The Jovian Legacy (13 page)

“Oh,
YUM!” she cried. “Oh, wow!” uttering cries of
amazement between mouthfuls.

Jack
had to know what all the fuss was about and picked one too. “Aw,
damn!” he spluttered, “apples aren’t supposed to
taste this good!” He was making a pig of himself with juice
running down his chin. He picked a black plum. It was so incredibly
delicious that he picked another two and tossed one over to Megan,
who, too, left her manners behind and ending up staining her nice new
outfit. Around midday they returned to the house. The limousine was
still parked in the driveway awaiting the family’s next trip.
Lunch was being served in the outside dining area. Jack and Megan
washed up and joined Ben and Nancy.

“I
see you two have had a good time in the orchard, aye?” Ben
laughed when he saw Jack’s juice-stained shirt. Megan had
cleverly covered up her spillages by buttoning up her jacket.

“I
hope you don’t mind, Dad. The fruit was out of this world!”

“Well,
it’s
in
this world, but out of our
old
world, that’s for sure. I told you we had good soil here,
didn’t I Son? It’s full of nutrients.”

Nancy
intervened. “Come on, I’ll get rid of those marks in a
jiffy.” She took them into a wash area where she took out a
device from the cupboard and held it in front of each spot for a few
seconds. The gadget threw off a blue light, and in an instant the
stains had disappeared.

“What
is that thing?” Megan asked, intrigued.

“It’s
a stain remover. You won’t have to use Frend
anymore,” Nancy joked.

They
seated themselves down and lunch was served by Antoninus. The food
was delicious. They were completely unaware of what they were eating
but it was certainly extremely tasty. Apparently Antoninus was also
their cook, and proved to be a master of the art. The food left
their tastebuds tingling all afternoon.

“I’m
going to get so fat,” Megan groaned, rubbing her stomach and
looking pitifully at Jack. “How will I be able to stay slim
with all this gorgeous food around me?”

“You
won’t put any weight on, Dear,” Nancy assured her rubbing
her arm. Megan felt comforted but didn’t understand why.

In
the afternoon they travelled back into the city, passing by the great
Guardian of the Horizon, and onto a cobblestoned road that lead them
to a large institutional looking building, a building that housed the
great ingenious minds of Jovian.

The
sign read, ‘Thebes Federation of Science’. Jack held
Megan’s hand, which he noticed was quite cold.

“Don’t
worry, Megs. I’ll stay by your side,” Jack reassured
her.

They
were greeted at the door by an authoritative looking man who
introduced himself as Mr Menes Narmer; a doctor, but of a higher
ranking than a doctor, so had the title of Mister. The family was
ushered into a room similar to a boardroom. It was softened by vases
of brightly coloured flowers set on small, high display tables, and a
large squishy looking lounge suite. Five men were already seated,
men that Jack assumed were scientists, and three women talking
amongst themselves, when the family entered. After introductions they
were asked to take a seat.

As
the scientists explained to Megan and Jack the procedure of their
monitoring Megan’s life it became apparent to Megan that these
were sincere people and who showed empathy. Gradually she began to
relax. After an hour’s discussion Jack was asked if he wanted
to see the laboratory where they and his parents had been able to
establish communication with him.

“Yeah
for sure,” he answered.

Jack
and his family were lead into The Scientific Research Lab and into a
restricted area that resembled the NASA Space Centre control room.
Jack’s mind was spinning at the sight of the wall-sized
computer with electronic instruments set along a panel facing it.
One of the men keyed in something behind the panel and the computer
flashed on, displaying a wall-sized image of Jack’s bedroom
where he had spent many hours on his computer.

“Hey,
that’s my old place!” he exclaimed.

“Yes,
this was where we communicated with you,” the doctor replied.

“Wow!
I was larger than life, aye.”

“This
is where it all happened,” Mr Narmer confirmed. “I
suppose it would appear rather extraordinary to you.”

“Far
out, I’ll say,” Jack agreed, still in awe of it all, and
thinking he could have a great time playing with all this techno
stuff.

“I’d
like to show you something,” Mr Narmer continued. “I’d
like you and your young friend to sit over here,” indicating
two high-sided office chairs. The scientist keyed into the
controlboard. The massive screen displayed all of Jack’s
adventures in the form of thumbnails, like he had shown Megan, though
on a much larger scale.

“These
are recorded scenes that will go down in history as our pioneer
programme of communicating with selected people on Earth. That is if
you would permit us to do so. They will be referred to from time to
time for scientific research purposes.”

“Yeah,
sure. After all, you have brought my family back together again and
we have an awesome new life now,” Jack said gratefully.

“We
also invite you to participate in our research program for further
communication with people on Earth,” Mr Narmer stated,
“although it will be entirely up to you if you choose to
establish your career path with the Thebes Federation of Science. We
have a top-flight team of computer scientists to train you, and you
will be paid very satisfactorily, with a starting remuneration of
250,000 Egyptian Pounds per annum. 250,000 EGP is equivalent to
about 70,000 New Zealand dollars,” he elaborated.

Jack
was gobsmacked. “Well….” Jack looked to his father
for acknowledgement, who nodded back at him, smiling proudly.

“Sure,
thank you. When do I start?” he asked eagerly.

“Not
for about a month from now. You need to have time to acclimatise and
adjust to your new surroundings,” Mr Narmer replied. “There
is going to be a social gathering that has been organised for you to
meet people who have come to us through the same means. I will show
you this.”

Mr
Narmer keyed in something at the controlboard and the huge screen
flashed again, this time showing records of people brought to Jovian
via the Bermuda Triangle.

“These
people are all living here and are very happy and prosperous. They
have had various projects and missions assigned to them,” he
stated.

Jack
approached the huge screen to read hundreds of names of people that
had arrived on Jovian via the Triangle.

December
28: Douglas DC-3 passenger airliner - crew and passengers: 31, ……
1970, July 3: Cessna 310G. 6 persons., ……1973, August
26: PR; Cessna 24. 3 persons, …… 1984, March 31:
Cessna 402b; 6 persons, 1998, August 19: Piper PA-28; 4 persons,
……1999, September 12, Aero Commander; 3 persons.

There
were way too many for him to read, but the last one recorded their
flight.

And
then there were the boats:

1948,
February 4, British freighter, 43 crew; …… 1960, April
16, Yacht; 2 persons; …..1963, February 4, Tanker, 39 crew,
……1971, Christmas-time, 53ft Yacht, 4 persons, ……1974,
March 24, 54ft Luxury Yacht, 4 crew, ……1980, January
12, Yacht, 11 persons, 1980, April 2, luxury Yacht, 2 persons, …1985,
February 22, 25ft pleasure boat, 2 persons, 1994, August 30, Yacht, 2
persons, …..

Jack
cast his eyes to the last entry: 1994, August 30 - the date his
parents went missing. It was their yacht. They had all become a
statistic. He turned to Megan who looked like she was about to cry.
Jack put his arms around her.

“I
guess it’s all starting to become real for us now aye, Megs.
The fact that we are here and no longer on Earth.”

Megan
buried her head into Jack’s chest and sobbed. He felt at that
moment that he absolutely loved her and could never love another. “I
know it’s going to be hard for you, Megs, but I will always be
here for you,” Jack assured, feeling the sting of his own
tears.

The
social gathering was held at the Palace of Amon, a most exquisite
building., the interior an intricate design and constructed from
solid gold. Gold seemed to be a standard building material as it was
used in nearly every public building they had so far seen. They
observed that the whole city was full of gold.

Jovian
soil must be full of it,
Jack
deemed.

Inside
the palace walls the atmosphere was vibrant. A well-dressed man
approached them with a tray of refreshments. They each took a glass
and surveyed the room. Everyone looked happy and content. Jack and
Megan took a sip of their drinks. The taste was unreal. The look on
Megan’s face confirmed that this was no ordinary drink. They
both finished their glasses and helped themselves from another
passing tray. The funny thing was, no matter how many glasses they
consumed they remained completely sober.

Ben
Dunlop noticed, laughed and said, “Better taihoa there you two.
You have to let your tastebuds get used to the alcoholic beveridges,
otherwise you won’t be able to sleep tonight, not from
inebriation, but from an acute tingling sensation if you drink
anymore.” He took them down into the sunken lounge to mingle
with the crowd.

Jack
and Megan met a number of interesting people that night, most having
had similar experiences as themselves. Several were different,
however, like a Mr Griffiths, an American, who had been flying a
brand new Beechcraft Bonanza A36 when his transplanetary journey
began.

Mr
Griffiths relayed it to them. “We had just taken off from
Andros Airport when I noticed an oval-shaped cloud directly in front
of us about a mile away, hovering just above the ocean. It was a
typical puffy white cloud, but I had never seen one that low. The
weather was good so we continued, but the white cloud quickly changed
into a huge billowing dark grey cloud. We were climbing at a
thousand feet per minute, and the cloud seemed to be building up at
the same rate. It caught up and engulfed the Bonanza. After ten
minutes of climbing in and out of this cloud, the airplane finally
broke free at 11,500 feet and the sky was clear. I levelled the
Bonanza off and accelerated to its maximum safe cruising speed of 196
miles per hour. When I looked back at the cloud I was astonished.
It now looked like an immense squall, abnormally shaped in the form
of a giant semicircle extending around us. Soon we noticed another
cloud building directly in front of us. It looked a great deal like
the cloud that we’d just left. Upon entering the cloud we
witnessed an uncanny spectacle. It became dark and black, without
rain, and visibility was poor. There were no lightning bolts, only
extraordinarily bright white flashes that would illuminate the entire
surrounding area. The deeper we penetrated the more intense the
flashes became. It became apparent that we were trapped inside a
billowing prison, the shape of a doughnut with no way under or over
it!” Jack and Megan were fascinated.

“Thirteen
miles later I noticed a large U-shaped opening on the west side of
the doughnut cloud. I had no choice but to turn and try to exit
through the opening. As we approached, we watched the top ends of
the U-gap join, forming a hole. The break in the cloud now formed a
perfect horizontal tunnel, one mile wide and more than ten miles
long. We could see the clear blue sky on the other side. We also
saw that the tunnel was rapidly shrinking. I increased the engine
RPM, bringing our speed to the caution area of 230 miles per hour.
When we entered the tunnel, its diameter had narrowed to only
thirty-five feet. I was amazed at what the shaft now looked like.
It appeared to be only a mile long instead of ten-plus as I had
originally estimated. Light from the afternoon sun shone through the
exit hole and made the silky white walls glow. The walls were
perfectly round and slowly constricting. All around the edges were
small puffs of clouds of contrasting grey, swirling counter-clockwise
around the airplane. All of our electronic and magnetic navigational
instruments were malfunctioning. The compass was slowly spinning even
as the airplane flew straight. I contacted Miami and told them we
were about forty-five miles southeast of Bimini, heading east at
10,500 feet. The radar controller replied that he was unable to
identify us anywhere in that area. That’s when I thought that
something bizarre had happened. Instead of the blue sky we expected,
everything was a dull, greyish white haze. For about five seconds I
had the strange feeling of weightlessness and an increased forward
momentum. We subsequently fell asleep and before I knew it I woke up
in a foreign bed.”

“Wow,”
Jack cried. “That’s a mind boggling experience. It’s
completely different from ours, except for the last part where you
fell asleep.”

“Don’t
you miss your family that you left behind?” Megan asked rather
bluntly. Jack shot her an embarrassed look.

“Young
lady,” Mr Griffiths responded, “when I first arrived here
I wanted to do away with myself. I had only been married for a year
and my wife had a baby on the way. As the months went by I was a
walking wreck, wondering if my wife was okay, if the baby was okay.
Around the time I knew the baby was due I didn’t sleep for a
week, imagining her having a hard time without me. I had even
imagined, because of my sudden disappearance, that she’d
miscarried, or worse, had an abortion. I was a pathetic excuse of a
man. Then I was taken to the Coptic Church and in one visit I walked
out of there a completely new man. My whole being had been cleansed
and healed, and somehow I knew that my wife and baby were okay, and
were being well cared for. My heart was still broken, knowing that I
wouldn’t be part of their lives, that I would never be there
for my child’s milestones - his first steps, his first words
and such. I wouldn’t be there to play ball or take him to a
big game. But I know that a guardian angel is watching over them.
She speaks to me.”