Phil Brown
Writes as Wyken Seagrave
After very constructive (and unanimous) feedback from Precise Calibre and Zubi-Ondo, I've tried to explain the structure of the crystal network in a bit more detail. I've also made a number of other changes to the text.
Many thanks to those guys, especially for their positive responses, and more comments very welcome.
============
'Get up, Samuel,' Michael said.
Sam ignored him. He lay on his back trying to work out where he
was. Layer upon layer of transparent blue polygons overlapped
above him, crossed and twisted at crazy angles. They must be solid
objects, Sam thought, but their transparency made it impossible to
work out their shape.
Over them all arched the black dome of the sky. It was dotted with
thousands of pink planets. Most were tiny but one was so close he
felt he could reach out and touch its little blue clouds, could dip his
fingers into its pink ocean. Wherever this is, it's certainly not the
Earth, Sam thought.
'I know you can hear me, Sam,' Michael said. 'Come on, get up!
We don't have much time. Don't you want to save the world?'
Sam's rage boiled over. 'That's rich, coming from you!' he
screamed. 'It was you put the Earth in danger in the first place!' Sam
lifted his head and looked round. He did not see Michael, but what
he saw sent a shiver of fear down his spine.
He was balanced precariously on the tops of several long thin
slivers of crystal. Looking down through their transparent blueness
he could see them tapering away below him, like the legs of a
gigantic insect. Their feet rested on an irregular scaffold of long blue
threads which, Sam assumed, were more crystals. They formed an
enormous crystal network, like a web woven by a drunken spider. It
faded into the distance, too transparent to see, but he guessed it
probably surrounded the whole planet.
Far below he could see the pink ocean. From up here it looked as
smooth as a billiard ball. Sam wondered whether this planet might
be the same as the ones above him. This one had no blue clouds, and
those others had no framework like this; or perhaps they did, but too
faint to see.
Looking down at the ocean he saw a long oval shadow, bending
with the curvature of the planet. It was the only feature visible from
this height. Sam remembered vividly how it felt on his face, cold,
slimy and suffocating. He shivered again as he imagined what
would happen if the crystals moved and he fell through the gap.
'I'm over here, Sam,' he heard Michael say. Sam looked the other
way. A gigantic oval body hung, white and bloated against the black
sky. Hundreds of blue crystals enclosed it, trapping it like a fish in a
net. Sam could see two tiny arms and legs sticking out of the smooth
curving flanks like fins. A gondola hung down near the back in the
shape of a man's private parts. A monumental face was carved on
the front like a ship's figure-head. It still belonged unmistakably to
Michael Zhang. Then the heavy, oriental eyes turned towards him,
the thin cruel lips opened and Sam heard Michael's voice say 'Now
stand up. I need your help and there's not much time.'
'My help?' Sam said in disbelief. 'I'm not helping you, Zhang,
after everything you've done--'
'Do not use that name!' A darkness suffused Michael's gigantic
face. 'I used to be Michael Zhang, but now you will call me Lord.'
'You? I certainly will not!' You were odd before, Sam thought,
but now you've gone totally insane.
Michael's eyes narrowed. 'I am as wise as what you would call a
god. You don't believe me? I can easily prove it. For example, I
know everything about you. You are Samuel James Fitzpatrick.
You were born at 23 Old Blackrock Road, Cork, at 2:54 in the
afternoon of 7th of July 1959. You were the second child of James
Rossiman Fitzpatrick and Irene Juliet Fitzpatrick, nee Blanding.
Your family lived there for the first six years of your life. Then on
August 9th, 1965 they moved to Limerick and you went...'
Sam couldn't believe it as every detail of his past was reeled out,
including many facts he didn't even know himself but which all had
the ring of truth. And when Michael described his father's infidelity
with a neighbour, a close family secret, and correctly stated the
woman's name, Sam was convinced. 'Stop!' he cried. 'How do you
know all this?'
'I know everything, Samuel. Everything! The things I have told
you so far are trivial. I know the deepest secrets of what man calls
the Universe. Every secret that science struggled to understand has
been revealed to me. Now call me Lord.'
Sam stared at Michael's bloated body, oval as an airship, large as a
planet, naked and obscene. How could he use such a word for such a
monster?
'If you do not acknowledge me as your Lord then when I get free
from this mesh I will destroy you.'
'Please do! I don't care. I've lost everything. Death would be a
mercy.'
'So you do not want to save the world? You do not care about
your wife and family?'
Michael's words cut into Sam's heart. He suddenly saw his stepdaughter's
face, her ginger hair sticking out in wild disarray, her eyes
lost and confused. 'You mean the world hasn't been destroyed?'
'Not yet, but it will be if we do not act fast. Now are you going to
help me or not?'
'Is Catriona still alive?'
'That's one of the things I want you to find out. Stand up!'
Sam had no choice. If the world could still be saved, if Catriona
was still alive, then he had to help her, no matter how much he hated
Michael. He pushed against the smooth crystal faces and tried to get
to his feet. Immediately he slipped and fell heavily back into the
little valley between the huge crystals. He lay as still as he could,
terrified they would separate and he would fall through the gap.
'Take your shoes and socks off,' Michael said softly.
Sam removed his footwear and managed to stand with one foot on
each crystal face, afraid his weight would push them apart and much
relieved when they did not move. He was at the junction of dozens
of blue crystal shards.
'Look down the middle of each crystal,' Michael told him.
As Sam looked around he began to understand what he was seeing.
He was inside a hollow crystal ball with flat faces, like a large
football but with many more sides. It was formed by the flat ends of
dozens of crystal shards which pointed inwards towards him. Their
edges fitted neatly together except for a gap just above his head,
where one crystal appeared to be missing. He could see the black
sky through the triangular hole. He guessed the absent crystal was
the one that Michael had smashed.
'Look into the centres of the crystals, Sam. What can you see?'
Sam's eyes moved across the crystal faces, uncertain what he was
supposed to see. To his astonishment he caught a glimpse of a small
rectangular shape floating like a ghost far down inside one of the
crystals surrounding him. He leaned sideways to get a better view
and lost sight of it. It was only visible when his head was in exactly
the right position, looking straight down the centre of the shard.
Was it flat or solid? Carefully, trying not to overbalance, he felt
inside his jacket. He was surprised and somehow comforted, to feel
his spectacles still safely tucked away in his shirt pocket. He put
them on and saw a blue metal cabinet with two doors, the sort you
might see in a smart garage workshop, either very small or very far
away. He could just make out that its doors were dented, as if they
had been hit several times.
It was obvious he was seeing something that belonged on the Earth.
At the sight of it Sam's heart leaped. This was beyond his wildest
hopes. Eagerly he turned and looked into another crystal. At first he
saw nothing but by moving his head and closing one eye he found a
red metal box with a cone sticking out of one end and some pipes out
of the other. It was fixed to a white concrete wall.
Sam felt a strong mixture of apprehension and excitement. How
could he see things which seemed so earthly, so human, when he
clearly was not on the Earth? He longed to see more. He began to
glance quickly into the other crystals. In one he saw a yellow metal
girder, in another some tapering flat brown plates. Other crystals
showed thick cables and a blue metal balcony. The more he saw, the
more he had a feeling these were parts of the ATLAS cavern. It was
not a place he was familiar with. He had only spent a half-hour or so
in there, it had been dark and a lot had been going on, but when he
saw a red cabinet with the word 'Savox' on the door he was sure it
must be the cavern. They had passed a cabinet like this when they
had first come into the cavern and walked along the balcony. These
were almost certainly images of the same place. He was astonished.
How was it possible--
'What can you see, Sam?' The anxiety in Michael's voice was
palpable.
'I think I can see the cavern.'
'Call me Lord.'
'I think I can see the cavern, Lord.'
'I knew it!' Michael's voice was triumphant. 'Which parts?'
Sam was beginning to tire, his legs spread between the sloping
crystal faces, his arms outstretched to balance, but he managed to
find again the blue cabinet with the dented doors, the red box
hanging from the wall, the yellow girder, and described each one in
turn. He was still looking for the Savox cabinet when his legs gave
way and he fell, trembling with exhaustion, to the crystal floor.
'Did you see any people?' Michael asked.
'No.'
'Have you looked through every crystal?'
'Not yet.'
'You must look into all of them.'
Sam longed to see Catriona. If only she was alive, it would give
him something to live for. Once again he struggled to his feet,
wondering why there was this urgency, and began to peer into the
crystals, moving around and trying to check them all methodically.
It was after about ten or a dozen crystals that he saw Maria Kissov.
Many thanks to those guys, especially for their positive responses, and more comments very welcome.
============
'Get up, Samuel,' Michael said.
Sam ignored him. He lay on his back trying to work out where he
was. Layer upon layer of transparent blue polygons overlapped
above him, crossed and twisted at crazy angles. They must be solid
objects, Sam thought, but their transparency made it impossible to
work out their shape.
Over them all arched the black dome of the sky. It was dotted with
thousands of pink planets. Most were tiny but one was so close he
felt he could reach out and touch its little blue clouds, could dip his
fingers into its pink ocean. Wherever this is, it's certainly not the
Earth, Sam thought.
'I know you can hear me, Sam,' Michael said. 'Come on, get up!
We don't have much time. Don't you want to save the world?'
Sam's rage boiled over. 'That's rich, coming from you!' he
screamed. 'It was you put the Earth in danger in the first place!' Sam
lifted his head and looked round. He did not see Michael, but what
he saw sent a shiver of fear down his spine.
He was balanced precariously on the tops of several long thin
slivers of crystal. Looking down through their transparent blueness
he could see them tapering away below him, like the legs of a
gigantic insect. Their feet rested on an irregular scaffold of long blue
threads which, Sam assumed, were more crystals. They formed an
enormous crystal network, like a web woven by a drunken spider. It
faded into the distance, too transparent to see, but he guessed it
probably surrounded the whole planet.
Far below he could see the pink ocean. From up here it looked as
smooth as a billiard ball. Sam wondered whether this planet might
be the same as the ones above him. This one had no blue clouds, and
those others had no framework like this; or perhaps they did, but too
faint to see.
Looking down at the ocean he saw a long oval shadow, bending
with the curvature of the planet. It was the only feature visible from
this height. Sam remembered vividly how it felt on his face, cold,
slimy and suffocating. He shivered again as he imagined what
would happen if the crystals moved and he fell through the gap.
'I'm over here, Sam,' he heard Michael say. Sam looked the other
way. A gigantic oval body hung, white and bloated against the black
sky. Hundreds of blue crystals enclosed it, trapping it like a fish in a
net. Sam could see two tiny arms and legs sticking out of the smooth
curving flanks like fins. A gondola hung down near the back in the
shape of a man's private parts. A monumental face was carved on
the front like a ship's figure-head. It still belonged unmistakably to
Michael Zhang. Then the heavy, oriental eyes turned towards him,
the thin cruel lips opened and Sam heard Michael's voice say 'Now
stand up. I need your help and there's not much time.'
'My help?' Sam said in disbelief. 'I'm not helping you, Zhang,
after everything you've done--'
'Do not use that name!' A darkness suffused Michael's gigantic
face. 'I used to be Michael Zhang, but now you will call me Lord.'
'You? I certainly will not!' You were odd before, Sam thought,
but now you've gone totally insane.
Michael's eyes narrowed. 'I am as wise as what you would call a
god. You don't believe me? I can easily prove it. For example, I
know everything about you. You are Samuel James Fitzpatrick.
You were born at 23 Old Blackrock Road, Cork, at 2:54 in the
afternoon of 7th of July 1959. You were the second child of James
Rossiman Fitzpatrick and Irene Juliet Fitzpatrick, nee Blanding.
Your family lived there for the first six years of your life. Then on
August 9th, 1965 they moved to Limerick and you went...'
Sam couldn't believe it as every detail of his past was reeled out,
including many facts he didn't even know himself but which all had
the ring of truth. And when Michael described his father's infidelity
with a neighbour, a close family secret, and correctly stated the
woman's name, Sam was convinced. 'Stop!' he cried. 'How do you
know all this?'
'I know everything, Samuel. Everything! The things I have told
you so far are trivial. I know the deepest secrets of what man calls
the Universe. Every secret that science struggled to understand has
been revealed to me. Now call me Lord.'
Sam stared at Michael's bloated body, oval as an airship, large as a
planet, naked and obscene. How could he use such a word for such a
monster?
'If you do not acknowledge me as your Lord then when I get free
from this mesh I will destroy you.'
'Please do! I don't care. I've lost everything. Death would be a
mercy.'
'So you do not want to save the world? You do not care about
your wife and family?'
Michael's words cut into Sam's heart. He suddenly saw his stepdaughter's
face, her ginger hair sticking out in wild disarray, her eyes
lost and confused. 'You mean the world hasn't been destroyed?'
'Not yet, but it will be if we do not act fast. Now are you going to
help me or not?'
'Is Catriona still alive?'
'That's one of the things I want you to find out. Stand up!'
Sam had no choice. If the world could still be saved, if Catriona
was still alive, then he had to help her, no matter how much he hated
Michael. He pushed against the smooth crystal faces and tried to get
to his feet. Immediately he slipped and fell heavily back into the
little valley between the huge crystals. He lay as still as he could,
terrified they would separate and he would fall through the gap.
'Take your shoes and socks off,' Michael said softly.
Sam removed his footwear and managed to stand with one foot on
each crystal face, afraid his weight would push them apart and much
relieved when they did not move. He was at the junction of dozens
of blue crystal shards.
'Look down the middle of each crystal,' Michael told him.
As Sam looked around he began to understand what he was seeing.
He was inside a hollow crystal ball with flat faces, like a large
football but with many more sides. It was formed by the flat ends of
dozens of crystal shards which pointed inwards towards him. Their
edges fitted neatly together except for a gap just above his head,
where one crystal appeared to be missing. He could see the black
sky through the triangular hole. He guessed the absent crystal was
the one that Michael had smashed.
'Look into the centres of the crystals, Sam. What can you see?'
Sam's eyes moved across the crystal faces, uncertain what he was
supposed to see. To his astonishment he caught a glimpse of a small
rectangular shape floating like a ghost far down inside one of the
crystals surrounding him. He leaned sideways to get a better view
and lost sight of it. It was only visible when his head was in exactly
the right position, looking straight down the centre of the shard.
Was it flat or solid? Carefully, trying not to overbalance, he felt
inside his jacket. He was surprised and somehow comforted, to feel
his spectacles still safely tucked away in his shirt pocket. He put
them on and saw a blue metal cabinet with two doors, the sort you
might see in a smart garage workshop, either very small or very far
away. He could just make out that its doors were dented, as if they
had been hit several times.
It was obvious he was seeing something that belonged on the Earth.
At the sight of it Sam's heart leaped. This was beyond his wildest
hopes. Eagerly he turned and looked into another crystal. At first he
saw nothing but by moving his head and closing one eye he found a
red metal box with a cone sticking out of one end and some pipes out
of the other. It was fixed to a white concrete wall.
Sam felt a strong mixture of apprehension and excitement. How
could he see things which seemed so earthly, so human, when he
clearly was not on the Earth? He longed to see more. He began to
glance quickly into the other crystals. In one he saw a yellow metal
girder, in another some tapering flat brown plates. Other crystals
showed thick cables and a blue metal balcony. The more he saw, the
more he had a feeling these were parts of the ATLAS cavern. It was
not a place he was familiar with. He had only spent a half-hour or so
in there, it had been dark and a lot had been going on, but when he
saw a red cabinet with the word 'Savox' on the door he was sure it
must be the cavern. They had passed a cabinet like this when they
had first come into the cavern and walked along the balcony. These
were almost certainly images of the same place. He was astonished.
How was it possible--
'What can you see, Sam?' The anxiety in Michael's voice was
palpable.
'I think I can see the cavern.'
'Call me Lord.'
'I think I can see the cavern, Lord.'
'I knew it!' Michael's voice was triumphant. 'Which parts?'
Sam was beginning to tire, his legs spread between the sloping
crystal faces, his arms outstretched to balance, but he managed to
find again the blue cabinet with the dented doors, the red box
hanging from the wall, the yellow girder, and described each one in
turn. He was still looking for the Savox cabinet when his legs gave
way and he fell, trembling with exhaustion, to the crystal floor.
'Did you see any people?' Michael asked.
'No.'
'Have you looked through every crystal?'
'Not yet.'
'You must look into all of them.'
Sam longed to see Catriona. If only she was alive, it would give
him something to live for. Once again he struggled to his feet,
wondering why there was this urgency, and began to peer into the
crystals, moving around and trying to check them all methodically.
It was after about ten or a dozen crystals that he saw Maria Kissov.
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