The Tunnel - Part 18

Paris slowly recovered.  After a few days, he opened his eyes to see Atesta at his side.  He smiled and they kissed for the first time.  He said that he loved her and Atesta smiled.  Atesta told him that she would always be here for him and that her love for him will always protect him.

After a few days, the exodus to the new Calarrosa began.  First were the engineers armed with maps of the underground cave system in the planet.  Their mission was to begin building the water storage and pumping systems to lower the water levels in the planet.

After a few months, the fort and the meadows were visible.  It was time to start building a city.  For this, the architects and builders were sent to map out a fully sustainable city.  They chose a new site away from where Partica' shiny city was built.

The knowledge repository helped speed up many of the tasks.  The cube helped keep everybody heathy as they built their new world.  Farmers began to plant new fields and the rest of the people began to cross the portal for their final destination.

The green light was still there but fading fast.  They wondered who was still living in the planet.  Who was keeping that green light alive.

Finally, only Marcato, Paris, Lorca and Atesta were left in the old man's planet.  Atesta and Lorca were packing their few belongings and Atesta began to speak.  Lorca looked at her in the eyes and told her that he knew. Atesta asked him to come with them. That they could go get mother and make a new life in the new Calarrosa.  Atesta looked at Lorca and she knew the answer.  They hugged.  The legend says that they stood there, hugging, and whispering things in each others ears as they had always done.  To this date, nobody knows what was said.

When it was time to go, Lorca was there as he saw Marcato, Paris, and Atesta enter the portal to the new Calarrosa. Lorca reminded them that it was very important for them to find out the human life that still lights the new Calarrosa green.

And off they went.  Lorca felt a big void in his soul but he still felt that special connection with Atesta that transcends time and space.  He knew she was happy.  And he knew that they will see each other again someday.

THE END.

The Tunnel - Part 17

Tarania ran to help Paris who was badly injured.  She grabbed the repository and managed to get him back onto the floating platform and quickly headed back to the fort.

Marcato was waiting.  Nobody else was there except for Partica who was just sitting on the floor in one corner.  Everybody had successfully gone through the portal.

As they arrived, Tarania gave Marcato the cylinder and instructed him to put his hand on it so she give him access to it in case Paris died.  Marcato was more preoccupied about helping Paris but did so as instructed.

In that moment, Paris opened his eyes and tightly held Tarania's hand.  He thanked her for help. Tarania hugged him and with tears on her face quietly told him she was sorry for everything her people had done to his people.  She told Paris that she knew that he would be a good leader for his people as they built a better world somewhere else.

Marcato lifted Paris in his arms.  Paris would not let go of Tarania and asked Tarania to come with them and to let the portal decide whether she was true and ready to love again.  Tarania was allowed to go through the portal. And, Partica was left alone in the world it helped destroy.

As Marcato, Paris, and Tarania arrived to the old man's world, they were greeted by Lorca and Atesta.  Atesta alarmed ran to see why Paris was in Marcato's arms. He was unconscious. Marcato and Tarania explained what had happened.  Atesta asked Marcato to follow her to the tower room.  Once there, Marcato lowered Paris onto the bed in the center of the room and Atesta put the cube on Paris' chest, as she had done with Lorca before.  Atesta sat on the floor next next to Paris' bed, held his hand, and waited.

She remembered what Lorca had said about the meaning of life and how understanding the things that you were willing to live or die for was a way to center yourself on the things that really matter.

Lorca had said that this force, this feeling to give it all for others, was love and that love was the primordial force that drives the universe in the direction it was created for.

Love will eventually conquer all.  Humans vibrate and resonate with the universe when they are true to this force, when they listen to it, and when they let it guide their actions.

As she sat at Paris' bedside, Atesta thought about her feelings for Paris.  She had never felt what she was feeling at that moment.  She asked herself if she was willing to do anything for him.  Even die.  She then realized that this was it, that she loved him with all her heart.  And, at that very instance, she realized that the universe was quiet and at peace for a moment.

Lorca was looking at Atesta and Paris from the other side of the room.  He understood that the universe had managed to connect two souls that needed to be together to further its mission.  Lorca knew that soon he would have to say goodbye to Atesta as she embarked on her own quest to find her place in this vast universe, with Paris.

Lorca felt tears in his eyes, and smiled.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

The Tunnel - Part 16

After hearing that somebody was not able to enter the portal, Marcato and Paris ran to the beginning of the line.  There they found an old woman with ahead covering but with the same yellow jumpsuit as all the underground people.

They moved her to another part of the fort and began questioning her.  She said her name was Tarania and she confessed that she was one of Partica's council members.  She told the story of what had happened after Partica's people ran out through the back hatch in the underground bunker.

After a long tunnel, all 100 of them found themselves at the foot the orange mountain ranges that lined the horizon around the shiny city.  Partica had built a secret summer retreat half way up one the hills so we all went there to plan our next move.

After everybody settled in the myriad of rooms in the retreat, we all assembled in the central patio.  The retreat looked like a combination of a buddhist temple, roman summer house, and a Mexican hacienda.  It was built all around a great central court with fountains and gardens with a nice covered porch in front of all the rooms.  There were probable around 50 rooms all around.

Partica told the people assembled there that priority one was to recover the cube that the newly arrived girl had brought back with her.  We quietly understood that without it Partica will soon be loosing his power to control all of us.  In fact, secretly, many of us wished that the cube was never found so we could end Partica's reign.  That is, until something strange started happening.

We all started to notice that everybody around us was beginning to age noticeably.  We have been without access to the cube in its healing and regenerative powers for more than a month now.  This is when things began to unravel.

Partica lost control.  The guards stopped taking orders, dropped their weapons, and the infighting began.  Some wanted to try to defend and save the city from the flood, others wanted try to reach the fort and the portal to escape with the underground people, others were so angry that all they wanted was to recapture the underground people and force them again to work to get Calarrosa working like before, others simply began to cry and pray.

Tarania knew that was not going to end well so she decided to escape quietly through one of the windows of the retreat.  She told them that she had decided to join the resistance in any way she could as her last act of goodness in this world. She knew she would die soon.

Marcato and Paris looked at each other wondering if she was telling the truth. So, they asked her if anybody else followed her.  As she was saying no, Marcato's men shouted again that there was another portal rejection.  It was Partica.

When Marcato met with Partica, he could not believe what he was seeing.  A very hold human being, hunched over, with a cane, barely able to walk.  Immediately, upon entering his mind was telepathically filled with a plea for mercy.  Partica was begging for access to the cube to survive.  Marcato calmly explained the cube was no longer in Calarrosa and that the portal would not allow sentient beings with low vibrations pass through and that there was nothing he could do.

Even after everything that had happened Marcato felt sorry for Partica.

As the flood water continued to rise, the underground people kept moving into the portal.  As the last person went through, Tarania said to Marcato that before they left, they should take the royal repository of their people's knowledge.  This repository contained all of the accumulated scientific, engineering, astronomical, and medical knowledge from thousands of years.  This should help them restart a new civilization somewhere else.

As the flood waters began to enter the portal room in the fort, Marcato asked where this repository was. Tarania said that it was in a vault at the top of the tallest spire in the city and that she would take him there.  Marcato asked Paris to take Tarania on a flying platform back to the city to try to bring the repository back.

As Paris and Tarania arrived to the city, they could see how the water outside and inside the city was now at the same level.  The surrounding wall was not visible anymore.  You could only see the tips of the tallest buildings rising above the water. Nothing was moving or alive.  An eerie view.

So, they docked at the spire and went inside.  Tarania took Paris to a vault in the main room and put her hand on a panel to be scanned.  The vault opened and inside, on a pedestal, was a silver cylinder with blinking lights all around.  Paris asked Tarania how they would access the knowledge inside.  Tarania told Paris that she would grant him master access to all of its contents and to put his hand on the cylinder.

Once Paris had access, Tarania explained that to navigate its contents, he would he would first touch it and then navigate through it with his mind.  He could also ask the cylinder to display the contents he selected to the outside for others to see.

As she finished explaining this, they heard the door to the main room close behind them.  They turned around and saw Partica's chief guard blocking the exit with a spear in his hand.  He called Tarania a traitor and called Paris an ungrateful peasant that should go back to where he came from.  And then he charged.

He struck Paris in his abdomen before Paris could fight him off and subdue him.  During the altercation, Tarania ran to the door and opened it yelling to Paris to hurry.

Paris was on the floor, not moving.

TO BE CONTINUED ... 

The Tunnel - Part 15

The old man was waiting at the other end of the portal when Paris and Atesta arrived.  He told them to follow him in an urgent tone.  They walked through halls, doors, passages, stairs, to a great round room in what felt like a tower.  The room had windows all around and you could see the sand dunes, palm trees, and the lake with the portal in it in the horizon.

In the middle of the room, there was a bed with Lorca in it and Marcato at the foot of the bed.  Lorca had been unconscious for a few days and slowly getting worse.  Atesta ran to her father, held his hand, and hugged him.  Marcato and Paris tell the story that Atesta whispered something in Lorca's ears and at that moment Lorca opened his eyes and smiled.

Atesta got the cube out of her satchel and placed it on Lorca's chest.  The cube starting glowing and pulsating.  It was like life energy was being summoned from the universe and funneled into Lorca's body.  For 2 days Atesta held her father's hand and whispered into his ears.  Slowly Lorca began to get better.

At the end of the 2 days, Lorca woke up and smiled.  With Atesta's help he stood up, turned around to face Marcato and Paris, who were sitting on one end of the room, and introduced Atesta, his daughter, and told them that now there were 2 of them to help lead their people's exodus.

The four of them started getting everything ready to get back to Calarrosa.  As they were sitting down for one last meal with the old man, the old man brought the 3 dimensional map of. the universe and showed them that the green light in the new Calarrosa was beginning to fade.  He reminded them that if the light disappeared the portal there will also close.

He explained that what is probably happening is that the last person on the planet is either old and dying or not well.  In any case, he estimated that they had no more than a week before the portal closed.

Marcato, Paris, Lorca, and Atesta thanked the old man and told him that they would be back soon to guide their people to the new world.

The old man wished them well and reminded them that only people vibrating closer to their true nature will be able to use the different portals and tunnels and to expect a few of their own people may have to be left behind.

This had never occurred to Marcato.

When they arrived at the fort in Calarrosa, the underground people were already lined up waiting for instructions on how to proceed.  Marcato pulled out a metal rod with an emblem at the end that looked like the one in Atesta's necklace.  Atesta wondered why.

Marcato explained that they needed to touch every person going through the portal with the rod.  The rod will create an indelible mark on each persons' forearm identifying them as settlers of the new Calarrosa.

So, the exodus began.  Lorca and Atesta went ahead leading the way.

Marcato and Paris were marking everybody as they entered the portal. Marcato was still thinking about what the old man said about those that may not be able to enter.  All of a sudden, it dawned on him that the only people that are likely to be rejected are Partica and Partica's people.  With Calarrosa being flooded and on its way to its original state, Partica would definitely try to sneak through to escape.

He summoned a few of his men to be prepared in case Partica and his people show up.

And then, one of Marcato's men shouted: we have a portal rejection!

TO BE CONTINUED ...

The Tunnel - Part 14

After a week, a small party of underground people came up from the caves to liberate Lorca.  They came in the middle of the night dressed in black body suits made of a special textile that absorb all light.  When in the dark, they were practically invisible.  Using their strange sticks with the glowing tips they managed to stun all the armed guards they touched in all of the floors.

Once Lorca was safely underground they began the execution of the plan to destabilize the planet.  The plan was called Operation Phoenix and it centered around leveraging the one thing the underground people controlled, the water.  So, the plan was to put explosives in strategic points to destroy the well engineered water management systems that had been built over many many years to cause the planet to flood again.

Lorca had explained to Marcato and his people about the portals and the 3 dimensional map and how he had found a new portal that connected to Calarrosa but 67 years in the future.  The planet showed "green" in the galactic map which means there were people living there.

The assumption was that if Operation Phoenix was successful, Partica would have lost control of Calarrosa and he would be nowhere to be found in 67 years.  But they did not know for sure if that would be the case.  But, that was the plan and that was all they had.  So, they would have to take the risk.

Operation Phoenix called for getting the planet back to its original state.  A world of water.  By stopping the underground systems the water would slowly rise and go over the wall surrounding the city.  This was the only option because the material the wall was built from, the smooth white stone, was practically indestructible.  Trying to destroy it with explosives was futile.  

Once water began going over the walls and the city began to flood, people in the city would seek shelter in the flood hatches around the wall.  Once in the shelters, the underground people would come up and commandeer all the available flying platforms to begin the mass exodus to the fort and to the future Calarrosa.  Guided by Lorca.

So this is how the rebellion started.  Coincidentally, Atesta arrived in Calarrosa a few days before.  With the cube.

Unfortunately, when the underground people went to start the rebellion by stopping the largest pump and generator in Calarrrosa, Partica's guards ambushed them and in the fight Lorca was hurt but not captured.  Marcato decided to take Lorca off-planet to keep Partica from capturing him.

All that Paris knew was that they took the portal in the fort and that Lorca needed help.  When Paris finished the story, he grabbed Atesta's hands, and while looking at her in the eyes fro a long time, he finally said that saving Lorca was now his mission too.

So, they entered the portal in the fort and left Calarrosa.  With the cube.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

The Tunnel - Part 13

Once away from Calarrosa, Lorca was able to retrace his steps back through the different tunnels and lakes and chambers and caves to his own world and back to Atesta.

Lorca got back into his village in the dark of night and went to Atesta bedside without anybody seeing him.  Lorca knew that while he was in Calarrosa time in his world had stopped so in this world he had only been gone for a couple of days.

Atesta was asleep.  Lorca held her hand and hugged her for a long time.  He told her that she was going to recover in a few days.  He also told her that he was not able to stay but that he would be back soon.  He told her that he loved her with all his heart, and that, regardless of what the future held, he would always take care of her.  He was not sure if she heard him.

Lorca knew that he had to get back to Calarrosa to carry out the liberation plan he and Marcato had carefully devised. Lorca was a critical component of the plan as he was the only one that knew how to navigate the portals across space and time.

The plan centered around the idea of getting all the underground people through the portal Lorca went through back to this his, 165 years in the future, and then take everybody to the next portal opening up to Calarrosa in the future.  He explained that the 3 dimensional map of the old man he met in the desert showed a new portal opening again to Calarrosa 67 years into the future.

The hope was that without the cube and with no water infrastructure to keep the land dry, Partica would not have been able to keep subjugating the people of Calarrosa into the future.

This way the underground people could rebuild a just and equitable society like the one they intended to build when they first arrived to Calarrosa many many years ago.

As he prepared to leave, Lorca decided to leave marks along his route in case something happened.  He knew that Atesta would be able to figure things out and follow the marks if things did not go as planned.

So, he put the cube in a wooden box that he started carving when he was a boy.  The box showed the paths that he and Atesta had explored together and also the exact location of the first tunnel. Then he decided to use the symbol in Atesta's necklace as a way to show her the way.  At the entrance of the first tunnel in the cave behind the waterfall and at the entrance of the different portals and chambers.

When Lorca finally made it back to Calarrosa, Partica's guards were waiting for him at the portal in the fort. They immediately grabbed him and took him to the tall building in the city where Partica was.  This was part of the plan.  This is how the underground people would know that Lorca was back in Calarrosa.

Partica was hysterical and wanted to know where the cube was.  Lorca said the cube was gone and in another world.  Partica threatened that he would destroy all the caves in the planet and all the people in them if Lorca did not bring the cube back.  Lorca explained that the cube was several worlds away and that the portals connecting these worlds only admitted humans vibrating at a certain level.

Lorca explained that humans that were closer to acting in accordance with the instructions built into their biology would vibrate at higher frequencies. These are humans using love as their prime directive and guiding principle for all of their actions. Because that is who humans were built to be.

On the other hand, humans that are constantly acting in conflict with their true nature would vibrate lower.  That is why Partica's guards could not follow him into the portal.  Lorca let Partica realize that he and his people would not be able get through the portals and go where the cube was so he devised a plan to bring the cube back to Calarrosa. And the key to his plan was Lorca.

Partica locked him up with no water or food in a cell that would go from excessive heat to freezing.  Now, it is known that this was the time when Atesta first felt that his father was in trouble and that he needed her.  This is when Atesta embarked on her quest to find her father.  With the cube in her satchel.

Unbeknown to Partica, the plan was working.  The cube was being brought back to Calarrosa.

TO BE CONTINUED ...