Modern Age Online

Kaleb rolled his shoulders as he walked through the door to level 2. Bright lights lit the room, nearly blinding Kaleb as he ambled forward. The room appeared empty except for a table laden with various pieces of metal, wiring, and tools. As Kaleb got closer to the table, he noticed a wall of glass shimmering slightly in the bright lights. The wall cut through the room from floor to ceiling halting his progress to the back half of the room.

“Okay. That seems like an overt way to stop someone.” Kaleb said.

“You think?” Obadiah asked, sounding bemused.

Kaleb glanced between the table full of junk and the large glass wall. “So I have to find a way through the glass?”

However, Obadiah remained silent. Kaleb sighed loudly before he moved closer to the wall. As he got closer, he thought he could hear something coming from the glass. He placed his hand against the glass moving his head closer to listen. He could feel the glass vibrating beneath his hand and listening closely he swore he could hear something thudding into the glass.

Kaleb looked up at the ceiling saying. “There is something in there.”

“Maaaybe.” Obadiah said and Kaleb thought he could hear the smile in the old man’s voice.

Kaleb moved away from the glass wall and reached into his coat pocket. Pulling out his pen cutter Kaleb aimed it further down the wall and made a small cut into the glass. The glass cracked slightly along the shortcut he made but nothing spectacular happen. Kaleb readied his cutter to widen the cut further when there was a sudden explosion of glass.

*CRASH*

Kaleb twisted his head away as small shards of glass pelted his upper body. Turning back he saw a two-inch wide sphere hole in the glass wall. Searching for the object that made the hole Kaleb quickly found a brightly silver ball resting in the concrete floor. Kaleb hastily picked it up before another ball could burst through the hole. As he held the ball, he noted that it felt slimy and left a silvery sheen on his hand.

“Is this… gallium?” Kaleb asked, studying the ball.

Obadiah coughed roughly before he replied. “Not quite, Wolfgang and I discovered the metal when we raided an arms deal near El Paso. While it is like the Earth element Gallium, it has several naturally occurring features that are very interesting.”

Kaleb felt along the balls elastic-like surface. “Such as its elasticity?”

“That is one another is its…”

Kaleb jumped slightly as he felt the metal ball in his hand split into two.

“ability to self-replicate.” Obadiah finished.

Kaleb held the silvery orbs in both of his hands. The ball had shrunk when it split in two. It obviously used its own mass to create the second orb.

“What causes the replication?” Kaleb asked as he moved toward the table and set the balls down.

Obadiah sounded annoyed as he answered. “No idea. They seem to do it randomly. I gave a couple to the government but never heard from their research division.”

Kaleb wiped the silvery dust off his hands asking another question. “So you shot a few into the room and they bounce around in there forever? No slowing down or inertia?”

“I didn’t say that.” Obadiah said, back to sounding smug.

Kaleb sighed again as he stared down at the table. He would need something to act as a shield preferably something mobile. As he dug through the detritus on the table, he found two chair wheels and a few sheets of metal plating. Kaleb figured he could make a shielded cart and maybe push his way through. But first he had to verify how the metal spheres were introduced into the room.

He moved back to the small hole he had created and widen it with his cutter. He made a wide line just above his head and cut to the floor. The glass cracked along the seam he had created as he moved back to the table and worked on his idea. Luckily Obadiah had left him a decent set of tools so he could attach the wheels to a solid piece of metal with screws and bolts.

His work was punctuated with the sound of several of the metal balls crashing through the glass wall. He did his best to ignore the cacophony of noise coming from behind him. He had just bolted the wheels to a metal plate and was attaching a metal wall when the sound of glass crashing to the ground grew louder.

Turning he saw that the line he had made with his cutter had been widened and large sections of glass had fallen to the floor. From his angle he could make out the room just beyond the glass wall. Searching the floor he found a small pile of the malleable spheres nestled on the floor, cracks from their impacts radiating outward. Another sphere flew through the opening in the glass and landed amongst its fellow projectiles as Kaleb continued working his armor sled.

He wasn’t sure how long he worked about after what felt like almost an hour he finished his odd creation. He ended up with an odd two-wheeled square cart thing with three waist-high metal walls. He left out the fourth wall so he could easily get in the thing, but the wheels made the whole contraption awkward. He sighed to himself as he rolled the monstrosity toward the opening in the glass.

Kaleb set his back against the glass and peered around the edge of the wall to confirm how the spheres where flung about the room. The answer sort of disappointed him.

“Really? A row of ball launchers?” Kaleb asked as he watched an arm on the launcher reach down and grab a sphere before throwing it across the room.

Obadiah growled. “They are modified gun turrets! I have calibrated them to throw the spheres with enough force to break bones. Not to mention you spend over an hour building THAT and you question MY engineering choices?”

Kaleb shrugged his shoulders as another sphere sailed through the opening in the glass. “I work with what you give me.”

Obadiah didn’t respond while Kaleb quickly dashed toward the pile of soft spheres and grabbed a couple. He hastily put them in his pockets and moved back to his disfigured cart. As he wiped the silvery metal dust off on his lab coat, he glanced around the glass wall again. A row of four turrets sat on either side of the door to the next level. Luckily it looked like the things couldn’t pivot very far or move.

“Isn’t this test a little easy compared to the others?” Kaleb asked, lining up his cart with the door across the room.

“Yes, it is. But it's more about how you go about answering the problem. You asked a few questions, but you didn’t really ask for help. You identified the problem and came up with a solution. The efficacy of the solution, however, has yet to be seen.” Obadiah answered.

Kaleb snorted as he took up a runner's stance behind his cart. Placing his hands inside the cart he took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. He heard a loud thunk as a sphere hit the carts front wall but the metal withstood the hit. Sighing Kaleb charged forward as his feet crossed the glass wall he jumped onto the cart and crouched down quickly tried to balance himself.

His little cart seemed to stabilize for a few seconds before a metal sphere collided into its side sending him spinning. He felt a wheel lift off the ground from the force of the blow but he redistributed his weight and righted himself before another sphere hit the carts front wall. He already had no clue where the exit door was. The rapid fire spheres colliding with his cart and flying over his head made him reluctant to look.

He was saved from having to look when his cart jerked to a stop and he toppled forward. Rolling forward Kaleb covered his head and quickly glanced around. He was at the far end of the room, near the door to the stairs. His cart had hit a divot in the stone floor and fallen over. The turrets still fired, twisted as far as their gears would allow toward Kaleb small cart. Kaleb placed a hand to his chest and exhaled a sigh of relief as Obadiah’s voice spoke.

“That was dangerous, foolhardy, and you are lucky it worked at all.”

Kaleb barked a laugh. “HA! That is the family motto. We tried to get T-shirts made but we couldn’t agree on a font.”

“Luck will only take you so far.” Obadiah warned.

“Got me across the room. That will do for now. Now for the last test, gramps.” Kaleb said as he opened the door to the stairs and walked up them.

Obadiah chuckled ruefully. “Oh yes, I think we will both enjoy this last one.”