The Ruby
Leland Nichols
© 2014 Leland M. Nichols
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical or by any information or storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author or the publisher.
Cover art by Heinrich Leonhard.
Edited by Geoffrey Doyle.
Published in eBook format by
Compass Flower Press / AKA-Publishing
Columbia, MO 65203
AKA-Publishing.com
ISBN 978-1-936688-85-2 eBook
ISBN 978-1-936688-87-6 Hardback
ISBN 978-1-936688-84-5 Trade Paper
Compass Flower Press
an imprint of AKA Publishing
Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com
Dedication
To my wife, Rebecca and my sons, Mark Anthony and Shannon Matthew, my grandchildren Luke, Wade, Jacob, Eli, Michael, my mother, Oleta, and sister, Sharon Warner. Also to T. David Moore for his coon hunting stories and his “good ol’ country wit.”
CHAPTER ONE
Stranded
I have been taken prisoner, securely bound to a wooden structure and put on display, among all the mockery, to die in public shame. As they paraded me through the streets, some glared at me in scornful silence, others humiliated me with contemptuous laughter, still others pelted me with the myriad of objects they threw. I was surrounded by a magnitude of humans, yet was all alone in my humanity.
I awoke with a jolt, as one who thinks his last moment has come, yet with no time to prepare. A burning thirst consumes me, agony wracks my whole body. I try to stretch the muscles of my back and arms, but lack the strength to pull myself up a bit, as before. I draw a deep breath, trying to feel conscious of my existence. Growing feebler in body, and dimmer in my senses, I must keep my mind active, my thoughts flowing, for I fear a sudden, complete collapse is near. It seems that now, I remain at longer intervals in a state of unconsciousness, an unsatisfying sleep. I face the realization that I will soon drift ever more often into those brief slices of death.
The morning could not have passed so quickly, yet it is growing dark. Clouds do not block out the sun, but somehow, in my half-stupefied condition, a twilight gloom has scattered all over the earth. Had I emerged from a long uneasy sleep, while the whole day passed before me?
In my insufferable pain, I curse those responsible for this unjust fate. I am a convicted thief in a foreign country. My trial was a mockery of justice, made all the more difficult because I speak little of the local language and could not defend my actions during the proceedings.
Dying slowly, I’ve had ample time to reflect on the journey, and now feel the whole ordeal was just a little short of madness. It should have been something beautiful, a wonderful experience, but, in the end, what I found was worry and despair. Recently, it had begun to gnaw at me that there would be a terrible price to pay.
I have lost track of time—I speak not of hours, or even days—I do not even know exactly what century it is. My physical misery is now so great, it prevents me from doing anything but dwell on what went wrong and how it all began. Oh, how did it all begin? I suppose it was back at the Quantum Institute, with its time travel project.
I traveled to this land in a remarkable manner. I had within my power the freedom to move through the moments of time, forward or backward, at the expense of displacement in space, to another location on the earth; it could be millennia into the future, along with a quantum leap to another continent. A journey beyond ordinary comprehension, yet it could be measured in both years and miles. Until I came to this time and place, I had control of my movement in time. Now, my time is running out.
I had become bold and careless of danger, roaming freely among strangers and putting my trust in them. How could I allow this to happen when my instructions were so simple? “Don’t interact with anyone, anymore than is absolutely necessary, or draw attention to yourself.” That was the Principal Mandate I violated. Things went wrong though, and I couldn’t help myself. Difficulties forced me to reduce myself to the lowest standards of moral conduct in a shameless effort to steal a ruby.
I have full memory of the trial, of being condemned to death by torture and agony; punishment for being a thief. This awful dishonor arose from an unexpected turn in the adventure.
A death sentence is hardly a suitable punishment for theft. I was a mere visitor to their country, a traveler, and my intentions were good. Unfortunately, my captors had no knowledge of that. How could I explain to them my circumstance of being a wanderer in a strange land, masked, as it was, by a mysterious arrival?
My only moments of relief come from vague, impossible plans of escape. But escape is really out of the question. Guards watch my every move, and with little clothing and no shoes, I feel somewhat like a small bird trapped in a thicket of clinging brambles and thorns.
These primitive people have no idea of who I am or where I came from. They have no knowledge of the space-time continuum, or that with the proper equipment and knowledge, one can move through both time and space at an accelerated rate. It is difficult, even now, for me to entertain that such a thing is possible, but here I am, and I have done it. I have put into reverse the drift of the time dimension, and my travel was fleeting and dreamlike.
I recall feeling suspended in a limitless concourse as I traveled the infinite halls of time, across the boundless chambers of eternity, where I saw a century pass in the wink of an eye. Brief as it was, only a strange weightless feeling can describe moving through time and space simultaneously. There, I chased a glimmering light of wonder through fading shadows and danced briefly with immortality. I felt I was floating on effortless wings. Time and distance pass like the glistening of rainbows, unfolding in a kaleidoscope of colors, like an excursion to a realm where reality breaks down, like witnessing the creation of the universe, while traveling through a multidimensional abyss. Never again, though, will I waltz time-space as I desire.
Time is the moving image of eternity. A river of passing events, which has no existence, except for the moment. For me, the river became a raging torrent, and with it echoed the price one pays for wisdom. I can still vividly remember those times and the strange tale it is, or had I only imagined it?
Behind closed eyes, Dorian Alexander’s mind roams unrestrained through a maze of memories of his journey. He had come to the stark realization that at the age of twenty-six, he must now, he supposes, consider his life’s work finished. He feels tired, dispirited, drained of energy.
He had been a brilliant young scientist, and, until recently, quite handsome and unusually charming. The suns of different ages had given his complexion an attractive glow. Yet now, his face was bleeding and distended with bruises. Even more painfully, he is aware of his sore shoulders and back, drawing his attention away from the pain of his lacerated, beaten face. He is filthy and appears mangy, with a shabby beard and sun-bronzed face coated