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Chapter Fifteen
Robert and Reggie climbed into the `foyer' with the bright light source and the full spectrum camera. As Robert focused the beam of light over a section of wall, Reggie snapped photos until the finished the entire piece. Just to be sure they hadn't missed anything; he shined the light around the other `doors' as well. As he suspected, the alien characters were there as well. The left the `foyer' and went back to their lab to analyze the evidence.
Back on L33, Russell met them at the door.
"Our program just finished its work" he said.
"So, we have a backdoor into the system?" Robert asked.
"Absolutely" Russell said, "Rickey just finished writing a subroutine to keep us from being locked out again."
"Excellent!" Robert said as he headed to the lab to upload the images from the `foyer'. Once they were uploaded and interlaced to get a complete reading, he ran a translation program on the whole thing. [[ERROR: UNKNOWN LANGUAGE]] was the result. He then proceeded to run it right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top; all with the same result. He called me on the com; it was approximately 3am.
"What?...wh...who is this...*Yaaawwnn*...what?" I asked.
"Sorry to bother you, but could you possibly come up and look at something for me really quick?" he asked.
"Give me about ten minutes" I said, rubbing my eyes and ending the call.
"What's wrong" Travis said.
"Robert has something he wants me to look at. Damn nocturnal creatures" I muttered.
"Hurry back" Travis said, turning over and going back to sleep.
When I walked into the room, Robert had the writing projected all over the wall. It all looked Greek to me.
"Oh, there you are" Robert said, just before the blinding white light flashed in his eyes, followed by a rainbow of colors like an acid dream.
"What the fuck was that?!" I yelled.
"We need a language expert, and Russell figured out your programming key, so "Voilą" here you are" Robert said.
"The only problem, besides your not asking permission first, it that is not a `language', it's a number system" I said. "It appears to be sequences of frequencies maybe? But some are in the auditory range and others are light. I wonder if they're meant to be `played', for lack of a better word, in this sequence?"
"What about these?" Robert asked, bringing up the writing by the other carved doorways.
"The final lines would be changed out according to which one of these you're trying to activate, I think.." I said. "I'll have to tell you, I can translate the actual text, but as to how to physically make it happen, I have no clue" I told him.
"Leave that part to us" he said, "Hey, Rickey, see if you can get Sean in here."
"Henry, it's about to be the time we need to know if we can trust Travis or not" Robert said.
"I've been giving him tidbits of information for the last few days; nobody's taken me away for `retraining' I said, "He's also let me in on a secret; the dogs can communicate mentally, same as the rest of us. Another thing he inadvertently let me know, the dogs have access to lower levels. I met him on the lift coming from below me."
Robert put on headphones and typed something on the keyboard. The pupils of his eyes dilated until all I could see is black. A few minutes later, they returned to normal.
"Call Travis up here, I need to talk to him" Robert said. I knew then, he'd downloaded some new ability. Robert must be like Michael, and his gateway is sound also. I punched the com to our room and waited for the sound to finally wake Travis up.
"Who is this?" Travis said.
"It's me" I said, "can you come up here for a few minutes. We need your help."
"It's like 5:30, Henry" he said.
"Yeah, I was summoned at 3am remember?" I said.
"Yeah, ok, be there in a minute" he said.
When Travis stepped off the lift, Robert reached out and took his hand. Travis was as if frozen for a full minute or 90 seconds. When Robert released him, he almost collapsed; luckily, I was standing close enough to catch him.
"He's okay" Robert said to the group. To me, he shot the thought "My God, that man worships you, hold onto him." I just smiled and helped Travis to take a seat.
"Sorry" he said, "I must be getting sick."
"You'll be all right" Robert said, "it's just anxiety, like when you had the attack at your grandmother's house that time."
"How did you...nobody..." Travis muttered, confused.
"So, from what I've `ascertained', about a third of us activate by light, another third by sound and a final third through tactile vibrations" Robert said. "Are any of the code lines, or whatever you want to call them, of the third type, Henry?"
"I won't know until you get me to a terminal so I can transcribe them" I said.
Still kind of `out of it', Travis said "I'm a third type, I hate to get new information, it makes my teeth hurt."
I figured out that all I needed to do is give Robert the values of each symbol to feed the computer, then it could do the calculations and the raccoons could get to sleep. We got the program set up and I took Travis home. We had just enough time to get dressed and get to work.
That evening, they went back to Tarka's to relax in the water. When Henry and Travis arrived, there was a small crowd already. Michael and Faraji, Kaz, Prajna, and Whit were all there.
"What's with Whit?" I shot to Travis. "Just here for a swim, I think. Nothing nefarious" he flicked back. "Can he be trusted to talk about things that are, let's say, not necessarily in line with the official company program?" I thought to him. "Not sure. He's not like Simon, but...I just don't know him that well." He thought back. "THAT'S A NO THEN" came Tarka's emphatic thought into both our heads.
We had a bite to eat and Travis and I swam across to the island. Kaz and Prajna followed shortly thereafter. Michael, Faraji and Whit waved goodbye and walked out together. I briefly wondered if Michael was doing threesomes now. About thirty minutes later Robert came in, up very early for him. He swam across and walked over to where we were sitting.
"We scrapped the quantum tunneling device. It's a good thing we never tried it anyway. The "sculpted doorways' are not doorways in a physical sense. The combination of frequencies activates them; they seem to be like an old sci/fi wormhole or star gate type thing. The metal door is another thing, it is physical, according to your colleague, Johnny, there is a room behind that door with machinery in it" Robert said.
"How do we get that door open?" Tarka asked.
"...and that, my friends, is the million-dollar question" Robert said. "The builders seemed to base everything on frequencies or combinations of frequencies. The technology GREG used on us for training purposes includes several frequency groups; but is suspiciously missing the subsonic range. If I were a betting man, I'd say that would be a good place to start."
"Subsonic can cause damage to organs" Prajna said.
"Only if sustained" Robert countered, "if we can figure out the correct frequencies and produce them in a short burst, we can probably get in."
"Here's the thing" I said, "where do we find the frequencies for that door?"
"I have Reggie scouring those documents I copied to you for any other anomalies that might be hidden rooms" Robert said.
"I'm completely lost with this conversation" Travis said, I'd almost forgotten he was here.
"Come on" I said getting up and leading him to the hole in the center of the island. I went down the ladder and he followed. I held the lantern for him to look around.
"Wow" he said, quiet for a moment. Then said "It's very similar to the one on Level 48, but no control panel."
"There's another one of these rooms?" I asked incredulously.
"Yes. Actually two more, that I know of anyway" he said. One on 48 and the other in the hub area on Level 50" he said.
"Did you hear that?" I shot to Robert. "I'm on it" he sent back.
Tarka, who had just joined us, asked "Why do they allow you guys access to the lower levels?"
"Duh...we're psychologists/psychiatrists. The creatures down there definitely need psychological care" he said.
"Could you get us to Level 48?" I asked.
"No, bad idea. Your chips would let them know the minute you strayed out of your permitted area" he said.
"Chips?" I said.
"Yes, tracking chips, we all have one" he said, "I thought you knew all this stuff."
"No, apparently you guys were the teacher's pets" I said.
"I figured if anybody would know about them it would be you, Henry. Vasily is the one who came up with the idea" Travis said.
"There are obviously a lot of things Vasily neglected to tell me" I replied. "So, Robert, it seems we need a machine capable of producing a full spectrum of light waves as well as soundwaves and percussion; individually and simultaneously" I said.
"Yes, as well as a `probe' of sorts, so we can see what's at the other end of these things before we actually attempt to go through" Robert said, in deep thought. "If the pattern stays the same, we should be expecting visitors in a few days; the new batch."
"Should be interesting" Travis said, "the next group on the list, if I remember correctly, are the bulls; minotaurs."
Back on Level 41, Travis and I sat and just talked for a long time. Since Robert checked him out and I felt I could trust him I started telling him all about my previous life and the dreams I once had. I mentioned I had always thought I'd like to have a child.
"We can" he said.
"Can what?" I asked.
"We can have a child" he said, "the same process they used to create these synthesized beings we are, can be used to take genes from you and I and combine them to make us an actual son. The problem would be getting them to agree to such a thing."
"But wouldn't that mean our `child' would be full grown in two years?" I asked.
"Again, as I understand, age of the completed `being' is just another function" he said. I was intrigued, but filed the information away for later.
"I guess let's make sure we are actually going to end up together down the road first" I said.
"Okay. But at this point, I honestly can't see me wanting anybody else" he replied, leaning over and cupping the back of my head as he kissed me.
"I love you puppy" I said
"Love you too wolf cub."
Lambodara 10/29/20
Sorry for the delay. Haven't had much time to write lately, and my story is getting away from me. LOL