Page Turners

Welcome to my first read of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

If you missed any of the previous chapters, please find them all linked here on the Page Turners podcast page.

Book One, Part One, Chapter 6

Pierre is at Andrei's place, where they discuss Pierre's career aspirations and the impending war.

If you want to read along, I’m using the Oxford World’s Classics edition (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, edited by Amy Mandelker).

You can also listen to this read-through on my YouTube Channel or via the Page Turners RSS feed using your favourite podcast app.

Subscribe for daily updates and read along with us!

Tales from the Defrag is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome to my first read of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

If you missed any of the previous chapters, please find them all linked here on the Page Turners podcast page.

Book One, Part One, Chapter 5

The guests leave, and Prince Ippolit behaves inappropriately with the young princess. Subsequently, Pierre visits Andrei's place, where they discuss Pierre's career aspirations and the impending war.

If you want to read along, I’m using the Oxford World’s Classics edition (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, edited by Amy Mandelker).

You can also listen to this read-through on my YouTube Channel or via the Page Turners RSS feed using your favourite podcast app.

Subscribe for daily updates and read along with us!

Tales from the Defrag is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome to my first read of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

If you missed any of the previous chapters, please find them all linked here on the Page Turners podcast page.

Book One, Part One, Chapter 4

Anna Drubetskaya, displaying unwavering determination, engages Prince Vasili in discussions regarding securing a favorable position for her son Boris. Concurrently, Andrei intervenes to save Pierre from a confrontational situation with the Vicomte Mortemart.

If you want to read along, I’m using the Oxford World’s Classics edition (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, edited by Amy Mandelker).

You can also listen to this read-through on my YouTube Channel or via the Page Turners RSS feed using your favourite podcast app.

Subscribe for daily updates and read along with us!

Tales from the Defrag is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome to my first read of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

If you missed any of the previous chapters, please find them all linked here on the Page Turners podcast page.

Book One, Part One, Chapter 3

The party is in full swing. Pierre engages in a political debate with Abbé Morio. Prince Andrei enters, appearing handsome yet bored, but his eyes brighten upon spotting his old friend Pierre.

If you want to read along, I’m using the Oxford World’s Classics edition (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, edited by Amy Mandelker).

You can also listen to this read-through on my YouTube Channel or via the Page Turners RSS feed using your favourite podcast app.

Subscribe for daily updates and read along with us!

Tales from the Defrag is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome to my first read of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

If you missed any of the previous chapters, please find them all linked here on the Page Turners podcast page.

Book One, Part One, Chapter 2

More guests arrive, among them the delightful Princess Bolkonskaya, and then there's young Pierre Bezukhov, back from abroad on his first social gathering.

If you want to read along, I’m using the Oxford World’s Classics edition (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, edited by Amy Mandelker).

You can also listen to this read-through on my YouTube Channel or via the Page Turners RSS feed using your favourite podcast app.

Subscribe for daily updates and read along with us!

Tales from the Defrag is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is my first and slow read of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece War and Peace. Shoutout to Simon Haisell who has prompted me to finally read this book. He is doing an all-year-long community read-through on his Substack footnotes & tangents.

Book One, Part One, Chapter 1

In 1805 St. Petersburg, Anna Pavlovna warns Prince Vasili about Napoleon, dubbing him the Antichrist. Amidst war talks, she praises Vasili's children, especially the gorgeous Helene, but deems Anatole a rogue. Vasili asks Anna to set up a meeting between Anatole and Mary Bolkonskaya, the lonely daughter of the reclusive Prince Bolkonski.

You can also listen to my read-through on my YouTube Channel.

I tried the AI transcript option but partly translated the first paragraph from French into English. It got progressively better at transcribing all the French bits mostly correctly. Impressive. Still, not going to add it here.

If you want to read along, I’m using the Oxford World’s Classics edition (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, edited by Amy Mandelker).

Tales from the Defrag is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is Part Two of the Chronicles of Samuel Carter. If you haven’t read Part One yet, please find the link below.

And now for the continuation…

Part II – Chapter Five: The Circle

A blood moon shone down on a stone circle, seven hooded figures, eyes to the sky, arms wide, entranced in chant.

Talha Ka Ran Bara’da Kan.

The air whispered with static, the forest shook, a night owl fled with a shrieking hoot, trees moaned in the wind, lamenting with a chill that ran deeper than their roots.

A rush of water, bursting bolts whizzing past his ear, metal screaming, sparks of light cleaving vision in two, fading, a moment of nothing, breath stopped, eyes dilated, time arrested, through a scintillating crack in space, the submarine bore headlong into the frozen ground deep inside the Black Forest, crushing trees like twigs, slid onto a sheet of crisp snow and lay still, a strange steel whale stranded on a stranger shore.

Bartleby lay on the floor in the command room, obscured from sight by billowing steam from broken pipes, lights flashed in colours of chaos, joined by a dissonance of destruction, the smell of fear, primal, gripped the professor tight. Petrified, Thomas stood, his face covered in cuts by steel fragments torn by sheer force of impact, the hatch to the torpedo room unhinged, crumpled like a sheet of paper. Something not from this world emerged from the flaming inferno, its eyes orbs of purest light, light that cast no shadow.

The professor fell to his knees, head bowed low. “May Maat save me. ”

“Silence, mortal.”

The words burned in his mind.

“Look at me.”

His head obeyed, and he knew true desperation, a lost child drowning in an ocean of white, his tears red, his flesh curled, unworthy of this cosmic presence; his breath hastened, his heart raced, urging to burst from his chest.

“Maat can’t save you, fool.”

“Please…make it stop,” Thomas seized, veins bulging, body entrapped by light, invaded by invisible fire, boiling blood, skin seething, bones cracking, a weak cry, a whimper, writhing in agony, retching and coughing as the weight of death was lifted from him. “Doctor Carter…” he rasped.

A maniacal laughter echoed through the twisted steel ship.

“Serve or die.”

Bartleby stood next to the command console, chest heaving, a bloodied hand on the EMP switch. “Back into your cage, dog,” he spat.

An electromagnetic pulse shook the submarine, cut the tether between Samuel and the pod and with a shriek, the light split in two and white eyes flickered.

“Nooo!” Samuel cried. Energy erupted from his body, ripped into streaks, waves receding, metal hissed, turned white, a haze of whispers, sins of the father long forgotten, weighed and sentenced, a mother judged, devoured, purged into oblivion. Memories came flooding back to Samuel, grindstones around his neck, he sank against the pod, his noose, humming, soothing, beckoning. His sight faded.

When Samuel woke, he was lying in a warm bed. A scent of pine needles and wax candles filled his lungs, laced with the smell of a wood fire crackling in another room. He could hear voices, many voices, an agitated discussion about what he could not say, the words obscured by thick walls. He wanted to get up but found himself bound. He wanted to speak but found himself silenced by a piece of cloth. He wanted to shout, but no sound crossed his lips. He swallowed hard, a taste of salt and iron in his mouth. He tried to see, but all remained dark, and fear crept into his heart. There, a shimmer, a shape, light. He tried to focus on the sliver of orange seeping through the cracks of the doorframe, but the more he tried, the less he saw. He closed his eyes, swallowed, and lay still on his back, listening in the darkness, concentrating on the sounds, the words, the voices. A name. Interloper. Kill. More arguments. Conduit. Chance. Vote. A decision. The voices fell silent.

The door opened, flooding the room with a sea of amber painting dark silhouettes in darker robes approaching him. One stepped up to him and removed his gag, nothing more than a fuzzy spectre wearing a black hole for a face. Samuel gasped, his body aching, straining against the sharp leather straps around his ankles and wrists.

“Shh, shh. Be still, Doctor Carter. Try not to talk. You are safe now,” the shadow spoke with a soft, sanguine voice, the one he had heard last. “I am sorry it took us so long to bring you here. Ah, but you must wonder, where is here, who are we, and what happened to your companions?”

Samuel nodded, his vision still vague, a hint of a face now wavering next to him.

“Your companions are safe—for now. What will happen next is up to you, Doctor Carter. Your vision will return in time, as will your voice. That other voice, though, we need to make sure it does not return. Do you understand? Your friend, the Spook, put you in this state. In a way, so did we. We did not intend to summon all of Hellstone’s infernal machinery here, only the vessel, only you.”

“Pod,” Samuel rasped.

“Ah, yes. We have recovered the cage. It is empty. Which means the energy must still be inside you, Doctor Carter, which brings us to our proposition,” the leader kneeled next to Samuel, his hooded black blob of a face close to his, a hint of eyes glinting in the darkness.

“Your little adventure, Doctor Carter, has unleashed an ancient force sought by those ruled by such inane belief, to control what cannot be controlled, possessed by greed and lust for power, the good corrupted, kingdoms rise and fall, wars are waged, won and lost, we conquer, we liberate, yet that thirst for blood remains unquenched. More blood will flow, all blood, a flood will wash over the world, drown every man, woman and child unless…we stop the cycle. We are The Circle. You are the Conduit. Thus begins The Ritual.” The man’s lips were close to his ears as he whispered. “Do you accept?”

TFTD Community

Thank you for reading, and to all new subscribers, welcome and thank you for joining! Please leave a comment and say Hi in the chat or on Discord, or drop me a line via email. I am always happy to hear from you.

If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so that more people can discover it on Substack. 🙏

Tales from the Defrag is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is Part Two of the Chronicles of Samuel Carter. If you haven’t read Part One yet, please find the link below.

And now for the continuation…

Part II – Chapter Four: Eye In The Sky

“Samuel Cornelius Carter! Stop licking the wall!” Anthea shouted, but Samuel didn’t listen, standing on the sofa, hugging the wall with his face, his tongue white with chalk.

His mother approached. He tried to get one more lick, but she pinched his earlobe, pulling him away under wailing protest.

Someone was tucking on his arm now, holding him.

A face appeared. Pale, thin, a ghost of a man in grey uniform. Looking past the Spook, Samuel saw an onyx pod. He recognised the shape; he had seen it before. A familiar voice from behind urged him to relax, a strange notion as he felt more than relaxed, detached.

With a flash of light, he was under his blanket in his dark, flower-tapestried room, a bed too small, a half-open brown plywood cupboard covered in soccer stickers, and a cardboard battlefield for his toy soldiers and tanks spread across the carpet. In the middle of it lay a blob of colourful, overused plasticine. For some reason, he felt so hungry he thought about eating it but had already done so once and had decided he didn’t like it. Besides, he had other plans, plans he was mulling over, lying on his back, watching the headlights from passing cars throwing long spidery shadows, crawling across the ceiling, morphing shapes, a creature guessing game, elephants, dragons, bears, snakes, eagles, a giant eye in the sky, a sign. The universe had spoken. They had to do it. He had to tell his friend but couldn’t find his walkie-talkie.

“Are you alright, Doctor Carter?” said Professor von Traunstein.

“Yes, a bit lightheaded…”

“He’s attuning,” said the Spook.

“Bartleby is our CT Officer. He’s on our side.”

“Our side? What side is that? Care to explain?”

“I prefer not to,” the Spook replied.

“Okay… what did you mean? Attune to what?”

Bartleby looked at the Professor, who nodded.

“The energy-based entity currently residing inside you senses the pod, a construct built by who we believe to be the ones who imprisoned your passenger inside these pods thousands of years ago. You have seen this device before.”

“At the manor.”

“That’s right. However, this particular X-Point surrounds the whole U-Boat, an electron diffusion region, within which we have built all this. We shielded the pod inside an electromagnetic bubble. Once we reverse polarity, the energy will be forced from its current vessel and transferred into the pod.” The Spook grinned, his teeth a jumble of yellow. He turned to the professor. “I’d almost given up on you. You’re late. Had to hide inside one of the torpedo tubes yesterday, bloody Brotherhood.”

“Ze snowstorm delayed everything, and then Erich’s men got to us at ze airport.”

“Well, you’re here now. Are we going to do this?”

“Wait—I am the vessel. Don’t I get to have a say?”

“No,” said the Spook.

“Doctor Carter, I’m afraid we are out of time. This is our best chance.”

“Here, take this.” The Spook handed Samuel a walkie-talkie.

Samuel was back in his room, under the blanket, thumb on the talk button. Otto would still be awake, playing with his He-Man collection.

“Otto, come in. Over.” He waited a few seconds. “Otto. Operation C-Bird is a go!” He pushed the talk button again. “Over.”

“What are you talking about? Let me sleep. I can’t tomorrow. Mum’s taking me to the hairdresser,” Otto lamented.

“You have to say Over, Otto! Over.”

“OK. Over.”

“No, we’re doing this. At sunrise, we’ll be back before everyone wakes up. Over.”

“You’re crazy.”

“You finished? Over.”

“Yeah. Over.”

“I figured it out. It will work. I know it.”

The magnetic hum was ringing in his ears. Samuel looked at the walkie-talkie, then at Bartelby and the Professor. “It wants me to remember something…”

“Interesting. Focus on that. We’ll observe from ze command room while you, uh, try to remember. Ze magnetic field should funnel ze energy into ze pod. Think of it like a quick X-ray. We’ll be right outside, Doctor Carter,” said the professor.

They ushered him into the torpedo room. In the centre of it, the smooth oval onyx pod the size of a child exuded a brooding mood. The hatch closed, and the Professor gave him a thumbs-up through the glass. His walkie-talkie crackled.

“Once the field reverses, you will feel a slight tingle. If all works well, we will be one step closer to a better world, Doctor Carter.”

Samuel stared at the pod. The air swirled around it in a haze, yet he felt cold.

“Think of that memory it wants, relax and let it happen. Don’t resist. Ten seconds,” said the professor.

Samuel closed his eyes and counted down from ten. The magnetic hum folded into itself. Nine. Reversing. Eight. Accelerating. Seven. The air crackled. Six. The walkie-talkie slipped from his hand. Five. It didn’t fall; it hung in mid-air. Four. Stuck like a spoon in honey, golden shimmering air dripping from it. Three. Flowing towards the pod. Two. A life cord. One. Connected.

“Doctor Beaumont, Samuel keeps licking the walls. We don’t know what to do,” he heard his mother say from behind a paravent, saw her silhouette and another, a man, blouse rustling, hands groping, mother moaning. “Oh, but the boy…”

“Fast asleep. A slight side effect of the serum. It will pass. Just stick to the dosage, as we discussed. He’ll be fine.”

Fine. So fine. The finest of threads, neurons speeding along, carrying signals to their new destination, impulses, fragments, memories, streaming along a golden network of light, leaving, never returning, gone. Forever.

The receptacle eager, hollow, path to nowhere and everywhere, a nexus of endless X-Points. A sudden surge. Energy ripped through him; a chant echoed from afar.

Talha Ka Ran Bara’da Kan.

Someone was summoning him—it. He felt the pull. It didn’t resist. He could do nothing. He was the passenger, the vessel, sucked into a molten vortex of liquid light.

The SM-Hellstone shook, vibrated, and with a blast of white was gone.

The Science of CARTER

You may have wondered about those X-Points or Electron Diffusion Regions. Interested in finding out more? Here’s a video from NASA. There are also theoretical papers and much more on the MMS website.

The Tech

The tech in CARTER, e.g. AR or VR contact lenses, hints at a near future setting.

TFTD Community

Thank you for reading, and to all new subscribers, welcome and thank you for joining! Please leave a comment and say Hi in the chat or on Discord, or drop me a line via email. I am always happy to hear from you.

If you liked this story, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so that more people can discover it on Substack. 🙏

Tales from the Defrag is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is Part Two of the Chronicles of Samuel Carter. If you haven’t read Part One yet, please find the link below.

And now for the continuation…

Part II – Chapter Three: Thyme

Running down the tunnel carved deep under Hellstone Lake, Samuel glanced ahead, the echo of his footsteps swallowed by the darkness before him. Intermittent phosphorus strips lay along the narrow path like an afterthought, gloomy green moss brooding in the shadows, encased in crystallised droplets of water and sediment, hung from weathered stone.

“How much further?” Samuel shouted, barely registering his own words.

“Almost there,” came the reply from the man running next to him.

The magnetic hum grew louder. The tunnel widened and ended in an oval antechamber, walls made of smooth cobblestone set in perfect symmetry around a dark steel hatch at hip height.

“Here.” The professor handed Samuel a set of earplugs from one of his numerous pockets.

“AR comms?” Samuel asked.

“What?”

“These things? Augmented Reality stuff, right?”

The professor looked at him with a frown. “Earplugs, Doctor Carter. Ze noise?” The professor wedged them into his hairy wax factories and turned to the sealed hatch.

“We’re trapped. That Gorleechen fellow has us right where he wants us. What happened back there?” Samuel squeezed the earplugs between his fingers.

The professor was fiddling with the door, his back to Samuel. “Hmm, hm…hmm.”

“Professor? PROFESSOR!”

“Pressure hatch. We need to get through before Erich catches up. Ah, here.” Thomas pressed, and a hidden access panel appeared with four chrome knobs and tiny black mechanical letters above. “Let’s hope ze legendary fish sausage recipe was worth the price.”

Samuel’s stomach growled at the mention of food.

“One part Zander. One part Hecht. Makes two,” Thomas set the first dial. It clicked into place. “One part Aitel. One part Rutte. Two again.” The second knob obeyed. “All fish filets only, mix and grind together. Then season with…mmm, lecker. Roll into six-centimetre long finger thick sausages, five hundred grams, uh, bread…crumbs, cloves of garlic, lemon juice, parsley, sage, rosemary und—verflixt! There is a word missing.”

“Thyme?”

“Hm? Sometime past midnight,” the professor replied, staring at the recipe.

“No, the herb. Thyme.”

“Ooh, Thymian! Ja, freilich, ich Dummkopf.”

Samuel looked at the squiggly handwriting. “And what has a fish recipe to do with all this?”

“Our inside man in the kitchen, Doctor Carter. Just a little longer, and we’ll be safe. Then I will explain everything.”

Samuel shook his head as the professor turned the third knob to the number six.

“Now for the last one. Five hundred, hmm, lemon, herbs, altogether, five, four, two, makes eleven, hm, cross sum, makes two.” Thomas rubbed his fingers, squinted at the dial and turned the last knob. Once, twice. The metal plate fell into place with a satisfying clack.

The dials rattled and reset with a warning buzz.

“I guess that’s not good?” said Samuel.

“I was wrong. Let me see…four fish, ingredients, not size. This must be it. Four, Five, Four, Two.”

The numbers clicked and clacked and a few seconds later reset again to the sound of many footsteps, and something else, something fast, something growling, something howling, drawing closer, coming their way.

“Give me that!” Samuel grabbed the recipe.

“Vorsicht, it’s my only copy,” cried the professor.

“That line about the herbs is underlined, and here? Why would it say See you next year on a recipe?”

“Johann is a good friend. Of course, he would write something like that. It’s the end of the year.”

“Alright, but here again, the word year is underlined, don’t you see? Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Year.” Samuel looked at the Professor expectantly.

“Yes, Thymian, I understand, but the code didn’t work. We are missing something… ah, the secret ingredient!”

“What? No! The year, the album, the code. Nineteen sixty-six! Simon and Garfunkel. Don’t you see?”

“How would I know that? That was more than two centuries ago. Johann wouldn’t leave me that clue…unless—of course! He knew that you would know. Brilliant, oh my dear Johann.” Thomas took the piece of paper, folded it with care, kissed it, and put it back into his breast pocket, patting it gently. “Here goes nothing!”

The hatch opened with a hiss as pressurised air escaped, orange light flared, alarms blared, and with a howl, something leapt at the professor.

“BAZI. Sitz!” Thomas commanded. The dog obeyed with a yelp. “Good boy!” He produced some strips of beef jerky from his pocket, which the pug slobbered over while they climbed through the narrow hole into an empty two-by-two-metre corridor, grey steel panels bolted from floor to ceiling, soft amber light flowing around them from everywhere. Professor von Traunstein sealed the hatch shut, and the alarm stopped.

“You had food in your pocket this whole time?”

“Ze last of my treats.”

“For a pug?”

“Bazi was my dog, too, once…” Thomas said, his eyes distant, cleared his throat, took a key shaped like a tooth from his neck chain and held it close to the centre of the hatch.

“What’s this now? A tooth?”

“Not just any tooth, Doctor Carter. This is a Hellstone Tooth. The shape is ze exact same as ze lake. Only three keys exist. Erich has one, so did Beaumont,” Thomas grinned, “—and the third, well, that’s another story.”

“This Erich guy has a key? Can’t he just unlock the door?”

“He could, only, you see, I will leave mine inside and thus block ze lock, and he cannot risk forcing ze hatch open without risking damaging ze hull integrity.” The professor winked.

A black groove appeared in the shape of the key. It seemed to breathe, whisper. Samuel shuddered.

“Gently now,” Thomas pressed the tooth inside the opening and quickly withdrew his hand as the hole snapped close with steel teeth. “That will buy us enough time. Come, ze oxygen chamber is right up ahead.” Thomas headed down the tube, light pulsing at his every step.

“I hate tunnels,” Samuel grumbled.

They were sitting in reclining chairs inside the chamber. A scent of essential oils lingered in the air, and from the speaker came soothing sounds of water, strings and flute. The light dimmed, and the procedure began; Samuel felt the pressure in his ears when the music stopped. A voice droned.

“So, you’ve locked yourselves in. Rats in a cage. No matter. I will get what I want. I will melt the flesh off your bones, I will be a god, and you will be a pile of goo at my feet. You hear me, Thomas? I will—”

The professor turned a knob, and the music continued.

“Closed system. He can’t hear us. We need to get you to ze X-Point before—

“I go supernova.”

“It won’t come to that, Doctor Carter.”

“You don’t know that. I can’t control it. What if I pass out again? What if this thing takes over?”

“We’ll transfer ze energy back into ze device, and then we’ll—”

“What device?”

“Beaumont has not told you?”

“No one ever tells me anything.”

“I assumed, since you have been there for so long, Jackie’s attempt at transference—”

“Transference…I’ve heard that word before. Her father…the book…the cage.” Fragments of a memory, a pod, one part trapped, the other free, free to release the light. “This device…it can hold the energy? Is it safe?”

“It is the safest place. You were never meant to touch the staff. Beaumont is playing with things far beyond his comprehension. His interference cost us dearly.”

“Once we reach the X-Point, you can get this thing out of me?”

“In theory—It’s very much new territory. Beyond quantum entanglement, beyond quantum fusion. Pioneer ground, Doctor Carter.”

“I don’t understand. How can you be sure this will work? Who built this device?”

“We don’t know. We think it was built by the same people who made the staff.”

Samuel let out a deep sigh. They both sat in silence for a while.

“If we fail, what will happen?”

“Our findings are inconclusive. Ze energy…defies measurement. Worst case? Ze blast would be big, quite big.”

“How big?”

“A few hundred megatons. We can’t know for sure but Hellstone Lake and everything around it would most certainly be gone.”

Samuel stared at the ceiling. “How long?”

“Impossible to say. But there may be no explosion, and you will simply cease to be.”

“—Not before I get my pretzel.”

They followed the pale green fluorescent strips down to the next section, passed through, sealed the pressure doors behind them, and the deeper they went, the colder it got. The distinct humid odour of mushrooms seeped out from cracks in the walls, spores shimmered in the faint twilight. His nose and mouth tingled, his hair stood on end, they were close now.

“Up ahead,” Thomas pointed at another round hatch in the ground before them at the end of the tunnel.

Together, they strained and pulled, and with a reluctant creak, it opened, and they descended into the steel belly of a ship.

“This is the X-Point?” Samuel could feel the magnetic resonance.

“Welcome aboard the SM-Hellstone, Doctor Carter.”

TFTD Community

Thank you for reading, and to all new subscribers, welcome and thank you for joining! Please leave a comment and say Hi in the chat or on Discord, or drop me a line via email. I am always happy to hear from you.

If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so that more people can discover it on Substack. 🙏

Tales from the Defrag is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is Part Two of the Chronicles of Samuel Carter. If you haven’t read Part One yet, please find the link below.

And now for the continuation…

Part II – Chapter Two: The Custodian

A high-pitched hum wormed its way into Samuel’s consciousness, planted itself there, spread, grew into a twisting torrent, washing away the last remnants of his involuntary slumber. He groaned, inhaling the damp odour of mould, machine oil and grease.

“Doctor Carter? Is that you?”

The words came to him over the rumbling of turbines. Samuel knew that voice. He tried to reply but found himself gagged, bound to a chair, cold, metallic, struggling against the rope, only to tighten it more. He opened his eyes, but all remained black.

“Mmmpf mmml mmmh.”

“Stop pulling ze rope. We are tied together—”

The grating noise of a rusty door, a shaft of light from above, a narrow stairwell along wet concrete walls, heavy footsteps, one, two, three distinct sets, echoing, drawing closer.

“Mmmh!”

“Shhh! Let me do ze talking.”

A cane came down hard on the floor before him, gargantuan black leather shoes, pinstripe pants, matching vest and Homburg hat. A puff of cigar smoke violated his nostrils. A pocked face, framed with a flecked beard, an enormous nose beset with glinting spectacles, and eyes, cold eyes, penetrating him in ways that made his skin crawl.

The turbines ceased, the noise ebbed, and only the low whine of generators remained, joined by the buzz of pale neon light.

“Welcome to Hellstone Lake, Doctor Carter,” the words dripped like fine wine.

“Erich?” the professor said, craning his head left and right.

“Silence! I will deal with you later, Verräter!”

“We are on ze same side, Erich. Don’t you see?”

“Mmmml?”

“You left, Thomas. Went to the enemy. You picked your side. I ought to thank you. Now, Doctor Carter will give us what we want and then…well, and then you die.” He took a long draw and blew a thick cloud into Samuel’s face.

“Aber nein, Erich. Listen. Doctor Carter has come to reverse ze damage. We must help him.”

“We don’t need him for that, only what’s inside of him.”

“MMMMPF!”

The man nodded to one of his companions. A woman wearing the same tailored suit stepped up to Samuel, syringe in hand, grabbed his head and injected him in the neck. The third man in black was watching with amusement, leaning against the wall, flicking a toothpick with his tongue. Erich waved his hand at the gag, and she removed it.

“You cannot do this, you cannot go around kidnapping peo…ple—what did you inject me with?” Samuel tried to swallow in a dry throat.

“A little concoction to relax your mind, Doctor Carter,” said the man, leaning over Samuel, checking the dilation of his pupils.

“My name is Erich von Göhrlichen, custodian of this sacred temple, sworn to protect it from this—” he pointed the cane at his chest. “Do you know what I speak of?”

“I…I—” Samuel’s mind expanded.

“Where is Jackie Rogers?”

“Jackie…she—she betrayed me, she’s—dead.”

“Tell me the incantation,” The man’s voice came to him from far away, his face a cloud of smoke, two hot coals for eyes, melting, flowing down into a pool of tar until there was nothing left.

He saw himself back in the chamber with Jackie. Back in Egypt, holding the Staff of Ra, intoning that incantation.

Talha Ka Ran Bara’da Kan.

The eyes, the eyes were glowing white, a burning gaze, fixed on him.

The room exploded with bright light, and he was at his mother’s funeral, standing at the grave, nervous, sad, forlorn, feeling watched. Watched by whom? Samuel wanted to warn, tell himself to stay put, but it was no use. The son who lost his mother fled as if chased by ghosts. It was then that he saw. Jackie. How? She was looking right at him.

Release the light, Sam. Find my brother. Find Adrian.

Her words echoed in his mind as his captor’s face spiralled into view, holding a hot cigar close to Samuel’s eye.

“Stop it, Erich. He doesn’t know anything. Beaumont kept him drugged. Your serum will make a mess of it. He could die,” Thomas said, yanking the rope.

“He will die anyway.”

“He has ten days. Beaumont gave him stabilising pills. There is still time.”

“You mean these?” Erich held up the pill box.

“Release the light,” Samuel stammered. He remembered. The chamber, the poison, everything. For the briefest of moments, his mind was one with what was inside him. A cosmic union, a sea of stars, birth of galaxies, a symphony of light and darkness, and he felt its unbridled rage, searing through him like lightning and with it came fear, fear of vanishing into that light, fear of what he would become, what he could do. He felt a prick at his neck, and the light shrank as the serum spread through his veins.

“Not yet, dear Doctor. Not yet.” Erich grinned, putting the cigar back in his mouth.

He woke to the scent of pretzels. Disoriented, he thought he was back at the airport when the ropes around his ankles yanked him into the present.

“I’m hungry,” Samuel muttered.

In the corner, the two guards sat at a small table, chatting in German, laughing, snacking on pretzels and drinking beer. This was a different room, smaller. The air was earthy and stale.

“Hey.”

The guards ignored him.

“They moved us while you were out,” said Thomas, fiddling with the buttons on his jacket.

“I really could use that pretzel now.”

“Hold out a little longer, my friend. I will get us out of here.”

“What’s that noise?”

“Ah, ze magnetic shield. We are deep under ze Hellstone Lake. Can you not feel it? The X-Point?”

“That’s where I am supposed to go.”

“Ja, but not yet. We need ze pills. Ach, that blasted snowstorm—Erich is wrong, I’m no traitor.”

“So, you don’t work for Beaumont?”

“I do—it’s complicated. I promise you, I will get you out.”

“Like you promised me that Brezn?”

“Ruhe! No talking,” barked the guard.

Thomas craned his neck to check the two guards while turning his buttons.

“I will get you as many Brezn as you can eat. Promise. You must trust me. Beaumont does not know everything, you see, neither does Erich. I can help you.”

“Because you know everything?”

“Of course not. I know enough, and this is only ze first step, not only to save you but everyone who has vanished, ja, I know about that. We are missing a piece of the puzzle. Another X-Point.”

“You mean…”

“There are many, at least a dozen, if not more, no one knows for sure. They are all connected, and no one could figure out how. Not until…”

“I used the staff.”

“Exactly.”

“So, why do you need me? Beaumont has the staff.”

“Ach, der staff is useless now. Ze energy—” Thomas made a swooshing sound towards him.

“Went into me.”

“Ja. Und now everyone wants to get that energy. Control ze gates.”

“I said QUIET!” The guard threw a piece of pastry at them.

Thomas turned the buttons on his tweed jacket some more, a soft click followed by a hiss and the rope was cut.

“Laser buttons,” Thomas whispered, cutting Samuel free.

“Who are you?”

“A professor of Egyptology, like you,” Thomas winked.

“I must have missed the button brief—”

“Ready?”

“Hold on—”

Thomas screamed in panic. Smoke came from his tweed jacket, little flames licked at the fabric. The guards ran over shouting, opening the cell, and before Samuel knew it, Thomas had knocked them out.

“Your jacket…”

“Harmless but effective.” He patted out the remaining flames.

“Are they—”

“Ausser Betrieb. Temporarily.” Thomas took the keys and went to the door when they heard someone clapping. The sound came from the speakers on the wall.

“Bravo, Thomas. Bravo. Do you really think I’m that stupid?” Erich’s voice was like acid.

“Erich…”

“Don’t you Erich me. I trusted you. I didn’t want to believe it. You broke my heart.”

“You have to let us go, Erich. Doctor Carter—he’s not ready. He needs ze pills. If you force this now, you will doom us all.”

“The pills? You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“Tic-Tacs. That’s all they are. Mints. A placebo. Beaumont lied. They don’t suppress anything. It’s all in his head.”

Samuel stared at the speaker. That simmering feeling of rage resurfaced, his vision blurred, his eyes bristled, turned white, they burned, he screamed.

When he came to, the cell lay in ruins, walls blackened, cracked concrete, his eyes felt numb, and everything was blurry. He tried to get up, fell back down, looked around him and saw the Professor on the ground behind him.

“Professor?”

Thomas moaned. Samuel crawled to him and helped him to sit up.

“Are you hurt?”

Thomas coughed and patted the dust from his jacket. “I’m fine. Sturdy tweed,” he said with a weak smile.

“What happened?”

They helped each other up and Thomas looked at him. Samuel could see the fear in the man’s eyes.

“You happened.”

Samuel Carter – Adventure Series

Why hasn’t Hasbro called, yet? 😅

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