The Menagerie 2 (Eden) by Rick Jones Read Free Book Online

cloud alter its shape but also its coloring, the mass changing from cool blues to warm reds, colors that pleased. Small pops of energy shot off as bursts of bioluminescence, the sparks igniting in gemlike colors.
    Alyssa circled the chamber and placed a hand against the energy shield, feeling nothing but the gentle repulsion of its force. “It’s beautiful,” she commented.
    O’Connell had to agree—the vision was quite magnetic. “Why it’s separated from the rest is a matter of simple hypothesis. But our determination is that as beautiful as this entity is, it’s also very noxious. If this particular Elemental ever escaped its containment cell, then we can only assume that harm would have come to the crew or the specimens.” And then: “Not everything that appeals to the eye, Ms. Moore, is appealing underneath.”
    The mass continued to undulate as if moving with the gentlest of breezes, with a honey flow to it, soft and mesmerizing.
    On the opposite side of the corridor, behind the Elemental’s chamber, was a small doorway crafted for something much smaller, perhaps a child. Except the door was not a conventional door at all, but a translucent wall that was as thin as a sheet of glass, emerald in color, its surface reflecting their images in a funhouse sort of way, shapes that were twisted.
    O’Connell went to the wall and waved his hand over a lens next to the opening, and the emerald glass disappeared. “Another energy shield,” he said. “Impassable. Bullets couldn’t penetrate it. Neither could torches or diamond cutters. How they were able to take pure energy and manipulate it to suit their needs is utterly fascinating. We’ve got to figure this out.”
    After they entered the adjoining room, O’Connell waved his hand over the lens on that side of the door, and the emerald-colored glass reappeared, locking them in.
    The corridor they entered had a corkscrew wind to it, the level descending, until they reached a darkened chamber, a room with a sepulchral air to it. The walls offered a phosphorous illumination, an eerie green, with no known filaments or power source to set off the light. In the room’s center was a horseshoe-shaped console. But this console was made of the same energy as the emerald-colored door, solid and glasslike. And indestructible.
    Alyssa traced her fingers over it. It was cold and smooth to the touch. “Is it real?” she asked.
    “As real as that door we just passed through,” said O’Connell.
    “How . . .” Her words simply trailed. To fashion something from pure energy was beyond comprehension. To understand the physics or the mechanics behind such science, she believed, was light years away—no matter how brilliant O’Connell’s people may be.
    She maneuvered behind the desk, could see through the desk’s surface to the floor, and sat in the chair. It was translucent and as smooth as glass, the ergonomics of the chair coming alive to suit her shape, forming to her comfort. “This is absolutely amazing,” she said disbelievingly.
    Savage had thought he’d seen it all in Eden, the mysteries. But this ship harbored far greater mysteries—that of the universe.
    He moved around the desk and traced his fingers over the surface, discovering the same sense of awe as Alyssa. What may have been a novelty to O’Connell was apparently gone, the technology no longer a marvel as the man appeared flat and disinterested.
    “To your right, Ms. Moore, you will find a keypad upon the surface,” said O’Connell. “Do you see it?”
    The keypad was the same color as the surface of the desk, a phosphorous green, but pulsating. “I see it.”
    “Touch it.”
    She did. And three archaic symbols appeared.
    “It’s actually an easy combination to figure out,” he told her. “Whether the symbols be numbers or letters, the pattern was easy to figure out since there were minimal combination arrangements. Tap the third symbol, the first symbol, and then the middle one.”
    She