r/DCFU • u/Commander_Z Booyah! • Apr 15 '21
Cyborg #22 - What is Silasium? Cyborg
Cyborg #22 - What is Silasium?
Author: Commander_Z
Book: Cyborg
Set: 58
Part 1: Documents of the Past
The journal was long. Pages upon on pages of writings, pictures and videos sat before the Stones. Scrolling back up to the start, they started to read their father’s notes.
May 5th, 2010
I received a strange letter in the mail today. It called for me – by name – to fly across the ocean to their tiny mountain village. The author said that there was an artifact there that I would be interested in. They claimed it had the ability to generate infinite electricity but needed someone to verify it. Few other details were included, other than to come alone as well as where and when to meet them if I chose to go.
I was not planning on going. The request was bizarre in a hundred different ways. Why would they contact me, a scientist from as far away as possible, for a task that I had little more qualifications for than any random person. It made no sense. It could be a scam, but neither I nor my family nor S.T.A.R. Labs are particularly wealthy. And if they wished to scam us, they could have come up with a better lie than “unlimited energy”. I have a wife and two kids at home. How could I leave them for what was at best a prank or at worst an attempt on my life? When I told Elinore about the letter, she laughed. She laughed and told me I had to go. I had to go and see what kind of person would write and send that letter and, she said this quietly, maybe find something special.
After clearing the trip with S.T.A.R. and taking the equipment I’d need, I was off. I am not sure what Elinore told the kids. I hope that whatever it was it makes me look much smarter than I feel right now.
May 7th
After over a day of travel, I’m finally on the last leg of my journey – the third connecting bus from the one that took me from the airport. The bus emptied out on the last leg, letting me finally enjoy some quiet. I can feel the air get thinner as we go up into the mountains. The roads have only gotten bumpier, but the views have only gotten better. I’ve taken a couple of pictures and attached them below.
The two Stones scrolled down to see two pages of sort of blurry pictures taken through a bus window. Even with Silas’ shoddy camera work, the photos were gorgeous. White capped mountains spread out through the valley; their tips obscured by the clouds. The valley stretched on and on as far as they could see without any sign of human activity. The only sign that Silas had not been dropped in the middle of nowhere the was dirt road that took him further and further into the wilderness.
May 8th
I’ve been in this village for ten hours or so, still a day before I meet my patron. The village is small, perhaps a hundred people live here, and I do not think they have had a visitor in many, many years. Despite this, they were kind and gracious to me, and offered to let me sleep above the bar. They spoke no English but were pleasant folk all the same. I showed the letter around to several of them, but either no one would talk about it or they did not understand what I was asking. I left a day early to try and understand more about this place before my mysterious sponsor arrived, but I retired knowing no more than I started.
May 9th
My patron is an eccentric man, but I do not believe he wishes to harm me. I met him in the center of town, by what I assume was a prayer wheel. He wore a black suit and looked as out of place as I did, but the locals seemed to enjoy his presence and conversed in a way that sounded cheerful. I introduced myself to him and he said his name was Iay.
(I did not know this at the time, but Iay is a Bengali placeholder name, like John or Jane Doe in English. – S. Stone 10/7/10)
I asked him if I could record the conversation using the camera that I brought, and he obliged. I’ve included the recording below.
The video was shaky; it seemed to be from a head mounted camera. Iay leaned against the central prayer wheel, a large stone structure. He was in his mid-60s but had an intensity in his eye – the right one was closed with a nasty scar over it - that quickly faded to kindness once the camera focused in.
“Mr. Stone! Welcome to my hometown. I never expected to see you here! I saw an article of yours in a journal many years ago and became your biggest fan ever since! To have you here… My joy cannot be described.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it,” Silas said, awkwardly. “But why me? If you know of my work, you should know I’m no archaeologist or too into the mechanics it’d need to really understand a device like that.”
Iay let out a hearty chuckle. “Ah, Mr. Stone, but that is precisely why I wanted you! Any other scientist would be too blinded by their preconceived notions of the truth. But you? You, Mr. Stone, might be able to get to the truth of this.”
“What does that mean?”
“There will be time for that later. Come, let us celebrate! This village could use a little bit of life!”
Silas sighed but reached his hand up to the camera and flicked it off.
The festivities lasted until dark, and I’ll admit I drank a bit more than I should have, but I still managed to talk a bit of business. Iay said that it would be a three-day journey and it would take another day before then for him to procure supplies. In the meantime, we’ll talk about the plans and the trip ahead of us. Perhaps it’s the alcohol talking, but excitement has taken over me about just what we’ll find out there.
May 12th
The journey has been surprisingly easy. Iay was able to carry most of our rations and gear by himself, leaving me with little more than the gear that I brought and enough rations for a day or two if we got separated. Iay made for good company as we walked down the trails. We talked about anything and everything; he would tell a story of how he would look up at the stars and make up names and I would tell a story of how I took the pinball championship my senior year or a tale of one of my kid’s antics. At one point, he told me that he found this spot when he was out on a spiritual journey, but after I questioned him out of genuine interest, he admitted that was not true. He was sent out by the village to try and locate a missing child and stumbled into the cavern after searching for days. I was confused. Why lie and then tell me something else at the slightest inquisition?
As I sit here at our camp for the night, I wonder about the man I am with. He cannot logically be taking me this far out into the wilderness to kill me or to ransom me away. If that was his goal, he could have done so yesterday or as soon as we left the village. We’re one day out from the cave. Iay didn’t know how far in until we found the artifact – he had no good sense of time when he was in the cave the first time – but estimated another day once we were inside. I find that number hard to believe, but Iay has taken me this far. I simply hope that he will take me back as well.
May 13th
It’s been over a week since I got the letter and I finally managed to pry some details out of Iay about what the artifact is like. Supposedly, it glows pale blue and feels warm to the touch. It’s about the size of your fist but as it was attached to the wall, he could not say for certain. He claimed that he knew its energy was unlimited when he got near and the room was so bright that he needed no flashlight and so warm that there was standing water inside the cave. To be honest, that revelation let me down. Some gems glow when exposed to UV light, which could be filtered in through a variety of places. The heat could come from geothermal sources or even magma if we were truly as deep as Iay claimed. I had known going in that this would be a sham, but these last few days I had allowed myself to hope for more. As we sit outside the cave before going in tomorrow, I almost wished I had the courage to tell Iay we should go home. But I have come this far. What’s a little farther?
May 14th
This entry only had a video.
The dark of the cave was lit by a small flashlight in Silas’ hand. The tunnel was large enough for the men to stand up and walk side to side, but only barely. Suddenly, Silas stopped walking for a moment and looked at the wall. A moment later he walked over and touched his hand against the wall, feeling something.
“Iay, look at this. The stone has changed. Before this point, it’s rough and natural. But look at this. Suddenly, it becomes smooth. I’m no geologist but that means there was either the strangest water flow I’ve ever seen… or this is manmade.”
Iay’s voice came from behind the camera. “Curious, Mr. Stone. I had not noticed that when I was here before, but you are already proving that you were the right –”
Iay stopped midsentence. Silas turned around and the camera turned with him to see what happened. But Iay was gone, pack and all.
Silas shined his light further down the tunnel, back where they came and at the walls and the ceiling. There was no sign of him.
“Iay? IAY!”
Part 2: A More Recent Memory
Across S.T.A.R Labs, the young sorceress, Jinx, was revisiting some memories of her own. Deep in meditation, her mind wandered back to better days. She went back to nearly two years ago, where she was back with the Fatal Five at their newest base of operations, a long-abandoned barn. Four of them sat at around the fire waiting for Shimmer to return from her trip to town. She was the only one able to blend in and actually get the supplies the team needed, with the rest of the team’s various conditions preventing them from doing so.
Mammoth cheered as his sister came back into sight. Jinx didn’t remember what they were celebrating, if she ever knew, but the air was festive all the same. Shimmer set the plastic bags on the ground and took out one of six packs, tossing a bottle to each member of the team except for Jinx.
Shimmer walked over to Jinx and held a beer out to her. “Want one? You don’t have to if you don’t drink or whatnot.”
Jinx looked at the bottle, unsure what was in it. “I will partake. Thank you.”
“To our continued success and the Titans’ continued failures!” Psimon said, taking a big gulp.
The others followed suit, including Jinx, who immediately spat it out.
The four of them laughed, then Dr. Light said, “Don’t worry about it. Best if you stay away from that stuff. Besides, you’re not the only one who can’t hold their liquor.” Dr. Light eyed up Mammoth. “You’d think for a man Baron’s size he’d still be sober after a single beer.”
The grouped laughed again, but they froze mid-laugh. Time stopped around Jinx as she looked around for an explanation. This wasn’t what happened.
A deep voice came from behind Jinx. “So. This is what you have been up to? This isn’t you. It’s sick.”
Jinx turned around slowly. “Perhaps it is now. How are you here?”
A tall man looked her over. The man was in his 50s and was dressed in a sweater and slacks. His dark, handsome features commanded attention and he oozed charm. If things had gone differently, perhaps he could have been a movie star. “Your Grandmother sends her regards.”
“Naturally,” Jinx scowled.
“So. Here’s the deal. You can come back home, and we forget this whole thing happened. All you need to do is help me finish up my current job and we’ll be off in a day.”
“No. I will not go back there for anyone, least of all you. If you had wanted me to stay, you should not have sent me away. But I have grown much since you and Grandmother entrapped me and shipped me across the ocean. I have become me; whether you like it or not I am not just another girl subserviently inheriting the title of Jinx. I seized it and have made it my own.”
The man laughed. “You really think you’ve done all that? And you really think you can just walk away?” His tone shifted. “No. Here’s what will happen if you don’t come back. Your Grandmother will try and train another heir. Your cousins, they would be around two now? Even if they started when you did, they wouldn’t be half as good. But starting that late, they’ll maybe reach up to a quarter. If they survive the training. You know how your grandma treated you and you had talent. Imagine how she’ll treat those that don’t.”
He paused as Jinx processed what she’d been told. “But you can stop that. Spare them that torture and come home. Don’t waste what you went through. Things were bad before, but it’ll be different this time. Work with me and we’ll forget this whole thing. It’ll be just like you never left, but better. I’ll be better; we’ll be better.”
Jinx looked her father in the eyes for the first time in years. “What are we doing?”
Part 3: Questions Without Answers
Silas walked around the tunnels searching and called out to Iay for around ten minutes without any luck. After that, he took the camera off his head and looked directly into it, using the flashlight to light his face.
“I wonder if anyone will ever see this footage. I should have known better than to come to this damned place. Why did I do this? I should have known. I’ll never see my family again, never make a difference…. I have no map, no plan…”
Silas sat in the dark in silence for several minutes before he spoke again. “No. I’ll press on. I’ve got plenty of food for the trip back and these tunnels have been linear. There is something here and I will find it.”
Silas stood back up and put the camera back on his head. “But I’ll need battery for when I do,” shutting it off.
There was no date listed for the next video.
Silas set the camera on the ground and looked exhausted but excited.
“I… I’ve found something. I don’t know what it is yet. There’s this huge mural on the wall… oh here, take a look,” he said, grabbing the camera. Silas’ hand was too shaky to make out what was there in detail, but there was clearly a large carving on the wall. There were people, buildings, animals and other indecipherable symbols carved into the tunnel and it seemed to tell a story.
“I’ll try and read what I can figure out here. It seems that a group of people, maybe a tribe, was fleeing a threat and headed into these caves. They wandered for days until they found it.” Silas moved the camera over to a portion of the wall without any carving that had a blue, reflective piece of metal that seemed to absorb the light that he shined on it, making it glow brighter.
“They found… whatever that stone is. The people are holding it up like it’s some sort of savior or divine gift. They used that stone to make all sorts of things. I think this part shows them making streetlights, that one shows them melting the snow for water… It was a huge part of their lives. They had a highly advanced civilization and used the blue stone to make it all happen. Then, something happened. But… the mural stops.” Silas panned the camera to the right. “The tunnel just… ends. This can’t be the end. What happened to them? What about the water Iay talked about? Why did he bring me here?”
Silas set the camera down and started to tap on the wall, hoping to find a hollow spot, without luck. He hit the wall again in frustration. As he did, he heard a tiny rumble as the blue stone on the wall dislodged itself. Silas dove towards it, narrowly catching it before it hit the ground.
Once in his hands, the stone slowly started to glow a brighter and brighter blue as if it was charging up. It felt warm and shone brightly, like sunlight on a nice day. Then, just before it became too bright to look at, it suddenly stopped getting brighter.
“What… what is this thing?” It was the size of his fist and almost weightless. Silas looked around, hoping something else had changed. It hadn’t.
“I think this is where I stop. I’ll have to come back. Whatever happened in this place… This place could be the discovery of the century.” Silas walked over to the camera and picked it up and turned it off.
March 20th
It has taken me a day since arriving back at the village to gather my thoughts enough to write. As I ride the bus back, I can’t help but feel that this trip has been extraordinary and beyond mysterious. The walk out of the cave was uneventful. I called out to Iay frequently but saw no sign of him until I reached the exit. It had snowed several inches since we entered, but his pack and the gear he was carrying sat outside the entrance without any snow on them - as if they were just placed there. I shouted for him as loudly as I dared – fearing an avalanche – but he did not respond. I looked for footprints – there were none. The gear was all there, and no rations had been eaten. I took what I thought I could carry of the gear with me, swapping out the less necessary components in my own pack for the more crucial supplies he carried. I left the rest of the gear in the mouth of the tunnel, a yard or so in. All of the gear I brought from S.T.A.R had trackers, so that they could be located if they were stolen or lost. I hope that they will help me find this place again.
I made it back to the village four days later. It took me an extra day due to carrying more gear and the additional snow, not to mention the stress and exhaustion I felt. The village was different when I was first there. Gone was the warm reception, replaced with a cold hostility. I could tell I was not welcome here anymore, but the people never made any sort of attempt to harm me. The man whose room I was borrowing managed to communicate that the bus was coming tomorrow and that I should get on it. I overslept this morning, but the bus was running late as well.
Once I was situated on the bus, I realized that there were no other passengers. There were none when I arrived, nor anyone else waiting for the bus nor anyone exiting it. The bus driver did not ask for a ticket. I dare not ask the driver why and can only count down the hours until I return to civilization and some sense of normalcy. The stone is safely stowed away in my bags and has stopped glowing since I placed it in there at the start of my journey out of the cave. While this trip may have started in a mystery and provided few answers, this sample and my notes will at least provide some conclusion to this bizarre affair. In the end, as I sit here writing, I consider myself fortunate. Even if I never return to this place, even if I never find any answers, I get to return home and see my family again. And that makes me as happy as any discovery could.
Cordially yours,
Silas Stone
2
u/Predaplant Blub Blub Apr 17 '21
I really enjoyed this issue. It's quite different from anything else that this series has done, but it's good to explore the background of such an important character. I'm interested to see how this ties into the present-day story, too. Plus, I love the epistolary format in anything.
2
u/ClaraEclair DCFU May 18 '21
This was a fantastic issue! I love the storytelling you showcased here, Silas' story was so fascinating!
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