History Revived

The elevator doors opened without a sound, and the three youths stepped into it. Jonny looked at the button-panel.

"Hmmm, seems to be more floors in this building than you can see on the outside", he mumbled, stroking his index-finger down the button row.

"OK, let's try this one."

He pressed one close to the bottom, and the elevator sped downwards. When the doors slid open, they peaked out carefully.
Ahead of them was a short corridor, with a massive steel door closing their way. They walked up to it.
On the wall was a codelock. It had a panel of numbers, a slit for a magnetic card, and a fingerprint-control.

"Oh man. We're never gonna get past this!"

Jonny was annoyed, but Hadji and Jessie sighed secretly in relief. Then, a click was heard and the door swung open. A man stopped dead in the doorway when he saw the young team. He was of normal height, with black hair combed backwards from his forehead. His nose almost resembled an eagle's beak, and his eyes had a cold look about them. He was dressed in a beige overall, with an emblem on the shoulders and on the back.

"Who are you?" he burst out, starring at them with a angry face. "No-one is allowed here without clearance!"

"We're sorry", said Jessie quickly. "We must have pushed the wrong button in the elevator. We are Mr. Hammond's guests - I'm Jessica Bannon -" she nodded at the others, "- and these are my friends Jonathan Quest and Hadji Singh." She paused. "We didn't mean to snoop." She flashed the man one of her most innocent smiles.

The man nodded and relaxed his stature, the hardness of his face disappeared. Or at least didn't show so much.

"Right. John told me he had invited some friends. Well, it's alright then." He shove his hand through his hair. "By the way, I'm Alan Richter, head of security here. Come, I'll follow you back up."

There wasn't really any point in arguing, so they followed Richter back to the elevators.

"Mr. Hammond spoke of you", Jonny said. "He said you were his colleague?"

"Did he?" Richter said. "Well, I wish that was true, but my main job is at the Security Central, except for when I'm down here, at the lab or ashore, running errands for him."

Jonny picked up the cue immediately.

"Oh yeah, the lab! Hammond told us about it. Sort of, he thought. What exactly do you do?"

Richter hesitated a moment.

"Well, we... "

The pling of the elevators interrupted him, and the doors slid open.

"Now", Richter continued, "I suggest you go and talk with Hammond if you want to see the lab, he's the only one that can give you clearance. If you excuse me, I got work to do."

With that he stepped back into the elevator and left them standing in the lobby.

"Well, I guess that's the end of the tour this time", Jessie said a bit sarcastic.

"Yeah, guess so", said Jonny a bit flatly. "Guess we just as well go back to our rooms. The tour's gotta wait."

Not so little disappointed, Jonny went up to his room where he spent a couple of hours doing practically nothing. Jessie was working on her laptop, Hadji was meditating, and Jonny was bored.

The time went dreadfully slow, and when it was drawing near seven, Jonny felt like he had been in that room for days and months.

He took a shower, and changed into another t-shirt. After a brief consideration, he changed his blue jeans to a pair of black ones, and changed the t-shirt to a more proper shirt. He shoved his hands through his hair a couple of times, and took a quick glance in the mirror. He was ready to go.

Outside in the corridor, he found Jessie and Hadji already waiting for him. Jessie had a simply cut, but still very fitting green dress that matched the emerald spark of her eyes. Hadji wore a fine vest in purple velvet over his white shirt, and his turban. Jonny suddenly wished he had changed to something a bit more fancy.

Race and Dr. Quest came out from their rooms further down the corridor, and came towards them.

"Well, are you ready for dinner?" Dr. Quest said.

"Sure are", they all replied in unison, and headed for the elevator.

Hammond were waiting for the in the lobby.

"Aaah, good, good. Now, when we are all gathered, why don't we go grab something to eat." He pointed in one direction with his cane. "Right, follow me."

They enterred a big room, with a long table set in the middle, overfilled with food of all kinds.

"Well, anyone fancy a bite?" Race said lowly, and they almost rushed to the table and sat down, eagerly starring at their host.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Hammond chuckled. "Be my guests."

At that they all began eating furiously, realizing it was their first meal since breakfast.

Hammond and Dr. Quest was talking about old times, recalling teachers and events at the university where they had become friends.

"Do you remember old Mr. Phagan?" Hammond asked.

"Phagan? The 'Lizard'?" Benton burst out laughing. "O dear, he had me scared to death one time when I had failed to bring in a report on time. It was on Philosophical Physics, and I had just..." he dove into another long story.

The other four people was bored. Jonny had hoped that Hammond would explain some things during the dinner, but the scientist had made no sign of it, whatsoever.

"So... Mr. Hammond?" he interrupted. "What is it that you do here?"

Hammond looked at him and waved his hand. "Do not be so eager, my young friend", he chuckled. "Please, let us at least have peace at the table. In time, you will have your curiosity satisfied." He turned back to Benton.

"But do you remember that time in Stockholm, what, eight years ago, on the Nobel Prize Awards Festival? You was SO damn certain that you would get the prize in Physics, and rightly too for that matter, and then old Friedman and Kendall got to share it with Taylor. You sure made a long face that time."

"Well, John. You know what it's like to be at the Nobel gala. You've been there more times than I can even remember, and they've had the nerve never to give you the Prize, which you certainly deserves. But I DO remember the party that evening. It was the year they gave Gorbatjov the Peace Award, wasn't it? And we ended up in a Swedish night-club. You, me, Octavio Paz and Gorbatjov, and sat there singing Russian folksongs til four in the morning. Those Swedes really must have thought we were nuts, even though they didn't recognize Gorby."

Hammond started laughing and almost choked on a chicken-wing. "Oh, yes. Those were the days..." He looked at Benton with a strange expression.

"My God Benton, I'm glad that you are here with me. For tomorrow I will show you the fruits of over ten years of planning and working. And you will be amazed, oh yes." He looked at them all.

"I guarantee you. Tomorrow, you will see things beyond your wildest imagination come true. Tomorrow", he said, "your dreams will become real."

A silence hoovered over the table as they finished their meal.

When Jonny pushed away his plate, after three re-takes of the fabulous dessert - sorbet with cream and grapes - he was totally stuffed. He sighed and leaned back on his chair.

Jessie and Hadji were equally satisfied, and Jessie was silently worrying about what all that food would do to her weight. Better start taking evening-runs, she thought. This sure is a beautiful place to excercise at.

Hadji was happy that his yoga-training had sharpened his control of his mind and body. He was beginning to feel a bit sick, and he was glad he could oppress the unpleasant discomfort.

Hammond was still eating with pleasure. The old man's appetite seemed endless. "Well, could I interest you in some more dessert?" he said between chews. The other around the table groaned.

"I should have remembered your eating-habits", Benton said, patting his over-filled stomach. "I'm not even sure I can get out of this chair." He looked at the other. "I don't know about you, but right now, I'm quite happy not to go on any tour for the moment. I just need a good rest."

The other agreed, even Jonny was looking forward to a little rest, a few days or so. I won't need to eat in a week, he thought.

They rose from the table, somewhat unstable. Hammond turned to the youths. "There is a lounge with a wide-screen home-cinema in the next room", he said. "We have several movies I think you would enjoy."

Jonny, Jessie and Hadji gave out sounds of thanks, and stumbled out of the dining-room.

They spend the next hours deeply reclined in soft armchairs, watching "Alien" with Sigourney Weaver. All of them enjoyed the movie a lot, getting frightened in a cozy way, and they ended up discussing whether Aliens - did they exist - were monsters drenched in slime, or small guys with big heads and big black eyes.
They finally agreed that aliens was slime-drenched, big-headed guys that put their eggs in peoples bodies.

Then Jessie found a copy of the cult-failure "Caveman" with Shelley Long and Ringo Starr, and they had a great time laughing at the lousy special-effects and the ridiculous dinosaurs, following the two stone-age lovers on their journey through a dangerous world with fierce neanderthal-tribes and 'fearsome' dinosaurs and giant crabs.

"Oh man!" Jonny wiped his eyes dry. "That was REALLY bad." He chuckled. "You saw that - what are they called - petro... pterod... ahh... that flying dinosaur. Now THAT was one of the worst models I've ever seen."

"Pterodactyl." Jessie said. "Yeah, it wasn't exactly the highest budget of the year. But I thought it was kinda charmy, I mean, in spite of the dreadful script."

"Ah come on Jess", Jonny said in disbelief, "you can't be serious. Besides, it was a totally unlikely movie in the first place. It is scientifically proven that Man didn't develop until 'bout 60 million years after those over-sized lizards ruled the earth. Man and dinosaur have never existed side by side. And they never will, either."

"What about the Loch-Ness-monster?" Hadji cut in. "We have been there, and you now as well as I do that we saw something there that wasn't a fish or any being known to man."

Jonny shifted uneasy in his chair. "I know. And I can't explain it, I admit that. But that's not the point! The point is that... that... I have forgotten what the point was, but that doesn't matter. So, there WAS something there, but it didn't have to be a dinosaur - even though that's maybe the most logical explanation", he continued quickly.

"It could have been... could have been... a slime-drenched alien with a big head!" he concluded, smiling wide at them and throwing a pillow on Jessie.

"I'm gonna give you for 'big head'!" she replied, starting to hit him with another pillow. Soon the pillow-fight was at its peak.

"Please, my friends", Hadji tried to make himself heard. "You shouldn't..." a pillow hit him in the face, sending him back in his chair. "Now that was an grave insult!" he said, smiling broad as he grabbed his own pillow and joined the two fighters.

* * * * *

In the Weather Control Center...

"Sir, I just got a weather report from mainland. Looks like a storm's building up over the Atlantic some hundred miles east to us. I think it's gonna miss us, but it's hard to tell."

"Good, Matkins. You just keep an eye on it, and check with mainland, alright?"

"Yes Sir. Should I notify Mr. Hammond?"

"No, no point doing that yet. Wait and see where that storm is heading first."

"Yes Sir. Are you in for the night?"

"Yep, been a long day. Hadn't really got any sleep this week. The stomach you know."

"Yes Sir. Good night Sir."

* * * * *

"Uuuuaaaaahhhhh" Jonny yawned. "Man, I'm totally wiped out. "I'm gonna hit the sack, good night guys."

"G'night Jonny. I think I'm gonna see the end of the "Caveman" once more."

"Suit yourself. Hadji, ya coming?"

"Yes, I'm quite tired too. Good night Jessie, see you in the morning."

Jonny snapped his fingers. "Right! Tomorrow we gotta take a trip around and check this island out. Hope it'll be sunny."

With that the two young men left the room and went up to their rooms, where they fell asleep in matter of seconds. But Jessie sat crawled up in the chair and watched the whole movie a second time, and not until almost two hours later did she go to bed.

She dreamed of dinosaurs.

* * * * *