Ben Blazze and Heimdall's Orb

Chapter 13: ASIMOV

Ben followed his new friends. They crossed the courtyard and reentered the main building. At the end of the central corridor, they reached an elevator. Its cabin was quite large – it looked like one of those freight lifts – despite having pretty standard doors.

Upon entering, Ben noticed that the panel had three buttons above and one below the ground floor – where they were. Anna hit the bottom button. The door closed, and the sound system announced: "Authorized underground access. Six individuals with confirmed genetic profile," and they began to descend.

Sam – who was fight-playing with Kaleb, abusing his extra arms and relying on the tolerance of his much stronger opponent – stopped immediately upon hearing that and frowned.

"Six individuals? How come?!" he said, spreading all four arms.

"Relax, bro. This old junk must be defective," Kaleb replied.

"I guess so..." Sam agreed but not losing the puzzled look. They were just five people, after all – including Sweetflower, who just flew out of Ben's bag, already in her natural form.

"Wow, what a relief," she said. "I was dying to stretch my wings. Hi guys!"

"Hi!" they all answered.

"You're so pretty!" exclaimed Anna Julia.

"Thank you, dear! And so are you!"

Ben felt that the elevator was descending much more than he expected. They were not just one floor below ground level, undoubtedly. When it finally stopped, and the doors opened, Ben was stunned. They seemed to have landed on another planet.

It looked that the doors had opened onto a park on a beautiful sunny day. Right in front of them was an exquisite garden with impeccable lawn and flower beds, bordered on their right-hand side by a majestic forest.

Ahead of that garden, loomed a futuristic yet perfectly nature-mingled building. Its several floors looked like mismatched platforms, all connected by a single central block. That way, one level was never right above another, except for that main block at the center. Vegetation covered the top of each of those stories: some had trees so tall that reached the upper-level windows; others had bunches hung down the facade, touching the floors below.

A waterfall descended from the stone wall at the back of the building, pouring its load on the highest floor. The stream found its way tracing a winding course on each platform until it found the next fall, to finally reach the ground level. There it formed a lake on the left-hand side of the front garden, completing the most beautiful landscape Ben had ever laid eyes on.

From where they were, Ben could see birds flying among the trees and animals wandering in the surrounding woods. None of those species, plant or animal, was familiar to him.

"What is this place?" he asked when he finally regained his speech, as they started walking towards the building.

"Welcome to A.S.I.M.O.V. (Alien Schooling Institute for Men Of the Vastness)," Sam answered. "Here, you will learn to be an Alien."

At this point, Marvi warned Ben: The SCAM's mental block doesn't reach this environment, Ben.

No problem. I think it's better to see things as they are, down here. Besides, acting obviously won't be a problem here, right? – he mentally asked but didn't wait for her answer, shooting another question at his friends: "How can we be outdoors?"

"We are not outdoors. This whole place is a huge underground cave," Sam replied. "There's an environment emulation system which replicates down here the outdoor weather from up above."

"Are you saying that if it rains up there, it rains down here too?"

"Yes. It's the same system we have in Atlantis," Sweetflower replied, cutting into the conversation

"Exactly," the Myrmician confirmed, casting a crooked glance at the little fairy, "except that the system in Atlantis emulates the weather from its former surface site in Doggerland."

At that point, they reached the front door, and Ben was amazed again. There were plants everywhere, harmoniously coexisting with conveyor walkways that ran along the corridors and from one floor to another. But those were not mechanical walkways and ladders, as we see in human malls and airports. They were energetic walkways that looked like streams of lilac light softly flowing. As people stepped on, they were gently carried in the flow's direction, even going up and down through different floors.

The myriad of people of different species was also astonishing. There were creatures of every conceivable form. Some looked like big slugs, without legs or feet; others looked made of stone; some had four pairs of eyes, others had insect eyes (like Sam's), others had no eyes. Antennae, tentacles, fangs, claws, fur, feathers – the place was a weirdness paradise, but Ben immediately loved it.

"Does Atlantis look like this?" he asked Sweetflower, who was flying next to him.

"Let's say this is a small sample of what you can find there," she replied.

"Cool!" he exclaimed, then asked the others: "Have any of you been there yet?"

"No. Atlantis entrances and exits are overcontrolled and allowed only on particular occasions," Anna answered. "But we can do a six-month internship there when we're in our senior year of high school. At that time, we can decide our future, whether living in Atlantis or here in the outside world," she added.

"C'mon, guys! I'm starvin marvin already," Kaleb said, then hopped on a nearby walkway. "You know the saying, guys: 'An empty bag makes much noise.'"

"Oh my God, Kaleb!" said Anna, hopping on just behind him.

"What?"

"An empty bag CAN'T STAND!"

"And what makes much noise?"

"An empty VESSEL," answered Sam, following Anna.

"Wait, that makes sense," Kaleb said, while Ben and Sweetflower giggled behind them.