Pandora's Chase

Chapter Forty-Six

"Let's start with the numbers and see what they're telling us," the professor said.

Chase stayed silent. He wanted to see if the professor came up with the same conclusions that he and his father had.

"They're counting down. Slowly," the professor stated and watched it count down. "It reduces by one about every five seconds."

Chase nodded.

"Good, good," the professor replied. "Were you the one who first saw them appear?"

"Yes, sir. I was," Chase replied.

"And did it show other symbols also moving and shifting in place?" he asked.

"Yes!" Chase answered in excitement. The professor seemed to know what he was doing. "I touched the numbers, and then the symbols disappeared, and then this shifted to the top and it hasn't moved since."

"Yes, it appears to have shown you options as a way to gain an understanding of what symbols you read. This is a very old map," he said, the word old in a deep and dark voice. "Not of anything from Earth's time, nor of our galaxy, I presume. Though I do not know how it is that it knew our numbering system. I've seen few things like this in my time, and they all make my skin shift. Though man has never encountered other intelligent species in our settling of the galaxy, we have, in fact, found a number of things like this that tell us we are not alone in the universe. Galaxies are very small compared to the distance between them. Much too far to travel. We're lucky to have discovered the technology to jump around our own galaxy. I presume the blue dot represents the map, and the red one is what you are seeking," the professor stated, swiftly changing his focus as Chase lined the dots up, one on top of the other.

"Yes, watch this," said Chase. He held the map still when the dots lined up. The red target appeared. A moment later the distance counter popped up, and the number revealed was a devastating 3479.23658.

Chase bit his tongue, then looked from the professor to Paira to Dominic.

He asked the siblings, "Can you take me that far?"

"Yes, of course," said Paira as she looked to Dominic. "Right, Dom?"

Dominic was silent for a few moments.

"Dom!" Paira called out.

"You must take him, Dom," pleaded the professor. "This thing is destroying planets, and Earth is next!"

"Okay, all right. I'll take you," he finally agreed.

"Does it point to Elvair?" Chase asked.

"Let's see. It was pointing in that direction when the target appeared," he pointed straight out his window towards Esandrea's third moon, "Just below where Alura is now."

The professor shuffled over to his workstation.

"Professor," Paira said pointing to a picture on his wall, "is that Dr. Spiteri?"

He looked up as he flipped some switches. His computer system hummed to life. "Oh yes, my old college buddy. Do you remember him?"

"Yes, he used to visit you often back when we lived next to you."

Four small monitors lined up on his desk turned on simultaneously, and a moment later, a large curved painting on the wall went black. It tilted backwards, and two arms shifted it forward and down for a good viewing angle from a seated position at the desk.

"That picture of he and I was taken almost ten years ago. That's the day he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in using a space-time continuum model to prove string theory. I swear, he'll show up one day having invented faster-than-light travel, or something greater." He went back to typing but added sadly, "He went missing after he announced a major breakthrough in his research. Said he needed the power of the sun to test his theory but then no one heard from him again. Sad really, he was the type that would change the course of mankind."