Aoraki – Committee of Resource Allocation Building

Thursday – morning

On the eighth floor in the north eastern corner office of the Committee of Resource Allocation Building, all the flat surfaces including a good proportion of the floor were covered in sheaves of drawings, calculations and schematics.

Layan and Altai had worked through the previous evening, and most of the night. They had been at it for hours, working through countless permutations and ways to boost the core power of the TETs.

Layan gave a long sigh, and rubbed his forehead.

^{Dialogue credit – Movie: Apollo 13 (1995)}

---

A short time later…

There was a knock at the door and a moment later, Jaak, Dieter and Tag came in.

Layan strode over to the bookshelf and ran his paw down one side. With a soft pneumatic hiss, the entire bookshelf slid out of view and revealed an elevator door. With another touch to a control pad the doors slid open. He motioned with his paw to the boys who were looking somewhat slack jawed at what was unfolding before them.

Layan flashed his trade mark toothy grin and motioned to the boys and Altai.

Altai led the way, with the boys following behind. Finally Layan entered the elevator and tapped the control pad with the access code; P – 9 – 7 – 5. They began to descend. The ride took noticeably much longer than the ride up to the eighth floor when they had first entered the building. The elevator did not stop until it reached its destination way below the foundations of the building and the street outside. The doors opened onto what looked like a small subway platform, and sure enough a train awaited them with its doors open. The group crossed the platform and boarded. With another hiss the doors closed and the train set off on its subterranean journey. After around ten minutes the train slowed and came to a smooth stop. The group alighted onto another small platform.

A large sign greeted them on the opposite wall of the platform.

WARNING!
THIS IS NOT AN ULTRA TOP SECRET
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FACILITY
NEVER THE LESS, UNAUTHORIZED
PERSONNEL WILL BE SHOT.
SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN.
^{BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF DESIGNER}

Dieter elbowed Jaak in the ribs and motioned his head towards the sign

With some pace they marched through a labyrinth of corridors until finally they reached their destination. A large heavy steel door stood sentinel before them. Layan made a few taps on a control pad, and the door swung silently inwards. They entered what was a large and cavernous cave. As the lights came up, the boys could see that it was full of cyan stones, all neatly laid out on long benches that ran the length of the cavern. The stones however were all dull bluish grey, and most noticeably – they were not emitting any blue light at all.

Without hesitation the three boys reached into their pockets and took out their stones. Their stones had only a slight bluish glow, but nowhere as brightly as they had before. The other stones in the room gave a few feeble pulses of light that intermittently waxed and waned.

The boys stepped a little bit apart and held out their stones in their up-turned paws. The stones started to glow a little brighter, and they slowly began to revolve in a triangular pattern between each of their paws. This continued for a few moments but they soon came to a stop again, each stone plopping back down into their paws.

Suddenly, all the stones on the benches began to vibrate with an audible harmonic hum. There were three distinct notes, a low note, a mid note and a higher note.

Together as one, the stones rose up and sorted themselves into three even groups – groups that each formed into the shape of a tetrahedron. Each stone tetrahedron formation emitted a different note, which all then combined into one tri-harmonic chord, the sound swelling to fill their ears completely. The three stone tetrahedrons moved upwards and outwards forming three points of an equilateral triangle. The stones glowed brightly as they swirled with ever changing patterns within their tetrahedron shape. The vault was now filled with light and sound.

At once the boys knew what they needed to do. Without a word spoken, they each moved to stand directly under one of the stone tetrahedron formations, swirling with glowing stones above their heads. Dieter took the lower note tetrahedron, Jaak the middle, and Tag the higher. Each of them held their stone out in their paws. Their stones glowed brightly blue, pulsating with their myriad of internal swirling patterns. For a short moment it seemed as if nothing more was going to happen, but then just as they had in Dieter’s bedroom the stones became completely translucent with diamond like clarity, emitting a light that increased with intensity with each passing second. Slowly, and in unison, the boy’s stones gently rose from their paws. This time however, they continued to rise upwards and on into the direct centre of each of the swirling stone tetrahedrons.

The three stones, now much brighter than the rest, began to move in a triangular pattern, moving from the centre of each tetrahedron, and then onto the next. They moved faster and faster until the stones formed a triangular line of blue crackling light, sparking with energy.

The tri-harmonic chord swelled in volume.

At once, all three stones stopped one after the other in the centre of Dieter’s stone tetrahedron forming a mini triangular constellation. The pent up energy contained within was viscerally palpable to all those present. The remaining stones in all three tetrahedrons continued to glow brightly and hum with a combined rhythmic vibration of light, sound and energy.

A flash of iridescent blue light pulsed outwards from Dieter’s stone tetrahedron, which made every single hair and strand of fur on everyone present crackle and stick straight out. They all looked as if they had just been taken out of a tumble dryer.

Then, as fast as it had started the light faded, the sound diminished and the three stones returned each to their own, landing with a plop back into the boy’s paws. The remaining swirling stones in the tetrahedrons gently lowered to the floor forming three neat piles of tetrahedron shaped cairns at the feet of each of the boys.

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Next: Episode 39 – Lode Bearers