New World

Tobias and Patrick had their breakfast while joyfully chatting. Tobias still didn’t reveal much of what could be expected—“Wait and see,” was the tone of the day. “You won’t believe me anyway,” Tobias said. Patrick had a hard time sitting still, so he helped Tobias wash up after breakfast to try to speed up things. Tobias enjoyed this and added some bits and pieces of information here and there to increase Patrick’s curiosity.

So at last they were ready, outside the apartment and on their way along the corridor.

“We’re going to use the elevator this time,” Tobias said.

“Okay, but why? I can help with any luggage down the stairs.” Patrick was curious.

“That’s right, but we’re going down some extra floors and there are no stairs down there.”

Patrick smiled. Wait and see, huh.

He turned to the elevator that he hadn’t seen anyone using. It was a big elevator, like those in hospitals that are made to carry a full-length bed and more; otherwise it looked quite ordinary.

“Use your TeeWee,” Tobias urged Patrick.

“What? For what?”

“Tell your TeeWee where you want to go. Tell your TeeWee that you want to go to Skyjland and that you have your flight pre-booked.”

Patrick spoke into it authoritatively, and his TeeWee answered with a short “Okay.” Then the elevator doors closed, taking them down. They passed the basement that Patrick thought was the last stop; its button was the lowest, at least.

“Shouldn’t we get off here? Are there more floors?” Patrick asked a bit surprised.

Tobias just smiled back as the elevator took them a bit further down, at least four floors, Patrick felt like. There were no indications in the elevator revealing anything below the basement, but obviously that’s where they were.

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened.

“But…? It’s huge!” Patrick exclaimed, stunned.

“Yes it is.” Tobias guided Patrick out of the elevator.

The room they stepped out in was more like a hangar, thirty feet high. And there they were, not just one but several of these Mush 12 airplanes, and in the far back, opposite the elevator, was the Mush 50 standing there, reaching almost up to the ceiling. It was huge, just like the whole room.

“But how…? How could you have done this? It’s huge!” Patrick expressed as they walked right to the middle of the room.

Tobias smiled and urged Patrick to look up to the ceiling right above where they stood.

“What? Noo… it can’t be, can it?

“Oh yes, we are right under the garden pool, and up there you see the pool water from below. And no, there’s no glass or anything holding the water up.”

Patrick looked up amazed at the water sparkling above him, with some early morning sunbeams reflecting through.

“Mr. Zed?” Patrick asked after a while, smiling.

Tobias nodded. He had been so lively that morning, waking Patrick up and teasing him with details over breakfast, but now he was calm.  He took Patrick for a tour, this time with a fatherly attitude.

Just as they started walking around, some other people Patrick recognized from upstairs started to show up, including Liam and Eve.

“Eve is going to Skyjland too, but Liam will stay here. He likes to take care of the Mushes, too, you know, looking after them, keeping them neat and clean.”

They greeted Liam and Eve with a hug each, as well as the others, and Tobias asked Liam if it was okay to show Patrick the Mush 50. Liam nodded back, smiling. “Awesome Patrick,” he said, urging them to have a look.

“You can leave your suitcases here Patrick; Liam will take care of them for you,” Tobias said with Liam nodding. Patrick just couldn’t wait, and he had to keep himself from running ahead.

This thing really looked like a mushroom, a giant mushroom. The Mush 50 was made from something like transparent, shiny steel that you couldn’t see through; it was like you saw around it instead. Its surface was smooth and without any visible joints or rivets holding it together. Tobias explained that the Mush’s chassis was made from a material Mr. Zed and his wizards had developed and that it was much stronger than the strongest steel, much lighter, and could withstand almost anything.

“You see, that metal-looking chassis is almost alive, and inside it you’ll enter almost another dimension, an environment that is its own mini-world. A Mush makes its way through both air and water at a speed no ordinary airplane or even rocket can follow,” Tobias explained while hinting at the pool’s water in the center of the ceiling.

Patrick looked up at the water again with a questioning expression.

“Yes, we’re leaving that way, and it’s only the Mushes that can pass through. If you drop something in the pool from above it’ll stay there at the bottom; it won’t fall through, and you can’t swim down here through the pool either. From up there, the pool functions like an ordinary pool.”

“But if we pass through and people are up there swimming?”

“Don’t worry, they’ll be notified and leave the pool area when we’re ready to take off, no problem. The strange thing is that a Mush even can pass through material like rock. As Mr. Zed likes to put it, “Air, water or rock, it’s just matter, and even if we people experience them as different, a Mush will pass through it all as if it were the same.”

Seeing the Mush 50 and standing under its cap, something like a hundred feet wide and five feet over his head, Patrick now believed everything Tobias told him—it was a massive sight.

Tobias picked up his TeeWee and did something that made an entrance door open in the Mush’s stem. The stem was round and about thirty-five feet in diameter at the bottom. Farther up it narrowed to about twenty-five, shaped a bit like a pear. As they entered Tobias explained that the Mush also had a lower pilot department below the floor, like the Mush was growing up from it down where they entered it.

“There is a sort of elevator shaft in the center, connecting the cockpit in the cap with the control room in the base, and you can control the Mush from either way, whichever the pilots feels is best.”

Inside the entrance to the left there was a walkway around the center cockpit shaft, leading up to the cap’s main area. It looked all helter-skelter from below, without steps and steep. But Patrick saw that once people stepped foot on it, it was like walking on flat ground, as if gravity changed to keep them perpendicular to the surface.

As they rose, Tobias pointed out, to the right of the entrance, a closet for luggage or whatnot. He said that, with a special tag for Patrick’s suitcases that they would get in Skyjland later on, Patrick’s TeeWee could track his bags and have them ready for him and in line when it was his turn to get off. “Those tags will also carry the suitcases for you; its like they make a suitcase weigh nothing,” Tobias added with a smile.

When they entered the hall in the cap, Patrick became even more amazed. It didn’t look like the inside an airplane like he’d seen on TV and in the movies. Instead this was a room, a hall, like in any ordinary house, but not quite. Everything was so exquisitely furnished and decorated that even luxury wasn’t the word for it. Tobias felt Patrick’s amazement and smiled.

“That’s right, Patrick. We don’t have any second class or whatever. Here everything is first class.”

The floor was made from beautiful hardwood, dark brown and polished so it shone. Handrails, doorknobs and even fixtures looked like they were made of gold and silver and brass. The walls of the round hall were paneled at the bottom, lighter than the floors, up to about three feet. Above that was a bone white, lightweight wallpaper, covered in places with colorful paintings. The ceiling in the center, where Tobias and Patrick entered the hall, was open and almost one floor higher than the ceiling closer to the round curved walls, revealing a second floor above. Alongside the outer wall, opposite each other were two stairs leading up. Also along the main hall walls were four openings leading to the outer area of the cap. 

The hall itself was furnished with sofas, tables and chairs for the journey, and a small kitchen bar to support passengers with refreshments.

Tobias showed Patrick around and then up. As they entered the cap’s outer ring areas, they saw a ring corridor with lots of openings to the outer edge, where there was more seating in private rooms for families and such.

From one of these openings, Patrick now could look out through the cap’s roof through wide windows running all around the Mush, which didn’t show from the outside. They stepped into one of these rooms, and it had sets of wide, comfortable seats grouped in twos. The seats looked more like armchairs with small side tables than airplane seats, and each faced the windows, providing an excellent view for everyone.  Screens between each set of armchairs could be slid closed for more privacy.

Tobias also took Patrick to have a look at the cockpit at the center top of the cap, with a window in the ceiling, which gave the impression that the cap top was open, like a convertible.

To Patrick in the cockpit, everything looked different than how it should look. There weren’t many instruments, and Tobias explained that the cap pilots (usually four of them even though the Mushes were all fully automated) controlled and maneuvered the Mushes with their TeeWees.

Patrick silently followed Tobias around, listening. He was too overwhelmed to start asking questions, and, anyway, where would he begin? This was too much.

When it got close to their departure, Tobias and Patrick left the Mush 50 and joined the others who had assembled at the foot of a Mush 12. Their luggage seemed to be all on board, and they now stood like they were waiting for Tobias and Patrick. The Mush 12s had only two pilots and two other crew members, but that seemed more than enough.

Tobias presented Patrick to the pilots and the crew, and Patrick recognized each one from somewhere. One of the pilots, a young, good-looking girl, particularly confused him. After the presentation Patrick drew Tobias aside and whispered, “But, she’s blind? Isn’t she?”

Tobias looked happy. “Yes, Patrick, she is, but she has her TeeWee guiding her.”

Tobias turned to Doris—that was here name—and asked her to show Patrick her TeeWee and give him a short demonstration. She did so happily.

The TeeWee she had was more disk-shaped, with round displays on both sides and with five kinds of buttons along its edge, fitting her hand and fingers perfectly.

“You know, I can read like a seeing person with this by feeling its displays just like seeing persons read text,” Doris explained. “I can write with it too and feel what I’m writing at the same time—I don’t need to see what I’m writing.”

“But don’t you have a keyboard, a pad or something? You’ve got only five buttons—how does that work?

“Those five buttons have more functions and more sensitivity than any other keyboard, pad or whatever, and they allow for extremely fast writing. Pick up your TeeWee, Patrick, and respond to me communicating with you, and I’ll show you.”

Doris explained that she was going to write to him in English, and through his display he could follow her as she was writing. She also said that she was going to turn on the sky tone text function so he also could hear her writing.

“But, don’t you just talk?” Patrick asked.

“Oh yes, we can do that too. But this is so much faster, and anyway, some of us can’t talk, and some people have difficulties pronouncing words or expressing themselves verbally. The sky tone text language is much richer and is able to express more than any other language that I know of,” Doris explained. “Right! Okay, Patrick, are you ready?”

Patrick nodded while looking at his display. Some tones started to play, like a melody following a tune, and text started to line up on his display at a pace he couldn’t follow or read. Row by row text filled Patrick’s display, and as the melody from Doris’ TeeWee played quicker and more richly, new rows on Patrick’s display just flashed by.

Patrick looked up at Doris from his TeeWee and smiled. “Can I learn that?” he asked.

“Oh yes, it’s not that hard, really. We have classes in Skyjland that teach it.”

Tobias, too, was amazed by Doris’ demonstration, even though he had seen it before. But Doris’ skill in handling it seriously impressed him.

“My kids are learning that at school, but they haven’t got to her speed yet,” Tobias added.

“It will come,” Doris happily answered. “But now we must hop on board, everyone, and get going.”

Doris took the lead, and with her TeeWee in hand she guided the others onboard like any seeing person would have.

Tobias explained to Patrick as they entered that the Mush 12 was basically the same as a Mush 50 in its design, but was more like a sports car in size and performance.

Patrick just smiled back at Tobias. He could hardly wait to get in and get going.

The Mush 12 had only one floor in its cap, and the cap cockpit was more open, for a half floor up in the center. There was no shaft in the center down to the base control; it was all an open space. Patrick could see Doris take her place at the top and the other pilot Richard, whom he had seen before, taking a seat at the base where they entered.

Tobias and Patrick sat in a set of armchairs looking out over the hangar room, heading towards the pool up in the ceiling.

There was no sound indicating that motors had started running. Not a bump or acceleration was felt as they started to move horizontally over the floor. Patrick felt almost like he was in a movie theater, as if the screen were coming at him.

Doris maneuvered them right in under the pool, and then the Mush started to take off vertically at a gentle speed. As they reached the ceiling with all the water coming straight at them Patrick grabbed hold of his armchair; he felt like they were going to crash into the water—but they didn’t—he felt not one shake.

As they rose up through the pool he could see some of the others in the garden waving goodbye, and at an increasing speed Doris made the Mush leave the pool straight up. From where Patrick sat he could see the ground vanishing from under his feet, and he grabbed his armchair tighter. Tobias calmly sat beside him, enjoying the view of the landscape spreading out the higher they rose. They were quick to pass some clouds, and the Earth’s horizon started to curve. The air became visibly thinner and as they left the atmosphere, and the Earth took on a new dimension.

“But don’t we need space suits?” Patrick asked in a panic.

Tobias smiled back to reassure him, like only a father can do.

“No, Patrick, not in this one. And we’re not going to float around in space either, as you might have seen astronauts do on TV. It’s like we’ve brought gravity and the atmosphere with us, and we can wander around up here in space like on the surface of the Earth. How do you feel? Do you like it?”

Patrick smiled back and finally let go of his armchair.

“You see, we’re going to pass what we call the junk belt—rockets, satellites and malfunctioning equipment man is putting in orbit around Earth—to a point far out where the entry to Skyjland is located. Radar or whatever technology the others are using, they can’t see us, locate us, or even get to that entry, as we’re in another dimension they’re not aware of.”

As Earth became smaller down below, Doris made the Mush slowly turn around is center axis, letting Patrick get an outer space view of the moon, which started to appear behind the Earth: a powerful sight. As they turned farther, the sun filtered through the Mush’s windows, displaying an amazing structure of floating fire where white, the light of life, presented itself in a scale of colors and patterns far beyond what eyes and mind could normally handle.

What amazed Patrick the most was that black emptiness among all the spectacular scenery that the sun, stars and planets were providing. In silence Patrick took it all in, and Tobias stopped talking. There were so many feelings, so many impressions.

The silence Patrick felt in that black, vast, empty space Tobias filled with his presence, sitting beside him. The joy, spectacular fun, and wonderment everything sparkling out there represented—it couldn’t match the comfort of the night Tobias provided for him.

Patrick looked deep into the dark endless space for a long time, like he needed to feel its depths, but Tobias in spirit never left him once. Patrick felt pleased and once again he got confirmation that Tobias was never going to abandon him and that Tobias was for real.

It took only about an hour for the Mush to reach Skyjland’s outer space gate. Tobias explained that Doris and Richard had slowed the trip down to let him see space; the trip could take less than a minute.

Doris turned the Mush to show Patrick a thin, strangely colored, light-reflecting disk out there in the dark.

“That is the gate to Skyjland,” Tobias explained.

“Its area is about four times the size of Skyjland, and through it we’ll return to Earth, like through a shaft.”

“Like through those tube displays?” Patrick asked.

“Yes, very much so. But this is a vast tube and far more advanced.”

As they flew through, Patrick could see Earth far away, tiny as a pea, shining with blue and white.  It was strange to have seen the Earth behind him and now in front of him, but after a few seconds he got used to it. His head had gotten used to getting used to such wonders.

For the trip back to Earth Doris sped up the Mush considerably, making the pea-sized Earth grow to a basketball within seconds. The beautiful planet started to spread out and fill Patrick’s window.

“Were are we?” Patrick asked.

“We are above Antarctic. Skyjland is a valley we’ve made, ice-free, a bit out in the ocean. Through the Skyjland gate, out there in space, we can catch and bend sunlight and let it through to temperate our valley, making it warm and cozy. It’s quite a place. We’ve got two suns down there you know,” Tobias happily explained.

Whatever Tobias said now, Patrick believed, and he smiled back and laughed.

“I’m sure Doris will slow down our approach to give us a view of the place. This I like!”

Tobias leaned back in his armchair, like this was a moment to enjoy. And even though he had done this trip so many times before, seeing it, the sight of Skyjland from above, he never tired of.

The sheer, blue, outer atmosphere came closer, and the Mush slowed. Down there a pattern of high clouds like transparent stripes were smearing the view, but as the Mush lowered through, the sky opened clear.

…

To be continued next Friday.