cometraza
08-09-2014, 02:27 PM
The car slowly murmured down the road in front of the large manor. Tobias stepped out of the car. He was new to the neighborhood and looked curiously around catching the salient features of the place. The manor , more than anything else, caught his attention the most. It was a large building consisting of more than three floors with plastered white walls. Surrounded by a large fenced garden, the main entrance to the house was a big iron gate through which a gravel path led to a large wooden door which opened inside the building.
He picked up his big briefcase lying beside him and headed towards the main door of the house.
"Hello Sir, Welcome to Attenborough Manor. You must be Mr. Tobias".
"Yes, George must have informed you about me".
"Yes Sir, My name is Ronaldo, I am the caretaker of this Manor. Please hand me the briefcase Sir. I will show you around".
Ronaldo took the briefcase and handed it over to one boy standing beside him gesturing him to take it inside.
"Well Sir , let me show you your room"
"That is alright Mr. Ronaldo. I think I would not be able to quench the feeling of eagerness that has been buzzing me all through the journey until I at least get a glimpse of the thing. Please show me that and then we'll proceed for the resting quarters."
"Sure Sir, If that is your wish. Let us go down the backyard then and I will show it to you"
Following a sideway that led around the perimeter of the building, they reached in front of a room in the backyard which looked more or less like a garage from the outside.
Ronaldo opened the door to the room and they both went inside the slightly damp and dimly lit room. Along the side wall was a large wooden table on which some kind of object was kept covered under a blanket. Ronaldo removed the blanket at once and uncovered this most exquisite object in front of Tobias.
Tobias was in a trance seeing this most unfamiliar and puzzling object. "What is this?" exclaimed Tobias, gazing in amazement. "That's the same question which has puzzled us Sir, for quite a long time."
The object seemed to be carved out of a single stone which was pure white. The surface was shiny and smooth enough that one could almost see the reflection of one's face in it. It was a large spherical ball with a golden belt in the centre which bulged out and encircled the whole sphere . This seemed like a huge white globe with a golden belt in place of the equatorial line. The belt had a lot of small circular discs adjacent to one another with each disc having a peculiar engraving. Each engraving had a triangle with a small circle inside it whose circumference touched the three sides of the triangle. At the centre of each of this little circle was a vertical opening which more or less looked like a slot on of those slot machines used for inserting coins inside. At the bottom, the sphere was somehow affixed within a large socket to a solid stone like slab which seemed carved out of the same material but which was totally black in color.
"What's interesting is that this spherical ball can move inside this socket." said Ronaldo as he pushed and twisted the big ball and with a slight effort he was able to rotate it a little bit. "Also these engravings that you see Sir, the ones that are on this bulge right in the middle of this sphere, we've tried our hands on these also. It turns out that if you use a sharp object, say for example a knife, and push it inside one of these slots, and then twist the thing a little bit, the whole disc along with the engraved image would rotate, much like the action of some lock and key."
Tobias noted carefully, there were around twenty engravings on this central bulge, each one of which carried the common shape of a triangle with a circle inside. "Also this belt is movable too Sir, we are able to glide it to right or left side with a slight push" Ronaldo continued.
"A most peculiar artifact. How did you find this thing? The story that George told me was almost unbelievable. Did that really happen? Do you have any account of events relating to this?"
"Oh most certainly yes, Sir. I was here the whole time when this happened. It is almost a year now but I remember that night quite clearly. I was there in the kitchen looking after the cooks and what was being prepared for dinner. Mr George's relatives had come to visit him so we had quite a company those days. They were sitting in the central hall of the manor and having some usual talk. All of a sudden there was this flash of light and a very loud sound like if something has exploded in the backyard. We all got terrified as to what had happened. I ran towards the back gate which opened in the yard to see myself. The sky was clear that night so there was no chance of any lightning strike or anything of that sort. When I went there I saw these huge flames erupting out of the ground. The air was filled with light smoke and a strange scent like that of burning sulphur. Almost all of the household was now out in the open looking at this strange thing. George asked everyone to stay away from the place as it could be dangerous. So we were just looking at this thing with amazement from a distance.Gradually after some time the flames subsided. When the flames were gone we could see what seemed like a big boulder glowing red hot inside a hole in the ground which it had made.
'What on earth is this! Is it some kind of meteor strike?' asked Mr. George in astonishment. We had no clue but this seemed to be the only understandable case. So we waited there for almost half an hour in the hope of getting a closer look, but the thing was too hot to allow any approach to it. In the end Mr. George just asked everybody to leave the matter for now and to return and examine this thing in the morning. The neighborhood is quite scanty here and the only house close is of Mr. Lutyens. Their family was out for a vacation those days so there was no other household which could have observed this event. So we went back into the manor to our respective places but hardly anyone slept that night and there was this constant talk and gossip among us as to what had just happened. Mr. George seemed reluctant to call the police or any public authority until he had the matter figured out.
We were out early in the morning eager to lookout for that rock and what remained of it. It was now clearly visible, a black lump of matter with tiny pores all along its surface. It was hardly a meter across. George asked us to unearth the surrounding ground a little bit and to dig this thing out and carry it to the nearby storage room, which is the same room in which we are right now. So we worked out the mud and soil around this rock with shovels and finally carried it to this room on a sheet of cloth. The thing was heavy and it took four of us to carry it here. Afterwards we took a good look at that boulder. At one side of it a patch of something quite white and smooth was visible. It seemed that there was something else which was inside this rocky formation. So Mr. George and I started to chisel the rock away and gradually we were totally astonished to find that the rock contained this strange 'out of this world' thing. It didn't took us a lot of effort as the surrounding rock was brittle enough and it quite easily got chiseled away from this object. So here we were left with this amazing thing right in front of our eyes. It was really hard for us to believe our eyes or what just had happened. But it was a plain fact facing us. I asked Mr. George what should be done about this thing. He had an interest in antique and odd things from the past which showed up in his personal collection of some ancient and antique pieces of furniture and hardware that he had gathered over the years. It seemed to me that he was looking at this object from the same perspective. He did not want to inform anybody about this thing lest he feared that he would have to give it away to some government authorities. He wanted to keep this thing in his possession and to find out what it was. He somehow convinced his relatives that were present in the house that night not to discuss about this event with anybody else, stating that it could result in the authorities interfering with his private life and perhaps maybe seizing his property in order to investigate the site. So we have been more or less in a vow of silence since then, careful not to discuss this thing with any outsider. This part of the village has very few visitors, so it isn't a hard thing at all to keep this thing out from the eyes of any intruders. Over the course of time we have tried to play around with this thing a little bit so as to hit something that could reveal its nature or anything about it. But so far there has been no great progress. At last sensing his patience wane a little bit, Mr. George has asked you to take a look at this strange thing. As a friend, he places great trust on you and wants to find out more about this object. As you are an archaeologist by profession so he saw you quite fit for this task. Also you seem to have great interest for these kind of things yourselves."
"Well as an archaeologist I do have an acquaintance with antique and ancient things, but this is a totally different case. This thing won't fit under any classification of historical objects I am sure. And the strange events that surround this are inexplicable and strange. I really am having a hard time believing all this but this object in itself bears a big testimony to what you just told me. I have never heard about or seen any such thing in the past. This certainly is a most interesting phenomenon. Anyways, thanks Mr. Ronaldo for being so clear and direct about it and telling me these details. I will be most happy to look into this matter further. There's one more thing that I wanted to ask you if that would not be a problem. Could you please get this thing shifted to my room in the Manor? I want to take a more closer look at this thing in the privacy of my room and perhaps the constant presence of it will help to focus my thoughts a little more."
"Oh sure Sir, I will arrange for this to be shifted on the side table of your bedroom if you like. Now please let me escort you to your room."
"Let's go"
All along the way to his room Tobias's mind was absorbed in the thoughts about that sphere. He felt something very odd about it. Although Ronaldo was constantly chatting and telling him things about the locality and the manor all along the way but he could not pay much attention to it. It was only that object and the narrative surrounding its discovery that captured his imagination. All of this somehow connected with his professional work also, as he was so fond of uncovering the mysteries and myths surrounding the historical items that he found in his field work and the sense of completion and satisfaction that he got on discovering a new thing about them. Deep in his guts he considered himself to be an investigator.
The door to his bedroom opened to reveal a big room, bigger than he had expected, with a large window opening into the backyard. It was on the first floor on the rear side of the manor.
"This would be quite comfortable. Thank you Mr. Ronaldo for your hospitality."
" Your welcome Sir. The lunch would be ready in half an hour. You may relax here and refresh yourselves until then. After that we will get that sphere shifted to this room."
And then Ronaldo left the room after handing over the keys to Tobias.
In the evening, Tobias returned to his room after a long walk out in the surrounding area of the manor, which he realized was mostly covered with orchards and forest and had very little population nearby, and found the sphere sitting on the desk just beside his bed. 'Good', he thought, 'as it would provide a constant and easy glance of this puzzling thing.' Closing the door to the room, he positioned himself beside the desk and started examining the sphere. 'What a beautiful thing it is' , he thought. 'How to account for the fact that this was inside a rock that supposedly came from the sky as a meteor strike. Is this not some fancy narrative that these fellows have told me just to cover something up about the source of this thing? Did they not want to tell me something about the origin of this sphere and only to use me in exploring something that they want to know about this object? But why would they come up with such a bizarre story anyways so as to create such doubts in my mind?'
He finally decided to let go the thoughts about the source and origin of this object and concentrate on what was at hand that could reveal more about the nature of this thing.
'The feature that stands out on this sphere are these discs and engravings. What do all these triangles with the circles inside them represent? What could be the purpose and function of these circular discs with these engravings on them? And what are these slots that are in the centre of each circle?'
He took out a coin from his purse and tried inserting it inside one of the slots. But there seemed no opening or room inside which could engulf the coin and it stuck about half way through. Then he remembered what Ronaldo had told him about the knife thing and how each disc could be rotated by inserting a knife inside the slot and twisting it a little bit. He decided to try that thing out himself. So he went to the main kitchen of the manor and fetched a small kitchen knife from there. Then he inserted the knife inside one of the slots on a circular disc and it got about half an inch inside the slot. Then he twisted the knife to one side a little bit. With a slight screeching noise the circular disc rotated along with the engraved image on it. He tried the same thing with two more discs.
'Interesting' he thought 'Each of these engravings can be rotated this way. But what could the ability to rotate these small discs do? Does the rotation of these simple geometrical shapes of these engraved triangles with circles inside them fulfil some purpose? Could it be that the orientation of these triangles have something to do with the technique or code of activating or opening this thing?'
With a resolve in his mind, he started rotating each of the discs so that the orientation of the triangles on each of them would be such that their apex points towards the same direction: upwards. After some time all of the triangles were oriented along the same direction with the apex of there two longer sides pointing upwards. Nothing happened though.
But all this exercise left him with a feeling that he is dealing perhaps with some kind of a bizarre lock that opens only when one gets the combination right.'Or maybe there's just something else to it and I am thinking too much and putting my own interpretation on to it' he said at last after orienting these triangles and pieces in different ways : downwards, sideways, in alternate fashion and many other orientations that he thought could be worth trying.
Looking at his watch he realised that he had been examining this thing for the past two hours. The journey of the morning had left him a bit tired and he thought it would be more reasonable now to have a sleep and to think about this problem with a fresh mind in the morning.
Within no time, he was in his bed floating in the darkness of his dreams. He found himself standing in the main hall of the manor. He was talking to Ronaldo about something. All of a sudden, he felt somebody pulling his jacket. He turned to find a small dwarf like man which seemed to appear out of nowhere gesturing him towards some place. The dwarf looked quite old with a long white beard but no sign of physical feebleness was visible. His face was a little grotesque to look at. He was constantly gesturing Tobias to follow him. Tobias somewhat reluctantly started following the dwarf. He took Tobias to the very same room on the first floor of the building where Tobias was residing at present. The sphere was right there on the same desk. The dwarf reached the sphere and grabbed the globe with both his hands and started twisting it little by little. He signalled Tobias to do the same. Tobias started turning the globe in the direction pointed by the dwarf and little by little the whole sphere was turning and making screeching noises. As Tobias was turning the globe, the dwarf started counting the number of turns with his fingers. On every completed turn he would raise one finger of his hand and smile. As the globe completed its tenth turn, the dwarf clapped. He then came near the sphere again and this time grabbed the golden belt that was bulging out in the middle by its sides and then started sliding the belt in the opposite direction of the motion with which the sphere was turned. He signalled Tobias to do the same and then started counting again the turns of the belt. It was the same as with the sphere. On the completion of every turn the dwarf lifted one of the fingers up and seemed happy about it. When the tenth turn finished, there was a sudden noise and the slab at the bottom that was supporting the globe opened up, out of which a tray containing some shiny objects slid out. On seeing this the dwarf gave a big grin and clapped again, louder this time. He took out from his back a wooden stick and with a strong and swift jerking motion of his hand he landed a blow on one of Tobias's knees. A sudden pain surged through his body.
All of a sudden Tobias woke up from the dream and found himself all sweating and panting. The vision was quite clear and he could remember every detail of it. He thought about it for a while and then decided to discuss it with Ronaldo in the morning.
The next morning after breakfast, Tobias told about the dream to Ronaldo. Ronaldo was quite confused as what it could mean.
"It could very well be the result of your thinking and engrossing yourself in the thoughts about that sphere last night Sir." said Ronaldo.
"That certainly is plausible Mr. Ronaldo, but I want to at least try the thing out once. The vision has left me with a kind of unease that would not subside until I act upon it"
"It will do no harm Sir"
"Let us go then. I want you to be present when I do this."
"Alright Sir. Before you"
They both went to the room and Tobias grabbed the white globe and started turning it in the direction as he saw in the dream. He was also counting the turns as he was rotating the sphere. After ten turns of the sphere, Tobias started turning the belt in the opposite direction and counting the turns in the same way. At the tenth turn, there was a sound of a click, like if some thing had snapped inside, and to their amazement a tray came out of the slab at the bottom. There were many very shiny metal like objects inside. Tobias and Ronaldo looked at each other with amazement.
"The vision was true" cried Tobias, still in a state of disbelief at what he saw. "How can this be happening I have no idea Ronaldo, but now I am sure that there really is some big secret hidden in this thing. It can't all be coincidence."
"Really Sir, for all this year nothing of that sort came to our mind. I am indeed myself having trouble grasping this matter now. Is this thing really some relic from the unknown? I think we should better inform Mr. George about this development. He must be coming back within two or three days from the city. I'll talk to him on the phone and tell him what has just happened"
"That's ok Ronaldo. But I am sure that there is a lot to this thing and I want to figure that out now. I will continue examining this thing until George comes by"
"Very well Sir."
"What do you think are these metal objects inside this tray Ronaldo? Don't they look like some sort of keys?"
"I think we can try inserting one of these inside the slots on this sphere" said Ronaldo.
"Exactly, let us try this thing out."
Tobias took one of the shiny metallic key out into his hand and inserted it in one of the slots. The thing somehow went almost three-fourths of its length inside the slot and with a quick snapping sound the disc containing the slot slid inwards inside the sphere for about five inches.
"Wow! This is getting interesting" exclaimed Tobias.
Soon they realised that there were as many keys in the tray as the number of discs and slots on the sphere. So they inserted each of the keys inside each of the slot and the same thing happened with each insertion. After some time the golden belt was looking suppressed fully inside the sphere about five inches with all the discs punched and the sphere was looked as if divided into two parts above and below the golden belt.
"What now?" asked Ronaldo.
"Look at this thing here Ronaldo." said Tobias pointing towards the tray.
There was a pattern etched on the tray which contained the keys.
"These look like the engravings on the sphere. Look, there are exactly twenty of these drawings. These look the same as the triangles with circles that are engraved on the discs of the belt. This looks like a sequence showing the orientations of the triangles on the discs" said Tobias, gazing at the pattern in deep thought.
"Hmm... I think the orientation of these triangles also plays a role somehow. Let me twist these discs with the help of the inserted keys and orient all of these triangles in the same pattern as shown here on this tray. Perhaps this is the code or the combination that unlocks this thing. I tried the same thing yesterday to no effect but now the situation is different with these keys inserted inside and the pattern that we have etched on this tray."
He then rotated all the discs with the help of the keys such that all the triangles were pointing exactly as shown in the sequence on the tray. On the last twist, there was this sudden popping sound and like the action of some spring the upper part of the sphere popped out. Tobias lifted the upper piece in excitement and placed it to the side. Inside the sphere was a small bowl shaped space which was filled with a small amount of some liquid that was glowing brightly and was violet blue in colour".
"By Lord! What is this substance?" exclaimed Ronaldo.
Tobias just shrugged, unable to speak anything.
(To be continued...)
He picked up his big briefcase lying beside him and headed towards the main door of the house.
"Hello Sir, Welcome to Attenborough Manor. You must be Mr. Tobias".
"Yes, George must have informed you about me".
"Yes Sir, My name is Ronaldo, I am the caretaker of this Manor. Please hand me the briefcase Sir. I will show you around".
Ronaldo took the briefcase and handed it over to one boy standing beside him gesturing him to take it inside.
"Well Sir , let me show you your room"
"That is alright Mr. Ronaldo. I think I would not be able to quench the feeling of eagerness that has been buzzing me all through the journey until I at least get a glimpse of the thing. Please show me that and then we'll proceed for the resting quarters."
"Sure Sir, If that is your wish. Let us go down the backyard then and I will show it to you"
Following a sideway that led around the perimeter of the building, they reached in front of a room in the backyard which looked more or less like a garage from the outside.
Ronaldo opened the door to the room and they both went inside the slightly damp and dimly lit room. Along the side wall was a large wooden table on which some kind of object was kept covered under a blanket. Ronaldo removed the blanket at once and uncovered this most exquisite object in front of Tobias.
Tobias was in a trance seeing this most unfamiliar and puzzling object. "What is this?" exclaimed Tobias, gazing in amazement. "That's the same question which has puzzled us Sir, for quite a long time."
The object seemed to be carved out of a single stone which was pure white. The surface was shiny and smooth enough that one could almost see the reflection of one's face in it. It was a large spherical ball with a golden belt in the centre which bulged out and encircled the whole sphere . This seemed like a huge white globe with a golden belt in place of the equatorial line. The belt had a lot of small circular discs adjacent to one another with each disc having a peculiar engraving. Each engraving had a triangle with a small circle inside it whose circumference touched the three sides of the triangle. At the centre of each of this little circle was a vertical opening which more or less looked like a slot on of those slot machines used for inserting coins inside. At the bottom, the sphere was somehow affixed within a large socket to a solid stone like slab which seemed carved out of the same material but which was totally black in color.
"What's interesting is that this spherical ball can move inside this socket." said Ronaldo as he pushed and twisted the big ball and with a slight effort he was able to rotate it a little bit. "Also these engravings that you see Sir, the ones that are on this bulge right in the middle of this sphere, we've tried our hands on these also. It turns out that if you use a sharp object, say for example a knife, and push it inside one of these slots, and then twist the thing a little bit, the whole disc along with the engraved image would rotate, much like the action of some lock and key."
Tobias noted carefully, there were around twenty engravings on this central bulge, each one of which carried the common shape of a triangle with a circle inside. "Also this belt is movable too Sir, we are able to glide it to right or left side with a slight push" Ronaldo continued.
"A most peculiar artifact. How did you find this thing? The story that George told me was almost unbelievable. Did that really happen? Do you have any account of events relating to this?"
"Oh most certainly yes, Sir. I was here the whole time when this happened. It is almost a year now but I remember that night quite clearly. I was there in the kitchen looking after the cooks and what was being prepared for dinner. Mr George's relatives had come to visit him so we had quite a company those days. They were sitting in the central hall of the manor and having some usual talk. All of a sudden there was this flash of light and a very loud sound like if something has exploded in the backyard. We all got terrified as to what had happened. I ran towards the back gate which opened in the yard to see myself. The sky was clear that night so there was no chance of any lightning strike or anything of that sort. When I went there I saw these huge flames erupting out of the ground. The air was filled with light smoke and a strange scent like that of burning sulphur. Almost all of the household was now out in the open looking at this strange thing. George asked everyone to stay away from the place as it could be dangerous. So we were just looking at this thing with amazement from a distance.Gradually after some time the flames subsided. When the flames were gone we could see what seemed like a big boulder glowing red hot inside a hole in the ground which it had made.
'What on earth is this! Is it some kind of meteor strike?' asked Mr. George in astonishment. We had no clue but this seemed to be the only understandable case. So we waited there for almost half an hour in the hope of getting a closer look, but the thing was too hot to allow any approach to it. In the end Mr. George just asked everybody to leave the matter for now and to return and examine this thing in the morning. The neighborhood is quite scanty here and the only house close is of Mr. Lutyens. Their family was out for a vacation those days so there was no other household which could have observed this event. So we went back into the manor to our respective places but hardly anyone slept that night and there was this constant talk and gossip among us as to what had just happened. Mr. George seemed reluctant to call the police or any public authority until he had the matter figured out.
We were out early in the morning eager to lookout for that rock and what remained of it. It was now clearly visible, a black lump of matter with tiny pores all along its surface. It was hardly a meter across. George asked us to unearth the surrounding ground a little bit and to dig this thing out and carry it to the nearby storage room, which is the same room in which we are right now. So we worked out the mud and soil around this rock with shovels and finally carried it to this room on a sheet of cloth. The thing was heavy and it took four of us to carry it here. Afterwards we took a good look at that boulder. At one side of it a patch of something quite white and smooth was visible. It seemed that there was something else which was inside this rocky formation. So Mr. George and I started to chisel the rock away and gradually we were totally astonished to find that the rock contained this strange 'out of this world' thing. It didn't took us a lot of effort as the surrounding rock was brittle enough and it quite easily got chiseled away from this object. So here we were left with this amazing thing right in front of our eyes. It was really hard for us to believe our eyes or what just had happened. But it was a plain fact facing us. I asked Mr. George what should be done about this thing. He had an interest in antique and odd things from the past which showed up in his personal collection of some ancient and antique pieces of furniture and hardware that he had gathered over the years. It seemed to me that he was looking at this object from the same perspective. He did not want to inform anybody about this thing lest he feared that he would have to give it away to some government authorities. He wanted to keep this thing in his possession and to find out what it was. He somehow convinced his relatives that were present in the house that night not to discuss about this event with anybody else, stating that it could result in the authorities interfering with his private life and perhaps maybe seizing his property in order to investigate the site. So we have been more or less in a vow of silence since then, careful not to discuss this thing with any outsider. This part of the village has very few visitors, so it isn't a hard thing at all to keep this thing out from the eyes of any intruders. Over the course of time we have tried to play around with this thing a little bit so as to hit something that could reveal its nature or anything about it. But so far there has been no great progress. At last sensing his patience wane a little bit, Mr. George has asked you to take a look at this strange thing. As a friend, he places great trust on you and wants to find out more about this object. As you are an archaeologist by profession so he saw you quite fit for this task. Also you seem to have great interest for these kind of things yourselves."
"Well as an archaeologist I do have an acquaintance with antique and ancient things, but this is a totally different case. This thing won't fit under any classification of historical objects I am sure. And the strange events that surround this are inexplicable and strange. I really am having a hard time believing all this but this object in itself bears a big testimony to what you just told me. I have never heard about or seen any such thing in the past. This certainly is a most interesting phenomenon. Anyways, thanks Mr. Ronaldo for being so clear and direct about it and telling me these details. I will be most happy to look into this matter further. There's one more thing that I wanted to ask you if that would not be a problem. Could you please get this thing shifted to my room in the Manor? I want to take a more closer look at this thing in the privacy of my room and perhaps the constant presence of it will help to focus my thoughts a little more."
"Oh sure Sir, I will arrange for this to be shifted on the side table of your bedroom if you like. Now please let me escort you to your room."
"Let's go"
All along the way to his room Tobias's mind was absorbed in the thoughts about that sphere. He felt something very odd about it. Although Ronaldo was constantly chatting and telling him things about the locality and the manor all along the way but he could not pay much attention to it. It was only that object and the narrative surrounding its discovery that captured his imagination. All of this somehow connected with his professional work also, as he was so fond of uncovering the mysteries and myths surrounding the historical items that he found in his field work and the sense of completion and satisfaction that he got on discovering a new thing about them. Deep in his guts he considered himself to be an investigator.
The door to his bedroom opened to reveal a big room, bigger than he had expected, with a large window opening into the backyard. It was on the first floor on the rear side of the manor.
"This would be quite comfortable. Thank you Mr. Ronaldo for your hospitality."
" Your welcome Sir. The lunch would be ready in half an hour. You may relax here and refresh yourselves until then. After that we will get that sphere shifted to this room."
And then Ronaldo left the room after handing over the keys to Tobias.
In the evening, Tobias returned to his room after a long walk out in the surrounding area of the manor, which he realized was mostly covered with orchards and forest and had very little population nearby, and found the sphere sitting on the desk just beside his bed. 'Good', he thought, 'as it would provide a constant and easy glance of this puzzling thing.' Closing the door to the room, he positioned himself beside the desk and started examining the sphere. 'What a beautiful thing it is' , he thought. 'How to account for the fact that this was inside a rock that supposedly came from the sky as a meteor strike. Is this not some fancy narrative that these fellows have told me just to cover something up about the source of this thing? Did they not want to tell me something about the origin of this sphere and only to use me in exploring something that they want to know about this object? But why would they come up with such a bizarre story anyways so as to create such doubts in my mind?'
He finally decided to let go the thoughts about the source and origin of this object and concentrate on what was at hand that could reveal more about the nature of this thing.
'The feature that stands out on this sphere are these discs and engravings. What do all these triangles with the circles inside them represent? What could be the purpose and function of these circular discs with these engravings on them? And what are these slots that are in the centre of each circle?'
He took out a coin from his purse and tried inserting it inside one of the slots. But there seemed no opening or room inside which could engulf the coin and it stuck about half way through. Then he remembered what Ronaldo had told him about the knife thing and how each disc could be rotated by inserting a knife inside the slot and twisting it a little bit. He decided to try that thing out himself. So he went to the main kitchen of the manor and fetched a small kitchen knife from there. Then he inserted the knife inside one of the slots on a circular disc and it got about half an inch inside the slot. Then he twisted the knife to one side a little bit. With a slight screeching noise the circular disc rotated along with the engraved image on it. He tried the same thing with two more discs.
'Interesting' he thought 'Each of these engravings can be rotated this way. But what could the ability to rotate these small discs do? Does the rotation of these simple geometrical shapes of these engraved triangles with circles inside them fulfil some purpose? Could it be that the orientation of these triangles have something to do with the technique or code of activating or opening this thing?'
With a resolve in his mind, he started rotating each of the discs so that the orientation of the triangles on each of them would be such that their apex points towards the same direction: upwards. After some time all of the triangles were oriented along the same direction with the apex of there two longer sides pointing upwards. Nothing happened though.
But all this exercise left him with a feeling that he is dealing perhaps with some kind of a bizarre lock that opens only when one gets the combination right.'Or maybe there's just something else to it and I am thinking too much and putting my own interpretation on to it' he said at last after orienting these triangles and pieces in different ways : downwards, sideways, in alternate fashion and many other orientations that he thought could be worth trying.
Looking at his watch he realised that he had been examining this thing for the past two hours. The journey of the morning had left him a bit tired and he thought it would be more reasonable now to have a sleep and to think about this problem with a fresh mind in the morning.
Within no time, he was in his bed floating in the darkness of his dreams. He found himself standing in the main hall of the manor. He was talking to Ronaldo about something. All of a sudden, he felt somebody pulling his jacket. He turned to find a small dwarf like man which seemed to appear out of nowhere gesturing him towards some place. The dwarf looked quite old with a long white beard but no sign of physical feebleness was visible. His face was a little grotesque to look at. He was constantly gesturing Tobias to follow him. Tobias somewhat reluctantly started following the dwarf. He took Tobias to the very same room on the first floor of the building where Tobias was residing at present. The sphere was right there on the same desk. The dwarf reached the sphere and grabbed the globe with both his hands and started twisting it little by little. He signalled Tobias to do the same. Tobias started turning the globe in the direction pointed by the dwarf and little by little the whole sphere was turning and making screeching noises. As Tobias was turning the globe, the dwarf started counting the number of turns with his fingers. On every completed turn he would raise one finger of his hand and smile. As the globe completed its tenth turn, the dwarf clapped. He then came near the sphere again and this time grabbed the golden belt that was bulging out in the middle by its sides and then started sliding the belt in the opposite direction of the motion with which the sphere was turned. He signalled Tobias to do the same and then started counting again the turns of the belt. It was the same as with the sphere. On the completion of every turn the dwarf lifted one of the fingers up and seemed happy about it. When the tenth turn finished, there was a sudden noise and the slab at the bottom that was supporting the globe opened up, out of which a tray containing some shiny objects slid out. On seeing this the dwarf gave a big grin and clapped again, louder this time. He took out from his back a wooden stick and with a strong and swift jerking motion of his hand he landed a blow on one of Tobias's knees. A sudden pain surged through his body.
All of a sudden Tobias woke up from the dream and found himself all sweating and panting. The vision was quite clear and he could remember every detail of it. He thought about it for a while and then decided to discuss it with Ronaldo in the morning.
The next morning after breakfast, Tobias told about the dream to Ronaldo. Ronaldo was quite confused as what it could mean.
"It could very well be the result of your thinking and engrossing yourself in the thoughts about that sphere last night Sir." said Ronaldo.
"That certainly is plausible Mr. Ronaldo, but I want to at least try the thing out once. The vision has left me with a kind of unease that would not subside until I act upon it"
"It will do no harm Sir"
"Let us go then. I want you to be present when I do this."
"Alright Sir. Before you"
They both went to the room and Tobias grabbed the white globe and started turning it in the direction as he saw in the dream. He was also counting the turns as he was rotating the sphere. After ten turns of the sphere, Tobias started turning the belt in the opposite direction and counting the turns in the same way. At the tenth turn, there was a sound of a click, like if some thing had snapped inside, and to their amazement a tray came out of the slab at the bottom. There were many very shiny metal like objects inside. Tobias and Ronaldo looked at each other with amazement.
"The vision was true" cried Tobias, still in a state of disbelief at what he saw. "How can this be happening I have no idea Ronaldo, but now I am sure that there really is some big secret hidden in this thing. It can't all be coincidence."
"Really Sir, for all this year nothing of that sort came to our mind. I am indeed myself having trouble grasping this matter now. Is this thing really some relic from the unknown? I think we should better inform Mr. George about this development. He must be coming back within two or three days from the city. I'll talk to him on the phone and tell him what has just happened"
"That's ok Ronaldo. But I am sure that there is a lot to this thing and I want to figure that out now. I will continue examining this thing until George comes by"
"Very well Sir."
"What do you think are these metal objects inside this tray Ronaldo? Don't they look like some sort of keys?"
"I think we can try inserting one of these inside the slots on this sphere" said Ronaldo.
"Exactly, let us try this thing out."
Tobias took one of the shiny metallic key out into his hand and inserted it in one of the slots. The thing somehow went almost three-fourths of its length inside the slot and with a quick snapping sound the disc containing the slot slid inwards inside the sphere for about five inches.
"Wow! This is getting interesting" exclaimed Tobias.
Soon they realised that there were as many keys in the tray as the number of discs and slots on the sphere. So they inserted each of the keys inside each of the slot and the same thing happened with each insertion. After some time the golden belt was looking suppressed fully inside the sphere about five inches with all the discs punched and the sphere was looked as if divided into two parts above and below the golden belt.
"What now?" asked Ronaldo.
"Look at this thing here Ronaldo." said Tobias pointing towards the tray.
There was a pattern etched on the tray which contained the keys.
"These look like the engravings on the sphere. Look, there are exactly twenty of these drawings. These look the same as the triangles with circles that are engraved on the discs of the belt. This looks like a sequence showing the orientations of the triangles on the discs" said Tobias, gazing at the pattern in deep thought.
"Hmm... I think the orientation of these triangles also plays a role somehow. Let me twist these discs with the help of the inserted keys and orient all of these triangles in the same pattern as shown here on this tray. Perhaps this is the code or the combination that unlocks this thing. I tried the same thing yesterday to no effect but now the situation is different with these keys inserted inside and the pattern that we have etched on this tray."
He then rotated all the discs with the help of the keys such that all the triangles were pointing exactly as shown in the sequence on the tray. On the last twist, there was this sudden popping sound and like the action of some spring the upper part of the sphere popped out. Tobias lifted the upper piece in excitement and placed it to the side. Inside the sphere was a small bowl shaped space which was filled with a small amount of some liquid that was glowing brightly and was violet blue in colour".
"By Lord! What is this substance?" exclaimed Ronaldo.
Tobias just shrugged, unable to speak anything.
(To be continued...)