Rogers
I listened patiently as Jarvis explained what had happened on the day he disappeared ten years ago.
". . . I was in pretty low spirits after the transmission ended, and the implications of what we had heard started to unravel in my mind," he said.
"Out there was a universe of which we knew nothing. Our electronic telescopes have surveyed the heavens for years, but in all that time, they have failed to detect the presence of alien beings, let alone monitor their activities on our planet."
Jarvis, McCloud, and I were in a private room of an expensive restaurant after a superb dinner. As always, money was no object as far as Jarvis was concerned, but we never asked where it came from. A deferential waiter topped up our glasses, and Jarvis asked him not to return until called. When he left, Jarvis continued with his story.
"I was about to comment on these lines to Verne when I heard the most extraordinary sound of whistling and chattering outside the window and then a whoosh as the air surged out of the room into a spinning black circle that had once been the outer wall. The remaining atmosphere inside the room took on a vivid green hue, and I found myself gasping for breath. What felt like invisible hands plucked at my clothing.
"I am quite a powerful man, and energised by fear and revulsion, I managed to burst free from my would-be captors and made a blind run for the door leading to the backroom, brushing against the globe that was still sitting on the table. I picked it up without thinking and carried it through. I locked the sturdy door behind me, but it would not keep whatever it was on the outside for long. In my terror and pumped up with adrenaline, I formed an irrational compulsion to stop the globe from falling into the hands of this unknown force and looking around the room, my eyes fell on a fireplace in the far wall. Dropping to my hands and knees, I removed the grate and scrabbled around until I found a loose brick and, under it, a large cavity that stretched back under the floorboards. There was a piece of sacking used to stop the draft from coming down the chimney, and I wrapped the globe inside and pushed the whole package down into the hole. Replacing the brick, I pulled the grate over the spot and scraped the small amount of dust I had disturbed back where it came from, then stood up and watched as a liquid seeped under the door and came into the room."
Jarvis paused, reliving the moment in his mind.
"Top-up?"
"Thanks, Jock, "said Jarvis, coming out of his reverie.
McCloud leaned over and refilled his glass.
"Sorry, but I had never before experienced anything like this in my life, and for a moment, I thought I was losing my mind, "said Jarvis.
"The rate of the flow under the door rapidly increased, and the liquid became a gas that enveloped my body in a transparent bubble that lifted me off the floor and soared upwards, passing effortlessly through the ceiling and then the roof as if navigating through the space between atoms. I breathed the gas, and it was wonderful, pure bliss as we accelerated towards the stars. Time passed, and the bubble darkened before shaking so violently that I lost consciousness. The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital bed and receiving medical treatment for my multiple minor injuries.
"Did you know where you were?"
"Not then, of course, but I later discovered that I was on one of their bases, high in the Andes, in the remote Puna region of Argentina. They had camouflaged the base using an advanced electronics system that made it completely undetectable by instrumentation or from the air. At ground level, it was possible for someone to stumble through what would appear to them to be a mist, and on extremely rare occasions throughout history, this had happened.
"Were you confined there for the whole of the missing ten years?"
"No, not confined. I stayed there of my own free will. None of the humans there were prisoners. They were free to leave on the condition they underwent a programme to erase all memory of what they had seen. But few ever left; many families had been there for generations.
"The governors of the base were TheTribus, and both the humans and the intelligent machines that made up the operational arm of the community revered their leaders. Later, one of the leaders honoured me with a personal audience, and a human attendant ushered me into her presence.
'Welcome, Professor Jarvis, you may approach me.'
"She must have been ten feet tall, and when she moved forward, the delicate lattice frame of glass-like tubes within her transparent body rang out like heavenly orbs. A strange simile, you may think, but her presence was awe-inspiring, and had you stood before her in my place, you would have felt the same, but this is not the time or place to discuss the nature of this ethereal being. The experience was highly subjective, and since it is not relevant to this discussion, I will move on.
"The Tribus was sympathetic and gave me some further details on the circumstances surrounding the loss of the sphere. The launch of the sphere had been successful, and it burst through the surface of the sea at tremendous speed, but the equivalent of a Gyro compass failed, and shortly afterwards, it plunged back into the water. The shock of impact freed the globe from the restraining steel harness inside the sphere and destroyed its homing transmitter. When I activated the globe in my laboratory, it automatically began to transmit a programme. The controllers here were able to get a location fix and sent in a recovery team. But the mission failed; there was no sign of the now dormant globe, and they brought me back in the hope that I could provide information as to its whereabouts. The globe has not made a transmission since the one at the laboratory, and the engineers believe that the security systems automatically engaged and shut it down. Shortly afterwards, she concluded our meeting, and I agreed to cooperate in any plans for the recovery of the sphere."
At that point, Jarvis suggested we take a short break to stretch our legs and make use of the facilities, and pressing a bell, he summoned the waiter for another round of drinks when we got back. But when we reconvened, Jarvis had vanished.
McCloud
Jarvis had tipped me off he was leaving, and we met up an hour later in a small back street pub a short distance away.
"Sorry about the abrupt exit Jock. I had intended to give him the full story, but I could not look at the face of that treacherous bastard for a moment longer. Did he suspect anything?"
"He was surprised," I said, but I gave him a line about the retelling of your experiences being traumatic, and we had to give you more time. He accepted the story without question, and I told him that I needed a break myself and was going to visit my elderly parents for a couple of days. His eyes lit up. I would hazard a guess that he needed some free time himself to check in with his controllers."
"Good work, Jock. I have a feeling we are not going to be able to keep him dangling for much longer. I will give him the rest of the story as soon as possible and get him to witness me disposing of the globe. After that, it is anybody's guess."
"I thought you would say that. I have arranged for us all to meet on Monday at the same restaurant. I told him that you would be bound to contact me before then."
#
Rogers
I met them in the restaurant as arranged on the following Monday. Jarvis looked a little uncomfortable, but I did not mention his abrupt disappearance at our last meeting. It was all very curious. For some reason, I had felt utterly exhausted when I returned to my lodgings that day and slept for twelve hours straight. I normally recall my dreams, but when I awoke, my memory was blank. I also had the most crushing headache and was severely dehydrated, but the worst part was an irrational fear that somebody had taken over my mind. It was an experience that recalled the fevers I had witnessed in my uncle as a boy. After returning home from working in the tropics, he had intermittent bouts of malaria that caused the most terrifying hallucinations. After a couple of hours, my fear subsided after willing to regain control. This was unusual for me. I had a new strength of character since meeting Jarvis and McCloud; the old Rogers would have taken to his bed for a week.
Jarvis told us he wanted to get on with his story from where he left off, and I was curious to hear what he had to say. I noticed that he always addressed his remarks directly to me. I can only assume that McCloud already had full knowledge of the situation.
"Up to now, I have given you no explanation as to the nature of the globes," said Jarvis, but I must be brief. Relators are non-biological, self-governing entities, an intelligent life form that possesses a level of self-awareness. They are the emissaries of the Tribus, missionaries, almost. They are roving storytellers, and they preach a message of reconciliation to the sentient population of our galaxy. Travelling to the remotest regions, they tell their stories wherever audiences gather. The stories are like parables and automatically translate into the language of those listening with cultural references they understand exactly as they did for us when John Verne and I witnessed the transmission from the globe at the university, although neither of us could later recall any detail.
"Relators are quite wonderful beings and carry a message of hope for the unification of the conscious universe. There is a marvellous story to tell, but it must wait for now; I need to give you more details about Jock's recent encounter with the second sphere. The North Sea Command of The Tribus traced the missing second sphere very quickly and released it from where Jock had tethered it to the rig. After returning it to their undersea base, they observed how expertly the diver who found the sphere had tied it in position, using the identical type of knot as the diver who had captured the original. Jock was the only diver on that rig, and it was easy for the mission controllers to hack into the computerised personnel records on board and find his name and shore address. The North Sea Base alerted the community in the Andes, and they sent me back here to contact Jock in the hope that he would supply a stimulus for me to remember what had happened to the missing Relator. Jock and I had similar characters, and we quickly became close friends. I admired the quiet stoicism of this rugged diver, who won my respect for his ability to work alone, in absolute darkness, at great depths underwater. I knew that in a tight corner, McCloud would be a good man to have on your side."
McCloud kept his eyes firmly on the table, and I would have sworn I saw a red tinge creeping up his neck, but the idea of Jock McCloud blushing was too ridiculous for words, and I listened in silence as Jarvis continued his narration.
"After one particularly rum-soaked evening at a local Inn, we staggered home during a thunderstorm, eventually arriving home exhausted and disorientated. The next morning, I woke up, not just with a raging hangover but with my memory of where I had hidden the globe restored. That is where you come into the story, Rogers. I vaguely recalled a former student of your name, and looking you up on an academic website confirmed that the 'Rogers,' now teaching at the university, was indeed a former student of mine. An exploratory telephone call ensured that you were the man in question and currently lived on campus. We now had the means of getting into the university. It only remained to convince you to help us retrieve the globe. The rest of the story, you know."
I was never a great sailor at the best of times, and the ferry was doing its best to prove it. It was a rough crossing, but the wind that whipped the spray in my face helped to stifle my nausea. We were on the long route across the North Sea from Newcastle to Amsterdam, and about seven hours out, we were halfway. We had rented a cabin, but for the last hour, we had been out the passenger deck, huddled by a rail as close to the sea as we could get.
Jarvis had a device in his hand, pointing out to sea, and he was watching the screen intently. We were too tired and cold to talk, or at least I was, the two others were more used to the harsh conditions. Time passed slowly, and I was half asleep on my feet when Jarvis let out a yell that woke me out of my stupor. The tracker was flashing intermittently red and green until it settled into a regular pulse of bright orange.
"It's time," said Jarvis, and pushing the tracker into his pocket, he reached down into the leather holdall that had never left his side since we had boarded. With great care, he pulled out the silvered globe, still wrapped in the sack, and put it under his arm. Dodging under a barrier, Jarvis got to the rail overlooking the sea and paused for a moment in reflection.
'Home to Mama,' he said and hurled the globe into the sea.
Ignoring the angry shouts of a watching sailor, Jarvis joined us as we picked our way across the slippery deck and returned to the warmth of the cabin. It was over, or so I thought.