"Welcome back."
Jay was back in the dream world, with Rapha acknowledging his return.
"That was intense, Rapha."
"Yes, and it will only become more so."
"I have some questions first."
"Speak."
"How many more trips are needed?"
"As many as it takes."
"For what purpose, Rapha?"
"You know the purpose."
"Yes, the overall purpose is to save humanity, but what do the things like the necklace do?"
"They provide a means to an end."
Jay sighed, growing frustrated by the conversation.
"Do not let your frustrations get the better of you. In time, you will understand."
"How much time?"
"Again, as long as it takes."
Jay looked down at the nothingness around him, then looked back up.
"How did the Tormentor know my name?"
Rapha was silent for a moment.
"Why do you think the Tormentor knew your name?"
Every response by Rapha seemed vague, or a question was redirected to Jay. He let what he was thinking slip out at this moment.
"I don't know why."
"Yes, you do. You just haven't realized it yet. You're choosing to look away, as many humans do. But you know why."
Jay understood that some. He knew the Fleece itself had been around for a long time, so something else might have also been around for a long time. Rapha had spoken of a sentinel from Earth. Jay had taken that to mean the Fleece, but perhaps it was a literal being instead.
"I guess there's only one way to find out, right? On to the next task," Jay said with some apprehension. In the last task, he was basically eaten. What would happen next?
***********************************************************************************
The team stood by in the Artifact Room, waiting for Jay to wake up. Jay arose from his slumber, much less dramatically than the last excursion. However, Jay sat up, holding a cat as he arose from his chair. Much to the team's astonishment, this wasn't what they expected to see come back with Jay.
One of the elite soldiers lowered his rifle momentarily and asked, "Is that a cat?"
The cat meowed at the soldier.
Dr. Kelly approached Jay, "You brought a cat back with you this time?"
"I stole a ring from a pharaoh's wife and attached it to the collar it was wearing. It was the only thing I knew to do to get the artifact here."
Dr. Kelly stared at Jay. The soldier standing beside the doctor began to chuckle. This laughter prompted another soldier to laugh, followed by others in the room, including Dr. Kelly, joining in.
Eventually, even Jay smiled as the cat patted his nose with its paw.
Another soldier said, "That cat just bopped his nose!" That led to a large amount of laughter.
Dr. Kelly laughed and took the cat from Jay, "At least you didn't wake up screaming this time."
"Yeah, I'm happy about that," Jay replied.
Linda approached him, smirking. "So, Jay, how did you get the cat from the pharaoh's wife?"
Jay was leaning back in the chair again, "Very carefully."
"I'll bet. Getting anything from a pharaoh's spouse has to be done carefully. They can also be quite seductive. Did she seduce you so you could get her cat?"
Jay just stared at Linda, then slowly pulled his eye cover back down to lean back more and go back to sleep.
Dana walked up to Linda, giggling. Linda gave her an intense look, to which Dana could tell she was pretty mad.
"Just remember, Linda, he's sleeping during all this."
"He better not be sleeping with anyone during all of this, or he'll wish he stayed there."
Linda turned around and walked back to the control console briskly. Dana raised her eyebrows and looked down at Jay. She pursed her lips and giggled more, especially as she looked at Jay.
Jay was lying there but wasn't asleep yet and had heard what his wife said to Dana. He knew nothing sexual happened, but it was kind of funny seeing Linda's reaction. He loved getting a rise out of her sometimes but never pushed it too far. But for the moment, he had a smile on his face.
***********************************************************************************
Jay was twitching this time as he slept. He groaned a few times, too, as his brain patterns indicated extreme movements.
"He's really moving expediently in this dream. It's raising his heart rate and blood pressure substantially," Dr. Blake said as he continued monitoring Jay's condition.
"Anything like loop one, with the necklace?" Dr. Kelly asked.
"No, nothing like that. It's more like he's running and jumping."
Linda was growing concerned. What could he be running from?
Finally, Jay awoke quickly, sat up even quicker, and threw an object toward the control console. A large javelin-like device pierced the impenetrable glass encasing the console and lodged in it. The object just missed Dana and would have killed her had it gone entirely through.
Jay stood beside the chair, with the elite soldiers aiming their weapons at him.
"Are you ok? All of you!"
Jay was frantic because he knew he had thrown the javelin device.
Dr. Kelly interceded, "Yes, everyone is fine. Just minor damage to the glass encasing. What was going on there?"
"I was being chased by sentries," Jay replied, drenched in sweat as he peeled off some of the electrodes.
"Sentries?" Dr. Kelly asked.
"Yes, sentries of the loop three. They called themselves the Bosk, the KL type two civilization. Much more advanced than we are today. As you said."
"Really? How advanced?"
"I was running from them on a flying device of theirs. I had to steal that javelin as part of my next task. But I got into a chase where I was trying to learn how to fly that thing. I went up as high in the air as nearly ten thousand feet. It was terrifying. I'm afraid of heights."
"Well, that explains the vital sign readings then," Dr. Blake added.
One of the soldiers finally dislodged the javelin from the window and started walking toward Jay with it. "This thing is wicked."
The soldier handed the javelin to Dr. Kelly, who began examining it.
"So what does this thing do besides be a possible weapon?" Dr. Kelly asked.
"I don't know. Just another task Rapha wants me to complete. But I need a break and something to eat," Jay said, showing signs of physical exhaustion.
"Go shower and spend a few hours with your wife and family. We'll start again at 2100."
"What time is it now?"
"0715."
"That sounds great to me."
***********************************************************************************
After spending the day with his family, Jay was back in the seat again, sedated to fall asleep and convene with Rapha.
Rapha had yet to return to a physical presence, even in the dream world. Jay typically started somewhere in a dark void. But for this excursion, he was in a desolate wilderness. In the distance, he saw a mountain and what looked like the clamoring of people gathered nearby.
From where Jay stood, he saw a brilliant light shining at the top of a pillar of fire and cloud ranging downward to the top of the mountain. Jay was perplexed. He had never seen anything like it.
"Come to the mountain top."
Jay heard the voice calling to him and knew it was Rapha, but it originated from the pillar of fire and cloud.
Jay began moving toward the mountain, heading up its slopes to find the origin of Rapha's voice. From one vantage point, he could see thousands of people below on the outskirts of the mountain as if they were waiting. Jay continued to climb until he reached the location of the pillar. He waded through the dust to the edge of the cloud. While moving toward the pillar, a light showed brightly, illuminating the area of the mountain he was in and a man standing before him.
Jay could only see the man's backside, wearing a flowing robe-like attire, with brown, grayish long hair. As Jay approached him, with his arm up to shield himself from the light, the man in the robe turned around to face Jay. Jay couldn't make out the man's face very well, as the light was so intense it blocked out features. But then the man spoke to Jay.
"I was told to give you these."
The man extended two objects toward Jay. Jay looked at them, but again, the brightness of the light removed any detail. He took the objects from the man and tried to look back at him.
Jay could see a faint smile on the man's face before the man spoke one last time, "Now go."
Jay listened to what the man said and turned to make his way back down the mountain. The man watched Jay leave as the pillar of cloud grew in luminosity. A voice said, "You have done well, my good and faithly servant."
***********************************************************************************
Jay awoke back in the Artifact room to a gasp. He began looking around at what was in his hands. Now that he could see the objects, he tried to discern what he was holding.
Dr. Kelly and Dr. Blake, Dana, and Linda approached Jay.
"What are those?"
Jay looked down at the two objects he was cradling. As he pulled them away from his body, it became clear they were tablets of some kind. But not stone tablets, electronic ones. The glass of the screens was clearly visible, similar to the devices of today. But the tablets were black, with no power to them.
"That almost looks like an iJot," Dana said, a little confused.
"Where did you get these from, Jay?" Dr. Kelly asked.
"I was on a mountain with this large pillar of cloud and fire. There was this intense bright light, making it hard to see anything. This older man in a robe told me he was told to give them to me. Before that, I heard Rapha's voice coming from the cloud. It was odd. I've never seen anything like that or like these devices. But whatever they are, they don't seem to work."
Then, the two tablets roared to life, with images forming on them like nothing any of them had ever seen. The images almost lifted off the tablets themselves, but no one could understand what they were or meant."
"Those things just turned on," Linda said.
"For what purpose, though?" asked Dr. Blake.
Jay and the others do not know that Jay was given the original tablets handed down to Moses at the beginning of civilization for the second loop after the fall of the Atlanteans. Many years after the fall, society was trying to rebound from the disappearance of the Atlantean civilization. The Ten Commandments. Oddly enough, Rapha was there. Although none of them could understand it, one person in their world did. Pat was sitting alone, in chains, in his room, a smile creeping across his face.
"That's two," was all he said.
