The Genius Cave was a real place.
I'm not sure what exactly gave me the idea for The Genius Cave, but I'm sure that my fascination with Batman and his Batcave would have helped. Also, the church I went to as a kid had a youth group hangout room that really captured my imagination. The entry hallway was painted black, and the words "The Cave" were written just inside the entrance, lit up in blacklight. It's funny how stuff like that takes hold of your imagination, but I thought it was pretty much the coolest thing ever at the time.
When I was 12, shortly after my parents split up, my Mom and three siblings were living in a two-bedroom apartment. It worked out that I was able to have my own internet-free computer in my room with my brother. I now had a means of writing stories from the comfort of my bedroom, and I took full advantage of it. This is where I started writing about a mysterious underground government-run laboratory colloquially called 'The Genius Cave', although I wouldn't actually start the book until later.
When we moved from the apartment to a house, I got my own room, although it didn't have any windows. I bought blacklights and paint, and turned it into 'The Genius Cave'. I was really proud of it; I had written phrases in a language I'd invented along the walls, put a starfield in the ceiling, and a bunch of other stuff. The computer came along for the ride, and that's where I started writing the book you're about to read an excerpt from. It was a place where I could go to write undistracted - it was a safe place and yet a place brimming with adventure. I finished the book shortly after entering high school, as best as I can recall.
For what it's worth, I hope you enjoy what you read here in some way. I had a good time writing it.
Chapter One
Nothing on heaven or earth could scare Thor Porruct.
Nothing, that is, except for shadows.
Unfortunately for him, he happened to work in a place where shadows were seen quite frequently. He worked in The Genius Cave, and had been working there for almost two years. The corridors of The Genius Cave were very similar to that of an actual cave, which wasn’t surprising seeing as The Genius Cave was constructed inside a real cave. The shadows that stretched on into darkness made Thor think of the worst things imaginable. He would always tell himself that whatever he thought of, he could probably beat with his bare hands, but that didn’t stop the fear. And as he walked down the main corridor of The Cave, with small lights flickering against the black, he asked himself why he didn’t become a professional wrestler instead of the Security Chief of such a dark place.
“Hi, Thor! What’s cracking?” came the voice of Bob, one of the Genius Cave scientists. As he just popped out of the door of one of The Genius Cave’s many libraries, he looked rather like a cuckoo bird with his heavy black glasses and long, sprouting nose. Instinctively, Thor’s muscular arm punched out as he kept walking. This sent Bob reeling back into the library, with the door shutting after him.
“Sorry!” called Thor, who kept walking. Thor had very different facial features from Bob. Thor had brown hair that he kept closely shaved, and a large jaw that looked like it could munch on an elephant’s leg. A really big elephant’s leg.
“Ow,” said Bob, who lay on the ground in a tangled heap in the library.
“Oh, no!” cried a voice, and in rushed Dr. Decuse. Jennifer Decuse was an intelligent young lady who had recently joined The Genius Cave as a scientist. Unlike most people named Dr. Decuse, Jennifer had long, dirty blonde hair which she kept neatly done in a ponytail. She had very nice looking glasses, contrary from Bob’s enormous spectacles. Her nose was rather normal, unlike Bob’s. Most people would say that she had a flawless face, but in reality she had a small birthmark under her eyelid that she preferred to keep private. It had been almost three years since joining The Genius Cave, and to her, it had been three years of utter joy. Jennifer adored inventing things, and The King had graciously given all scientists who worked there all the supplies they would need in order to create astounding contraptions, cures, and machines. Jennifer was working on a machine that could erase birthmarks at the time. “Are you alright, sir?” she asked worriedly, dusting Bob off as he struggled to stand.
“Oh, I’m fine,” Bob said. “I was just saying hello to Thor, and then my nose hurt a lot.”
“Maybe you ran into something,” Jennifer commented, smoothening out her hair as she stood up. “It’s not hard to lose your way in The Genius Cave.”
“That’s impossible. My glasses give me 20/20 vision. I couldn’t possibly…” Bob’s voice trailed off as his head slowly sloped to one side, staring at Jennifer.
“Is something wrong, sir?” she asked.
“No, no, nothing’s wrong…” he said, still staring at Jennifer. “I just lost my train of thought…”
“That’s fine,” interrupted Jennifer quickly, who was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable. Surely you would feel rather awkward if someone with big black glasses started staring at you with his mouth hanging open. “Well, nice meeting you. I have to go now,” she finished, walking out of the room briskly.
“Oh, okay,” stuttered Bob as Jennifer left the room. He leaned over to watch her walk down the hall. “I’m gonna, uh, go back to the lab. Uh, bye!”
Jennifer walked back into the hallway, just in time to see Thor round a corner and disappear ahead of her. She had been called to a very special meeting by The King himself, who sent her a letter saying only that it was of great importance and quite possibly the chance of a lifetime. As she walked down the hallway in the same direction Thor was headed, she glanced up at the stalagmites that hung from the ceiling. It had apparently only taken one year to build the enormous complex that was The Genius Cave, complete with a captivating interior and hundreds of libraries, laboratories, and living spaces for the workers. The vast corridors were dark and mysterious, but the many rooms were brightly lit and beautifully decorated. Jennifer personally liked to ceilings of the rooms the best, which were always intricately carved. Jennifer rounded the corner, and saw five other people standing outside a door that looked like where she was supposed to be going.
“Excuse me?” she called as she approached the group. “Is this where The King is going to be?”
“Did you receive a letter from him?” asked an average sized man with brown hair and blue eyes.
“Yes, I was told to be here,” she replied, as she arrived next to the door.
“In that case, yes,” the man answered. “I’m Greg.”
“Pleased to meet you,” she said, turning to face the doorway.
Greg Thatcher was a reasonably attractive man, coincidentally the same age as Dr. Decuse. He was twenty-two years old. Unlike most of the people standing around him, Greg had only been a member of The Genius Cave for six months. He worked in the Advanced Scanning Research Department of The Cave, and had recently come up with a new device that could trace any living object back to where it came from by matching two sets of DNA. He was employed into The Cave after achieving the nation’s Medal of Wisdom; the highest award regarding brilliant minds such as himself. He turned to look around the group, and recognized each face as a member of The Genius Cave. There was Jennifer, who he immediately took a liking to, Thor, the burly one with the buzz cut, Adam Malcolm, the head of the Weapons Research Department, and Veronica Earhart, a member involved in Reconnaissance and Intelligence missions. Veronica had joined The Genius Cave around the same time as Greg. The last one looked familiar, but he certainly wasn’t a member of The Cave. For one thing, he didn’t have the insignia on his shirt. The Genius Cave insignia was a simple circle, with a ‘G’ and a ‘C’ in silver. Adam had blond hair and brown eyes, and had a small goatee on his chin. Veronica had short brown hair and blue eyes. Both of them were physically fit, a good sign that they did their jobs well.
The six people stood in front of the door for almost five minutes before the door made a clicking sound. A small porthole opened up in the middle of the door, and an eye peeked out. The hole shut abruptly, and then the door swung open. Standing inside the doorway was The King him self, wearing an expensive-looking suit, and the Genius Cave insignia emblazoned on his breast pocket. He had thick brown hair that was gelled in a cowlick, and he had small brown glasses.
“Come in! I told you to be here five minutes ago!” he said, gesturing for them to come forward. The crowd walked into the room, which was filled with wiring that hung loosely from the ceiling and walls. Wires danced across the stone floor, and there were many large piles of wires that sat in corners. The stone room was perfectly square, with several lights drooping from the ceiling. At the far end of the room was an odd looking contraption.
“Your Highness, might I ask what we are doing here?” asked Adam, speaking carefully so as not to anger The King.
“You are here to witness the greatest discovery ever created, Adam,” The King replied, as he stared intently at the machine.
“Uh, what is it?” said Thor, taking no care in how he spoke. The King looked at him and smiled.
“It is the passage to another Universe,” he said. He walked over to the control panel and began pushing buttons.
The machine was comprised of various things that are rather difficult to describe. There was a metal foundation for the machine, which made the rest of the contraption stand about 30 centimeters off the ground. On top of the base were two things: a large console with over one hundred multi-coloured buttons, and a large, hollow rectangle that looked rather like a large window that had not been put into a wall yet. All the wires in the room connected to the machine.
“What does it do?” Thor asked.
“We call it the Inter-Universal Portal,” The King said, as he continued to push buttons. “It takes you to the Imaginary Universe.”
“Imaginary?” asked the man no one knew.
“Yes,” The King replied. “You see, there are TWO Universes, not one. The one we know and love is The Real Universe, the one that God personally created. The second was made by us, in a sense.”
“What does that mean, your Highness?” asked Greg.
“It means that the Imaginary Universe is one that we made in our minds. Every thought you have exists as a being in the Imaginary Universe. The monsters under the bed are real, and your imaginary friends can really talk.”
“I used to have an imaginary friend,” Thor said thoughtfully.
“That’s beside the point,” the unnamed man interrupted. “The real question is, so what?”
“This machine can take just about anything from one Universe to the other,” The King said, turning to face the group. “If I want a new computer, I just imagine it, and then I go find it in The Imaginary Universe.”
“Find it?” Greg asked. “Won’t that be difficult?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” The King said. “But we’re not looking for a new computer. We are looking for intelligent life that our own minds created.” He pressed a large button on the console, and the rectangle lit up in a brilliant flash of light. The rectangle’s center swirled and transformed into a giant movie screen, as beautiful galaxies soared across the opening. Sapphire, gold, plum, scarlet, and all other colors raced by as they zoomed from one galaxy to the next. Thor looked up from the show to see a dark form that had wafted out of the corner of the screen into the room. It suddenly disappeared, and before he had time to think about it, his thoughts were interrupted by the unnamed man.
“Is this a documentary?” the man with no name asked.
“This is real,” The King said, gazing in awe at the spectacle before him. “Those are galaxies that billions of people have created with their own minds. Everything you’ve ever imagined lives there, in your own galaxy that represents your mind’s area of influence. People with bigger imaginations have bigger galaxies, of course.” Jennifer reached out and touched the screen, which suddenly wobbled as though it were water. She drew back with a gasp. The King pressed three more buttons, and the screen stopped moving. It had stopped on the surface of a planet, overlooking a beautiful plain with a crystal clear river running through it. The King smiled at them all, and then walked through the rectangle into the new land.