THE SLIDE Part 4

Chapter 47: Converging on the Eye

Fantasy: Suspense, The Rivals Jockeying for Position

Recap

Hrez, Farha, Sophia and Kuzma while having been hit by the wave in the tunnel were transported to the transdimensional space and awakened — alive…

“Where’s Hrez,” Kuzma asked, alarmed.

“I’ll go find him,” Farha said.

“You’ll do no such thing, young woman,” Nikos commanded. And he explained that parts of the transdimensional space was eroding and disappearing.

“Call him, instead, and see if he comes out of the degradations…”

Farha began calling: shouting out Hrez’s name in a booming voice.

He appeared.

Everyone breathed out at once.

“I got lost in the dragon’s breath.”

Zed Space

Zed directed construction of machines and personnel in bunkers dug into the ground. He worked until he could not keep his eyes open. He fell into a sound sleep at his work station.

And he entered dreamtime. X was awaiting him and he saw Ombolo too. He saw X merging with Ombolo and stealing her energy for himself. He recognized the light of Ra atop the dolphin Orca and Ombolo direct behind Orca. He was delighted that every time X’s spirit self-merged with Ombolo — that he took from her and diminished the transdimensional space within Nikos’ The Greek’s balloon sphere.

Soon they will be gone stripped out and drowned in the waters flooding the tunnel, he heard the thought of X and was satisfied.

Link to The Drake

The two flew by night. After several attempts Marie Bissett’s mind and heart linked with the she-drake. A rudimentary communications link began. Below and aft of Marie’s current position in the “saddle” was a hidden alcove where she could lie down for rest and sleep, eat, attend to basic functions of life and toiletry. There were dried food stuffs recently stored there, she discovered. She-drake encouraged her to sleep.

The she-drake occasionally glowed as she passed through layers of time backwards, forwards and along parallel linear-spacetime. The elegant beast flew through bands of intense light and dark, followed by long periods of darkness.

The transdimensional space of the balloon’s sphere fluctuated with bands of light and dark that happened rapidly. It hurt their eyes. When the land and mist returned night under a faint moon, they all fell under a spell of deep sleep.

Marie, covered in folds of armor, was lulled into a deep sleep of dreams of fleets of drakes that ruled the skies for centuries. The drake flew in a circular spiral through the rhythms of time and space toward the omega point that was at once both the omega and alpha points as one.

Hrez was transfixed awake, watching with his flesh-eyes and inner third eye at the circular bands of the cedar forest disappear and reappear within the lens of the stone circle and back again to the cedars within the dragon’s breath. The three Papadopouloses, Kuzma and Farha, slept deeply as the land breathed around and through them.

As Above, So Below

Ra’s light above Orca’s head, Ombolo and the forward moving balloon sphere orbiting the two moved with the wave towards the south pole below within the tunnel. It was a dizzying ride.

To the south of the main landing strip was a crystal mountain anchored to deeper layers within the planet, believed by the peoples of Matta and supported by evidence of the Ninkla scientists. Etal Pui was the chief scientist who had walked for many days to meet Tem when his plane landed. After passing through and having been vetted by French and SS security, he and Tem talked for hours without words — through mind to mind immersion.

He, the one you name as Zed, will easily lift the plan of flying into the eye of the vortex using our well-timed plan. Etal Pui placed the entire thought with Tem’s grasp.

Plan, what plan? Tem admitted confusion.

Patience, friend Tem. Wait and breathe, Etal Pui smiled briefly. There…

Yes, thank-you. I see it all now. I could even fly the plane if I have to, Tem smiled, having received the plan and knowledge with skill of flying the plane in rough weather in a downward twisting spiraled circle mirroring the vortex.

Tem created a spatial rift big enough for the both of them to exist.

“See, my friend, I knew you were more skilled than you thought you were,” Etal Pui said, and chuckled.

“I see it all,” Tem said as a flash of images appeared from his life with his twin brother, to the birth of Farha, to the disappearance of Francois to the Slide and all the rest including his travels multidimensionally with Kuzma and his special love for Hanna and the disciples under his wing over hundreds of thousands of years that spiraled through the expanded present moment.

Tem felt Etal Pui’s hand gently on top of his hand. The expanded present moment compressed to include only immediate tasks in the near present.

Tem relaxed and looked deeply into Etal Pui’s brown eyes and recognized him as his teacher, mentor, and companion of destiny. He had seen him in guards, messengers, commoners at the fort and in Paris.

“I have always been your student and devotee,” Etal Pui said fondly to the being within and behind the mask of Tem.

They stood in the pocket dimension and hugged.

Seconds later, the meeting ended. Etal Pui stepped out of the hut under the vortex miles away and vanished.

Two Paths Leave One

I feel your strength beneath my legs, Ouroboros, Marie called she-drake by her name.

Ouroboros responded with, Yes Marie, I am here.

I see why you are flying so fast in a circle high up to down, Marie told Ouroboros telepathically/empathically.

Night rolled into day, day into night, night into day with increasing rapidity. All the while, there were layers of the dragon’s breath laid against the ground. Hrez was particularly fascinated with it — especially the cycles of it like condensed seasons. The landscape cocked at slight angles juxtaposed to the angles of the sun and moon phases overhead. Other than Hrez, mainly the three Papadopouloses, Kuzma and Farha were gathered for warmth in a small space while on the surface the vortex hunted…

The vortex was not content with extricating trees and land and vegetation; it went after water in the tables underground. In the tunnel below ground riding the crest of the wave towards the center, Orca and Ra shuttered as the mighty vortex pulled at the solidity of the tunnel from above. Parts of the wave were pulled out of the main feed as it was sucked forward even faster towards the center. The dragon’s glade filled with mist vibrated.

“What was that?” Farha stood alarmed, and she turned, looking towards where they had been.

“It looks to be a ghost image of us being diverted on a second wave into another tunnel,” Hrez said.

“I think you’re right,” Farha said.

“Right about what?” Awakened, Nikos was alarmed. He was joined by Sophia.

Overhead, the tunnel was being pulled apart. Pieces of it were pulled up along with the water. The glade and the sphere were slammed upwards. Debris fell down, while most of it flew up.

“What was that?” Maria asked.

“A ghost image.”

Previous Chapter 46: Underneath The End of the World/Event Horizon:

I appreciate your continuing readership and applaud you that you take the time to read this longer work in an era of shrinking stories. Bravo!

Rebecca Romanelli | Blaine Coleman | Spyder | DL Nemeril | May More | David Price | Dr Mehmet Yildiz | Melanie J. | Joseph Lieungh | Camille Grady | madmess’s thoughts | Orla K. | Ravyne Hawke | Winston | Margie Willis | Noorain Ali | Lee David Tyrrell | Libby Shively McAvoy | Lady Dr. Gabriella Korosi | Ilis Trudie Palmer | Rip Parker