Knocking on Reality's Door (The Chronicles of Clark Wilson)

  It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept.

  -Bill Watterson

  Tomos Alpha LXV and Fanya Alpha IV looked up as Clark, Antara Hilb and Ananga Mellie walked into the control room where they were working. "We do not know yet how it happened." Tomos Alpha LXV said.

  "Your very well informed Tomos since we just got back to the Agency Center five minutes ago. How did you find out so fast?" Clark questioned with a puzzled look on his face. The companions had come through the Gate without any difficulty, Khasa Maurie, Westal and Orman going to their quarters to clean up and change into garb suitable for the agency control center. Walking around in gear designed for the sword realms, not to mention the weapons, was frowned upon at the agency control center. Clark, Antara Hilb and Ananga Mellie had gone straight to the control room to talk with Tomos Alpha LXV and Fanya Alpha IV about what had happened on the sword realm. He wasn't sure where Farren had gone or what he was doing.

  "I told you before that I was assigned to monitor you Clark. And I must say you are turning out to be quit the traveler. Your walk into the between was totally unprecedented, and when you opened the Gate using the city gate the power spike was off the charts. I have never seen anything like this before. No knocker in history has ever been able to walk between the realms unless he was accompanying a walker. To be truthful I would never have guessed that you could handle that kind of power. There have only been a few travelers that have used that amount of power, and of them only one survived, for a time. Many travelers can do what you did by utilizing their abilities fully with finesse, but all of those had to have years of training before they ever attempted it. And the personal cost would be staggering. You on the other hand with little training and no specialized training or experience at all have accomplished it through raw use of power, with no ill effects at all it seems.""

  "What about ending up in the between during that fight? The last thing I remember is seeing that club coming at my head, then I woke up in the between. Did I do that or was it done to me?" Clark asked.

  "All the readings indicated that the power flowed through you. Therefore it must be assumed that you are the one who walked, albeit in an unconscious manner. It must be assumed that the immediate threat to your life caused your ability to manifest at that time. Now the question is; was the ability always there lying dormant or is it something new that has developed. The even bigger question is can other travelers develop this ability or is it unique to you?" Fanya Alpha IV said as she came into the conversation. "If the ability is unique to you then you are by far the most powerful traveler to ever be discovered. If it lies dormant in every traveler then what will it take to awaken it and do we really want that?' pausing for breath she then continued. "If all travelers can do this with training or at will once they find this ability then we could make the assumption that the arties can also do this. That would be very bad for the agency as I am sure you know. This war is hard enough as it is without them having unlimited power. At this time the fact that they are limited in what they can do is the only reason that we are winning. If it changes and they develop more abilities then the balance of power will surely switch. "

  "After we have fully analyzed the data we have gathered we should be able to answer these questions.' Antara Hilb stated. 'I see no reason to speculate on it any further at this time, we will know soon enough. Now would be a good time to clean up and get out of our traveling gear. I for one could stand a nice sonic shower and a soak in a large deep tub of hot water."

  "Only after food I am famished." Ananga Mellie weighed in, "I have not eaten since this morning and I am sure that I am going to suffer permanent damage if I do not eat soon!"

  "On come now Ananga Mellie, surely you have enough extra reserves in your body to last a few days without eating." Fanya Alpha IV verbally jabbed at him.

  "Did you just call me fat? Surely you jest; I'll have you know that I am the perfect weight for my height."

  "Ha-ha what the hell, none of you people could weigh more than a hundred pounds soaking wet, you should come to my realm if you want to see fat." Clark laughed as he shook his head at their antics.

  As the companions left the agency control room to seek their individual fulfillment Tomos Alpha LXV turned to his control panel to start analyzing the data he had collected throughout the most recent travel of Clark. This man was unique, no matter what Fanya Alpha IV seemed to think about other travelers having latent abilities. Tomos Alpha LXV for all of his youthful appearance had been a monitor for a little over four hundred years, and before that he was a field agent in the employ of the agency. One of the training lessons that Clark had not received yet because of the need to expedite his training was the full history of the agency and all of the races of man that had developed across the Multiverse. Khasa Maurie was of one of the races that had come into being as a result of the use of magic on his realm. Some one of his size and stature could not have developed naturally without magic. Tomos Alpha LXV, Fanya Alpha IV, Antara Hilb, and Ananga Mellie were of another race that had gone in the other direction. They were so technologically advanced that most of what they were capable of would seem like magic to the other races. On Clark's realm there had never been anyone as intelligent as Tomos Alpha LXV or as long lived. And his long life of course was a result of science not magic. Most of his people lived so long that they eventually choose to die rather than continue to live a life that had lost all sense of adventure. The agency provided that for Tomos Alpha LXV and others of his race. It was their family and their life. For them there was nothing without the agency, and they gave it their all. Antara Hilb and Ananga Mellie were much younger and had many years to go before the excitement and adventure of being in the field wore off. For now the excitement of field work was very rewarding.

  As Clark left the agency control room he realized how much his life had changed. He would gladly trade all of his abilities and the excitement of the traveling to be back home with Kate Wilson, to be leading a simple life devoid of adventure. But he knew that if the arties were successful in their quest that there would be no simple life for him or anyone else on his home realm. It was a sacrifice that he was making, but one that needed to be made. And one that he was willing to make, no matter how hard it was. After all that is what a sacrifice was all about. Giving up something you cherished to protect someone you cherished.

  Clark stopped in his tracks. A look of wonder coming over his face, he just realized that sometime in the last two days he had come to accept that this was all real and not a hallucination. He wasn't sure how or when it had happened but it was true. A cold chill ran down his spine as he contemplated everything that had happened and realized that if what he had experienced over the last few days was real then so was the threat to him and Kate. He was now an intricate part of this war, whether he wanted to be or not. If it was true that he was more powerful than any other knocker had ever been, then it may well be up to him to save the world so to speak. It was a very daunting task to say the least.

  He walked down the hallway to the mag lifts and descended into the depths of the agency control center where the living quarters were located. He had a modest apartment that had been assigned to him when he first came here. It was not much but he really did not need much as most of his time was going to be in the field traveling. He entered the two room apartment and started shedding his clothes off as he walked through the living room slash kitchen area into his bed room. After taking off all of his clothes he proceeded into what he thought of as the bathroom but was labeled the waste room by the agency personnel. It consisted of a wasted receptacle, a toilet in other words, and a sonic shower stall. The shower was the one thing that amazed him the most. He stepped into it and felt a tingle over his whole body as the sonic waves sluiced off the dirt and grime from the days of traveling. In twenty seconds the tingling stopped and he stepped back out. Cleaner than if he had taken a long hot shower at home and scrubbed for a half an hour. He went into
the bedroom and walked to the wall opposite of the waste room and it split open upon his approach to reveal clothes hanging in midair as if suspended by magic, which he still was not convinced that it was not magic. Picking out a blue station suit, or what he thought of as a jump suit, that was made of some type of soft material that adjusted the temperature so his body was always comfortable. After pulling the suit on Clark headed back into the kitchen area and walked up to the wall and it opened in a similar fashion to the wall in the bedroom. Reaching into the wall he grabbed a container and carried it to the table and set it down and pulled off the lid. Steam rose from the container as he grabbed a fork and set down in the single chair at the table to eat. It still amazed him, no matter how many times he saw it, as soon as he opened the container the food was piping hot, or ice cold depending on the food that was in it. Even though he had no way of knowing what was in the container before he opened it, it always seemed to be something that he enjoyed right at that moment. Even if someone could explain to him how the food was hot or cold instantly that still did not explain how it was always something that he wanted at that moment. Whatever science had gone into this was magic as far as he was concerned. The most amazing part was the amount of science and technology that was put into something as mundane as food preparation. What other marvels did the agency have that he had not seen yet?

  After he had eaten his fill, which was always the exact amount in the container, he picked up the container and carried it back to the same wall, which opened again and he placed it back inside, hanging in midair as he had found it. He knew that the next time he opened that container it would again be full of whatever his body was craving at the time. He shook his head in amazement. It was time to get busy now; there was a lot of work to be done. If he wanted to survive his next traveling assignment he needed to find out what he was capable of and determine how to control it. He was lucky this time, he could have easily died in the between. He was woefully unprepared for what had happened. He had to educate himself on all aspects of traveling. At this point he was unsure of exactly what to expect so he needed to be ready for anything. Since he had his basic training in knocking already and he had experienced walking today he decided that walking training would be first. But he would also need to study artifacts since it was possible that it was something to do with an artifact that sent him into the between. He had thought of this earlier on his own. If the club that the brigand had hit him with had been an artifact theoretically it could have been what forced him into the between. But at this point he did not have enough knowledge to be sure. Well it was time to remedy that problem now.