Trapped In Time

This was because they belonged to this town and knew their way around the Town as they belonged here. They also knew the shortest route to the Jail of Town J were the innocent scientists were held. In the prison adjacent to the scientists were jailed those persons who had protested against the wrong policies of the Administrator and his cronies. Surprisingly, Town J had its local government which was similar to that at Town M but on a lower scale just like it was at Town I.

They soon reached the Jail and the Orbs surrounded the date. As if by magic, all the locks opened as soon as the Orbs surrounded the gate. Upon entering the jail, they first went to the reception area and found the records. Here they quickly identified the records of 20 scientists, who had been arrested quite some time back for refusing to work on the Time Machine experiment. They also located the records of the 15 political prisoners. The Orbs did a memory scan of the lists of scientists and the political prisoners and thereafter destroyed the entire records. All the attendants there were statues and were not aware of anything that was happening.

The Orbs split into five groups. One group remained to surround them, another group floated to the compound of the 20 scientists. The third group moved to the compound that had lodged the 15 political prisoners. The fourth group remained at the reception and the fifth bigger group moved to the local administrator"s building which housed the local administrator and his cronies. The Administrator and his cronies were in office as it was morning time. Luckily no one was out of the building attending any meeting elsewhere.

However, all were frozen in position as statues. The question now arose as to how to get the prisoners out of jail and the local Administrator and his cronies into jail? The Orbs thought that they should hypnotize the prisoners and make them walk out of jail and into their homes where they would become statues again. How else would they be able to get these 20 scientists out of the jail? The same was the case of the 15 political prisoners. The Orbs huddled together to think for a solution to handle the issue. They then went in front of the prisoners and waved a thin lit torch like apparatus in front of the prisoners.

The Orb of Mono"s Dad was holding this thin lit torch stick like apparatus in front of the scientists and his grandfather"s...o...b..was holding a similar lit torch like apparatus in front of the political prisoners.

Both of them asked the prisoners to slowly move out of jail and continue to walk to their homes. They were to remain in their homes till someone by the name of Mono contacted them. They were not to go anywhere or have any contact with anyone for a week. Since their benefactors had their names and addressed as well as phone numbers, they would be contacted shortly.

Thereafter the scientists left for their respective homes. As they had been hypnotized they managed to walk but became statues as soon as they entered their homes. The same thing happened with the political prisoners. They also became statues upon reaching their homes.

The fifth group made their way to the local Administrator"s office. Here another Orb held a similar thin lit torch like apparatus and hypnotized the local Administrator and his colleagues. They were asked to head for the jail.

They, in turn, followed the directions of the Orb and made their way to the jail and entered the "political prisoners" compound on the jail. As soon as the local Administrator and his cronies landed up in their cells, they became statues. The gates closed behind the new prisoners. New records with names and other details were created by the fourth group of Orbs at the reception and these were kept in the reception area as the new records.

The Orbs were very clever; after all, they were the energies of scientists, so it was understandable.

Last time Zoya had asked about the CCTV cameras. But something could be recorded by mistake, even if the Orbs were very careful and no one could be caught or heard.

Mono called the Orb of his father and conveyed Zoya"s concern about the CCTV. This father responded that she had a valid point. There can be lapses no matter how cautious they were.

Mono"s father had talked to the rest of the Orbs and get the CCTV cameras neutralized everywhere throughout their little world of 4 towns, right from the minute the first Time Machine experiment was destroyed.

"We have accomplished our work successfully in Town J also," Mono said.

"It is only 11.30 am and we can proceed to Town K straight away."

"After completing our work in Town L, we can rest."

"By the way, is not today our last day of the camping trip?" asked Sunny. "Will we be able to accomplish the destruction of all the Time Machines?"

"At present we have on managed to finish off three at Town M, Town I and Town J and freed the scientists of Town I and Town J. We still have to take care of the Time Machines at Town K and Town L, and release the scientists of the other three towns."

"Don"t we need to reach back to our city today evening? How will we manage?" he asked.

Mono replied with a laugh, "You do not need to worry. Your present time has been stopped."

"All those theories I had told were all wrong and were just to confuse you. Your time has stopped for you by the Orbs as we did not know how long this plan would take."

"We, the Orbs and I, could have done everything by ourselves but we could not leave you as you did not know your way around. So we wanted that you tag along with us and experience our advanced civilization.

"You are in our time. Even if you spend your whole lifetime here, it will just be a few seconds of time spent with us when you get back."

"It will be something like a dream for you when you get back. You are literally trapped in our time."

Zia was fascinated with the gadgets for making people forget their immediate memory something like the nebulizer that the "Men in Black" possessed. The Orbs had that hypnotizing light.

There work completed, they all started walking back and entered the tunnel. They all could see the Town as it was daylight. The planning of the Town was like the ancient Indian cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro and the present city of Chandigarh in India. These ancient cities were made in such a way that the blowing wind would clean them. The back of the houses was towards the main roads. The front of the houses opened into the inner lanes of the colonies.

It seems that the idea for their towns was taken from the information about these cities available on the net or maybe they were already aware of it since these people had settled here 250 years ago.

Soon they pa.s.sed the Time Machine cave and went further to enter the tunnel for a 10 minutes walking distance to the exit of the tunnel which housed the launching Pads of the cars they needed to take to the next Town K. It was now 12 noon and they had another 20 minutes to travel to reach their next Town.