I wrote this FanFic for composition at my local library. I thought I would share it here.
Jamie’s Cavern Journal
I have told nobody, but in 2008, I started having dreams about a great city under the desert in New Mexico. In the dreams, I am also in other places that do not appear to be on earth. In 2010, I won the lottery and used it to take a trip to New Mexico to investigate the place I saw in my dream.
Chapter 1: Introduction
February, 2010
Upon arriving in New Mexico, I looked at a map and had a gut feeling to go to a certain location. I then came to this property, which I was drawn to. I took this photo:
I soon met Zandi, who said that I was drawn there. But how did he know that? If that was not weird enough, it was going to get weirder a lot weirder!
Below is a photo of Zandi; he did not seem to mind:
Behind Zandi’s trailer, I saw the cleft (pictured below), which was one of the things I remember from my recurring dreams:
I nside the cleft, there were some abandoned houses. That windmil in the background could actually power them up and a real hologram of a weird-looking women appeared. I was so shocked that I forgot to take a photo of her. She sent me on a quest to find hand-prints around the Ages. At the time, I had no clue what an Age was, but now I know it’s the most incredible thing you have ever seen. After solving some puzzles that seemed like they came out of an adventure game1, I eventually found a book and a small cave. Flipping through the book, I saw no words in it, but on the last page was a picture of an island. This is where my journey began! I put my hand over the picture and touched it and felt a weird vibrating sensation and heard a loud sound. Then I saw nothing but black for about ten seconds; then I heard the sound again. The sound I heard was very weird. I can think of five different ways of describing it but I think the best way is : “VOWVOOOOCCHCHCHCHHCH”
I was in what those in our community would call another “Age.” Now, I might be rusty on this one, but I believe Ages are their own universes! Yes! That is as crazy as it sounds!
I was by a small hut on an island which we call Relto. From there, I found a book to the city. According to other explorers I met, they say it is indeed under New Mexico, like in my dream.
At this point, you probably don’t believe me, so here is a picture of one of the other Ages I recently visited:
As you can see, it’s a totally different world!
So this is what I know about what is going on. For years, an advanced civilization called the D’ni inhabited the city. D’ni is pronounced “Den-ni” but one of the last of their kind pronounced it closer to “Duck-Nee,” but he had a thick accent. The D’ni were NOT human and actually came from another Age. Eventually, their civilization fell, but left a huge legacy. Their most noteworthy technology was their ability to link (that’s what you call it) to other Ages. A book like the one I found is called a linking book. There can be many linking books copied from the same “master,” called a descriptive book. The guy who wrote “2001 a Space Odyssey” once said: “Any advanced technology will seem to the unenlightened like magic” (or something along those lines) and that’s what this “tech” seems like.
Closer to our own tech is something called the Ki. It’s a watch device that also functions as a camera and lets you communicate between the Ages!
A group called the D’ni Research Council or DRC set up base in The Cavern (the underground city) at one point. They where there for about a year when they ran out of funding and requested that people leave the city. Explorers started being “called” back in 2010, even though the DRC was not there to support us.
Now, I could talk about my adventures in Cavern for a long time, but I don’t have that much of it, so the last thing I’ll say in this entry is about another race of beings called the Bahro (Bar-ro) that were enslaved by the D’ni. DRC member Dr.Watson freed them in 2005 and this created the problem that, since the D’ni looked human (but were not), some Bahro were angry at us. There are two factions of Bahro. A teenage girl was, sadly, killed by the Bahro, who don’t like us. The good news is that this group is being held at bay by a group that do like us.
Oh, and one more thing, some explorers have discovered how to make their own Ages so I don’t need to go back to New Mexico again. There are now linking books that let you go to every major city.
Chapter 2: OHB
I recently found a neighbourhood named “The Guild of Robots”. Interested, I went in. There were two people in the “hood.” One of them called himself “OHB;” the other, “OHBot”. OHB stands for Orange Hair Boy since he has orange hair. OHBot was a robot created by OHB, who had a striking uncanny resemblance to his creator. OHBot was in very early stages of development. Most of the things I said to him, he did not understand and said something like: “I don’t know what you said; I’ll let OHB know, so he can fix the problem.”
If I only knew, at that point, that OHBot would be become a big thing! I left and continued my duties around Cavern.
As time passed, I came back to visit them. OHBot had become a lot more advanced. You could ask him many things and he had many responses. For example, you could ask him “OHBot, what it your favorite colour?” and he would say “Orange.” If you pretended to throw something at him, he would respond by saying, “I set my phasers to 100% to destroy the object.”
There was a lot of silly stuff like that, but also a lot of useful stuff as well. He could tell you the weather, calculate a puzzle’s answer, and translate phrases into different languages.
OHBot looked human, but he could not see or move without OHB’s help. In other words, he was very limited. Yet some were afraid of realistic-looking robots in their
Cavern! Rand Miller is the CEO of a company that has a large investment in all things related to the D’ni. Rand approved of OHBot so he was allowed to stay.
OHB added a translation function for fun. He did not realize how useful it would be. When it was added, people were Ki-mailing (email with their watch-like device) their buddies, who did not speak that much English and were telling them to “get into the Guild of Robots now!”
July 10th, 2010 – 7:00 AM EST
It’s my birthday today, but looking at the forums explorers use, it seems OHB has a nemesis, who has kidnapped him! His nemesis left a puzzle and if we can solve it, we can free him and, if not, a talking Bomb that quotes the game Starship Titanic (have to play that one sometime) will blow up the cavern!
July 10th, 2010 – 8:00 AM EST
OHB is still not safe but apparently he has food and the Bomb has a bug in it that makes it restart when it reaches 0, so that’s good!
July 10th, 2010 – 4:00 PM EST
I tried to go the city, but I can’t get in since the Nexsis’* security system says there are too many people there, oh well.
* The Nexsis is a repository of Linking Books accessible by sticking a Ki into a device. The Books are locked, can be used, but none of them can be taken with you.
July 10th, later that day
Thanks to the hard work of other explorers, the Bomb has been deactivated and OHB freed. OHB has now hacked the Bomb so those who did not get to see it can, in a safe manner.
In the end, OHB was busy with other aspects of his life and OHBot “died” from disrepair.
Chapter 3: The Hood Of Illusions
Unfortunately, I missed most of these events, but here is what I have heard from others.
May 2010
It was reported that a Bahro had appeared in the city! Now, sometimes we hear them scream in the background and see rare sightings on rooftops, but this was apparently up-close and personal. He also showed up on the Ki as someone we could message with our Ki device. The name that showed up was “NotABeast”. This appears to be a form of protest as the name “Bahro” means “Beastman” in D’ni. It was proposed on the forums that we call them “Vachro” instead. Vachro (I might have spelled it wrong), means “linking people” as they can link at will.
Later that month
The DRC (who is still around, but very small) has investigated and it appears this was a complex hoax. We have been warned that the real Bahro might be offended and, as I said, some of them are unfriendly so if this sort of thing happens again, it might be unsafe to visit the cavern at all in the future. So, hopefully, it never happens again! Also, Dr. Watson, who has spent a lot of time amongst them, says they are not offended by the name Bahro at all and that we can keep calling them that.
February 2011, Rand Miller’s birthday
At first, it was reported that there was fog of unusual colours. Rand thought it was entertaining, but when he left, it began! There was a large screech and a huge number of Bahro flew overhead. They circled around a building by the lake! People who had been in the community for a long time said that the last time they had seen something like that, there was some sort of an attack! Later, people thought they were flung into the air and people got messages from their friends on their Ki, that their friends did not send. (A Ki hack.) What was this, was it the end of the Cavern!
Later, it was discovered that it was a large hoax using lots of stage magic to create realistic illusions, but the damage was done and I feared the Cavern would be closed to us, deemed too dangerous!
Since Rand liked part of what he saw, he used his influence to convince the DRC to keep the Cavern open and actually give people a place where it would be safe to practise these complex illusions. These places had two rules:
-
You are not allowed to use magic on anyone without their permission (so no more Ki hacks.)
-
Illusions must not leave the assigned areas.
These areas were called “The Fun House” and “The Hood Of Illusions,” with the first being a drop-in place where these illusions could be seen anytime, and the second being for events. The Bahro would not be offended if “magic remained in these locations.
Since the Hood’s creation, little abuse has been seen and we have enjoyed many great illusions over the years. Knowing they are not real, they can be very enjoyable!
Chapter 4: Kevin Nevek and Alex Vancar
January 2013
I met Kevin Nevek and Alex Vancar today; they have been on a couple of very entertaining adventures. Kevin had found an ancient D’ni artifact, which he needed several crystals to open. The crystals were located in several Ages including: a maze, a cave, a railway, a mountain top, and an asteroid converted into a lab.
Kevin said he had help from some other explorers to find the crystals. The maze would take him too long to explain. The cave had a time machine in it, but it broke after its only use, so there is no proof of this. Some scientists were trapped (out of phase) in the lab on the asteroid. Kevin’s friends saved them. The train was launched off over a large gap and people apparently died and came back to life, but Kevin and I think those parts were exaggerated.
Alex briefly talked about their second adventure in which Kevin was missing, but it turned out he went on vacation in another Age. Kevin was understandably embarrassed by the misunderstanding, so we did not talk about it further.
He also told me about a rumour that the US military wanted to take over the Cavern, but I have not heard anything of this since.
After talking to some of Kevin’s friends, I realized there are a lot of things in this journal they have not experienced. I have now decided to run an event to tell stories of things that happened in the Cavern. I am the first person to tell stories about the Cavern. Compared with today, it was fairly active in 2007 when the DRC was fully funded. Other people told stories under the name “Heritage Night” and I think I can secure this branding.
Chapter 5: The Lost Art
Summer, 2018
Man, it’s been a while since I’ve been in Cavern; maybe I should pop in soon, I have been busy and am now a member of many clubs, so I don’t have that much time.
Today, I met with some people filming in the Cavern. They are making a fictional YouTube show based in the Cavern. Parts are up on YouTube so I can talk about those parts. It’s the year 2040 and the US military comes up with the idea to look for a solution to global warming in another Age. (Maybe this is where the rumours Kevin’s friends heard came from.) In this time, the Cavern has been hushed by the military. There are a lot of twists and turns and I don’t want to spoil it. Lets just say they find a lot of neat stuff here.
They are making the movie for free as volunteers, and I have joined their team, but movie-making is too stressful for me. Fortunately, they found a good role for me as a continuity checker. It’s been a lot of fun!
Chapter 6: Wrapping it up
Spring 2020
I’m still very busy and the Heritage Nights stopped a while ago without any sort of announcement, partly because I have run out of ideas and partly, like OHB, I just don’t have that much time. Maybe I’ll have time in the future, who knows! I leave you with a quote from a well-known person (Atrus) amongst D’ni archeologists: “and so I close realizing that the ending has not yet been written.”
-Jamie Marchant
1 Video games where you have to solve puzzles and explore rather than hurting things to proceed. Famous examples are: The 7th Guest, Broken Sword, and The Journeyman Project (which is a lesser known one) There may have been another one, but I forget it’s name.