(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.