INDEX

Chapter 1 – The Chase, The Tower

Chapter 2 – Just What Is This Junk?

Chapter 3 – Beyond

Chapter 4 – Eyes On Stalks

Chapter 5 – The Saysestrians

Chapter 6 – Don't Give Up Hope

Chapter 7- Determined

Chapter 8 - Convincing

Chapter 9 – Have To Stop Them, But How?

Chapter 10 – What Have You Done?

Chapter 11 – Work The Like You Have Never Seen Before

Chapter 12 - Interference

Chapter 13 – More Complications

Chapter 14 – Who's What?

Chapter 15 - Re-United

Foreword

This book is dedicated to the staff and guests at the Tortworth Court Hotel, in Tortworth South Gloucester. This story was inspired by visits to the hotel and one occasion when the spiral stairs in the main tower, intrigued me.

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ttp://tortworth-court-hotel.four-pillars.co.uk

Chapter 1 – The Chase, The Tower

The man, tall, thin, with dark hair moving quite briskly, with military precision, dressed in a smart uniform, is walking down the corridor towards the two boys. He smiles at them, but behind that smile, is he hiding the fact that he is onto their secret? The rather impressive tray he is carrying, could be for camouflage purposes only, to throw the boys off the scent. The boys dare not look into his eyes as he passes, in-case he can read the slightest hint of their purpose here. As hard as they can, they keep up their rate of walking, as if nothing is wrong. Their hearts beating at least three times their walking pace. Time seems to pass slowly. Despite the speed at which they are moving. It seems as if it would be impossible to gain sufficient ground, before the chase recommences. Perhaps someone else will be sent to observe them. The uniformed man is probably at this very moment summoning up reinforcements. The boys take a sneaky look behind them and see that the man with the tray has stopped and is talking to someone. Perhaps he is briefing this fellow conspirator. The man in the uniform points down the corridor.... in the direction of the boys. As both men turn to look towards the boys, Stuart suddenly feels himself being pulled to one side, it is Andrew's hand that is grasping his shirt and tugging him down a side corridor. Stuart is about to protest, but remembers the two men out to get them. The boys hope that the man in the smart uniform and his co-conspirator, haven't seen them disappear down this side corridor and chase after them.

This cat and mouse chase has been going on for about an hour now and whilst the people involved have all been different, the danger has always seemed the same, although some have appeared to be more suspicious than others. After all two boys aged respectively eleven and twelve, can get into a fair bit of mischief, if the will takes them that way.

having found themselves in this side shoot of a corridor, the boys need to find their way to safety, before those two chase after them. The new corridor leads to staircase, with its dark wooden railings and banister. The steps equally dark, but with carpet snaking its way down down the middle, following the curve of the stairway. Ahead lay its counterpart heading upwards. The decision awaiting the two boys, to go up or down? They had possibly encountered the lower set of stairs, whilst exploring the floor below, so to go down those would merely confirm that they had seen these stairs once before. Like a magnet they are drawn to the stairs leading upward. without a word being exchanged, they set off up the stairs.

Whilst the stairs themselves, are dark and foreboding, there is light streaming down from somewhere above, it is as if it is inviting them to journey upward, as indeed they do. Sure enough on the landing above there is a large window, that looks out across the roofs of the parts of the building building that stretch out below them. The grounds beyond look enticing with their formal gardens, lakes and woods.

There is a short length of corridor opposite the window, leading to yet more steps and a pair of wooden doors, set in an arched entrance, each door taking up its own half of that archway. The doors, large and imposing, made of the same dark wood as the stairs, looking equally foreboding, have glass panels that shine as if daylight lay beyond. Neither boy being tall enough to see through the glass panes. Perhaps it is some sort of balcony or roof garden. Will they be trapped up here? Their hearts still beating fast.

Andrew grabs the door handle and Stuart, in a whisper asks, "Do you think it is safe to go out there? Will there be anyone there?"

Andrew replies, equally in a whisper, "We can't stay here and we can't go back down, we just have to go through."

Stuart places an ear against the door listens carefully. After a short while he stands upright and announces, "Can't hear anything."

Andrew's hand reaches out for the door knob and gingerly turns it. The door at first, resists any movement, then suddenly gives. Andrew stops pushing.

Stuart resumes his listening again, in-case the door opening has attracted any attention from anyone the on other side.

The wait is painful and Andrew, not the most patient of boys, pushes the door open further.

"What are you doing?" whispers Stuart in a rather terse voice.

Andrew, encouraged by the fact that nothing has happened beyond the door opens it fully, without responding to Andrew's question.

Beyond the door is a room with large windows. It looks like an old fashioned lounge, with arm chairs and sofas around the edges, and small tables dotted around the room. There does not appear to be anyone in the room. Andrew steps inside, closely followed by Stuart. The boys walk to the centre of the room and stop, after having checked out the whole room for any sign of people or other entrances, but there are none. Although there is a strange black metal spiral staircase in one corner, it has rather ornate uprights leading to a rather plain curving banister. The whole leads up to the ceiling, where there is a hexagonal hole, into which the staircase disappears.

The boys stare out of the large windows. They overlook all of the surrounding grounds, at least those before the trees commence. The trees rising in height and blocking out the horizon beyond.

The boys' interest turns back to the metal staircase. There is a chain across the bottom of the stairs, with a sign that says, 'No Exit'.

A
forbidden area. There must be something of great interest, or possibly danger beyond the staircase. Is it the former or latter? Both boy's parents had warned them from an early age, to take note of such signs and to obey them. But this was different wasn't it? They were on a mission and the mission was to find out as much as they could, without getting caught.

Andrew is first to walk to the spiral stairs, he looks up at the ever so dark stairs, leading to the even more dark metallic landing above. The edge of the landing has rails matching the pattern of the ones supporting the metal banister that spirals up with the steps. As Andrew tilts his head to one side, through the gloom, can just about make out something at the end end of the railings, it is dark, almost as dark as the railings and steps. The desire to to know what lies beyond those stairs is just too much. Andrew ducks under the chain and sign.

Stuart protests, "We can't it could be dangerous!"

Andrew says nothing, but starts climbing the stairs. There's a kind of bounce as the whole staircase reacts to Andrew's footsteps.

"Come down, it might collapse!" says Stuart.

Andrew replies, "The sign didn't say dangerous, or don't climb, it just advised that there was no exit this way. Come on, it probably doesn't lead anywhere anyway, but I have to admit its fun climbing the steps."

Stuart nervously looks about himself, as if expecting to see an adult who was going to tell him not to go. As the two boys are alone, it isn't going to happen. Stuart pauses a while longer, whilst making up his mind. Andrew is now half way up the stairs.

Stuart ducks under the chain, it rattles as it sways back and forth, tapping against the metal frame. The stairs feel really strange with the two boys climbing.

Andrew suggests, "Hey let's walk in step, just like army soldiers crossing a rope bridge. I read about it once in a book. When they walked out of step the bridge felt unsafe, but when they walked in step the bridge seemed much more secure."

Soon Andrew is standing on the metal landing and looking down watching Stuart approach. Stuart asks, "What is up there?"

Andrew doesn't reply but turns his attention to the end of the landing that is opposite the last few steps. The dark thing he could see from below, is a wood panelled door, which appears to be made of the same dark wood as used in the rest of this place. There are no glass panels in this door. there are however, dark leaden windows in the other four Walls, the only confirmation that they are made of glass being some reflections of light from below. There is no glimmer of light from the other side. So they are either boarded up the other side or there is no light beyond.

Andrew turns his attention back to the door. There is an old fashioned door catch, which has a spoon shaped thing sticking out of the wood. Andrew has seen one of these before at some old house that he'd visited with his parents. He remembered some old guy telling him that you had to push down on the spoon shape. Andrew pushes, but nothing happens, there's a little give at first but then just total resistance.

Stuart now behind Andrew, says, "Here let me have a go."

Andrew moves to one side, Stuart grabs the handle below the spoon shaped thing, he pulls and at the same time squeezes down on the spoon. There's a loud clunk noise coming from the other side of the door. Stuart pushes and the door opens with a creaking sound. It is dark beyond the door.

~~o~~o~~o~~o~~

Chapter 2 – Just What Is This Junk?

Andrew walks into the dark room, treading carefully. There is something in front of him, blocking his path, so he turns, then fishes around in his pocket and his hand emerges with a tiny torch, which is already on. Gingerly, he steps into the room. Despite the torch the room is still unbearably dark. The torch only managing to catch glimpses of things within the room. They just seem like unconnected shapes, some shiny some dull, none of which make any sense. The two boys stick closely together, as they twist and turn around the room. There is an overwhelming smell of dust and damp. This room, has clearly not been disturbed, for some considerable time.

Stuart stops dead, as if he has seen something that has disturbed him, he says, "This is stupid, we should explore this place in a methodical way, rather than catch small glimpses of this stuff. Shine your torch in front of you on the ground, then slowly bring it up, so we can see if these things are connected in any way. At the moment, it just looks like some sort of storage area."

Andrew replies, "Well that would make sense, after all we do appear to be in the roof. I think this is the tower that we saw when we got here."

Andrew does as Stuart had suggested, his torch starts on the floor and gently swings upwards.

There are black tubes running up from the floor to some sort of black metal box. The box in turn has other tubes emerging sideways and also towards the roof, but the torch isn't strong enough to show where those tubes go. Andrew follows the line of the tubes running out of the right hand side. There are three of them, one goes to a large green cylinder, the next to a box which has a large glass globe beside it. Somewhere behind the tube, there is some faint light, it appears to be coming from one of the leaden windows facing out onto the landing. The glass must be so dusty, however, that the light that is making its way through, is very dim. The globe has several things in it, but the detail is hard to make out. The third tube, runs further on round and enters a tall rectangular box, which has no front cover, so is more like a frame. Inside the frame are several layers, each containing glass cylinders and every so often shiny metallic tubes, inter-spaced with other darker objects. There are what look like smaller pipes running between these things.

Next is the doorway, with the door still standing open. The light from the room below is quite faint, but as the boys' eyes are becoming more accustomed to the low lighting levels, this light is now contributing more towards them making sense of this room and its contents. The boys are glad that the floor appears to be perfectly clear, dusty but tidy.

Andrew says, "Do you know this place reminds me of a very old laboratory. In comparison with a modern school lab everything seems to be super sized."

Stuart suggests, "Maybe it is just some form of old power distribution device, that has long since become unused."

Andrew agrees, "You could be right, it does look like it is electrical in nature. If only we could get to the windows, perhaps we could clean them and they would let a bit more light in."

Andrew swings his torch around a bit further and yet more racks of glass tubes and another glass globe can be seen. Then there is a series of large copper coils, two vertical rows of them either side of a space, which is now in front of them. There are two coils above, pointing in at an angle. The whole apparatus in this room seems to be focused on this one area. A number of the black tubes heading in towards the coils.

Andrew lets out an involuntary whistle and says, "Will you cop a look at that!"

Stuart, jumps at the noise and exclaims, "What the hell is it?"

"Heck knows, but I'll tell you what, it isn't a power thingy." replies Andrew, walking around it, not daring to touch, but fascinated with the thickness of the coils.

It is only then, that Andrew realises, that Stuart is no longer at his side. He spins around and sees that Stuart's shadowy figure, is over by the doorway. There's a sharp click noise, a flicker of light and suddenly Andrew realises that Stuart has managed to turn on some lights. Andrew catches sight of strange bulbs hanging from the ceiling, they are glowing a sort of orangey light which is gradually getting brighter and changing to white. There are numerous cobwebs strung between the hanging bulbs, like some form of organic network of fine thread bridges.

"Well done Stew, how did you know the light switch was there?" asks Andrew.

"I suddenly caught sight of it, just now when you swung your torch around."

replies Stuart.

"These bulbs must be really old, I have never seen lights come on like that before, except in really old movies." says Andrew, as he turns off his torch and stows it away in his pocket again.

The contents of the room, are now so much easier to make out. It looks even more like a really old laboratory, every bit of equipment seems to be connected to the rest, by way of the black tubes. It seemed very orderly, whilst also looking quite chaotic, well chaotic in comparison to modern devices.

Andrew remarks, "Well this is obviously where it ends, but where does all this lot begin?"

"More importantly,"Stuart says as he rejoins Andrew by the large coils, "What is it all for?"

"
Given its age, probably more like, was for." corrects Andrew.

Stuart has moved and is by the first box that they had seen when Andrew fished out his torch. He suggests, "Given that these tubes go out to all bits of the room and the box is fed by by the tube from the floor, it probably all starts from here."

"I can't see any controls around here." replies Andrew, looking carefully around the room.

"Why do you want to find those?" asks Stuart.

"Because controls are usually labelled with what they do. We would then know what all this is for." Andrew smiles a smug smile. The sort that Stuart doesn't like, the type that says I'm smart and you're not.

Stuart determined to get his own back turns his attention to the black box in front of him. Stuart examines it closely and notices a small knob on the front, he pulls it and a small door opens, inside there is a large switch and a bank of strange white things, each one lining up with small tubes, no wires, each heading to one of the tubes to the sides and top of the box. "Hey come and see this."

Andrew joins Stuart and after a short while of examining the box, announces, "It's a fuse box, my grandma's house had one that was a bit like this, only those vertical bars were black. Hey its still on."

"So there's no power up here now then." replies Stuart, somewhat

disappointed.

"Not necessarily, each one of these white things has a piece of wire in it. They break if there's too much power going through." Andrew reaches out for the large switch and pushes it upwards. There's a clunk sound.

"What are you doing?" asks Stuart.

"Turning off the power so its safe." Andrew smiles.

"How do you know that's off?"

Andrew taps the upper part of the switch panel, where the switch is now pointing. The faint letters O F F can just about be made out, black letters against a black background, does not make the task easy.

Soon Andrew has all of the white fuse carriers out and is examining the wire within. He soon declares that they are all broken.

Stuart has been looking around whilst Andrew has been busy examining the fuses, he asks, "Will this wire stuff help?" He points to a small table just behind the box, it has a piece of card with some wire wrapped around it. Also on the table is a rather dusty and come to that rusty screw driver.

"Probably" replies Andrew, "Hey pass me the screwdriver as well."

Stuart does as requested and soon Andrew is industriously replacing the fuse wires. The job made somewhat easier as Stuart has also found a pair of pliers on the floor.

As the last fuse is pushed home, into its carrier, Andrew says, "There we're ready."

"Ready for what?" asks Stuart.

"Well to fire this lot up, that is if there is still any power up here. As the lights still work, I would think it is highly likely that there is still power." relies Andrew.

"What if its..." Stuart doesn't finish his sentence.

Andrew asks, "What?"

Stuart continues, "What if its dangerous?"

"Well we won't find out if we walk away will we?" Andrew replies.

"Yeah but my Dad always says don't mess with anything that you don't understand." Stuart.

"A true progressive your Dad isn't he?" asks Andrew.

Stuart grimaces, if there's one thing he doesn't like about Andrew, and there isn't a lot, is the fact that he can at times be a right smart arse and come out with posh stuff the meaning of which Stuart doesn't have a clue.

"If man had not experimented, he'd still be living in caves and eating raw food. Lets give it a go."

Stuart still rather dubious about the wisdom of this 'experimenting' simply says, "But we're just kids."

"Come on where's your spirit of adventure, one small step for man and all that." jibes Andrew as he reaches up for the on switch.

"I don't think we should, this stuff is old and there could be fire, we'd be trapped up here." replies Stuart, edging towards the doorway.

Andrew pulls the switch.

What seems like a million little lights start to glow in the frames that they had seen earlier and there's a faint hum. The overhead lights dim, obviously not able to cope with the sudden load.

Stuart gets even closer to the door. As he does he notices the faint smell of burning dust. He exclaims, "There I warned you, fire, can't you smell it?"

Andrew sniffs the air and replies, "Na that's nothing to worry about our electric fire does that when Dad brings it down from the loft every winter,it soon goes."

The million lights get brighter, almost as if they are compensating for the loss of overhead lighting. There's a clunk noise from the back of the room, from somewhere in the gloom. The globe nearest the fuse box, starts to glow with a purple light, its a rather mysterious light, not constant, but a sort of rhythm in the glow. Then there's a spark deep within the globe. At first it is a single spark, then repeated sparks, again with some sort of pattern.

As Andrew turns to face Stuart, his face is lit by the strange purple glow, he looks like some kind of fiendish scientist as he exclaims, "Exciting isn't

it?"

The globe on the other side of the room has now kicked into life too. There are more clunk noises and whilst the boys had not seen them before, there are other globes deeper into the room and they are also starting to glow.

Andrew sees Stuart pointing at the large coils, he spins to see that there is a sort of haze forming in the space between the coils.

Andrew finds himself drawn towards the haze that is forming in the space between those large coils. As he approaches, he can hear several high pitched whines, each with its own tune. Like a massive musical instrument, that also plays light. That is not the only thing it is playing with, as Andrew feels drawn to it like a bar of metal drawn to a magnet, he cannot resist the draw of the sounds and patterns.

Stuart implores, “Don't go near it, you could get a shock!” However, he also finds himself walking towards the shimmering patterns.

The area that the dancing light is taking up, seems to be increasing in size, by the second, the patterns generated, are more spectacular. Yet more colours are appearing now. The whole is more hypnotic, holding the boys whole attention. So much so, that they do not hear the frantic clicking taking place around them. It is like a gigantic clock that has gone horribly wrong. The passing of seconds, no longer counting out single seconds, but several at the same time.

The two boys standing side by side, totally unaware that the bubble that is the light show, which is enthralling them, has gown in size and is now enveloping them also.

The patterns before them, seem to have some order to them, like an artist painting a scene, at first you just see blobs of colour changing in size and the edges being merged with other colours as more detail is added. Whilst at the edges of the scene being laid out before the boys, remain blurred and continuously changing in shape and colour.

There's a loud clunk sound that brings the boys back to the here and now of the situation, but it is too late, the globe of light surrounding them expands and then sweeps them towards the coils and...... beyond!

~~o~~o~~o~~o~~

Chapter 3 - Beyond

Stuart is first to speak, “The air seems to taste strange, is it safe?”

“Who knows? I don't even know where we are, let alone whether it is safe here.” Andrew picks himself up off the floor, the landing had been rather rough and he smarts as he dusts himself off and in so doing, brushes against some bruises. He asks Stuart, “You alright? I seem to have bruised myself a bit, but as far as I can tell no broken bones.”

“My left leg hurts a bit, probably sprained it. Apart from that I think I'm alright. So what about the air, you noticed the taste?” asks Stuart.

Andrew pauses before answering, then replies, “Sort of metal taste, not unpleasant, but unusual. I wonder where we are? It is a very large room, you can tell by the echo.”

“Also not been used for a while, you can tell that, by the dust.” adds Stuart brushing himself down with his hand.

"Noticed that its not completely dark in here? Those panels above seem to be letting in some light, not much admittedly." suggests Andrew.

"Whoever owns this place is as house proud as the last room we were in." Stuart complains.

"Neither appear to have been used in a long time. Perhaps the same person owned both places and that equipment was just a quick way to travel between them?"

Stuart sighs, "Well there's no apparent way to get back, this place looks totally empty."

"Hey perhaps it was intended as an emergency escape route and only one way transport." Andrew suggests.

"So, so how are we going to get back?" asks Stuart in a worried tone.

"Probably shank's pony."

"What?" asks Stuart confused.

"My dad often calls walking, travelling by Shanks' pony." replies Andrew.

"But we don't know what direction or how far." protests Stuart.

"We'll probably see the hotel from this place. I can't imagine it'll be that far away. Whatever that device was, back there, probably couldn't transmit very far." Andrew starts walking across the large room, hoping that he is heading towards an exit. Stuart follows.

As the boys reach the far wall, there is a rumbling sound, they look behind them and see that a whole section of wall is opening, revealing the outside of the building. There isn't much to see as the light is quite dim, twilight, the light between night and day. The boys change their heading, towards the opening in the wall. They nearly reach it when they hear a strange sound.

Stuart suddenly takes a sharp intake of breath, as if he has had a shock. As Andrew has seen nothing out of the ordinary, he asks, "What's the matter Stew?"

Stuart stuttering says, "O o over the there, I saw something over there."

"Yeah? What did it look like?"

Stuart still having difficulty forming his words properly replies, "It,it wa, was hu, huge, had se, several legs."

Andrew reassures him with, "Probably a shadow cast from something a distance away. Light like this, plays tricks with your eyes, difficult to see stuff properly. We did something in science about that."

The sound can be heard, this time doubled up.

Andrew catches sight of something himself now and sure enough it does look huge. Large oval body, with several legs, with something sticking up out of one end. Now, as whatever the creature is, turns slightly, there's another something sticking up at the other end and several things sticking out of the body. It is difficult to make sense of it all, as whatever it is keeps moving. What is more trying to make sense of something, when all you can see is its shadow, is very difficult. It looks almost like two spiders, one standing on the ground and the other with its legs in the air, but two heads, both pointing upwards.

"There are two of those things!" exclaims Stuart. Sure enough a second one has now come into sight, or at least its shadow has.

"Quick lets hide, they could be dangerous." suggests Andrew.

Stuart is quite surprised, what happened to Andrew's, 'light causing strange images' theory and where should they hide, this place is totally open space, there's nothing to hide behind or in.

Andrew heads towards the doorway and flattens himself against the wall and indicates that Stuart do the same. As Stuart can't think of anything else to suggest, he follows suit.

The two boys wait. The noises get louder, then suddenly something comes through the entrance. It has a dark red, almost brown shiny skin, well more like a shell. It looks like a giant insect, there are several legs, quite thick, but multi-jointed. They are black and move quite slowly and smoothly. The head has several dark panels, presumably eyes. Whatever it is, appears to have seen the boys, the head has swung round and is pointed straight at them, the legs are navigating the creature slowly towards them. There are several limbs sticking up in the air, they each appear to have different endings and are moving independent of each other waving around in the air, almost as if their movements are assisting the creature in its navigation. The creature is about twice the height of the boys.

"Quick we may be able to outrun them." Andrew shouts and starts running away from the creature. Stuart follows suit and seems like he is making good headway and keeping up with Andrew, when suddenly he feels himself being picked up, his arms restrained. The hold is firm but gentle, which takes Stuart by surprise, as the creature looked as if it was made of metal, but clearly not. Stuart stops trying to run, it is pointless now, as his legs are horizontal and there's nothing to kick or interact with.

Stuart hears protests coming from Andrew, looks in the direction that the sounds are coming from and sees the second of these creatures has Andrew also in a horizontal position. The only difference being that Andrew is putting up a fight. Stuart feels guilty and wonders if he should also be putting up a fight. As he watches Andrew, he comes to the conclusion that it wouldn't achieve much if he did, as Andrew is making no headway at all and the creature doesn't seem in the least phased by Andrew's struggles.

Stuart can feel that his creature is turning and heading back towards the doorway. Stuart can no longer see Andrew. He hopes that the second creature will follow and that the two boys won't be separated. What is more, he hopes that they don't end up as food for either these creatures or their offspring.

The creature holding Stuart has moved him above its heads and changes its hold on him. Stuart is still horizontal but feels more comfortable. The ride is quite smooth, despite the fact that the speed of travel is increasing rapidly.

As the creature emerges out of the building, Stuart finds himself thrust into what seems like a sandstorm. He has to close his eyes and finds it hard to breath, if only his arms were free, he could attempt to protect his face. As he carefully breaths in, he can feel the grains of whatever is in the air, hit the back of his throat. Not a pleasant feeling and seems to be the source of the metallic smell, as there is a strong taste of metal now.

Whilst Stuart can no longer see, he can feel that the speed of the creature has considerably increased, perhaps it is also suffering due to the storm. Well perhaps storm, is the wrong description, as there is very little sound from the movement of air, apart from the noise that the particles are making as they strike the creature and Stuart's shoes.

Stuart struggles for breath, trying to reduce the amount of the particles that he swallows, yet at the same time trying to get enough air. He tries moving his head, to find a better position, to reduce his intake of particles, but there doesn't seem to be a best position. Stuart hopes the journey is short and also that Andrew is alright and following close behind.

Finally there is relief as the bombardment of the particles ceases and there is a metallic echo sound. Stuart's creature has slowed considerably now. Stuart tries to open his eyes, but there are still particles around and as soon as he tries to open his eyelids, he can feel the grit find its way into

the corner of the eye that he tries to open. If only his arms were free. He will just have to be more patient and wait until this creature puts him down. Stuart just hopes, that it won't be in order to feed its offspring. He will have to respond quickly, as soon as his arms are free. Stuart runs through plans in his mind, as to what his actions will be and he varies the plans in response to possible actions from the creature and the possible circumstances that Stuart will face.

The journey continues, so does the intake of particles, at least the ones still stuck up Stuart's nose. Not a comfortable position to be in.

Time ticks by. Stuart listens carefully, in-case there are any clues, as to where he is being taken, but thus far, echoes and yet more echoes of the creature's movements. Although Stuart is relieved that he can hear sounds from the second creature's movements also. There is a new sound now, the sound of metal scraping against metal, could this be a door?

Stuart's creature pauses, when the scraping sound stops the creature resumes its movement. The creature following, does not even pause and is now beside Stuart's creature, he can tell this from the sounds.

The journey continues for a little while, Stuart tries to open his eyes several times, but the pain from the grit just too much to bear, so he gives in.

The creatures come to a halt.

'Here it comes, the moment of truth.' thinks Stuart to himself. He can hear Andrew spluttering somewhere beside him, protesting at the grit. Stuart feels himself being lowered, he readies himself to spring into action as soon as his arms are free. His feet touch the ground. 'won't be long now!' thinks Stuart.

Sure enough, Stuart soon finds the creature releasing its grip on his arms. Stuart wipes his hands on his trousers, removing any last remnants of dust off them. He dives into one of the trouser pockets and pulls out the packet of tissues, he struggles to open it, easy when you can see, but not so when you can't. Then he pulls out a tissue and wipes his eyes and then blows his nose. He cautiously opens his eyes, they are still rather sore, but at least he can see. They are in a largish room, which by the looks of the walls is made of metal.

Stuart glances round and sees Andrew struggling to get his own tissues out. As he is within reach, Stuart fetches one of his own tissues and hands it out to Andrew and says, "Here take one of my tissues, to the left of you."Andrew swings blindly round and feebly reaches out until their hands connect and the exchange takes place. Soon both boys are able to see and glad that thus far the creatures that brought them here, seem to have no intent on eating the boys. There also appears to be no other threat to their lives at the moment. The reason the boys have been brought here, is not evident. They wait in silence, nervously scanning around the room and keeping an eye on these creatures, who like themselves are also remaining quiet.

The seconds tick by, with nothing happening and the boys wondering what the wait is all about. presumably something will be happening, but no sign as yet as to what.

Suddenly a whole segment of wall slides open.

The boys brace themselves for the worse possible scenarios, perhaps swarm of these insect like creatures will feast upon them, or perhaps it is to be the feeding frenzy of the children of these creatures. Thus far, there is nothing beyond the opening wall, apart from yet more empty space.

Then something appears behind the next segment of wall. It is a man, or at least appears to be a man, dressed in a somewhat old fashioned suit. He stands absolutely still, like a robot awaiting a command. The head suddenly moves, as if scanning the two boys carefully. Then the figure moves, it is walking, walking towards the two boys. They look at each other, their faces appearing to ask the same question of each other, to stand still or attempt to run for it?

The figure, now halfway, speaks. It is a man's voice. It says, "Hello, have you come from earth?"

The boys still alternating between looking at each other and monitoring the progress of this figure. They do not reply.

The figure still advancing at a fair speed, speaks again, "It is alright, I will not harm you. You do speak English, don't you? There I go assuming that English is still widely spoken, it may be different in the future. I presume that you are from my future, you seem somewhat strangely dressed, at least in comparison with those of my time. I am Henry Englefield by the way." The figure holds out a hand, as if offering it in friendship to shake hands.

The boys look at each other again, the unasked question being, to trust this figure or not?

The figure continues to advance and is now only about two and a half metres away. Almost close enough to touch them and advancing still closer.

He looks human, has a human face, eyes that even in this light have that human sparkle that shows life. his movements appear very human like. If it is a replica it is a very good one.

Almost a metre and the figure stops. At least it understands personal space. The hand still extended in a friendship gesture. Although it is gently lowering now, as if the man, if it is a man, has given up achieving that demonstration of friendship. He speaks again, "Don't blame you, being carted around by these hulking great things and then greeted by me. You do understand English?"

Stuart finds himself involuntarily nodding in agreement. The figure says, "Oh good, thought I was going to have to struggle with trying to piece together some other earth language and languages not really my thing you know. How did you get here?"

Stuart looks at Andrew as if for permission to speak. Andrew shrugs his shoulders. This is not good for someone who was usually the more confident of the pair. Stuart takes it that the decision is his to take, he pauses a moment then says, "We could ask you the same question. Presuming you are not native to this place."

The figure laughs, "Do I look like I'm native to this place? Nothing like. I came from England, my arrival here was an accident. I was experimenting with cross modulated radio waves, when I opened up some sort of, what would you call it? A sort of corridor through space that swallowed me up and brought me here. How about yourselves? Oh please delight me by saying that mankind has developed some sort of sophisticated long distance travelling machine that will take us all back?"

"You don't even pause for breath, are you a machine?" asks Andrew, taking Stuart and the figure completely by surprise.

The figure smiles as it replies, "Well I have been called many things in my time, but a machine is not one of them. Tend to get rather excited when I speak and forget about the breathing bit, just tucking it in between bouts of speaking. So I can see why you would think that."

Andrew remarks, "It could be a machine that believes its a person."

The figure has a very surprised look on its face, "My what a furtive imagination you have young sir. Do you have such things now in your day and age? We would not even have dreamed of such things, let alone have the capability to make them."

Stuart says, "I think he's genuine, his explanation of how we got here would seem logical."

"Well thank you for your vote of confidence and your name would be?" the figure asks.

"I'm Stuart and this is," he pauses and looks straight at Andrew as if seeking his permission to mention his name. As Andrew's ace is wearing a rather don't care less look, Stuart continues, "And this is Andrew. We came across your device by accident."

"What year do you come from?" the figure asks.

Stuart replies, "Twenty Eleven."

There's a silence for a while, then the figure replies, "Ah I see two thousand and eleven, wow what a considerable leap in time, I came here in nineteen twelve. Nearly a hundred years between the two journeys, my goodness, that long."

There is another pause, then the figure continues, "I suppose my granddaughter will be dead by now. Certainly my son and his wife will no longer be around." another pause, the figure's face contorts as if in pain, then it continues, "How, how did you get into my house in the first place? Do you live there?"

"Well not live there, we are staying there." replies Stuart.

The figure smiles as he asks "Are you related to the family?"

Stuart is quite surprised by the question and asks, "What family?"

"My family of course."

"No we are just staying at the hotel, your house is now a hotel."

"Why? What happened to my family? Or do they own the hotel?"

"I don't know I'm only a kid. I don't know who owns the hotel."

"A kid? What do you mean?"

"A child, I am only a child." Stuart's face clearly shows his fear, fear of what this man will do to him.

There is a long silence as the figure tries to make sense of the exchange that has just taken place. Stuart and Andrew look nervously at each other.

The figure speaks again, "Sorry it is just a shock to find out that your house is no longer your own and also there is no trace of your family. I did not mean to scare you. What also amazes me is the fact that my apparatus still works. I could not believe it when I got the report that you had arrived."

"Did you try to get back home?" Stuart asks.

The figure seems quite surprised at the question at first, but then replies, "I did at first, but this place is very different to our own world, there is no electricity, you see. So I was unable to replicate my apparatus. I could not set up another sympathetic field to trigger a tunnel back home. I missed my granddaughter, dreadfully at first, but it is surprising how you adapt, especially when you have things to do, such fascinating things. Why the things I have invented and made will have your eyes out on stalks. There am I waffling, let me take you there and show you."

Stuart whispers to Andrew, "Still think he is a machine? Only a man could show such emotion. Did you see the tears?"

Andrew whispers back, "Granted it all looked genuine, but I am still not 100 percent convinced. For someone who is over a hundred years old, he doesn't look that much older than your or my Dad. It could still be a robot duplicate. For the time being however, I am prepared to admit it does seem quite convincing and if it is a duplicate it is a really good one.

Henry has turned and is walking back the way he had come, he is so confident that the boys will follow, that he doesn't even look round to check.

~~o~~o~~o~~

Chapter 4 - Eyes On Stalks

Andrew starts following Henry.

Stuart asks, "Do you think we really should?"

"I thought you were the one who trusted this Henry fellow." Andrew replies in a low voice, with a somewhat despairing look.

"I just said I thought he was genuine, as in, it was him who built the stuff that brought us here. I didn't say I trusted him." Stuart whispers back.

"Well I suppose we haven't got anything else to do, might as well find out what Henry has been up to in the 99 years that he's been here. Hey that's a long time isn't it, you could achieve a lot in that time couldn't you?"

Andrew replies, then continues to follow in the direction that Henry disappeared.

Stuart follows suit. Andrew disappears round the corner and Stuart picks up speed. As he draws up level, Stuart says, "For someone who is over a hundred years old, he doesn't look, sound, or even move like someone that old. When you think my Granddad is eighty four and can just about get to the newsagent and back, this fellow moves as quickly and easily as my dad."

Andrew pauses a moment and replies, "Yes, which is precisely why I'm not so sure he is the original Henry Englefield. Perhaps whoever owns this place has made a robotoid copy of the original Henry, to keep themselves amused.

Perhaps our Henry is the companion of whoever owns this place."

"What like a servant?" asks Stuart.

Andrew pauses for thought, then replies, "Probably not a servant as such, more like something to talk with." It is then that he notices that they are being followed by the two large creatures. "I don't like the look of that, those things are following, presumably to make sure we follow Henry."

The boys jump, as they hear Henry say, "Oh do not worry about them, they are quite harmless, I assure you. The Saysestrians let me have them, to help me with my work. It would be good, though, if they had more than a basic intelligence, but however, they are quite strong and having so many limbs often comes in handy."

The boys continue to walk, getting closer by the moment, to Henry, as he stands still waiting for them to catch up.

Andrew asks, "These Say whats-its."

"Saysestrians." Henry corrects Andrew.

"Yes them, who are they?" Andrew continues.

"They are the natives of this place." Henry smiles.

"Will we be meeting them?" Andrew asks somewhat nervously.

"Inevitably, but do not worry." Henry had obviously detected the sense of fear in Andrew's voice. He continues, "They will not harm you. They are a totally peace loving race. Not far to go now, just down to the end of this corridor."

The 'just down to end of this corridor', is actually quite a distance and the boys are finding it tiring to keep up.

Finally they reach what looks like a dead end, but as Henry approaches it, the wall slides to one side. Before them is what looks like a shimmering curtain.

As the group exits the corridor, they enter a massive area, it is well lit, the walls so far away and roof is so high up, that at first the boys think they are outside the building. There are so many strange and fascinating things around them, some taller than others and each seems to have a vibrancy and dare I say it, a life of their own?

The shimmering curtain that is just inside the door, is almost like a waterfall On closer inspection, it doesn't actually look like it is falling, or that it is a liquid in the conventional sense. It almost appears like a mixture of liquid and gas.

Stuart holds out a hand to touch the substance.

Henry quickly warns him, "Do not touch that, unless you want to lose a hand or worse. It looks harmless, but it is in fact quite dangerous. I had to abandon all my experimentation on that, as we were losing too many limbs."

The boys look at each other, the fear in their faces, quite unmistakeable.

"What is it?" Andrew asks.

"Some sort of life form of a lower order, it seems to eat most things that it comes into contact with. Luckily there are some things that it doesn't eat, in fact I found it contained in one such substance. The basin that it is standing in is made of the same stuff. I only keep it as it is fascinating to watch and I love throwing it something to digest every so often. As for a name neither I nor the Saysestrians, have come up with a name for it. Open to suggestions if you have any."

Henry heads off to another of his exhibits. He waits for the boys to conclude their fascination with the last one and join him.

"This was one of my earlier discoveries, I call it a problemator. I have played around with the materials of this place and found uses for most of them. Some when combined with others can produce quite interesting effects. The four components that this is made of interact with each other and can switch states depending on what state the segments before it are in. Sometimes it will let light through and other times it will not. Not making myself clear am I?"

Andrew replies, "On the contrary, quite clear, it's like a computer."

"A what?" asks Henry.

"A kind of thinking machine." Stuart adds.

"So you have also discovered a logic switch." Andrew suggests.

"Now you have me confused." Henry replies.

"A switch can be in two states, on or off, add sufficient switches each dependent upon those before it and you have a device capable of making decisions."

"Right I understand now. You are quite correct. I have long since moved on with tri-state. In fact these the Kelidons." Henry points to the two large insect like creatures following them. Then continues, "The Kelidons work on tri-state. It was the Saysestrians that taught me about tristate."

Stuart fascinated by Henry's problemator, asks, "So how does it work?"

"Well you have these inputs here."

"It's like an unlabelled keyboard." suggests Andrew.

"Most disconcerting young man, the way you throw in these names. Anyway, the inputs are made here and the outputs appear on this screen here. Mind you it is so long ago since I built this thing that I forget exactly how it works now. I can no longer remember what the displays mean. I used it for quite a while to solve various design problems. Then when I discovered tri-state it seemed to be pointless to continue with this antiquated machine, but I kept it out of sentiment more than anything else." Henry moves onto the next exhibit, the boys following closely at his heals.

The latest item is a large transparent cylinder with a large tube going in at the bottom and snaking its way towards a wall and disappearing through the wall. At the top of the cylinder are several short lengths of pipe sticking out and curving downwards, the open end pointing towards the ground.

Stuart remarks, "Wow the air seems to be quite different here."

Henry replies, "Yes, this is an air cleaner, it takes that awful metallic taste out of the air and makes this room more comfortable. If you look closely, you will see small creatures crawling up or down the interior of the cylinder, or on that circular net about half way up. They filter out the metallic elements, they actually eat the stuff. Then if you look down in the lower half, you will see somewhat larger creatures, they actually drive the pump that circulates the air. Those creatures feed on the, what should I call it? Hmm, waste products that the others produce. A very dependent partnership, that works really well. The end product being a much more pleasant air as you have noticed."

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