Storming the Castle: From Under the Sun, #3

By Kordel Lentine

Winner of IndieReader's 2022 Discover Award for Science Fiction*

 

A B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree

 

Top Shelf Magazine's 2021 First Place Winner for "Young Adult Sci-Fi"*

 

In this sequel to Beyond the Bowling Ball Bombing and No Time to Waste, Terrance finds Stanley back in control. However, thanks to the help of a time-traveling version of himself from the future/past, he now has three aces up his sleeve. Unfortunately, two of these aces are quickly squandered before Stanley convinces him to perform one final favor.

 

From a trip to the Great Pyramid in ancient Egypt with disastrous results on world history, to a futuristic castle-shaped house in a remote region of Colorado, Stanley continues to alter the course of Terrance's life.

 

Terrance soon discovers the malevolent truth behind Stanley's request, and finds himself entombed in a luxury dungeon that he will never leave—or does he? His time-traveling mistakes might finally come to his aid. It will be the greatest fight of his life, but if he succeeds, he just might be able to rescue himself and fix far more than expected.

 

*The all-in-one hardcover won IndieReader's 2022 Discovery Award for science fiction and was Top Shelf Magazine's 2021 first place winner for "Young Adult Sci-Fi." That story is also available in paperback and eBook as a trilogy, of which this is book #3 (of 3).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kordel Lentine
• Release date: Feb 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781953812070

Kordel Lentine

Kordel Lentine was the kind of high school freshman who once wrote a how-to paper about how to write a how-to paper. No kidding. It was the most boring paper ever written. Even worse, when the teacher offered bonus points for students to read their papers in front of the class, he volunteered, as though his A+ in the class needed a boost. As far as horrible public readings go, it was not quite on par with Vogon poetry (since no one had to gnaw a leg off in order to survive), but it was nonetheless quite dismal, both for him and for everyone else in the room who happened to have ears. Kordel still bemoans that he simply could not think of anything more interesting to write about that fit the assigned criteria. It was the first time that he shared something he wrote, but thankfully not the last. Now that Kordel gets to choose his own topics, he likes to write science fiction novels with time travel and digital dinosaurs and no sign of how-to papers as far as the mind can see.Kordel was born and raised in South Bend, IN where screaming at the top of your lungs at the TV during Notre Dame football games was a regular family event. He now lives in Kansas City and has five awesome children. Four of his children have flown the coop while Kordel’s brilliant wife still homeschools the remaining two. (No, that wasn’t a typo or bad math—sorry unnamed not-awesome child!). Kordel is a CPA, his best time solving the Rubik's Cube is 47 seconds, he has a black belt in Taekwondo, and he enjoys activities that can be shared with his family such as scuba diving, board games, riddles, digital scrapbooking, and amateur astronomy.

Book preview

Chapter 1

A mysterious clock in the sky

Home Sick

The night was a long drawn-out emotional roller coaster for Terrance. He binge-watched videos in his new administrative NOKIs, until he accidentally fell asleep around two o’clock in the morning. Even after getting back up around five o’clock and continuing to wade through all the information, he was only about halfway through when it came time to get ready for school.

He could not tear himself away from the NOKIs. He was fascinated and horrified by what he found. There was a new depth to his friendship with Blaire that had been lost, but at the same time there had been a total collapse of his friendship with her that had been avoided. He was both happy and sad to have lost so much of this strange life that he would never actually live.

Of all the things he had been confronted with the previous night, the final farewell haunted him the most. He had been asked to make his life count. A great sacrifice had been made to give him that opportunity, and the burden of that obligation felt like a crushing weight on his spirit. How could he make his life count? How could he live in a way that would be worthy of that sacrifice?

He decided that he could not pull himself away from the information inside his NOKIs. He could not stand the thought of going to school still not knowing everything that he needed to know. He finally told his mom that he wanted to stay home from school that day. When she asked him if he was sick, he said that he did not think so, but that he needed time to think through some things. Then he completely lost his composure and broke down in tears.

He figured that his mom must think that he was being a hormone-imbalanced moody teenager. He assumed that there was no way she would consent to his staying home from school if he was not sick, but she responded by giving him a hug and telling him that she would call the school office to let them know he would be staying home.

He gratefully returned to his room where he continued to pore over the information that had been compiled inside his NOKIs. By the time school was over, he had finished going through everything. He was in the process of re-watching some of the more meaningful videos when his mom knocked on his door.

She called from the other side, Terrance, are you up for some company? Blaire stopped by to see why you weren’t at school today.

Terrance quickly sat up in bed and tucked the NOKIs under his pillow before asking his mom to send her in. His mom opened the door and gave Terrance a loving smile before standing aside to let Blaire enter. She asked, Can I get either of you anything? Maybe something to drink? They both declined but thanked her for asking, so she left the door open and retreated down the hall. She assumed that the source of Terrance’s emotional distress had just walked in the door and hoped that their conversation would help to resolve whatever ailed her son.

Terrance smiled weakly at Blaire as she took a seat across from him at the desk. His nose was red and his eyes were puffy, and there was a pile of used tissues by his pillow. It appeared to her that he must have a cold, but when she asked, he responded, No, I’ve just been wrestling with some things today. I’ve had too much going on inside my head to focus on school. I told my mom that I just needed some time to think.

Really? asked Blaire. Your parents let you stay home from school just so you could have some alone time? That’s amazing. My parents would laugh at me if I tried to pull that. They would say that if I didn’t have a fever or could not cough up a lung on demand, that I would need to go to school even if it killed me. How often do your parents let you get away with this?

I wouldn’t know, said Terrance. I have had perfect school attendance every year since fourth grade.

No way. Fourth grade? How did you manage that?

Terrance shrugged, I rarely get sick. And when I do, it seems to be short-lived and always on the weekends. My parents also don’t believe in scheduling dentist appointments or other things during school.

What was so important that it was worth blowing seven years of perfect attendance just to stay home to think about? Is there any part of it that you would like to talk about?

Yes and no, said Terrance, running his fingers through his uncombed hair. There are definitely some things you should know. But there are also some things that I am not too keen about sharing. He stared at his hands and twisted his fingers together while a single tear rolled down his cheek. Blaire sat patiently, giving him time to decide what he wanted to share.

Terrance finally continued, I’ve always thought that I was basically a good person inside. But I was visited by a version of myself last night that came from the future, and from the past, to share some difficult things with me. I have been fantasizing for a while now that if I ever got my hands on a time box, I could improve my childhood and grow up with a better life. I thought it would be nice to change things so people would not pick on me so much. And to make myself popular. And well-off. I kind of thought that if I ever had a time box, I would share my plans with you before I used it. However, I am apparently capable, under the right circumstances, of abandoning you and going off on my own to totally ruin my life and our friendship.

Terrance resumed a somber study of his intertwined fingers. Blaire waited patiently while Terrance composed himself. He finally pulled his NOKIs out from under his pillow to show her. Blaire’s eyes grew wide when she saw them. Are those the goggle glasses that you told me about? That you watched your trip to the future on last night? What are they called again? ‘No keys’ or ‘no locks’ or something like that, right? I thought you said Stanley took them back and said that it would be unsafe to take futuristic technology out of the lab.

He did. I got these from myself after I walked you home last night. Blaire was obviously confused but waited silently and eagerly for Terrance to continue. "Apparently, I gave myself lots of information in these NOKIs to show what has or might happen, depending on what I try to do. It was more than I could process in a night. There are some difficult things to accept inside these NOKIs.

I have also struggled with how much of this I should share. I figured that there are some videos that you definitely need to see, but also some that I really did not want to share. I originally started flagging some for you to watch and others to tuck away in a password-protected subfolder where you would not see them. But there are some videos that fell into both categories that I would need to edit. I finally decided that I should just be totally honest with you about everything. I’m scared though. I’m afraid that you will think less of me when you see some of them. I’m afraid you won’t want anything more to do with me when you find out what I am capable of doing and becoming.

Blaire started to respond, Terrance, I don’t think…

It’s more than that, though, interrupted Terrance. I have learned that being my friend, and trying to hide what you know from Stanley, could be dangerous for you and your family. It is a danger that you need to be completely aware of before you make any decisions.

The seriousness in Terrance’s voice brought Blaire to a thoughtful silence. Terrance proceeded to explain how she could access the information inside the NOKIs. He adjusted the temples to fit her better then taught her some basics on how to control the NOKIs and how to access additional information in the shortcuts that showed how to type and use other functions.

When she finally went home with the NOKIs tucked away inside her purse, she knew everything necessary to use them on her own to access all the videos. Like Terrance, she watched them one after another with almost no breaks between each video. However, since she got a much earlier start in the afternoon than Terrance, she finished watching them late that same night and returned the NOKIs to Terrance at school the following day.

As soon as Blaire saw Terrance in the hallway, she ran to him and threw her arms around him. She buried her face in his shoulder and exclaimed, I am so sorry for what you went through Monday night. She had watched the entire video of his meeting with himself, all the way to the tearful end, and felt awful for him. However else she might have felt about the rest of the information in the NOKIs, she felt sorry for the obvious anguish that it put him through. Blaire had a good heart that empathized with pain and was indignant toward injustice. The same part of her heart that broke for abandoned puppies and injured animals broke for Terrance and wanted to reach out and comfort him.

The school hallway was not the right place to discuss specifics, though. Neither was anywhere else in school for the rest of the day. Instead, they had to wait until after school before they could find any time alone to speak candidly about the contents of the NOKIs. Even though it was a freezing February day outside, they walked home from school together so they could finally talk openly. Terrance was encouraged by Blaire’s initial sympathy but was nervous to find out how she would respond to everything else.

Blaire focused her response on Stanley’s plans for Terrance’s future. I can’t believe he was planning to burn down my house, she said. It is particularly creepy how he arrived at that decision in such a logical non-malicious way. He was cold, calculated, and horrible. Even if that particular version of events no longer exists, and my home and family are safe for now, it is still important to know what he is capable of.

Terrance agreed. It might be best for you to sever ties with me, to avoid exposing you and your family to that type of risk. It kills me to say so, but it seems like the responsible thing would be for us to stop spending time together.

A long and painful silence ensued where Terrance was afraid that Blaire would agree with him. She finally broke the silence by declaring, You’re going to have to try harder than that to drive me away, Terrance. And I don’t care if Stanley actually is the Titan of all Time. I refuse to sit back and let him drive a wedge between us with bullying tactics.

Terrance reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. Thank you, Blaire. The smile shared between them said it all. They were in it together to the very end of Terrance’s dealings with Stanley. It was an end that they would seek to hasten by following the advice left for him inside the NOKIs.

They hammered out the details of their plan during the rest of the walk home. The following Monday Terrance put that plan in motion when he walked alone to the clearing in the woods. He arrived at the exact time and place that was required for the dial box to work and then turned the knobs that were supposed to warp him to Stanley’s lab.

Stanley was waiting for Terrance to arrive for their fourth and final meeting, but instead, the dial box materialized out of thin air and dropped onto the floor in the middle of the lab. There was no sign of Terrance. He found a note taped to the box that read:

Stanley,

I have decided to have nothing more to do with time travel and with you. I appreciate your willingness to share such an amazing discovery with me, but I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the course that our acquaintance is taking.

I politely request, and adamantly demand, that you respect my wishes and that you do not turn the sending of this note into dead time while you attempt to find different ways to manipulate me into a different response. Please respect my wishes and leave me alone as I promise to do the same with you.

Regretfully,

Terrance Walter Brown

Terrance hurried home, fearing that his note might cause Stanley to warp to the clearing to confront him and his decision. However, he escaped the wooded lot without incident, and actually started to relax once he had walked more than halfway home without any sign of Stanley.

After dinner, he was in his bedroom finishing some homework when he heard his mom yell from downstairs that he had company, followed by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. He smiled, realizing that it must be Blaire. They had agreed that he would send the message by himself that evening and then tell Blaire how it went at school the following morning. He assumed that she must not have been able to wait that long to find out, and he was glad that she had been impatient. He looked forward to seeing her.

He was sitting at his desk with his back to the door when he heard it open. His smile widened as he rushed to put away his homework before turning to face Blaire.

Hello, Terrance, said a familiar voice. Terrance’s heart caught in his throat as he whirled around. It was Stanley.

Chapter 2

A mysterious clock in the sky

The Great Pyramid

What are you doing here? demanded Terrance. I told you that I didn’t want to see you again. You have no right to be here. You have no right to force yourself into my life.

Terrance, I am not planning to force you into anything, but I could not bring myself to let things end between us so abruptly without knowing what I had done to offend you or scare you away.

Terrance responded, If I explain that, then you will just use that knowledge to dead time my decision and try to coerce me into cooperation with whatever you have in store for me. I don’t think so.

That is the kind of attitude I am referring to, responded Stanley calmly, You seem to have an opinion of me that I find unfair and troubling. You use words like ‘manipulate’ and ‘coerce’ as though I am some manipulative Machiavellian with no respect for your wishes, who is unscrupulous enough to employ any tactics necessary to accomplish my desired results at the expense of your freewill.

Stanley walked into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed across from Terrance, without asking permission. Feel free to make yourself at home, muttered Terrance.

Thank you, responded Stanley, not perceiving the sarcasm intended by Terrance’s statement. He continued, Yes, I have sent frequent messages back in time to myself so that I could become an expert on understanding you and knowing how you think. It has allowed me to come across as all-knowing at times, and as a mind-reader at other times. I intended it to allow me to impress upon you the importance of following my instructions, because I have learned firsthand what disastrous consequences time travel can have.

Terrance was intrigued. You? You have made a trip in time that has resulted in disaster? I thought you always used your giant planet-sized brain to think through every possibility so nothing could ever go wrong.

Stanley gave Terrance a long bitter smile before responding. That statement shows the success of my intentionally-conveyed aura of omniscience. While it is true that I am an unprecedented genius compared to other people, I am nonetheless human. I once traveled to the Great Pyramid on the plain of Giza outside Cairo during ancient Egypt’s fourth dynasty. The result of that trip has scarred the world forever in a way that I am powerless to amend.

Terrance was suddenly more than just intrigued. He was hooked. He had a particular interest in the Great Pyramid. During the first half of that school year, instead of midterm exams in World History, Miss Gussich had assigned the class a research project that was worth half of their grade. They were required to write a ten-page paper about something or someone that had a significant effect on world history. Aside from the typical research paper requirements, she also assigned them a creative writing portion where they needed to speculate how world history might be different if their chosen topic had never existed. Terrance really enjoyed that assignment. As a result, he had become what he liked to call an amateur expert on the Great Pyramid. His report ended up being over twenty pages long and earned him an A+ in the class.

Do tell, responded Terrance, trying his best to not let his interest show. He wondered if it was really just a coincidence that of all the places Stanley could have visited, he chose the one place in history that Terrance was most intrigued with. Part of him suspected that this could be one more attempt by Stanley to manipulate Terrance by choosing that specific topic. Terrance’s skepticism, however, quickly dissipated as Stanley told his tale.

Stanley began, "I have always been fascinated with unsolved mysteries. At the same time, I am a logician, mathematician, and a true scientist by nature. The Great Pyramid therefore represents one of the greatest conundrums that I have ever encountered.

"Even at simple face value, it is quite impressive to consider. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one still intact. It was also the tallest manmade structure in the world for almost four thousand years. These are basic pieces of trivia that all kids hear when they are in grade school. However, there are mysteries just below the surface that makes it much more interesting.

"Most of the pyramid is made from limestone, but it also includes some massive slabs of granite which are about twice as hard as limestone. The known tools of that era were constructed of relatively soft copper and bronze. Many people argue that it would have been physically impossible to cut the millions of stones that make up the Great Pyramid with those tools, especially with such precise measurements that a razor cannot be inserted between them. It would be extremely difficult to quarry those stones today using modern power tools. So how did the ancient Egyptians do it with simple hand tools?

Most historians state that all of these stones, averaging two and a half tons apiece, were cut, transported, and assembled in about twenty years. With the number of blocks that make up the pyramid, that would require placing one block every five minutes, regardless of weight or height, both day and night without stopping for twenty years straight. The heaviest stones, estimated to weigh as much as eighty-eight tons, came from over five hundred miles away. All this was done by people without using wheels or advanced pulley systems. Does that seem reasonable to you?

Terrance opened his mouth to respond but it must have been a rhetorical question since Stanley continued without pause, "Another mystery about the Great Pyramid that still baffles scientists today is the mortar that the ancient Egyptians used. It is much stronger than the actual rocks that make up the pyramid. Scientists have, of course, chemically analyzed it, but even with our advanced knowledge of chemistry, no one in modern times has been able to reproduce it.

"The precision that went into the assembly of this mammoth structure still confounds the greatest architectural and engineering minds of our time. It is a common misconception that the Great Pyramid has only four sides. It actually has eight. It is the only pyramid whose sides are slightly concave. This indentation divides the sides with laser precision. You cannot even tell that there are eight faces from the ground. They are only visible from the sky at sunrise and at dawn during the autumn and spring equinoxes. Many theories have been offered to explain the overall construction, but no single theory has yet to adequately explain how ancient people with hand tools created a structure that modern engineers with modern construction equipment claim would be impossible to build today.

Even the orientation of the Great Pyramid is a mystery. It faces north with astonishing accuracy. I am not referring to magnetic north that can be found using a compass, either. It faces true north with an error of only three minutes of arc. That represents an infinitesimal deviation from true of less than 0.015 percent. This is incredible accuracy for any modern building, but almost a supernatural feat for ancient Egypt over four thousand years ago. This is particularly intriguing since knowledge of true north implies knowledge that the earth is round, which was supposed to be unknown at that time.

Terrance followed along with interest. Everything that Stanley said was review for him. He had come across all these facts while performing extensive research for his World History report. Even though he had already memorized many of these facts, he did not find Stanley’s summary boring. He found revisiting all this information to be almost like becoming reacquainted with an old friend. The topic still intrigued him. It made him smile inside.

Stanley continued, "I find the mathematics particularly fascinating. When you take into account that the original pyramid stood about twenty-five feet higher when it was created, many of the measurements, both inside and out, suggest that the people who built it were very familiar with the number pi, as well as the Golden Mean, or ‘phi’ as it is designated in Greek. Both numbers are so integral to the construction of the pyramid that it is highly unlikely that this happened merely by chance, even though pi and phi were not supposed to be discovered until thousands of years later.

"While all that fascinates me to no end, what I find most interesting is what is inside the pyramid—which is almost nothing. The Great Pyramid contains hundreds of feet of narrow passages that lead to only three chambers. There is an unfinished subterranean chamber carved into the bedrock deep below the pyramid, another room called the Queen’s Chamber, and the highest room called the King’s Chamber, which you reach by passing through a large steep hallway called the Grand Gallery. These are the only four places in the pyramid that are big enough to open a time tunnel in. Of these options, I chose to arrive in the King’s Chamber which contains the only furnishing in the pyramid.

"This ‘furnishing’ is a large lidless stone box carved out of a solid block of granite. Historians claim that it is the sarcophagus that used to hold the body of the pharaoh, Khufu. This stone box is literally too big to fit through the hallway, meaning that it had to be placed in the room as the pyramid was being built. This is the object I was most interested in seeing. My plan was to arrive in the King’s Chamber before it was plundered and find out if I would discover a room full of treasure piled around Khufu’s remains, or if I would find something completely unexpected that would prove modern Egyptologists completely wrong.

"You see, the archaeological evidence that the Great Pyramid was actually the tomb of Khufu, or Cheops in Greek, is actually very sparse at best. That alleged sarcophagus inside the King’s Chamber shows no evidence that it ever held a body. Not even microscopic analysis has revealed even a tiny fragment of burial clothes or anything else that would suggest that it was used as a sarcophagus.

"If the Great Pyramid was actually erected to be Khufu’s final resting place, then it is arguably the most impressive tomb ever constructed in all of recorded human history. If that is the case, then why would Khufu be entombed in an amazingly plain and ugly rectangular box? Unlike the smooth masonry of the walls of the Chamber, the alleged sarcophagus is very rough with saw-marks visible in several places. It is nothing like the finely finished and decorated sarcophagi found in other pyramids of the same period. All grade school children have seen pictures of fancy carved Egyptian sarcophagi with mummies inside that were found in far less significant tombs of far less significant people. Do you know what the odds are that a Pharaoh who could commission the greatest tomb ever made would lay his remains in a simple, rough stone box?

"A common theory is that an extremely ornate sarcophagus was made, but that it got lost while in transit on the Nile River, so Khufu had a plain ugly box made at the last minute to replace it. I find that highly unlikely. The box does not have a single carving or inscription on it. Even if they had to rush to get the sarcophagus in place while the pyramid was being built, why would they not have artisans finish it up afterwards? Once it was in the room, you would assume that they would at least smooth it out and add some appropriate inscriptions.

"Have you ever seen pictures of other ancient Egyptian tombs? They are typically covered in hieroglyphics. If this was the tomb of the pharaoh, then why would the sarcophagus and the burial room have no inscriptions whatsoever? In fact, not only are there no inscriptions in that chamber, but there are no inscriptions at all anywhere else in the entire pyramid. It makes no sense. I