The Rock

By Ted Stephens

The liquid, they must have drugged me, thought Matt. He saw a man raising the spear high above. In a flash he thought of Kim but was unable to coordinate his thoughts or even turn his had to check on his friend. Everything became blurred. The spear came down, and he felt a sharp, piercing pain. This is the end... That was his last thought; after that, there was nothing.
Three Year 9 students perform a routine experiment in a school laboratory and travel thousands of years back in time, finding themselves in the middle of the Aboriginal Dreamtime. They land on a big rock in the prehistoric Australian outback.
They experience fear, tribal rituals and even death, all the while learning the ways of our indigenous ancestors. However, throughout their ordeal, the boys never stop thinking about their own time and ways to get back home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Oct 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781787100183

Ted Stephens

Born in Poland, Ted Stephens migrated to Australia in the mid-sixties in the last century. His interests lie in architecture, mechanical engineering, astronomy and Aboriginal culture. He is also a keen observer of children’s behaviour. Ted is married with three grown-up children and has five grandchildren.

Book preview

About the Author

Born in Poland, Ted Stephens migrated to Australia in the mid-sixties in the last century. His interests lie in architecture, mechanical engineering, astronomy and Aboriginal culture. He is also a keen observer of children’s behaviour. Ted is married with three grown-up children and has five grandchildren.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my daughter Maggie for sacrificing so much of her valuable time and for untiringly helping me to make the book better.

I am indebted to my other daughter Nelly who has always given me good and practical advice.

Copyright Information ©

Ted Stephens 2021

The right of Ted Stephens to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528986786 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781787100183 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2021

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

Level 37, Office 37.15, 1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

I acknowledge my son, Michael, who at the time of writing was a year nine student and an inspiration for one of the characters in the book.

I am especially indebted to my daughters, Maggie and Nelly, for sacrificing so much of their time in helping me to make the book better.

I am grateful to Ms Margaret McElister from the Australian College of Journalism, who first introduced me to writing and expertly guided my first steps.

And finally, a big thank you to Jean Bedford for her initial input of proofreading.

Prologue

Ron Hunter finished reading the class roll and marked three boys as absent from the first morning session. He rose from his desk, and a feeling of deep concern swept over him as he glanced at the empty seats. The teacher was in a reflective mood this morning. It was eight months since three boys from his class had mysteriously disappeared, and nobody could tell what had happened to them. The long and exhaustive police investigation had not yielded any results.

One of the boys had dramatically reappeared one night and revealed the details everybody had wanted to know. It was an unbelievable story that had placed the Peppertree Secondary College at the centre of global attention. The small town had been swarming with news reporters for many weeks.

The school laboratory had been locked, with all activities prohibited, and the wire-stretching experiment had been removed from the school curriculum. Everything physically connected to the experiment had been taken by the police and was still being held by the authorities.

The return of one boy did not bring much relief to Ron or to anyone else. The teacher knew that only the return of the other two boys would bring normality back to the community and his school.

Chapter 1

Three boys were engaged in a school experiment that was to be simple and straightforward. In fact, soon after they had it going, it bored them. Little they knew how much excitement they would have before the experiment was over!

The day was a Thursday in March, an ordinary school day. Ron Hunter, the head science teacher at Peppertree Hills Secondary College, was handing out assignments to his Year 9 students who were seated at the workbenches in the school laboratory. The end of the first school term was some two weeks away, and there were a few experiments he wanted the class to complete.

‘Now, class,’ he addressed them generally, as he walked around the room distributing the instructions and worksheets to each group leader. ‘Please remember to follow the instructions carefully and record your results accurately. I will be deducting points for messy handwriting, so keep it neat. You have about forty minutes to finish your task, and you will need each minute, so no fooling around.’

Matt’s group was the last to receive the assignment.

‘Right, boys,’ the teacher said, lowering his voice to address them directly.

‘You three should have no trouble with this one, but please remember to be accurate.’ The boys nodded obediently and began to organise themselves.

Matt, Rick, and Kim had met on the first day of school, back in Year 7.

After the initial awkwardness of the first day at a new school, they quickly became firm friends and had been virtually inseparable ever since.

It was their common interest in all things science that had connected them. That and their high intelligence had naturally distinguished them from their peers.

They kept a thick folder of magazine and newspaper clippings on everything, from UFOs to electromagnetism, and subscribed to several scientific Internet sites.

They had recently been inspired by the works of Dr Nikola Tesla, who, in 1931, built an electric car powered by electromagnetic energy. He had designed a gravitational energy converter to harness and utilise of the earth natural magnetic forces. The boys had been so enthused by this idea that they thought to build their own replica of that converter. They had managed to obtain certain information from various sources and were progressing well with their project.

Matt was the tallest of the trio. He was slim and athletic with well-kept, blond hair and a cheerful disposition. There was an air of confidence about him, and he was courteous, always willing to assist.

Kim was the shortest, with thick, cropped, black hair. Although quiet and slightly withdrawn to all but his closest friends, he had a quick, practical mind. At times he could be stubborn when defending his point of view, but his Chinese cultural upbringing was evident in his polite and considerate manners.

Kim was born in Mainland China. Although his father, a metallurgical engineer, worked hard, the family struggled to afford the basics of daily life. With the birth of his sister, their one-bedroom flat had become even more confined.

Their living conditions took a dramatic downturn when his father lost his job as punishment for violating the government’s one-child policy. Kim’s parents sought help from relatives in Hong Kong. Through an elaborate plan involving some people in the Australian Emigration Department, they fled to Hong Kong on false documents and, after a short stay there, arrived in Australia. Kim had been seven and now barely remembered his life in China.

The third member of the team, Rick, perfectly complemented the group. He was the most studious of the three boys, although the messiest with his scruffy, blond hair. Naturally quiet and even-tempered, he often kept the peace between them during their heated debates. Rick had a good sense and appreciation of situational humour. He was popular and loved to play the guitar.

The boys sat at the timber-top bench on three chairs in the back corner of the lab. It was where they always sat, having made it their own spot after being allowed to bring their private experiment to school.

On top of the bench sat a stretcher, which was to be used for the class experiment at hand. The device consisted of a solid base and two extensions, like the metal horns of a bull on either side. Next to the stretcher stood another device resembling an old telex machine. It had plastic-covered graph paper and a needle on a long arm, similar to a seismograph. The device had a built-in pressure gauge and an electric sound amplifier.

Matt reached for the assignment sheets and proceeded to read them aloud. The other two began to set up the experiment as they listened to the instructions.

Their task was to secure a steel wire onto the stretcher and connect the seismograph to the wire with the small clamp, then switch the power on and pre-tension the wire. A start-up point had to be established on the graph, and to make the instrument work, they had to strike the stretched wire with a plastic rod, causing it to vibrate and resonate.

‘Guys, I will hit the wire.’ Matt started to allocate the tasks. ‘Kim, you sit in front of the stretcher and turn the knob.’

The knob had equally spaced notches on a round dial, each notch representing an increment of one five hundredths of a millimetre. By turning the knob clockwise, the hydraulic pressure would stretch the wire by exactly that distance. Rick, sitting in front of the seismograph, was to copy down the readings. For safety reasons, all students had to wear goggles.

Ready to start, they began the experiment. They worked in silence. When Kim turned the knob, he looked towards Matt, who took his cue and struck the wire. Rick then, in turn, made a notation of the read-out. Each time the wire was stretched and then struck; a sound would resonate. Initially, the boys were listening carefully for the subtle changes in pitch with each turn of the knob. Rick was used to distinguishing the sounds of his guitar between tones and half tones and likened it to tuning up an instrument.

The volume of the amplifier was set at maximum, but they soon had to strain their ears when the sound from the wire began to grow higher and shorter. Then, at some point, they crossed the sound threshold and could not hear it at all; only the instruments confirmed to them that something was still happening.

For the next several minutes, nothing significant happened, and there was not the slightest indication of what was to come. After a little while, it became monotonous. ‘Pretty boring really, is it not?’ Matt observed quietly.

‘Sure is,’ agreed Kim.

‘Let us speed it up then,’ suggested Rick.

They began to work faster, concentrating harder and taking less time between steps. No sooner than when Rick had recorded the data, Kim started the cycle again.

It seemed the experiment was nearing its end, and the boys expected the wire to snap any moment. Matt raised the plastic rod, thinking it to be the last strike. By this stage, the tension in the wire must have been enormous. The boys’ faces were strained in anticipation of the snap, like small children waiting for a balloon to pop. Their eyes were glued to the wire, their interest suddenly rekindled.

‘Go,’ said Rick with a tense voice. Kim turned the knob a fraction and looked at Matt. Matt struck the wire, and…a strange feeling swept over him…a crescendo of bells, a tingling sensation in the back of his head.

What on earth? he thought, feeling strangely uncomfortable.

Something was telling him to turn the hydraulic system off immediately, to release the tension in the wire. He should have asked Kim to do it, but that would mean an unfinished assignment. The teacher would naturally ask why they had not gone through with it.

Because I heard bells ringing in my head, Mr Hunter.

Matt would not expose himself to the ridicule he was sure would follow, so he ignored the warning. What happened next took them totally by surprise.

At precisely the same time, there was a bright flash of light. An image appeared briefly on the wall next to them, and then, just as quickly, was gone. Matt had an immediate sense of familiarity with the image, but it was gone so quickly that he could not place it.

Also, at the same time, they heard a low hum, which was odd as they had been expecting a pop or crack. Yet the wire remained intact, so perhaps the hum had come from the overstressed instruments.

‘Guys, did you see that flash?’ asked Matt, excitedly.

‘Yeah, what