Chapter 11
The Professor
Zavier was stricken as he tried frantically to revive his sister. The Grim Reaper’s scythe had infected Saffyre with some type of plague. She was failing fast. The burns from the arch covered 60 per cent of her body and she was soaked in sweat. Her breaths were slow and fading. Finally they stopped altogether. Urgently, he attempted resuscitation.
He was about to reach for the Azurite lotion when he remembered something. The spare life card! Zavier wrenched it out of his pocket and looked around. But where to put it? He could see a golden frame a short distance down the tunnel and raced to it. The pocket was there! In great relief he placed it in. Immediately they were standing in front of the golden frame together, Saffyre completely unharmed. Unashamedly, she hugged him.
“Okay, knock it off. You saved me before; I think we’re even now.” Zavier said after a minute or two.
Saffyre nodded. “I’ve had enough of this place,” she said. “Let’s get out of here!”
“Look!” Zavier said.
In front of them was a brick wall that had something written on it. Saffyre approached the wall and read:
A challenge lies ahead for both friend and foe
Solve my puzzle or face the woe
The ‘team gazer’ will find the tunnel will end
And the Quartz great treasure around the bend!
“What treasure do you think it means?” Zavier asked.
“It could be anything!” Saffyre replied. “What do you think the challenge is?”
“I have absolutely no idea,” said Zavier. “Do you realize it’s almost 10.30pm? I’m getting tired. Talk about a long day!”
Saffyre agreed. It seemed a lifetime ago since they had left Azurite bound for Citrine. And it felt like a lifetime that they had been lost in the accursed maze.
They sat down, had a jarrah berry juice and a short rest. Zavier was just thinking that they should settle down somewhere for the night, when Saffyre let out a yell.
“I know what the answer is!” she shrieked.
Zavier looked at her stunned. “I don’t know how you can think about anything,” he said. “I mean, I’m that tired my brain is literally stuck in neutral. What do you think it means?”
“Team gazer,” said Saffyre. “It’s another anagram; the answer is the great maze!”
“Well done,” said Zavier, impressed with his twin’s astuteness. He jumped up and went over to the brick wall. “Great Maze,” he said loudly.
A door appeared in the wall immediately. With a cry of delight, Saffyre rushed through.
Zavier quickly joined her. They were standing outside a laboratory but with a sinking heart Zavier noticed that it had an eye and thumb print scanner. After all they had been through; they would be unable to pass the security clearance!
He sat down on the ground again with a groan. “Enough, I give up,” he said.
“Wait,” said Saffyre. “I can hear something. I think someone’s coming!”
Sure enough the laboratory door swung open. There was nowhere to hide but Saffyre and Zavier were able to crouch in the shadows. Fortunately, the laboratory worker passed them and they were able to slip unnoticed into the lab.
“This is the treasure,” said Zavier. “Of course, nothing is more important to Quartz than his inventions.”
They spent a few minutes looking around the astonishing laboratory. The walls were spotlessly white with cupboards that blended into them, almost invisibly. The trademark ‘raven’ was emblazoned along a long bench that ran down the middle of the lab. On top of it were many interesting test tubes and bottles of intriguing formulas. There were also unusual gadgets that had notes in Quartz’s very neat handwriting.
“Look at this one,” said Zavier holding up a small bottle. “This is an anti-ageing formula.”
“And this is a gadget to let you fly without an aircraft,” said Saffyre. “How do you suppose he set this laboratory up in such a short space of time?”
Zavier shrugged. Then he gave a shout and held up an object that looked like an ordinary remote control. “Do you know what this is?”
Saffyre shook her head.
“It says ‘a master invention to control even the strongest mind’ and it’s got two settings.”
“Oh no,” groaned Saffyre. “Don’t even think about it!”
Mischievously, Zavier pointed the remote at Saffyre. He flicked it onto the first setting and ordered her to stand on one leg and flap her arms. She immediately did what he asked without protest.
“Now smash these test tubes,” ordered Zavier.
Saffyre walked over to the bench, picked up the test tubes and flung them hard against the far wall.
The implication of the invention was not lost on Zavier. With it, Quartz could control Earth and possibly the universe. He put the remote down on the bench.
He raced over to Saffyre. “Are you okay?” Zavier asked her, and she nodded.
“You are so dead,” Saffyre yelled. She then picked the remote up and pointed it at him.
“Saffyre wait,” protested Zavier.
“No way,” she said. “It’s payback time! Pick up that glass tube over there and pour the contents over your head.”
Zavier’s hair was soaked as the liquid dripped over him. Saffyre doubled over with laughter and dropped the control.
“Very funny,” said Zavier. “But imagine how dangerous this could be in the hands of a madman like Quartz? Look for the main control, we must get rid of it!”
They hunted urgently around the laboratory for several minutes.
Finally Saffyre found a tiny button, she pressed it and one side of the wall opened up. They stared in awe at the mass of lights, wires and buttons. “Do you think that’s the main control?” Saffyre asked.
“Let’s assume that it is,” answered Zavier. He picked up a heavy object and began to smash wildly at the strange invention.
“Someone’s coming!” cried Saffyre and pressed the button again. The wall closed up.
Zavier swung around and found he was looking straight into the eye of the laboratory worker that they had nearly run into before. He wore a long, white lab coat over his clothes and had a very pale complexion. His eyes were of such a pale blue that they had almost no colour. He fixed them on Zavier’s wet hair. Zavier felt a shiver run down his spine.
The creepy worker looked coldly at the smashed test tubes. “Nobody messes in the Professor’s lab!” he hissed. “I think you and the young lady had better come along with me.” His next words were chilling; “The Professor will no doubt have a special welcome for intruders into his laboratory.”
He took something out of his pocket and aimed it at each of them in turn. “This neutralizer will render any weapons that you are carrying completely useless. So don’t even think of trying something.” He looked warningly at Zavier. “Follow me!” He led them out of the main laboratory and down a long hallway. They came to a door and the worker scanned his thumb print quickly across the key pad. Immediately a voice spoke, “Mica, please verify password.”
“Krystalquartz.lab.citrine,” he replied, “Professor Quartz, I have two young people with me. They were in your lab and I’m afraid they’ve left a mess.”
“Really Mica?” replied the voice icily. “By all means bring them in.”
The door swung open and Mica stepped inside. Saffyre and Zavier could see only a small way into the room, but it was enough to see that their parents were being held captive inside, along with Duplex and Lazar. They could not see Krystal. A man was obviously in the process of explaining something; he walked among them, hands outstretched, as he detailed some point. He looked to be in his mid forties, was of average height, and balding. He swung around to look at them and Saffyre noticed how pale-looking he was. He had an unhealthy dark shadow around each eye. He stared at them for a moment his sharp, penetrating amber eyes drinking them both in. Then a slow triumphant smile played across thin, almost transparent lips.
“Ah, our special guests,” said the Professor. He spoke in a crisp, almost croaking tone. “Yes please show them in.” He watched as they walked into the room. “I’ve been keen to make your acquaintance for some time now. I would have sent Mica to fetch you in the maze but once you begin its challenges, you must finish them. I knew you would get here eventually – or die in the process!”
“Let them go!” shouted Dexter. “You have us, you don’t need Zavier and Saffyre, show some compassion.”
“Please Professor,” begged Mia. “Don’t hurt them! Let them go! Haven’t you done enough? Look at poor Ranni!”
Mica led the twins to two chairs which suddenly materialized. As they sat down, invisible cuffs pinned both their wrists and ankles to their chair.
For the first time, Saffyre noticed Ranni. He was in a far corner of the room, on a high backed chair and he too had both his hands and feet pinned down. His head flopped forward and he appeared to be in some kind of unconscious state. She gasped.
“I assure you, your friend is perfectly fine,” said the Professor to Saffyre. “Now if you will direct your attention to the plasma screen on the wall in front of you, we will proceed.”
“What’s this about Quartz?” demanded Duplex.
“My dear associate Duplex,” croaked the Professor. “All
will be revealed very soon. Patience is not exactly your strongest virtue is it?”
Duplex gave the Professor a deep, penetrating gaze, but said nothing.
The plasma screen was showing a movie about the Professor’s days at Universal Heights College with Dexter and Mia, culminating in their graduation with full honours.
“Such happy times we shared,” said the Professor, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “My dearest friends, the two people I trusted most in the world…”
“What’s your problem?” cut in Zavier. “You graduated with honours and went on to a career at RIST; it’s your fault you ended up in Malacite. Cry to someone who cares!”
“Zavier don’t,” cautioned his father.
The Professor had turned white at Zavier’s words. “Your father is right to advise you young man, to choose your words carefully. I think you will find that I am a person that it is wise not to cross. We will now proceed with my story.”
He hit a button and the story continued. “We will now observe two particular days at UHC, before we continue to my career at RIST. Please do not interrupt the story. You may ask questions at the conclusion of the film.”
It is as though we are actually there, thought Saffyre. The crystal clear sound and lifelike, 3 dimensional pictures, brought the movie to life. A young and almost handsome Raven Quartz was sitting with an attractive dark-haired girl who everyone immediately recognized as Mia. They were clearly enjoying lunch when Dexter came running up to them.
“There you both are,” he cried. “Guess what? Professor Connors has agreed to let us test our inventions in his laboratory.”
Mia looked up at him, her eyes shinning and a beaming smile spread across her face. “When can we start?” she asked.
The Professor stopped the movie, though he had asked for no-one to interrupt, he clearly didn’t mind doing it himself. “Anyone notice a little problem here?” he asked.
Nobody said a word. Mia looked at him with pleading eyes, clearly willing him not to do this with her children present.
“No takers?” he continued. “We were enjoying lunch for two, but did that mean anything to our dim-witted friend over there?” He gestured to Dexter. “Of course not! Not only did he interrupt our date, my dear friends, but he arranged to see Mia behind my back. Ladies and gentleman, they even worked together in the laboratory, on an invention that was entirely my idea and took full credit for it themselves!”
“Mum….Dad,” queried Lazar. “What happened?”
It was Mia who finally broke the long, painful silence. “It’s true that Raven and I were dating briefly, but then I met Dexter….” she broke off and turned to face him lovingly. “Something irresistible happened between us. The chemistry was so strong that I felt sure others must be able to sense it too.” Mia turned and looked coldly at Quartz. “I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen. You didn’t want to hear what I had to say unless it was what you wanted to hear. I found you increasingly like that, controlling and close-minded. Even then, you had your vision of the world and how you wanted everything to be. You didn’t care what others thought or wanted. No… it was all about Raven Quartz. How he would one day run everything!”
“That’s right my dear,” he croaked. “I had clear plans even then. So what? The great heroes of our world have always led with a clear vision. One day I would run RIST; have complete say and control over all new inventions. Then I would set my sights on UGU. Yes UGU.” he looked at Duplex. “Run by your friend Onyx,” he almost spat the words out. “It’s become little more than a fool’s order bending over backwards to accommodate the views of every planet under its control. In the name of peace, decision making is left until a quorum is reached. That’s no way to run things. You need a ruler with vision, who is able to take control and act swiftly. None of this bending to please everyone; I would rule with a tight, exact order. I’m not afraid to make decisions.”
“Neither is Onyx!” said Duplex angrily. “She runs a democracy something that you utterly fail to comprehend. You’re talking about a dictatorship, something that would see Earth banned from UGU altogether. Don’t forget Quartz, that many planets opposed Earth being brought under the jurisdiction of UGU. They doubted our ability to accept the views of other planets and considered us too aggressive,” he paused and looked at Quartz. “Apparently with good reason,” he added.
Quartz gave a howl of fury. “Silence,” he barked. “Another word from you Duplex and you’ll be back under the mind-control! Or perhaps you would prefer I use the stun-gun on you and put you into a long sleep like your friend over there?” he pointed to Ranni and sneered at Duplex. “After all, you love peace so much!”
When no-one spoke, Quartz continued. “We’ll now watch the rest of my enlightening film.” He pressed the button again and the screen flickered to a different scene. This time Mia and Dexter were in a laboratory, clearly testing something.
“How did you manage to film that?” asked Mia. “You weren’t even there!”
Quartz laughed. “Connors was convinced that he had the best security in place, but it was child’s play for me to get around. I bugged the lab and set it up to record only when you and Travertine were in it.”
The film continued, Mia was holding a small pencil shaped gadget, while Dexter was clearly fine-tuning it with a lab tool. In front of them was a dead plant in a pot.
“Now switch it on,” he was saying to Mia who flicked the switch on the right of the gadget with her thumb. She directed the white beam at the pot plant and within seconds the dead plant was sprouting new growth.
The young Mia gave a delighted cry; she turned to Dexter who gave a whoop of joy. “It works…it works…” he cried. Suddenly he scooped Mia up and hugged her warmly. He then put her down guiltily and for a second they both avoided each other’s gaze. “Sorry,” he muttered, “I know you’re seeing Raven and…”
“It’s okay,” whispered Mia. “I’m not seeing him anymore.”
The film stopped abruptly. Quartz was clearly seething. “Not seeing me anymore!” he spat. “We had just shared lunch that day….”
“During which I clearly told you I needed to cool things to concentrate on my studies,” finished Mia. “If I was guilty of anything it was of being too tactful. I was in a difficult situation since we were all friends. I didn’t want to come between you and Dex, but that’s exactly what did happen.” She turned to Quartz. “Hate me if you must but please leave the children out of it.”
He stared at her coldly. “As I was saying earlier,” he continued. “Imagine my shock to find out that not only were my two best friends seeing each other behind my back, but that they were also stealing my designs. Something dear people, that I’ve been locked in Malacite for.”
“As usual you have left out significant details,” said Dexter. “Firstly, the idea of using the trystine beam to send restoration particles deep into a deceased plant, was indeed your idea. We were fascinated when you told us about it. We knew that it was the first significant breakthrough in years, which could hugely assist the work being carried out on the contaminated world outside. But you lost interest, and I quickly realized that you had come up with the idea only to impress Mia. You abandoned the idea when Mia made it clear to you that she was now dating me. You took no notice when we asked you to join us in the lab: I seem to recall that your time was suddenly taken up with a heavy study schedule. You evidently didn’t want to be involved, so yes, I guess we took over. We couldn’t let such a valuable idea be wasted, and we did all the hard work to test and develop the idea ourselves.”
“So you say,” Quartz sneered. “Let’s forward a few years then shall we? You and Mia are now married and we are working together at RIST, again I have an idea and once more it’s stolen from me.”
“That’s a foul lie!” cried Dexter furiously. “We knew when we started at RIST that our inventions become their property, not ours. We have naming rights but not ownership over our inventions. We caught you on the security cameras taking the chabazite-blaster out of the lab. You wanted to market and sell it to rogue planets; something which plainly violated Section 23 of RIST regulations. You didn’t stop there either. You were caught taking other people’s designs from RIST. Then you committed one of the most monstrous acts that a person can ever do. In cold blood, you murdered the security guards who caught you. That’s why you were locked up for so long, and that’s why you should still be locked away now.”
“Enough of this mindless chatter,” snapped Quartz. “I’ve decided not to show any more of the film. I’m clearly wasting my time; you have such pat answers for everything Travertine. It’s time to move forward with my plan.” He rang a buzzer and waited.
“Excuse me sir,” said Lazar. “Where is Krystal? We haven’t seen her since we were brought into this room.”
“You’ll see her soon enough,” smiled Quartz. “In fact, if I’m not mistaken, here she is now.”
The door opened and Krystal walked in. She was carrying the remote control that Zavier had used earlier in the lab.
Zavier glanced at Saffyre who nodded in acknowledgement.
Lazar tried to catch Krystal’s eye but she steadfastly refused to look at him. She handed the object to Quartz.
Quartz looked around at the group. “Allow me to introduce two things,” he smiled. “This brilliant invention, which I’ve named the ‘quartz-sceptre’ and will let me have complete control over all humans…. I will demonstrate its power shortly. And my lovely daughter, who I know you have all already met — Krystal Roze Quartz!”