Bert’s Little Piece of Bread – Continued Again

Read Part One-Bert’s Little Piece of Bread

Read Part Two – Bert’s Little Piece of Bread – Continued…

All the twelve scientists looked at Emily and Bert.

‘Bert’, said Dr. Caliver. ‘You’ve travelled a hundred and twenty-one years into the future. ‘You realize that your orphanage, and Emily – your home, neither exists now. We’ve got to get the two of you back. Your absence from our current timeline could cause serious damage. Our present day could be altered if you don’t go back.’ The two children nodded solemnly.

‘Where is the dough?’ asked Emily. Everyone looked around. It had disappeared. ‘Well,’ said Dr. Roger, breaking the silence. ‘I believe it’s impossible for you two to go back, without the dough.’

Everyone looked at everyone else, there was a tight feeling of extreme tension among them. Dr. Kramer sat on a chair, his face in his hands. Dr. Caliver stared out of a window, into the dusty air. ‘But, we can’t stay here, you just said so yourself!’ said Bert.

‘We have no other option, the dough’s gone, Bert, gone. You – you’ll have to stay here, both of you,’ said a dark young man, who hadn’t spoken before.

Dr. Burnham suddenly spoke up.

‘The One’, he said in a dreamy voice.

‘What?’ said Dr. Caliver, jerked out of her thoughts.

‘We can ask The One! That’s our only option, isn’t it?’ he said.

‘The one what?’ asked Emily.

‘The One – The Propheteer, Seeker, call it whatever you want. He can help us – help you!’ said Burnham.

‘Of course!’ said Dr. Roger. ‘The Prophet!’ He smacked himself on his head. ‘Why didn’t I think of it before?’

‘Darvis, you’re a genius’, said Dr. Caliver, walking towards Dr. Burnham. ‘The one and only one who can help us, is The One himself!’

‘But who is The One?’ asked Emily.

‘Ah’, said Dr. Tibbid. ‘That, is what we do not know.’

Bert and Emily looked at him. ‘I-’, began Bert. ‘I’m sorry but, what? You don’t know what you’re even talking about?’

‘Bert, The One is a piece of brilliant AI created by a group of scientists in 2105. It’s a robot, designed and engineered so perfectly, that, well, it’s human! You wouldn’t know to differentiate between a human and The One if they stood side by side! The One, has the ability to understand and feel emotions! Now that’s something we humans have been struggling to do for decades!’ said Dr. Caliver, breathless.

‘What’s AI?’ said Bert. ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ said Emily dismissively. ‘This One fellow, he can help us go back in time?’

All the twelve scientists nodded.

‘Then, what is it that you don’t know about him?’

‘You see,’ said Dr. Roger. ‘The One is now thrown behind the Gates of Tortellum. It’s been years since people have actually even seen him. He could have been destroyed, or could even be held captive. But the only way we can help you go back home, is if he exists, and is willing to help us.’

‘And how do we find out if he exists?’ asked Bert.

‘We go to Tortellum,’ said Dr. Roger grimly.

‘And once we go there?’

‘We enter the city, somehow get past the gates, and if we are lucky enough to survive those guards, we find out about The One, and get help from him.’

Dr. Kramer and Dr. Caliver looked at each other with glee. Dr. Roger stared into the distance, thinking.

‘Erm -’, said Emily. ‘I suppose we’re leaving right away?’

‘No’, said Dr. Roger, coming out of his reverie. ‘We need to pack. Take tools and other things we’ll be needing. There’s no saying what we will be facing beyond the Gates. Come on!’

Doctors Caliver, Kramer, Roger, Burnham and Tibbid simply reached out into their pockets. Somehow, miraculously they each brought an enormous revolver, something that looked like a car key and a tiny notebook.

‘Right,’ said Dr. Caliver. ‘Off we go then!’

Emily was slightly surprised by the lack of weapons they seemed to have, but contented with a nod and followed the other five. Bert went behind her, and the other seven scientists remained behind. They had agreed to try and find the root of the problem in the Food Generator.

Dr. Kramer brought out what he called a ‘screen map’, which was quite amazing. Bert was goggling at the screen map as all of them marched outside the building, and out of the dump yard. This map showed an extremely detailed view of the earth, right from the location of a plastic bottle to that of the White House. Dr. Kramer told them that it used ‘phenocite signals’, which neither Emily nor Bert understood.

‘To put it simply, phenocites are much more advanced versions of the satellite signals they used in your time’, he said to Emily and Bert.

‘Four phenocites always revolve around the earth, monitoring each and every movement that happens. And that signal feed is then concentrated onto our devices, and gives us a highly accurate and reliable map. Of course, phenocites are also used for communication and brain control too.’

‘Brain control?’ asked Bert.

‘For persons who have disabilities and such. There are chips planted into everyone’s brain at birth, you know. So that they can be cured even if they experience something later in their lives. The phenocite is monitored from earth and they use it control people’s brains. But of course, in the wrong hands, these have caused terrible damage.’

The group trudged up the dump yard and went out into the smoky city. All of them wore masks the entire time as they made way towards what was apparently known as the ‘Perigruen Transporter Station’. Dr. Caliver told Bert and Emily that they would transport to the city closest to Tortellum and spend the night there. The plan was to take rest at a friend’s house and leave the next morning to enter Tortellum.

Dr. Caliver asked Emily to step into what seemed like any ordinary sweet shop and when she did, her eyes greeted something she had never expected.

‘These, are the transporters?’ she said, uncertainly.

‘Why, yes! I don’t think it lives up to your expectations though,’ she said brightly.

‘No it doesn’t’, said Emily, ‘It doesn’t at all.’ She was wringing her hands nervously. Emily considered the possibility of staying back in this horrible world rather than stepping into the transporter, but Bert was making impatient noises behind her, as though he was ready to travel through the monstrous machine in front of them.

The transporter was a menacing machine, as it loomed powerfully over the group. They all could have fitted into it, and yet it was quite small. It was a pyramid in shape, but without a front side. Emily realized that it wasn’t bothered by paint or decorations, it was simply just a metal case with a plastic coating to cover it. But what made it terrifying, or more accurately – unreliable, thought Emily, was the graffiti scribbled on its walls, the plastic peeling off, or shortly, the gangsterly look of it.

Emily gingerly stepped inside it, and Dr. Roger pressed some buttons on the side, muttering to himself. And suddenly, without warning, Emily felt herself being sucked up into the air and floating into white space. There were purple orbs hanging all around her, but before she could understand what had just happened, she was sucked and twisted through space once more, and after what seemed like ten entire seconds later, she found herself standing on a path near a grassy field. She felt her head still spinning from the journey, panting, she slumped down onto the ground against the wall. Her eyes felt tired and heavy and in spite of herself, in spite of wanting to see the others to make sure she hadn’t landed a hundred kilometers away, she shut herself from the outside world.