The Seventh Mountain (20 page)

I was also pre-chosen, by The General
himself, to be in the tribe that I’m in. Well, actually, since The
General chose me, I got to choose what tribe that I wanted to be
in. I chose the tribe that my new friends were chosen to be in.
They were pre-chosen too, only, not by The General. They were
chosen by the Emerald Tribe horses.

I have to go now. I’m going to try out for
the Emerald Tribe’s flags match team. If I don’t hurry, I’ll be
late.

See you at the first flags match.

Love, Mark

 
* *
*
 

The group walked out onto the schoolyard.
Each tribe had staked out a section for their own particular
tryouts. Each tribe had their own criteria for selecting new
members for their team. Krisa, the team captain, explained the
process to the new Emerald Tribe wannabes.

“The elimination process is quite simple.
Each wannabe is given a flag and a horse. The object is to get past
those twenty-four guys down there.” She pointed to a skirmish line
of horsemen fifty yards away. “They are going to do whatever they
can to prevent you from making it past them. Okay… grab a flag and
mount up. You’ll have ten minutes to get past them. Wait for the
whistle.”

More than two-dozen students had shown up to
try out for Emerald Tribe. Only five were freshmen: Mark, Jamal,
Nick, Chenoa and the girl with the spiked hair that they had seen
at The Choosing Event.

Mark motioned his friends together. “Listen
up. Nick and Jamal, hold back, wait for the pack to engage the
group. Then head right, full out. Go around the fray, if you can.
Chenoa you come with me to the left. Whoever makes it to the other
side; stand by to catch the other’s flag. After you throw your
flag, head around or through the pack. These guys are trained to
only check a flag carrier. They will get all worked up. They will
automatically ignore anyone without a flag. Get your flag back when
you make it through.”

“Roger, roger… sounds like a plan.” Nick
mounted his steed.

“Let’s do it.” Jamal was already up.

“I’m with you. Let’s go.” Chenoa slapped
Mark on the back and headed for her horse.

Mark let their horses see in his mind what
they were planning.

The whistle sounded. Mark and Chenoa
followed the pack toward the melee and broke left just before they
entered it. Nick and Jamal had already broken right. Two horses and
riders broke from the defending pack to head them off. Mark and
Chenoa made it around to the back with no opposition. Nick and
Jamal broke left before the four defenders caught up to them. They
made like they were going to go around the other side. Jamal caught
sight of Chenoa. He hoisted his flag and threw it like a javelin.
Nick saw Jamal throw his flag and followed suit. Chenoa and Mark
recovered the flags. Nick and Jamal galloped around the end,
unchallenged. Mark and Chenoa met them and returned their
flags.

Two others made it through the fracas before
the whistle blew. The girl with the spiked hair trotted out. An
older boy that they didn’t recognize crawled out unhorsed, dragging
the flag by the fabric behind him.

Krisa galloped up to the successful
wannabes. “I’m impressed. Five freshmen. Freshmen almost never make
it. And Cap’n Ben, I’m glad to see you finally made it. Welcome to
the team.”

Joel stood up. He was dirty and bruised.
“Third time’s a charm.” He grinned and thrust the green fabric in
his fist into the air.

Krisa rode across the front of the other new
team members and said their name as she passed each. “Mark… Chenoa…
Jamal… Nikola… LeOmi… welcome to The Emerald Tribe Team.”

Mark rode up to LeOmi. “Hi. I’m Mark.”

“I know who you are.” She turned her mount
and trotted after Krisa.

Mark turned to the group and shrugged. He
brought his mount around and started back to the start point.
Jamal, Nick and Chenoa joined him. Joel had regained his mount and
joined them as they rode back.

“Hi. I’m Joel, Joel Benjamin O’Ham. Most
folks call me Cap’n Ben.”

Now that Joel was close enough, they could
see that his close-cropped hair was bright red, under the dust. He
had bright green eyes and a trickle of blood was coming from his
nose.

Mark cocked his head. “Why Cap’n Ben?”

“I was named after me great, great, great,
grand pappy, I was. He was an Irishmen. Some say he had a potato
for a heart and shamrocks for eyes. I reckon that means that he
loved being Irish. I don’t mind the wee touch of Irish blood in me
veins either.”

Mark couldn’t help but grin at Cap’n Ben.
“So your grand pappy was a captain?”

“Merchant Marine. Had his own boat and all.
Wooden sailing ship.”

Mark pointed at LeOmi as she dismounted her
horse. “Do you know this other girl, LeOmi?”

“No. She don’t seem too friendly, does
she?”

“Maybe she’s got something bothering
her.”

“Or, maybe she’s just a loner.”

“Listen up you guys.” Krisa was speaking to
the new team members. “Training and practice is Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays at four thirty. For you freshmen, this takes the place
of your riding class.”

 
* *
* 

The flags tryout wasn’t too bad. Showers,
lunch and off to meet Mrs. Shadowitz.

She was waiting for them with their horses,
by the door to the stables. “I think that you will enjoy seeing the
engineering and science section.”

The ride took them past The Island. The
megalithic structure that circled the moat, both inside and
outside, was impressive. Stonehenge, on a grand scale. Monolithic
slabs spanned the inner and outer circles, forming bridges between
the two, in at least seven places. More chunks sloped to The
Island, itself.

“You can use the shadows as a sundial.” Mrs.
Shadowitz pointed at the shadows. “When the two shadows from the
north pillars line up, that’s solar noon. Mr. Goodfellow will teach
you how to use it in other ways.”

The door to the science and engineering
section opened on a vista, sloping to a valley with tall stone
buildings. Paved streets interlinked the varied structures. Small
vehicles sporadically whizzed between the white buildings. Science
and engineering so advanced, long veiled in myth and legend,
flourished, even bloomed in the labs below.

Life Sciences was the first stop on the
tour. The four story white stone building presented but one
entrance. Windows were non-existent. Inside, a long hall bisected
the floor behind a basic counter. A lone, lab coat clad figure
emerged from one of the rooms off the hall. He walked up to the
counter.

“Mrs. Shadowitz. This is an unexpected
pleasure.”

“Hello, Rajah. I have brought these students
for a tour.”

“Yes ma’am. Let me guess. Mark Young, Chenoa
Day, Jamal Terfa and Nikola Poparov?”

“That’s right. Can you handle it today?”

“Sure thing. You guys come on back
here.”

“I’ll be back to collect them in, shall we
say, two hours?”

“A fast tour. Yes ma’am.”

“You guys, follow me.”

The first room was a chemistry lab. Cabinets
along the wall housed all kinds of glass wear and instruments. The
center table was set up with flames heating various beakers.
Different colored fluids bubbled and percolated through winding
glass tubes.

“This is where we make oxy-caps.”

Mark said, “What are oxy-caps?”

“Our divers use them. They mix with the
saliva in your mouth and release oxygen, enough to breath. With one
oxy-cap, an average sized diver can stay underwater for forty-five
minutes or so. Here, have one.” Rajah passed out an oxy-cap to each
one of the four.

“Follow me.”

The next room housed row after row of
hanging plastic pipes. Water trickled down through the tangle of
plants in each pipe.

“Here, we study symbiotic plant growth. As
you know, plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. What
very few know is that they also give off other things as well, like
micronutrients. Combinations of plants can support each other’s
growth. All we have to supply is temperature, carbon dioxide, water
and light. No fertilizer, no soil or anything else. Just put the
right combination of plants together and they thrive. Follow
me.”

Room after room led to one wow after
another. Two hours later, the tour ended. The medical plants
section had been the most interesting. It seemed like there was a
plant, or combination of plants, to cure just about anything. The
most amazing thing was that the expected average life span, for a
Magi, was well over two hundred years. The theoretical limit was
supposed to be about a thousand years.

Next, Mrs. Shadowitz took them to the main
engineering building. It was a building built in the same style as
the life sciences building, white stone, no windows, one door on
the front. This building was much larger.

“What you are about to see in here is a
closely guarded secret. We are able to generate enormous amounts of
electrical power and heat and fuel at zero cost. If this technology
ever escaped Magi control, well it could be perverted into terrible
weapons that could easily destroy the entire world. Even if it
weren’t used as weapons, it would surely collapse the world’s
economy.”

They walked into the structure. The inside
was just like the life sciences building. A single counter
separated the lobby from the working area.

A young lady greeted them. She wore the
standard gray work tunic with a leather work belt with tool
pouches. Her eyes were a golden green and glowed like small lights
in a control console. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a
ponytail.

“Hello, Mrs. Shadowitz. This is a
surprise.”

“Hello, Emily. I’ve brought four students
who want to look around.”

Emily looked at Mark. “Mark Young, I
presume.” She looked at the other three. “And you must be Nick,
Chenoa and Jamal. Welcome.”

“I’ll return in about an hour to collect
them.” Mrs. Shadowitz turned to Nick. “Enjoy yourselves.”

“Okay, you guys, follow me.” Emily lifted
the countertop and folded it back, allowing the group behind the
counter. She replaced the gate, turned and walked down the hall.
The hall terminated into a warehouse-sized room containing very
large, shiny metal tanks.

“This is the cold fusion room. The process
is a closely guarded secret. I can tell you that the products are
heat, hydrogen, oxygen and electricity. The fuel we use is pretty
common. That fuel can be found all over the world.”

Nick said, “Mrs. Shadowitz said that it runs
at zero cost.”

“Well, that’s true. You see, the fusion
process takes place in a very hot environment. The fusion process,
fuel plus oxygen, turns the fuel into a different substance. When
the fuel cools, it gives up four alpha particles per molecule by
radioactive decay, the equivalent of one oxygen atom. The fusion
process forms several byproducts, gold being the only thing that
isn’t used in the fusion process. The excess electrons captured in
the heating process provide the electricity. The waste products are
ionized water and gold, neither of which is really a waste. Any
more questions?”

Mark said, “I thought it was cold
fusion.”

“That’s what it’s generally called. Normal
fusion, like in the sun, occurs at several million degrees. Cold
fusion, here, occurs at a couple of thousand degrees, much colder
than normal fusion.”

The group looked around at nothing but big
tanks. There was nothing, no motors or humming or hissing or
anything that indicated any power generation was taking place at
all.

“Follow me and I’ll show you the gas storage
facility and vehicle fueling station.”

The gas storage facility was another
warehouse-sized room with very large, shiny tanks.

“Oxygen is stored in the tanks to your
right. Hydrogen is stored in the tanks to your left.”

Emily continued straight through the large
room and walked out a door on the backside of the building.

“This is where our vehicles are fueled.” She
turned and faced the building. “I need a vehicle.” She turned back
to the group.

A small car drove up onto the concrete pad
behind her. It was silvery gray with very large windows and no
wheels. It just floated in the air about a foot off of the pad.

“The vehicle is being refueled automatically
while it sits there. Care to take it for a spin?”

Mark said, “Sure.”

“Well, hop in.”

The group piled into the car, which was
surprisingly spacious inside. It could seat four people in the back
and four in the front. They left the front far left seat empty.

Emily opened the front left door. “Who’s
driving?”

Mark said, “I thought you were.”

“I’m on duty, I can’t leave here. One of you
has to drive. It’s easy. Just tell the car where you want to go, it
does the rest. It just needs to know who the driver is so it can
listen for commands.”

“What if I don’t know where I want to go, I
just want to ride around?”

“Then just use the map, just touch the map
where you want to go.”

Mark said, “Map, I don’t see–” an image of a
map popped into thin air in front of him.

An electronic voice said, “Map function is
now active.”

Nick said, “But we don’t have driver’s
licenses.”

“Nick, if you haven’t noticed, you’re not in
Kansas anymore.”

“I thought that The Seventh Mountain was in
North America.”

“Well it is, kind of, but not really. The
Seventh Mountain is for Magi from North America. All seven of the
mountains are not connected to anywhere in particular, yet they’re
connected to everywhere. They exist outside of conventional
reality, it’s kind of hard to explain.”

“So we don’t need driver’s licenses
here.”

Emily chuckled. “Yeah, that’s right, have
fun. Mrs. Shadowitz will be back in about twenty minutes.” She shut
the door and stepped back from the car.