Cloud to Cloud

Episode 43: First Regressions are Always Tough to Accept

Evan slammed onto the stool. The papers before him fluttered to the floor.

"να προσέχεις" . The man beside Evan took up the scrolls and arranged them once more on the expansive marble table. Evan understood though he didn't know Greek.

Evan laid his palms on the table as he fought off the last of the vertigo. His head swam as he took in the rest of the room. Bright rays of sunlight illuminated the scrolls as the man arranged them neatly.

"Who are you?" The question fell from his lips as the realization struck him.

He scowled. "You were on the train!"

As the words struck the air Evan heard them change. He recognized what he had tried to say, but instead the sentence sounded foreign.

"What language is that?" He blurted.

"Which one, sir?" The man from the train narrowed his eyes.

Evan realized he looked nothing like when they first met. "These are our translations in Coptic. These are still in the demotic script."

Evan shifted his gaze to the scrolls. After a moment the meaning in the shapes and squiggles became clear to him. "I can read this?"

"Sir." The man from the train, who wasn't the man from the train, looked at Evan in concern. "Are you feeling well? Maybe we should stop for the afternoon."

"No." Evan smoothed the scroll closest to him. "No. I'm fine. Where were we?"

The man waited a moment more before responding to the question.

"Here." He pointed. "The glyphs here seem to be a measurement, but the number is nowhere near the dimensions of any pyramid-like structures on maps."

Evan analyzed the inscriptions indicated by the man who assumed to be his assistant.

"Unless there's an enormous stone structure hiding out there that we have yet to find?" The man shrugged at his own quip.

Evan failed to acknowledge the jest as he frowned at the numbers and symbols. "It's not size. It's the output." He murmured.

"Excuse me?" The assistant peered at Evan.

"These are ohms." Evan tapped at the scroll. "Or, I suppose, the ancient Egyptian derivative."

It was the assistant's turn to frown in confusion. "I'm sorry. Ohms? Output?"

Evan locked eyes with the man. "Energy. This is how much energy the power plant can produce. Where did you say you found these?"

The assistant stared another long moment at Evan. "The scrolls are from the temple priests. They are from the collection of Pharaoh Djoser. You took over the translations yourself."

"The pyramids were power plants?" Evan blurted the words without considering their bizarre nature.

When Evan at last glanced up from the scrolls the assistant was gone. Concern etched Evan's face. He realized he had been here before. He slid the scrolls aside and jostled a lamp with a reflective plate mounted to one side. His face peered back at him, though at first he didn't recognize it as his. The features were so different.

Evan staggered back from the table. He looked down at his hands, his legs. "What?"

The words caught in his throat. "Am I dreaming?"

"If that will help you understand what is happening, yes."

Evan recognized the voice, but it did not quell the shock as he turned to see Coach standing in an archway into the room.

"You're not in a screen?" Evan balked at the bearded man.

"And I'm not serving you a drink this time." Coach smiled.

He approached the table and shuffled absently through the scrolls. "It's amazing work you're doing this time around."

Evan continued to offer a blank stare in response.

"This is a vision, Evan. But, it's also quite real." Coach poked Evan in the shoulder to prove his point.

"The desert?" Evan's brow knit. "That was how long ago?"

Incomplete thoughts tumbled from Evan's mind.

"The city in the desert is later, though I suppose for the purposes of this conversation, it was before." Coach raised his shoulders. "Time is not as relevant as we make it out to be."

Evan put a hand to his head. "Yeah. I'm getting that."

"For the moment, we are here in this now so you can use the lessons you forgot." Coach waved to the table.

"Are you here? Like here, here?" Evan stared down at the scrolls.

"We experienced this time and place in a corporeal form, yes." Coach nodded. "You knew me as a teacher, then as a colleague."

"We worked on the Cloud project." Evan studied the papers.

"You called it by a different name then, but yes." Coach rested a hand on Evan's shoulder. "Study. All of your other questions will be answered once you finish the project."

At this, Coach patted Evan's shoulder and dismissed himself from the room.

Evan settled onto the stool beside the table. His mind whirled as he scanned the scrolls. The notes, his notes, slowly began to make sense.

"How long have I been here?" Evan searched the walls for a clock.

As he did so he caught a glimpse of his assistant before the young man disappeared around the frame of the door. Recognition flashed again. His thoughts wandered to the train and the man in the military coat.

Focus. It was Linc's voice this time that burrowed into his thoughts. If you lose focus here you will snap back, and the ride will not be pleasant. Study. Remember what these plans look like.