The three teenagers decided to bring the safe up to the surface before examining the other objects. They needed a change of environment - natural light. They needed to see the green around them again and breathe the air of the open sky. Each of them had donned their necklace, tucking it safely under their jackets. The forest they reentered, as they emerged from the cave, was not the same one they had been in before their discovery. They had found something so profound and unique that, although they could only guess what its purpose was, changed the way they perceived everything.
They climbed the rise and once again stood at the edge of the low cliff, overlooking the forest. They could see the crater to the right, now that they knew what to look for. They understood why they had missed it on their first attempt to locate it. From this angle, being completely overgrown with large trees and thick bushes, it looked like a dip in the forest floor.
They placed the two halves of the sphere on the grass and sat down, panting. A flock of rolel birds flew through the trees nearby, chattering in high-pitched frequencies. Their frenzied conversation abated as they all landed on a treetop in almost perfect unison.
Hanthran shone brightly overhead, its light filtering through the large, dark green leaves of the calipo trees that overshadowed them from the west. Gazing over the spectacular sea of green they realized what they had been missing their whole lives. Listening to the birds and the wind, and feeling the warm light of Hanthran on their skin and in their hair, they wondered if they had, this whole time, been living in the wrong place. They realized that they could sit there for many days, many seasons, and still appreciate this view. A few minutes passed in silence as they contemplated their new reality.
Orion shifted his gaze from the treetops to the safe. Celli and Fel followed him. "Should we see what this other stuff is?" He asked slowly. His voice was hoarse and low. He felt that he should not rush or think too hard but just allow the next artifacts to reveal themselves to them in their way.
"Yeah," Fel answered.
"Your turn then."
Fel reached in and drew out the silver jeweled object. He turned it over in his hands as Orion and Celli watched. He pressed on some of the black inlaid jewels without result. He stopped and cleared his mind – something he was not used to doing – although in the free-zone it seemed natural enough. Then he sensed something. He followed this feeling and placed the object on the ground in front of him, then placed his palm on the large central jewel, and two of his fingers on two of the eight smaller jewels.
Without warning, the object came to life in a flash of light. Fel quickly withdrew his hand to find a high-definition hologram projecting from the central jewel.
"What is it?" Celli whispered.
Fel looked intently at it and shook his head. The hologram was clear and bright even in the noon-day light. "It looks like the map of a star system... but not one I've ever seen." He looked closer. "A small yellow star... nine planets... look; this one here looks similar to Ophilion." He grunted. "I wonder where this could have come from."
Orion looked over at Fel, "Try another combination."
Fel reached his hand through the hologram, placed his palm on the central jewel and touched two of the smaller ones, different from the first two. He withdrew his hand to reveal a new projection; another star system unfamiliar to them. After three more tries they saw a projection they were familiar with; the Hanthran system - their system.
"Have you ever seen anything like this projector?" Orion asked.
Celli and Fel shook their heads in unison. Fel reached down and touched the large jewel once and the projection faded. Whatever this was, it was not native to their world, that much was clear. These things from the safe, the sequence of coincidences that led them to this location in the free-zone, produced waves of contrasting emotions that were difficult to process. They felt their former lives being eclipsed by what they were experiencing.
"Your turn," Celli motioned to Orion. He inhaled deeply, held his breath for a few seconds and exhaled. It took more effort than he had expected to reach into the safe, but he did, drawing out the brown paper folder with two hands. The embossment on the front of the folder was identical to the design of their pendants – a tree within a circle. He opened the cover as Celli and Fel looked intently over his shoulder. They all felt that if there were any answers to this mystery they would be in the folder – hopefully written in their language.
Their intuition was justified. Inside were neatly folded sheets of high-quality mapping paper, and they were Ophilion. They were standard mapping grids with reference columns and notes. Orion looked at his companions then took the sheet off the top. It unfolded easily. He laid it out on the folder, on the grass, and they all leaned in to see what it was.
"It's a stellar map," Orion said. He furrowed his brow as he studied the images. He turned his head sideways, "Wait a minute," he turned it around, "look... it's the belt... that's Forbis pass, inside zone KL-53."
"Isn't that an off-zone?" Celli asked.
"Yeah," Fel answered, "only Qonaar and hex-pirates in that part of the asteroid belt."
"Why are they off-zones?" Celli asked innocently.
"Hexol rocks."
"You mean the drug?"
"Yeah," Fel explained, "there are three zones in the asteroid belt that have hexol rocks: large asteroids containing the mineral hexolium. The Qonaar wants the hexol for its weapons program. The pirates refine it and sell it as a narcotic on the streets and spin houses. They're always fighting each other over it up there. The pirates don't get as much as the Qonaar does, of course, but enough to keep them in business."
"You ever use it?" Orion asked.
"Nah, I've seen what it does to people," he shook his head, "messes 'em up. Highly addictive. My cousin died in a med-center after using it four porthen straight... every calah."
"Maybe the pirates were the ones who put this stuff here then," Orion guessed.
Fel shook his head. "I doubt it; what reason would they have?"
"Just a guess." Orion opened another one of the maps and placed it atop the first.
"Zone LP-86," Fel said immediately, "another off-zone. Whadaya wanna bet the last map is?"
Celli pulled it out and unfolded it on top of the other two.
"ZL-... 31... I think," Fel said. "I haven't heard much about this zone because the Qonaar have pulled out of it – not enough hexol left to make it profitable. But there is enough for the pirates to fight over. There are three or four main cartels in that zone. Sometimes they cooperate, but most of the time they fight each other over the best rocks. It's crazy if you ask me."
Orion stared blankly at the maps. "I've got too many theories floating through my head. I don't know what to make of this."
"Me either," Celli agreed.
Orion picked up the holographic projector and ran his fingers along its smooth edges. "I say we get this stuff back home and have it checked out; maybe ask around, see if we can piece it together." Celli and Fel nodded.
"What about the safe?" Fel asked.
"I guess we can just put it back in the cave, it's too big to try to haul all the way back with us."
They walked slowly back to the cave and placed the safe reverently back in the hole in the dirt near the end of the small grotto, then they sat and stared. Celli reached down to stroke the sphere in parting – the sphere that had shifted the universe. She wondered if they would come back to this crater and if the safe would still be here when they did. She wondered about many things – things she had never had cause to wonder about before. They exited the cave and climbed back up the side of the crater.
"So, what?" Celli asked, "we go back the way we came?"
"I guess so," Orion answered, "I don't know any other way." He looked up at Hanthran, "If we leave now we can make it back to the lake, camp there and take the morning transport back to Kypro."
"Guys!" Fel called out urgently, motioning to the sky in the west. "Take a look!"
Orion and Celli followed his gaze to a massive storm front approaching their position.
"It's moving fast," Celli observed. "And it's big."
Orion shaded his eyes and studied the ominous clouds. "Looks like a wranth storm," he said. "I've never been in one outside of the com-zone. From what I've heard, without magnetic shielding, we could be in trouble. They usually give off discharges that reach the ground." He looked around quickly. "I say we get our stuff and shelter in the cave."
Without wasting any time they scrambled up the side of the crater and ran to the cliff top to retrieve their packs from under the calipo trees. The angry clouds suddenly cut off the light from their central star as they converged on their position. The teenagers quickly made their way back down to the crater as the storm front hit. It was as if a bomb had detonated. The wind exploded through the forest, nearly knocking them off their feet. The trees began swaying around them. Large branches creaked, leaves were ripped off and hurled through the forest. The leaves and even small branches struck the retreating com-kids as they stumbled through the underbrush.
Heavy drops of rain began to pelt them as they climbed down the side of the crater and quickly ducked into the shelter of the cave. Thunder rumbled threateningly overhead. The forest quickly grew dark as the billowing purple-black clouds covered the sky.
Without warning, a dazzling green ray of blinding light flashed in the sky overhead, illuminating their surroundings in a series of neon pulses. Five seconds later the sonic wave met them. Celli put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes. Fel stared out of the mouth of the cave as the rain quickly increased into a major downpour. The green magnetic discharges continued, followed by powerful thunder.
"I'm glad we got in here when we did," Orion said over the noise of the storm, "I'd hate to think of us being out there during one of these things."
The storm continued on into the evening and they were forced to spend the night in the cave where they ate a supper of poglo sticks and canara, huddled around the sphere as if it were a campfire.
They rolled out their sleeping bags and lay, encircling the sphere, attempting to find a comfortable position on the rocky floor of the cave. Orion held in his hand the pendant on which his name was inscribed. He eventually fell asleep, staring at the sphere. It was barely an outline except when the lightning flashed - then he could make out the etched lines on its surface. When the lightning passed and it was dark he could still see the lines, imprinted on his retina, glowing yellow.