in the void, the Entities had been wanting to properly explore the Alpha Realm. For in their non-corporeal state they couldn’t exist in our plain of reality. That is why they sought out a race of beings which lived on a planet which drifted alone in the Outer Region. These aliens were forced to build the Entities solid ships in which they could exist. As great builders, they did just that, and were enslaved so that their services could be used again. As it turns out, they made robotic workers to take their own place. And soon after, they managed to create a device which accelerated the energy waves of an Entity until the point that they turn into matter, a phenomenon which has been shown in the Collider above our heads. The first six subjects of the experiment became Gryal Repa, Warren Marz, Stark Vingfamyn, Petti Lance, Khaonat Raldisata and Upre Shun: the original Brethren Lords. They were built Towers which were situated strategically around the universes, along with a net of satellites which scanned the universes and transmitted the data back to the Towers. As the energy-to-matter technology was new, they didn’t want to burst straight into the Alpha Realm. They were taking it slowly.
“They found something called the Archk of Angels, an ancient device, even older than the Entities, which caused some movement in the souls of the universes, but not in the way they move now, more drawing the weaker strands in on one point, the Archk itself. The Entities ordered the Brethren Lords to move the satellite network to intercept the soul movements, drawing them away from the Archk and towards the Towers for study. To get near the Archk, they were supplied with a new technology, which was able to generate artificial bubbles of reality in which they could exist, allowing them inside the Alpha Realm for the first time. It was simply referred to as the Watch. Reverse engineering that technology over a number of centuries, the Tower workers managed to put together something whose name translates into English as Hexagon, because it consists of six arrays situated around the person, ship or place in question. Although it could fit in your palm, it could generate a bubble of reality, like the Watch, but far weaker.
“One last thing the Entities gave the Brethren Lords was the machinery to artificially create workers for themselves. Who would expect the Immortals to do the menial work? They went through a number of designs and variations, before settling on the model they use now, the Braknaghs. This device is also used to add the dark matter into new Mancynn embryos.
“But while all this was going on, the Entities were doing a further investigation of the Beta Realm, the last surviving remnant of whatever multiverse came before this one. During their time in control of the multiverse, they had of course been around it and done preliminary observations. However, they had never before deemed it worthy of greater examination. Now they had the time, as the Brethren Lords were taking care of the multiverse, so why not take up the opportunity? Upon closer inspection, they found one lone artefact amongst the ruins of a temple covered in writing: a book written in some long-dead dialect, whose cover portrayed only a strange, cross-like shape, no sign of a title. Some of the Entities, who were close to the equivalent of scholars, managed to translate some of the book using other objects found elsewhere, and determined it was a record of great historical events, most of which were still to occur. It was a book of prophecy, with which they could predict upcoming events and prepare accordingly. The book was later named the Book of Alternity, and moved to one of the Towers for Gryal to study. It was this book that alerted them to the existence of the Archk, leading them to where it was hidden. I probably should have mentioned this before the Archk, but oh well.
“Around about four thousand of our years ago, during their time in the Beta Realm, after their discovery of the Book of Alternity, the Entities were faced with an adversary, a race called the Vyrol who were trying to invade from another multiverse. This conflict took up all of their resources and attention, a fact Khaonat took advantage of. I have already told you about his efforts to take over Earth using an army of Mancynn and a Hexagon, and these events led to him being locked in the Casket, an elaborate ark which not only trapped him inside but shifted him into a sort of limbo, suspended between reality and the artificial world which keeps the soul energy alive within the satellite network. After a few attempts, the Entities found a populated world whose inhabitants were made to protect the Casket with their lives. Unfortunately for those people, the Casket was too tempting to be left alone, and they tried to open it. The Entities were furious and attacked the planet, causing an explosion whose force was strong enough to launch much of the surrounding land out of the thin atmosphere and into deep space.
“The Brethren Lords were now a company of five, and all but one Mancynn were slaughtered to prevent further conflict on Earth. In the Outer Region, the Entities were further exploring the possibility of travelling into and between the universes under their control. And then they noticed there was a race on one of the planets in the Alpha Realm which had a device that was capable of doing just that, which was more effective than their current Hexagons. Of course, they were motionless, and not using the technology, so the Entities figured they could go straight into the Alpha Realm using the Hexagons and take it, they wouldn’t miss it. What they didn’t foresee was that some of their technology, including a Hexagon, was left behind, still active, when they left the planet. This Hexagon allowed the race of beings who built the device, the Asnemwoi, to move for the first time, with basic personalities in place, and they became very angry, very quickly, for they turned out to be an overly protective people, and didn’t like the fact that their greatest achievement (apparently) was taken from them without their permission. So, now able to move of their own volition, still in that one moment, they built ships, and took off from their homeworld to hunt down the Entities. They eventually broke away from the Alpha Realm and came upon the Entity fleets. Having found the Entity machinery left on their planet, they knew what they were up against, and had prepared. The Asnemwoi easily cut down the Entity armada. They barely needed the element of surprise.
“And so the Entities were on the run, trying to find safety in numbers, trying to regroup and form a counter-strike. But the Asnemwoi didn’t let them. It came down to one final stand by one of the Towers. The end result was not a good one for the Entities. The Tower was destroyed, and in the blast a Rift was formed in the rim of the universe. They were forced through the Rift, the Asnemwoi shooting down any stragglers.
“To make matters worse, once on the other side, some cloaked ships, only a quarter the size of an Entity ship, made themselves visible once more and attacked them. It was a rebel group of the slaves, who had built these ships behind the backs of the Entities. Thinking quickly, the Entities loaded a weapon the loyal slaves had been developing, called the Adsindra device which twisted the genetic makeup of any organism into something horrific, yet harmless to the Entities. Blasting the rebel ships, they burst into large globules of genetic material. Any shuttles caught in the blast were turned into smaller globules. Not wanting to stay near the Rift and the Asnemwoi, the Entities flew away.
“Inside the Alpha Realm, the Entities relied on the Hexagons to survive. They drifted through the universe, trying to work out how to put their new device to good use. Before they found a use, however, they landed somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy. On the planet, the Entities decided it was too much of a risk to keep the rest of the slaves alive. Setting off a false alarm, all the slaves launched off in shuttle crafts, only to be shot down, not one left standing. Looking around after the bloodbath, they found this was a planet with only a small number of creatures living on it. These silicon-based lifeforms were happy to give shelter to the Entities. It was also discovered that due to the way that they had evolved, the denizens of this world could actually act as containers or puppets for the Entities. They could safely inhabit the bodies of their hosts. And with these newfound bodies they built huge cities, just as grand as the Cortex. For them, all was paradise. Yet in the backs of the Entities’ minds, they knew they had to return to the fight one day. It was too dangerous to leave the Asnemwoi in a position from where they could rewrite the multiverse to serve their own desires.
“But before any decision was made, the Entities ventured out into the galaxy, setting out Hexagons wherever they went. On the nearby arm of the galaxy they came across a cluster of solar systems which, when animated, were willing to provide help, technological or otherwise. To celebrate their newfound alliance, a vessel was assembled, called the Chariot, built to be piloted by the Raal, the Orstoil, and maybe the Pri. I can’t remember if they were in the alliance or not. However, on its maiden voyage, it was hijacked and stolen by a group called Murorviosp. They were a group of criminals comprising of creatures who originated on various planets in the alliance. It was lucky that the Entities had also found beings called the Polanzia, who acted as a sort of interplanetary police force. They were already hunting down the Murorviosp group, and once the Entities had helped them catch them, the Polanzia showed them how to disassemble the criminals’ bodies into base elements, which were mixed into the nearby planets, getting rid of them forever, or so they thought. For as it happened, some managed to escape. But despite their successes in interplanetary relations, there was still some tension among the Entities.
“The Entities were divided. Some saw the importance of taking down the Asnemwoi, while others thought it would be better if they stayed in the Alpha Realm, keeping within the Hexagons, building a new life for themselves. The two factions went their separate ways. The silicon-based lifeforms were willing to lend bodies for the sake of a just cause as those Entities planning to return to the Outer Region set off in their slave-built ships. Those staying behind watched their brothers go, never to see them again. It is said that after the ships had left the atmosphere, the remaining Entities began to build ships of their own design, ones which were powered by nuclear reactions, not the energy of their native land. And they too left the aliens to seek out a world entirely for themselves, letting their hosts fall back into motionlessness.
“When the other Entities ventured back through the Rift, they were met by something they