The Orb, the Link & the Library: Sanctuary's Quest

By D. M. Rosewood

For the first time in the history of writing, the manuscript - The Orb, the Link and the Library - was launched into space by an extraordinary spaceflight company and brought back to Earth for its readers.

 

Launching this three-part series into space was done to light a spark in the minds of

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ingenious Works, LLC
• Release date: Aug 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781732131408

D. M. Rosewood

Rosewood, who's friends call "D", is a passionate writer of science fiction and a seasoned creative scientist, engineer and entrepreneur who worked in numerous space and missile programs supporting the Air Force and NASA space launch activities. He has an eclectic appetite for everything interesting, having ground a six-inch primary mirror from scratch and used it to build his first telescope at the age of 15. He has sky-dived, scuba-dived, parasailed, been a spelunker, climbed mountains, traveled on the Great Wall of China, flown airplanes, sailed a Flying Dutchman, and built a Heathkit H89 computer, a six-foot Tesla coil, and a cloud chamber in his basement in his younger years. And, since the author couldn't fly into space, he managed to obtain the support of an extraordinary spaceflight company to launch his manuscripts into space and bring them back to Earth for his readers enjoyment. www.dmrosewood.com "Watching 'ignition and lift off' was like lighting a spark for my readers," Rosewood said, one he hopes will ignite the interest of his readers in space exploration and space travel. "Holding a space-based science fiction novel in your hands that has flown into space is just something special," Rosewood said following the launch of his manuscripts on a sunny day in 2017.

Book preview

Prologue

Semlig reached up and placed the seedpod into the crook of the tall tree. The device lived like nothing else on this third planet from its sun. It would wait, watch, and report, as this planet and the life on it evolved. On this planet, like all the others, Semlig was searching for very special beings endowed with unique mental abilities, and the kind of environments that might ultimately foster their creation, evolution, and growth.

This alien visitor inhaled the emissions of life from the vast forest surrounding him, then turned in a slow circle, listening for the minds of the most intelligent creatures that existed here. He sensed no thoughts or dreams expressed in language, only instinctive messages of primordial survival. He turned to face the wind and smelled the living and the dead of the inhabitants of this planet as the air blew through the dense, moist vegetation below, leaving behind the sounds of the rustling leaves and branches resisting the flow of the warm air. He knew the fittest of those that lived here would survive, and that some would evolve into intelligent beings, while others would succumb as food for their predators. This was the nature of evolution.

From his vantage point he could gaze across the landscape of this world. He watched as his crew collected specimens and examined life in the marsh below. The climate was hospitable, and they dressed in collection suits, designed to store samples of the fauna, flora, fungi, and other living organisms of this planet. He had searched hundreds of planets, among the thousands cataloged in the near universe. He hadn’t yet found any of the beings he was seeking, the ones with intelligence and with special abilities. But the potential of this planet consumed him. Positioned in its galaxy, far from the turmoil that ripped most planets back into oblivion, tucked in an orbit at just the right distance, and tilted at just the right inclination of its axis of rotation. This world would survive, perhaps long enough to enter its period of Singularity, its time of maximum contribution, and cultivate such beings.

And there was something else here. It possessed lush rain forests and enormous freshwater lakes. There were large land masses with variable topography surrounded by oceans of water—just the level of diversity necessary for evolution to sculpt its offerings, molding the fittest, forcing their intelligence further to the right, but not so much that it would annihilate them. Yes, perhaps this would be the place they were seeking, where the ones they sought would be formed and shaped, evolve, and then be discovered and taken.

He turned back toward the pod. So many had been planted—tens of thousands. But this pod was different. It could violate an unbreakable rule of his society when and if instructed to do so—a rule never to disturb the evolution of another world. This pod could communicate and discover, select and manipulate someone . . . or ones . . . whose minds would meet his world’s needs. This pod could interfere.

But for now, he would have to wait for the millennia to pass and evolution to take its course. And when the search was completed, the generations of rebels he represented might find the ones they were seeking, and his species might be saved from itself. For the pendulum of life on his planet had swung, as it always does, too far in one direction.

Chapter 1: The Discovery

Patience was something I didn’t have a lot of—that’s the ability to wait, to tolerate someone else’s feelings and desires over your own, . . . and why would anyone want to do that? So that’s probably why I chose to escape the daily grind under my mother’s thumb and come here to my Rock House in the quarry with my friend Bryan.

This was an enchanting place, this space beneath where I sat. And after a time, it had become my sanctuary, a place where my life belonged to me. No one could tell me what chores needed doing or what shouldn’t be said or what I couldn’t do. This small cavern, where a different world waited for me, had a roof made by a large petrified tree. And like that tree, that had been transformed into beautiful stone, I was changed and transformed here when I climbed down into the darkness.

I didn’t know a lot about rocks, but Bryan, my best friend, whose dad managed the quarry we were in, knew a lot about them, and what he didn’t know, his dad knew. Petrified wood was originally a tree and somehow it was replaced by minerals and voilà, millions of years later it became a rock. I didn’t care that much about how it was changed, but how I felt here. I could lie on my back in the darkness of my Rock House, touch the cool stone and feel the delicate breeze, and suddenly it was as if heaven had wrapped itself around me. It left the mining town, school, my mother, and that life that was suffocating me, a universe away.

Can you toss me a water? Anna asked.

I thought you didn’t want me doing stuff for you, Bryan said.

Never mind. She got up and walked to her backpack.

Bet that felt better.

She smirked, It’ll taste better since you didn’t touch it.

Why do girls do that?

Do what?

Say things they really don’t mean.

We don’t. Why do guys misinterpret what we say?

That’s easy . . . We can’t figure out what you want.

That’s good. I don’t like being predictable.

No, you just like being fickle.

There you go again, using words you don’t understand.

It’s a good thing I didn’t say ‘flighty.’

You’re right about that.

She sat dangling her legs in the entrance to her Rock House. If someone were here in the quarry walking around in the sun, they might miss it entirely. It had a small opening that looked almost like a shallow hole in the rock that seemed to go nowhere. But then if they dropped a few feet down into the hole, ducked their head and crawled into the dark shadows to the south, they would find themselves in a whole new world, her Rock House. It was cooler in the darkness, quiet like a tomb and had a wind that whistled to its occupants with a ghostly sound.

She looked over at her friend . . . well, maybe he was a very good friend. She’d call him a BFF if she texted, but she didn’t. Probably because she had a klutzy flip phone and lousy service or no service; but to be honest, more likely no phone, her mother’s favorite form of punishment, which she got more of than she deserved. Her mother would smirk and say, Give me your phone. She would stick her tongue out at her when her back was turned, and her mother’s open hand would jump into the air as she walked away, saying Give me your phone. She began to think she had eyes in the back of her head. After handing over her phone, she would feel her anger flare. Just before she exploded and really got into trouble, she would close her eyes and think of her Rock House and feel the raging storm inside her slowly settle.

The thoughts of her mother faded as the wind picked up and her Rock House stole a big breath, as if it were getting ready to speak . . . and then it did.

Welcome, Anna, her Rock House whispered in her head.

She stared into the cool black hole and smiled. Hi, she said, as a wisp of her hair followed the sound of her voice into the entrance.

Talking to my sanctuary gave me goose bumps. I told it my secrets and it never told anyone else. And when it wasn’t whispering to me, its silence would drown out all the irritating noise in my life, and there seemed to be a lot of that. Bryan didn’t believe that my Rock House could speak. It did, but for whatever reason he couldn’t hear it. Maybe I made it all up in my head, but I didn’t think so. It seemed as real as Bryan talking to me, or my aunt, who visited occasionally, listening to me. It was more like my aunt I decided. She listened more than she spoke. And I liked that. Far different than my conversations with my mother, if you could call them conversations.

The sun streamed through Anna’s hair, casting a shadow like a string dancing in the wind. She pictured her life hanging on this strand—a few enchanting things like her Rock House and Bryan tied to one end, while on the other was a pile of stuff she hated. She could taste her life on that other end, and the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to puke. It was like a tug of war between good and evil pulling on her, each end refusing to let go.

She wondered where her life had gone. Sixteen years and nothing had changed. Her mother certainly hadn’t. She could hear her as if she was seven again. Clean your room, make your bed, take your dirty clothes down to the laundry room, then come see me. What she really meant was, come find out what else she wanted her to do. Saturdays might as well have been Mondays when she went back to school to be instructed. The only thing that was different after nine years were the spoken words. She no longer told Anna what to do; she now told her what she didn’t do, what she forgot to do, or what she should have known to do in the first place.

Like all smart teenagers, she found a path to success. If she couldn’t do it the way her mother wanted her to, she made damn sure it looked like she had. As long as her mother never opened her closet door or looked under her bed, everything would be good. And she was fast. Over the years, she got chores that had once taken her half a day to do down to less than an hour. It used to take her ten minutes to make her bed the way her mother liked it. She timed herself recently and she could do it in less than two minutes. Then she’d run huffing and puffing down the stairs with her arms full of laundry, slowing to grab clutter in the living room along the way. She’d adjust the stupid doilies on the tables as she ran by and close the kitchen cupboard doors that never stayed closed. She wondered why it mattered since the drawers her sister left open remained catawampus even when closed. Her mother hated things out of place.

She moved fast so she’d be finished with breakfast before her mother came down. Then she pulled out the note from the day before saying she’d be at Bryan’s, placed it neatly at her place on the kitchen table and left quietly through the back door. If she wasn’t there when her mother arrived, she couldn’t ask her to do all the other things she’d forgotten to tell her about.

She and Bryan came to her Rock House every Saturday, and sometimes on weekdays during the school year if they could sneak away for a few hours. But during these summer months they were here every day. She leaned back against the warm roof rock waiting for her Rock House to speak again before she crawled in. By noon she wouldn’t be able to touch any of the rock in sunlight without burning her hands. She squinted up at the sky. They were over a mile high, and there wasn’t enough atmosphere between her and the sun to keep from being broiled. She turned and looked at Bryan in his sleeveless shirt. He sat under an overhanging boulder, getting relief from the heat. Even with his dark skin he would burn just as easily as she could.

If you aren’t careful the sun will bake your brain faster than a microwave, Bryan said. Then you won’t be able to think. And how are you going to become a teacher if you can’t think?

My mother would like it if I couldn’t think.

He chuckled and shook his head. She licked her dry lips as he looked at her. She could see the tension in his shoulders. Bryan was always a bit nervous at her Rock House. That was why he sat so far away. He worried about being trapped underground and they weren’t even inside. She thought he was claustrophobic, but she was acrophobic, so she couldn’t make fun of him . . . too much. He probably came because she was here, but he’d never admit that, especially around his friends at school.

She came here to get away from the things she hated. She liked Bryan, but more as a friend, and there was a difference in being drawn to a place or a person and running away from another part of your life. Do you think you could be driven away from something so much that you would like almost anything else—like a toilet, maybe? She closed her eyes and breathed in the smell of the quarry as she forced that other life out of her mind before it ruined her day.

She unscrewed the top of her water bottle, splashed it on her face and took a drink. She laid back on the warm rock, feeling the sun on her face. She couldn’t imagine feeling any better.

I’ll go in first and check for snakes . . . like the one behind you, Bryan said, as he stood quickly.

What? She scrambled to her feet. Her eyes darted behind her, not seeing anything. She turned toward Bryan as he laughed. She threw her almost-empty water bottle at him. Not funny. She crouched down and tossed a full water bottle into the opening. She peered into the dark hole, hesitating while she listened for the sound of a rattler before sitting back down.

Coming? she asked as she dropped down and crawled over several boulders into the darkness.

Moments later his shadow descended slowly into her sanctuary. He reached out, ever so slowly, feeling his way as if darkness could be touched and as if it might bite him. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her close. She took his hand as she pulled him to the dark end of her Rock House and down to the dirt floor. It was almost pitch black as his grip tightened and he resisted her pulling on him. There were cracks in the rock at this end that allowed the air from the entrance to flow through, creating a constant breeze moving to nowhere. They lay in silence as he came close to kiss her. She turned away. Doesn’t this feel like—I don’t know—like the most amazing place in the world? she asked.

No. There’s a rock jabbing me, dirt’s getting in my eyes, and I can’t see a thing.

You’re looking at it all the wrong way. Listen . . . do you hear anything?

The wind, he said.

A breeze from the entrance had followed them deep into her sanctuary and blew across the surface of her skin, giving her the shivers. She sighed. It felt wonderful. There was a comfort here, a soothing quiet that relaxed every muscle in her body. It was as if her Rock House were holding her, wrapping itself around her, like a warm blanket. She reached up and put her hand on the rock above her. It felt cool to the touch and moved her mind somewhere between nirvana and heaven as she thought about how great it was to be here.

I love being here with you, she said.

Thanks . . . Me too . . . Can we go now? Bryan said.

She smirked in the darkness. I was talking to my Rock House, not you.

Bryan moved closer and let his hand float softly over the goose bumps on her arm. She pulled away and turned on her side facing him. Just lie quiet, she said. She reached out in the darkness and touched him, as a blind person might to discover what he looked like. She ran her hand over his face, through his thick unkempt hair, feeling the shape of his wide chin and his muscular arms. She breathed in the scent of rock dust on his shirt and skin, listened to the sound of his breathing echoing against the stone, and put her head against his chest to listen to his heart . . . she could tell he was nervous. I can hear your heart beat.

Maybe that’s a sign we should get out while we’re still alive.

Shh, she said. Life in the quarry was always interesting. No two visits were the same. There was always something new to explore or discover, and it was only the two of us. First, a few small caves made from boulders that had fallen, then a deep natural pool of salty water we swam in with their clothes on and lots of places to climb. I loved slipping through the narrow crevasses and into dark spaces, hiding from Bryan. The only places I didn’t go were near the edges of the mining benches used to excavate ore. Being that high up scared me.

We weren’t supposed to be in the quarry, but after finding my Rock House, I couldn’t stay away, especially after it spoke to me. If my mother knew I was in the quarry, and alone with Bryan, all hell would break loose . . . I stopped thinking about that.

Another puff of wind blew dust into her mouth. She coughed and groped for the water bottle in the dark. She heard a loud rumbling sound and stopped moving. Bryan jerked and squeezed her arm. She looked around at the shadows while they lay perfectly still, waiting. She felt a sudden jolt as her Rock House awakened.

Get out! Bryan yelled and took off like a rocket, leaving her alone in the darkness.

The ground had suddenly come alive. Dust lifted into the air. She couldn’t see it, but the smell and taste were there. She pushed up on her elbows and felt her heart racing, but she didn’t run. The earth shook again, harder this time. She struggled to get to her feet and fell as the ground kept on shaking. As she scrambled, there was a loud crack and a sudden rush of air. Gasping, with her mouth full of dust, she crawled toward the daylight. A small boulder rolled to cover the crevice that was their only entrance and exit. She pushed on it. It wouldn’t move. She was trapped. Great, she said as she took a breath and coughed, feeling fear creep into her mind.

She took a breath through her shirt to keep the dust out of her mouth and sat back. Now what? she said.

Anna. Are you all right? Bryan yelled down from above.

Yeah. Of course. I’m just resting and taking a drink.

You better get out of there, he said.

Well . . . that’s a good idea . . . only there’s a rock in my way. She turned to look back into the darkness. Aren’t you going to help me? she asked in a quiet voice, speaking to her Rock House.

What? Are you trapped? Bryan yelled.

Well, sort of, as she tried pushing on the boulder. It didn’t budge.

Suddenly there was another jolt and the small boulder tipped and rolled, leaving an opening just wide enough for her to crawl through. She climbed past the boulder and then paused and turned. Thank you.," she whispered. She crawled out and fell flat on the roof rock, coughing. Bryan was standing several steps away from the entrance.

You could have been buried in there, he said with a sound of panic in his voice.

She spit dust out of her mouth. I’m not in there now.

He stood looking at her with his mouth wide open, then he turned to look a few feet to her left as she stood. She turned. A fissure had formed about six feet from the opening of her Rock House. The roof rock had cracked and slumped.

Bryan moved toward her with his arms spread wide, as if the rock beneath him might give way at any moment. There was another loud rumble and the ground shook again. They grabbed each other and held on as boulders tumbled down from a cliff to their left.

What if you’d been crushed in there? Bryan asked as he leaned down to kiss her.

He was watching out for me and besides, I’m already too thin. He would have preferred crushing you, as she looked down into the dark hole.

Bryan smirked and shook his head. She stepped toward the entrance as he grabbed her hand.

You can’t go back in there.

She stood still for a few moments, as the air quieted and the dust settled. I think it’s all right, she said, leaning over and looking down into the dark opening.

No its not. We better wait. There are always aftershocks.

She laughed to herself. We better wait. Who was we?There was no way Bryan was going back in.She sat down and dangled her legs in the hole with her butt back from the edge.

Be careful, he said, as he took hold of her arm and pulled, staying behind her as far back from the entrance as he could while still holding on to her.

She looked at him with a frown and freed herself from his grip. I’m fine. She sat for another five minutes with Bryan crouching behind her. Nothing more happened.

I think the earthquake is over. Here goes, she said, and she slipped down into the darkness before he could stop her. She crawled carefully through the thin opening and waited for a moment while her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She could see the roof rock was much lower than it had been. She ducked to move further in and found herself on all fours, feeling her way and trying to avoid hitting her head. The roof was now at a slant and dipped closer to the ground as she crawled forward on her knees.

You okay? Bryan yelled.

Yeah, she answered. The roof rock cracked and dropped. She moved further into the darkness and hit her knee on a rock. Ow!

What is it? Bryan yelled.

Nothing. A rock jumped up and bit me.

What? You better come out of there, Anna.

She reached down to move the rock aside, so she could find where the roof rock had cracked. The rock was heavy. She used both hands and pushed hard. Strangely, it rolled like a ball. It was smooth and round and had a protrusion on one side, nothing at all like a normal rock. She ran her hand along its surface. The part that stuck out felt like a smooth cylinder, and there was another round object attached to the other end. Whatever this was, it wasn’t a rock. It was shaped almost like a barbell.

Bryan. Come down here. I’ve found something.

Is it safe?

Yeah, just come down below the entrance. You don’t have to come all the way in. I need your help to get this thing out of here, she said as she struggled to roll the object up toward the entrance.

Bryan’s shadow snuffed out what light her eyes had grown accustomed to, as he slowly climbed to where the boulder had partially blocked the entrance.

Wow. I can’t get through here—it’s way too narrow. Did you actually crawl through this space? Bryan asked.

Just stay there. I’m coming.

She rolled the object toward him as she looked up at his silhouette through the narrow crevice. He had one hand still clinging to a rock ledge, ready to climb out if there was another rumble.

Reach in and help me get this out of here.

What is it?

He reached through the crevice as she pulled on his wrist and guided his hand to the cylinder. Grab hold of this and pull.

She pushed as he pulled the object and raised it to the widest portion of the crevice as it scraped the edges and just made it through. He carried it out and set it on the roof rock. As she climbed out she watched it roll downhill in a wide arc to a low spot near the crack in the roof. It was very strange looking—two spheres, one maybe five inches across and the other slightly larger, both connected by a cylinder that was about ten inches long.

It was on the floor of my Rock House. It must have fallen from the roof rock when it cracked.

He rubbed the dust from the surface. It’s black and really smooth. I’ve never seen stone like this in the quarry.

I don’t think it’s stone. She got her flashlight out of her backpack and dropped back into her Rock House.

Hey, where are you going?

Be right back, she yelled up from the darkness. She switched on the flashlight and crawled forward underneath the slanted roof. She rolled on her back, slid further in, and pointed the flashlight up at the large crack in the rock. There it was: what looked like a mold in the same shape as the object. She could see two half circles, one slightly larger than the other, connected by a straight section. She shined the light around on the newly exposed rock and felt the smooth surface. She could see the sparkling quartz grains outlining the tree rings in the dark red and black petrified wood. It looked amazing. It appeared the tree had grown around the object before it had become petrified.

She climbed back out. Bryan was holding the object like he’d been doing curls with it.

There’s a mold with that shape in the roof rock. It looks like it was trapped there by the tree and then the tree turned to stone.

They sat for half an hour drinking water in the shade of a large boulder while staring at the strange object that had fallen into her Rock House.

I wonder what kind of rock it is? Bryan asked.

It’s too smooth to be a rock.

Might be igneous. Some of those cool so fast they are like glass.

Okay, Mr. Geologist.

So, what do you think it is?

I don’t think it’s a rock. It was trapped in the petrified wood.

"Maybe whatever it was