Third Earth

A chilly gust of wind wafted through the New York City Magnetic Levitation terminal. To the citizens of the underground colony, it was strange to say the least, for it was the middle of summer, and just a\few hours earlier, the top-side news had reported that the skies were clear for the next week. Then again, it was New York City. Expect the unexpected was practically the city's motto.

It was near midnight, which meant that the station was shut down between the late night and early morning shifts. New York was as populous as ever in the fifty first century, but even the city that never sleeps needs to go out and get a cup of coffee, at some point.

A small boy crept out of the darkness of the chrome terminal and walked, very quietly, on to the sleek tracks of the dark floor. Once, in Bobby Pendragon's time, the tracks lay amongst a bed of sheer filth and decay, dead rodents and trash washed in by the wind scattered freely. In present day though, or at least, in Third Earth's present day, the entire station was spotless and garbage free. This mainly was due to the work of the DADO cleaning robots that at regular intervals came out of their dormant 'sleep' and cleaned the whole place in a matter of minutes. It was all very eerie, the extreme cleanliness, but it was the same everywhere in the United States Empire, so who would dare question it?

The boy, who could have been as young as eight or as old as eleven tiptoed down to the tracks , and when he was around the corner, out of site of the station's many cameras, and stepped into the star marked nook that his best friend had told him about the previous day. For some peculiar reason, the cameras of the station never seem to be at the angle to film this nook, though many technicians argued that even when they adjusted the equipment, it always seemed to be missing from the footage. The boy was in black and had hid in the far corner of the terminal most of the night, waiting until everyone had left, then snuck behind one of the many chrome trash bins, and bid his time till even the station manager had left. Now he was at the mysterious security safe area and grinning from ear to ear. He easily could have done what he was about to do behind the bin, but that would have been, well less exciting and risky, and why bother breaking the rules if your not going to just go to town with it?

The boy glance once more around the station then quickly pulled out his reward for his unlawful acts. He opened his hand and smiled at his special little treasure.

In his hand was a small chocolate bar.

It was forty percent synthetic, but this mattered very little to him. It was chocolate all the same, and was more than he had ever had in his entire life. His last chocolate ration had been given to him nearly five months ago, and he was craving more than ever the little bars sweet taste. Most kids his age dealt with the rations, for that was all they had been raised with, but this little boy, wanted something more. He felt, even at his young age, that something was not right with the world, and that a child deserved more than a square of chocolate every six months. So he had asked Sammy.

A small tinkling, like chimes began to float towards the boy's ears. He immediately put the bar behind his back and looked around. Had someone caught him? Were the Clean Bots about to activate? The sound faded slightly and the boy then realised he was just being paranoid. It was probably the robots. It had to be. And they wouldn't hurt him. They were programmed to just pay attention to litter and litter alone. That was their purpose.

So he thought.

The boy took the bar from behind his back. With a twinkle in his eyes, he unwrapped the bar, and bit lightly on the bar. His eyes widened. It was like heaven. Pure, sweet, dark heaven. He took another bite, then another, then found himself swallowing the whole damn thing. Before knew it he was biting his fingers, the treat vanished into his stomach. It was even better then Sammy described it. Sammy was his older brother; nearly ten years older then him, and he knew stuff. Lots of stuff. Like where you get all the chocolate you ever wanted. He wanted to run home and hug his brother right there and then, but knew that his brother was out as his 'meetings', and wouldn't be home for hours. The boy was about to turn and leave, when he heard something. It was that strange tinkling, tuneless sound and now it was very loud. In fact, it was all he could hear. He turned towards the nook and slowly stepped around to face it properly. He saw then that it was in fact a wall in front of a large opening. His mind was half full of fear, and half filled with curiosity at what lied beyond. Curiosity won, and he leaned around the wall into the dark depths of the cave behind.

His mouth fell open in shock.

The tunnel appeared to be groaning. Yes groaning, and becoming brighter at the same time. A light was forming in the far end of the tunnel and then suddenly it became blindingly bright, and with a final groan, and the tumble of a few stones, the tunnel spat out two people.

The boy nearly screamed, but bit his tongue instead. These people could be government agents waiting to get him, he thought. They would make him tell about Sammy and his friends, then they would be in BIG trouble. Still, he found himself glued to the spot. Then one of the shadowy people spoke.

"That isn't as fun as the first few times you fly threw it." the person said, in a distinctly female voice.

"It's because of Saint Dane." the other person said, in a male voice, "He's won again with Quillan. He's made it more uncomfortable for Travellers, and there's also the fact I brought you along."

The female voice became angered, "What do you mean? Do you not want me along or something? I know I'm not Loor or anything, with her size twenty guns and everything, but still…" the male broke her off mid sentence with soothing tones,

"I didn't mean bringing you along made me uncomfortable. I meant that, by taking a non-Traveller through the flume, we violated the main rule of travelling again. Mind you though, now that Saint Dane has been taking people like Mark and Veego through the flumes, perhaps the rule has changed."

The strange tunnel began to groan again, and then the girl said,

"Or perhaps it hasn't. Lets get out of this place before it groans itself into an Eelong."

Both the man and the woman walked towards the boy's end of the tunnel then one stopped, and pointed towards the floor. It was the man.

"Wait, we need to change clothes. We are still in our Second Earth gear."

"I thought you said in your journal that Third Earth clothes were the same as ours?"

"They pretty much are, but we should change shoes. Remember the doughnuts?"

"Oh of course" the girl said with a touch of sarcasm.

They looked at the ground for the shoes, but seemed not to find anything.

"Where is our stuff?" the girl said.

The other boy looked up and said, "We didn't tell anyone we were coming, did we?"

The girl slapped her forehead. "With everything that happened, I completely forgot to tell the acolyte we were coming."

The boy shook his head, "It wouldn't have mattered anyway. We don't even know his name, I only know Patrick's name. We can't contact an acolyte without knowing who they are."

The child, who had been watching this entire dialogue in utter confusion, suddenly registered something in his mind. Before he had left the house, his brother gave him two pair of morphos, 'just in case'. He didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but he did what his big brother asked without question, and now reached for his jacket pocket where the round morphos now sat. Was this what his brother had meant by just in case? Were these some of his friends?

He knew they would find him eventually, so he threw himself out from the darkness , and put his hands behind his back, so they wouldn't see his wrapper, just in case they weren't the just in case.

The two teens jerked upward from their search of the ground and stared at the boy. Both looked around them in surprise. What was a little kid doing out near the tracks of a subway station?

"Are you…..are you Sammy's friends?" the boy said in nervous tones, before becoming more confident and saying "Cause if you're not, I wasn't doin anything wrong, I swear to ya."

The two looked at one another. The girl whispered in the boy's ear and said,

"You know a Sammy?"

"Nope. You?"

The older boy turned to the intruder and said,

"We are friends of Patrick. Are you his acoly….I mean, do you know him?"

The child looked at them with a quizzical stare, before saying "Sammy's got a friend he calls Patty. I dunno who he is though." The child then took out the morphos from his pocket and showed them to the strangers.

"You lookin for these? Sammy said I should bring with me. What are your names?"

The older boy frowned and looked at his partner.

"Call out Sammy into your acolyte ring Courtney. Perhaps…." the girl was way ahead of him. She had taken off her ring which the child had only now noticed, and called out clearly,

"Sammy!"

The child's mouth dropped open as the ring began to mimic what the tunnel had only just done, and grew into a great black hole. The two smiled and looked back at the boy.

"My name is Bobby Pendragon." Bobby said. "And this is my friend Courtney Chetwyde. Are you Sammy's messenger?"

The kid looked at the ring which Courtney was now putting back on her finger, then to Bobby. He shook his head and said,

"I dunno who in the name of the President you are, but you…you seem to know Sammy. Sammy's my older brother. My name is Nelson. Nelson Matterson. You sure you're not DADO?"

Bobby and Courtney stopped smiling at Nelson and looked at one another with worried faces.

"Did you just say DADO?" Bobby asked Nelson. "As in Dimond Alpha Digital Organization?"

"Duh." Nelson said with a laugh. "What else would it stand for?"

Bobby sighed at turned to Courtney.

"I guess our fears came true. Mark really has changed Earth's history."

End of Part 1.