The Cupel Recruits (29 page)

They agreed Jack would pull himself over the top first, having the lighter load, and then help pull David up to help keep Phoebe’s positioning as upright as possible as David pulled up. This worked pretty well, except for Jack had to drag David a few feet away from the edge, face down in the dirt, so he could have room to pull his knees under him and rise to his knees so Phoebe was standing vertically behind him.

“Gee, thanks,” he said to Jack snarkily.

“Don’t mention it!” Jack grinned in his charming and affable way, detaching Phoebe from David’s back. She skipped around the flat mountaintop area, turned a cartwheel, and looked at Jack.

“You look like Prince Charming,” she said, examining him as if she had met him before in her living room.

“Well, I was. Were you ever in a play in school-where you pretended to be a part that was somebody other than you?” he asked.

“Of course. I was Eleanor Roosevelt in the history pageant,” Phoebe said as if it were common knowledge.

“Right, but you weren’t really Eleanor Roosevelt, right? You were just pretending to be her. Well, I was just pretending to be Prince Charming,” he explained. She thought about it earnestly for a moment and then added.

“Well, that’s good. I was thinking you don’t act very much like a Prince. I mean, you’re nice and all, but you don’t bow, or wear a crown, or like dance around and stuff.” David and Jack laughed and then saw a hand come over the edge, reminding them they were there to help the others. They pulled Jane and Chandra up the last few feet over the edge with ease and waited on the others. Before long, all of Molior and the equipment were up over the edge. They sat taking a break in the field, and Alexander communicated with his wife on the device.

“We’ve arrived at the top of the mountain. Confirming 3:48 PM,” he spoke into the microphone. His body felt strange as he communicated, tingly all over and sort of warm with a slight sense of being disoriented for a moment. Athena copied and then they moved to radio silence. Saraceni wanted the entire team to rest at least a full hour before they attempted to open the gate. If they could succeed before sundown, they could camp there for the night and then climb down in the morning, when it was less dangerous. Night climbing was insane, and they had brought plenty to keep warm with when the dusk air turned cool.

Molior lay in the grass forming a circle, staring up at the clouds and sunny sky. They could feel their energies aligning in this place. The mountain’s properties were almost palpable. The equipment team worked to set up the necessary elements into a configuration matching the one they had tested in the training room, only this time they did not have the benefit of monitors to tell how close they were getting. Saraceni surveyed the group, assessing that several of them should be a half point or full point higher than in trials since they had rested the last couple days. George seemed to be much stronger than in the first days after coming out of his coma, and Gabriel and Alexander both seemed brightened by the visit with Athena Aquila. Overall, he thought their chances were much improved.

Just when all were very relaxed and focused solely on the mission at hand, they felt the ground shake beneath their backs. Fortunately they were at the top of the mountain, for a wide array of rocks began crumbling down on all sides. If that had happened while they were climbing, they would have been pelted by small rocks and probably lost their handholds or footholds. The ground rumbled softly. It was a small quake, but it still unnerved them all. Saraceni grabbed Alexander and moved away from the group with him and the communication device. He didn’t want the others to hear the exchange. Their mental state needed to be as positive as possible.

“Whatever we talk about, it’s confidential,” he said to Alexander.

“Yes, Sir,” Alexander said in rote fashion.

In the communiqué, they learned that there were multiple earthquakes happening in The Cupel, likely the beginning of the more serious decoherence effects. There had been one tsunami and Mt. Rainier in Washington State in the U.S. had started smoking. Out in the universe, new black holes seemed to be popping up, or so said the media conjecture since patches of sky where stars formerly twinkled were now dark. Solar flare activity was up 11% overnight. Alexander thought of Lela.

“So, we can expect more of these earthquakes here, too?” Alexander relayed Saraceni’s words to Athena, who took her responsive cues from Ruth.

“Yes,” they heard back. They also learned the earthquake was much stronger in the areas away from the mountain. It did seem they were buffered from the external physical effects some, but not completely, since they were coming from deep within the planet. Time was crucial, and in moments, Saraceni had the group arranged in a circle around the equipment just like in the training room test run. This was the moment they had trained for, and the world was literally breaking apart with every moment they delayed. The sun was still fairly high in the sky, but had just begun to tip its hat at them.

The apparatus began to work and the gate seemed to have the possibility of opening. The space in the interior of the circle between them became fuzzy, almost opaque. Each team member focused on achieving the highest frequency, so the data could transfer from the current circle to the new one they were trying to open, and they watched for some sign the automatic natural processes were taking over as expected. Phoebe held her father’s hands and focused her energy with her eyes closed. George could feel the difference added by her tiny presence over the last trial run, and knew that she as his adjuvant did have an additive effect to his abilities. They focused with all their energy, but after a few minutes of the effect seeming to build, it began to level off and they could hold out no longer. The energy in the circle broke and they fell to their knees, or to a laying position. A comet streaked by in the sky and though it was outside the immediate mountain zone, they could hear its shrieking noise as it tore through the atmosphere. ‘Please let that have burned up and not impacted anywhere’ Saraceni thought to himself, looking around at the beaten team before him. They had failed.

In a few moments, they arose.

“We have to try again,” Enam said.

“What went wrong?” Gabriel said to Saraceni.

“I don’t know," Saraceni responded and all were silent. “We have to call this in.”

“Let’s just wait a minute. We need to try to figure out what might have gone wrong. We should call it in when we have a plan. Otherwise, everyone will freak out,” Juliet said.

“Okay, let’s break it down and see what we can come up with," Saraceni began.

“Alright,” Enam started, “We need a quantum gate, and for that we need a very long linear string of quantum dots that are raised from ground state.”

“Check,” Saraceni said, motioning to the apparatus.

“And we needed a low-decoherence or no-decoherence environment,” Enam continued.

“Right, we hauled our cookies all the way to the top of this mountain cause y’all said it was low decoherence,” Chandra commented.

“And we needed a swapping operation, which we were to create by raising the frequencies of our dark matter,” Enam progressed. Saraceni did not check this item so quickly. Juliet sensed his hesitancy.

“Saraceni, how close did we get in the test?” she asked.

“Pretty close,” he was deliberately vague, “but you weren’t right there. However, you’ve all improved since then.”

“I think we found our problem. We just aren’t getting it done,” Juliet said.

“Maybe,” Gabriel interjected, “but let’s not make any assumptions. What was the fourth thing?”

“We were counting on the natural occurrence to kick in,” Alexander offered.

“Right, well that was a big assumption. I mean, we could do everything right and maybe this natural occurrence doesn’t just catch on. Maybe you can’t force it,” Gabriel said.

“All our tests show it should be able to be artificially begun and then self-propagate from there. It is the same as other fields where we’ve had similar theories that have turned out. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work,” Saraceni said.

“Well, let’s attack this scientifically,” Gabriel began, “Where have these gates been witnessed to open before-are they always in the same location?”

“They happen so fast, we can’t really tell where they originate, but no one has ever witnessed one opening before,” Kyle explained.

“No one? Ever? Well, that’s something. Sounds improbable,” Juliet said.

“Unless the location was invisible, or the occurrence itself was invisible,” Jane thought aloud.

“Or hidden,” Gabriel added.

“Maybe the coherence time is just too short,” Enam said, “Even if we were 100% successful, if it can only be maintained a fraction of the time it needs to stay coherent before decoherence disassembles the assemblage, it wouldn’t catch.”

“Do you know the coherence time? I mean, the
exact
calculation?” Gabriel asked Saraceni.

“No. Those calculations were prebuilt into the equipment settings, but I think Ruth does,” Saraceni responded.

“Okay, let’s call it in, and get some other information,” George suggested.

“Agreed,
" Saraceni said.

Alexander reached Athena on the communication device and after a few moments the team learned the coherence time, and had the answers to all the other questions they could think of.

“Lela and the team found some additional info on the mineral. The team is pulling up the monitors to replay now. It’ll be just a minute,” Athena said. Alexander leaned over struggling for breath, and Saraceni feared he was using all his energy to communicate. It wasn’t designed to have lengthy conversations like this. Juliet’s necklace, and some of the purple mountain mineral started carrying a small light within. He was surprised, but before he could think about the property itself, Juliet herself gained his focus. He motioned to her to come over and instructed Alexander to ask Ruth if Wood was there.

“Yes, he’s here,” Athena responded.

“Put him on,” Alexander advised, at Saraceni’s instruction. Saraceni handed the communication device to Juliet. She looked at him curiously.

“I thought this only worked for kindreds,” she said, confused.

“Right,” he answered, “Ruth wouldn’t confirm it for me, but she didn’t deny it either, so let’s see if I’m right.” He looked at her intensely, hoping. Juliet had more strength to start with, 8.5 on her own. She could afford the depletion more than Alexander could at this point. If they were to get another shot, he needed to stay at least with high enough energy levels to carry his weight.

“Wood?” she said into the device, feeling self-conscious speaking to him in front of the others.

“Juliet?” he responded slowly, not sure if she could hear him and somewhat dazed that it might work for them.

“I can hear you!” she smiled.

“Great! Listen, decoherence is at 98%. You must work quickly. Lela’s team found that the mineral takes on the frequencies of many properties, not just sound. Many properties would self-build within that mineral, independently of the environment,” Wood repeated Ruth’s words one by one.

“Of course!” Gabriel said. He looked at his Dad, “Nothing happens without a reason. Saraceni, where is this mineral from?”

“It’s found all around the mountain. We find small pieces every now and then. We’ve built up a decent amount over a long time,” Saraceni responded.

“Are there any caves around here?” Gabriel asked.

“There’s one, about a quarter way down the mountain on the far side, opposite of the direction we came up, but I’ve only seen it in photos. It’s not near any steppes or decent rock trails,” George said. Gabriel turned to Saraceni.

“Saraceni, I think the mineral is inside the mountain. Like a giant geode. Like in Africa. If I’m right, we should be doing this from inside the mountain, not on top of it. The interns tests in Africa showed results were amplified a thousandfold when they were inside the cavern. It must protect itself from decoherence somehow in the mass or continuity or volume of it,” Gabriel said.

“Gabriel, you’re asking me to take a huge risk. Take all these people down the treacherous side of a mountain-at night-and redo the test from inside when all our data shows open fields are needed,” Saraceni said.

“I think Gabriel’s right,” Alexander jumped in, “Think about it. The mineral self-propagates properties. What if-just what if-it has naturally-occurring quantum dot nanocrystals embedded in the mineral itself? You wouldn’t need to create them artificially-they’d already be there. Everything else needed is already in nature-why wouldn’t this be? And if that were the case, with a whole mountain full of them, inside the crystal lattice the quantum dots could give rise to a vibration which, instead of competing and canceling out each other’s amplitudes, just pile one on top of the next creating a huge tidal wave of oscillation at the same frequency. That’s why the sound didn’t diminish. In effect, it did become self-propagating.”

“It’s the only plausible explanation,” Gabriel said, “and besides, it’s better than anything we’ve had so far. It has to be worth a try.” Saraceni paused, looking around the group.

“You’ve asked us to trust you-all this time,” David Running Wolf added, looking at Gabriel for support in his argument to Saraceni, “Now you need to trust us.”

It seemed Saraceni had succeeded. Gabriel was now a leader, and everyone was following him. Saraceni just hoped they weren’t following him to their deaths, to the deaths of everyone. Another tremor shook the ground. The sky smelled of ozone and a lightning storm without any thunder or rain could be seen on the next ridge, coming their way. The barely perceptible sound of lightning alone moving through the distant air was eerie.

“Okay, let’s do it,” Saraceni said. Juliet sent in the communication of their plans as the others moved quickly to the mountain’s edge.

“I’ll go down to the cavern first and make sure it has the crystal walls we expect. No point in all of us going down there if it’s just a dirt floor and rock walls,” Running Wolf said.

“I’m going with you,” Jack added.

“What about Phoebe?” Jane asked. If they both went, whose back would carry the little girl?

“I’ll take her,” Enam said, “I felt pretty strong on the way up. I can handle it.”

Running Wolf and Jack descended into the dark. The sun had been gone for some time now. The lightning in the sky from the storm nearby, though threatening, actually did help them to see, plus the moon was almost full. They blazed the trail and set the anchors as they descended which would give the others a more secure path to follow. Just feet from the top of the cave, David grabbed a handhold and let his foot dangle, searching for the next stepping stone. He thought he had it, but his large size 12 foot had more out than in and he lost his footing, hanging only by one arm with much slack in the rope. Jack grabbed him and helped pull him back to a position of safety.

“Thanks, man,” David said, breathless.

“Well, ya know, I do mountains tons of times bigger than this with my superhero brother back home,” Jack deepened his voice to mimic Running Wolf.

“Funny,” David responded sarcastically, not entertained with the impression, but smiled briefly anyway at Jack’s ribbing. They pushed their legs out from the cliff face. Letting out some slack on the rope, they swung into the cave with enough momentum to grab onto an edge and pull themselves in, first David and then Jack.

“Wow! Amazing!” Jack exclaimed looking around. The cave was huge, easily ten times bigger than they expected, and entirely encrusted in the crystalline mineral. It was photoflourescent, emitting its own soft light glow of gentle purple light.

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about trying this in the dark,” David said, sticking his head out of the cave and giving a long, loud whistle to let the others know that they were correct and to head on down.