The Story of Ultima

A blog adventure unlike any other...
What you are about to read is a tantalizing adventure story, blogged into existence by two underdog authors. Posts numbered for your convenience. It is HIGHLY suggested that you read them in order. Enjoy...
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Sunday, January 08, 2006

(11) Revealed...

Back in Eltemu, eight hours prior...

Wiping sweat from his brow, Rufus walked up and stared at the artifact, which was shining brightly in the afternoon sunlight, still nestled firmly in the pedestal. Eying the dark purple orb in it's center, Rufus couldn't help but note the striking, liquidy resemblance it had to the portal he had just witnessed opening and closing. As he touched the cold, glassy surface of the orb, Rufus knew he would need to hold on to this artifact. It obviously played a role in opening the portal through which Jay had vanished.

But how can I open this portal again? How did it open up in the first place?
Maybe I missed something in my father's notes - something that will explain how to use this artifact...


With that in mind, Rufus headed back into the second building, where he'd found his father's documents.
Exasperated, he cranked his head back to stretch his neck muscles, and noticed the small window behind the wall containing the glass panel, which allowed light to enter into the room and onto the glass panel itself. A small set of mirrors set into the windows frame flashed a sudden glare into his eyes as Rufus froze in mid stretch. Then it occurred to him:

Those panels activated when the light hit them from behind just right. I doubt that happens more than once a day... so these things are probably aligned to reflect the light just right at a certain time of day....
Great... That means I may have to wait until tomorrow to get that portal open again...


"I guess I'll just have to wait this thing out," Rufus sighed, pulling out his cellular phone to call the driver and get some things to tide him over. But the phone was no longer working. He took it outside in hopes of getting reception. No luck. It was then that the phone shut off completely. The battery had died or short-circuited.
"I thought I just charged this thing," Rufus thought out loud, puzzled. "Damn."

He tossed the phone onto the ground in frustration.

His next thought was to get back to the car, but looking between the buildings, Rufus could not see the driver or his vehicle. In all the craziness it seemed the driver had abandoned him.

"I guess that I'll have to... rough it, until tomorrow," Rufus concluded with solemn hesitation, heading back into the second building. "Might as well keep looking for more information..."

Inside, Rufus scanned the remnants of his father's notes carefully. The beam of light from that room had caused such an intense heat that the papers inside had been severely burned or singed, and many of the smaller pens on the table had literally melted into the woodwork below them.
Regardless, Rufus study the papers intently.

After a few minutes, his stomach began to growl.
"I need food..." His shoulder also ached, probably bruised from the failed attempt at tackling Jay away from the portal. Within himself, Rufus could feel an anger at the situation boiling up.

Then something caught his eye that scattered everything else from his thoughts. Underneath the table, in the corner of an open cardboard box, was a cassette recorder, visually unscathed. Without hesitation, Rufus snapped it up, rewound the tape and played it back.

"Testing 1...2....3.... Testing... Okay."
It was his father's voice, as expected.
"The date is, well actually, I don't know the exact date, but I know I've been studying in this area alone, for at least a week," his voice pauses, then continues, "The days seem to melt together."
Another pause, follow by a barely audible cough.
"Please excuse me. I'm running low on supplies, and I'm a bit dehydrated."
Another cough.
"In summary, two days ago, I successfully pinpointed the time of day that this portal will open. Yesterday, I was able to send a GPS tracking device through the anomaly in attempt to find its exit point. According to the data broadcast by the GPS, it is just over three thousand miles from my location, in the vicinity of Winter Lake, Mongolia."
A pause.
"However, I still can't quite figure out how the artifact is linked to this 'warp-gate' as I've named it."
A break in recorded audio led to static, then another recording followed.
"This is incredible. The technological ramifications of this discovery are preposterous but true."
A deep breath.
"Somehow, the ancients who developed this Ankh hard-coded it's orb to respond only to the touch of any descendant of its creators. I don't know if this is some sort of DNA recognition system or what else it could be, but I know that I now need to retrieve a living descendant of these ancients. This person is crucial to unlocking the artifact's true potential, as described in the ancients' very vague writings. However, one obstacle remains. I do not have any way of finding that descendant."
A brief bout of static then an abrupt pickup.
"After studying the ancients' historical documentation I have mapped a lineage of their people to a small close-knit group of individuals... Back soon."
Another cut-off, quickly followed by a loud resume.
"Yes! Of that group I narrowed down, it seems there is only one living relative remaining whom I could realistically convince to take on this course of action. Thankfully, he is more than suitable for this... experiment. His name is Jay Spader, and he resides in New Detroit, Michigan."
A brief bout of static.
"I am flying out today, to try and 'recruit' him to help me."
More static. Some clicks as the tape rolled over, and then a final audio blurb.
"I attempted to get Mr. Spader to join me, but he was rather ignorant. But my great mind has saved me once again. Details aside, I have ensured that Jay can reach this location smoothly once he comes to his senses - I know he will. However, to seal the deal, I must take an unplanned course of action."
An intentional pause, and a deep breath.
"I am going to enter the warp-gate myself. If it indeed transports me to Mongolia, I will remain there long enough to prompt Jay and my son, Rufus, to begin a rescue operation. And in case there is any doubt by whoever will listen to this tape, I saw something in Jay's eyes. Perhaps it was a look of determination, somewhat clouded by his reservations. Whatever the case, that look - it told me that he will come... I know... The time is near. I must prepare."
Then static, and only static.

Rufus set down the tape recorder slowly, as his fathers words slowly sunk in.

"I cannot believe he did that!" Rufus finally blurted out into the empty room. His voice echoed slightly.
"And how did he get all that information from three sym-"

Before he could finish his question, a loud noise erupted from outside the building. It was like the loud crackling of a fire, but only lasted for a moment.

"What the...?" He bolted back outside to see who or what had made the noise.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

(10) Upon Arrival...

Icy hot.
Those were the only words Jay could think of that could accurately describe how his body felt as he fell out of nowhere into a freezing pile of snow. Immediately his senses hit him full power, and the intense cold around him sunk in.

"Whoa!!" Jay pushed himself upright, patting down his now ice-reddened forearms.
"Brrr..." He shivered, "Where am I?"


All around him, as far as he could see, were pine trees and bushes, not to mention lots of snow, both on the ground and steadily falling from the gray sky above. Wiping a few flakes from his cheek, Jay could not think to do anything except walk forward in a random direction. So he started forward, trudging through the thick, ankle-deep snow at a sluggish but steady pace.

After about ten steps, Jay felt a tinge of oddness in his mind. Something was missing.
Then it hit him, rather painstakingly: Rufus!

Whirling around, Jay scanned the clearing for any other signs of life. A fox was running into the trees on the opposite side of the clearing, but no other signs of life seemed to exist.
Suddenly the altercation before his transportation flooded back into his memory.

Rufus knocked me toward the orb, tried to grab my hand, to no avail.
He fell backward, and... He must've not made it through!
I... what do I do now?

The dull pain of confusion made his temples throb with a kind of soreness. He quickly shook off the subtle emotional response and thought out loud.

"I have to figure out where I am. Then I have to get out of here."


He continued walking and, after pushing through several thickets of small pine trees, he came upon a gigantic lake. It stretched out farther than the whistling blankets of snow would allow him to see. In the distance, right about where the landscape faded into white, he could see some semi-truck sized icebergs bobbing violently in the nearly frozen water.

"I'm not going to last long in this weather," Jay said to himself, pushing forward. He shoved his hands in his pockets and felt the left connect with his cell phone. He pulled it out, crossed his fingers and flipped it open.

It was powered off. Restarting it, the words 'NO SIGNAL' blinked in bright red letters, before the phone died again with a hiss from an electrical surge.
"Weird..." Jay closed the phone in dismay, trying to think of the positive in the situation. "At least I know where I am - in the middle of nowhere."

This notion did little to brighten his spirits, but he kept walking forward. Eventually the snow thinned out a bit, but he was so tired from the walking that he'd done already that walking at all was exhausting. He shook off the pain in his aching leg muscles and continued forward.


It seemed like an eternity that Jay walked, sloshing through the disheveled snow-coated landscape, which was like walking through quicksand that didn't want to pull you down. Jay's entire body ached with a vehemence, but somehow he was able to ignore the frost developing on his face and press onward.

Thirty minutes later, Jay found himself almost half way around the lake, and on the brink of collapsing. His limbs were almost completely numb from the cold, and he was about to give up when, ahead of him, he saw a relieving sight - a group of people. They were shuffling in his general direction, slowly at first. Then, as one of the posse apparently spotted him, the whole group shot forward with a burst of speed.


Jay lost control of his legs and collapsed to his knees; it was an uncontrolled response to seeing his possible rescuers. As the group neared him, Jay stared at these individuals with a combination of awe and caution. Two looked like a normal guy and girl, about his age, except the blond-haired girl was dressed in clothing fit for a ninja, and the guy sported the attire of an army jock. The other two were a male and female, but they had bodies that were a combination of human physiology and robotic components like armor and weaponry.

Is this some sort of crazy hallucination?
Jay wondered, struggling internally against his exhaustion.


"Quickly, we need to warm him up!" the robotic girl hollered, rushing to his position.
"Got it covered," the blond girl replied, kneeling down in front of Jay, just before he passed out.

...

When Jay awoke, the group was hovering around him. They had lain him on a large, fallen tree trunk and somehow warmed him up significantly. Even his legs felt substantially less strained than before. Regardless of the help they'd given him, Jay kept a weary eye on this out of place group of individuals.

"Hey! He's up." Jay recognized the blond girl's voice.
"It's about time," he heard another voice say, "he's been asleep for almost eight hours."

But before he could say anything, the robotic girl stepped up to his side.

"Hey, you're alright. That's awesome! By the way, the name's Lara. Who might you be?"

Friday, January 06, 2006

(9) Awaking the Transport...

Meanwhile, back in Kazakhstan...

"Great," Jay replied, hoping for good news, "and hopefully this will this help."
He held up the artifact for Rufus to see.

"Nice," Rufus replied, "one less thing to worry about. But I don't know how it fits into this puzzle."

"Puzzle? What do you mean?"

"Well..." Rufus paused, "It's complicated."

Jay frowned. "Uh, uncomplicate it then."

"Well..." Rufus paused again. "I noticed that the bizarre writing in my father's notes carried a sort of pattern. The entire string of symbols were just three separate symbols written over and over again. I've seen my father use a similar technique when learning other languages. He found that repeating the characters in a word helped him decode it somehow."

"So..." Jay replied, "I still don't follow."

Rufus began rubbing his temple. "From the looks of things, I don't think he figured out the language. But I think that's because it wasn't a language at all."

"Then... what was it?"

"It dawned on me that I'd seen two of the symbols elsewhere."
Rufus began walking towards the third ruined building. Jay followed.

"Each of these buildings have one thing in common. It's something we've seen in the first two already."

Rufus entered the third building through its barren doorway, then pointed to yet another black tarp covering a wall that looked almost exactly like those in the first two buildings.

"The glass panels?" Jay raised an eyebrow intriguingly. The realization hit him quickly as he stepped up to the tarp.

Rufus nodded. "I think my father may have figured out the secret of these antiquated panels. Whatever it was..."

Jay pulled the tarp away, revealing the final glass panel, which glistened in the low light behind it. This particular panel resembled a triangle, except that its corners were rounded and a small blob of thickened glass was spread across its center, resulting in a liquidy texture.


Rufus stared at the symbol, realizing it matched the third symbol he'd seen in his father's notes.


"...it caused him to disappear."

Jay looked down at his watch. It was off by a significant amount, as he hadn't reset it after traveling across multiple time zones. But he quickly did the math, and came to the conclusion that it was nearly six o'clock.

The sun should be at just the right point, Jay thought.
Then it dawned on him that he had no idea what that meant.

"Wait a sec..." Rufus started, "Glass panels... they... glass reflects... or... refracts light. But these things are too big to be refractors, right? So..."


Before Jay could stop it, a sudden urgency flooded his senses, causing him to involuntarily tackle Rufus the ground. Rufus grunted from the blunt force of the fall, but froze as the glass panel began to glow brighter.

Behind the wall, Jay could see sunlight shining in full force through an opening he could've predicted would be there. The window angled the light into the glass panel which glowed at first, then refracted a gigantic, triangular beam of light right over their heads, through the doorway, and beyond. The glass panel darkened in color, and soon a sweltering red filtered itself into the beam. Then Jay noticed the room began to get very warm.

As droplets of sweat poured down his face, Jay motioned for Rufus to roll to the side. He complied and they both scrambled to their feet, standing adjacent to the sweltering beam of light, which now took on that liquidy look inherent in the glass panel itself.

"How are we going to get out?" Rufus hollered frantically, backing against the wall. It fell apart behind him, creating an opening just big enough for them to duck through. Once outside, they spotted the beam of light, easily visible, vibrantly roasting the pedestal centered between the buildings. Oddly, the pedestal seemed resistant to the heat, and Jay quickly realized it was made of some sort of hardened metal. As the dirt and grime atop the pedestal melted away, a shiny surface was revealed, which instantly reflected the beam skyward.

To avoid the heat of the red beam, the duo headed towards the first building. To their left, the second building began to hum as light invaded its glass panel. From their position, they saw the panel's crossed lines illuminate through the doorway. Light shot forth into two, crossed flat beams, which quickly fluctuated into a luminescent green color, and jetted out to meet the center pedestal as well. When that beam collided with the first, both beams reacted with a flurry of sparks, then refracted upward at a slightly different angle.

Turning away, Jay and Rufus continued towards the first building, both in the same mindset:

We either cover up that last panel with the tarp, or wait and see what happens.

But it was too late to make a decision. An ear-splitting hiss erupted from the first building, followed by the eruption of a third beam of light, in the shape of a circle. This one was larger than the first two, and darkened to an aquamarine color as it touched down with the pedestal.

Time fell into slow motion as Jay found himself running full force towards the pedestal. A single string of thoughts repeated over and over in his head.

The artifact is the key; It will unite the beams...

From far back, Rufus stared in horror as Jay made contact with the focal point of the infernal beams of light. The artifact in Jay's now outstretched hand shot out a bubble of pulsing violet energy, which forced back the sweltering heat of the three colliding beams of light. Thrusting downward, Jay forced the screw shaped end of the artifact into a small slot in the center of the pedestal.

A magnificent explosion knocked Jay backward as the purple energy disappeared. As the beams of light regained their hold on the now decorated pedestal, a series of blinding white flashes erupted. A noise followed unlike any Jay or Rufus had ever heard. This indescribable noise overtook all other noises.
Then reality hit the brakes.

Sparks erupting from the pedestal seemed to phase in and out of a state of slow motion. The beams jetting into the sky vanished, but only because they were pressing together now, wrapped around the artifact in a swirling vortex. In an instant, the vortex became a translucent orb of swirling matter. It made no noise, but inherited the colors of the beams invoking it, turning a liquidy, white luminous color after a few seconds.

As time caught up with reality, Jay met the ground and rolled over groaning. Miraculously unscathed, Jay pulled himself up and both he and Rufus stared at the swirling orb in overdue awe.

Enter without haste!
It won't last much longer!

Jay had no idea from where he was gaining these insightful thoughts, but accepted them instinctively. He took a cautious step towards the vibrantly lucent orb, which had now grown to about ten feet high, and was at least as wide.

"Jay...!" Rufus interjected. But Jay couldn't be stopped. Truth be told, Jay couldn't stop himself either. Something was drawing him towards the radiant, energetic orb. It was like an intolerable itch he could not scratch - without this orb. He took another step forward, and an unexplicable wind ruffled his unkept hair.

Rufus stared in bewilderment as Jay stepped forward, a mere few inches from the raging ball of energy. "Jay!"

Jay looked back quickly. "Don't worry, Rufus. It'll take us where we want to go."

"How do you know?" Rufus yelled back. But Jay ignored him, turning back to the glowing orb, which began to rattle as Jay neared, as if anticipating his entrance.

Rufus wasn't sure what they were looking at, even though Jay seemed confident that it was some s0rt of portal to another place... But he couldn't allow himself to let Jay risk his life testing this assumption. Commanding all his energy, Rufus lunged forward in attempt to tackle Jay to the ground.

This bold move backfired severely. In a flurry of movements, Jay fell forward into the orb. Rufus grabbed Jay's hand in an attempt to pull him out, but the pull of the now pulsing orb was too much. The ball of energy swirled violently as Jay dissapeared within, then at all once the beams of light faded away, shattering the focal orb into nothingness.

A mild shock wave sent Rufus reeling backward, skidding on his back for a few feet from the force of the entire movement. It took him a few seconds to regain his bearings, and stand upright. Then he drooped in disbelief. Jay was really gone, and Rufus was the only person who knew how it had happened. He knew to find his father, he would now also have to find Jay.