Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 40: An Encounter Outside

A week passed since Tim had traveled to the astral world for the first time. 

Tom kept tabs on the progress the team was making with his daily visits. He never pressed or pushed anyone, but everyone knew, they needed to make progress as fast as possible.

 Tim always knew, he was the one who carried the most responsibility. At first, he felt a lot of weight on his shoulders, but after a few trips it all went away. The childish innocence was slowly substituted by a calm confidence. On every journey he pushed himself to the limit. He had overcome many obstacles and his reports had pleased Julian and Tom. A few more trips, more practice and he would be ready to do what he was brought here to do - to stop the unstoppable.

“Are you ready?” Julian asked, looking intensely at Tim.

“Yes,” Tim replied before putting his head on the hard mat.

Scarlet took a needle and was about to stick it in, when the boy turned to her and said, “Give me more of the stuff.”

The young nurse did not say a word. She only injected him with a whitish liquid and went to her table to prepare the next shot.

******

Tim entered the empty darkness. He was no more a helpless kid put into the unknown. He was a young astral creature in control of its surroundings. He focused and forced himself forward, speeding towards his world, his shell of the mind. The more he focused the faster he moved. A few blinks of an eye passed and he was already inside the safe house, a bubble of infinite space crafted by his imagination.

He found himself standing in front of the castle, looking up at its towers reaching for the clear blue sky.

“Welcome back sir,” an old man said.

“Glad to be back,” Tim replied and asked, “How did I do while I was away?”

“You did fine, everything went very well.”

“Great.” Tim padded the old man on the shoulder, entered the castle and rushed towards his operations room.

On his way through the stone paved corridors and stairs he met more inhabitants – all of them, a small part of him. The imaginary people helped him to survive, the otherwise, maddening eerie silence of this place. 

Each time he went back to the real world, a subconscious part of him stayed behind, that part had always been here and was going to exist long after his consciousness disappeared, if it ever did. When he got to this world he merged with his subconscious self. There was a wide line between both worlds, but Tim felt it getting thinner after each journey. He felt, it was only a matter of time before both worlds collided and his images became one. He would then become a being that could perceive the two worlds at the same time. For now as a practice, he ordered his counterpart to build this world according to some guidelines. And slowly, but surely it was being done. Through a glassless window, in the distance, Tim could see a massive forest, engulfing a living village.

Tim opened a door of a seemingly small room and entered a gigantic medieval hall. Its sidewalls were at least one kilometer apart, the far end was beyond the horizon.

All objects in this world were works of Tim's imagination. If he could think of an infinite space inside a small room, it would come to exist. The strongest part of a young mind was that it had not spent much time in the world ruled by physical laws and artificial order, subjects totally unnecessary to this place. The only limit in here was imagination.

From time to time Tim could feel monsters living far beyond the boundaries of the safe-house, other minds attached to single or multiple creatures drifting elsewhere in, what felt as an infinite space. The main laws of physics were greatly distorted in this universe. Time and space was blurry and rippled in multiple directions, but slowly, Tim was making sense of everything. It was clear, that in here with an open mind was achievable almost everything.

He looked up and stretched his hands upwards. As he moved them down, the ground trembled, the door of the room disappeared and darkness substituted the stone walls. Tim closed his eyes, merged with the darkness and drifted into the unknown.

 This time he focused as never before, ripples of space-time around him got calmer and calmer. The presence and echoes of alien entities vanished. Now, Tim was surrounded by many beings radiating familiar warmth. Besides them, there was someone else, an immensely powerful being emitting a menacing coldness. Tim felt a slight satisfaction and fear as he understood that he had finally found an astral being, leeching on his fellow humans – ‘The Outsider’, his presence was both – electrifying and breathtaking.

 He reached with his thoughts for one of the warm, familiar creatures that, he figured, where passengers of Nautilus. It blocked him. He used the method, which proved to be effective before, when visiting alien entities, and imagined himself to be in the same place as the creature. The attempt was successful and he entered the being. An object inside the being representing its mind was not awake. An unmoving ball of light floated in an empty space in front of Tim.

 The boy asked, "Who are you?” His voice echoed in an empty void.

 He left the being and reached for another. Again, nothing replied back. Now he attempted to find someone a bit colder, someone who must have been touched by the powerful being radiating its inhuman presence, reaching for and wrapping on anyone who felt weaker.

 Tim relaxed, found one of many monsters tentacles – extensions of its powerful projection, and followed it till he got into the victim within its hold. He entered the inner world of the poor being and there, in the middle of a white space, floated a ball of light engulfed by blackness. In the brightest point, at the center of the light, a black spike pierced it. That must be how intrusion from here into the physical world looks like, Tim figured and circled the image of the poor creature. Tim attempted to get closer and investigate the phenomenon, but it proved to be a mistake.

 "Who are you?!!" a voice thundered and shook Tim's insides, "Get out!!"

 There was no air in this place, but the power behind the voice made Tim feel as if he was gasping for it. He was left breathless, pushed out of the infested creature by an irresistible crushing force.

 After the moment of weakness went away, Tim found himself standing inside his stone paved room in the castle.

 I still have time, Tim thought and repeated the procedure.

Again, he filtered the place from the echoes and ripples and again he searched for a human mind infiltrated by the Outsider.

This time after his mental image got into a poor mind, he instantly reached for its center and followed the path of the black spike. As if he had entered a portal he shot forward, pushing the spike out of his path, reaching for something familiar. The feeling was common to the one that came when returning to the physical world. And to that world he returned. Only this time the body was not his.

Tim coughed and spit to the ground. He looked at his filthy, bruised hand.

“C’mon Dean, hurry up.” An ugly man in front of him said, his face corrupted by alcohol and covered in scars.

Tim lifted his right hand – it was gripping a simple lase gun. He asked, “Why should I?”

“Because you are an idiot and if you are slow, the drones will get you. The Voice is not going to be happy if we fail.”

“Go! Go! Go!” A man further ahead waved his hand towards a large gate in the distance.”

The man with the corrupted face looked for a moment at the gate. He then, turned back to Tim and pierced him with his eyes. He said angrily, “Go away, or do you want him to die?” The man stared hypnotically at Tim and lifted up his gun and continued, “If you interrupt me again I will make sure you are going to regret it! You do not know the pain I can cause you. Do this again and you will spend eternity in agonizing pain with no hope of redemption! I do not waste my energy on empty threats!”

 Tim let go of the physical world. He drifted back to the safe-house. His image fell to the ground. Tim lay there for the rest of the time he had left, looking at the ancient chandelier and thinking of what he had just witnessed. “What to do. What to do,” he repeated silently.