***** Vol.5 Chap.2 Bubble transport *****

While Frank was eager to open the door, he was not prepared to see what was in front of him. What he saw was an old bearded man standing in front of him, someone who looked exactly like the one in the mural. He was clothed in a loin cloth leaning against a shepherd’s crook. His disheveled hair was not combed.

For a while, Frank thought he was back in the biblical time, perhaps 3000 to 4000 BC. Frank stood there and his mouth dropped. He wanted to say something but was not sure what language to use. He pointed to him and was speechless.

The bearded man smiled.

“Dr. Frank Abdulcizi?” The bearded man spoke in perfect English but with a strange accent.

“Good morning, Er, …” Frank was not sure how to address him.

“Elijah.”

“Good morning, Elijah. Please call me Frank.”

“Frank, I trust you found the provisions satisfactory?”

“Excellent. Are you the er… vizier coming out of the stone cap as depicted in the mural?”

“I am here to bring you to a briefing. All your questions will be answered in the briefing. So, if you would hold your questions first and just come with me.”

Not having any other alternatives, he humbly said, “Please lead the way.”

Elijah stretched out his hand and pointed his finger down the corridor. As Frank came out of his cubicle, Elijah had already sauntered down the corridor.

“Oh, just a minute, Elijah. I need to get my stuff.”

Frank rushed back into the room and gathered all his stuff together. “We would not be coming back here, would we?”

“No.”

Frank gathered his things together though he had no idea if he really needed any of his gears any more, Nevertheless, he gathered whatever he had and followed Elijah. After a short walk, they arrived at a small clearing. At the end of the clearing was a translucent sphere with an opening.

“Is this our transportation vehicle?” Frank asked in amazement.

“Yes, please step in.”

Frank stepped into the sphere and noticed that it was perfectly balanced. He detected no swaying or shifting due to his weight. He jumped up and down a few times, but he still felt no swaying of the bubble. It was as solid as a perfectly built structure.

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He noticed two curved boards hanging with invisible wires in midair. The boards were not supported from above or below. They seemed to just float in midair.

“Are these the chairs?” asked Frank with great trepidation.

“Yes, please have a seat.”

Frank chose a board closest to him. He passed his hand over and below the board, but felt nothing. Elijah had already sat down on his ‘board.’

“Er…Is this safe?”

“Perfectly. If you prefer to stand, that is completely alright.”

Feeling stupid, Frank sat down. To his surprise the seat was soft and seemed to morph itself to his shape.

A floating panel appeared coming out of the wall of the sphere and floated to Elijah’s side.

“Let me make the seats more comfortable.” With his fingers, Elijah punched a code on the panel and the sitting boards slowly changed shapes. A back support grew from the back of the board and two armrests grew from the side of the boards.

“Is this comfortable enough?”

“Quite, thank you.” Frank stammered out the words in amazement, still passing his hands over the armrests.

“Then, we should be going.” Elijah punched a few codes in the panel. Frank noticed that the sphere opening became cloudy momentarily. By the time the door seam disappeared before his eyes, the door became transparent, indistinguishable like the rest of the sphere.

“Would you like me to leave the sphere transparent as we go?”

“That would be very nice.” Frank was still gawking at the sphere and the outside.

His fascination far exceeded his expectation of the most advanced technology to date. Even though he was not an engineer, he had some engineering training and knew that what he was seeing was so advanced that no one on earth could possibly dreamed of anything even remotely resembling this. He wondered if the maker of this technology still used computers and if so, how advanced the computers must have been. He could not wait to find out more about the computer systems of this advanced society.

The sphere began to move. He could see the walls of the outside tunnel passing behind him; yet he felt no acceleration. Instinctively, he held onto his armrests. The tunnel is round and appeared to be cut out of solid rock. But what was surprising was that the wall of the tunnel was smooth and not jagged as if someone had taken the time to polish the walls. The dimension of the tunnel was not much bigger than the sphere, but surprisingly, the sphere never once bumped into the tunnel walls.

The sphere sped up and the details of the walls became a blur. Soon he grew tired of the outside, so he turned his attention to the inside of the sphere. The control panel had disappeared and Elijah was sitting comfortably in his chair, asleep.

Who is driving this thing?

He gingerly stood up. The sphere was as steady as if they were not moving at all. He walked around and touched the wall of the sphere. It felt like glass. He knocked on the ‘glass’ but heard no knocking sound. In fact, to his great surprise, the ‘glass’ was kind of soft to the touch. Just as the cubicle, there were no other distinctive features to this round ball.

He had no idea if the wall was made of some unknown-to-him material or purely energy. But he knew he was safe inside the sphere. While there had been turns in the tunnel, he felt no swinging one way or another.

Glancing back at Elijah; he was still sitting there resting peacefully with his eyes closed. He must be utterly bored. But to Frank, everything was miraculous.

The suspension on the seat intrigued him. He passed his hand over the seat. He felt no strings or cables. He stooped down and passed his hand under the seat and he felt no support either. He moved his hands all around the seat and he felt no strings and cables.

He pushed on the seat and it gently returned to position. Most interesting. What marvelous technology.

He had never heard of such anti-gravity devices in his world. In fact, he was not sure if he was still in his world.