A Warrior's Journey (14 page)

We all stared at father spellbound. Was I
really supposed to play a pivotal role in something of such
importance?

“We do not know what has transpired on Earth
since our ancestors were last there, but it could well be a hostile
environment that you will be stepping into. Under no circumstances
are you to reveal your identity or the location of our world to
anyone. If you’re caught, there will be no way that a rescue can
even be attempted, because this is the last workable ship left to
us. Do not allow this vessel to fall into their hands even at the
cost of your own lives. I do not understate it when I say that the
fate of our world now rests in your hands. I cannot accompany you
on the mission. I am placing Larc in full control of the mission.
Abby is going to instruct you individually, as to how to operate
this vessel. Does anyone have any questions?”

No one spoke.

“All of you are to stay here for the
duration of your training until Abby believes you are able to
operate the vessel sufficiently enough. Once your training is
complete you will embark on the mission. I will leave you now in
Abby’s capable hands so to speak.”

Abby smiled softly.

Roric continued on, “May the Creator bless
you all and bring you safely back home with your mission a success.
Talaric I need to speak with you a moment up on top alone.”

Father headed for the ladder and brushed by
me in the process. He stopped and tapped me on the chest
meaningfully and I knew what he meant. He gave me a brief hug and
then he was going up the stairs, with Talaric following after
him.

Once they were gone Abby stepped out toward
us drawing our attention, she smiled charmingly, “If you don’t mind
I’d like to know your names. Let’s start with you Sir. What’s your
name?” One by one the men gave their names to the beautiful image
of technology before them that any of them would have sworn was a
real person. Larc, Tenallen, Torren, Sassten, Ronice, Corrigan,
Thanic, Ileyano, Janic, Orhanin, Talaric and myself. The men only
gave their first names as was the custom of Thunder Ridge.

It didn’t matter what their last names were
because anybody in the castle or the village of Ta’arny was
considered part of the Ta’lont family and cared for as such.

Abby was speaking, “I won’t add anything to
the mission, as you know it. I am going to focus on instructing you
all individually on the running of this vessel. When I’m done
you’ll be able to operate it and if need be make some minor
repairs. There are quarters for you to rest in when the time comes
for that. There is also food and drink when you require it. I
apologize in that both are quite old, but my scans show that it is
still nutritious and unspoiled. How it tastes I leave up to you to
determine. I’m sure that it will be an experience one way or the
other. Now for the big question that I’m sure you’ve all been
wondering about. How does a ship that floats and submerges under
water make it from one world to another? Well it’s quite simple to
state actually, but far more complex in the actual mechanics of
it.”

I had been wondering about that. Something
she had said suddenly came to a level of alert panic within my
mind.

Submerges!

Oh good Lord give me strength. I looked
around at the cramped space and imagined us all sinking beneath the
water never to rise again.

Focus Zevin!

I fought back through my panic of thought to
hear what Abby was saying.

“Gather around gentlemen.”

She had moved over to a table in the center
of the narrow space. We gathered around the table and she began our
education.

The forms of two bubbles appeared up out of
the table to float upwards and hold stationary above the table in
midair glowing brightly in a 3D matrix of green light. The bubbles
were close to each other but not touching. A pointer materialized
in Abby’s hand that had a round end on one side. She gently touched
one bubble’s surface with the round end of the pointer careful not
to break it. Slowly the head of the pointer made its way past the
bubble’s surface into the interior space of the bubble and then out
its other side as the bubble remained intact.

“Now consider this gentlemen. The two
bubbles represent two worlds that are relatively close to each
other. Planets that are habitable have to have water to sustain
life. If the planet has readily available water in its liquid form
on the surface, then it also has water in its atmosphere. Hence the
two planets resemble these two bubbles before you, in that the
bubbles also have the outer layer of moisture, as can be expected
on a planet with an adequate supply of water on its surface. Water
along with electricity are the essential ingredients that make up
the process known as water vortex travel. If there is not enough
water on the surface or in the atmosphere of a planet, water vortex
travel can not work. If the bubble I pushed my pointer through
first had not had enough moister it would have burst on impact with
my pointer. There has to be enough excess moisture to spare that
some moisture can be lost from the bubble and yet the integrity of
the bubble remain secure in order for this form of travel to work.
Now imagine that the end of my pointer is this vessel on this
world, which is the bubble you see my pointer inside of. This
vessel has to get to this second world or bubble, which in our case
is earth. Both worlds have adequate water to make the exchange
needed. The next vital ingredient is electric charged power.”

Torren raised a hand and Abby stopped, “Yes
Torren?”

“You mentioned electricity earlier and now
you mentioned it again. What is it?”

Abby smiled sheepishly, “My apologies I
forgot to explain that, thank you for asking Torren. Electricity is
what you know as lightening or that shock you get when you rub dry
clothes together against each other fast.”

Torren looked at her incredulously, “You
have something that can generate lightening on this ship?”

“Not exactly, but we have something similar
to it yes. Your ancestors through precise calculations of math,
astronomy and much trial and error mapped out where the available
worlds for habitation in this galaxy were. They sent unmanned ships
to those destinations and when a successful pairing was made they
dropped beacon devices into the deeper parts of the oceans of those
worlds. Now because of that water vortex travel is made much faster
and safer because of those existing beacon arrays. Tracking devices
on this vessel focus in on those beacon arrays and send a burst of
electrically charged power out through space towards those beacon
receiving sites. Now this is what happens when the power is sent
towards the beacon array on a distant planet.”

She began moving the pointer stick again.
The rounded end of the pointer touched the other bubble’s surface
which bowed out around the intruding force. The bubbles bowed out
surface touched the other bubble’s surface and the two joined
together to form a connected double bubble sharing each other’s
atmosphere at one point.

The end of the pointer, which symbolized our
vessel was inside the second bubble. We looked around at each other
in amazement at the process by which our ancestors had learned to
travel between different worlds.

Our attention was brought back to Abby, as
she began talking again. “When the highly charged energy is shot
out through space at tremendous speed toward the beacon array on
another world it forms a cylinder shape that is void in the middle.
The void is calibrated to just fit the dimensions of this ship. As
the void is created by the fast moving hollow beam of energy a
vacuum occurs within the void. The charged energy is not enough to
convey our vessel up the void and through space. A conductive
material is required, which is supplied in abundance in the form of
salt water from the ocean. Salt water is best because it is more
conductive to electric charge because of its chemical content of
dissolved metals and salt. The vacuum within the void is open on
the seaward end and it sucks up massive amounts of seawater until
there is enough water to provide a very thin coating to the sides
of the tube formed by the energy beam. Once enough water is
acquired the vessel enters into the electro stream and picks up
speed as it’s powered up by the electrical conductivity of the
surrounding matrix of charged power. As the vessel travels through
the void the charged energy collapses and the water is released
into space. When the vessel reaches the other world it is plunged
several fathoms down into the ocean where it disengages from the
particle beam. It can then travel fully submerged or on the surface
of the water. The water used in this process of travel is lost
forever into space so it is unwise for there to be excessive water
vortex travel, as it lowers the available amount of water that a
planet has. Takeoff of the vessel on the world of origin has to be
centered over the beacon array of that world. If the vessel was not
centered over the homeworld’s beacon array an error could occur in
the calculations for the travel telemetry through space and the
vessel could veer off course and be lost in space or collide with a
landform upon entry of the other world and be destroyed. Another
caution of water vortex travel is that if you do not wait until
there is a sufficient amount of sea water taken up by the vacuum
the energy particle matrix could run out of the conductive strength
to hold the vessel on its journey and collapse dumping the vessel
out into a vast stretch of insurmountable space. Thankfully the
whole system is completely automated and you shouldn’t have any
problems at all.”

Oh God! I do not want any part of this
mission.

Please let me wake up to all of this having
been only a nightmare and not the reality of my likely soon to be
demise!

“Oh and one more thing in regards to water
vortex travel. It is very obvious when exiting and entering a
planet via this means of travel, as the electro stream is brightly
lit up throughout the entire process.”

I heard Larc and several of the others
groan. There went the element of surprise.

“It is an unavoidable part of the process
I’m afraid and can’t be shielded.”

We were so going to die!

Our training progressed and the trepidation
we all had at the handling of the technology decreased slightly, as
we became more proficient at our duties on the water vessel. We had
to learn each other’s duties as well as our own, in case of
casualties during the mission.

It was agreed to by all that Torren would
stay on the vessel during the entire length of the mission, as he
displayed the best natural ability of grasping the complexities of
the vessel’s navigation system. I wasn’t especially thrilled about
that because I was his understudy and with him out of harm’s way
that meant I would be going ashore with the team to potentially
face even greater technological nightmares. I was such a
coward.

My primary job was initializing the charged
energy beam and hooking up with the beacon array and what followed
until the vessel was firmly in the water vortex and moving. Torren
was my understudy, as it was possible for us to do each other’s
tasks from each of our assigned consoles if it was necessary.

Weeks went by until Abby finally informed us
that she thought us ready to make the journey. She insisted that we
rest for a few days before starting, as sleep was likely to be in
short supply over the coming days.

We had no contact with the outside world for
the length of our training and we were to have none now either,
which hurt, as I hadn’t even gotten a chance to say goodbye to
either mother or Gavin. I lay on my narrow bunk, but sleep would
not come to me. The intense pressure of the situation didn’t seem
to be impacting Talaric much, as his snores resonated throughout
the room annoyingly.

All he was tasked with doing was opening and
closing the hatch! While an important task it was none the less as
simple as could be and almost impossible to mess up. If I messed up
in the performance of my task we could all be blown up into a
million little bits or worse yet drop out of the electro stream and
drift aimlessly in the fast voids of space while our life support
systems failed one by one and we all starved to death.

I rubbed at my eyes furiously. I could see
that grim future becoming an all too real possibility. I wasn’t
going to sleep so I might as well get up. I got up quietly and
walked down the hall to the main operational room of the vessel and
sat down in my consol chair. Abby had dimmed the vessel’s lighting
to help us sleep and perhaps calm our moods down some. She appeared
beside me standing, which didn’t surprise me much.

“You should get your rest Zevin.” Abby said
softly.

“Not going to happen I’m afraid.”

I stared at the complexities of the screens
and technology in front of me. “Were our ancestors more proficient
than we are or something, because even after all my training I feel
completely unnerved at the prospect of even attempting to do my
task!”

Abby paused for a moment, “They were born
and raised around the technology and were more comfortable with it
because of long usage. It is not easy by any standards Zevin, even
theirs. Something else that also helped them was that they lived
longer on average than people do today and if they chose to they
could encourage a higher brain output than is common today.”

“If this is supposed to be your way of
offering comfort you can stop anytime!”

“I won’t lie to you Zevin. It is an
extremely complex and difficult mission that you are about to
undertake. And the likelihood of success is not very good, but
there is something to put your hope in.”

“And what’s that?”

“There is an indefinable quality that I have
seen in the men of your family over the years that has not dimmed
with the passage of time and the loss of natural abilities or even
the loss of the skills of handling technology. In fact I would say
that I have not seen this indefinable quality shine brighter than
it does in your father and I see the same quality and strength of
character in you too. I am encouraged to believe that the quality I
have seen exhibited throughout your family line stems from the
belief you have placed in your Creator. There seems to be an
undeniable validation of that belief you have in your Creator,
because over the years I have seen and witnessed things happen that
cannot be explained by any natural phenomena or quantifiable data
that I can measure and analyze. So what I’m trying to say Zevin is
that even though things in the natural sense of order don’t look
good, there is still hope because of your relationship with your
Creator. As your own ancestors and your father put it, ‘All things
are possible for our God to accomplish.’”