NJ110062006

New Journal Entry 110062006

June 20 2006

I'm trying to catch up, as always, but I'm also going to try and post something once every other week at
the very most. Cross your fingers! No, don't. That's supposed to keep fairies away. You don't want to do
that, do you?

Okay, to continue with the "Tour."

We followed Dill - like we had a choice with her holding onto both Fleur and my hands! - and were dragged
through that door.

In a whispering voice she began to explain things to us. "This is the oldest part of the hive. The oldest
structure in Cyeatea as far as we can determine." She looked at us meaningfully. "Few come here."

A chill went through both Fleur and I at the emotion in her words. I couldn't tell if she was afraid or excited.

"But, it is a vast library of our past and so much of it we do not understand. Not yet."

We traversed yet another long hallway, again, with that vaulted ceiling. I'm always blown away at the
height of those ceilings.

In the Archives themselves...it was like a museum. There were things everywhere! Hanging from that
ceiling. In "glass" cases that lined the sides of the long corridor/room. There were pedestals holding
curiosities. There were things that were free standing they were so big. Everywhere, everwhere, there
were...things. HUGE things I could not decipher. There were things hanging from the ceiling that reminded
me of how in museums they have airplane replicas hanging from the ceiling. Or even the replicas of the
flying animals both past and present. But these, all of them, were without doubt, from the past.

A very distant past.

You could practically TASTE the age.

There was something large and metallic and long hanging from the ceiling. Very long. Say thirty feet long.
Three or so feet in diameter. And it looked "familiar" but I could not decide in what way. There were large
standing structures, different sizes but standing in rows - huge rows - one of the objects, say, was at least,
sixty to seventy feet tall. Some were shorter, most the same or taller. Again, the feeling of familiarity. That
happened a lot in the Archives. Very strange.

The things in containers must have been lab specimens. Some of them looked like odd insects. Some like
strange twisty flowers with long vines on them. One had an unusual bell shape on it that was quite large. I
could almost SIT inside of it!

There were devices I stared at, sitting on the pedestals but not in cases, that I tried to make out. They
looked, what's the word, living, but they were not. And yet, somehow, from some of the "objects" I felt
like they were looking back!

I could see why the place was rarely visited. That feeling was beyond creepy.

We reached the center and there was a large domed room within the vaulted room. She took us into it and
there was a raised dias in the center with a ball of light above it.

Around the room were shelves lining the curved walls. On them were thousands of disks lined up, about
three to inches across.

"This," Dill intoned quietly, "is the Chamber of Voices." She waved her hand in a sweeping motions.
"Herein lie all the wisdom of the Ancients - answers to mysteries of the hive that we have yet to have
explored."

She looked fearful as she withdrew one of the disks. It had a hole in it and a small ring of light hovered
around it.

She held the disk and looked at me as she approached the center dias and light sphere. Below that was a
floating ring like table.

"Ancients are here, within these rings. The Ancients speak to us. Often, they speak of things beyond our
understanding. But we come, occasionally, to try and piece together what we can from this vast storeroom
of knowledge. Perhaps you can help us to unravel the mysteries of our past and our beginnings."

She took the coin and spun it, like spinning a coin and it picked up speed as it continued, on it's own, to
spin, dancing around the ring table.

Fleur leaned over to me, her eyes wide. "George Pal would LOVE this."

Suddenly, almost expected, the ring began to speak.

In MY voice!

And I awakened.

Fleur and I have not walked since.

Not for lack of trying, but every time I think of it, the voice comes back and my heart races and I can feel
my eyes widen. And tears threaten to build.

That voice.

Those words.

"All right. Next chapter. Are you sure this thing is on?" Odd tapping sound. Another voice. Male. "Yes,
Lil, it's on."

"Chapter" End.