The Blueshifters (Blueshifter Series Book 1), Page 2

  - T

  His heart beat quickly. Everything he looked at, smelled, touched could have been put there to seduce and blind him by the “others”. Now was as good a time as any to put the monumental plan in motion. Andrew was not sure he was ready, but T was pushing him and the things he had seen only begged the question: why did he continue to sit on his hands? The group had to be formed. He got out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote T back:

  T,

  You were right all along. It is just that I have meager resources and I am nothing but a scared, confused bookseller with a bum leg. You are asking an underachiever who can barely run his own business in the black to help you save the world. Yet, it is my world. Let's do it. Let's get the group together. If you say there are others like me who know what is happening, we must get to know who we all are to stop them. My bookstore can be used as headquarters.

  Episode 5 – Sensing Things

  “Can you see now?” Came the gentle voice again. Dan grimaced, he felt bloated and sluggish but not violently ill.

  “I can't see anything. I can. . . I sense or feel things.”

  “Tell me what you sense.”

  “I hear voices that come unbidden. I don't know where they come from. Like radio waves from far away. I can see outlines on rare occasions of people in red light halos. The people in these halos frighten me for some reason. Don't know why.”

  “Do these sensations cause you pain?”

  “Sometimes. More fatigue than pain. Where am I? Who are you? I was. . .I was in the hospital-”

  “You are home now. You were rescued some weeks ago from the river. These sensations, the “sickness” are the start of a power developing inside you, Dan. A power to discern the light from the darkness. You are one of the first ones that I have seen that has this ability out in the wild.”

  “In the wild?”

  “By yourself in the world with no one to guide you. Of the few I've seen with the power of discernment the power itself destroys them or they are destroyed before they are powerful enough to wield it.” Dan shifted in alarm. He tried to remove his blindfold, but his hands felt numb and weak.

  “What do you mean destroyed?”

  “Relax. Relax Dan. I will not harm you.” The voice soothed. He felt it like a breeze caressing his raw nerves and he settled down. Whoever it was, the Voice they wielded had some sort of power.

  “I mean, that there are others who do not want you to see them. The ones in red. Your power was released under stress. That is usually how it happens. By accident. When I look at you Dan I see a halo around you too. A blue light. The light of humans. The Others, they are not. . . .human. They look, act and behave like humans. They are very good at it because they have been here on earth for a very long time. But they are a cancer and that cancer looks like red halo light. You can now see them and you will be able to sense them more often. There are other levels to this ability Dan.”

  “What levels?”

  “Fighting. All will come in time. Just rest your mind and continue sensing and feeling your way through the darkness with the blindfold on. Your eyes are important, but I want you to learn how to see with more than just your eyes. The whole world is lost and blind because they only see with their eyes.” He heard footsteps falling softly away as whoever it was – his captor or helper – left the room.

  Dan did not know what to say or how to proceed. He still wasn't entirely sure he was not dreaming. He obeyed and tried again, sensing. Suddenly a siren blared out of the background noise of the day – he guessed it was daytime from all the ambient background noise sifting through – and it disrupted his concentration. He put his hands to his ears and blocked it out with difficulty until the siren died away and then tried again. He sensed immediately someone beside him and jumped.

  “Good. Good. You knew I was here. I was looking for that. You can take the blindfold off for now.” Dan hesitated at first, then tore it off. There was a tall man standing by the bed. His bed. With deep gray eyes, impossibly pale with a wide-set mouth and white hair. He wore a long black coat.

  “My bones, they were broken. My back!” Dan grabbed it, but there was no pain. ”I remember someone. Red-Rag.” The man nodded.

  “Yes. They tried to break you, those hoodlums. Thralls of the redshifters. The real danger, believe it or not, is not them. It is what has been done to them. They were once men, like you and for all intents and purposes, they still are on the outside. But those fellows have been turned into thralls. That is the intent of the redshifters for some of humankind. To take over in every way.” Dan stared at him intensely until he began to sweat. There was no sense in questioning the strangeness in this situation and the fact that he had no real idea who this man was because life had radically changed when he was thrown into the river. He proceeded on.

  “What are redshifters?”

  “The ones who have infiltrated human culture and populations. The Others. The ones who want to change, consume and destroy humanity for their own purposes. The problem is that we do not know what their ultimate purpose is and why they want to do what they want to do. I and others are still discovering this as we go. We only know that they mean you great harm.”

  “And. . . who are you?” Dan asked, sitting back and watching him closely.

  “A helper. I will tell you more later when you meet the others on the team I am putting together.”

  “Team?”

  “The one I told you about?”

  “Ah. Right. Other people like me.” Dan scanned the man again. He felt no sinister vibe or danger from this man at all and he had scanned and studied his feelings around him for some days now. He looked outside. The day was overcast and cast a pall gray over everything.

  “Well, if I am to meet with your team-”

  “You are to be the leader of this team. If you wish.”

  “Oh. Well. I think I can find a way to handle that if I have this great power, as you say. But if I am to meet this team of people you put together and lead them, it seems I need to at least know your name.” The man gazed serenely at him before answering.

  “I will be meeting with some of the others later this week, to gather them together. Then I must find a safe haven for you all to meet. I think I may have found such a place. And my name is Trillion.”

  Episode 6 – The Meeting

  Daniel sat back and tried to relax his muscles. They were still sore from his deathly ordeal, but his recovery had come quickly. He had not seen Trillion in about a week. He felt and even heard things with more regularity now. He was on his way to a bookstore to meet the team.

  The team consisting of people who were like him. They could see the beings that had infiltrated human society. Redshifters, Trillion had called them. The Others.

  The passed by a the Glass, a small and popular music venue. Someone big was in town. There was an impossible line snaking all the way around the block. The taxi rounded the corner a block down toward a tiny, rundown looking building crammed in between a pub and an old pharmacy. It was pouring rain and Dan's senses were on high alert. Hard to get used to. His feelings of helplessness and out-of-control experiences had gone away. The blackouts, the feelings of flying. Gone. These were burgeoning aspects of his talent of discernment. Thankfully that phase was gone.

  The taxi pulled to a stop in front of a pitiful looking bookstore. Dan paid the driver and pulled his coat up around his head to shield himself from the rain. It looked dim inside. He tried to push in the door, hearing the taxi drive away.

  “Come on, come on!” He said impatiently. The door was locked. He banged on the door, feeling rain slide down his back. Finally, the door opened. A short man with thick, wide glasses peered out.

  “Hi. I'm Dan!” The man opened the door wider to let him in and Dan pushed his way in from the rain.

  “Nasty out there,” said the man, closing and locking the door.

  “I don't usually close up this early. This is cutting into profits you know, Trillion,” said the li
ttle man. Dan looked around. The smell was musty and very old. Profits, huh? He thought.

  “By the way, I'm Andrew. I own this palace,” he said dryly. Dan nodded.

  It appeared he was the last one to arrive. There were four other people gathered, Trillion among them.

  “Glad you could make it, Dan,” said Trillion in his usual gentle voice. Dan now turned around and got a good look at the team. There was the bookseller Andrew, short, harried looking and a little disheveled. There was another man dressed in black with jet black spiky hair, scuffed boots with intense eyes boring into him.

  “Jack,” he said curtly. He nodded slightly but didn't have much to say beyond his name. There was also a young woman. She looked she smiled, but Dan thought it was more out of nervousness than anything else. She had a jittery aura about her as if she felt she were being chased. Not surprising given the circumstances. But there seemed to be a heightened sense of fear in her.

  “I'm Mary,” she said and reached out her hand to shake his. He shook it.

  “Good to meet you,” he said. Of course, there was Trillion, or T.

  “Well, let's get started. I brought you all here because of your gifts. Also to bring you out of the wild and into safety,” said Trillion. “And Andrew here, a trusted friend and one who believes in the existence of the Others was good enough to lend us his store for our meetings. You are all here because you can see what others can't. You see them outlined in red. That is for a reason. Their aura gives off such a color. Some humans, like yourselves, have been imbued with the talent to fight the coming takeover. Super powers, you might say.”

  “Super powers?” Asked Jack with a slight smirk.

  “Superpowers. You have the ability of a sort yourself and you doubt it?”

  “I didn't say that.”

  “I can hear it in your voice,” said Trillion. Jack made a dismissive noise. Trillion smiled mildly and went on. Dan interrupted.

  “I once heard you call these Others redshifters. Why did you call them that?”

  “Yeah,” asked Mary. “I'm curious too.”

  “In physics, redshifting happens electromagnetic radiation or light from an object moving away from the observer is increased in wavelength, going toward the red end of the spectrum. Simply put, a redshift happens when light moves away from an observer. In terms of how this affects us, it is an ethical, moral one. Those who are redshifters move away from what is beneficial or good for all living things, save themselves. They are the enemy. So, we apply a physics principle to the moral issue at hand. They move away from the light of goodness while those in blue turn toward and are supportive of life on this earth.”

  “So, can humans too be redshifters?” Asked Jack.

  “Most certainly,” said Trillion. Then he went on. “This place is one of the portals that needs to be protected from them. One that as of now doesn't work. All of the portals we know of are closed and hidden from the others.”

  "How do you hide them?” Asked Dan.

  “They have a protective barrier. Each building that houses them has this invisible barrier over it. It can't be seen. It's a cloak, but it works to cloak specific things within a space instead of the entire space. Over time, you will see more of what I mean but I do mean to let you have a look. This place is our portal. Andrew and I have to get it working. Come. I'll show you what I mean.” Trillion and Andrew led them to the back of the store and downstairs. It was filled with cobwebs and reeked of a dank smell.

  “Can't be good for books?” Asked Dan glancing at Andrew. Andrew shrugged.

  “I'm near broke. Had an incident here some months ago which caused it. Tell you later. I'm trying to do something about it. I swear.” Once they got downstairs Trillion went to the back of the room. It was lit with a bare, flickering incandescent light bulb. Trillion pulled back a series of old shower curtains to the back wall. Except the wall was not there. In place was what looked like an opaque, web-like or space. Behind it was a soft humming and muted light seemed to flicker on and off every few seconds.

  “What the. . .” exclaimed Jack.

  “Can we touch it?” Asked Dan. Trillion looked at Andrew then at him. Andrew nodded.

  “Be careful. It is dangerous. Ethers and gases and things that you don't want to breath in for too long.” Dan moved forward to the invisible wall and gingerly touched the opaque mass. It felt like spiderweb and mist, a strange sensation. It also felt wet. He pushed his hand farther in and it disappeared.

  “Wow,” murmured Mary.

  “So, this place is like a tunnel or like a wormhole?” Asked Jack.

  “Yes. With these portals, we can monitor the movements of the Others and hide and escape from them more easily. When we fix it we can fight them more effectively. We will have an edge.”

  ”How did they get here? The portals?” Asked Dan.

  “A good friend of mine. My captain. He created them. He died in a resistance coup against the Others. This was a century ago. He only told a few of us where these places were and had them hidden first within old abandoned buildings and then when technology took its leaps and bounds during the Industrial Revolution through the web cloaks. He himself was known as an inventor rivaling Tesla.”

  “Dan, what does it feel like?” Asked Mary.

  “Like fog or mists. Sort of wet. And weird. Once you put your hand through it disappears as if it never existed. So, will we meet every week?” He glanced at the other two.

  “I don't see why not,” said Mary hopefully. She clutched her stomach absently.

  “Every Monday?” Asked Dan.

  “Every Monday,” said Jack. There was screaming and then the sound of wailing sirens outside. They stopped talking until the sound died down.

  “Every Monday then. So what do we do with all this time between Mondays?” Asked Dan to Trillion and Andrew.

  “Hunt the enemy,” said Trillion.

  “Sounds good to me,” said Jack.

  . . .

  The others were sitting around quietly drinking coffee. Andrew had brought out his ancient and filthy coffee-maker and a few dingy cups and offered coffee. Jack and Mary and were quietly speaking with Trillion. Dan himself wandered through the isles looking at the books. Andrew's store was a used bookstore and naturally, full of old, dusty books. Piled high on shelves full of old, old books. He glanced at his other two team-mates when Andrew suddenly rounded the isle. He brought him a cup of coffee.

  “Thought you might want one. Might help you brainstorm. Work things out. I always work best at night.” He handed the cup to him. Dan took it and thanked him. He took a sip. It was terrible and weak, but it was the thought that counted.

  “I was wondering,” Dan asked, “how did this guy build these portals here? Who is Trillion? You know him? He must be like the guy who built this place. Special.”

  “Trillion calls himself an outsider and sometimes a helper. He has special abilities too but different than yours. He doesn't go into great detail about himself, though.” Andrew took a sip of his brown swill.

  “Is there any history or information about these “Others”? Like a book?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, there is something. It's a personal journal. It was written by a guy who lived over a hundred years ago. He kept a journal of various things concerning strange events that he saw near his house. The journal ends abruptly. The problem is the man was mentally ill. Or mad, as they used to say long ago. However, much of what he writes in relation to the others is very interesting and informative. Almost like a road-map to seeing the others if you don't have a special ability.”

  “And no one knows what happened to him?”

  “No one knows. He just vanished.”

  “Nothing just vanishes.”

  “He did.”

  “Can I see this diary?”

  “Follow me.” Andrew led him to the last aisle of the bookstore but instead of plucking a book from the shelf he went to a small room beyond the door, opening it up with an old skel
eton key. When he came out he had an old book in his hands of cloth and brown leather and yellowed pages. There was no title or writing of any sort on the front cover.

  “This is a direct copy I made of it. I have only one other copy. I used to think it was just a diary of a mad man's scribblings. Found it in the trash at World-Con some years ago. But after meeting Trillion this book is almost like a bible. There are things in here that this man saw and knew that you won't find anywhere else. You guys are like this guy. Except in a better position because you can truly fight them. I have a feeling he was taken or maybe even murdered. You have an advantage this poor guy didn't. You can see them and they don't know it. Yet.” Dan took the book.

  “Thanks.”

  “Here, you better take this back. I don't want to spill it,” said Dan.

  “Oh yeah.” Andrew took the cup back. Dan fingered the book's dog-eared corners.

  “So, we are embarking on a new era,” said Dan quietly. Andrew nodded, his eyes almost comically big behind his glasses.

  “I feel like I've been dropped in the middle of They Live.”

  ”That's because you are,” said Andrew. Dan went back to the front of the room. The others were getting ready to leave.

  “Wait! Mary, Jack. Let's get numbers. I want to meet with you guys as soon as possible. Tomorrow maybe?” Said Dan getting struggling through his pockets looking for a pen.