Power Relic

Chapter Sixteen: The Tune of the Hum

They followed Andrew through the hallways until they came to an open underground cavern. There were many large cities they could see in the distance when the rocks were not obstructing the view. Large speakers were built into the walls that played very strange music leaving echoes through the caverns. Sam could see more of the underlings listening to the music and some stopped to watch them as they passed by. 

Andrew guided them through one of these damp tunnels which opened up to another large cavern with a building standing in the rock ground. Sam's uncle had lead them inside to a room with radio and recording equipment. There was a window that had some seats in front of it and another room with a seat for one person to sit in front of a computer and control a row of speakers and computer monitors.

"This is our music studio where we use our brains as the instruments," A voice told them. They turned around to see that Vult Ravik had just entered the room.

Rufus jumped and June almost began to scream before Rufus covered her mouth quickly and smiled. There was a brief period of silence until Reegan spoke.

"I just prefer my flute here for making music," Reegan said.

Kenneth laughed at Reegan, he had been trying to hold it in for the longest time. Sam had noticed that Kenneth was being extra rude today and he suspected that Kenneth knew about whatever it was they had done to drug Reegan's food.

"Look at this guy and his funny flute and child's knapsack!" He said as he laughed and pointed at Reegan while giving June a nudge. June responded by kicking him in the leg as hard as she could which surprised Kenneth. Andrew gave Kenneth a glance as a warning to behave himself.

"Let's have one of the children try," Andrew commanded.

"No thank you!" said June.

Rufus seemed hesitant to sit in the chair.

Rufus shook his head and took a step back. This caused Vult Ravik to examine them as though he was not entirely convinced the mind control was working. Sam noticed this so he stepped forward to say "I'll give it a shot!" He entered the room through a glass door and sat in the chair. A pair of metal sensors extended out of the chair and positioned themselves on opposite ends of his skull. The Computer monitors turned on and showed a solid line wave.

"It's like a keyboard Sam think of a sound and will it to go to the speaker!" Andrew said.

Sam thought hard about making the line move, and as he did some squeals and squawks came from the speakers. He realized maybe these horrible sounds happened because he was too tense and trying too hard so he took a deep breath and relaxed. 

Pleasant sounding musical notes began to come from the speakers not unlike electronic drumbeats and guitars. Sam began to experiment with different beats and how to loop them. He quickly figured out how to create a complete song by choosing sounds from his mind and placing them on separate wave lines layers each having its own speaker.

"Ow my ears that sounds terrible! You're really no good at music Sam!" Kenneth shouted  through the intercom from the other room.

"Let me try again!" Sam said deleting his previous song. He was going to give it a real good attempt this time now that he had learned how the software worked. Sam focused, He remembered the catchy tune that would always come to his mind. The tune he had only ever hummed to himself when he was alone at his pond with the fish and other animals listening.

He focused on that song and soon the waves on the screen began to move and organize themselves into beats. The loops and instrumental wave lines figured themselves out from the song playing in Sam's mind.