The Prometheus Project: Stranded Part 9

Kelsey thought for several long seconds. "Didn't you say the military was attaching tiny radio transmitters to bees? What about doing that?"

Alyssa considered. "Yeah, I guess you could," she said. "Good thinking." She paused. "But there are other problems, too. In real life, when someone is missing, the police take one of their dirty socks or something and have a bloodhound smell it. Then the bloodhound begins tracking them. But the bees don't know they're supposed to swarm around any scent you put under their noses, just the scent they've been trained with. So are you going to spend a week or two training them to swarm for each particular person? By the time they're trained it will be too late."

Kelsey frowned. "How come we didn't think of that before?"

"Probably because it was a cool idea and we were amazed that it was working. I mean, the project will still be awesome. But not awesome enough. The judges will see the problems with using this in real life." She shook her head. "There's another thing we should have considered. You can load a bloodhound into a car and drive it fifty miles away, but how are you going to do that with an entire beehive?"

"So ... what are you saying?" said Kelsey in disappointment. "That we shouldn't finish the project?"

"No. We should still do it. The judges will still be impressed. It's just that we have to come up with a second part. A part using individual bees, like they did at Los Alamos. We have to think of some other cool thing we can train them to do."

"Like what?"

"I have no idea," mumbled Alyssa. Then she brightened. "But I did find out today that Ryan Resnick knows a lot about conditioning," she said. "I'm thinking of asking him to help." She paused. "I think you know his sister, Regan."

Kelsey nodded.

"What do you think of her?"

"She's nice. Real friendly, but kind of weird in a way, too. I can't really explain it. And she seems to know a lot of things I don't think they teach in school."

Interesting, thought Alyssa. Ryan's sister sounded a lot like him. These two were definitely unique. For some reason a TV show popped into her head in which a brother and sister from another planet were attending school on Earth. Nah, she thought, they weren't that odd.

"I know what you mean," said Alyssa. "Ryan can be a bit strange sometimes also. But still, I think I ..." She paused for several seconds. "I think I like him."

"Like him, like him?" said Kelsey.

Alyssa smiled. "Yeah," she admitted. "A lot, actually."

"Really?" said Kelsey with tremendous interest. She raised her eyebrows. "Do you think he can really help the project?"

"Maybe. He doesn't think the same way everyone else does. Maybe that's what we need." She paused. "I'll ask him for ideas and see what happens. In the meanwhile, we can practice training bees one at a time. I got a bunch of them from Mr. Grace on my way home from school. They're in the refrigerator."

"The refrigerator?"

"Yeah. If you lower their body temperature they become dazed, so you can strap them into tiny harnesses without them getting away or stinging you. By the time we get back they should be numb enough for us to work with."

"By the time we get back from what?" said Kelsey.

"From our experiment. Like I said, it still makes sense to finish our project like we planned."

"What's the point? Isn't it too late now?"

"Maybe," said Alyssa. "But it's supposed to stay in the high fifties until about seven o'clock tonight. If it gets too dark for this to work, so what? We'll still get some practice for tomorrow and have a nice hike. I hate this house. The less time we spend in it, the better."

Kelsey nodded. "Yeah. You can say that again."

"Let's get out of here," said Alyssa, rising from her chair. She and Kelsey left the kitchen and began gathering what they would need for their immanent test.

A few minutes later they heard a surprised shriek coming from the kitchen-from their grandmother.

"Alyssa," she shouted angrily just after her scream had stopped. "Could you come here for a minute?"

Kelsey turned toward her sister and grinned. "Let me guess," she said. "You didn't tell Grandma about your new pets."

Despite being in a bad mood, Alyssa laughed. "Uh-oh," she said, rushing off toward the kitchen. Her grandmother had lived a long time, but Alyssa was willing to bet she had never found forty bees in the fridge before. "Coming Grandma," she shouted, a broad smile still on her face. "Whatever you do, make sure you don't eat any of those. I need them."

CHAPTER 16.

From Bad to Worse

Regan listened as her parents discussed strategies for rescuing Ryan. But as clever as they were they could think of no way to cross the glowing molten sea. Finally they gave up.

Regan had never seen her father cry, but he did on this occasion. His son was in grave danger and he was powerless to help him. Her mother just became strangely silent and her eyes burned with a frightening rage.

Thirty minutes later the predators returned.

One by one they came, until more than a dozen different species were represented. Along with the gray wolf-things they had faced there were armored creatures, clawed creatures, and creatures with eight-inch fangs. There were reptilian creatures the size of hippos with heads crowned in twenty-inch spikes. Carnivores that lumbered like bears but had the faces and teeth of a Tyrannosaurus rex. Hairy spider-creatures the size of small dogs that shot bolts of electricity at the barrier. Tentacled animals with razor sharp claws at the end of each of their ten snake-like arms. Brightly colored creatures that expanded like accordions and shot poison at the barrier from glands on their throats. Large, furless predators with kangaroo-like legs whose powerful kicks would surely have broken through the barrier had not the electric shocks discouraged their attempts. Animals with powerful tails ending in ma.s.sive b.a.l.l.s of thick bone that could be used as devastating clubs. And even animals that launched projectiles, like porcupine needles, from slots in their heads.

And every single one of them had a common goal: get inside the barrier and kill anything human. The approach of nightfall did nothing to discourage them and their growls and roars and hisses and clicks and screeches and snarls were unrelenting. Each tried to throw themselves through the glowing green barrier and each received a harsh shock for their efforts. This seemed to only make them that much more eager to reach the humans.

Miguel and Cam were still lying on the ground about twenty yards from the rest of the expedition. The group thought leaving them alone, away from loud voices and at a range that wouldn't tempt them to weaken themselves by contributing to any conversations, would be helpful as they began to recuperate. And they were right, especially since the remaining, healthy members of the expedition were at each other's throats. Their endless bickering was loud, and savage in its intensity.

Regan knew the team was falling apart, just when they needed each other the most. Her father was detached, as if he didn't care anymore, and her mother was more combative than Regan had ever seen her, sticking up for her husband and family.

Strangely, the wildlife seemed to ignore Cam and Miguel. The predators focused on the main group. None of the a.s.sorted beasts tried to throw themselves at the barrier near the two members of security. Only when Amanda Resnick brought them food and checked on their bandages did a number of the snarling beasts peel themselves away to stalk that part of the barrier-leaving as soon as she did.

Regan wanted to check in on her brother in the worst way. But she was afraid of distracting him at just the wrong moment. That was the last thing he needed. Besides, he had said he would contact her to report.

She lifted her yellow and black backpack and wandered to the opposite end of the shield to be alone. She plopped down on the ground and pulled a small white wrist.w.a.tch from the front pocket of the nylon bag. It showed the time in Pennsylvania. A place to which she would never return.

She frowned and thought of Ryan once again as the incessant arguing between the adults became even louder.

She would wait five minutes, no more. Then she would contact her brother.

CHAPTER 17.

A New Hypothesis

"Ryan," broadcast Regan as loudly as she could.

"Are you still okay?"

Several long seconds pa.s.sed. "I told you I'd let you know!" he barked.

"I'm worried about you, Ryan."

"Well you should be!"

"What's happening?"

"You tell me."

"Okay. Cam and Miguel are recovering a little but they're still really weak. Mom and Dad are worried to death about you and blaming themselves that you got cut off from us. And most of the team members are still acting like crazed idiots. Dad's still the leader, but I'm not sure how long that will last. Donna, Bob, and Eric all seem like they can't wait to take over."

"So you've got a Lord of the Flies thing happening, only with adults."

"Lord of the Flies?"

"It's a book," explained Ryan irritably.

"I haven't read it."

"You will," snapped Ryan, but as he thought about this further he laughed bitterly. "Then again, maybe you won't. Unless someone brought a copy in their backpack." He paused. "Okay. Thanks for the depressing report. Now go away!"

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on with you," insisted Regan, trying not to be hurt by her brother's words.

"Why do you even care?" he demanded. "So you can put the right words on my gravestone! Okay, I'll tell you. I'm sitting with my back against the Isis shield with a ring of fire in front of me. And fourteen of those clicking, gray wolf-things are waiting patiently for the fire to die. Once the fire dies ... so do I."

"I don't know what to say."

"Well I do!" snapped Ryan. "I know exactly what to say. We're the biggest fools who ever lived. We're not ready for Prometheus. We should have just walked away from it."

"We are ready," countered Regan. "Dad and the others are being really careful. We just didn't count on a psycho like Nathaniel."

"So you contacted me on my last night alive to argue with me!" he broadcast angrily. "Is that really what you want to do?" He frowned deeply. "Something bad was bound to happen, no matter how careful we're being. We shouldn't be messing with technology and science we can't understand. Not don't understand. Can't understand. Like how gravity can be controlled by a small cube. Like how the Teacher can turn solid objects into see-through ghosts. Like the fourth dimension. Impossible to find. Impossible to even imagine. We're way, way out of our league."

Regan gasped, both aloud and telepathically.

"What?" snapped Ryan. "What now?"

"That's it, Ryan!"

Regan paused for several long moments as her mind raced through the possibilities.

"What's it?" he demanded.

"What you just said. About us turning into ghosts-and the fourth dimension. They're the same thing! It's so clear to me now."

"You've lost it, Regan."

"No. I've found it. Hold on."

Regan removed a pad of paper and pencil from her backpack and hastily scribbled on the first page.

"Remember Dad's drawing of Flatland? Well, there's something obvious that we didn't think about. I've just drawn a picture and I'm going to look at it and transmit it to you telepathically. I think you'll understand right away. Here it is."

Regan didn't need to ask if her brother had received her mental image of the drawing. She knew he had.

"So here are two Flatlanders facing each other. I've drawn them like Dad did-you know, kind of like frog people. Anyway, I've shown the heart inside the one on the right. And inside the heart is a blood vessel. And inside the blood vessel are cells."

Ryan was having trouble concentrating, but even so understood where Regan was going immediately. "You're right. I do get it," he broadcast. "I wouldn't have drawn a heart like a valentine, but I get it. No Flat-lander can see what's inside any other Flatlander. But we 3D beings can. Easily. We can see inside of everything in Flatland, at every level of detail, all at once."

"Exactly," broadcast Regan excitedly. "Dad was saying that Flatlanders could never understand up or down unless someone pulled them off the page. Well, what would happen if someone did that? They could look down for the first time. They could see everything inside of bank vaults and homes. And people. Their hearts, lungs and brains. They would think their fellow Flatlanders had all turned into ghosts. Remind you of anything?"

Ryan made no reply.

"Don't you see, Ryan! That's what the Teacher did to us. It pulled us in whichever direction the fourth dimension is in. If the two Flatlanders I've drawn were about to smash into each other, you could stop it by lifting one above the other. Not knowing about the third dimension they would swear that the only reason they didn't collide was that they had pa.s.sed through each other. Just like we thought had happened with the Hauler. And the one on the left would be able to see everything inside of the one on the right. When the Hauler was about to crush us, the Teacher yanked us into the fourth dimension. While we were there we could see everything inside of three-dimensional objects."

"I get it," barked Ryan. "I just don't care. I don't want to think about Qwervy science. I wish I'd never heard of them! Why don't you get out of my head and leave me in peace!"

"I won't Ryan! Let me finish. I have an idea that might save your life."

"An idea? You think an idea is going to stop me from becoming dinner? No thanks. What I need is a machine gun. So unless you can get me one of those, leave me alone."

"I think we enter the fourth dimension whenever we pa.s.s though a Qwervy shield," she continued, deciding to ignore her brother completely. "That's why we felt the way we did-and why we could see inside of things again-when the tram pa.s.sed through the Isis shield. Just like we could when the Hauler was about to hit us. Dad was sure a single crystal couldn't get us through every shield, no matter what the frequency. But it can. Because all the shields are touching the fourth dimension somehow."

Regan scribbled another drawing.

"Imagine you're a Flatlander. This is the shield surrounding the portal to Earth. You're the stick-figure. If you could just lift your foot a billionth of an inch in the up direction you could cross over the barrier. But you can't. I think that's where the crystal comes in. It gives us just enough of a push into the fourth dimension to let us cross the barrier. But if we could just move a billionth of an inch in that direction ourselves, we wouldn't need the crystal."