12 - Take Us to Your Leader

Gail was nervous. At least what her stomach told her resembled that feeling. She looked at her watch. Christina was late, as usual. She caught the waitresses eye and ordered another Coke. They had agreed to meet after school, about an hour before Nathan had asked them to be at his house. The outer surface of this pre-meeting meeting was to discuss Nathan’s strange behavior, and how they were going to handle it. But actually Gail was pleased just to spend time with Christina. The reasons for this weren’t entirely clear to her, but when she and Christina were together she just felt happier than with anyone else, even Nathan.

Christina had selected a cafe near the imposing Fredriks Kirke, known as the Marble Church. Thankfully the street was relatively clear of tourists, and the cafe only contained locals who were doing local things: reading newspapers, sipping coffee, or drinking beer.

Gail tried to come up with reasons why Nathan had gone so left-field on the trip to the Caves. It was unlike him to take such a big risk, wandering off  into an unknown cave system. He might well have gotten lost and (God forbid) died. This thought sent a shiver up her spine, as if someone had pinched the nerves at the small of her back. The thought of losing Nathan was only marginally less appalling than the thought of losing Christina. There it was again, that strange feeling that she couldn’t identify.

The door to the cafe opened, so fast it seemed that its glass would smash on the coat stand behind it. Christina flew through the door, a whirlwind of exuberance. She kicked the door closed, spotted Gail, smiled, and walked quickly to the table whilst divesting herself of her jacket. Christina dumped her jacket on the spare chair then dumped herself down in the chair opposite Gail. A leisurely arm waved in the general direction of the waitress, who was pretending to read the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Christina didn’t bother to check that the waitress had noticed her. Gail marveled at Christina’s confidence. She exuded an aura of cool that nothing seemed to dent. Gail didn’t feel like that; her timidness and shyness was palpable, but she knew that Christina was gradually bringing her out of her shell. Gail supposed Christina’s personality was rubbing off on her, or at least that was what it felt like. The opposite didn’t seem to be true, but that was ok. Christina needed to be Christina. She, on the other hand, did feel that she needed a splash of Christina in herself. 

Christina looked at her watch. “We’ve got about an hour before we’re due at his house. What do you think?” She finally realized that the waitress was not going to come over unbidden, so snapped Danish in the waitress’ direction. Satisfied that this had elicited the correct response, Christina turned back to Gail.

Gail thought for a moment. “I am worried about him. He seemed way too relaxed for someone who’d spent hours lost and alone. And this talk of meeting someone; maybe he hallucinated it. He was lucky to get out. ”

“Was it luck?” She fidgeted with a fingernail.

Gail jerked back. This thought had not occurred to her. “You mean, this ‘someone’ might have kidnapped him, then set him free?”

Christina shrugged. “Stranger things have happened at sea. Maybe there’re aliens living down there, and it’s not Nathan that came back at all.”

Gail tried to decide if Christina was joking. Her friend had a penchant for cheap SciFi movies. She sometimes translated random events into equally implausible plot lines, normally from a 1950’s B-movie where the ‘alien’ had been cheated-up by a sub-standard Hollywood studio. 

The milk Christina had ordered arrived, although it was flung on their table with all the force of a dam buster. Christina waved the waitress away dismissively. Once she had done, Christina continued, “What if he was body-snatched or something. Maybe he’s a clone, and is luring us back to his lair to feast on us.”

Now Gail knew Christina was joking, and flicked an ancient (that waitress really was terrible) breadcrumb from the table across at her. “You do say some very silly things. Seriously, what do we do?”

“What can we do? He’s our friend. Something happened to him, and now he wants to talk about it. Not much we can do but listen to him. He didn’t say anything to Mr. Priest, and he was phased out all the way back to København on the bus.”

Gail smiled. Christina always used the city’s native name in English conversation. It was as if she wanted to make sure that she never let anyone forget who she was, where they were, or where she came from. “Good plan.” Gail said. “But please don’t make fun of him.” Christina reached over and squeezed her hand, which sent a rabble of butterflies lose in her stomach. 

Christina said sincerely, “He’s very lucky to have a friend like you.”

Gail smiled back. “He’s lucky to have both of us. C’mon, let’s drink up and find out what Mr. Stromberg has been hiding.”

They finished their drinks. Gail paid the bill, which elicited a glowing smile of thanks from Christina. Such a small thing, Gail thought, but it pleased her immensely. They walked to Østerport station, and took the short train ride to Bernstorffsvej, the station nearest to Nathan’s house. As they walked from there, Gail wondered how she was going to care for Nathan if there was something wrong with him. Most likely it would be something psychological which, she knew from her father, was one of the most difficult maladies to cope with. She desperately hoped that her imagination was running away with her, and there was nothing wrong with him. But she couldn’t ignore his behavior, even before he had gone missing. He had acted strangely on the bus. She wondered if Christina was having similar thoughts. Her friend, who normally walked at a pace most people would describe as ‘jogging’, was plodding, dragging her heels. It was as if she was scared of what they would find. Perhaps Nathan had experienced a meltdown of such proportions that he would have to be hospitalized. 

Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst it was Gail who first climbed the marble steps preceding the  ornate, oaken door of Nathan’s house. Christina followed, head bent and her hoodie pulled up. Gail rang the doorbell and they waited. The Audi wasn’t in the driveway, so presumably Nathan was home alone. A minute passed, and Gail felt apprehension grow in the pit of her stomach. She rang the doorbell again, keeping her finger pressed beyond the boundaries of what was acceptable in Danish society. Then, for good measure (and in socially terrible form), she hauled back the medieval door knocker and let it crash against its metal plate. Christina was jerked out of her funk by the resounding boom.

“Was that necessary?” Christina pulled her hoodie down. 

Gail gave her the best ‘what do you think?’ look she had. It didn’t work (it never did on Christina). She was about to risk a third go at the doorbell when she heard footsteps inside. She straightened, as if attending a job interview. The footsteps sounded light and bouncy, which Gail took as a good sign. If Nathan was depressed, he would be trudging to the door. She heard latches being withdrawn, and the well-oiled door to swung open. Nathan stood inside, dressed in remarkably practical clothing for a social visit: a pair of trendy army fatigues, trainers already on, and a long-sleeved F.C. Copenhagen top. As his footsteps had predicted, he was in a bubbly mood.

“Welcome,” Nathan said.

His volume was higher than necessary, which put Gail back on alert.

Christina didn’t seem to have noticed anything untoward in the nature of Nathan’s welcome. She tossed him an, “Alright,” as she walked past Gail into the entrance hall. Nathan swept behind Christina, as if caught in her wake.

Gail followed Nathan, closing the door behind her. She left the locks open, in case a swift exit was needed. She followed her friends up the wide stair-case to the corridor that led to Nathan’s apartment. She was surprised that he hadn’t offered them anything to drink, since the kitchen was on the ground floor. She’d been to Nathan’s ‘pad’ many times. He usually kept minimal supplies in his room, and all the good stuff was in the main kitchen. He seemed anxious to get them to his part of the house, so they followed dutifully. 

On entering Nathan’s room, Gail stopped. The room looked the same, but there was something different about it. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something had changed. It was still messy; what teenage boy’s room wasn’t? She saw the answer to the drinks conundrum on the table by the sofa. Nathan had put out drinks and snacks. That was interesting, he’d never done that before. She closed the door behind her, as Christina flung herself onto her usual sofa spot and poured a glass of milk from a jug on the table. Gail joined her on the sofa, all the while trying to figure out what it was about the room that was bugging her. It wasn’t that the room was wrong, it just wasn’t the same. She noticed Nathan studying her. He seemed to be waiting for one of them to say something. She remained silent, whilst Christina slurped her milk. Nathan moved behind them, to the back of the room by his wardrobe. Gail thought about asking him straight out what was wrong, but decided that it was his show so she would follow Christina’s lead. So she opened a can of Coke, and subtracted a few chips to nibble on. 

Since Nathan was behind them now they were effectively ignoring him, or vice versa depending on which way you looked at it. She felt a tightness in the room which should not have been there, and had never before existed before when they had been together. Perhaps the change in the room was not physical, but personal. Maybe it was Nathan that had changed, and his alteration manifested itself in the way the room felt. After all, this was his special place and, like all bedrooms, it took on the character of the occupant.

Eventually Christina, who wasn’t the most patient person, obviously decided that enough was enough. “Soooo,” she began, not turning around to face Nathan, “are you going to tell us what the hell is going on, or are we going to play twenty questions trying to get it out of you?”

Nathan walked around to stand on the other side of the low table, in front of the TV. “I’m going to explain it all now, but you’d better go slow on the milk Christina.”

Gail thought this was a strange thing to say. Why would Christina’s milk consumption be a problem? They both knew she guzzled the stuff like a baby elephant being bottle-fed at an orphanage. 

Christina stopped drinking mid-gulp and put the half-full glass back on the table. “Fair enough, but this had better be good, and we want it all. What happened down in those caves?”

Nathan sighed, and pulled out the camouflaged FatBoy that lurked in the corner of his room. He plumped it up a few times, then sat down and wiggled a few times to get comfortable. “Anyone need a pee break? This may take some time.”

Gail and Christina looked at each other, then both burst out laughing. Nathan joined in, and Gail felt some of the tension break. “I’m ok for now,” she said. Christina nodded in agreement.

“Fine.” Nathan settled back in the FatBoy. “I’m sure you didn’t buy the BS I sold to Mr. Priest and the others.”

Christina leaned forward. “I knew it was crap. All that s**t about flying bats.”

Nathan said, “Actually the bat was about the only part of it that was true.” 

Without warning Nathan picked up his phone from the table and checked it. A look passed over his face Gail could’t identify. If she had to, she’d have placed it somewhere in the annoyance range. 

“Yes, ok,” Nathan said to no-one in particular.

Gail and Christina exchanged a glance. 

Nathan took a chip from the bowl on the table, and took a bite. He looked thoughtful while he chewed, then swallowed and took a sip of water from a bottle. “Let’s start with the bat. It was real, but it wasn’t really.” He looked at their faces. “Ok, sorry, I mean it was there but it wasn’t a real bat. It was mechanical. You could call it a lure I suppose.”

Gail needed some clarity. “I don’t understand. Are you saying that someone lured you away from us?”

“Not someone, something,” Nathan replied, unconvincingly. “Damn this is harder than I thought.” This time his phone buzzed, and he picked it up. “Good idea,” he said, again to no-one, before putting his phone back on the table. “Look, I’m going to come right out and say it, since I seem to be dancing around the subject without getting anywhere.”

“Yeeees?” said Christina expectantly.

Nathan looked at them in turn, then closed his eyes for a second as if composing himself. “It was an alien,” he said.

Christina slapped her hand on the coffee table and turned to Gail with a look to triumph. “I told you it was aliens!” she exclaimed without a trace of sarcasm. She turned to Nathan. “How do we know you are you then?”

The look of surprise on Nathan’s face told Gail all she needed to know in answer to that question. The Nathan sat opposite them had, in no way expected that question, which told her that he was their Nathan. An impostor would have anticipated being asked, and would have prepared a glib reply like, “Of course I’m the real me.”

Nathan’s phone buzzed again. He moved to pick it up but Christina, who had the reflexes of a mousing cat, snatched it from under his grasping hand.

“What on earth is so important that it has to keep distracting you from…” Christina stopped mid sentence as she looked at the phone’s screen.

Gail looked at Christina, whose lower jaw was doing a good impression of wanting to distance itself from her previous sentence in embarrassment.

Nathan made no move to retrieve his phone. “Nothing on Earth, as you can plainly see.”

Gail nudged Christina. Christina’s eyes left the phone, and she looked at Gail with such feeling that Gail thought she could see tears welling in her eyes. “Show me.” She held her hand out, and Christina passed the phone over. 

What Gail saw on Nathan’s phone had, she was one hundred and ten percent sure, never been dreamt of in the brightest minds of Apple Inc., California, USA. Firstly, it was in 3D, and since she wasn’t wearing 3D glasses that should have been impossible. Secondly, the colors were so vivid. It was as if real-life colors had been lifted out of her mind, then enhanced through a spectrum that transformed them so that they shone with a vibrance only God could imagine. Finally, there was the object. It filled the screen, which could barely contain it. It was a sphere, and she sensed that it was good, as if the phone were radiating its goodness to her.

“You should see your face,” Christina said.

Gail looked up. “Is that…?” She left the question unfinished, because there was no need to complete it. What else could it be? 

Nathan smiled. “It is, and I want you to meet it…now.”

Gail swallowed, or tried to. Her throat was so dry that her saliva had apparently taken one look down her throat and said, “nope.” Keeping the phone in her hand, worried that putting it down might send the visage of beauty away, she swallowed a gulp of coke. “Now?” she said. “Like now, now?”

Christina stood up so suddenly that Gail thought she had been electrocuted.

“I’m in!” Christina said. Nathan reached out to her, and she pulled him out of the FatBoy with a single jerk.

Nathan looked at Gail expectantly. “You don’t have to. I want you both to come with me, but I won’t force you.”

Gail looked into Nathan’s eyes, and saw the pleading there. Christina was an adventurer, she would follow Nathan anywhere. The only thing Christina had been upset about since Nathan had disappeared into the Caves was that he hadn’t asked her to tag along. But Gail was different. She was hesitant. She often had to be persuaded to move where others followed.

Christina began to say something, but Nathan cut her off before the first word had escaped her mouth. “It’s her choice,” he said.

Gail knew that Christina had been about to tell her to stop holding them up and get in line. She was grateful to Nathan for the chance to voice her concern. “What’s going to happen to us?” she asked.

Nathan walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. “We’re going to take a trip. A short trip, time-wise anyway. Nothing bad will happen, I promise. I will explain everything on the way and, once we arrive, well…then you really will know everything.” He looked over at Christina. “And I mean it this time, absolutely everything.” He took his hand off Gail’s shoulder and walked back to the wardrobe. He placed his hand reverently on one of the doors, turned, and looked back at them. “You’ll have a choice to make, the most important choice either of you will ever make.” He put his hands in his pockets with a relaxed attitude that belied what he was saying. “I won’t try to influence you, neither will…my new friend. But I can’t explain it here properly. You need to see what I’ve seen to get the full picture. I hope you’ll help me, in fact help everyone.”

“What if we decide not to take this trip?” Christina asked. 

Gail could have hugged her for saying the exact thing that she had been thinking.

Nathan shrugged. “You’ll leave here, and no hard feelings.”

“Surely it’s not that easy,” Gail said. “What you’ve said so far, and what we’ve seen on your phone. You expect us to not say anything?”

“What have I said, and what have you seen? Some rantings of a boy who was trapped underground in a stressful situation. Some clever new app which, in about five minutes, will be available for free download from both the Apple and Android stores. No-one will think the worse of me.”

Gail and Christina looked at each other. This time it was Gail’s turn to voice their concern. “Nathan what about us. We’ll never be the same again.”

A sad look crossed Nathan’s face. “It is the price I paid for bringing you here and asking this of you.” He looked at them. “I will pay this price for the chance of having the two of you with me.”

Gail could see the pain on Nathan’s face as clearly as if he had held up a banner saying ‘I’m crying a river’. She thought for a moment. “What if we go, but then decide not to join you?” 

Nathan’s phone buzzed. He walked over, picked it up, and looked at the screen before putting it in his pocket. Then he looked at them for what seemed like the longest moment in Gail’s life, before saying, “In that case, extreme measures will have to be taken. But you will never be in any danger, I promise.”

Gail looked at Christina and saw doubt in her eyes. Strangely, and maybe for the first time in her life, Gail felt calm and at ease as the decision clicked in her mind. This happened now as easily as flipping a switch to illuminate a dark room with warm, flowing light. Gail realized that Christina, the girl with whom she would spend every waking moment if she could was, this time, looking to her for support and guidance. Gail walked over and took Christina’s hand; that warm, capable hand, and squeezed it. “In for a penny?” She asked, and smiled reassuringly. Christina gulped, then looked at Nathan and nodded.

Nathan reached for the wardrobe door, and Gail braced herself for what could be behind it: the alien sphere, ready to leap out and kill them with an advanced ray gun? A multidimensional spacecraft, like the one Dr. Who had? As Nathan flung the doors open, she was shocked to see just a badly hung array of clothes, and a mis-assortment of shoes stacked in no order she could perceive.

“Disappointed?” Nathan asked.

For a moment Gail wondered if this had been an elaborate joke. Was their friendship about to end in the wreckage of an hallucination Nathan had seen under the influence of some awful cave gas? Then Nathan cleared aside the shoes, and parted the clothes so that the wardrobe’s back panel was revealed. It looked like a piece of standard IKEA furniture, exactly the same as thousands of others across the world. 

“Ladies, step into my office.” He stepped into the wardrobe, and beckoned them to follow.

It was a tight fit, but Gail found the close proximity of Christina’s body comforting. 

Nathan pulled the doors closed. A muffled darkness surrounded them. “Make it so,” he said.

The wardrobe sighed, as if finally happy to be given a job other than stashing clothes in a very un-Scandinavian fashion. The back panel slid down into the base at their feet. Gail’s mind finally gave up the fight that this had all been a figment of Nathan’s imagination, and selected ‘no-one is every going to believe this’ mode. 

A comfortably lit compartment was now revealed. Nathan stepped calmly into it, and flipped down a seat on the left hand side. “Coming?”

Gail stepped in first, pulling another seat down and using it. Christina came behind her and did the same. “No seat belts?” Gail asked. Nathan laughed, and pushed a green button on a panel Gail hadn’t noticed. 

The door slid back into place, and Nathan looked at them with an amused expression. “Anyone like to guess where we’re going?”

“We don’t seem to be going anywhere,” Christina said critically.

“Actually,” Nathan countered, “we’re already moving at over two hundred kilometers per hour. Would you like to see?”

Christina looked dubious. Nathan pressed another button, and a 3D representation of a shaft with a yellow light moving down it appeared. “That’s us.” Nathan pointed at the light. “We’re about to make a ninety degree turn west, away from the city. Watch, and see if you can feel the turn.”

Gail could see he was enjoying this, like an excited boy showing off a new toy. She watched as the light approached a right-angle turn, but could feel no sense of deceleration. She started to get nervous. “Nathan.” Her tone reflecting her worry.

“It’s perfectly safe,” he said. “I’ve made the trip several times. Just watch.”

Gail gripped the sides of the seat as the yellow light plummeted towards the angle of the turn. At the moment when it reached the bottom she closed her eyes, tensing in anticipation of a cataclysmic crash which would spread her across the pristine, white ceiling. Nothing happened. She opened her eyes and saw that they had made the turn. They were now proceeding horizontally along a tube which zigzagged in a westerly direction. “I don’t understand,” she said, happy to be alive but confused because the ceiling above her was still white (potentially unlike her underwear).

“Neither do I,” Nathan admitted. “Something to do with throwing out inertia theory, and ditching the law of conservation of energy in the process. Anyway, pretty cool eh?”

“Cool?” Christina exclaimed. She punched Nathan in the arm. “If I die down here Stromberg, I’ll come back as a ghost and make your life a misery.”

Nathan rubbed his arm and laughed. His chortling was infectious and Gail soon followed him. Christina gave up glowering, and soon all three of them were laughing together. The mood had lightened, and that seemed to be Nathan’s cue to start the sort of briefing that Gail had previously believed only airline flight attendants capable of giving.

Nathan closed his hands together. “We’ve accelerated to eight hundred kilometers per hour, and we’ll be there in about five minutes. Time for me to give you a some background.”

Gail and Christina both leant forward attentively as Nathan began what was obviously a well-rehearsed speech. “It only came here because…”

Gail interrupted Nathan with a gasp of disapproval. “You don’t know if it’s actually a she or a he?”

Nathan looked as if the idea had never occurred to him. “I…I haven’t asked. “ He sounded embarrassed.

Gail decided not to push him, but filed this question away for later. “Ok, go on.”

Nathan took a breath, as if re-setting his script. “As I was saying, it only came here because they detected a signal from Earth. It was sent in 2008, and was made up of all sorts of images and text, mostly from young people, but also from celebs and politicians. It was directed at a planet which turned out to be The Orbs’ homeworld. Before that, The Orb had no idea we existed.”

“Is that its name?” Gail realized she was being irritating by interrupting Nathan’s again. But this time he didn’t seem to mind.

“I call it The Orb, although its proper name is longer. But it has to tell you its name itself, which is some sort of custom as I understand it. Anyway I asked it if ‘The Orb’ was ok, and it said it was.” 

“Why is it here?” asked Christina.

“That is a good question.” Nathan gave Gail a pointed look. “The bottom line is that we’re in danger of destroying ourselves, so The Orb came here to help us try not do that.” Nathan glanced at the panel, which showed that they had already passed under the eastern edge of the Danish mainland, and were now angling north past the city of Aarhus. “We haven’t got long, so I’ll give you the nuts and bolts. The Orb is here to help save us from ourselves but it won’t act directly, we have to guide it. It says that all decisions effecting humanity have to be made by humans, so basically it’s up to us.”

“Us?” Gail looked at Christina.

Nathan coughed slightly as if to hide embarrassment. “I mean ‘us’ if you decide to join me. I’m already committed, and I think you will be too after you meet The Orb, and it explains how this is going to work. At least, how it’s supposed to work.”

“You don’t sound too sure,” said Christina. Nathan looked at her intently, and Christina found something to pick at under her fingernails.

“Look, no plan is perfect,” said Nathan. “But apparently there’s some serious s**t going down in the world right now. If someone doesn’t do something we could end up watching Earth fall apart on CNN.” Nathan glanced back at the panel as a red dot appeared at the end of the tunnel they were traveling down. “I can’t explain it very well yet, actually I’m sort of still trying to get my head round it. The truth is, most of this I’m just repeating from what The Orb told me. I haven’t actually done anything except get you two to be here. I get the impression it’s waiting for you to arrive.”

Christina sat back. “Why is it so important to have us?” 

Nathan shrugged. “My guess is that on The Orb’s home planet they make decisions by consensus, so it’s not comfortable with one person making all the calls. I could be wrong. Maybe it thinks I’d be happier with you two onboard, which I would be.” He looked embarrassed. “We’re almost there.” He pointed at the screen.

Gail could see that the yellow and red dots were almost on top of each other, and their dot was slowing as it neared its destination. Decelerating from eight hundred kilometers per hour to a dead stop in such a short space should give her the worst whip-lash in history, but there was no sensation at all. The only thing that showed they had stopped were the two dots on top of each other, and a jaunty ‘bing’ which sounded like an expensive elevator announcing that the penthouse suite had been reached. 

The door slid upward. Nathan stood up and stepped out. Gail and Christina rose, and followed as he beckoned them out into the semi-darkness beyond. Gail stepped out and looked down. She stood on polished stone, polished but not slippery polished. It had a sheen to it, but her shoes gripped the surface perfectly well. She felt Christina come up beside her. Close, much closer than would happen at school. 

“This way.” Nathan sounded like one of the tour guides that led groups of cruise ship passengers around Copenhagen in the summer. He led them forward, spreading his arms in a gesture designed to encompass everything that they beheld.

Gail gasped as she looked up at the gigantic Cavern they stood in. It was magnificent, marvelous, so simply brilliantly fantastic that she couldn’t find the words. Then she looked down and there, floating in the air about three meters in front of them, was The Orb. It glowed a pale, iridescent blue and moved in tiny stops towards them. Christina took a step back and moved behind Gail. The fact that her Amazon friend had slipped behind her for protection wasn’t lost on Gail. She leant back slightly so that her shoulder blades touched Christina’s chest ever-so lightly. 

Nathan had noticed the movement too, and his hands fluttered worryingly. “I’d like to present-”

“Stop!” Gail cut him off without thinking about it. Something was very wrong. She felt it in that way that her father told her meant she would make a wonderful vet. She sprung forward so quickly that Christina toppled forwards. Gail covered the distance to The Orb like an Olympic walker and, without asking permission, laid a firm hand on it. Where she touched The Orb its color changed to a deep red, like leaves on a fresh, Christmas poinsettia. 

Gail held her breath for a moment. The Orb didn’t move or make any indication that it knew she was there, other than the change of color where her hand touched it. She breathed again, nodded, took her hand away, and stepped back so that she could see all of it. “My name is Gail Knitter,” she said. “I am pleased to meet you, but I’m sorry to say that I think you are very sick.”