The Tunnel - Part 12

One day, right after midnight, when everybody had retired for the day.  Lorca took a floating platform and quietly flew to the cube building.  The cube building was a massive structure in the middle of the main park.  It was covered with thin sheets of gold foil and lit somehow which made it shine in a way that it looked like something worth worshiping.  The whole thing was an amazing sight to see.  A monument to power.  And, Partica controlled access to it completely.

The building was a perfect cube many stories high with no windows or openings of any sort, surrounded by a round moat, and covered by a sphere of what looked like glass to prevent floating platforms from getting close.  On one side of the cube, half way up one of the walls, there was the only visible feature of the building. A small round feature that looked like a stained glass window in the form of a beautiful eye.

Once there, Lorca pulled a disc that Marcato had given him out of his satchel.  The disc was made of the same material that most things in this planet were made of.  Nice and smooth.  This disc had been developed by Marcato's ancestors as a way to cross solid objects without having to carve tunnels.  The disc was instrumental in the early days to quickly explore the underground vastness of the planet as they tried to find large natural salt caves that could be used for directing the water from the surface of the planet.

Lorca put attached the disc to the glass sphere and tested it.  He tried to touch the disc but his hand went through it as expected.  He went through the disc and once inside the sphere and at the foot of the moat, he pulled a short thin rope from his satchel that Marcato had also given him.  The rope was no longer than the length of his arm and it was very light and made of what looked like shinny rubber.

The rope had small cylinders attached to both ends.  When the cylinders were pressed, a light beam would show, and a second later the cylinder would fly to wherever the light was pointing.  The rope between the cylinders would stretch regardless of how far the cylinders were.

Lorca aimed the light beam of one cylinder to the floor and got that cylinder attached.  He aimed the light beam of the other to the stained glass eye across the mote and the cylinder did its thing.  Once the rope was in place he went up.

Lorca got the disc out again and attached it to the eye and Lorca went through it into the golden building were the cube was.  What he did not expect was that inside the building there were a number of motion sensors that triggered an alarm that reverberated throughout the whole city.

At that moment, the city lit up.  Lorca ran into the chamber where the cube was.  He later told us that the cube was suspended inside a floating sphere of water that was kept in place with a gravity field that came from somewhere.  He thought it was the cube itself because when he stuck his hand in the water sphere and took the cube out, the water sphere came crashing to the floor.

He knew time was of the essence and that the guards will be there any minute so he ran out the building, down the rope, out of the sphere, and onto his floating platform.  He glanced around and saw a swarm of platforms full of guards approaching from all directions.

He flew on the flying platform he had as fast as he could towards the fort. He knew Atesta's life depended on him being able to leave this world with the cube.  Lorca knew that he was ready to do anything that needed to be done to save her.  He wondered if Atesta felt his love across worlds and dimensions at that very moment.

As he arrived at the fort and as he was getting into the portal, the guards stormed the fort and barely missed him. For some unknown reason at the time, the portal refused to let the guards in to follow him.

Partica was livid that he had lost his most precious possession and the source of his power and control over Calarrosa.  Partica also knew that Lorca would eventually come back.  He knew that it was in Lorca's nature to help people especially those suffering like the underground people under his control.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

The Tunnel - Part 11

On the way to the fort, Paris continued explaining to Atesta that when Lorca arrived he found one of our tunnels right outside the fort.  So, he ventured underground and finally some of our people found him..  At first we thought he was one of Partica's people but quickly realized he was not from this world.

Marcato, the leader of the underground people, met with Lorca and he explained where he was from and why he was here.  He told him about the legend the curanderos had told him about a thing that had healing powers and how he was searching for it to save his daughter who was very ill.  Paris said that he remembered very well how his face lighted up and how he smiled time he talked about Atesta.  How the room seemed to fill with good energy.  He also said how talking about Atesta would also amplify his suffering.

Paris said that this was his first encounter with what the true meaning of life was.  Paris asked Lorca why he was risking his life in this quest and putting himself in such danger.  Lorca asked Paris if he knew what the meaning of life was.  Paris said no.

Lorca explained that finding out what life was about was as simple as asking oneself who he was willing to die for and who he was willing to live for.  He said that he was always surprised how amazingly simple the answer to those questions was.  How it always came back to the people he loved.  Lorca told Paris that love boils down to wanting the best for somebody else without expecting anything in return.  He said that life is just a long long journey to learn how to love.

While recounting this story to Atesta.  Paris realized that there was a new person he was willing to die and live for, Atesta.  He smiled and quietly thanked Lorca.

Paris continued with the story.

At the time, Marcato explained to Lorca that there was in fact a cube but it was in the hands of Partica, Calarrosa's despot tyrant.  Marcato spent days getting Lorca up to speed on the history and situation of the planet.  One day, Lorca asked to see the council and told them about his plan.

He told the council that he was not only going to get the cube to save his daughter but he was also going to help liberate their people.  He talked through the details of the plan and the plan was put in motion.

The next day, Lorca left the tunnels and went back up to the fort, walked through the meadow towards the city just like Atesta had done.  He was eventually found and brought to meet Partica.  He very quickly became Partica's favorite advisor and counselor.  Partica specially enjoyed learning about Lorca's knowledge of things that were not known in Calarrossa.  Things like magnetic fields, compasses, maps, weather patterns, and many other things that he knew from observing the world where he was from.  Partica's citizens had no time to pay attention or notice these things.  Their life was a trouble free life.

Lorca never talked to Partica about Atesta and the true purpose of his quest.  For Partica, Lorca was just an adventurer with a bad case of wanderlust, and he respected and admired that.

Partica grew fond of Lorca and named him First Advisor to the Leader and asked him to sit in all the council meetings.  Eventually Lorca learned about the cube, where it was kept, who had access to it, the security measures in place, and how its healing powers were administered.

One day, once everything was in place, Lorca put his plan in motion.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

The Tunnel - Part 10

As soon as they were out of the dome, Atesta could not believe what she was seeing.  Water was coming over the top of the amazingly tall wall encircling this amazingly beautiful city.  Water was pouring in like waterfalls.  If she did not know better, she would think it was a beautiful sight.

They boarded some of the floating platforms and floated up towards the tallest building in the city. She noticed that the usual traffic of floating platforms was nowhere to be seen.  It was like the city had been abandoned.  

Atesta looked over the walls and saw a world completely flooded.  In the distance, the fort where she arrived seemed to be floating in the water.  The only thing visible in a world covered with water all the way to the horizon.

Once they arrived at the building, the platforms docked on the side and the glass panels opened.  She had seen this before.  Inside, there was a lot of activity.  A lot or resistance people, with their dirty yellow jumpsuits, were moving things around and setting up what looked like dormitories, and kitchens, and infirmaries as people that looked tired, hurt, hungry, and blinded by the daylight kept pouring in from floating platforms docked all along the building.  Children too.

Atesta asked Marcato who this people were, where they were coming from, and if she could help somehow.  Marcato asked her if she could take care of the children while she went to coordinate the next phase of the assault.

Before he left, Atesta asked Marcato when she would see her father.  Marcato explained that her father had left this world on a very important mission for the resistance and that they were preparing to go there.  It will be soon.  Atesta again felt somehow that her father needed her.  She felt a tightness inside her that she had never felt before.  

She remembered the days back in her world when they would explore her world and write their sightings and learnings in their map.  When they would just sit there, enjoy nature, and just talk about things.  It all seemed like a lifetime ago.  She missed those days in the village with mother making everything feel good and safe.  The village traditions.  The festivals.

Atesta got busy making sure the children were looked after.  Some were injured, some were hungry, some were scared.  But most of all, they could not stop looking outside the windows to the vastness outside.  To the gleaming city with its amazing wall around it and the vast ocean outside the walls.  

Atesta met a boy that seemed to be her same age.  He was also helping take care of the children.  When the boy looked at her, he stopped what he was doing and asked her who she was. Atesta introduced herself and the boy told her his name was Paris. Atesta told him that she was not from this world and that she was here to find her father.  

All of a sudden, the boy realized she was Lorca's daughter.  He approached her, and he hugged her, and he thanked her for everything, and he told her not to worry that they were going to find him. Paris also told her that he was pledging to her that he would do anything in his power to get him back, even if it was the last thing he did. He told her that thanks to him, he finally understood the meaning of life.

Atesta started to cry.   She knew what he meant.

After getting the children settled, fed, and mended, Paris and Atesta sat down to talk more.  Paris told her that in his world in the caves light was scarce and artificially generated, and that the biggest cave was only the size of this room.  Throughout the years the people living in the caves had developed a functioning society.  They had carved an underground city with rooms and passages everywhere.  They had built schools, food halls, kitchens, dormitories, all connected with tunnels going up and down.  With the electricity they generated with the water coming down from the surface and into the caves, they also developed farms that grew crops with artificial light.  The plants' photosynthesis helped purify the air.

Atesta asked Paris how it was that they ended up living in the caves when there was such a beautiful world and city on the surface. Paris explained that it all started when they arrived on the planet.  At first, people would rotate working in the caves to lower the water levels so they could build a city.  After a few years, the water had receded far enough that meadows began to appear and the building of the city began.

During those time, while working in the caves, my father discovered the cube and its healing and energy powers.  The cube became a shared resource for all to use when needed.  However, when the plague hit Calarrosa, Partica, who was the elected leader at the time, became obsessed with the idea of using the healing powers of the cube to take over society.  By controlling who got access to the healing powers of the cube, he demanded onerous taxes from people.  

When the people began to revolt, he sealed the caves with 90,000 people inside and turned them into a prison. The people in the city became Partica's accomplices and enablers.  They turned a blind eye to what he was doing as long as they had access to all the riches of the planet and the healing powers of the cube.  Today, there are only 1,432 of us but we are strong and we have a plan thanks to your father. 

Paris turned around when he heard a loud sound outside.  The walls encircling the city were finally collapsing and water was flooding the streets.  Paris turned around and told Atesta that they do not have a lot of time and they needed to leave now before the portal closed.

Paris and Atesta took a floating platform and headed towards the fort in the horizon.  Now completely surrounded by water.

TO BE CONTINUED ...