The Prometheus Project (8 page)

“Right. And the antibodies can tell which cells are part of your body and which cells are foreign. Anything the immune system doesn’t identify as part of your body is targeted for elimination.” He paused. “Sound familiar?”

It did! This theory would also explain why human stuff was devoured and alien stuff was left alone. If the bugs’ job was to protect the city from invaders, they would only attack the invaders.

“But why now?” said Regan. “Humans have been in the city now for more than a day.”

“It can take a while for the immune army to build, especially when facing something totally new,” said her brother. “Sometimes the immune system isn’t fast enough and the bacteria multiply so much that they win the battle for a while and you get sick.”

“It is a great theory, Ryan. It does explain a lot. But then why haven’t they attacked
us
yet?”

Good question. Ryan was about to say,
I wish I knew,
when the answer hit him. Of course! “Because the scientists damaged the inside of the city,” he said. “They cut a piece of the webbing from that staircase. They actively attacked it. If something does that to our body the damaged part sends out all kinds of chemical signals that can activate the immune system.” He paused. “Even though people are foreign to the city, we must seem pretty harmless, so it isn’t too worried about us. But as soon as the scientists cut that piece of material out the city saw us as a danger and sent out the army.”

This had to be right, thought Regan. How else to explain the insect attack only minutes after the webbing was cut. “So if we concentrate on being totally harmless . . .” she began.

“Then we won’t attract them,” finished Ryan. “Exactly. We just have to be sure to be very gentle. Don’t even disturb a single flower,” he cautioned.

Damaging the city on purpose would be a great way to test his hypothesis, but then again, if he
was
right, it would also be a great way to get himself devoured by the city’s ‘antibodies’. This was one hypothesis he wasn’t so eager to test at the moment.

A tear rolled gently down Regan’s face as she thought once again of her parents. If only their mom could be with them to see how well they had paid attention to her lessens in biology.

Ryan knew he couldn’t afford to consider his parents’ fate right now. He was determined to get his sister to safety and they were still trapped in a very dangerous alien city. His parents wouldn’t want him to just give up. They would want him to do whatever it took to save himself and his sister.

“We need to explore the city,” said Ryan in determination. “We have to find a way out, or maybe some alien equipment we can use to open another hole in the shield. And we need to find food and water, too. We may be here a long time.”

Not finding food and drink was Ryan’s biggest fear. They would have to keep exploring individual buildings until they did. People could last a long time without food if they had to, but the human body couldn’t get by without water for very long at all.

“Let’s go,” said Ryan, pretending to be confident. He was determined to find a way out of here somehow.

But he didn’t have the faintest idea how he could accomplish this impossible task.

Chapter 16

Technology and Magic

Ryan and Regan explored for hour after hour as their hunger and thirst mounted—and their desperation.

They went into several structures and discovered artifacts of every size, shape and kind. They inspected several very cautiously but couldn’t figure out how to operate any of them—or even if they
could
be operated. It was maddening. For all they knew they had held the key to leaving the city in their hands and hadn’t recognized it.

Dr. Harris had said current human technology would seem like magic to earlier ages. So what would a prehistoric man make of the inside of their house? Would he think a telephone hanging on a wall was art? That a computer was something used for hunting—to throw at animals? What would he make of a microwave oven? He could be in total darkness, searching frantically for some flint to hit together to make a fire, not knowing that all he had to do was push the small white switches sticking out from the walls and he could have all the light he needed. What if he was hungry? He could find a can of soup and never know there was food inside. Even if he did, he wouldn’t know what a can-opener was or how to use it. A feast could be waiting inside the refrigerator but he wouldn’t guess it, and he wouldn’t even know for sure that a refrigerator could even be
opened
.

Ryan and Regan knew that in this case,
they
were the ignorant primitives stumbling around in the dark, not advanced enough to have any idea of what they were seeing within the astonishing alien buildings.

Ryan continued to try to put on a brave face for his sister but he was getting more worried by the hour. “If we ever get out of here,” he said and then quickly amended, “I mean—
when
we get out of here, I promise to never complain about being bored again.”

Regan smiled weakly as they exited another building after yet another fruitless search. “Yeah. I’d give anything to be bored right now. This could have been the greatest day of our lives. Getting to see this amazing city. Learning about the most important discovery of all time. But instead, it’s turned into a nightmare. How could things—”

“Down!” screamed Ryan.

Before Regan could react he dove on her and threw her forcefully to the soft ground, covering her with his body.

Regan looked up in terror to find the reason for her brother’s action.

An immense alien bird of prey was flying directly toward them! It had the sleek, dangerous lines of an eagle, but it was the size of a
minivan
.

The swooping predator extended its razor sharp talons as it prepared to complete its attack.

Chapter 17

The Unearthly Zoo

Regan closed her eyes tightly.

A few seconds went by.

Then a few more. Confused but relieved, Regan opened her eyes.

The bird was gone! In its place was a small, cuddly-looking alien creature with big blue eyes. “What in the world . . .” she began.

As she watched, wide-eyed, the creature vanished, only to be replaced by an animal that looked something like a kangaroo with the face of a lion.

“Holograms,” whispered Ryan. Although the animals looked every bit as real as his sister did, they weren’t. None of them. They were just three-dimensional movies.

He quickly got to his feet and helped Regan up off the ground. “Are you okay?” he asked.

She ignored his question. “You saved my life,” she whispered, her eyes wide. “And you risked your own life to do it. I really owe you one.”

“Nah,” said Ryan, feeling awkward at his sister’s heartfelt appreciation. “I just haven’t tackled you in a while and thought this would be a good excuse. I only saved you from a hologram,” he finished modestly.

“You didn’t know that at the time, so I’m afraid you’re stuck being a hero,” she insisting in a tone that made it clear that this was the final word on the subject.

As they talked, perfect three-dimensional holograms of different animals continued to appear before them. The images changed every few seconds and they had yet to start repeating. The animals appeared directly in front of a large, arch-shaped building.

“A zoo?” guessed Regan after watching several more animal holograms appear.

“That would make sense,” said Ryan. “But inside this single building? The cages would have to be awfully small.”

“Even if it is—or was—a zoo,” said Regan, “it’s not as though any animals are still going to be alive in there. This city has been abandoned for a long, long time.”

They had been in the city all day and had yet to find the slightest hint that the city had
ever
been inhabited.

“Let’s check it out anyway,” suggested Ryan.

They entered to find that the building contained absolutely nothing but dozens of oval doorways, spaced evenly around the walls. Above each doorway a different animal hologram appeared every few seconds, just as they had outside. This time the holograms above each doorway seemed to have a theme; winter animals, or desert animals, and each of the groupings had subtle similarities that made the kids think they came from the same planet.

Regan gestured to one of the doorways. It was clear they could pass through the opening but they couldn’t see what was on the other side. “Should we go through one of them?”

Ryan considered. “Okay, but I’ll go first,” he said protectively. He walked through a doorway with his sister close behind.

They had expected to see cages. What they saw was a vast forest of trees with greenish bark and round, orange leaves. A forest that was far, far larger than the entire building they were in! Maybe even larger than the entire
city
.

“These crazy aliens,” quipped Regan. “They really do
wonderful
things with living space. I’d love to have them design a closet for me—with a thousand times more room inside than the entire house that it’s in.”

“Ah, I think they could even do better than that,” whispered Ryan in a trance. He pointed upward.

Upward to the sky and the clouds. They were outside!

Incredible! And even more incredible was the fact that they could see two huge orbs hanging in the sky, visible even during the day.

Moons.
And there were two of them
.

They looked once again at the bizarre orange trees and gulped. They were definitely outside all right.

And they were just as definitely no longer on Earth.

Chapter 18

Predator

A terrifying thought occurred to them both at the same time—was the doorway still there? They turned slowly, fearfully, to look behind them.

It was!

What a relief.

Just to be sure they weren’t stranded they stepped back through the doorway. Sure enough, they were back in the zoo.

They stepped through to the forest again and considered the vast landscape carefully. “I have to admit, the cages are slightly bigger than I thought they would be,” said Ryan impishly.

Regan laughed.

“This could be the break we’ve been looking for,” said Ryan. “There must be some sort of food and water here. I think we should stay fairly close to this entrance and explore. Each doorway in the zoo must go to a different world, so if we can’t find water right away we can try one of the other worlds.”

They decided to climb a nearby tree to scout the area, but after walking only thirty yards a wall of force, just like the one around the city, appeared magically in front of them, completely blocking out the woods. They jumped back, startled.

And the wall disappeared again.

After just a little experimentation it became clear that an invisible dome completely encircled them, with the door back to the city at its center. Whenever they got to within five feet of the barrier it instantly became visible, probably so no one would slam into it without realizing it.

“I suppose this is here so the zoo animals won’t eat the zoo visitors,” said Ryan.

Regan nodded. “Yeah—probably. Zookeepers must hate it when the animals spoil their appetite that way.”

“Well, I guess this is a great setup if you want to safely watch the local animals, but if you want to find food and water—it’s not so great.”

“I’m not so sure it’s so great for watching animals,” said Regan. “Do you see any? They could be anywhere on this planet.” She shook her head. “What they need is a car or tram of some sort to carry visitors around, like they had in the first
Jurassic Park
movie.” She paused. “In fact, I’ll bet you they
do
have one somewhere. They would almost
have
to.”

Ryan shook his head. “Just because they had a tram in a science fiction movie doesn’t mean they’ll have one in an alien zoo on an alien planet,” he said skeptically. He thought the chances of them finding a tram simply because his sister thought there
should
be one were less than zero. But after looking at his sister’s eager face he added, “I guess there isn’t harm in looking.”

Less than two minutes later they found a tram, right where Regan had guessed it would be. Ryan stared at it in disbelief and whispered, “You were right. Nice going. Let’s just hope we don’t find the
dinosaurs
from that movie here also,” he joked.

They entered the small tram carefully. Inside several small holograms showed the tram performing different maneuvers. Ryan reached forward and touched one that showed the tram going forward. As he had hoped, it served as a control, and the actual tram began to glide slowly forward into the unknown woods. It passed beyond the location of the force-field without activating it.

Minutes later they exited the tram and climbed one of the orange trees. They were in luck! A stream was only a few hundred yards away, winding its way through the woods.

Using the holographic controls they drove toward the stream. The tram slid forward as though on a sheet of ice, even over rough and uneven terrain. They passed several small alien animals but nothing that looked threatening.

They parked the tram and walked eagerly to the stream. Ryan bent over and put a hand in. The water was cool and nothing had ever looked more refreshing. He smelled it carefully. It had no odor of any kind. This was a good sign. Ryan cupped his hands and prepared to take a sip.

“Shouldn’t we test it first?” said Regan. “To be sure it really
is
water. We’re not on Earth, after all.”

“I already tested it the only way I know how. It feels and smells exactly like water,” said Ryan.

“And it probably is. But what if it turns out to be some strange liquid that doesn’t exist on Earth? For all we know, a single drop might kill us.”