Chapter 2: Intragalactic Frontier chapter 2
Chapter 2
2
Visitors
A silent scream escaped from him involuntarily… staring at him from the foot of the bed was a dwarf...a foot tall , so exquisitely beautiful ,with delicate features, arresting blue eyes, golden hair, flawless skin so dark like ebony ,long neck and limbs..
To his utter amazement, he could hear the same hissing sound emanating from the dwarf waving its arms and locking eyes with him... The eyes were not of a lifeless doll, so much emotion was there … Frank had never been so frightened in his life. .. He sat there staring at the beautiful emergence that he got another shock when it started walking towards him…
Frank jumped from the bed but fell down as his legs got caught in the sheet and his cell phone slipped from his hand. In the gleaming light from the cell phone, he saw the invader walking towards the cell picked up his cell using both its hands and walked towards him… Frank sat down completely spell bound and watched that beautiful thing. The light from the phone illuminated the face so clearly. It was so beautiful that he sat there mesmerised… the straight nose and delicately shaped lips and the glowing blue eyes!
…It stretched its hands holding the cell and Frank as if in a trance, took the phone... Now again he heard his name as if from for off and could see one hand of it stretched as if to shake hands... In reflex he took the small hand, It was so cold to touch and immediately snatched his hands back... The invader said something that sounded like Ray… It touched its chest and said again Ray… Frank understood its name is Ray...It pulled the sheet away from him and again touched his hand and pulled him subtly...The touch was so tantalizing that Frank looked at his hand and the invader's face as it repeatedly said something. Urgency in its voice was so electrifying that Frank listened to it with utmost concentration..
He heard it very clearly help...Help... Please….
Frank asked, ' help?' The invader once again clasped his hand tightly and said, ' yes Frank come with me and help'
By this time Frank was getting used to the strange voice and its accent. He wondered if this apparition was some kind of deformity due to some horrible scientific experiment gone wrong or some birth defect that made it so short. Frank was looking at it properly now as his latent curiosity has taken over.
It was wearing a tunic made of some kind of natural fibres and a belt of some twisted rope, kept the tunic in place. The footwear made of some natural material adorned its feet...Actually the knitted footwear looked very stylish. The golden hair was covered on the top with a …obviously a coconut shell... Yes it was a coconut shell but decorated with some fibres. It was holding a sharp lance that looked too big in its tiny hand.
Frank came back out of his revere when it started pulling his hand... it actually felt so light if he had not been observing it he would have missed it ... It was saying over and over again…
"Ray wants you to come … Please come and help Frank. ..You Frank I am Ray ..Come and help"
Frank understood it so clearly and he asked Ray how he could help him. For the first time he thought of Ray as another human in distress and slowly he got up to his 6 plus feet so that he would not scare the tiny little creature.
" Follow Re" Ray said .Frank told him to wait and took his rain coat and a torch , he placed his cell phone in his pocket and was ready to follow Ray ..He asked him to show the way. Ray corrected him telling him that his name was Re not Ray . Frank first time smiled and said, 'ok Re let us go'... Re ran to the window but Frank scooped him in his hand and ran down taking the steps two at a time and closed the door behind him...
The cyclone has passed but the wind was still howling and the tree was still burning. Frank slowly kept Re down and the aviary birds were strangely silent .It was raining very heavily and he looked down at Re for direction. Re hesitated and started running out and took the path that went behind the house. Frank walked with him and now Re started running towards the mountain that was roughly some 300 metres from his house.
Frank guessed that Re was running towards the mountain and Frank knew from his teenage escapades that there was no way of climbing the mountain from this side as there was a deep ravine that ran parallel to the range. As a youngster he had tried several times to climb down the ravine but it was too deep and his bravado was limited...
But now Re was running in a breakneck speed and they reached the ravine and Frank could hardly see him. He cautioned Re telling him if he wanted to climb the mountain it was not the way, as the ravine was very deep which could not be crossed.
Re hissed at him and pulled his raincoat to stop him. Frank squatted down while rain was pouring down on him. Re gesticulated towards the ravine and told him
'We go underwater and come out the other side...Just place your legs down and you will find the rungs' .
Frank was very sceptical and he was wondering aloud whether these rungs would hold his weight or would drop him all the way down to 30 metres! The rain water was a torrent now flowing with loud clamour. But going under the torrent was unthinkable...Although he was a very good swimmer going there would be a suicide.
Frank got up slowly and said ' No I cannot come down there ..It is dangerous in the water…'
Re pulled him again as the lightning flashed. Frank could see the desperation in the eyes and bent to listen to him. Re said, 'only two rungs then there is a tunnel that goes down and across the gully and few steps into the mountain. So don't worry'
Frank was speechless and gazed at him for a while and decided to go with him, but asked him what kind of a help he wanted from him. Re did not reply only said 'hurry up'
Now Frank felt committed and followed him... He could see the cyclone has moved further away as he couldn't hear the thunder but could see the flashes of lightening now and then but the rain continued...
The din of the flood was too high when Re stopped...Frank sensed him stopping and looked down... Re was gesturing 'you sit at this edge of the ravine and place your legs in the interior wall of the gorge; you will find the rungs… Just look at me'
As Frank was watching him Re sat down as if he was sitting on a bench and flipped over on the ground and disappeared.. Frank was too shocked to move for a while but he remembered Re's eyes and the desperation he saw there and that made him decisive and sat at the same place.
Frank could hear the thunderous torrent now fortunately everything was so blurred and then his legs found the rungs... He just flipped over, just like Re and put his weight on the rung with his right leg and try to find the next one still holding the edge... He immediately found the next one... He placed his hands on the first one, moved his legs to the second one... And now could see Re waiting for him in the mouth of the tunnel on the ravine wall…It was roughly 3 feet wide and Frank could easily slide into it and he did ! Re was looking at him and said ' now you slide on this slope' Re started sliding and Frank waited for him to disappear as he did not want to bump into him..
Now Frank started sliding very cautiously after securing his cell and torch in the inner pocket. He must have moved 30 or so feet when he saw a dead end and a T junction and saw Re waiting at the right side with a very peculiar looking lamp in his hand ... Again Re said ... 'slide now slowly ... We are underwater'
Frank was now calm and followed Re, completely trusting him. He understood that Re was making him feel at ease somehow and recalled his aviary birds' silence in his presence... The slope was now almost horizontal after some time the gradient changed and Frank had to move up. He rolled over and pushed himself up and crawled with hands and knees .Luckily within minutes he could see Re. When he stopped near him Re said 'now we are near the mountain come behind me;
Frank was past surprise. He just nodded his head and watched Re shaking the peculiar lamp and it got put off. He reminded himself that he should ask about the lamp later.
The mountain rose in front of them like a huge impregnable wall and Frank was searching for an opening when Re stopped and touched the rock or pushed or whatever it opened revealing a hole roughly 3 feet wide in front of Re…
Re entered first and Frank followed him leg first, immediately he could find some steps and Re went behind him and closed the opening in the rock. He could feel the rock slide slowly closing on its slot ...
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3
Colony
Frank was exhausted crawling. .. he must have been crawling for more than 15 minutes when he sensed Re standing in front of him…
'Frank, this is the first time an native inhabitant has been allowed into our territory and you are under oath to never to reveal anything that you have seen or experienced' Re said into his ears
Frank thought even if he said no one would believe …and said loudly 'oh sure...Promise…'
Re moved away and Frank lifted his eyes and the sight would remain with him as long as he lived. He moved as if in trance and remained seated.
He felt claustrophobic and thought the whole weight of the mountain above would come down on them at any time.
The scene was like a sci-fi movie scene .An enormous cavern as big as indoor football field...he could easily touch the overhead ceiling, perhaps 8 or 9 feet high ... at the centre ,what looked like a shining shark like thing was seen … Two rows of rock columns were seen directly opposite him. a kind of light globes floated above the columns and gave away an eerie bluish glow. Near the periphery the lights were of white glow and he could see some cultivated patch of banana trees, corns …. and some other plants which he was not sure .
Now he observed the movements along the pathway near the rock column and heard a cacophony of noise and he looked down. Re was surrounded by Re like apparitions and he thought around 20 + beings were there. Re's voice rose above the others and he turned to look at him. All those beings ran away when the saw him standing in the dark near the tunnel and he quietly waved at them and sat down to reduce his size. He thought they must think he was a giant came to devour them. Re called them back and one by one they came near Re, looking at Frank with those beautiful blue eyes. Re said ' Frank is here to help us if not, we will die'
Again the same cacophony of voices...while they were arguing Frank looked around him again...he heard flowing water nearby thought there must be waterfalls nearby.. He saw the floor was wet and water was seeping. He wanted to go near the shark like thing as he had never seen a metal shining so bright with a pink tint...
Re called him to come over and Frank stood up like a huge colossal statue and moved towards them. When he reached them Re showed him the water on the ground and said they all would drown in few hours...
Frank understood and asked 'show me from where water is pouring in'
Re and few of the apparitions ran towards the other end of the cavern ,past the gleaming shark and Frank walked behind them , carefully looking down so that he would not step on some of the exquisite being .
He could see a small waterfall, falling from the ceiling which was just above his head. Re showed him a rock which was probably was there in the hole and stopped water flowing in and this cyclone must have displaced it. The rock must have weighed around 30 or 40 KG at the most, he thought it would be easy for him to lift and place it in the opening but for these little beings it would not have been possible.
Frank gestured to them to move away and easily picked up the elongated rock and pushed it through the hole above... He was drenched completely ...the rock was quite slippery so he placed one end on his shoulder and pushed it vertically and then turned it around to fall back over the hole. The rock fell on the hole perfectly and immediately the sound and flow of the water stopped but not completely, it was just dripping... Behind him a cheer went up.
Frank asked 'do you want to stop the water completely ?'
Re said 'No Frank ... we are all indebted to you... we need that seepage of water for our plants and for us .. It is raining heavily...you can wait for some time and I will take you back.'.
Frank was happy with the arrangement as he wanted to know about this people so agreed immediately and said ' Re this rock should be cemented if not again it would dislodge from its place...'
Now few of them came running with some cones and they gave it to him... he looked at it but couldn't identify what it was . Re said 'the cement'
He was surprised but took the small cone and opened the tip and used the glue like thing to seal the rock on three sides of the opening leaving one side . He was sceptical at first but the cement was like glue and hardened in no time sealing it completely. He tried prising the dried cement but it wouldn't budge… he used three of the cones and gave back the rest.
They came closer and looked all the way up at him with the melting gaze.
He involuntarily smiled at everyone and thought smile is a universal language .
Re told them to arrange a feast for Frank and all those little ones ran away shouting with joy and disappeared into the columns ...
Frank now observed the columns little keenly and he could see four tiny houses, one above the other in each column… the diameter of the column must be less than 2 metres at the base and tapering like a needle... illuminated with the same floating light he had seen when he entered. He remembered reading about this magnetic levitating floating wireless LED light but these did not look like anything that he had ever seen.
The spiral staircases went from one house to the other, the doorway was slightly more than one foot high and half a foot or so breadth . The design looked like a single cone turret with tiny windows. There were six columns like that on either side of road like walkway at the middle...
He wondered how many such inhabitants were there and what made them so small. He decided to ask when Re told him to sit on a small rock near the entry.. .looking at the rock he knew that they would close the entry of the tunnel using this rock. He could see another flat rock formation nearby which looked highly polished that it shone.
Frank sat down and Re called them to come near … around 30 or more came near.. the females were very easily distinguishable as they wore long tunic that touched the ground and put up their golden hair at the top of their head like a crown leaving few curls framing their beautiful face. They were carrying what looked like corn on the cobs, red colour bananas and some pink liquid in tiny jars . He felt like laughing and decided not to eat much thinking, how much they must have toiled to collect all these...
Frank took one corn on the cob and asked Re the question that was burning on his mind since he had looked at Me, ' who are you people ? Why are you all so small? Where did you come from?'
There was a pregnant silence …
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4
History
Frank thought that he offended them as the pin drop silence extended... finally Frank couldn't bear it any longer and said ,
' I am sorry. ..'
Then the cacophony of voices started and Re raised his voice to tell him , 'Frank after all this, I think you deserve to know. I can tell you only what I know and all my co-habitants agree'
Re sighed and said that He did not know the answers for all these questions ..None of them knew anything .they only know that they are far superior than the gigantic beings that lived outside their world and they could get the knowledge from anyone even from distance away .
They were born with the knowledge gathered by their ancestors so no evidences could be seen anywhere ... But their inborn knowledge did not give them any knowledge about from where they came or how they happened to live in this cavern. 'We thought this was our world for a long time but we can never live with giants...'
They used only magnet and particles to get all the energy that they needed ...a transport a maglev mobile made of a metal never seen .
'What , do you have a transport ? show me I can assist you to find the make .. My hobby is ancient and futuristic transport . Where is it..?' Frank was eager!
Re heard his excitement and he showed him the shining shark like contraption that was standing in between two columns at the centre .
The shark as Frank called , was shining with a pinkish glow in the blue light . Frank has been always interested in air transport and he has a huge collection of models of air planes and rockets. He has never seen anything like this Shark.
Frank asked, 'what is this ? are you sure this is a transport vehicle?'
' Yes Frank , our knowledge is passed from generations to generations . But there must have been some ways of blocking selective knowledge. Because all of us know how to travel and operate this but we do know where or who had brought us here. In fact we are not sure how it came inside as we know of only one entry that is the tunnel...as you see, there is no way this could have come through the tunnel...' Re sounded exasperated.
'Well let me see' Frank said as his excitement went up ... but when he went near The Shark as he called it, he was disappointed as he could not see how he could enter ... the entry point was just two feet wide in the underbelly .It stood no more than six feet tall and some fifteen feet length on its three legged stand. The contraption was looking brand new and few entered though the hole and asked him to look in.
Frank tentatively put his head inside the shark.. He was taken aback with its interior...It looked as if it was made of rose gold ,all around the nose so many gadgets adorned the interior wall and they were showing different statistics. He could see rows of tiny beds on either side like a double decker beds and leaving an aisle which ran from the nose to the tail in the fuselage. He could not see any machines and wondered if it was powered by MagLev or atomic power ... he knew the feasibility study was conducted recently and still it was on paper only .
Frank searched for magnet when one of them showed the roof and said 'magnet'
Another one showed the floor .. he understood that it was far superior to anything on earth as magnetic levitation aircraft were still in experimental stage and recalled , it could be only used for takeoff and landing ... He asked ,' what kind of a speed it gives?'
The answer came very confidently and Frank had abruptly straightened got knocked on the head.
He turned to Re, 'what??' The one who answered earlier again said '100 times the light of speed in your time'
' Do you know the speed of light?' Frank asked scornfully and again the answer came immediately '300,000km/s . in your calculation'
He remembered what he studied in his aerospace engineering class.. EPR paradox ,some quantum effects appeared to be transmitted instantaneously so it could reach faster than light and Harman effect which explained something about particles reaching more than the speed of light..
Frank stood there stunned beyond words... Finally he asked ,' is it a space craft then?'
Re replied, 'we have no idea. We really don't know...We know only we don't belong here because we are far ahead in our intelligence and your time is not ours'
'What do you mean?' Frank thought he would come out of a dream shortly
Re said that you age fast ,you pass one year in 365 days , and your life span is 100 years only but our life span is 10000 years in your time . All of us here are less than 2000 years old …
Frank interrupted him and asked, ' how many years you have been here?' ..
Re did not reply for a long time and finally he said that they were not sure but approximately they have been here for the past 1000 years or more !!!
Frank could not take all these. He had thousands of questions but he did not know what to ask first . After a long pause he asked how they brought their spacecraft under the mountain.
Till now ,all the others were talking among themselves in a hushed manner and now there was a pin drop silence . No one moved... Frank thought he had offended them when one of them said , 'Frank we have been breaking our head over it for the past 1000 years.. If we had known that we could have made a run earlier ...Unfortunately ,that would remain a puzzle '
Frank was perplexed...he thought aloud.. They were extremely intelligent, transfer of knowledge came from one generation to another naturally, yet some specific knowledge had been withdrawn... he asked them as an idea came to hem..
Could you connect with anyone by your thoughts?
Re said 'Yes'
'Then connect with someone. ..your father.. your teacher... someone' Frank was so excited ..
Re looked at him with the sad smile and said , ' we have tried everything... we could not connect with anyone of our people. I think they are no more'
Frank was utterly deflated and he thought that this was the end of the road... he felt miserable that these wonderful people would live for other thousands of years in this cavern like refugee and die here without even knowing their history. .. real tragedy he thought..
Frank wanted to go out ,felt suffocated even though air vents were there all around. He got up and said , ' Ok Re I will go now... you are all welcome to come to me at anytime but be careful'
One of them came forward and Frank squatted down and stretched his hand to shake but instead of shaking his hand he kissed his hand and said, ' I am Ro .. Remember me ..'
It was really too much for Frank , so he touched him gently and got up.
Re walked towards the tunnel from where they had entered .As before Re went in first to show the way and Frank bent down and crawled into the tunnel.
They came out of the tunnel and climbed out of the ravine, which was filled with flood water and rushing in the narrow gully with a loud noise.
Frank turned towards Re and asked him if there were any means of connecting with him remotely as he noticed his phone went dead inside the cavern.
Re clapped his hand, 'Frank I was waiting for you to ask' … He took a thin chain with the pendant which had the same pink sheen like that the shark and handed over to him
'Frank you have it with you at all the time . It should be next to your skin ,touching you. If so when I want to connect with you I can send my thoughts to you and the same way if you think of me with concentration this would shine and become warm .Then you can think of the message and I would know it.. But don't use it in front of others and promise me that you will never tell anyone about us…'
Frank took the chain gratefully and said, 'Re , I promise you I wouldn't tell anyone ..You know it.. But now I am going...I know the way'
He lifted Re and gave him a hug and slowly kept him down... Re moved down and disappeared from his view in seconds. Frank looked all around him to mark the place in his memory but it was still dark so he turned back to look at his house. The power must be on now ...His house looked like an illuminated palace directly opposite to the place where he stood .
Frank started walking towards his house thinking about all that happened…
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5
Broken promise
When Frank reached home , Everything looked so normal he thought it was an anticlimax. But the chain he had in his hand gave him the evidence that he needed .He looked at it in the portico light and found a small fastener so he tried it then placed in his neck and fastened it was so light seemed to be very strong when he pulled it. He left it hanging in his neck ,the pendent reaching just below his neckline .
. There was a combination lock in the main door , luckily he remembered it , went in and climbed the steps as if in a trance and fell down on his bed The clock showed 05.23 and he thought nearly 5 to 6 hours he had been with the little ones as he thought of them . He recalled how they were looking at him with such admiration and trust . The last thought was Ro kissing his hand.
It was 10 past in the morning when he woke up ! He could hear the house keeping staff . The cold metal in his neck reminded him about the action packed previous night, he corrected himself , earlier in the morning .
He would have thought everything was a dream if not for the chain and the pendant. He looked at it sometime and thought of testing it . He concentrated deeply about Re and his beautiful face repeated to himself like a chant that talk to me Re talk to me Re.
Suddenly the pendant started glowing and he could feel a slight vibration .He closed his eyes and he could almost hear Re's voice that he opened his eyes to see if Re was indeed near him. Then he realised .he could hear him only in his mind and he was asking if he reached home safely and slept .Frank said yes loudly then he asked him if the water drained away and all were safe. He got a reply immediately that everything was perfectly alright ... Then he was so thrilled that he jumped and the glow went out of the link pendant ….
Frank was excited about his success in communication . It was too good to be true that he could communicate with an alien ? He stopped short... yes there was no other explanation. They were some stranded travellers who had come by mistake perhaps!
His cell phone beeped ,and it was his friend and college mate Stanley . He swiped to talk to him.
Stanley wanted to know if he had started the project and they both discussed for sometime about the project ,Then he asked how he was spending his time in the rural area and in reflex Frank said that he had a weird experience ...then immediately caution kicked him and he said before Stanley could react ,the cyclone was terrible and it flattened most of the things that stood on its path .
He knew he had a narrow escape or it would have been the talk of the town if not the world. They spoke some more time about the cyclone and signed off .
He had another call from his dad telling him they might come down the next day as his mother was worried about the effect of cyclone . Frank thought of his quiet and blissful solitary enjoyment and now it was over …he would be fed 10 times more. .. He smiled with the thought of sitting with his family .
The next two days went off in whirlwind of activities. The cyclone has uprooted so many trees in Tim's land and many houses in the village were broken. The cyclone's path of destruction was too much to be cleared in a few days' time. So all the staff in Tim's land worked day and night.
Frank had hardly any time to think about Re and his people and the next day his parents arrived and as usual many key personnel in his father's establishments also accompanied him
Frank kept himself busy and the night he sat with his parents to have dinner. His father was asking about the project and what he was doing and so on .
When his mother asked him what was his plan for his future... If he wanted to follow his father's business and the inevitable question about his wedding plan. He did not want to talk about his future as he has not arrived at any conclusion till now...
Frank found a way to escape and he started telling about Redimita, his long standing girl friend. His mother knew little bit about her but to his father it was news… so his father asked all kind of questions about her background and when he told that she was a doctor doing her double post graduation in UK , he was impressed . Mother asked him to bring her home and he said she would be coming shortly and she has been expected for the Christmas holidays. Father asked if he liked staying in Tim's land
He was a very curious to know why he asked and looked at him in a puzzled manner.
Mother answered for him ,'Frank I would like to settle in the city , I miss my family and all the rest as I am getting old'
Both father and son laughed at it and 'inviting complement' Frank laughed again . Suddenly he remembered Re and said
'Father I had very strange experience two days back during the cyclone .. I think I met up with aliens'
The minute he spoke those words, he knew he had done an unforgiveable act , he has broken a promise .
Father was all ears now and asked him what!!...did you say aliens... son do you know you are sitting on a gold mine ! tell me what happened ?
Frank jerked as if he was slapped... he got up excused himself ... again his father asked ..'you said something about aliens'
Frank gave a mocking laugh and said ' how easily you fell for it dad ' He got up and went up to the second floor taking two steps at a time ..Father looked at him until he disappeared into his room... and said 'very strange. .. son is lying to me about something….'
Mother laughed and said 'you had never found him out when he was young boy and you don't try now…'
Back in his room Frank was furious with himself... how could he be that careless...if father thought something was there he would make it a very big issue and call all the media in the world ... of course he would end up with a huge profit. ..
Frank touched Re's pendant and made up his mind to be more cautious when he spoke to his dad next time …
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