The Twelve Stones (23 page)

“
…
a
nd most importantly, being down here, we do not have to worry about blowing the good people of Pasadena up.” Scott said dryly as he wove his way through the equipment in the room. He stopped in front of one that resembled a large barrel
-
like lathe. Alex stared at his friend shaking his head.

“
This machine right here will tell us all we need to know, but I’ll need to take a small slice of the stone.” Scott said extending his hand towards Alex.

“
Is it dangerous?” Alex hesitated, suspiciously looking over the contraption
.
“I don’t want to do anything that will corrupt or damage the, uh,” he stopped for a moment
,
unsure of how to describe it, “power, I guess you’d call it, in the stone.”

Scott’s eyebrows rose. “I doubt it; the machine will take a slice less than one tenth of a nanometer thick, way tinier than a human hair. I promise it’s not gonna hurt it
,
dude.”

Deciding between knowing the truth and losing the only chip he had wasn’t exactly easy for Alex. If Scott’s faith in science w
as
justified, his instruments would go a long way in answering some basic questions about what
was going on. On the other hand, if something went wrong, he risked losing the power that made this stone so valuable in the first place.

In the end, Alex thought, what good would the stone be if he didn’t know where it came from, or what it was capable of
?
The stone looked innocent enough, yet it had already shown so much power, so why would he assume that anything Scott had at his disposal could hurt it
?
Alex shrugged
.
W
hat
was the harm? Besides, this was what they came for.

Alex handed the stone to Scott. He took the stone and
plac
ed
it carefully in a three
-
pronged vice grip
,
adjusting the instrument precisely.

“
How much of the stone are you gonna have to take?” Alex asked cautiously.

“
You won’t even notice it’s gone, I promise.”

Scott handed a pair of goggles to Alex,
then
lowered a plastic shield in front of his face to protect his
own
eyes.
As he put on the goggles, Alex recalled
one of his and Scott’s
all-time
favorite jokes.

“
De goggles, dey do nossing!” Alex gasped in a bad Austrian accent.

Scott burst out laughing at his friend’s display. The two men had grown up together worshiping the antics of Bart, Homer and the rest of the characters on
The Simpsons
. Alex clasped his hand on his friend’s back as he smiled at him
.
“I wasn’t mad about the stuff at the gate
.
M
atter of fact, I was trying not to die laughing
,
man
.
I just don’t want to see you hurt is all. You know?”

“
I do,” Scott nodded, “I’m just happy to see you too
,
and I couldn’t resist it. Now
,
you think we can get on with the cutting before we get too Lifetime with each other?”

Alex laughed, “You’re the man with the saw. Get cutting.”

“
It’s a friggin
’
laser
.
G
et
it right
,
man.”

“
Whatever
.
G
et
cutting.”

Scott turned his attention to the machine in front of him. After a few last
-
minute adjustments on the dials, Scott looked at Alex
,
who nodded.
As Scott started t
yping
furiously, the machine began to whir quietly in the sparsely lit laboratory.

“
What’s going on?” Alex asked, alarmed by whine emanating from the machine.

“
Don’t worry,” Scott yelled over the increasingly loud
noise
, “The laser’s just charging right now. This is totally normal.”

The hum grew louder, and lights began to dim in the lab
.
F
inally
, a precise beam full of high
-
energy particles headed towards the stone at the speed of light. The reaction was immediate.

The overgrown table saw began to protest violently as smoke and sparks of lightning began to shoot wildly out of the stone. Alex and Scott threw up their arms, protecting their eyes.

“
What’s happening?” Alex yelled over the din.

“
The laser is feeding back on itself!” Scott yelled, desperately hitting the keys on the screen attached to the machine. “This isn’t supposed to even be theoretically possible.”

“
Turn it off
,
Scott!”

“
I mean really, space had to just turn into like 24 different dimensi
ons to do this
.” Scott said excitedly, “This is incredible!”

His excitement was short
-
lived
,
as the power that had been used to drill into the stone finally overloaded the transformer in the lab. The machine sparked, and Alex threw up his hands
,
shielding his eyes from the bright glow
.

E
lectricity popped and shot out from the control panel
,
electrocuting Scott
and
throwing him across the room.

“
Scott!” Alex yelled as he watched his best friend fly through the air and slam against the wall, his body falling in a heap on the ground. Alex turned back
towards
the stone caught in the screaming piece of machinery
.
H
e
needed to get that thing out if he was going to have any chance at saving Scott’s life.

Alex peeked out from behind the counter
he was using as cover
,
checked the dark welder’s goggles
on his face
,
and
took a moment to study
the laser and the stone
.

Incredibly, the stone was floating up
wards
, away from the table mount Scott had set it on. The power from the laser beam cutting into the stone was creating a feedback loop.
Swirling
up and around the stone like great arcs of plasma surrounding the sun, the energy shot towards anything that might ground the current. The stone, absorbing the heat and energy from the laser
,
paused momentarily as it charged.

“
Oh
–
”
was all that Alex got out as he darted away from the counter. A
thunderous
roar crashed behind him as a large bolt of energy split the air molecules above his head.

Scrambling for cover, Alex paused to catch his breath
.
T
he stone began to absorb more energy from the laser drill. The intervals the stone took to charge were getting shorter.

Alex
crouched
on the floor, his back to the cabinet as he wildly tried to think of an idea. Without the protection of the stone, Alex and Scott would likely be incinerated in the blast if
—
or when?
—
the laser exploded. Alex swore, making a mental note to slap Scott around in the afterlife for suggesting such a stupid idea. He peeked over the counter, trying to get a bead on the laser and his stone.

What he saw wasn’t pretty;
random bolts of energy had already scorched most of the lab
. Spotting a pair of heavy work gloves on the table in front of him, he
shoved his hands into them
as he edged himself around the corner of the table. He lowered his belly to the floor
.

“
All right
,
God,” Alex yelled, his eyes pointing towards the ceiling, “I promise I won’t do anything stupid for at least twenty seconds if I get to live through this
.
D
eal
?” He waited for an answer
.
H
earing
nothing, he continued shouting at the ceiling anyway. “I’ll take your silence as a ringing endorsement of the stupidity of this stunt!”

The laser might have been an engineering marvel that Scott was proud of, but it had to run off of some sort of power. Among the many hoses, and cords attached to the lathe, his mind began to race. Which cord should he pull? He might only get one shot at this.

“
Ahh
,
hell,” Alex whispered to himself. Taking a deep breath, he counted down from three and dashed out from behind Scott’s worktable towards the dying machine. Just then, his stone discharged brilliantly, sending multiple bolts of lightning across the lab, the flashes blinding him the second he stepped out from behind the desk. Unable to see where he was going, he tripped and fell onto his stomach. Fortunately for him, falling as he did, he missed a bolt of lightning that nearly toasted his head.

Sliding across the slippery linoleum flooring, Alex let his momentum carry him across the lab towards the dying laser drill. Holding out his hands in the direction of where he last remembered seeing the cords, he felt something whip into his hands. He tightened his grip and yanked as hard as he could.

The laser drill whined to a stop, and the lights in the lab returned to normal. The damage was extensive
, especially to
Scott’s shiniest piece of equipment, which had been reduced to a smoking heap of ruined electronics and metal.

Alex ignored it as he ran to the stone
,
grabbing it quickly off the table with his bare hands, then dropping to the floor just as fast. The stone still glowed with the residual heat from the laser drill, and was quite hot. Grabbing some tongs off of Scott’s lab table, he picked the stone back up and dropped it into a free standing beaker. He turned to the sink, hurriedly filling the beaker, the water hissing
on contact
.

He poured the water out and grabbed the stone, running towards where his friend had fallen. The stone was still warm to the touch, but clearly not dangerous any longer.

“
Come on Scott, stay with me!” Alex pleaded as he leaned his face against his friend’s, hoping he could still feel Scott’s breathing. He grabbed the stone tightly in his right fist, his left hand grasping Scott’s.

At first, nothing happened. Alex looked at the stone and again at his friend, holding his hand tightly, “Come on
,
dammit!”
h
e screamed in frustration. Perhaps the laser had damaged it beyond repair.

The stone glowed faintly, the power
seemingly weaker
. The healing wasn’t instantaneous like it had been in the past, but, as Scott c
oughed, and began breathing much-
needed oxygen back into his lungs
,
Alex was relieved it worked at all.

“
You OK
,
buddy?” Alex asked.

Coughing violently, Scott shook his head, and sat up.

“
Next time you bring me some strange otherworldly piece of archeology, try a little harder to dissuade me from doing a stupid test like that.” Scott said
,
woefully looking at his prized laser drill. “I wonder if they’re gonna deduct that outta my paycheck.”

“
Hey if they didn’t want you blowing stuff up, they wouldn’t have put you deep inside a mountain.” Alex said, a smile returning to his face.

Scott groaned, “Well, it’s only a three
-
million
-
dollar laser. Maybe Wal-Mart has ‘em on sale.”

Alex laughed in relief, “I think Costco’s your best bet
.
Y
ou
can buy in bulk there.” The laser drill sparked menacingly
, making both of them wince.
“Which you clearly need.”

Scott laughed, and groaned, as his injuries still hadn’t healed quite one hundred percent yet. Alex touched his friend’s arm
.
T
he
healing blue glow
extend
ed
back over his friend’s body,
more quickly
this time, touching up any injuries.

Alex and Scott watched the glowing laser cool as Scott was healed back to normal. “Sorry about your friggin
’
laser thingy.” Alex said sympathetically. Scott waved him off.