Sliding Into Antar

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Shocking Revelations

Chapter 29

XXIX

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"Assuming that the granolith in this dimension responds to the same frequencies as in our dimension, that should be it right down there," Varec said, holding a small hurriedly devised instrument in his hand and watching its tiny monitor, as he pointed to a spot on the New Granolith's large panoramic view screen that gave them a view of what lay directly below the ship…

"It looks like a tall garage… or maybe a silo," Max said, looking at the object on the screen.

Michael stared at the small but sturdy-looking building on the view screen… "Someone probably built it around the granolith. Most likely they didn't know how to move the granolith and it was the only way they knew of to hide it."

Max nodded. "You're probably right. So what do we do now, General? Beam ourselves down there into that garage… silo… or whatever it is?"

Michael shrugged. "Can you think of a better way?"

Max was silent for a moment then he shook his head… "No."

"Neither can I."

Max took a deep breath and nodded. "Well, the granolith hasn't tried to kill us since we left the palace… maybe it's had a change of heart."

"It's hardware," Michael corrected, "It doesn't have a heart… as such. It doesn't actually think, not the way we do; it carries out a set of logistics-driven orders that were installed in it when it was created… and it does that to the best of its ability… without being encumbered by a 'heart.' Besides, it may only be waiting for us to be away from Pierce so it can pick us off… if it really is protecting him."

"Good point," Max agreed… "We can't take anything for granted."

Michael shook his head. "Nothing at all."

"I'll go," Kyle offered.

Max smiled and shook his head. "You had all the fun last time, Kyle. Wasn't turning Pierce into a soprano enough for you? Anyway, It'll have to be me, because the granolith is more likely to recognize me."

"I'll go with you," Michael said, holding up his hand to squelch any objections from Max. Max thought about it for a moment then nodded. "Two of us may be better than one… are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

Max touched the pin inside his shirt, and Michael touched the one in his, and both of them disappeared together in a wisp of light. They reappeared inside the structure.

"Well, that's it," Michael said, walking slowly around the granolith, which began to pulsate with a bluish light. "Why's it doing that?"

Max watched the granolith pulsate for a few moments… "I don't think it's being aggressive. It's just checking us out." Stepping forward, Max held his right hand out, palm up, and a six-foot-long beam of crackling light exploded from the granolith and into his hand. Michael went immediately on highest alert but did not interfere, surmising correctly that the granolith was trying to communicate rather than attack them. The crackling, lightning-like beam of light continued without letting up for almost two minutes, as the granolith alternately glowed with a cobalt blue color then a jade green then a deep ruby red. Max's body began to glow with the granolith, producing a thin aura of similar colors around him, making Michael more that a bit uncomfortable. But after a while, the glow began to subside, then the beam abruptly stopped.

Max looked around. At first, he seemed not to know where he was and appeared to be stunned.

"Max?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm… I'm okay. It was just… intense."

"For you or for me? You had me going there, pal. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I will be. I just have to get my bearings."

"What did it do to you?"

Max seemed to think about it for a moment, then a smile edged over his face… "It exchanged knowledge with me."

"You mean like… it told you what's going on… and why it was trying to kill us?"

"Not exactly. Come on! Let's get back to the ship. I have something to show you… something to show everybody."

Max and Michael both returned to the ship, and Max gathered everyone together.

"The granolith is… well, the best way I can say it is… confused… by Pierce. It has conflicting data on who he is. The best way to explain it is just to show you. The granolith took information directly from my mind, but it also put information into my mind… a lot of it… so much that the only way it could do it was to show me what happened. That information is still here inside me, like some biological video that's set to run. In a sense, I only have to turn it on to share it with you… Everyone hold hands and form an unbroken circle. Liz, you hold my hand. Maria, take my other hand, then everyone else take their hands."

"Are we going to feel anything, you know, weird," Maria asked.

"Not as weird as sleeping with Michael," Max said matter-of-factly.

"And you would know this how?" Maria asked.

"I'm guessing," Max retorted.

Maria took Michael's hand with her other hand and grinned. "For the record, I like sleeping with Michael. You don't know what you're missing, Max."

Max reddened ever so slightly, apparently wanting to get off of the subject and wishing he hadn't started it… "If everyone is ready…" He closed his eyes, and the others did the same. About three seconds later, a bright light came on very suddenly. Maria involuntarily opened her eyes but saw that the light was not in the room… it was in her head. Hesitantly, she closed her eyes again and watched…

It appeared that they were seeing through the granolith's eyes… or whatever it was that the granolith "saw" with. At first, it was dark, despite the bright light inside their heads, and there was only an empty room all around… but it was not a garage or a silo; it was the granolith chamber on earth. As they watched, light began to pour through a crack in the wall and into the chamber, then the stone doorway opened further and someone stepped in. It was Max. He was followed by Michael, Liz, Maria, Tess, and Isabel. They talked for a while, occasionally arguing about whether or not they should go to Antar… whether or not they should leave parents… friends… loved ones… and the life they knew. It was déjà vu for some, as though they were reliving their own earlier misgivings. But then something happened that was not familiar to them. A man with a gun unexpectedly burst into the chamber. As the light fell on his face, they saw that it was Pierce; he had apparently followed them. Pierce took one look at the granolith and knew instinctively what it meant. They were escaping… escaping forever… escaping to a place where he could never find them again. He raised his gun to fire it at Max, and suddenly there was chaos…

Michael was the first to react, quickly getting off a blast of energy that melted the gun in Pierce's hand before he could fire it. But when he tried to blast Pierce, nothing happened. Max tried, too, with the same result. It seemed that the granolith was preventing them, in some way, from any further blasting inside the chamber, probably to protect the chamber and those inside it. It also appeared to be preventing Pierce from using his backup weapon against Max. Though he pulled the trigger several times, nothing happened. Michael's first thought, after disarming Pierce and seeing that his backup had failed, was to get Max to safety. Quickly, he shoved Max toward the granolith… "GO, MAX! GO! Get out of here! Take the granolith!"

Max shook his head and looked at Liz, then he looked back at Michael, his head filled with uncertainty… "We all need to stay together… We can fight him together."

"GO!" Michael insisted, shoving Max into the granolith, "Come back for us when you can!"

The granolith began to glow and pulsate with colors, and Pierce, seeing his number one trophy getting away, momentarily lost all semblance of sanity…

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

With one long, hysterical cry of rage and frustration, Pierce rushed forward and leapt, hitting Max with his outstretched hands and sending him tumbling backwards out of the granolith; but at that same moment, the granolith, unable to stop a reaction that had already begun, became solid. For a brief moment, everyone saw Pierce's hands and face, pressed against the inside of the granolith, like a caged animal wanting out. Then the granolith shot skyward… with Pierce in it.

Pierce slumped to the floor, uncertain what lay ahead, not knowing where he was going or what would become of him. Throughout the brief journey, he remained that way, never speaking… and rarely moving… in shock.

When Pierce had first entered the chamber, the granolith's immediate impulse had been to destroy him. But it had discovered that it was unable to do so. It scanned and recalibrated its systems internally and tried again. Still, it was unable to harm Pierce, whom it considered little more than a dangerous parasite now that he was onboard and heading toward Antar. Searching for a reason for this strange malfunction, the granolith discovered that Pierce registered as having royal DNA. The granolith repeatedly ran assays to prove or disprove this surprising new data, but was unable to disprove it. Every single assay registered royal DNA coming from Pierce's body… and not just any royal DNA… but Max's DNA.

The granolith "knew," on the one hand, that the man sitting on the floor inside it was not Max, nor even a royal at all… but on the other hand, its own security system, a system designed to protect the royals, refused to act against Pierce; and, even more incomprehensibly, it had prevented Michael and Max from harming Pierce in the chamber and continued to identify Pierce as Antarian royalty. The granolith was not configured to think in exactly the same terms that we do, but this conundrum… this internal struggle between its security system and its higher "brain…" was enough to give it a meltdown. To protect itself, it ultimately accepted Pierce… though somewhere in the guts of its system… it still refused to believe it.

Once on Antar, the walls of the granolith became permeable again, as the forces that had held everything inside it subsided and then ceased. Realizing that he was free to leave, Pierce jumped out; then, with only a cursory glance back, he ran.

That was the last the granolith saw of Pierce until almost three months later, when he showed up with a team of Antarians and ordered them to build a containment unit around the "machine" to contain its powers. Incomprehensibly, at the same time he was ordering them to "contain" the granolith's powers, he was claiming to be receiving protection and power from the granolith. But for whatever reason, his orders were carried out without question. Almost certainly, the Antarians knew that nothing they built around the granolith would be able to contain its powers, but no one told Pierce this. Perhaps they didn't dare to. Once the building was finished, Pierce left again, and that was the last time the granolith saw him.

As the images faded, Max dropped Liz and Maria's hands, and everyone looked at him… a hundred questions swirling around in their minds…

"So Pierce never planned to come to Antar at all then; it was an accident," Liz said… "But that doesn't explain where he's getting his powers from… and why does the granolith's security system think he has royal DNA… your DNA, Max?"

"Exactly," Max agreed, nodding. "Those are questions the granolith does not have answers to. His powers did not come from the granolith. The granolith never attacked us. His powers are coming from somewhere else."

"We need to find out where," Michael said emphatically.

Max nodded… "Agreed. Any ideas?"

"Isabel could dream walk him," Kyle suggested, "When he's asleep."

Max nodded and looked at Isabel. "It might work, but we can't be sure that he would tell Isabel anything, either, even in his dreams."

"It's worth a try," Michael said.

Max nodded again. "If it doesn't work, nothing will have been lost. Isabel? Are you up to it?"

Isabel nodded. "Sure. I'll do it."

"You're not worried about violating his privacy or something?" Maria asked.

"It's Pierce," Isabel retorted, "I'm not worried about it."

The group went about their usual duties until Pierce had gone to sleep later that evening, then Isabel got comfortable in one of the big easy chairs in the ship's lounge and concentrated. Shortly, she entered into a fog-like state, and then she saw Pierce. He was pacing back and forth in his dream.

"A penny for your thoughts," Isabel said innocently, walking up behind him.

Pierce swung around, surprised by Isabel's sudden appearance, seemingly out of nowhere… "Where did you come from?"

He looked her over for a moment then looked back at the wall… "I already told you I have nothing to say to any of you… that includes you."

"You're not telling them," Isabel agreed, "This is a dream. I'm only here in your dream." Technically, Isabel told the truth; she was, after all, only there in his dream. Pierce looked at her again and seemed to think about it… "Dream or not, I'm not telling you anything."

"Everybody needs somebody to talk to," Isabel insisted, "Even you. I guess that's why you're dreaming about me… or is there some other reason?"

"No! No… No, there's not… Besides, I don't need anybody to talk to," Pierce replied adamantly, "I'm quite self-sufficient."

"I know," Isabel said, "But you didn't intend to come to this planet. You were trapped in the alien machine. And you don't speak their crazy alien language. You have to treat the aliens like children to get them to understand plain English…"

"How do you know… oh, right, you're a figment of my imagination… what was it that Ebenezer Scrooge said… a piece of undigested food…"

"A Christmas Carol," Isabel said, nodding at the reference to Scrooge when he was confronted by Bob Marley's ghost. "Do you think that's what I am… a stomach ache… a bad dream?"

Pierce looked at Isabel again and sighed… "Well, you may be, but if I had to look at one of you, I guess…"

"Yes?"

"Never mind."

"You think I'm sexy?"

Pierce seemed to fortify himself… "You're a damned alien. You can make yourself look like anything. You may even be a guy… with three eyes and a forked tongue… if I saw your real appearance!"

Isabel smiled and shook her head. "I'm a figment of your imagination… a piece of undigested food, remember? I am only what you see."

Pierce looked at Isabel again and seemed to relax. "You're right. You're only whatever I dream that you are. You look like her… but you're just what's in my mind… nothing more."

Isabel sat down on the floor and put her arms around her knees, as she watched Pierce pace; then suddenly, he stopped and looked at her again…

"How am I going to get back to earth?"

Isabel smiled. "That is a problem. It's easy to fool these stupid aliens and make them believe that the granolith is protecting you and giving you its power and that it's going to take you home again when you're ready, but to do it, you have to learn how to actually control the, uh… the machine yourself."

"Exactly," Pierce acknowledged, as though he were talking to himself, "I have to find out how to control that damned alien machine. The problem is, none of these idiots seems to know how to do it themselves."

"Lord knows, you've tried to make them tell you," Isabel said.

"I have," Pierce nodded, "I've tortured them, dissected them, threatened them, locked up their families and threatened them…"

"But they don't seem to know anything," Isabel said for him.

"No," Pierce replied, "That's why I need Max. He will know how to control the machine. It was made to respond to him."

"That's why you wanted the machine to think you were him… why you tricked it with his DNA," Isabel said.

Pierce nodded. "It was a brilliant plan. It should have worked. I think it would have if I hadn't got trapped in the machine."

"It was brilliant," Isabel agreed, stroking Pierce's ego.

A smile tugged at the corner of Pierce's lips, and he began to unbutton his shirt. For a moment, Isabel got ready to cancel the dream walk, but instead of doing what she thought he might be going to do, he looked down at his side. There was a scar… like an appendix scar… and he was looking at it almost admiringly…

"That was probably the most brilliant thing I've ever done in my life!"

Pierce seemed to caress the ten-inch-long scar as he spoke, as though it were something he was supremely proud of. Isabel was desperate to ask questions, but as a "figment of Pierce's imagination," she would already know everything. She would have to get him to tell her while pretending to know all the answers already.

"You sacrificed a lot to save your planet."

"I did," Pierce agreed, nodding proudly. "Do you know what it's like knowing that there's a piece of filthy alien inside my own body? But it was worth it."

Isabel recoiled, for a moment fighting the urge to gag, but then she managed to regain her self-control… if only tenuously.

"It was worth it," she repeated, keeping her hand near her mouth in case she threw up… which she feared she might do even if this was only a dream walk.

"Damned right," Pierce said, "And I'd do it all over again."

"Even though it's a piece of… that one… that alien," Isabel added, hoping Pierce would keep talking and fill in the details.

Pierce nodded. "It had to be him. He was the leader… the king. The alien machine would recognize his DNA."

"Max," Isabel gasped.

"Yes." Pierce grinned a slight grin, as he caressed the scar again… "A part of him is inside me."

Isabel's mind was reeling. She had a million questions, but she didn't know how to ask them.

"But… Max was there… when you were trapped in the granolith… and he was okay."

Pierce nodded. "He got away from me the first time, in the white room, but I got a piece of him… a very small piece of an organ that humans don't have. I had it surgically implanted in me, and it grew. Now it's full size… the size the original was in him. I assume his body regenerated the missing portion as well. I've been following Max for a long time, and finally, I found the machine… the source of their alien powers."

"The… ? right," Isabel agreed, knowing that the granolith was not the source of their powers. But it did explain why the granolith detected Max's DNA in Pierce… and why its security system would not allow Pierce to be harmed. For several moments, Isabel sat in silence, trying to digest the things she had just heard, as Pierce stared at the wall, his mind far away from these quarters.

"They would be surprised if they knew how you actually got your powers," Isabel said, pressing Pierce further and hoping to get more information.

Pierce looked at the floor then at Isabel and grinned slightly. "They would, wouldn't they! But they'll never know. Nor will the aliens on this planet. They believe that the machine is protecting me, and that keeps them scared… it keeps them from revolting and attacking me. They're all so freakin' in awe of that machine. Whoever controls it controls everything. If they knew my powers didn't come from their god-machine, I'd be overrun like a grasshopper covered with fire ants. They'd tear me apart."

"The… 'machine' is not a god," Isabel said, "And Antarians are usually pretty peaceful. Maybe you misjudged them."

Pierce shook his head. "The ones who know me won't be so peaceful. That is a fact of which I am absolutely certain. They must continue to believe that I control the power of the machine. As long as they believe that, they will do anything for me… no matter the consequences. Children… that's all they are. You have to deal with them with a strong hand."

Isabel closed her eyes and swallowed a lump in her throat. "Children…" the word was not totally inaccurate. Antarians who had to deal with the likes of Pierce might seem like children. Compared to his evil, their innocence was childlike. Kivar had taken a lot of that innocence away already, of course… But why would anyone do the things that Pierce had done to peaceful people… to "children?" She wondered if even Pierce could answer that. Then again… she was sure that in his sick mind he had dozens of "good" reasons.

"It was brilliant how you got your powers," Isabel said, trying again to coax Pierce into revealing the real source of his abilities.

Pierce sighed, appearing to have tired of the discussion, but for whatever reason he replied anyway, perhaps because it served his ego…

"Brilliant… well, I suppose it was. Actually, it was a little random luck coupled with my knowing what to do with it. But I guess that's brilliance, right? These two freaks who looked like you… like the Evans girl, Isabel, I mean… and like Guerin… came to see me. 'We share a common goal,' they said. I said 'What's that?' They said, 'the eradication of some aliens that are claiming to be us… We're the real humans whose forms they stole… the two of us and four of our friends.' They named the aliens who took their forms: Max and Isabel Evans, Michael Guerin, Tess Harding, Liz Parker, and Maria DeLuca."

Isabel gasped. "Liz and Maria?"

Pierce nodded. "I know. They're human. I figured that out. At one time, though, I thought they might be aliens, too, because they sold out to the aliens… joined forces with them, which is just as bad, actually… maybe worse. Anyway, the two freaks said that they were the real humans, and I told them I didn't believe them."

"You did?"

"I told them they should look like humans if they're gonna claim to be humans," Pierce said, smiling at his own joke… "They were just freaks, though… gang types, you know… heavy Brooklyn accents, crazy hair, lots of piercings, that kind of stuff."

"Oh."

Pierce waved it off as just a joke. "Anyway, the one that looked like Guerin… Rath, I think he called himself… Must've been his gang name… says that they learned a lot of things about the aliens while they were abducted by them. He told me about the alien machine… and that information turned out to be accurate. They didn't know where it was, though. Another thing they learned from their abductors was that there are these 'caretakers' on the aliens' planet who are in charge of caring for the alien machine when the king or some other royal isn't using it, and these caretakers have some pretty amazing powers of their own. I filed that information away for future reference, but I didn't think I'd ever use it. You see, you never know about these things. Who knew that I would get trapped in that infernal machine and wind up here, right? So, anyway, their information turned out to be useful again. As soon as I got here, I went looking for these 'caretakers,' and I find this big shot guy named Kivar running everything. So I make friends with him… get into his graces. He thinks I control the machine, because I arrived here in it, and only I know where it is, so he keeps me around and tries to use me to find it. But that was okay, because I was using him, too, and the first chance I got, I took over and knocked him off.

After that, I took some carpenters back to where I had left the machine and had them build a strong containment building around it to keep the caretakers from getting in and using its powers. After I isolated their machine, they sort of found me, which was real convenient. It wasn't much trouble to find their weaknesses. They all had families. I locked up their families and dissected a couple of Kivar's guards in front of them, and right away they're doing whatever I say. Our powers are your powers. I'm not sure how they knew what I wanted, but they always did. All I ever had to do was wave my hand and it would send someone flying."

Pierce suddenly frowned and turned serious… "But they betrayed me. The powers are gone now. Those powers and the belief that I controlled the machine were the only things that protected me here and kept me on top. I need to get those powers back. I need to get out of here and find the caretakers."

"If you found them and killed them, you would lose their powers permanently," Isabel pointed out logically, "It would be like killing the goose that laid the golden egg."

Pierce scoffed. "Who said anything about killing them? There are other ways… they have families…"

Isabel understood all too well. They had to be absolutely certain that Pierce never got back into power here on Antar, whatever it took.

Pierce took a deep breath and became very quiet, having apparently decided that he did not want to talk to Isabel anymore… even if it was about his favorite subject… himself. Then, with a sudden sigh, he turned and looked at Isabel with a new look in his eyes… "Maybe I do need to find more pleasant ways to occupy my dreams."

Scanning Isabel's body with his eyes, Pierce began to unbutton his shirt again, and this time, Isabel did not think that showing her his scar was what he had in mind. She stood up quickly and brushed herself off…

"Dream's over!"

And with a quick wave, she simply went 'poof' and vanished, leaving a frustrated and very confused Pierce alone with his desires.

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"Iz, there's only so much hot water on the ship! You've been in there for almost an hour!"

"I've earned this hot water, Alex! I don't think any amount of hot water is ever going to make me feel clean again. If you want to help, grab a bar of soap."

Alex smiled and obliged, picking up a bar of floral-scented beauty soap and stepping into the shower with Isabel, though he was fully dressed.

"I don't think you need to look any more beautiful, Iz." Alex put his arms around Isabel from behind and went through the motions of helping her bathe… "If you were any more beautiful, you would be a danger to all mankind… a bigger danger, I mean, than you already are."

Isabel smiled then turned around in Alex's arms, facing him, and gazing deeply into the eyes that adored her, not the ones that merely lusted after her, although Alex did that, too. "Hold me tight, Alex. It's not the soap I needed… it's you. You make me feel right again."

Isabel pressed her lips passionately to Alex's, and he responded. As the water poured over their heads, Alex's clothes, already thoroughly soaked, clung to him like saran wrap, and his shoes made little squishing sounds as his toes curled and uncurled with delight… but neither of them seemed to notice.

End of Chapter 29

tbc…