Leap - 02 (33 page)

Alison stared at Palin, shocked and suddenly dumbfounded.  “Oh my gosh!”

Clay and the others turned to her.  “What?”

“That’s what it is,” she murmured, almost to herself.  “That’s what it is!  It was staring me right in the face this whole time.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you see?”  She looked back and forth at them, excitedly.  “That’s what Sally was telling me!  She said they were ‘happy to talk’ again!  I never understood what she meant.  I thought it was just a translation issue, but it wasn’t.  She knew!  Sally and Dirk
knew
that we used to be able to communicate before!  And now, with the IMIS system, we aren’t communicating with dolphins for the first time, we’re communicating with them AGAIN!”

From the table, Caesare’s eyes opened wide.  “Whoa!”

“It’s true!” Alison cried.  “And Dulce proved it.”  She grabbed Clay’s arm.  “I haven’t told you about what we discovered about the errors in IMIS!  Lee found out that they weren’t errors at all.  They were real translations happening beyond human speech.  On a level that we don’t understand, but Dulce does!  And IMIS has picked up on it!”  Alison whipped back to Palin.  “That’s what you’re talking about!”

Palin smiled.  “Because of you, Alison Shaw, your world will someday become one again.  A lesson that my people wished we had learned much sooner.”

66

The front wall was floor-to-ceiling glass, looking out from within the orange-red stone.  The room was larger, cut from the face of towering cliffs that traveled as far as they could see.

Clay stared outward through what he had assumed were giant, clear panes of glass, but after closer inspection, he realized there was no
glass
.  The clear wall between them and the outside world was simply air.  And beyond it, a small blue ocean stretched out before them. 

“Is this all of it?” Clay asked.

“Yes.  For now.  The impact that devastated our planet was almost inconceivable.  It killed most of our people and the majority of our planet’s other inhabitants.  Our two largest oceans were vaporized from a force great enough to send most of it out into space.”

“You mean you’ll never get it back?”

“We will in time.  Most of our oceans are now in the form of ice crystals floating outside our atmosphere.  With each year, as we pass through the clouds, the gravity of our planet attracts a little at a time, causing it to thaw and fall back to the surface.  It’s how water originally arrived on our planet, but it will take a great many years to regain it all.  In the meantime, the water we now have, thanks to you, is enough to begin the reconstruction of our complex ecosystems.  We have a long road ahead of us.”

Clay started to reply but stopped when a woman walked into the room behind them.  She was tall with blonde hair flowing far past her shoulders.  He had met her once before.

Laana moved with a grace that made her appear to be gliding across the floor with her long blue dress trailing behind.  She smiled kindly at the four of them as Palin nodded and stepped back. 

“Welcome,” she said, in a smooth voice.  “And hello again, Mr. Clay.”

“Laana,” Clay nodded respectfully, still unsure what her title or position was.  

Alison watched the beautiful woman look over them and was sure she noticed a twinkle in Laana’s eyes upon studying her and Clay.

Laana examined Caesare’s side which was now covered with bandages and clothing.  “How are we feeling, Mr. Caesare?”

Caesare’s looked surprised.  “I’m well, thank you.”

“We’re surprised to see you again,” she said, returning her eyes to Clay.  “However, we are pleased with your decision.”

“It didn’t feel like much of a decision at the time.”

“Which means it was the right one.”  She turned and looked out over the glistening water.  A deep red from their large sun reflected off the surface.  “I see Palin has been giving you a tour.”  She waved one of her arms outward.  “This is our planet’s last city.  Protected deep within the rock of these great cliffs.”  Laana gazed out over the picturesque horizon.  “Great battles were once fought here, many years ago.  It has an important place in our history, though not as important as now.  It will forever be sacred and known as the city that saved the last of our race.  And the place where your water saved more than just a race, it saved an entire planet.”

Laana turned back.  “Thanks to you, we are growing again.  Slowly, but growing.”

“Palin told us you would get your water back eventually,” Alison said.

“Yes, in time.  Until then, we are learning patience on a scale we would never have imagined before.”  Laana’s voice promptly took an upbeat tone as she studied one of the cliffs in the distance.  “Not far from that spot is where we launched our ship to travel to your planet.  It took several years.  Of course, Palin and I were much younger then.  It was a very frightening time.”  She took a deep breath and exhaled.  “We owe you so much.”

“Eh…”  Caesare grinned broadly.  “We know you’re good for it.”

Laana looked at him curiously then laughed.  “We are thankful for your courage and hope that someday we can repay it.”

Alison was still smiling from Caesare’s joke.  “Well, let’s hope that won’t be necessary.”

Laana nodded and peered past them.  DeeAnn entered the room, escorted by a medic.  Dulce lay unconscious in her arms, heavily bandaged.

“How is she?” Caesare asked, as DeeAnn approached. 

“Good.  She’ll sleep for a few days, but she’ll be okay.”

More footsteps were heard as Will Borger entered the room.  Next to him walked one of Palin’s men, an engineer whom Palin had summoned.  He had been working with Borger for the last hour to analyze a sample of soil Borger had collected immediately upon landing in the helicopter.

Borger was beaming.  “She was right.  Commander Lawton was right about the soil.”

“What did you find out?” asked Clay.

“Actually, she was more right than she knew.  The Commander suspected there could be something in the soil, which is why she asked me to get a sample from near the fire.”

“What is it about the soil?”

Borger nodded.  “It’s not the soil itself.  It’s what is
in
the soil.”  He stared at the others, as if waiting for them to guess.  When they didn’t, he blurted out, “It’s the water!”

“Water?”

“Yep.  There’s an enzyme in the water that neither of us has ever seen before.  And it looks like that may be what is creating the special DNA mutations in the plants!”

Clay raised an eyebrow.  “What kind of enzyme?”

“I’m not sure, but it looks synthetic.  And it’s glowing.”

“Any idea where it’s coming from?”

“Nope.  But thanks to our friends,” Borger said, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a small instrument, “we now have something to use to find the source.”

Clay looked at Palin.  “I suppose that’s our cue.” 

“It appears so,” he replied.  “Your portal won’t remain open much longer anyway.”

Laana and Palin escorted them back through several rooms to the main area where the portal was still shimmering.  One by one, they thanked Laana and Palin and stepped back through the black oval.

Clay turned to leave last when Palin stopped him.  “John Clay.”

Clay stared back, awash in the bright blue outline of the portal.  “Yes?”

Palin stepped forward.  “I don’t know what your search will reveal or what knowledge you may glean.  But remember, great knowledge requires great wisdom. 
Beware of the leap
.”

67

The humidity and smoke overwhelmed them immediately.  Coupled with the heat, it felt as though they had walked back into a damp furnace.  Some smoke had dissipated, allowing them to breathe a little easier.  However, much of the mountainside was still obscured.

Clay coughed and looked at Borger.  “Okay, Will, where to?”

Borger looked around.  If it was the water they were after, there was only one logical direction:
uphill
.  He peered over a slow moving bank of smoke to the top of the mountain.  There was a small cliff where part of the peak had long since eroded and fallen away.  Under the afternoon sun, it resembled a half dome with its one side sheared off.

Clay stopped them before they started up the embankment.  “We need to get Dulce someplace where she can rest.”

“Agreed,” replied Caesare.  “You three go ahead.  I’ll take them.”

“Where are you going?”

Caesare coughed then smiled devilishly.  “I have an expensive and rather comfortable helicopter they can stay in.”

Clay nodded and began trudging up the rocky hill with Alison and Borger.

They stopped periodically for Borger to sink the instrument into the soil and wait for a readout.  As he suspected, the frequency of enzymes in the water decreased as they moved to either side of the incline but increased as they climbed higher.  The source was above them.

The enzyme concentrations increased rapidly as they neared the top and the half dome-shaped wall.  And once they reached the base of the cliff, the measurements went through the roof.

“Wow!” Borger shouted.  He looked up at the sheer rock before him, rising almost eighty feet over his head.  There was a thin streak of water running down the face.  Clay and Alison watched as Borger stood up and placed the instrument against the trickling stream of water. 

The display on the instrument went to zero.  Borger tried again in another spot.  Still nothing.

“That’s weird.  The enzyme count just disappeared.”

Alison peeked over his shoulder.  “How could it disappear?  It’s the same water.”

Borger traced the stream down to the ground with his finger.  “It
is
the same water.”   He raised the sensor up again and placed its metal spike against the water one more time.  “What happened to it?”

“Maybe there’s another stream.”

They spread out and looked for more running water.

“Here’s one.”

Borger ran over to Alison and measured it in multiple spots.  Nothing.  They found two more streams but no enzymes.

“I don’t understand.”  Borger stepped back and looked to the top of the rock wall.

Clay moved behind them, studying the rock face.  It seemed unusually smooth, as did the rock on which they were standing.  He followed the original streak of water all the way down, from the top of the wall to the bottom of the hard, gray speckled stone beneath their feet. 

Then it hit him.

Clay moved in closer again and examined the bottom of the cliff.  “It’s not coming from the top,” he said, looking at both of them.  “It’s coming from
inside
the rock.”

The two ran over to the base of the rock, where Clay was watching the water trickle down over the tip of his black boot.  Borger measured to the right and left, finding strong signals on both sides.

“You’re right.  There’s gotta be something inside.”

Clay took a small step back and studied the face again.  He repeatedly looked to the right then back to the left.  There was something very different about the face directly above them.

“I’m no expert, but does this section look different to you two?”

Alison and Borger stepped back with him and stared at it.  “It looks flatter.”

“Yeah, it does.”

“Look at that.”  Clay pointed to a tiny indentation in the stone that ran straight up the face.  There was another on the other side of the water.  He stepped back further and examined the stone beneath their feet.  “And does this rock look unusually
level
to you?”

“It does.”

Clay walked forward again and touched the cliff face with his hand.  “There’s something on the other side of this.”

68

The strips of interior lights came on automatically, and everyone in the cabin instinctively looked up.  The sun was nearly past the horizon and evening was setting in.  With all the windows and vents closed, very little of the smoke got inside the immaculate cabin. The helicopter’s auxiliary system powered everything except the air conditioning, making the inside more than comfortable if only a bit warm.

With his pack on the floor and leaning against the table, Borger focused intently on his laptop screen.  From behind him, Clay looked on over his shoulder.  In the back of the cabin, Alison and DeeAnn foraged through the small kitchen and found enough food for several meals.  Or at least several salads.

“Man, this guy wasn’t a health nut…he was a health freak.”

“You have no idea.”  DeeAnn glanced out at Dulce, still lying comfortably on one of the soft leather seats next to a dozing Steve Caesare.  The thought that Alves’ body was laying somewhere outside gave her the creeps.

A few minutes later, the two women brought the food out and set it down, just on the other side of Borger’s computer.  On the screen, both men studied a still frame satellite image of the mountain.  They were zoomed in on the cliff.

Borger tapped one of his keys and the image slowly rotated.  “Not much to see from the air.”

“No, there isn’t.”  Clay tilted his head at the picture.  “We can’t see the cliff face.”

“And there’s nothing noticeable on the back side either.”

Clay straightened back up and folded his arms.  It had taken them the remainder of the afternoon to hike around the back slope of the mountain, and they had found nothing.  Nor did using Borger’s instrument help them find any trace of the synthetic enzyme.  Whatever was coming out of that rock was coming out from within the cliff face.

He sighed and took a break, thanking Alison when she handed him a bowl of salad with a few pieces of salmon on top.  He took a bite and leaned back onto the arm of one of the seats behind him, thinking.  If this mysterious enzyme
was
the true source behind the giant plants and their special replicating abilities, then the Chinese had jumped the gun.  They had something truly amazing, but it may not be the source they believed it to be.  And if the plants were that valuable, he wondered what the enzyme itself was capable of.

Clay’s eyes opened in the darkness to find Borger shaking him by the arm.  The lights in the cabin were out, leaving only the glow of Borger’s laptop to illuminate the white seats nearest the table.

“Clay!” Borger whispered.  “You awake?”

He blinked his eyes and forced them open.  “Yes.  What is it?”

“Come here!”

Clay pushed himself quietly out of the chair, careful not to wake Alison who was reclining next to him.  He followed Borger back to the computer and squinted at the bright screen.  He was still displaying the aerial view of the mountain.

Borger sat down in front of him.  “I think I found something.  This is the picture we were looking at earlier, right?”

“Right.”

Borger nodded.  “Okay, do you see anything different?”

Clay squinted closer at the screen.  “No.”

“That’s correct.”  Borger looked back over his shoulder amusedly and whispered.  “Sorry, that was a trick question.  Look at the picture again and tell me if you see any trees or plants around the cliff base.”

“Nope.”

“Exactly.  Strange don’t you think?”

“Yes.  It is.”

“See, I got to thinking…if whatever is in this water can make those plants grow like that, then why isn’t anything growing closer to the rock face?  You’d think everything would be a hundred feet tall, right?”

Clay looked curiously down at Borger.  “Right.  Maybe the terrain is too rocky.”

“I thought about that.”  Borger’s whispering was getting louder.  “But how rocky would it need to be for something not to grow with
this
water?!  I mean, geez, it would probably have to be molten lava or something.”  Borger turned back around to Clay.  “But what if…nothing was
supposed
to grow there?!”

Clay eyed Borger and looked back to the screen.  “You mean, as in, by design.”

“Right.  Remember how flat the base is, and those lines you saw going straight up the rock.  On top of that, we have something coming out of the rock that we’ve never seen before.  Now we have an area in front of it where nothing grows.  Not even with this super water.  Don’t you think those are a lot of coincidences?”

“It’s artificial.”  Clay finished Borger’s thought.

“Exactly!  And here’s the biggest clue of all.  I kept thinking, ‘why isn’t anything growing there?  Why are there only rocks?’”

Clay suddenly grabbed Borger’s shoulder.  “The rocks!”

“The rocks!” Borger nodded.  He zoomed the picture in and leaned back out of Clay’s way.  “Now look at the picture and ignore the top of the mountain and the cliff.  Look just at the rocks, and bear in mind they look like rocks on the screen, but they’re actually boulders.”

Clay studied the screen for several seconds.  “Are those…shapes?”

“It sure looks like it, doesn’t it?”  Borger began typing.  “Now look what happens when I invert the color in the picture.”

The picture color instantly switched.  The areas that were dark now appeared in shades of white.  And the light areas, including the rocks, appeared black.

Clay immediately shot a look at Borger.  “Those are definitely shapes!”

“I think those giant boulders on the ground were ‘arranged.’”

Clay remained quiet, studying the black shapes.  They were hard to identify, but the curves and angles were unmistakable.  The boulder groupings also appeared to be laid out in three separate places, together forming a perfect triangle near the base of the cliff. 

“I think they might be hieroglyphs,” Borger whispered.

“I’ve never seen hieroglyphs like that,” commented a female voice.

Borger jumped in his seat, and both men spun around to see Alison standing behind them in the dark.

“Geez, Alison!  You scared the crap out of me!”

He hadn’t jumped, but Clay was grinning at her.  “That was impressive.”

Alison shrugged, playfully. 

They turned back to Borger’s glowing screen.  “Do you know a lot about hieroglyphs?” Clay asked.

“Not really.  I took some courses in college,” she said quietly.  “But I’ve never seen anything quite like those.”  She leaned in between the two men.  “Hmm.”

“What?”

“There may be some similarities to the Mayan stuff.  But I can’t be sure.  It’s been a long time.”

“What about Egyptian hieroglyphs?”

Alison shook her head.  “No.  Those look very different.  Egyptian’s wrote in long lines of script.  These are more like the picture blocks used in the Central Americas.”

“Do you think they can be translated?”

Alison thought about the question and shook her head again.  “I have no idea.  Maybe if other drawings have been documented somewhere else, but that’s a long shot.  Even the Rosetta Stone, which contained detailed one-to-one translations, took years.  Here, we only have three pictograms to go on.  And that’s not enough.”

Borger slouched back in the chair, folding his arms in frustration.

“Or…”

Alison and Borger looked at Clay.  “Or what?”

“Or we try something else.”  Clay turned and grinned at them.  “It just so happens, I know a beautiful woman who has a hell of a computer system, designed specifically for translating languages.”