Tesla and The TRIAD
“This is the third time this month, Mr. Tesla.”
A Colorado Springs Policeman, holding his hat, regretfully reprimands the greatest mind of a generation.
“I’m terribly sorry.”
Both men abruptly turn as a bolt of lightning fires from the top of Tesla’s Experimental Station. An eerie act amid clear skies.
“As you can see,” Tesla turns back to the officer, “we are making progress.”
“Yessir but I can’t be having whole stables of horses breaking loose cause their shoes are getting shocked.”
“A minor inconvenience, I assure you.”
“Butterflies lighting up, flying around in circles...it doesn’t sit well with the people.”
“Inform them, it is nothing to worry about.”
“An elderly man received such a shock walking home just last week that he fell over, nearly losing his breath.”
“I will compensate for any medical bills he may have.”
A verbal impasse. The officer fumbles around with his hat and stares at the ground as the wide-eyed, unfathomably deep gaze of Tesla looks down upon him. “I’m afraid if these accidents keep happening, we’ll be forced to shut you down.”
The officer looks up. Tesla nods and places a tender hand on his shoulder, “Everything will be fine.”
With a hopeful nod, the officer returns his hat to its proper place and leaves. Tesla smiles before re-entering his lab. Once the door is shut he sighs and bends over, grabbing at his knees.
Slowly, his eyes turn upward, staring at the base of the antenna of his Experimental Station. Uncontrollable. Wild. Dangerous.
It’s during our lowest moments when wild opportunities announce themselves.
“TRIAD.”
Tesla looks around. “Excuse me?” He isn’t scared. Not even startled. Curious.
“You need the TRIAD…” the voice is unlike any he’s ever heard. It’s both near and distant. Clear and murky. It seems to bounce off the walls. No discernible point of origin.
“What…” Tesla stays near the wall of his lab. His back against it, sidestepping, slowly. His hands feeling around, “is the TRIAD?”
“The link you’ve been missing.”
The voice bounces. Tesla listens. He waits. He’s just about got a grasp on it. His eyes focus. He’s got it. He reaches for a weapon and swings with everything he’s got.
Stopped dead in his tracks. An unstable dark figure catches his arm. Tesla drops his weapon. He looks into the dark, glitchy cloud before him...more strength than anything he’s ever run up against.
And, he sees. Within the dark figure’s unstable existence, he witnesses Captain Stirling and his ill-fated ship. He watches the many deaths within Angkor Wat. Two pieces of some mythical object shining brightly, unimaginable power within. And then a third emerges. It hovers over a great oasis. It’s light shining down upon the land. The land dries up, it erodes, and eventually withers into a barren desert.
“If you seek to hold the power of a god you must first visit the land of wonder.”
Tesla is shown thousands of years of history in the blink of an eye. The great pyramids of Egypt, white as snow. Golden at the very top, fed by a continuous amount of sunlight. The power from the sun used as electrical current to construct additional pyramids.
The power becomes corrupted. Used for tyranny.
The fall of an empire. Destruction of a civilization. The last few surviving members carry the mythical object down, underground, for safe keeping...safety for the object, and mankind.
The object rests inside a small chest. The chest closes. Darkness surrounds. Slowly, the view rises up, back to the surface. It's now modern-day Egypt and a visual of the Sphinx, its eyes penetrating deep into Tesla’s existence.
The dark figure releases Tesla. He staggers against the wall. Frightened, shook, in disbelief.
Slowly, the figure disintegrates.
“Wait...who are you?”
“I am the one who will unite The TRIAD,” the figure coldly responds. Its face slowly comes into focus...we see Vhodka Black, then Catalina Cortes, and Nikola Tesla, and then someone unfamiliar...the face goes dark and the figure vanishes up toward the ceiling, into Tesla’s station antenna.
The familiar policeman appears anxious, standing at Tesla’s door.
Knock. Knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock.
Nothing.
He sighs and looks over his shoulder at a superior officer. All he can offer is a shrug.
two
Nikola Tesla, face half covered, surveys the side of the Sphinx with an English-speaking guide.
Tesla pulls on the man’s sleeve.
“Here?” the guide asks. Tesla nods. The man digs and digs and digs.
Tesla watches the guide while surveying the area.
“More?” the guide stops, looking up. His results, thus far, yield nothing but dirt.
Tesla nods. The guide’s shoulders slump. He goes back to it.
The wind picks up. Tesla shields his face from the intrusive sand. Voices catch his ear. They aren’t far off. This isn’t New York. It’s not France. Hell, this isn’t even Colorado. Tesla knows he needs to watch himself.
He leans in to stop the guide.
“I hit something!”
Tesla pauses. The guide digs with his hands. He aggressively carves into the ground with the head of the shovel. A black hole emerges. Cool, ancient air flows from it. Tesla encourages the guide to keep going. He hurries...time is of the essence.
He looks to Tesla. Tesla nods and drops down, wiggling his skinny frame through the hole and into what lies beneath.
Darkness.
A drastic dip in temperature, and aura.
Tesla strikes a match and finds the room he’s inside to be very, very small.
“Hurry, Mr. Tesla!” the guide urges.
Tesla kicks around. His feet slam against something hard. He drops to one knee and brings the match in close. A chest. It’s familiar. A brief glimpse amid a rapid montage of memories. With trembling hands, he drops the match and opens the chest.
The match goes out. Darkness returns once again. He feels around. His fingers tapping up and against the precious metal walls of the chest. There’s nothing inside.
It’s gone.
“Mr. Tesla, please! We’ve got to go!”
He can’t believe it. All this way for nothing.
A scuffle breaks out above. His guide emits shouts of strife. Tesla reaches for another match. He strikes it against the floor. In doing so, part of the floor gives way.
Curious, Tesla leans in, peeking through the hole. This mystery goes deeper into the Earth. He takes his match and pushes it through the small hole, peering with a curious gaze. There’s something down there...but he can’t make it out.
He drops the match...it falls, landing on a stone floor. Its flame increasing and increasing. Tesla’s eye catches the bottom row of a stone case. Atop it are several ancient-looking books and scrolls.
“Alexandria…” the words fall from his awestruck mouth. His eyes lust for more.
He’s then stolen away.
Tesla is in trouble. His guide has already been removed, taken to god knows where. Has his curiosity finally got the better of him?
The guard on duty, staring down at the bound Tesla, has nothing but hate in his vision.
Sounds of agony and torture portend Nikola’s fate. If this is the end of the road, at least he met it doing what is in his nature.
A second guard enters and speaks to the one standing vigilant. The native tongue increases in tone and aggression until the second guard knocks the previous one out. He bends down and releases Tesla from his bindings, escorting him away from the room in a hurry.
Illumination. A simple thing taken for granted. So welcomed whenever it’s returned to us.
The blindfold removed, Tesla stares out across the Mediterranean. A boat awaits.
“You seek it,” An English-speaking voice with a heavy Egyptian dialect sneaks up from behind. Tesla turns around, face to face with the man who saved him.
“The TRIAD.”
The man nods, “It was stolen away from here hundreds of years ago. A group of scavengers, hyenas took it away like thieves in the night. Away from our protection.”
“Where did they take it?”
“I don’t know. But these men,” he signals toward the boat, “they claim to have seen structures like what we have here. There’s only one item in this world that can build such things.”
Tesla nods. He extends his hand, “Thank you.”
The man does not release his grip, “You are a good man, yes?”
Tesla looks down. He ponders. His eyes come up, “I...I think so, yes. Better than some, anyway.”
The policeman returns to Tesla’s Station. He knocks on the door. This time, he’s accompanied by his superior.
After a few unanswered knocks, the superior gives it a try, rattling the door as hard as he can with a stick. Nothing. The familiar policeman shrugs, seeing his superior storm away. His eyes glance upward, tiny strings of electricity dancing around the needle of the station.
“We are almost there, Mr. Tesla,” a man with a heavy, Spanish dialect informs.
Tesla shoves his way through thick foliage and even thicker air. He’s drenched. They’ve come a long way with no end in sight. All on the word of a few wide-eyed, curious fisherman and their woefully undersized boat.
Curiosity can get a man killed.
As is typically the case when journeying along an unknown path, just when you’re about to give up, the destination reveals itself. They step through a final, painful thicket of brush before entering an area so ancient, so majestic it had to be concealed by nature to protect those within and without.
Tesla removes his hat, staring up at the ancient pyramid in wonder. While different, it’s the same. Just like the pyramids of Egypt, this is a modern mystery, a work of art, an inexplicable act of engineering.
There’s but one source capable of constructing such a landmark.
And, at the top, the consistency changes. Another ‘antenna’. Tesla stumbles forward, toward the pyramid. His guide reminds him to keep his wits. He points out the guards surrounding the temple.
“Blind,” he explains, “the power within wears them down over time. First they lose their senses, then they lose their minds.”
Tesla steps up to a guard. His eyes calloused over. A sense of security falls over Tesla. He moves past the guard, closer to the pyramid. The guard instantly animates and extends a sword across Tesla’s neck. Tesla’s eyes widen as he halts progression.
The guide speaks in their native tongue to the guard. The guide shouts, knowing the guard’s hearing is failing right behind his sight. Slowly, the guard removes the sword and Tesla is encouraged to move forward, into the pyramid.
Before entry, he turns to his guide. “I’m good out here, friend,” the guide answers the question before it can be asked.
This is Tesla’s journey and his alone.
He does not hesitate. Into the darkness, the world’s greatest mind travels. Feeling along hallways. Bumping into stone. He strikes match after match to help lead the way. The pyramid echoes and it groans. Wind howls, carrying both life and death beneath its wings.
Striking a new match, he holds it up and sees a triangle logo above a passage. Eager, he steps forward and enters a squared, stone chamber. A chest at the back. He drops the match and hurries forward. Tesla opens the chest and a blinding light pushes forward. He leans back, covering his eyes. The entire room is illuminated. Standing, he observes drawings on the wall.
A hyena stealing a magnificent prize.
A one-legged warrior claiming theirs.
Dragons and ghosts.
A third prize hangs in the balance. Electrical current firing in every direction. 12 warriors battling underneath. Tesla approaches, enamored with the renderings of electricity.
At the back of the room is a depiction of a giant pyramid with all three objects coming together to form the TRIAD. Unspeakable power pouring out of it...up, into the sky, and across the land. One warrior standing tall beneath it.
The power to illuminate the entire world.
“This is it,” Tesla murmurs. He backs up and drops to one knee. Throwing caution into the wind, he reaches in and grabs the Wit piece of the TRIAD.
three
Outside, the guide awaits. Nerves shaking down his legs. Fight or Flight on the verge of kicking in.
“Mr. Tesla,” he remarks, seeing a figure emerge. A small string of electricity hits the ground and strikes his foot, running up his leg. His bones tremble.
Tesla emerges, an electric current running through him. The guards turn, ready to defend. Tesla calmly reaches out and touches the side of the pyramid. It comes alive.
It glitches and sizzles at the top. Electricity popping, trying to connect. Then, a bolt fires down from the clear sky and shakes the great structure. Current flows through and around everyone. The weapons held by the guards are removed from their grasps and tossed away. One by one, each guard has the blinds taken from their eyes, vision restored.
They fall to their knees, shaken. Overwhelmed with emotion. Tesla calmly removes his hand and turns to his intimidated guide.
“This is what I came for. This is what I need.”
The guide is speechless. He looks to the guards, nervous. But, they all genuflect around Tesla.
“Electricity for everyone. Cheap and affordable. Worldwide communication. This,” he shows the guide the Wit piece of the TRIAD. The guide has to shield his eyes, “Will illuminate the world.”
An eager Tesla returns home to his Station in Colorado Springs. Carrying his piece of the TRIAD in a secure box, he hurries for the front door, excited to test this ancient power with his modern technology.
“Mr. Tesla.”
He turns. The policeman has been waiting.
“Yes…”
“Where have you been?”
“On a journey of illumination.”
“Okay, well...the town is ready to throw you out. People keep getting shocked by bolts of electricity. The animals keep acting up. I think…”
“Come in and see!” Tesla, too excited to entertain the pithy details of what some regular town folk think, waves the officer in behind him.
“Sir, I’m supposed to report that you’ve returned. They are waiting…”
Tesla removes the piece of the TRIAD. The policeman stands back, shielding his eyes. “What…”
“Watch.”
Confident, Tesla places the piece of the TRIAD into his modern technology and lets it go to work.
Tesla stands back, forcing the policeman to watch as the TRIAD shines and shakes...small electric currents flaring up. It fires off a steady stream of electricity up and into the antenna of Tesla’s station. Both men look on in wonder.
“It’s working,” Tesla excitedly shakes the officer who looks prepared to evacuate. The entire room seems to elevate. Their hair stands on end. And then…
A loud BOOM! The electrical current fires out! The windows shatter. Tesla and the policeman duck.
All goes quiet.
“Are you okay?” Tesla asks.
The officer nods, with wide eyes and a dry mouth.
Tesla approaches his ancient artifact. It appears dormant. He looks upward and sees extensive damage to his station.
“Mr. Tesla,” the officer calls out.
Tesla turns and finds the officer staring out the front door. He joins him. Everything is quiet and dark. “Where are the lights?”
The quiet doesn’t last long. Screams. Shouts of anger. Confusion. Torches start to light.
“It must have blown out the electricity…”
The policeman turns to Tesla, “They’ll be coming for you. You’ve got to leave.”
Tesla hurries, boxing up the TRIAD and gathering what he can. He stops and grabs the policeman, “Come with me.”
“I can’t…”
“This town is too small-minded. We need to go to a place with higher ideas. A wider canvas. This…” he holds up the box, “is going to change the world.”
Swept up in the moment, the policeman agrees and together they evacuate Tesla’s Colorado Springs Station.
The policeman sits uncomfortably inside a waiting room with an elderly woman working as a receptionist. He’s fumbling around with his hat as increased levels of volume fight through the thick, wooden door leading into the main office.
“Can I get you something?” she asks.
He’d like to say ‘the hell out of here’ but instead, smiles and shakes his head ‘no’.
We cut inside the office. Nikola Tesla is arguing with JP Morgan.
“$150,000. That’s it,” Morgan’s voice booms confirming his final offer for the seventh time.
“I need MORE,” Tesla fires back. “You don’t understand, this will change the world. You can’t put a price on what this can offer.”
Morgan sighs and cuts a check. He holds it up. The amount is $150,000.
“Mr. Morgan, PLEASE! This will empower people around the world. Give them abilities beyond their comprehension. It’ll enable those without the means to carry out their dreams and make this world a better place.”
The look on Morgan’s face doesn’t match the one on Tesla’s. Two powerful men with opposing ideologies.
Morgan starts to rip the check in half. Tesla grabs it. Morgan snorts, arrogantly and turns back to his work.
A frustrated Tesla turns, exiting. The policeman starts to follow. Before he’s able to do so, the receptionist gets his attention, “Sir, before you go I just need you to sign here, showing you checked in.”
Tesla goes on ahead. The policeman turns back to the desk...as he does, he feels the presence of a powerful man. He looks up. JP Morgan towers over him.
four
“I guess this will do,” Tesla remarks, looking up at the newly built Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe. The Colorado policeman displays a far more marvelous wonder about him as he takes the grand building in.
“We will do what we can,” Tesla acquiesces, striding forward into the magnificent lab.
Acting as his assistant, the policeman ushers tools in and out as Tesla experiments with the piece of the TRIAD. He watches Tesla try and fail, try and fail, try and fail to accurately harness and focus its power.
The great Nikola Tesla grows frustrated over his inability to properly direct the power. During one such instance, a rogue volt of electricity shoots into the policeman's arm, destroying his watch. A brand new, expensive watch Tesla hadn’t noticed previously.
“I’m so sorry,” Tesla apologizes, “that looks very expensive. Almost irreplaceable.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine,” the policeman assures as though it’s a minor inconvenience.
The experiments continue. Despite his frustrations, Tesla makes progress. His assistant runs in and out of the center gathering necessary items. With each passing day, his wardrobe improves, improvements that go unnoticed by the focused Tesla.
And finally, a breakthrough.
“Look at this!” Tesla shows his assistant some readings. Indecipherable to his assistant’s untrained eye. “Communication. We’ve just intercepted communication from overseas!”
Tesla, overjoyed, tries to shake some of his excitement into his assistant, jostling his arm, “Can’t you see what this means? With the TRIAD’s power we will be able to communicate with people, nations, all over the globe! Wireless communication that travels miles...continents, overseas...this is going to change the world!”
His assistant watches Tesla fall back into a chair, giddy as can be. A lifelong dream beginning to materialize. “There’s a temple,” his brain races, pulling up memories. “A lost ship.” Tesla looks toward his assistant, “Two other pieces. To be able to truly utilize the full power of the TRIAD I’ll need the other two pieces. It’s too unpredictable, unstable without them. It can only do so much in the possession of one man. We need the entire thing.”
The policeman nods. “I’ll see what I can find.”
Tesla woke up that morning with a strange urge. The urge to protect this great power he’d discovered. Compelled, he pieced together a ‘shell’. Unbreakable by most methods known to man. A last resort should the TRIAD find itself threatened by possession of ill-minded hands.
It was more than intuition.
“Oh, you’re back, did you make any headway on that temple or sunken ship?”
Tesla receives no response. So, he turns to firm up his address. As he does, he finds his assistant with a grief-stricken, pain-riddled expression. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Tesla.”
The assistant lowers his head in shame. Tesla peeks out the window to find officers and members from the JP Morgan office outside his station. It appears to be anything but a friendly visit. He snatches his assistant, “What have you done?!”
Tesla moves for the TRIAD. He takes hold of the shell and works to conceal it inside. “I should have known mankind wasn’t ready for something like this. Too much greed. Avarice.”
A loud knock at the door. “Mr. Tesla, open up.”
“The world isn’t ready for this type of power. Not yet,” Tesla utters, closing his eyes. Flashes from the vision he saw weeks prior rush across his photographic mind. He sees the image of a person of virtue. Brave, strong, and witty. He sees them uniting the entire TRIAD atop a great summit.
His eyes reopen, “I must keep this safe until they come along.”
“Mr. Tesla, open up. If you do not by the count of three we will be forced to break this door in.”
Tesla hurries.
“One.”
He fumbles around with the shell, unable to get the TRIAD piece to fit in time.
“Two.”
He grabs the TRIAD piece and closes his eyes.
“Three!!”
They kick the door in. As they do, a great electrical storm erupts, sending everyone and everything flying.
Once the aftershock quells, the invaders struggle to their feet and survey the scene. It’s empty. No Tesla. No TRIAD.
“Well, where is he?” JP Morgan is heard yelling from inside his office.
Nikola Tesla walks the streets of New York. A few reporters seek to attain a rare interview. Locals look on at the individual whose recent reclusive behavior has stemmed his evolution from man to myth.
But on this sunny day, he’s out for all the world to see. Happy, social, and brimming with confidence.
“Mr. Tesla,” a strained, quivering voice calls out. Tesla pauses, looking down. His eyes locate a vagrant. Broke, destitute, and desperate for any form of currency. He rises, grabbing Tesla by his fresh, expensive attire.
“It’s you!” he gasps and hugs the world-renowned inventor. Tesla looks down at the man. It’s the assistant, former policeman, turncoat, if you will, from all those months ago. He’s gaunt, frail, and unkempt. Life hasn’t exactly rewarded him for his treacherous ambition.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he bemoans, having trouble looking his former employer in the eye. “How is the TRIAD, is it safe?” he looks up. As he does, he meets an unexpected gaze. The eyes of a stranger.
Tesla looks down at the man, baffled.
After an awkward moment, Tesla smiles and places a few coins in the vagrant’s soiled palm, “There ya go, my good man! Get yourself something warm to eat!”
With a hard pat on the back, Tesla presses forward. A member of the local newspaper asks, “TRIAD? What’s the TRIAD?” Tesla just laughs and provides some witless humor to move the topic along. The reporters erupt with hollow laughter.
The vagrant, and former Tesla assistant, looks on. A smile creeps across his face. He begins to chuckle before breaking into genuine laughter.
Deep within the recesses of Niagara Falls a man, shrouded from head to toe, carefully maneuvers his way through a storage area. He’s carrying a box. It’s simply marked, “Property of Niagara Falls.”
He places it among several other, similarly shaped, marked, and sized boxes. Innocuous to say the least.
With a sigh, he places his hand on the box, “Until the rightful owner comes of age. Stay safe, my friend.”
Our view pulls out. Through layer after layer of cement until we get a look at the majestic roar of Niagara Falls. The TRIAD logo appears.
“That’s my theory, anyway,” A voice interrupts the climactic ending. It belongs to a middle-aged man, average in every way.
He sits in a booth at a small diner out in the middle of nowhere. Across the table is the curious TRIAD duo of PIC and TLS.
“So you know or THINK it’s in Niagara Falls?” PIC asks.
“I think that’s where he put it. I can’t say for sure. Nobody ever saw the real Tesla again after that day my great-grandfather betrayed him.”
PIC looks to TLS. TLS addresses the man, “Where else could it be?”
“Paris, Manhattan, Chicago, Colorado Springs…”
“Seems like a random list of places.”
“To some, sure. But these are places Mr. Tesla achieved his greatest feats. Earning a job with Edison. Earning the attention necessary to help pursue his dreams. The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. His station in Colorado Springs and TRIAD discovery. And, well, I think Niagara Falls speaks for itself.”
PIC and TLS mull it over.
“We’ve had decades, over a century to try and decipher this man and where he may have hidden his piece of the TRIAD.”
“So,” PIC asks, “why are you telling us?”
“Why not look for it yourself?” TLS adds.
“Because,” the man looks down at the cup of coffee in front of him, “the shame of my great-grandfather’s actions has placed a curse over our family. We’ve suffered ever since. This is a burden that needs to be lifted and we’ve been waiting…waiting for the right person to lift it. I think you two, what you’re doing, is that person…that purpose.”
PIC looks to TLS. TLS nods, “Might as well.”
“Alright.”
The man reaches across, grabbing each man’s hand. “Find it. Make sure it falls into the hands of the right person. End this curse. Fulfill Mr. Tesla’s wish and illuminate the world.”
TLS rips his hand away like ‘get off me, man.’ PIC takes his free hand and grips the man’s hand in a reassuring gesture. He turns to TLS, “Well, looks like it’s Paris, Manhattan, Chicago, Colorado Springs and…”
“Niagara Falls.”
“What about the third guy…do you need to run it by him?”
TLS and PIC look at each other and laugh.
Night 9 - Paris
Let the Trials Begin
Night 10 - Manhattan
Night 11 - Chicago
Night 12 - Colorado Springs
Finale - Niagara Falls