First Light: Book one of the Torus Saga Read online

  First Light

  Copyright Michael Berg 2013

  Chapter 1

  Raynie O’Day sat alone in the library of the old nineteenth century house, reading a book she had just found after months of searching. ‘This is simply beautiful,’ she thought to herself, when she paused for a moment to look out through the window where the soon to rise moon was a glow just below the horizon to the east. As she sat pondering her place, and picturing her lone small section of the universe there in the library within the isolated house miles from any neighbours, she could feel her sense mystery in life as her companion.

  A short while later when she was reading chapter three, Atomic Fields, the rustle of leaves on the large Oak trees in the garden out beyond the window caught her attention. She loved the sound of the wind in the trees, and the release it gave her as she would spend time just listening.

  “A storm must be coming,” she said aloud to herself. “I wonder if…?” she trailed off as a light outside caught her eye, for a moment unsure of what it could be. Logic had defied her for a few seconds as she had been so absorbed by the reading and dream like thinking. Then she realized the light was a vehicle driving up the valley toward the old house, and it would arrive within the minute. “Oh fantastic! He’s here!”

  Raynie had not seen Jake Sinclair for almost six months now as their investigations had taken them on individual trails of discovery. Now their meeting was about to take place and she had actually been looking forward to this moment for over a month. She rushed out of the library and down the hallway to the kitchen where she put some more water on to boil As she hung the pot over the wood fire stove, the radio featured an on the hour news bulletin.

  “This is news for the hour. A widespread early winter storm is bearing down on the southeast. This storm is forecast to be severe with near gale force winds about higher parts and some low-level snow. The Bureau is saying this could be the biggest storm since the great storms of the twenties.” As Raynie went to look out the kitchen window after hearing the news, she saw the headlights shine brightly for a moment, before disappearing as the car parked at the other end of the house. Jake had arrived.

  Raynie left the kitchen to greet him at the front door, where Jake was already out of his vehicle and gathering a few belongings from the back seat. She ran from the door to greet him, taking his luggage bag as he struggled to collect some books into one stack to carry inside.

  “Well hello,” he said. “So nice to see you again.”

  “Hi yourself,” she replied swinging the bag into his leg. He feigned a collapse and pretended to almost spill the books piled on his arm. “Let’s go in.” Jake followed her quickly up the path, chased by a collection of swirling leaves caught up in the increasing winds.

  “Good to see you looking so happy,” he said as they stood face to face at the door.

  “Good to feel happy too. Some coffee is on. Come to the kitchen.”

  “That’ll do nicely,” Jake replied, pushing the door closed behind him.

  “There is a storm coming.”

  “Yes I know. I had the radio on as I drove.”

  The pot was boiling when they entered so Raynie set about making the coffee. “We’ll go through to the library if you like,” she suggested after she had prepared a tray with coffee and cups.

  “Sure,” Jake replied. “I have a lot of information to show you.”

  Raynie led Jake down the long wood paneled hallway until they reached the lighted doorway of the library. “Here we are,” she said as they entered.

  Jake looked around the room, taking a moment to contemplate where he was to spend the next few hours talking. “Nice library.” He liked Raynie, and like her he was fond of such late night vigils of immersing himself into the spirit of both surroundings and the quest at hand.

  “What elevation are we at here?” he asked a moment later as Raynie set the coffee down on the desk. “Around twelve hundred metres isn’t it?”

  “Yes. We are at just over twelve hundred. We could see a bit of snow out of this storm as they have said snow to low levels.”

  “Yes I thought so. I do love the snow.”

  “Me too.”

  Raynie poured two coffees and then glanced out the nearby window noticing a few spots of rain on the glass. “The rain has started. Hey. I will be back in just a minute.” She rushed out of the library and headed back down the hall.

  Jake looked out the window Raynie had glanced through and noticed the rain was indeed increasing with large some spots being blown hard onto the glass. As he watched, he felt a sense of knowing. Somehow this night would prove crucial to their journey and quest ahead. It was as if they were being guided together to this meeting almost by some other force or sense.

  “I just stoked the kitchen fire some more. If it gets cold here, I want the kitchen to stay warm. We will need it. Now for coffee,” Raynie said when she returned and sat at the desk. “Sit down. Let’s talk.”

  They both drew their chairs closer to the desk from either side, enthusiastically embracing the hot coffee mugs, and eager to embrace the details of their research.

  “This is what I have been reading tonight.” She presented the book open at the Atomic Fields - Quantum Phasing chapter to Jake. “It details the constant shift of sub-atomic resonance at the quantum level. Various details are provided on the resonance fields generated and their interaction with each other. There is also mention of how quantum particles themselves, seem to resonate out of some field beyond description.”

  “Interesting,” Jake replied. He read for a few minutes whilst Raynie sipped her coffee watching him.

  “It gets a bit technical but also there is something else. Whilst scientific in nature, it leads to some method to observe atoms at the quantum level,” Raynie continued after a sip of her coffee.

  “I see here there is some imagery,” Jake said looking up from the book. “Is this part of the explanation?”

  “Not sure, but lovely colors, and if you stare at them for some time, they seem to take on much more depth in each image. It is almost as if there are images within the image.”

  “Perhaps it is a type of code for some connection?”

  “Could be,” Raynie said as she poured a second cup of coffee.

  “They might give us some information on what the text may lead to.” Jake drained the last of his coffee and reached for the pot. “The storm seems stronger,” he said, noticing heavier rain beating against the window.

  “It has come up quickly. We should go and get more firewood.”

  “OK.”

  Raynie opened the large doors leading from the library to the courtyard outside, but the wind immediately challenged her hold on the door. “We better not go this way. Let’s go via the kitchen.”

  She led him back down the hallway to a cupboard by the door leading outside.

  Raynie gave Jake a coat, and then dressed herself. “Come on,” she said beckoning him to follow. He nodded and followed her out along the path across the yard to a gate leading to the woodshed. The cold rain beat upon them both as they ran, with Raynie shining a torch on the way ahead. A few snowflakes were already drifting amongst the downpour, strangely defying the course of the wind, as they were blown about caught in miniature eddies and currents.

  “I’ll just get the light,” Raynie said as she shone a torch along the wall after they entered the wood shed. A single light revealed a large stack of wood and a hand cart just beside the door. They both filled the cart with logs working fast as lightning flashes regularly came in through the open door behind them casting shadows and adding eeriness to the scene. The storm was soon directly overhead now in a fury m
uch faster than they had expected, hastening them as they stacked the last logs onto the cart and covered them with a tarpaulin.

  Raynie killed the light and they left the shed, casting themselves into the elements outside for the return trip through the yard to the house. When they arrived back at the kitchen, the radio was still on and featured a reporter talking to a meteorologist about the current storm. “The Bureau is certain this storm is the most intense snow storm seen since the great storms of the twenties,” the scientist was heard to say.

  “I’ll stoke the fire and then let’s go back to the library,” Jake offered.

  “Sure. How about some more coffee to warm us up after the cold outside?”

  Raynie made another coffee pot as Jake tended the fire. “The wind sure is furious out there,” he said as the door they had used shuddered in its frame.

  “Certainly a night to be indoors. I’m glad you arrived before the storm hit.”

  “Yeah, me too. How’s the coffee coming? I think the fire should be good for an hour or so.”

  “Coffee is ready now in fact. Let’s get back to the library.”

  “I have information about some relics and locations, or locations with relics that might help us,” Jake said after they had once again sat at the desk in the library. “There are relics found in sites, which I think are keys or a means to understand some other details. It is about the best I can come up with.”

  “Relics? Sites? What are these places like?”

  “I am not sure entirely. I suppose they look like ceremonial sites, but I don’t have a definitive description. Other information I have seen indicates someone has to be aware of these things to be able to see them.”

  “Aware…” Raynie trailed off thinking for a moment. “For some people to be able to see them they need more than just eyesight?”

  “That’s what I thought, but it is still a bit beyond me. What is being aware to be able to see?”

  “Perhaps our language cannot quite describe it well enough.”

  “Maybe you are right. I think we need to work more on the details. Maybe these relics could be analysed against the text with imagery I have found and maybe then we will find some more clues?”

  “The relic sites I have looked into are not what you would expect,” Jake said. They had both been looking through the information now spread across the desk for almost half an hour, and it was the first time they had been silent since meeting that night. “The sites are more like what you could describe as a midden. A place where indigenous peoples would leave food scraps where shells are often found along with bones. It may depend on the location I guess.”

  “Really! A midden. There is one of those on the hills at the back of this property.”

  “Well. These sites are arranged in specific patterns, not like the random dump of scraps you see in most middens. In the past, most diggings at these places have come in at the sides, but if you take a top down view you then notice the pattern.”

  “Interesting. I want to show you the one on this property tomorrow, but the snow might be a struggle. Hey. Let’s go back to the kitchen and check the fire.”

  “OK. Sounds good.”

  “Are there any snow skis here?” Jake asked as Raynie added more wood to the fire in the stove.

  “Why yes. There are some in the store room. We can ski to the midden site if we need to.”

  “Boots?”

  “Adjustable boots.”

  “Great. Skiing in the morning then. I certainly didn’t think that would happen!”

  After a few more hot drinks and another hour of in depth discussion, they decided it was time to retire for the night.

  Raynie was stoking the fire in the kitchen sending sparks flying from dying embers, as Jake appeared through the kitchen door the next morning. “It is a good morning to you Raynie. It looks cold outside. There must be two feet of snow.”

  “Yes, and good morning to you Jake. There is a lot of snow, so it could be difficult to find what we are looking for today.”

  Twenty minutes later they had finished breakfast and were donning ski wear in preparation for the potential discovery to be had in the field. Despite the heavy snow and some earlier doubts, they both felt as if something was awaiting their arrival, and so they set about enthusiastically preparing.

  Snow was falling in a steady stream as they made their way outside, and within moments they were both coated white as they skied slowly out through the yard towards the gate they had taken the night before.

  “Keep high on this slope so we can make good progress up the hill,” Raynie said pointing in the direction they were to take.

  After fifteen minutes of steady skating they reached the crest of the hill where stopped again to survey the scene. Raynie indicated the way ahead without speaking, pointing in the general direction of their destination with a ski stock.

  A stand of pine trees could be made out after they had skied for another twenty minutes. “There is where we need to get to,” Raynie said as they paused for a moment to rest. “The midden is just on the down side of the hill from those pines.”

  “This looks similar to the sites I have been studying,” Jake said.

  “Yes. I thought there might be something here. See how the trees appear to be planted in some semi-circular pattern, and they open to face the direction of the midden. Almost as if they are some type of ceremonial place,” Raynie added as he took the snow shovel from the backpack she was wearing. The wind had returned and continued to build in intensity, causing the snow to swirl around them.

  “Here, hold on to this whilst I survey precisely where we should look,” she said handing Jake the shovel. Raynie carefully studied the surroundings looking back towards the stand of pines, and then made imaginary lines back towards them as she lined up the position to dig.

  “Right here could be a good place,” she said indicating just a few yards to their left. Jake moved across to where she was pointing and began to dig through the snow.

  “Here. Look!” Jake exclaimed after he had dug deep enough through the snow and had penetrated into the soil. “Can you notice the layers here? They appear to be organized as opposed to some random discarding of rubbish. How did you first notice this place?”

  “I was walking out here just two days ago and noticed the trees, and then I literally stumbled across this midden when my foot caught a stone sticking out of the grass. I scratched around and saw some bones and thought this must be a place of significance or of some history in the least. I will dig for a bit whilst you take a look at the arrangement and see if it is what you have been researching.” She took the shovel from Jake and started to carefully excavate just to the side of the hole he had made. “I’ll try to trace a circle in the snow so we can then get to more of the soil if that makes sense.”

  “That’s good,” Jake replied. “These sites seem to always be made out in circles, so dig around there.”

  Raynie continued to trace out a curve making her way slowly away from Jake as he scrambled about in the loosened soil looking for answers. After about fifteen minutes she had made a curve in the snow some ten feet long.

  “Here, I’ll take the shovel now,” Jake said. “I think we are definitely onto something, but it looks like we need to dig more towards the center of this circle as opposed to around.”

  “There was a stone…” Raynie trailed off as she walked through the snow to what she thought was the center of the midden. Jake followed and started digging next to the place where she had stopped. After breaking through the snow to the soil, they found nothing. “Well, maybe a little over here,” she said as they stood there wondering where to go next. She kicked at the powder snow sending billowing clouds into the wind. On the third kick she struck something hard. “This is it!”

  Jake dug around her foot with renewed enthusiasm, sending more snow into the air until he had uncovered a slab approximately two feet square. He dug around its’ edge and rubbed away the remaining soil to reveal its’
entirety. What appeared to be an abstract picture of an eye was carved very shallow into one corner. “This is great. Those other sites I have seen have the same symbol.”

  Raynie helped Jake lift the stone slab, both of them eager to see what lay beneath. The snow and wind was blowing hard, partially filling in the hole they had dug as they struggled with the stone. Their enthusiasm for answers kept Raynie and Jake going undeterred in anticipation of a discovery, despite the arduous conditions of the setting. After a short struggle they pushed the stone to the side of the opening to reveal a smaller slab roughly half the size of the first with the same eye decal.

  “Try the shovel,” Raynie said as they stood up after being unable to move the smaller slab with their hands. Jake grabbed the shovel and after a few attempts, he managed to move the slab to reveal a small carved stone from underneath. He saw some small inscriptions on the stone he immediately recognized.

  “I think we have what we came for. Let’s put these slabs back and return to the house.”

  The howling gale fought against them as they skied off, keeping their trail high on the hillside in a traverse. Skiing was difficult as they stayed close together so as not to lose each other in the white out conditions. When they arrived back at the house, snow was piled high against the kitchen door, and they had to dig feverously so they could get back inside and out of the elements.

  The small glow in the fire was a welcome greeting and Raynie quickly moved to stash her ski gear and then put more wood on. Jake stashed his gear, filled the pot with some water, and then helped her make a hot drink and prepare some food. Such arduous skiing battling the storm had left them starving and so they set about satiating themselves before going to the library to examine and discuss their recent discovery.

  “You know. This could be a significant find. I have seen these markings before.” Jake said as he turned back to face Raynie who was sitting in a relaxed fashion in one of the old leather wing backed chairs used for reading. “Let’s take a closer look.” He took the stone from his pocket and sat next to Raynie in the accompanying chair. “See here? This line with what appears as segments running along each side in a twisted pattern resembles DNA.”