Chapter Fourteen (Tim)

I am the first person (from Earth, at least) to discover this metal.  I shall name it... conductivium.

Okay, Tim.  Get off your ego trip and get back to the story please.

Hey, what did we say about writing in each other’s posts?  Hmmmm?


Yeah, yeah, I’m goin’ . . . just making sure you were on topic.

Hold on a second.  You’re not getting off that easy.  I get to post twice.

But you can’t post twice right now.  My next post is important to the story!

Hold your many miniature horses, Heather.  I’m not posting twice now.  I’ll save my extra post for later.

Fine.  As long as I get the next post.  I’ll go now . . .

Good.  I have all manner of important machinery type things to talk about.  Where were we?  Oh yeah, we just found the metal.

Heather and I made our way back to the underground lab containing the Tunneler.  We took out the materials we had gathered: pieces of a dragon horn, a gem, and some metal.  I got out some tools and started working.  Heather said "Um, wouldn’t it be easier to use power tools at home?  I mean, we’re going to be taking it back to Earth anyways.”

“Earth tools are designed to work with more mundane materials.  The tools here are designed for exactly these types of things.”

I got out all the tools I needed and took everything over to the Tunneler.  The pieces of the dragon horn needed to be crushed, but that didn’t take much effort.  The gem was a bit too big so I cut that down to size using a tool made just for that.  The hard part was when it came to the metal.  It needed to be molded into small thin rods to be used as wires.  After an hour, I said “Yes!”

“Is it done?”  Heather peered over my shoulder excitedly.  “How’s it work?”

“It still needs a plug to connect it to an outlet, but other than that, it’s done.  We won’t know for sure if it’ll work until we get it back to Earth.”

With a great deal of difficulty, we managed to drag the Tunneler back through the snow, multiple dimensions, and back to Earth.  When we got back, I said “Heather, can I ask you a favor?”

“What?”

“We’re going to need a GPS so we can get to the place the Gatekeeper specified.  I’m going to be busy putting a plug on this machine, so... can you get one?”

“Sure, I’ll ask my mom if I can borrow hers.  I’m warning you, though.  She’ll be a tad upset if anything happens to it.”

We split up.  She went back to her house, and I went back to mine.  I gathered up the tools I would need as well as taking the plug from a broken fan I hadn’t gotten around to throwing out.  Around the time I had finished putting it on the Tunneler, Heather returned with the GPS.  I told her what coordinates to put in.  We dragged the Tunneler to the point indicated on the map, which happened to be in the middle of the woods.  I thought the place looked familiar, but I dismissed the thought and said “Stay here, I’m going to go find the nearest plug.  Hopefully the five extension cords I brought along will be enough.”

I left carrying the end of the last extension cord.  Luckily, there was a campground nearby that had spare outlets lying around for campers.  I plugged it in, and returned to where Heather was waiting.  She said “It, uh, made some noise while you were gone.  Sort of like a power drill.  I assumed that meant you found an outlet to plug it into.”

I said “Yes, I did.  I guess I never put a switch on it.  There’s no time to waste, let’s go.”

The two of us walked through.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  We were in a different forest, one that I recognized.  I looked above the treetops and there was a castle visible in the distance.  I said “Heather, just to make absolutely sure, this is the place that the Gatekeeper said the Crusher would be, correct?”

Heather nodded.  “That’s what it says on the paper he gave us.  I have it here in my pocket.  And look!”  She pointed at a plaque that looked like the ones we had seen before.  It read “Crushed World #1”.

I had no choice but to tell Heather the awful truth.  “This world... the one that the Crusher of Worlds conquered first and uses as his home base...  It’s Renolia.”

Her eyes widened.  “What?!”

“We’re going to need a plan.”