Chapter 47
The 125 Orbs had surrounded Mono and the group of the trekkers. This was now their duty to protect everyone. They were emitting white light as they surrounded everyone. Mono was carrying a map of all the Towns and now he was looking at the map of Town K. They followed him as he followed the path indicated by the map. They walked through the tunnel for about 10 minutes. It seemed that all the tunnels from the exit-entry points took 10 minutes to walk to the central cave where the Time Machine experiment was situated.
The tunnel here was also well lit as the light from outside was filtering through the shafts and vents as was in the tunnel in Town M, Town I and Town J. There was a fragrance of damp earth coming from outside. It must have rained outside this was definite. Everyone took deep breaths to inhale the fresh air. Shena asked, "Does anyone know why damp soil smells so good? I have always wondered but have not yet found an answer."
Luke started to describe the rain. He said, "Rain is one of the most magical gifts of nature and loved by mankind. We all love the first rain after a long dry summer. The falling raindrops, after a long summer, are truly beautiful, and even more beautiful is the 'smell' of those first drops when they hit the ground or the raindrops striking fresh soil. The rain has been used in songs all over the world. Many movies have romantic songs
"Luke Sir, you are describing the rain but not telling us how this scent is formed," asked an irritated Shana.
Not to be left behind Zen added his inquiry. He said, "We all love the smell and many are familiar with it but why when the droplets of the first rainfall after a long dry summer, do we find this smell so wonderful? Water itself does not have any smell, so what's the secret behind this beautiful smell?"
"It is because of something in the soil, this earthly scent which is is produced when rain falls on dry soil is called 'petrichor', replied Mono. It is caused by two things:-
(i) The bacteria called 'actinomycete' which dwells in the soil. The actinomycetes produce spores in the dry soil. When the droplets of rainfall on the dry soil, these spores are displaced and the moist air carries these spores to our nose so we are able to smell them.
(ii) Certain plants and trees release oil that gets collects on the soil and some rocks. The droplet of rain causes this oil to be displaced into the air, and that fragrance or sweet smell is then carried to our eager noses.
(iii) Some scientists say that the Ozone layer could be another factor behind the sweet smell of the rain.
Everyone was quietly walking and simultaneously enjoying the lovely fragrance or petrichor.
After walking for about 10 minutes and came to a similar inner cave that had about 4 scientists sitting in front of machines as statues in various stages of doing work. Another scientist was standing like a statue near the huge pulsating brain probably he had been measuring the pulsations as he had a notebook in which he had been jotting something. The huge pulsating brain was hanging at the other end of the wall of the cave. On the wall was written, 'Time Machine Experiment, Town K'.
The same type of two telephone booths like structures was seen like in the T.V. serial called 'Dr. Who'. These telephone booths like structures had gla.s.s covers too and were connected with wires to the computers and the computers, in turn, were connected with wires to the huge pulsating brain.
The group of trekkers again had that déjà vu feeling. This was because the entire cave seemed to be a replica of that at Town M, Town I and Town J.
Mono handled the wire and the red b.u.t.ton issue at Town I and Town J. Here also at Town K, the Time Machine was an exact replica of that at Town M, Town I and Town J. Mono surrounded by a few Orbs pulled the wire with his left foot and pressed the red b.u.t.ton with his right hand.
As in the last three Time Machine experiments, a lot of sparks were seen coming out of the machines and the huge brain. The noise was also being emitted and the huge brain shriveled up to the size of a tennis ball. Here also all the machines stopped functioning and a white cloud engulfed them. Soon the cloud subsided but the machines were destroyed beyond repairs. The two telephone booths like containers were destroyed too and shattered gla.s.s could be seen all over the inside as if an implosion had occurred. These were now impossible to be used. The computer terminals which were wired to the brain had also burnt up.
"Some of the Orbs went over the shriveled up brain to welcome the Orbs that would escape from it. A cracking sound was heard from the shriveled brain and here also 25 blobs of white light came out. About 15 Orbs, 5 from Town M, 5 from Town I and 5 Town J moved to the shriveled brain to receive them. These 15 Orbs communicated with the Orbs that had come out from the shriveled brain for about 10 minutes and these 25 Orbs joined the 125 Orbs. Now there were a total of 150 Orbs in total now comprising 75 from Town M, 25 from Town I, 25 from Town J and the most recent 25 from Town K. Those were a lot of Orbs. This meant that there would be approximately 25 more orbs from the abandoned Town L which they were yet to visit.
These 150 Orbs were dancing around as if they were happy to meet the old friends and relatives who had been trapped in the huge brain here. There was a strange humming type of sound emitting from the excited Orbs which were jumping about.