"The point being is that we still might not be out of trouble with
the slipgates," Malachi states. "Yes, Dragon Synizn was able to bypass
the damaged area so you all could be transported out of Atlantis when it
appeared to ready to become one with the ocean. But, who is to say that
there wasn't other damage to this system? Who's to say that somewhere down
the lines, the whole system doesn't go insane….and transporting things
all over the place…..and into things? Who is to say something worse might
happen?"
"As?" Probe queried, worried despite himself, for he had an eerie feeling
in his circuits that something was going to be said here….important.
"Before I answer that," Malachi says, after a pause. "I need to show
everyone something. I think that those conversant in the Arte…..will recognize
it for what it is….after a bit."
Malachi pulls from a pouch that is strapped around one foreleg a book…..that
looks like it's been burned…..trampled upon….whatever could be done to
a book. Yet the book is (barely) in one piece. The slight glow around the
book is not due to any magical nature inherent to the book itself. Rather,
it was a preservative spell that Malachi had bound into the abused pages
so no further deterioration could take place. There are barely legible
glyph like writing on the cover, but it prompts gasps and shouts of surprise
from every mage who looks on it!
"How in the name of Tiamat did you find that?!" Sigin shouts, the first
to recover from the shock of the sight.
"A book shop in upper Egypt had it on sell," Malachi says with a smug
grin, crowing at the coupe. "Somehow a seedy little thief had gotten into
an ancient burial mound, stolen this and other items within. Reputed to
be the BEST thief in the world, Moondancer quickly found that the rumors
that Atlantians lay curses on their buried items was true. The little creep
found herself slowly changing into some type of animal….a mink .
"I bought it right away," the dragonness smiled. "And found….it was
indeed…..Lord Tessela's Technical Journals!
"The thing was totally beyond hope in some areas, but in others….I found
references to the slipgates. Tessela, who was a giant among grand and powerful
wizards and sorcerers, stated if the prescribe time between preventive
maintenance session-I never did find out just what that limit was-that
the system could do one of three things: stop working completely, and thus
sparing Terra any disasters; start to increase the pull of gravity of Terra….to
a point that….he said that light couldn't escape; or start to rip up pieces
and parts of Terra herself to eventually form something called an 'asteroid
belt'….a second one."
Probe looks shaken, for he knows of what Tessela was speaking of.
"The last two items sound either fanciful or too obscure to be meaningful,"
Dragon Synizn smirks, and then blinks in surprise when Probe gives off
a barking laugh!
"The wyrm says that the planet turning into a black hole or another
ring of rocks around the sun not meaningful!" the AI laughs…..without humor.
He then explains to an increasingly aghast adventurers what a black hole
(a celestial body who's gravity field had increased so much that it had
collapsed in on itself to where only gravity was left….and nothing more
swift than light would be able to escape the pull of it's gravity at the
'event horizon').
"And since you know that this world actually follows a prescribed path
around the Sun and not the reverse….I need not tell you that other things
orbit the Sun also….other planets….and asteroids….rocks that vary from
the size of a grain of sand to the size of something across in size comparable
to a mysterious land called 'Texas.'"
"I don't suppose the old boy had listed anything like….symptoms
of impending doom?" Fred 1 asks in a quiet voice. "I hope there were some
listed, for I'd hate to suddenly find the lights go permantently out by
a 'black hole' or be 'rocked' to death!"
-
 "Yes, there are." Malachi
states quietely.
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