The Twelve Stones (24 page)

“
Well, it doesn’t look like we can analyze a small piece of it, so it’s not likely we’ll be able to exactly figure out how it works
,
” Scott said as he watched the stone from afar in his friend’s palm. He turned his head, glancing once again at the broken laser in front of him. He
stood up and approached it
, looking it over, seeing if there was anything he could salvage.

Alex
let himself relax.
Scott was back. Alex opened his fist, looking at the stone in the palm of his hand. Where the laser drill had attempted to cut into it, there was a large white gash that was slowly knitting back together.

“
Fascinating,” Alex said to himself
.

“
What is?” Scott asked
,
his back to Alex as he picked through the wreckage of his former laser drill.

“
The stone is healing itself.” Alex watched as the last of the white gash sealed itself shut.

Scott ran his fingers through the soot in awe. “I built this cutter to get through ten inches of titanium steel without breaking a sweat.” Scott said in awe shaking his head, “It not only resisted that laser, it destroyed it.”

“
I hesitate to even ask,” Alex said over his shoulder as they both examined the ruins, “
b
ut do you have anything else that might be slightly less invasive?”

Scott
,
still testing his repaired shoulder, moved over to another machine in his lab.

“
Well, I guess a mass spectral analysis could work, but it won’t tell us much about its capabilities.” Scott held out a tray expectantly
.
“But at least, we can find out what elements we’re dealing with.”

Alex clutched the stone tighter in response. He trusted Scott, but the last five minutes hadn’t exactly filled him with confidence.

“
Relax,” Scott said, “This time, we’re not cutting into it, we’re seeing what radiates offa it when we shine light on it. It’s harmless…”

Alex raised an eyebrow at this and glanced at the scattered pieces of Scott's laser scattered around the lab.

Scott swallowed heavily, “Well, at least, it should be harmless.”

“
Oh good, I’m glad we started with THAT test over there first instead of the non-inva
sive, non-life threatening test,
” Alex said sarcastically, still clutching the stone possessively.

Scott cleared his throat, his hand still extended for the stone. Alex sighed and handed the stone over to Scott. He turned, slid the tray into something that resembled a small and squat microwave
,
and
punch
ed
a few buttons.

The machine whirred as it spun the stone around
,
measuring the various weights and reactions to frequencies of light. Scott busied himself over the machine, anxiously waiting for any indication that the stone would go haywire again, destroying another one of his precious
devices
.

Alex cleared his throat uncomfortably and finally asked the question Scott had been expecting all night.

“
You talk to Emily much anymore?” Alex tried to say it casually, but the catch in his throat betrayed everything.

Scott sighed
.
H
e
knew this was going to come up sooner or later
;
he just didn’t expect it so soon after they survived an industrial accident. Not looking at Alex, he concentrated on the stone sitting in the spectral analysis machine.

“
We exchange Christmas
c
ards, go to lunch when she’s in town on business, that sort of thing, but
…
” Scott paused as he struggled to find the right thing to say. What do you say to a man who disappeared after his failed relationship? After an awkward moment, the truth seemed to be the only option. “She’s good
,
Alex, really good right now.”

Alex looked away, his fingers lightly feeling the broken pieces of Scott’s laser. Lost in thought about his former love, he found himself wondering what she was doing, and where she was. It was a
question
that came often to him, usually while he was alone,
with nothing but his own thoughts for company
.

Scott
,
watching his friend go through the memories in his head
, clearly
choked up.

“
She missed you. We all missed you, you know. Her, me...” Scott almost didn’t say it, it felt wrong somehow so soon after his death, but Ale
x needed to hear it:
“Your dad…”

Alex’s shoulder’s slunk lower, and he didn’t respond to Scott. He just stared at the broken bits of machinery in front of him, wondering exactly how things went so wrong.

“
You get what you leaving did to us? All of us?” Scott’s anger
grew
palpable. “I had nightmares
,
man. You dead somewhere, where I couldn’t help, where...” Scott calmed himself down and raised his head. “Where I had lost my best friend.”

“
I…” Alex whipped around angrily. But Scott sta
red him down. He shook his head;
he knew Scott was right. This was the time to explain. He owed his best friend that much.

“
I don’t regret leaving when I did,” Alex replied forcefully his voice thick with guilt. “I knew it was wrong of me to cut my family and friends out from everything, but I didn’t care. Believe it or not
,
Scott, there was a point when I didn’t know where or who I was in this world….
I… I needed time to figure that out. Took me six years…” Alex’s voice cracked. “…And that’s time I’ll never have back to spend with you, or my father.

“
I did what I needed to do to survive after me and Emily broke up. I loved her
,
Scott
.
” Alex was clearly emotional now, his eyes shining in the dim emergency lighting. “I loved her so much, I didn’t know how to stop. When it was over, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do next, or where to go in life without her. She was supposed to be there for the entire journey
,
Scott
,
and I screwed it up.” Alex’s voice was barely a whisper now as he looked his friend in the eye.

“
I left because if I stayed, I wouldn’t have lasted another week.” Alex swallowed. “Every single day for the last six years, I’ve thought about her. Usually it’s some special memory that would make us both happy, as if she ever thought about such things…

“
But there would be times when I would swear I was going insane. I would be out, in the middle of nowhere, some city in some country no one could find on a map. A flash of recognition out of the corner of my eye, some shapely brunette, some of her hair falling just so across her face, and suddenly there she was. Live, and in person. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear I would see her there. Standing in front of me, sitting at the bar, or checking fruit next to me in whatever market I would find myself in. In one schoolhouse outside of Kandahar, I would swear on a stack of bibles I saw her
one day
teaching young Afghani students how to read.” Alex looked down, and back at his friend. “Scott, it was so real. Every time, she would be so real to me.

“
But
none of the women I saw were ever Emily. They were figments of my subconscious, projecting what I wanted on similar
-
looking women, and my guilt surfacing because of what I did to her.”

“
Did to her?” Scott scoffed, “You treated that girl like a princess.”

Alex shook his head. “I tried to be good, but…we were young, and when you’re young
—
I didn’t know this at the time, but
…
you just don’t understand love.

“
Sure, you know you’re
in
love
;
you might even be vaguely aware of how you got there. But turning that love into a long
-
lasting relationship is like trying to cage a wild animal. After the shiny parts of our new relationship wore off and we began living together, things weren’t as easy, and we fought. For the most part, it started with little things. Then, as time went on, it steadily got worse
;
ima
gined slights, petty jealousies.
E
ventually
,
things got out of hand. We said things we didn’t mean, pushed each other’s nuclear buttons, knowing exactly where to turn the knife, and then after we both exhausted every ounce of ammunition, we
went
past our breaking points. She left
.
”

Scott sat in silence. He had never heard exactly what had occurred to end Alex and Emily’s tumultuous relationship. She had never been forthcoming about the details, and Scott had never pressed, scared that if he
had, she would leave, thus
remov
ing
one more reminder Scott had had of his best friend. After the initial shock of his friend’s sudden disappearance, Scott plunged himself into his schoolwork, hoping to make himself so busy
that
he might
manage to forget about the whys and hows of Alex’s death. And
as the weeks turned into months, and the months turned into years, Scott faded into his new life, and Emily did as well
.
E
ventually
, the once
-
close pair of friends
,
who shared an almost sibling
-
like relationship, devolved into one where the two rarely spoke to one other anymore. Scott had created a new family for himself.
His n
ew
friends,
new
co-workers
,
and
new
life had become all he knew
.
U
ntil Alex had rung the doorbell a few hours ago, he hadn’t thought of his childhood friend in nearly two years.

Alex set down the broken piece of metal that he had been fingering absentmindedly and continued with his story.

“
After the night she left me, I sat there in the dark, silently, processing what had happened
between us
. I laid down, and prayed for sleep, hoping that when I woke up, our fight would all be one big dream, with her again lying beside me. But, when I woke back up, and the bed was empty, I stared at the ceiling and made my decision. I wanted my life to count for something. I thought my life would be defined through my love with Emily. At that moment, that dream was gone. So, right, wrong, whatever it was, I gathered my things, wrote that note to you, and left.”

“
The
A
rmy,” Scott said slowly.
“Your dad said they sent a letter saying you were killed in some sort of training exercise.”

Alex’s shoulders slumped even lower to the ground. That was a topic he was not ready to get into.

Fortunately for Alex, it was at that moment that the
s
pectral
a
nalysis
machine decided it had finished learning all it could from the mysterious artifact and dinged, announcing the analysis was complete.

The two stared at one another, and Scott decided to save the rest of Alex’s story for another time.

“
Saved by the bell,” Scott stated.

Alex nodded; he knew his friend wouldn’t press the issue now. For that, he was grateful.

Quickly looking for a change in topic, Alex reached over to where the printout had fallen into its tray, narrowly beating his friend. Alex grasped the sheet of paper, his eyes narrowing as he attempted to decipher the data.

Unfortunately, the numbers, charts
,
and graphs all read like gibberish to Alex. He turned it upside down
,
looking at the various symbols on the printout. Annoyed, Scott cleared his throat. Alex looked up sheepishly as Scott took it away
,
like he
would from
an impertinent child.

“
I’m the scientist
.
I get to read the results,” Scott said authoritatively.

Alex’s voice turned to a high pitch
,
and he waved his hands as he mocked his friend
.
“Ooooh, I’m the scientist, I’m blah blah blah, I never get laid, I…oof!”

Withdrawing his elbow from Alex’s gut, Scott grasped the paper firmly in his hands.

“
Ahem,” Scott said
,
“Your stone is made up of the element…” Scott stopped, rereading
the piece of paper in his hands.
“Well
,
now that’s interesting…” He muttered to himself.