The Four Faces of Rath
Never Never Land
Chapter 40
XL
Max didn’t want to, but he managed to force his eyes open through the sheer power of his will. What he wanted to do was just keep them closed and submit to the inevitable… peacefully. It would have been so much easier… so much less… painful.
Light! Bright light! It hurt… Excruciating! Max looked up from where he lay. He was surrounded by fog. Through the fog, everything was blurry… even the faces. Faces? Not faces. Something… but what?
Whatever it was leaned over him. Huge eyes. Nose, too! …huge, and bulbuous. Its mouth was flexible… it curled around and reached back… like… an insect’s proboscis? A sort of sucker… like a butterfly’s. Definitely no butterfly. Too big! Too… ugly! Go away! He couldn’t speak. He moaned slightly. And the monster spoke. Or whatever it was. What was it saying? He couldn’t understand. Maybe an alien language. Didn’t sound familiar to him. Just noises. Unintelligible noises. Hisses and grunts.
Max tried to form words with his parched lips, “Let me up.” The giant insect mumbled back with something unintelligible again. It could hear him. Did it understand him? He didn’t know. What was it? There were others. More giant insects. Max noticed that they all had humps on their backs and that their hands were like giant claws. And they had wings… well, maybe not wings. Max couldn’t be sure.
One of the giant “bugs” opened its wings and removed something from under them. Okay, they had wings. Big white wings. Their bodies were white, too. Their faces were mostly black. Max wanted to do something… anything. But he couldn’t.
Max followed the insectoid aliens with his eyes. His eyes were about the only part of him that he could get to move. He felt like lead. Heavy. Nailed to the… what was it? A bed? A cot? Something. Whatever. He was nailed to it… or glued to it. He couldn’t move a muscle. Why was he even trying? It just hurt. Too much pain. Max closed his eyes. Why can’t I die?
~~~Liz~~~ The thought just popped into his head. Where did it come from? He didn’t remember. Liz! He couldn’t die. He mustn’t die. Not yet. Not now. But the pain! Too much pain.
One of the giant bugs reached down and restrained Max’s right arm with its claw. It wasn’t necessary. Max couldn’t move to do anything. The bug wrapped its claw around Max’s arm… tight… tighter… still tighter… More pain! It’s cutting off my arm with its pincer! The pain subsided then the pressure went away. Was the arm still there? Did they cut it off? The bug walked away. It wasn’t carrying his arm. Maybe it didn’t cut it off. Maybe he still had it. He couldn’t feel it.
Another bug came over and rolled Max onto his side. What? No! Dear God! No! Not that! The bug removed something like a patch from Max’s back then rolled him back onto his back again. Max almost felt relief, but his head was pounding too much. And something in the room was making a loud clanging sound. The clanging would drive him crazy if the bugs didn’t kill him first.
Let me die! Just let me die! What are you doing to me? What are you? What do you want with me? Am I some kind of biology experiment for a bunch of giant ‘bugs’? Let me die in peace.
~~~Liz~~~
Max moaned.
One of the bugs leaned over Max and put something into his nose. He felt a spray enter his sinuses and lungs. It choked him. He gagged and began to cough. What do you want? Who are you?
Max closed his eyes then opened them again after a moment. The fog was going away. It was still there but definitely diminishing. Will the bugs go away, too? Max actually felt hope. Then I can die in peace.
~~~Liz~~~
Max moaned slightly. Mustn’t die.
Actually, the pain seemed to have subsided somewhat. It was merely comparable to a severe migraine now. Max had never had a migraine, so he had nothing to compare it to. Max had never even had a headache! Ever! Not even a mild one. Even after he got drunk from that single taste of alcohol that time on Earth, he hadn’t had a headache afterwards… no hangover as would have been expected.
~~~Liz~~~
I must be strong! Can’t die here! Must fight back!
Max opened his eyes. The fog was gone. One of the bugs turned to him and reached under its wing to take something out again… only it wasn’t a wing, it was… a cloak… a white coat of some kind. The bug took a clasp from under its cloak and placed it around Max’s arm again. Instantly, the pressure returned. Pain… but bearable. Maybe not pain… just… pressure.
“One-ten over sixty-two.”
That was Antarian. Who said that?
The bug looked at Max. It wasn’t a bug. But… Antarian? Not with that face! Max looked again. A mask… a breathing device with a large filter and a hose leading to a tank on the back. All of them had one on. And one of them had some kind of meter in its hand that made a soft, almost inaudible, rhythmic clicking sound like the tic tock of a watch. The clanging!
“Can you hear me,” the alien asked.
Max was surprised that he was able to understand.
“Who are you,” Max managed to ask feebly. “What do you want?”
“He’s conscious,” the alien said to the others. “He spoke.”
The aliens all gathered around Max. Max could see their eyes through the masks. They were smiling. And one of them actually had tears in its eyes.
~~~Liz~~~
“Liz?” Max tried to speak. His mouth was still dry, and it was hard to move his tongue properly.
“I’m here, Max. Stay with us. Fight it! You can do it!”
Fight what? “Liz! Where am I? What happened?”
“Just rest, Max. There’ll be time for that. Just rest. I love you, Max.”
“I love you… too,” Max whispered hoarsely through his parched lips. “You’re the only reason I held on, Liz… the only reason… What happened?”
Liz knew that Max would not rest or stop asking what had happened until he knew. He could be stubborn. He had a whole planet to worry about. It was probably a necessary trait for one in his position.
“We’re working on it, Max,” Liz said. “It’s an unusual virus hybrid. It produces a toxic reaction in the body that causes hallucinations, paralysis, illness… and death. No one has ever seen anything like it here.”
“Where… where did I get it?”
“We’re not sure, Max. We think Michael brought it back from Earth.”
“Michael doesn’t catch viruses.”
“Not just any virus, Max… but this one was specifically engineered to affect Antarian physiology, we think.”
“Where would Michael have picked up something like that? Did you ask him?”
Liz didn’t answer.
“Is Michael…?”
“He’s alive, Max. He’s… in a coma. Maria’s with him… and a team of health scientists.”
“Why didn’t you get sick, Liz?”
“I did, but in me it was mild… and brief. I had just enough Antarian DNA from my past to become infected. You and Michael have more. It affected you more severely.”
“Then… what about… full-blooded…”
“It’s been brutal, Max. We managed to contain it, we think, but…” Liz paused momentarily.
“I have to know, Liz.”
“Several thousand have died. Many more are desperately ill.”
Max buried his face in his hands, and tears rolled silently down his face.
“How did this happen, Liz? How? How long have I been… indisposed?”
Liz shook her head. “It’s been three weeks since you and Michael lapsed into comas. Others all over Antar began to become ill almost immediately. Varec and the others are working on it. Three factories have gone into full time production making these contamination suits. We’ve got them to almost everyone now… everyone left… who’s not already sick.”
“Varec?”
“I’m here, Max,” Varec said, stepping back beside Max. “Try not to worry. We’re handling everything. I’m sorry that we can’t take the masks off, Max. It could be deadly to any of us if we caught the virus.”
Max tried to nod. “I understand.”
“Liz?”
“Mine’s a precaution, Max… both ways… so I don’t give it to anyone else and so I don’t get reinfected. We just don’t know what this virus is capable of.”
“I need to get out of here, Liz. I’m needed…”
“Whoa! Whoa!” Varec said, touching Max on the chest. It wasn’t necessary to restrain him. The fact is, Max still could barely make a muscle move. And every attempted movement produced excruciating pain. “You aren’t going anywhere till you’re better, Max.”
Max groaned. “I hate this! I want to say just watch me and walk out of here… but I can’t do anything about it.”
“Right,” Varec said. “So relax and try to get well.”
“I can’t relax, Varec. You know that.”
Varec smiled. “I know, but I have to say it. I think it’s a law or something.”
“I’ll repeal it,” Max moaned. But he knew Varec was right. Max wasn’t going anywhere. At least not for now.
tbc
The Four Faces of Rath (CC/AU,ALL,TEEN)
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Island Breeze
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Island Breeze
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The Four Faces of Rath
The Four Faces of Rath
Decon Team Antar
Chapter 41
XLI
The door opened softly, and Maria turned to look at the new decontamination-suited figure entering the room. It was Liz. Somehow Maria knew, even with the bulky suits that they both wore. Maybe it was the way Liz carried herself. Maybe it was her walk. Maybe it was some kind of connection that the two of them shared. Whatever it was, Maria knew.
“Liz!”
“Maria… How’s Michael doing?”
Maria shook her head. “Not good, Liz. I’m worried.”
Liz could see that Maria was shaking. She knew that it wasn’t from the virus. Maria hadn’t been affected by the virus… at least, not that anyone could tell. But she still wore the suit as a precaution… and to avoid spreading it to others… others who could get it… and who might die.
Liz hugged Maria as best she could through the bulky suits. Somehow it wasn’t very satisfying. But it would have to do.
“He’s still in a coma,” Maria said, her voice breaking. “How’s Max?”
“He’s starting to come out of it, Maria. Maybe Michael will, too.”
Liz looked at Michael, and Maria picked his hand up in her bulky, gloved hand. Somehow Maria’s touch seemed gentle, caressing, even with the gloves on.
Michael looked so pale… almost ashen. He lay on the small hospital-style bed… so still. It scared Liz. She could only imagine how Maria must feel. She knew how she felt with Max.
“Michael’s going to make it, Maria. He’s got to. We just have to believe.”
“I try, Liz. You know I do. I don’t want to have negative thoughts. But…” Maria started to cry softly… “Look at him, Liz. He’s more dead than alive now.”
Liz looked at Michael again. She wanted to comfort Maria, reassure her. But what could she say? The still, ashen figure lying in front of them spoke more than any amount of words could. Liz looked at Maria’s face, streaming with tears inside the mask.
“Screw this, Maria!”
Liz reached up and removed her own facemask and head covering then stripped out of her bulky decon suit. She was wearing a simple pair of short pants and one of Max’s shirts that hung loosely over the shorts. Maria took her mask and suit off, too, and hugged Liz to her. Then she cried.
“Liz…” Maria said after a few moments, her voice catching momentarily. She sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I don’t think I can go on if Michael dies…”
“You can, Maria. You’re strong. Stronger than you know. But let’s not talk about Michael dying. He’s going to make it. Just keep saying that!” Liz rubbed her hands up and down Maria’s back as she held her close in a gentle embrace. She wiped another tear off of Maria’s cheek and pressed her cheek to Maria’s. “Have faith in Michael, Maria. I don’t know how, but somehow Michael will come through… He has to.”
“I keep saying that, Liz. The hard part is believing it… especially when I look at him lying there like that.”
Liz brushed a tear from her own cheek. “Try to think of his spirit when you look at him, Maria… his strong, vibrant spirit. He’s still here. We just have to pull him through this.”
Maria nodded.
A decon-suited face peered through the small window in the door, then the new visitor knocked.
“We’d better get our suits back on, Maria. The doctors are back.”
Maria nodded. “Thanks, Liz.”
Liz smiled and replaced her facemask, and Maria replaced hers, then both girls replaced their suits.
“I needed that,” Maria said softly.
The face in the door window waited until the two girls were completely suited then came into the room. One could hardly blame them for their caution. No one on Antar had ever lived through a plague like this. The results were horrifyingly obvious to everyone now. It was something that no one wanted to take a chance with or experience themselves. In fact, in the case of full-blooded Antarians, it appeared that few would ever be able to say that they had experienced it. Almost all those who had contracted it had died already. The only real hope the Antarians had was to avoid getting it.
Three health scientists and two Sh’dax-ats, or “cosmic scientists,” of which Varec was one, entered the room, dressed in full decon suits. The term “Sh’dax-at” didn’t actually translate well from the Antarian. It meant “one who is cosmically aware,” and in all the known galaxies there were maybe a dozen at most. Varec was one. Danar-Sol, the preeminent medical researcher and biologist of Xarius, was another. In simpler terms, sh’dax-at meant one who knew everything there was to know in the cosmos… well, everything that any one person could be expected to ever learn anyway. It was a title of singular and great honor. On all of Antar, there were only two scientists who had attained the level and title of Sh’dax-at, and both of them were here in this room now.
Liz touched Varec on the arm, and he looked at her. His eyes looked tired. But they also shone keenly with something else… genuine and overpowering compassion. Varec was suffering almost as much as Liz and Maria were… perhaps not in the same way, but suffering all the same. Michael and Max were very close to him. But Varec suffered with the feelings of every Antarian. He especially bore the scars left by the ones who hadn’t made it. He felt that he had lost members of his family… his children. He felt… responsible.
“We’re going to beat this,” Liz said encouragingly. Varec smiled feebly and nodded. He did not seem convinced.
“Put the Kiren mist into his lungs,” Varec said to one of the health scientists, a young woman about Liz’s age. She placed a bag-like device under Michael’s nose and pressed the bottom, sending a poof of powdery mist into Michael’s nose and lungs. Michael did not move.
“We’ve done this three times today,” Varec said to Liz and Maria. “It hasn’t had any visible effect, I’m afraid.”
“They put that into Max’s lungs,” Liz said to Maria, “and it seemed to help him. He started to come around shortly after they did it.”
Maria nodded.
“We’re hoping it may be the cure,” Liz said.
“Where did it come from,” Maria asked.
“Varec, Ayrgith, and I created it. It seems to help some individuals. We called it the Kiren mist, because the principal ingredient in the substance that it’s made from comes from the planet Kiren from the invisible roots of the corschar fungus that grows there on the bottoms of logs that have lain for a hundred years or more on the soft ground of the Farv’yat Forest.”
“Have you cured many people?”
Liz looked visibly saddened, and she shook her head. “We think Max may be out of danger. Besides him, there were two little boys from the Jarnat Region who responded to the mist and are now apparently well… and they’re full Antarians. But they were young… ten and twelve years old. We’re working now on a possible second generation mist using antibodies from their blood and combining the antibodies with the Kiren mist.”
“Have you cured anyone else?”
Liz shook her head. “Except for these three cases, the best we’ve been able to do is keep some people alive… for now. It’s… it’s just not enough.”
Maria rubbed Liz’s arm with her glove. “That’s something, Liz. Those people would be dead now if it weren’t for you and Varec… and Ayrgith.”
“I know… but a lot of others are dead. We need more to fight this with. It’s just not enough.”
“Ma… Maria.”
It was almost inaudible, especially through the decon suits, but Maria heard it.
“Michael?” Maria rushed to Michael’s side. He didn’t appear to be as ashy white as he had been. Some of the color was coming back. Michael opened his eyes. “Maria, I feel like shit. I feel like a herd of yeggs trampled me down and stomped on my head over and over.”
Maria began to laugh.
“It’s not funny,” Michael tried to say through his parched lips and airway.
“I know, Michael. I’m laughing because I love you,” Maria said, “and you’re alive!” She reached down and put her head, mask and all, next to Michael’s and hugged him.
“I’m thirsty,” Michael said. “Can I get something to drink?”
“I’ll get you a little water,” Varec said.
“Could you… could you… put just a little Tabasco in it… for flavor?”
“He’s gonna make it,” Liz said, smiling. Maria nodded, and tears ran freely down her face.
tbc
Decon Team Antar
Chapter 41
XLI
The door opened softly, and Maria turned to look at the new decontamination-suited figure entering the room. It was Liz. Somehow Maria knew, even with the bulky suits that they both wore. Maybe it was the way Liz carried herself. Maybe it was her walk. Maybe it was some kind of connection that the two of them shared. Whatever it was, Maria knew.
“Liz!”
“Maria… How’s Michael doing?”
Maria shook her head. “Not good, Liz. I’m worried.”
Liz could see that Maria was shaking. She knew that it wasn’t from the virus. Maria hadn’t been affected by the virus… at least, not that anyone could tell. But she still wore the suit as a precaution… and to avoid spreading it to others… others who could get it… and who might die.
Liz hugged Maria as best she could through the bulky suits. Somehow it wasn’t very satisfying. But it would have to do.
“He’s still in a coma,” Maria said, her voice breaking. “How’s Max?”
“He’s starting to come out of it, Maria. Maybe Michael will, too.”
Liz looked at Michael, and Maria picked his hand up in her bulky, gloved hand. Somehow Maria’s touch seemed gentle, caressing, even with the gloves on.
Michael looked so pale… almost ashen. He lay on the small hospital-style bed… so still. It scared Liz. She could only imagine how Maria must feel. She knew how she felt with Max.
“Michael’s going to make it, Maria. He’s got to. We just have to believe.”
“I try, Liz. You know I do. I don’t want to have negative thoughts. But…” Maria started to cry softly… “Look at him, Liz. He’s more dead than alive now.”
Liz looked at Michael again. She wanted to comfort Maria, reassure her. But what could she say? The still, ashen figure lying in front of them spoke more than any amount of words could. Liz looked at Maria’s face, streaming with tears inside the mask.
“Screw this, Maria!”
Liz reached up and removed her own facemask and head covering then stripped out of her bulky decon suit. She was wearing a simple pair of short pants and one of Max’s shirts that hung loosely over the shorts. Maria took her mask and suit off, too, and hugged Liz to her. Then she cried.
“Liz…” Maria said after a few moments, her voice catching momentarily. She sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I don’t think I can go on if Michael dies…”
“You can, Maria. You’re strong. Stronger than you know. But let’s not talk about Michael dying. He’s going to make it. Just keep saying that!” Liz rubbed her hands up and down Maria’s back as she held her close in a gentle embrace. She wiped another tear off of Maria’s cheek and pressed her cheek to Maria’s. “Have faith in Michael, Maria. I don’t know how, but somehow Michael will come through… He has to.”
“I keep saying that, Liz. The hard part is believing it… especially when I look at him lying there like that.”
Liz brushed a tear from her own cheek. “Try to think of his spirit when you look at him, Maria… his strong, vibrant spirit. He’s still here. We just have to pull him through this.”
Maria nodded.
A decon-suited face peered through the small window in the door, then the new visitor knocked.
“We’d better get our suits back on, Maria. The doctors are back.”
Maria nodded. “Thanks, Liz.”
Liz smiled and replaced her facemask, and Maria replaced hers, then both girls replaced their suits.
“I needed that,” Maria said softly.
The face in the door window waited until the two girls were completely suited then came into the room. One could hardly blame them for their caution. No one on Antar had ever lived through a plague like this. The results were horrifyingly obvious to everyone now. It was something that no one wanted to take a chance with or experience themselves. In fact, in the case of full-blooded Antarians, it appeared that few would ever be able to say that they had experienced it. Almost all those who had contracted it had died already. The only real hope the Antarians had was to avoid getting it.
Three health scientists and two Sh’dax-ats, or “cosmic scientists,” of which Varec was one, entered the room, dressed in full decon suits. The term “Sh’dax-at” didn’t actually translate well from the Antarian. It meant “one who is cosmically aware,” and in all the known galaxies there were maybe a dozen at most. Varec was one. Danar-Sol, the preeminent medical researcher and biologist of Xarius, was another. In simpler terms, sh’dax-at meant one who knew everything there was to know in the cosmos… well, everything that any one person could be expected to ever learn anyway. It was a title of singular and great honor. On all of Antar, there were only two scientists who had attained the level and title of Sh’dax-at, and both of them were here in this room now.
Liz touched Varec on the arm, and he looked at her. His eyes looked tired. But they also shone keenly with something else… genuine and overpowering compassion. Varec was suffering almost as much as Liz and Maria were… perhaps not in the same way, but suffering all the same. Michael and Max were very close to him. But Varec suffered with the feelings of every Antarian. He especially bore the scars left by the ones who hadn’t made it. He felt that he had lost members of his family… his children. He felt… responsible.
“We’re going to beat this,” Liz said encouragingly. Varec smiled feebly and nodded. He did not seem convinced.
“Put the Kiren mist into his lungs,” Varec said to one of the health scientists, a young woman about Liz’s age. She placed a bag-like device under Michael’s nose and pressed the bottom, sending a poof of powdery mist into Michael’s nose and lungs. Michael did not move.
“We’ve done this three times today,” Varec said to Liz and Maria. “It hasn’t had any visible effect, I’m afraid.”
“They put that into Max’s lungs,” Liz said to Maria, “and it seemed to help him. He started to come around shortly after they did it.”
Maria nodded.
“We’re hoping it may be the cure,” Liz said.
“Where did it come from,” Maria asked.
“Varec, Ayrgith, and I created it. It seems to help some individuals. We called it the Kiren mist, because the principal ingredient in the substance that it’s made from comes from the planet Kiren from the invisible roots of the corschar fungus that grows there on the bottoms of logs that have lain for a hundred years or more on the soft ground of the Farv’yat Forest.”
“Have you cured many people?”
Liz looked visibly saddened, and she shook her head. “We think Max may be out of danger. Besides him, there were two little boys from the Jarnat Region who responded to the mist and are now apparently well… and they’re full Antarians. But they were young… ten and twelve years old. We’re working now on a possible second generation mist using antibodies from their blood and combining the antibodies with the Kiren mist.”
“Have you cured anyone else?”
Liz shook her head. “Except for these three cases, the best we’ve been able to do is keep some people alive… for now. It’s… it’s just not enough.”
Maria rubbed Liz’s arm with her glove. “That’s something, Liz. Those people would be dead now if it weren’t for you and Varec… and Ayrgith.”
“I know… but a lot of others are dead. We need more to fight this with. It’s just not enough.”
“Ma… Maria.”
It was almost inaudible, especially through the decon suits, but Maria heard it.
“Michael?” Maria rushed to Michael’s side. He didn’t appear to be as ashy white as he had been. Some of the color was coming back. Michael opened his eyes. “Maria, I feel like shit. I feel like a herd of yeggs trampled me down and stomped on my head over and over.”
Maria began to laugh.
“It’s not funny,” Michael tried to say through his parched lips and airway.
“I know, Michael. I’m laughing because I love you,” Maria said, “and you’re alive!” She reached down and put her head, mask and all, next to Michael’s and hugged him.
“I’m thirsty,” Michael said. “Can I get something to drink?”
“I’ll get you a little water,” Varec said.
“Could you… could you… put just a little Tabasco in it… for flavor?”
“He’s gonna make it,” Liz said, smiling. Maria nodded, and tears ran freely down her face.
tbc
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Island Breeze
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The Four Faces of Rath
The Four Faces of Rath
The Snake
Chapter 42
XLII
It had been four weeks since Max and Michael had been officially certified free of the virus. Dan, Diane, Liz, Max, Michael, Maria, Jim, Kathleen, Kyle, Jeliya, Alex, Isabel, Tess, Rayylar, Jeff, Nancy, Philip, Diane, and the Whitmans all sat around the fire at Jim and Kathleen’s ranch estate. Kathleen and Jeliya served everyone coffee or a drink of Snapples and jubish and some light Antarian Jaht-Roo cookies with chilled japo-mevanish, a chilled version of the famous Antarian flaming flan (also known as refrigerated left-overs).
Having no Antarian DNA, Dan, Jim, Kathleen, Alex, Jeff, Nancy, the Whitmans, and Philip and Diane Evans had proven to be immune to the virus. Maria had suffered a runny nose and a bad headache. No one was sure why she was affected, but she was. Jeliya, Kyle’s wife, had been in a coma but survived, thanks to the Kiren mist that Varec, Ayr’gith, and Liz developed, thankfully just in time in her case, as in Max and Michael’s. Tess had escaped being infected, apparently because she and Rayylar had received decon suits in time before she was exposed; but her husband, Rayylar, caught it anyway and almost died from the virus. He, too, was saved by the Kiren mist. Liz had had a mild to moderate case, a bit more severe than Maria’s, but she had never stopped going, even helping to develop the cure while she suffered with the effects of the virus. Diane Casey Klein had contracted a light case of the virus, which in retrospect, might have been foreseen, since she was, after all, one of the “Antarians Too,” the humans who had residual Antarian DNA in them. Kyle came down with a light case. Everyone surmised that it must have been because of Max healing him years before. However, Max healed Jim, too, as well as several others later, yet none of them contracted the virus.
“How many have you saved so far,” Dan Klein asked Liz.
“So far,” Liz said, “1,477 Antarians have been certified free of the virus after having had it. That doesn’t count Max and Michael. They’re technically not full-blooded Antarians, since their DNA is mixed with Earth DNA.”
“That’s wonderful, Liz, Diane said.
Liz frowned. “No, it really isn’t, Diane, when you consider that over thirty thousand have died… 30,283.” Liz added this exact count for no particular reason, but the fact is that she knew the number down to the last individual. She couldn’t seem to help it. She took every death personally. And every one saved was a personal celebration.
“Have you figured out where the virus came from,” Dan asked.
Liz shook her head.
“We think I brought it back from Earth,” Michael said for her. “We just don’t know how.”
“Well, what did you do while you were there,” Dan asked. “Have you retraced all your steps?”
“A thousand times, Dan… a thousand times. I just can’t come up with anything.”
“Nothing seemed strange or out of place?”
“Everything seemed strange! But I still don’t know where the virus could have come from. I’d say Zwolinski could have cooked it up, but he never had the chance that I know of. I mean, he never did anything that could have given it to me, you know.”
“Where did you go while you were there?”
Roswell… I saw the CrashDown and myself as a kid… and Hank. Hank couldn’t have made a hybrid virus. He doesn’t even know what viruses look like. He thinks they’re little sharks swimming around in our blood.”
Diane giggled and shook her head.
“I went to Nashville to see Alex. I went to Boston to see Liz once. Then there was the rock pit… the quarry.”
“Quarry?”
“Outside of Roswell. The shape-shifters had their ship in it. It was buried under the rubble at the bottom. They had an elaborate sort of electronic alarm system… neuronic or something… that warned them when anything was around the quarry and allowed them to see it from wherever they were. You think they could have given it to me?”
“Could be. Would they have had something to gain by destroying Antar… killing everybody on the planet?”
Michael thought about this for a few moments. “I don’t know what they would gain by it. They were loyal to Kivar, and Kivar wanted to take over Antar. I can’t see what he would have to gain by having no one to be the king of. Besides, he would have been affected by the virus, too.”
“And the shape-shifters?”
“I don’t know. They’re not native to Antar. But they do have a similar nervous system… with a few important modifications that allow them to shape-shift.”
“Did you go anywhere else?”
“Yeah. I was on a yacht off the east coast of the Bahamas.”
“The Bermuda Triangle,” Dan said.
“Yeah, so?”
“Nothing.” Dan shook his head. “I just thought it was curious… or interesting. There’s nothing to those legends, so it really doesn’t matter.”
“Didn’t a lot of ships and planes and stuff disappear in the Bermuda Triangle,” Kyle asked.
Dan nodded. “Yeah, a whole squadron of military planes, Avengers I think, disappeared there in the forties. Ships and boats have disappeared there, too. But if you consider the amount of traffic that area has… the sheer number of boats and planes that fly or move through that area every single day… I mean, the triangle reaches from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico and then over to Bermuda… it’s not unusual that that area would seem to be plagued with a lot of accidents… or unexplained occurrences for that matter. I never heard of any aliens getting any unusual viruses there, though.”
“Yeah.” Michael nodded. “I don’t think that has anything to do with it. The yacht was leased by Nicholas… and he was working for Kivar, so exterminating everyone on Antar wouldn’t be in the interest of either one.”
“Who would have an interest in killing everyone on Antar, Michael,” Diane asked.
Michael thought about it and shook his head. “No one. That’s the problem. Zwolinski might have done it in the past… or in another timeline, but he actually helped me to track down Jim’s killers in this timeline. He wanted the shape-shifters and Kivar’s guys, not me. We worked together once he understood that we were on the same side.”
“A snake is always a snake,” Diane said. “I’m not saying he did it, but I wouldn’t be too quick to rule him out. He had the motive and the desire… in the past at least. He had the ability… Didn’t he have a lab and people working with him? And he had access to you.”
Kathleen nodded. “She’s right, Michael. A snake is always a snake, and Zwolinski is always Zwolinski, even when he’s not rattling his tail to warn you.”
“I know,” Michael said. “I would suspect him in a heartbeat, too, but… how? He was very nice to me once we started working together. He never did anything that I know of that could have given me this virus. I watched my back around him. I was never asleep… and I was never unconscious around him. There’s just no way…”
“Did you bring anything back that he gave you?”
“No. I didn’t bring anything back at all… just me… and the clothes I was wearing.”
“Have you had the clothes checked,” Jim asked.
“No. This is the same shirt I was wearing there. It’s been washed since then, of course. It got torn while we were capturing the shape-shifters, and Zwolinski paid to have it sewn up. He also had that little silver monogram sewn on the pocket for me when they fixed the shirt.”
“Zwolinski?” Diane and Dan both asked at once.
“Yeah. But he didn’t do the repairs. A seamstress at a local shop did it. Zwolinski just put it on his account. I didn’t know about the monogram till I got the shirt back. Zwolinski said it was the least he could do for the help I gave him, and he was getting the shirt repaired anyway, so he just had them do it at the same time. It’s nothing… just a few threads. You think that…?”
“Let me see it,” Dan said, moving over to study it closely.
“The thread in the monogram is shiny. It sort of sparkles,” Diane said.
“Yeah. It does look nice,” Michael said.
“Yeah,” Dan agreed. “It does.”
Michael unbuttoned his shirt and took it off. Then he stared at the monogram for several minutes. He turned the shirt inside out and looked at the thread inside the seam. It was the same shiny, sparkly, metallic-looking thread. He ran his fingers over it and looked at his fingers. A few very tiny silvery sparkles remained on his fingers.
“What’s that,” Diane asked.
“I don’t know,” Michael said, shaking his head solemnly. “But I’m going to find out.” Michael stood up and looked at Maria. “You can hang out here if you want to till I get back,” he said. Then he left the ranch house. Maria knew where he was going. And she knew he’d be back with an answer from Varec.
**********
Dressed in full contamination gear, Varec removed the small vial from the chemical bath he had placed it in and looked at the silvery thread in it. Then he removed the silvery thread with a small forceps and placed it on a glass slab, which he placed on the plate of his electron-neuron binary scanning microscope. He turned on the monitor on the wall, and both Michael and Varec watched as the screen came alive… almost literally. The silvery thread, when enlarged to a factor of 200,000X, seemed to wriggle and crawl with tiny worm-like organisms. It was all Michael needed to see.
“He did it to me, didn’t he, Varec? That son of a bitch poisoned me… tried to exterminate our whole planet!”
“Well, it’s a virus, not a poison, Michael, but in a way, you’re right. This particular virus has an unusual profile. It’s part virus, part chemical.”
“Don’t we all have chemicals in our bodies,” Michael asked. “Aren’t we all part chemical?”
Varec nodded. “We are. But this is unique. It’s something I’ve never seen before, Michael. The reason Antarians can’t catch viruses is because we have… I guess you could say ‘mutated’ the DNA of Antarians in such a way that no known virus or bacteria can penetrate our cells or bodies without being immediately destroyed. What Zwolinski has done is create a hybrid virus-chemical… a living chemical! It’s ingenious actually.”
“You can spare the praise, Varec. I’m going to kill the son of a bitch, so nobody’s going to be giving him any achievement awards.”
“I wasn’t praising him, Michael. He’s obviously very evil. I was just amazed by his ingenuity. The chemical that this virus is bound with attacks Antarian cells, rendering them vulnerable to attack by viruses and possibly bacteria. But this particular little creature is also a virus, so it blasts the door open then goes in and… well, you know.”
“Yeah… I do,” Michael said. “Can you use this information to help come up with a better cure or antidote?”
“I think so. It’s the best key we’ve had to what this thing is. We can use it, sure.”
“Keep the shirt, Varec. I don’t want it back.”
Michael left Varec’s lab and drove back toward Jim and Kathleen’s. His jaw was set like a vise; his eyes were like steel. He knew what he was going to do.
tbc
The Snake
Chapter 42
XLII
It had been four weeks since Max and Michael had been officially certified free of the virus. Dan, Diane, Liz, Max, Michael, Maria, Jim, Kathleen, Kyle, Jeliya, Alex, Isabel, Tess, Rayylar, Jeff, Nancy, Philip, Diane, and the Whitmans all sat around the fire at Jim and Kathleen’s ranch estate. Kathleen and Jeliya served everyone coffee or a drink of Snapples and jubish and some light Antarian Jaht-Roo cookies with chilled japo-mevanish, a chilled version of the famous Antarian flaming flan (also known as refrigerated left-overs).
Having no Antarian DNA, Dan, Jim, Kathleen, Alex, Jeff, Nancy, the Whitmans, and Philip and Diane Evans had proven to be immune to the virus. Maria had suffered a runny nose and a bad headache. No one was sure why she was affected, but she was. Jeliya, Kyle’s wife, had been in a coma but survived, thanks to the Kiren mist that Varec, Ayr’gith, and Liz developed, thankfully just in time in her case, as in Max and Michael’s. Tess had escaped being infected, apparently because she and Rayylar had received decon suits in time before she was exposed; but her husband, Rayylar, caught it anyway and almost died from the virus. He, too, was saved by the Kiren mist. Liz had had a mild to moderate case, a bit more severe than Maria’s, but she had never stopped going, even helping to develop the cure while she suffered with the effects of the virus. Diane Casey Klein had contracted a light case of the virus, which in retrospect, might have been foreseen, since she was, after all, one of the “Antarians Too,” the humans who had residual Antarian DNA in them. Kyle came down with a light case. Everyone surmised that it must have been because of Max healing him years before. However, Max healed Jim, too, as well as several others later, yet none of them contracted the virus.
“How many have you saved so far,” Dan Klein asked Liz.
“So far,” Liz said, “1,477 Antarians have been certified free of the virus after having had it. That doesn’t count Max and Michael. They’re technically not full-blooded Antarians, since their DNA is mixed with Earth DNA.”
“That’s wonderful, Liz, Diane said.
Liz frowned. “No, it really isn’t, Diane, when you consider that over thirty thousand have died… 30,283.” Liz added this exact count for no particular reason, but the fact is that she knew the number down to the last individual. She couldn’t seem to help it. She took every death personally. And every one saved was a personal celebration.
“Have you figured out where the virus came from,” Dan asked.
Liz shook her head.
“We think I brought it back from Earth,” Michael said for her. “We just don’t know how.”
“Well, what did you do while you were there,” Dan asked. “Have you retraced all your steps?”
“A thousand times, Dan… a thousand times. I just can’t come up with anything.”
“Nothing seemed strange or out of place?”
“Everything seemed strange! But I still don’t know where the virus could have come from. I’d say Zwolinski could have cooked it up, but he never had the chance that I know of. I mean, he never did anything that could have given it to me, you know.”
“Where did you go while you were there?”
Roswell… I saw the CrashDown and myself as a kid… and Hank. Hank couldn’t have made a hybrid virus. He doesn’t even know what viruses look like. He thinks they’re little sharks swimming around in our blood.”
Diane giggled and shook her head.
“I went to Nashville to see Alex. I went to Boston to see Liz once. Then there was the rock pit… the quarry.”
“Quarry?”
“Outside of Roswell. The shape-shifters had their ship in it. It was buried under the rubble at the bottom. They had an elaborate sort of electronic alarm system… neuronic or something… that warned them when anything was around the quarry and allowed them to see it from wherever they were. You think they could have given it to me?”
“Could be. Would they have had something to gain by destroying Antar… killing everybody on the planet?”
Michael thought about this for a few moments. “I don’t know what they would gain by it. They were loyal to Kivar, and Kivar wanted to take over Antar. I can’t see what he would have to gain by having no one to be the king of. Besides, he would have been affected by the virus, too.”
“And the shape-shifters?”
“I don’t know. They’re not native to Antar. But they do have a similar nervous system… with a few important modifications that allow them to shape-shift.”
“Did you go anywhere else?”
“Yeah. I was on a yacht off the east coast of the Bahamas.”
“The Bermuda Triangle,” Dan said.
“Yeah, so?”
“Nothing.” Dan shook his head. “I just thought it was curious… or interesting. There’s nothing to those legends, so it really doesn’t matter.”
“Didn’t a lot of ships and planes and stuff disappear in the Bermuda Triangle,” Kyle asked.
Dan nodded. “Yeah, a whole squadron of military planes, Avengers I think, disappeared there in the forties. Ships and boats have disappeared there, too. But if you consider the amount of traffic that area has… the sheer number of boats and planes that fly or move through that area every single day… I mean, the triangle reaches from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico and then over to Bermuda… it’s not unusual that that area would seem to be plagued with a lot of accidents… or unexplained occurrences for that matter. I never heard of any aliens getting any unusual viruses there, though.”
“Yeah.” Michael nodded. “I don’t think that has anything to do with it. The yacht was leased by Nicholas… and he was working for Kivar, so exterminating everyone on Antar wouldn’t be in the interest of either one.”
“Who would have an interest in killing everyone on Antar, Michael,” Diane asked.
Michael thought about it and shook his head. “No one. That’s the problem. Zwolinski might have done it in the past… or in another timeline, but he actually helped me to track down Jim’s killers in this timeline. He wanted the shape-shifters and Kivar’s guys, not me. We worked together once he understood that we were on the same side.”
“A snake is always a snake,” Diane said. “I’m not saying he did it, but I wouldn’t be too quick to rule him out. He had the motive and the desire… in the past at least. He had the ability… Didn’t he have a lab and people working with him? And he had access to you.”
Kathleen nodded. “She’s right, Michael. A snake is always a snake, and Zwolinski is always Zwolinski, even when he’s not rattling his tail to warn you.”
“I know,” Michael said. “I would suspect him in a heartbeat, too, but… how? He was very nice to me once we started working together. He never did anything that I know of that could have given me this virus. I watched my back around him. I was never asleep… and I was never unconscious around him. There’s just no way…”
“Did you bring anything back that he gave you?”
“No. I didn’t bring anything back at all… just me… and the clothes I was wearing.”
“Have you had the clothes checked,” Jim asked.
“No. This is the same shirt I was wearing there. It’s been washed since then, of course. It got torn while we were capturing the shape-shifters, and Zwolinski paid to have it sewn up. He also had that little silver monogram sewn on the pocket for me when they fixed the shirt.”
“Zwolinski?” Diane and Dan both asked at once.
“Yeah. But he didn’t do the repairs. A seamstress at a local shop did it. Zwolinski just put it on his account. I didn’t know about the monogram till I got the shirt back. Zwolinski said it was the least he could do for the help I gave him, and he was getting the shirt repaired anyway, so he just had them do it at the same time. It’s nothing… just a few threads. You think that…?”
“Let me see it,” Dan said, moving over to study it closely.
“The thread in the monogram is shiny. It sort of sparkles,” Diane said.
“Yeah. It does look nice,” Michael said.
“Yeah,” Dan agreed. “It does.”
Michael unbuttoned his shirt and took it off. Then he stared at the monogram for several minutes. He turned the shirt inside out and looked at the thread inside the seam. It was the same shiny, sparkly, metallic-looking thread. He ran his fingers over it and looked at his fingers. A few very tiny silvery sparkles remained on his fingers.
“What’s that,” Diane asked.
“I don’t know,” Michael said, shaking his head solemnly. “But I’m going to find out.” Michael stood up and looked at Maria. “You can hang out here if you want to till I get back,” he said. Then he left the ranch house. Maria knew where he was going. And she knew he’d be back with an answer from Varec.
**********
Dressed in full contamination gear, Varec removed the small vial from the chemical bath he had placed it in and looked at the silvery thread in it. Then he removed the silvery thread with a small forceps and placed it on a glass slab, which he placed on the plate of his electron-neuron binary scanning microscope. He turned on the monitor on the wall, and both Michael and Varec watched as the screen came alive… almost literally. The silvery thread, when enlarged to a factor of 200,000X, seemed to wriggle and crawl with tiny worm-like organisms. It was all Michael needed to see.
“He did it to me, didn’t he, Varec? That son of a bitch poisoned me… tried to exterminate our whole planet!”
“Well, it’s a virus, not a poison, Michael, but in a way, you’re right. This particular virus has an unusual profile. It’s part virus, part chemical.”
“Don’t we all have chemicals in our bodies,” Michael asked. “Aren’t we all part chemical?”
Varec nodded. “We are. But this is unique. It’s something I’ve never seen before, Michael. The reason Antarians can’t catch viruses is because we have… I guess you could say ‘mutated’ the DNA of Antarians in such a way that no known virus or bacteria can penetrate our cells or bodies without being immediately destroyed. What Zwolinski has done is create a hybrid virus-chemical… a living chemical! It’s ingenious actually.”
“You can spare the praise, Varec. I’m going to kill the son of a bitch, so nobody’s going to be giving him any achievement awards.”
“I wasn’t praising him, Michael. He’s obviously very evil. I was just amazed by his ingenuity. The chemical that this virus is bound with attacks Antarian cells, rendering them vulnerable to attack by viruses and possibly bacteria. But this particular little creature is also a virus, so it blasts the door open then goes in and… well, you know.”
“Yeah… I do,” Michael said. “Can you use this information to help come up with a better cure or antidote?”
“I think so. It’s the best key we’ve had to what this thing is. We can use it, sure.”
“Keep the shirt, Varec. I don’t want it back.”
Michael left Varec’s lab and drove back toward Jim and Kathleen’s. His jaw was set like a vise; his eyes were like steel. He knew what he was going to do.
tbc
-
Island Breeze
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 270
- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2002 10:01 pm
The Four Faces of Rath
The Ax
Chapter 43
XLIII
“Michael, I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Liz said, her voice echoing the seriousness of her concern. “He’s evil… and I admit he deserves to die, but… murder?”
“It’s not murder, Liz. It’s self-defense. It’s more than justifiable… It’s necessary.”
“I don’t like it, Michael. Can’t we just leave him there in his time… on his world? We don’t have to ever go back.”
“We can’t live that way, Liz. He’s a danger. He’ll always be a danger. As long as he’s alive, we’ll never be safe… even on our own planet. Would you ever have thought that he could have almost exterminated our whole planet? And from a different timeline at that… one that technically may not even exist now?”
Liz shook her head.
“Well he did, Liz. And I have to defend the planet. I’m the king’s defender… and the defender of the kingdom.”
“Michael, that’s Rath talking.”
Michael shook his head. “It’s me talking, Liz. I know who I am now. I’m okay with Rath. He’s not evil… like Zwolinski. I don’t mind that part of my life now. I’m whole… for the first time in my life.”
“But you’re still Michael.”
Michael nodded. “Yeah. I’m still Michael. I just know who Michael is now… and I’ve reconciled with it. I like it, Liz. I like being me and not apologizing for it.”
Liz stammered for something to say.
“Michael… I’ve known the sensitive side of you… the boy who painted beautiful portraits and pictures, the man who loves his family… who loves Maria… more than his own life. I’ve known the caring Michael… when you saved the lives of all those children… even the ones who weren’t Antarian… even the ones who were just little… puffs of gas or… or… stringy, vine-like things… or Dragons, for God’s sake! You risked your own life for Dragon children, and the Dragons were our sworn enemies then. And I’ve known the defender Michael, the man who would place his own life in danger or give his own life to defend his planet, his people. But this… I’ve never seen this side of you.”
“Then look at it,” Michael said, turning to face Liz, his eyes burning with an intenseness she had never seen before. “Look well at the fourth face, Liz… the face of wrath.”
Liz’s eyes met Michael’s… and she stepped back reflexively. The sheer intenseness of his gaze scared her. For the first time since Liz could remember, no words seemed to come to her. She just stood there, her mouth open, a silent gasp caught in her throat.
“Michael,” Liz managed to say at last, finding her voice again, “What if that timeline isn’t even there now?”
“It is, Liz. You said yourself that anyone who chose not to return here would live out their normal lives there. Remember?”
Liz nodded. “But everyone chose to return.”
“Everyone from our group. Not everyone, Liz.”
“The Zwolinski who did this is in that timeline, Michael. In our timeline, as far as I know, Zwolinski is still green with flaming red eyes and hair and being held in a high security area somewhere near Roswell… in area 51 or somewhere.”
“And still just as dangerous, Liz. He’s proven it in every timeline we’ve ever met him in.”
Liz didn’t have an answer for that. She knew that Zwolinski was a danger. He had shown it time and again… often in the most unexpected ways. In the original timeline, he had dissected Liz in the white room. She had not forgotten this, either.
“Are you going to kill him in every timeline, Michael? There are no guarantees in life, you know.”
Michael was silent for a moment as he thought about this. “I don’t know, Liz. I’m just concerned with the one who did this to us right now. He’s my only concern… not the green one. And I vaporized the one that cut you up. Remember? This one has to go, too.”
Michael called for the portal then stepped through. Liz turned to Max, who had stood quietly by without saying a word until now.
“Max, he’s using my portal…”
“You gave him permission, Liz, when he went to look for himself, remember? You never rescinded that permission.”
“Well, I rescind it now!”
Max shook his head. “Don’t do that, Liz. It would strand him on Earth. You know what would happen to him. Do you want that?”
Liz shook her head. “Is this what we’ve been reduced to, Max? Huh? Murderers! Do we have to be like him… you know, like Zwolinski? Aren’t we better than that?”
“I don’t know, Liz. Can you guarantee the safety of this planet… or bring back 30,283 dead Antarians… Antarians who have died from Zwolinski’s virus so far… or the ones who haven’t yet but will?”
“That’s not fair, Max? There are no guarantees in life. Do we have to have guarantees? Every one of those people we lost left a hole in my soul! We just have to live the best we can.”
“I think that’s what Michael’s doing, Liz. I think we should trust him.”
Liz shook her head sadly. She had run out of anything to say.
**********
In a small office near Roswell, a smiling Zwolinski leaned back in his chair and relit a partially-smoked cigar.
“I don’t know why I gave these up,” he said to the colonel sitting in front of his desk. “Oh yeah… the doctors. Well, I feel like celebrating.”
“You think the virus worked,” the colonel asked.
“I’m sure of it, Kilpatrick. By now, we’ve cleaned out the whole nest. That’s the way to get rid of rats. Kill ‘em at the nest.”
“I wish we could have been there to see their faces, Zwolinski.”
Zwolinski laughed, but it was not a laugh that he would get to enjoy. A quick shimmer of light appeared behind the colonel, and suddenly, Michael stepped through and grabbed the colonel by the neck before he could turn around.
“You want to see my face? Then I’ll show it to you,” Michael said, gazing directly into the colonel’s eyes as he turned the colonel’s head toward his own face. Zwolinski saw it, too, the look in Michael’s eyes, and he swallowed what was left of his cigar.
Choking and sputtering, Zwolinski dove for his gun, lying on a nearby table. Michael was quicker. A blast of power from his palm incinerated the gun and half of the table… and almost Zwolinski’s hand with it, if Zwolinski had been a little quicker getting there.
Michael threw the colonel across the room, knocking him unconscious.
“What are you going to do,” Zwolinski sputtered.
“I’m going to end this,” Michael said. “I’m going to protect my planet… from you.”
“What… what happened?”
“You know what happened.”
Michael was over the desk and had Zwolinski in a headlock before Zwolinski could move.
“How many died? How many?” Zwolinski managed to sputter.
“You’d like to know, wouldn’t you Zwolinski? Would it make you happy to know just how many people died? My people?”
“Aliens, Michael. Alien scum. Not people.”
“Like me? Alien scum?”
“Like you.”
“You’re a sick man, Zwolinski.”
“Kill me, Michael. It’s what you came for, isn’t it? Kill me! I don’t care now! I’ve struck. You can’t take that back. I’ve won. It’s done. My legacy is complete.”
“You failed, Zwolinski. Everyone didn’t die. We have a cure.”
“But a lot of you died, didn’t they? Never mind, you don’t have to tell me. Your face told me everything I need to know.”
For a moment… a very long moment… Michael stood there with Zwolinski’s head under his arm, thinking. Then he threw Zwolinski against the wall. Zwolinski was baffled. He was sure that Michael had come to kill him, and he had prepared himself for it.
“You’re right, Zwolinski. Killing you won’t change anything.”
Zwolinski started to smile.
“I have to stop this at the source,” Michael said. “Portal! Take me to the year 1940.”
Zwolinski looked momentarily puzzled… “1940? I was in second grade…” Then it dawned on him… “He’s going to kill me when I was a child!” Zwolinski turned suddenly pale. “Everything I’ve done… all my accomplishments… My legacy! will never happen! I’ll never exist!”
**********
As the last bell rang, Dumas collected up his second grade books quickly. He had to walk about a mile and a half to get home. It was a bit chilly outside being February. But for February, it was actually not so bad. Dumas was in a hurry to get home. His older brother had promised to take him to the five and dime to spend the dollar his father had given him the day before for getting good grades the previous quarter. Jonathan was sixteen. He had just learned to drive recently and enjoyed shuttling Dumas –or anybody else- around in the family’s Packard.
Normally, Dumas would stray from the route home to walk by the lake. It was a big lake, and Dumas always wondered what was on the other side. It was a mystery… the other side of the lake… It might as well have been the other side of the world. But today Dumas headed straight home. There were things that interested him even more than the mystery of the other side of the lake. Jonathan was taking him to the five and dime. Dumas loved the five and dime… especially the little rubber tractors. They had bins and bins of them in different sizes, nickel-sized and dime-sized. And they had lots of other kinds of toys… and candy… so much candy! Dumas could get a lot of candy with a dollar. He’d get some for Jonathan, too.
Dumas walked up the street to his yard and opened the little white swinging gate. He put his books on the ground and closed the gate back then picked the books back up and walked briskly toward the house. As he got closer, he heard something going on inside. It wasn’t the normal sounds he would hear… it was more chaotic… like people running… things being overturned or thrown. Dumas dropped his books and ran up onto the porch. As quickly as he could, he let himself in.
“Mom? Are you here? Sally? Francis? Johnny?”
Dumas ran to Jonathan’s room. No one was there. He ran to his sister’s room.
“Sally? Are you in here?”
Dumas cracked the door carefully and peeked inside. Then he opened the door. The bed had been scorched… and there was a silver handprint on the torn pillow. The walls showed signs of scorching, too. Dumas ran to the living room. He stopped suddenly, dropping his books, as a man stepped into the doorway in front of him. The man’s eyes glowed with intenseness, and he looked straight at Dumas. Dumas swallowed.
“Who… who are you?”
The figure in the door didn’t answer. It lifted one hand, and the palm began to glow. Michael pulled his hand back and paused… for a moment… then he threw the ball of fire. Dumas saw it coming, but only for a split second. He couldn’t have avoided it. He just stood there, his mouth open. The ball of fire shushed past Dumas’ face. He felt the heat and an indescribable magnetic feeling as the ball whizzed past him and struck the wall.
Dumas turned to look where the ball of energy had hit the wall, and as he looked, his shadow on the wall began to quiver… then it slid slowly down the wall and came to rest flat on the floor.
“Whoa! That’s never happened before!”
Dumas turned around quickly to face the new voice. It was his 16-year-old brother, Johnny, and he was standing beside the mysterious man.
“Space guy here killed your shadow, Dummy! That’s… weird… but it’s boss, man! Really boss!”
Dumas’ sisters and mother stepped out of the closet, and his mother scooped him up in her arms.
“Who are you,” Dumas asked again.
Michael shook his head. “Nobody really. Just someone from another planet who came to save you and catch some bad guys.”
Dumas looked at the flat shadow lying on the floor. It was starting to disintegrate and disappear.
“What was that? It was an alien wasn’t it? You’re like an alien space ranger or something… like Buck Rogers!”
“Something like that,” Michael said.
“Wow! A space ranger! A real space ranger! Here! Did you see it, Johnny?”
“Yeah, pipsqueak! I saw it! It was totally awesome! Totally boss!”
“A real space ranger! Did you see it, Mom? Did you see it, Sally? Francis?”
The girls nodded. “We saw it, Dum,” Francis said.
“You should have been here a little earlier,” Johnny said. “It was like Buck Rogers in here, Dummy! These shadow people were trying to kill us, and then Space Ranger here showed up and fried ‘em all with his power balls! It was amazing! Really boss!”
“Do you have a name, Space Ranger,” Dumas asked.
“It’s Michael,” Michael replied. “Just Michael.”
“Thanks, Michael,” Mrs. Zwolinski said. “I don’t know how you knew. You showed up right when we needed you.”
“Where’s your husband,” Michael asked.
Mrs. Zwolinski looked at the floor and bit her lip. “You’re not going to hurt him… or take him back?”
“Take him…? What? No, I’m not going to hurt him… or take him anywhere.”
“George! Come out,” Mrs. Zwolinski said. “It’s alright. He’s one of the good ones. He’s not here to take you back.”
The door to the pantry opened, and a man stepped out. He had on a gray, baggy suit coat and gray, baggy suit pants, a tie, and a fedora hat. In the face, he looked a lot like Dumas.
“You aren’t here to take me back? Why are you here then?”
“To save you… to save all of you… and hopefully, to change history.”
Mister Zwolinski looked puzzled. “I guess I should say, ‘thank you.’” He shook Michael’s hand, and as he did, Michael got an unexpected flash. He saw a man… an alien… running from shape-shifters. He saw the fleeing alien turn himself into a squirrel and scurry up a tree, as the ones chasing him continued to run in the direction he had gone. He saw the alien with Mrs. Zwolinski… Then it dawned on Michael what it was that the shape-shifters wanted with Dumas’ family. They wanted one of their own… one who had deserted their ranks… a runaway. That was a capital offense in some shape-shifter communities. It was all for one and one for all… or else… and the ‘or else’ wasn’t pleasant.
“Are there more,” Michael asked quietly.
“I don’t think so,” Zwolinski said. “These were the only ones that I know of. They were… my pod. We had a falling out… a disagreement over the value of human life.”
“You tried to convince them that humans were more than they thought.”
“Yeah. I met Marjorie.” George looked at his wife. “They tried to bring me back. When I wanted to stay, they decided to kill her… and my family… and me if necessary. ‘No’ is not an answer they understand or accept.”
“Well, I gave them an answer they can understand,” Michael said. “You can live your life, Mr. Zwolinski. Raise your family… your kids. Take care of them.” Michael looked at Dumas across the room with the rest of his family. He was still grinning from ear to ear. “Do they know? Have they… can they…?”
“Shape-shift? No. Not that I know of. They don’t know. I’m just George Zwolinski, their dad, to them. We’re just an all-American family. I’d like to keep it that way. They seem to have inherited more of their mother than of me, and I’m glad it happened like that. It will be easier for them.”
“That’s true,” Michael agreed. “I can vouch for that.”
“Personal experience?”
Michael nodded. “Go on, Mr. Zwolinski. Go to your family. Raise them right… to appreciate and value life… whatever planet it comes from. They need you.”
Zwolinski smiled and shook Michael’s hand again. Clearly, he had adapted thoroughly to the all-American way of life. Michael never would have known what he was if he hadn’t touched him and got the flash that he did.
“Portal,” Michael called. The portal appeared. Dumas ran up to Michael. “Can I shake your hand, too, Mister Space Ranger, Michael, sir?” Michael nodded, and Dumas shook his hand, smiling broadly.
“Thanks, Mister,” Dumas said.
“Your welcome,” Michael whispered, then he disappeared into the portal.
**********
Michael stepped back into the front room of Jim Valenti’s ranch house to a waiting Liz and Max. Liz looked at him. There was no smile on her face.
“So did you take care of the problem?”
Michael nodded. Liz swallowed and turned away for a moment.
“It won’t matter, Michael. Killing him wasn’t the answer… not like that… in cold blood. It won’t change anything. It just makes you a… a…” Liz couldn’t say it.
“I know,” Michael said. “I realized that killing him there in his office wasn’t going to solve anything.”
Liz turned to look at him. “What did you do?”
“If I was going to change anything, I had to intervene before he grew up and became what he was… when he was still seven years old…”
Liz looked at Michael and went white. When she could speak again, she stammered, “You killed a child?” Tears began to roll down her face.
“No, Liz. I didn’t kill him. I killed the shape-shifters. His family lived. Now maybe he’ll grow up to be a happy, well-adjusted person. I don’t know, of course. We can only hope. Someone told me there are no guarantees in life.”
Michael was prepared for Liz’s disappointment in him. What he was not prepared for was for her to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him then start crying. Michael looked at Max, and Max shrugged. Michael patted Liz cautiously on the back, not knowing how to handle this turn of events.
Max walked across the room to where Michael stood and looked him in the face… then he smiled. “I think you’re not the only person who learned who you are, Michael. These are trying times. We’re all being tested. And we’re all finding out who we are… in more ways than we realize.”
tbc
Chapter 43
XLIII
“Michael, I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Liz said, her voice echoing the seriousness of her concern. “He’s evil… and I admit he deserves to die, but… murder?”
“It’s not murder, Liz. It’s self-defense. It’s more than justifiable… It’s necessary.”
“I don’t like it, Michael. Can’t we just leave him there in his time… on his world? We don’t have to ever go back.”
“We can’t live that way, Liz. He’s a danger. He’ll always be a danger. As long as he’s alive, we’ll never be safe… even on our own planet. Would you ever have thought that he could have almost exterminated our whole planet? And from a different timeline at that… one that technically may not even exist now?”
Liz shook her head.
“Well he did, Liz. And I have to defend the planet. I’m the king’s defender… and the defender of the kingdom.”
“Michael, that’s Rath talking.”
Michael shook his head. “It’s me talking, Liz. I know who I am now. I’m okay with Rath. He’s not evil… like Zwolinski. I don’t mind that part of my life now. I’m whole… for the first time in my life.”
“But you’re still Michael.”
Michael nodded. “Yeah. I’m still Michael. I just know who Michael is now… and I’ve reconciled with it. I like it, Liz. I like being me and not apologizing for it.”
Liz stammered for something to say.
“Michael… I’ve known the sensitive side of you… the boy who painted beautiful portraits and pictures, the man who loves his family… who loves Maria… more than his own life. I’ve known the caring Michael… when you saved the lives of all those children… even the ones who weren’t Antarian… even the ones who were just little… puffs of gas or… or… stringy, vine-like things… or Dragons, for God’s sake! You risked your own life for Dragon children, and the Dragons were our sworn enemies then. And I’ve known the defender Michael, the man who would place his own life in danger or give his own life to defend his planet, his people. But this… I’ve never seen this side of you.”
“Then look at it,” Michael said, turning to face Liz, his eyes burning with an intenseness she had never seen before. “Look well at the fourth face, Liz… the face of wrath.”
Liz’s eyes met Michael’s… and she stepped back reflexively. The sheer intenseness of his gaze scared her. For the first time since Liz could remember, no words seemed to come to her. She just stood there, her mouth open, a silent gasp caught in her throat.
“Michael,” Liz managed to say at last, finding her voice again, “What if that timeline isn’t even there now?”
“It is, Liz. You said yourself that anyone who chose not to return here would live out their normal lives there. Remember?”
Liz nodded. “But everyone chose to return.”
“Everyone from our group. Not everyone, Liz.”
“The Zwolinski who did this is in that timeline, Michael. In our timeline, as far as I know, Zwolinski is still green with flaming red eyes and hair and being held in a high security area somewhere near Roswell… in area 51 or somewhere.”
“And still just as dangerous, Liz. He’s proven it in every timeline we’ve ever met him in.”
Liz didn’t have an answer for that. She knew that Zwolinski was a danger. He had shown it time and again… often in the most unexpected ways. In the original timeline, he had dissected Liz in the white room. She had not forgotten this, either.
“Are you going to kill him in every timeline, Michael? There are no guarantees in life, you know.”
Michael was silent for a moment as he thought about this. “I don’t know, Liz. I’m just concerned with the one who did this to us right now. He’s my only concern… not the green one. And I vaporized the one that cut you up. Remember? This one has to go, too.”
Michael called for the portal then stepped through. Liz turned to Max, who had stood quietly by without saying a word until now.
“Max, he’s using my portal…”
“You gave him permission, Liz, when he went to look for himself, remember? You never rescinded that permission.”
“Well, I rescind it now!”
Max shook his head. “Don’t do that, Liz. It would strand him on Earth. You know what would happen to him. Do you want that?”
Liz shook her head. “Is this what we’ve been reduced to, Max? Huh? Murderers! Do we have to be like him… you know, like Zwolinski? Aren’t we better than that?”
“I don’t know, Liz. Can you guarantee the safety of this planet… or bring back 30,283 dead Antarians… Antarians who have died from Zwolinski’s virus so far… or the ones who haven’t yet but will?”
“That’s not fair, Max? There are no guarantees in life. Do we have to have guarantees? Every one of those people we lost left a hole in my soul! We just have to live the best we can.”
“I think that’s what Michael’s doing, Liz. I think we should trust him.”
Liz shook her head sadly. She had run out of anything to say.
**********
In a small office near Roswell, a smiling Zwolinski leaned back in his chair and relit a partially-smoked cigar.
“I don’t know why I gave these up,” he said to the colonel sitting in front of his desk. “Oh yeah… the doctors. Well, I feel like celebrating.”
“You think the virus worked,” the colonel asked.
“I’m sure of it, Kilpatrick. By now, we’ve cleaned out the whole nest. That’s the way to get rid of rats. Kill ‘em at the nest.”
“I wish we could have been there to see their faces, Zwolinski.”
Zwolinski laughed, but it was not a laugh that he would get to enjoy. A quick shimmer of light appeared behind the colonel, and suddenly, Michael stepped through and grabbed the colonel by the neck before he could turn around.
“You want to see my face? Then I’ll show it to you,” Michael said, gazing directly into the colonel’s eyes as he turned the colonel’s head toward his own face. Zwolinski saw it, too, the look in Michael’s eyes, and he swallowed what was left of his cigar.
Choking and sputtering, Zwolinski dove for his gun, lying on a nearby table. Michael was quicker. A blast of power from his palm incinerated the gun and half of the table… and almost Zwolinski’s hand with it, if Zwolinski had been a little quicker getting there.
Michael threw the colonel across the room, knocking him unconscious.
“What are you going to do,” Zwolinski sputtered.
“I’m going to end this,” Michael said. “I’m going to protect my planet… from you.”
“What… what happened?”
“You know what happened.”
Michael was over the desk and had Zwolinski in a headlock before Zwolinski could move.
“How many died? How many?” Zwolinski managed to sputter.
“You’d like to know, wouldn’t you Zwolinski? Would it make you happy to know just how many people died? My people?”
“Aliens, Michael. Alien scum. Not people.”
“Like me? Alien scum?”
“Like you.”
“You’re a sick man, Zwolinski.”
“Kill me, Michael. It’s what you came for, isn’t it? Kill me! I don’t care now! I’ve struck. You can’t take that back. I’ve won. It’s done. My legacy is complete.”
“You failed, Zwolinski. Everyone didn’t die. We have a cure.”
“But a lot of you died, didn’t they? Never mind, you don’t have to tell me. Your face told me everything I need to know.”
For a moment… a very long moment… Michael stood there with Zwolinski’s head under his arm, thinking. Then he threw Zwolinski against the wall. Zwolinski was baffled. He was sure that Michael had come to kill him, and he had prepared himself for it.
“You’re right, Zwolinski. Killing you won’t change anything.”
Zwolinski started to smile.
“I have to stop this at the source,” Michael said. “Portal! Take me to the year 1940.”
Zwolinski looked momentarily puzzled… “1940? I was in second grade…” Then it dawned on him… “He’s going to kill me when I was a child!” Zwolinski turned suddenly pale. “Everything I’ve done… all my accomplishments… My legacy! will never happen! I’ll never exist!”
**********
As the last bell rang, Dumas collected up his second grade books quickly. He had to walk about a mile and a half to get home. It was a bit chilly outside being February. But for February, it was actually not so bad. Dumas was in a hurry to get home. His older brother had promised to take him to the five and dime to spend the dollar his father had given him the day before for getting good grades the previous quarter. Jonathan was sixteen. He had just learned to drive recently and enjoyed shuttling Dumas –or anybody else- around in the family’s Packard.
Normally, Dumas would stray from the route home to walk by the lake. It was a big lake, and Dumas always wondered what was on the other side. It was a mystery… the other side of the lake… It might as well have been the other side of the world. But today Dumas headed straight home. There were things that interested him even more than the mystery of the other side of the lake. Jonathan was taking him to the five and dime. Dumas loved the five and dime… especially the little rubber tractors. They had bins and bins of them in different sizes, nickel-sized and dime-sized. And they had lots of other kinds of toys… and candy… so much candy! Dumas could get a lot of candy with a dollar. He’d get some for Jonathan, too.
Dumas walked up the street to his yard and opened the little white swinging gate. He put his books on the ground and closed the gate back then picked the books back up and walked briskly toward the house. As he got closer, he heard something going on inside. It wasn’t the normal sounds he would hear… it was more chaotic… like people running… things being overturned or thrown. Dumas dropped his books and ran up onto the porch. As quickly as he could, he let himself in.
“Mom? Are you here? Sally? Francis? Johnny?”
Dumas ran to Jonathan’s room. No one was there. He ran to his sister’s room.
“Sally? Are you in here?”
Dumas cracked the door carefully and peeked inside. Then he opened the door. The bed had been scorched… and there was a silver handprint on the torn pillow. The walls showed signs of scorching, too. Dumas ran to the living room. He stopped suddenly, dropping his books, as a man stepped into the doorway in front of him. The man’s eyes glowed with intenseness, and he looked straight at Dumas. Dumas swallowed.
“Who… who are you?”
The figure in the door didn’t answer. It lifted one hand, and the palm began to glow. Michael pulled his hand back and paused… for a moment… then he threw the ball of fire. Dumas saw it coming, but only for a split second. He couldn’t have avoided it. He just stood there, his mouth open. The ball of fire shushed past Dumas’ face. He felt the heat and an indescribable magnetic feeling as the ball whizzed past him and struck the wall.
Dumas turned to look where the ball of energy had hit the wall, and as he looked, his shadow on the wall began to quiver… then it slid slowly down the wall and came to rest flat on the floor.
“Whoa! That’s never happened before!”
Dumas turned around quickly to face the new voice. It was his 16-year-old brother, Johnny, and he was standing beside the mysterious man.
“Space guy here killed your shadow, Dummy! That’s… weird… but it’s boss, man! Really boss!”
Dumas’ sisters and mother stepped out of the closet, and his mother scooped him up in her arms.
“Who are you,” Dumas asked again.
Michael shook his head. “Nobody really. Just someone from another planet who came to save you and catch some bad guys.”
Dumas looked at the flat shadow lying on the floor. It was starting to disintegrate and disappear.
“What was that? It was an alien wasn’t it? You’re like an alien space ranger or something… like Buck Rogers!”
“Something like that,” Michael said.
“Wow! A space ranger! A real space ranger! Here! Did you see it, Johnny?”
“Yeah, pipsqueak! I saw it! It was totally awesome! Totally boss!”
“A real space ranger! Did you see it, Mom? Did you see it, Sally? Francis?”
The girls nodded. “We saw it, Dum,” Francis said.
“You should have been here a little earlier,” Johnny said. “It was like Buck Rogers in here, Dummy! These shadow people were trying to kill us, and then Space Ranger here showed up and fried ‘em all with his power balls! It was amazing! Really boss!”
“Do you have a name, Space Ranger,” Dumas asked.
“It’s Michael,” Michael replied. “Just Michael.”
“Thanks, Michael,” Mrs. Zwolinski said. “I don’t know how you knew. You showed up right when we needed you.”
“Where’s your husband,” Michael asked.
Mrs. Zwolinski looked at the floor and bit her lip. “You’re not going to hurt him… or take him back?”
“Take him…? What? No, I’m not going to hurt him… or take him anywhere.”
“George! Come out,” Mrs. Zwolinski said. “It’s alright. He’s one of the good ones. He’s not here to take you back.”
The door to the pantry opened, and a man stepped out. He had on a gray, baggy suit coat and gray, baggy suit pants, a tie, and a fedora hat. In the face, he looked a lot like Dumas.
“You aren’t here to take me back? Why are you here then?”
“To save you… to save all of you… and hopefully, to change history.”
Mister Zwolinski looked puzzled. “I guess I should say, ‘thank you.’” He shook Michael’s hand, and as he did, Michael got an unexpected flash. He saw a man… an alien… running from shape-shifters. He saw the fleeing alien turn himself into a squirrel and scurry up a tree, as the ones chasing him continued to run in the direction he had gone. He saw the alien with Mrs. Zwolinski… Then it dawned on Michael what it was that the shape-shifters wanted with Dumas’ family. They wanted one of their own… one who had deserted their ranks… a runaway. That was a capital offense in some shape-shifter communities. It was all for one and one for all… or else… and the ‘or else’ wasn’t pleasant.
“Are there more,” Michael asked quietly.
“I don’t think so,” Zwolinski said. “These were the only ones that I know of. They were… my pod. We had a falling out… a disagreement over the value of human life.”
“You tried to convince them that humans were more than they thought.”
“Yeah. I met Marjorie.” George looked at his wife. “They tried to bring me back. When I wanted to stay, they decided to kill her… and my family… and me if necessary. ‘No’ is not an answer they understand or accept.”
“Well, I gave them an answer they can understand,” Michael said. “You can live your life, Mr. Zwolinski. Raise your family… your kids. Take care of them.” Michael looked at Dumas across the room with the rest of his family. He was still grinning from ear to ear. “Do they know? Have they… can they…?”
“Shape-shift? No. Not that I know of. They don’t know. I’m just George Zwolinski, their dad, to them. We’re just an all-American family. I’d like to keep it that way. They seem to have inherited more of their mother than of me, and I’m glad it happened like that. It will be easier for them.”
“That’s true,” Michael agreed. “I can vouch for that.”
“Personal experience?”
Michael nodded. “Go on, Mr. Zwolinski. Go to your family. Raise them right… to appreciate and value life… whatever planet it comes from. They need you.”
Zwolinski smiled and shook Michael’s hand again. Clearly, he had adapted thoroughly to the all-American way of life. Michael never would have known what he was if he hadn’t touched him and got the flash that he did.
“Portal,” Michael called. The portal appeared. Dumas ran up to Michael. “Can I shake your hand, too, Mister Space Ranger, Michael, sir?” Michael nodded, and Dumas shook his hand, smiling broadly.
“Thanks, Mister,” Dumas said.
“Your welcome,” Michael whispered, then he disappeared into the portal.
**********
Michael stepped back into the front room of Jim Valenti’s ranch house to a waiting Liz and Max. Liz looked at him. There was no smile on her face.
“So did you take care of the problem?”
Michael nodded. Liz swallowed and turned away for a moment.
“It won’t matter, Michael. Killing him wasn’t the answer… not like that… in cold blood. It won’t change anything. It just makes you a… a…” Liz couldn’t say it.
“I know,” Michael said. “I realized that killing him there in his office wasn’t going to solve anything.”
Liz turned to look at him. “What did you do?”
“If I was going to change anything, I had to intervene before he grew up and became what he was… when he was still seven years old…”
Liz looked at Michael and went white. When she could speak again, she stammered, “You killed a child?” Tears began to roll down her face.
“No, Liz. I didn’t kill him. I killed the shape-shifters. His family lived. Now maybe he’ll grow up to be a happy, well-adjusted person. I don’t know, of course. We can only hope. Someone told me there are no guarantees in life.”
Michael was prepared for Liz’s disappointment in him. What he was not prepared for was for her to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him then start crying. Michael looked at Max, and Max shrugged. Michael patted Liz cautiously on the back, not knowing how to handle this turn of events.
Max walked across the room to where Michael stood and looked him in the face… then he smiled. “I think you’re not the only person who learned who you are, Michael. These are trying times. We’re all being tested. And we’re all finding out who we are… in more ways than we realize.”
tbc
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Island Breeze
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The Four Faces of Rath
Looking For Normal… and Something Else
Chapter 44
XLIV
It had been two weeks since Michael returned from taking care of “the Zwolinski problem.” Liz was getting ready for bed and watching out her window as the children, Maya, Andya, JoLeesa, and Alyyx played outside chasing jaras droosh, or flash bugs, in the dark. During the warm seasons, the flash bugs would often light up the night with their twinkling. Jaras droosh –which is the correct Antarian name for the flash bugs- are much larger than fireflies, or lightning bugs, on Earth. They’re closer to the size of large beetles, slightly larger than “June bugs.” The light of a jaras droo can be seen for quite a few miles.
“One… two… three… four…” Liz counted softly as she stared out the window.
“You ready for bed, Liz,” Max asked.
“Mmmm… just about… I’m letting the children play a while first. They love to catch the flash bugs when they’re flying like they are tonight.”
“You coming soon, though?”
“Huh? Oh… Yeah… I’ll bring the kids inside in a few more minutes.”
Max nodded and pulled the covers over himself.
“One… two… three… four…”
Max sat up and looked at Liz with a perplexed look. “Honey, what are you doing?”
“Doing? What do you mean?”
“What’s this ‘one, two, three, four’ you keep saying?”
“Did I?”
“Only every time you look out the window.”
Liz shook her head. “It’s nothing, Max. I was… just counting flash bugs I guess.”
“Ah…” Max rested his head back on his pillow.
“How many flash bugs are out there, Liz?”
“Hundreds… maybe thousands… maybe more.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“One… two… three… four…” Liz counted quietly to herself. Then she noticed Max looking at her again.
“I’ll get the kids and bring them in, Max. They’ve been chasing the jaras droosh long enough.”
Max smiled. “I’ll be waiting.”
**********
“Mom, do we have to come in already? Look at all the jaras droosh we’ve caught! Alyyx is making lanterns for all of us.”
“That’s nice, Maya, but it’s late. Your Dad and I want to get some sleep. And you need some sleep, too.”
“Aw, Mom…”
“Come on in… all of you.”
Maya, Andya, JoLeesa, and Alyyx streamed into the house one by one. Liz watched as each one came in from outside… “One… two… three… four…”
“Mom, can we keep the jaras droosh in our rooms tonight?”
“Huh? Oh… sure, yeah, I guess so, Andya.”
“Can we let them fly around in our rooms and give us night lights?”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Leese.”
“Aw, Mom, pleeease!”
Liz looked at JoLeesa and shook her head slightly. “Alright… but you guys had better catch every one of them in the morning and put them back in… whatever you’re keeping them in. I don’t want to go in there and be surrounded by a swarm of flash bugs in the morning.”
“We will, Mom! Promise,” Alyyx said.
“Mom?”
“Yes, Maya?”
“We’re all in. Are you going to close the door?”
“Oh! Yeah!” Liz took one last look outside and sighed. Then she closed the door.
“What are you looking for, Mom,” Maya asked.
“Nothing. I was just taking another look at all the pretty flash bugs flying in the sky tonight.”
Maya smiled.
“Off to bed now! All of you!”
Maya, Andya, JoLeesa, and Alyyx ran up the stairs and disappeared down the hall. Liz followed them and tucked each one in in turn, instructing them that they could release the jaras droosh after she had left and the door was closed. Then Liz went back to her room and climbed into bed with Max.
“I’m sorry. That place is saved,” Max said without rolling over. “You’ll have to make a reservation.”
Liz turned his face over to hers with her hand and pressed her lips to his. Max put his arms around her and pulled her close.
“Now who were you saving that place for, Max?”
“I don’t know, but you can stay,” Max said with a smile. “Do you have a reservation?”
Liz slipped off her blouse and pants and cuddled up against Max.
“Yeah… I guess you do…”
Liz turned the lights out.
“Will this get me in,” she asked softly.
“Mmmm… Oh, yeah! That’s the reservation I had in mind.”
**********
As the sun came up, Max awoke refreshed and happy. It was hard for Max to let anything distract his mind from the problems of the kingdom. He could be rather single-minded. Unfortunately, this led him to take all the problems of the kingdom upon himself, which sometimes made for a somewhat unhappy and overburdened king. Fortunately, he had Liz. When it came to taking Max’s mind off his troubles, she could sometimes be a genius. This morning he awoke refreshed and happy… for the first time in a long time.
It appeared that Liz was already up, so Max got up, grabbed a shower and shave, and went to look for Liz. He found her in Alyyx’s room… on her knees… looking for something under the bed.
“What you lookin’ for, Hon?”
Liz pulled another flash bug out from under Alyyx’s bed and put it in Max’s hand.
“Oh.”
“Looks like they missed a few,” Liz said, finding another one under his pillow. She opened the window and tossed it out. Max walked over to the window and tossed the one he was holding out, too.
“What did you think I was looking for, Max?”
“I don’t know. You just seem to be always searching for something lately, Liz. I don’t know what it is. And last night you kept counting to four… I know you can count higher than that, and there were probably thousands of jaras droosh flying around out there last night. I’m concerned, Liz. That’s all. I care about you.”
Liz smiled. “I’m touched, Max. Really. But I’m alright. You needn’t worry about me. It’s just your imagination.” Liz kissed him on the cheek.
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
Liz walked over to Alyyx’s dresser and scooped up four flash bugs she had collected and placed in a cup on the dresser. She carried the bugs to the window and started to throw them out but stopped.
“You gonna throw ‘em out or keep ‘em,” Max asked with a smile.
“There were five,” Liz said.
Max looked at the bugs and the cup on the dresser. “Well, one must have flown away or crawled off, Liz. There are only four now. Maybe the fifth one was the one you threw out.”
Liz was silent for several moments. Max noticed that a look like fear came over her for a moment. Then she swallowed and regained her composure.
“Yeah… yeah, you’re right, Max. It’s just flash bugs, right? It doesn’t matter if we lost one.”
“I’m sure Alyyx will find it, Liz.”
Liz nodded. Max kissed her and wrapped his arms around her. Liz closed her eyes. Then she opened them and looked into Max’s eyes, and their lips drew slowly closer… until they touched, this time for longer… much longer.
“Ewwww! Gross! I’m gonna need years of emotional counseling to get over what I’ve seen,” Alyyx said, walking into his room unexpectedly.
Max smiled but didn’t hurry to finish his kiss. When he finally did finish, he turned to Alyyx and said, “I seem to remember your Uncle Michael telling me about seeing you and somebody at the edge of the woods. You didn’t seem too worried about being psychiatrically damaged then, Alyyx. Hmmm?”
Alyyx was silent for a few moments. “Well… that was Jayyd. That’s different. She’s pretty… and young. You guys are old!”
“Not too old to whup you,” Max said, grabbing Alyyx and flipping him onto his bed as Alyyx giggled. “I happen to think your mama’s the prettiest girl around.”
“And young, too,” Liz added with a smile.
“Yeah! That’s right! And young, too,” Max said. Then he started to tickle Alyyx.
“Alright! Alright! I surrender,” Alyyx said, laughing hysterically.
“If we’re so old, maybe we better let you get a job and take care of us, Alyyx.”
“I didn’t mean you were that old, Dad! Just too old to… you know… be kissing and stuff like that.”
Max started tickling Alyyx again.
“Wait’ll you get a little older, Alyyx. You’ll feel differently.”
“Alright! Alright,” Alyyx giggled. I give up. You and Mommy can kiss.”
“That’s more like it.”
“Just don’t blame me when the psychiatrist says you caused it…”
Max jumped toward Alyyx, and Alyyx ran out of the room as fast as his seven-year-old legs would carry him, with Max right behind him. Liz shook her head and smiled…
“Children!”
tbc
Chapter 44
XLIV
It had been two weeks since Michael returned from taking care of “the Zwolinski problem.” Liz was getting ready for bed and watching out her window as the children, Maya, Andya, JoLeesa, and Alyyx played outside chasing jaras droosh, or flash bugs, in the dark. During the warm seasons, the flash bugs would often light up the night with their twinkling. Jaras droosh –which is the correct Antarian name for the flash bugs- are much larger than fireflies, or lightning bugs, on Earth. They’re closer to the size of large beetles, slightly larger than “June bugs.” The light of a jaras droo can be seen for quite a few miles.
“One… two… three… four…” Liz counted softly as she stared out the window.
“You ready for bed, Liz,” Max asked.
“Mmmm… just about… I’m letting the children play a while first. They love to catch the flash bugs when they’re flying like they are tonight.”
“You coming soon, though?”
“Huh? Oh… Yeah… I’ll bring the kids inside in a few more minutes.”
Max nodded and pulled the covers over himself.
“One… two… three… four…”
Max sat up and looked at Liz with a perplexed look. “Honey, what are you doing?”
“Doing? What do you mean?”
“What’s this ‘one, two, three, four’ you keep saying?”
“Did I?”
“Only every time you look out the window.”
Liz shook her head. “It’s nothing, Max. I was… just counting flash bugs I guess.”
“Ah…” Max rested his head back on his pillow.
“How many flash bugs are out there, Liz?”
“Hundreds… maybe thousands… maybe more.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“One… two… three… four…” Liz counted quietly to herself. Then she noticed Max looking at her again.
“I’ll get the kids and bring them in, Max. They’ve been chasing the jaras droosh long enough.”
Max smiled. “I’ll be waiting.”
**********
“Mom, do we have to come in already? Look at all the jaras droosh we’ve caught! Alyyx is making lanterns for all of us.”
“That’s nice, Maya, but it’s late. Your Dad and I want to get some sleep. And you need some sleep, too.”
“Aw, Mom…”
“Come on in… all of you.”
Maya, Andya, JoLeesa, and Alyyx streamed into the house one by one. Liz watched as each one came in from outside… “One… two… three… four…”
“Mom, can we keep the jaras droosh in our rooms tonight?”
“Huh? Oh… sure, yeah, I guess so, Andya.”
“Can we let them fly around in our rooms and give us night lights?”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Leese.”
“Aw, Mom, pleeease!”
Liz looked at JoLeesa and shook her head slightly. “Alright… but you guys had better catch every one of them in the morning and put them back in… whatever you’re keeping them in. I don’t want to go in there and be surrounded by a swarm of flash bugs in the morning.”
“We will, Mom! Promise,” Alyyx said.
“Mom?”
“Yes, Maya?”
“We’re all in. Are you going to close the door?”
“Oh! Yeah!” Liz took one last look outside and sighed. Then she closed the door.
“What are you looking for, Mom,” Maya asked.
“Nothing. I was just taking another look at all the pretty flash bugs flying in the sky tonight.”
Maya smiled.
“Off to bed now! All of you!”
Maya, Andya, JoLeesa, and Alyyx ran up the stairs and disappeared down the hall. Liz followed them and tucked each one in in turn, instructing them that they could release the jaras droosh after she had left and the door was closed. Then Liz went back to her room and climbed into bed with Max.
“I’m sorry. That place is saved,” Max said without rolling over. “You’ll have to make a reservation.”
Liz turned his face over to hers with her hand and pressed her lips to his. Max put his arms around her and pulled her close.
“Now who were you saving that place for, Max?”
“I don’t know, but you can stay,” Max said with a smile. “Do you have a reservation?”
Liz slipped off her blouse and pants and cuddled up against Max.
“Yeah… I guess you do…”
Liz turned the lights out.
“Will this get me in,” she asked softly.
“Mmmm… Oh, yeah! That’s the reservation I had in mind.”
**********
As the sun came up, Max awoke refreshed and happy. It was hard for Max to let anything distract his mind from the problems of the kingdom. He could be rather single-minded. Unfortunately, this led him to take all the problems of the kingdom upon himself, which sometimes made for a somewhat unhappy and overburdened king. Fortunately, he had Liz. When it came to taking Max’s mind off his troubles, she could sometimes be a genius. This morning he awoke refreshed and happy… for the first time in a long time.
It appeared that Liz was already up, so Max got up, grabbed a shower and shave, and went to look for Liz. He found her in Alyyx’s room… on her knees… looking for something under the bed.
“What you lookin’ for, Hon?”
Liz pulled another flash bug out from under Alyyx’s bed and put it in Max’s hand.
“Oh.”
“Looks like they missed a few,” Liz said, finding another one under his pillow. She opened the window and tossed it out. Max walked over to the window and tossed the one he was holding out, too.
“What did you think I was looking for, Max?”
“I don’t know. You just seem to be always searching for something lately, Liz. I don’t know what it is. And last night you kept counting to four… I know you can count higher than that, and there were probably thousands of jaras droosh flying around out there last night. I’m concerned, Liz. That’s all. I care about you.”
Liz smiled. “I’m touched, Max. Really. But I’m alright. You needn’t worry about me. It’s just your imagination.” Liz kissed him on the cheek.
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
Liz walked over to Alyyx’s dresser and scooped up four flash bugs she had collected and placed in a cup on the dresser. She carried the bugs to the window and started to throw them out but stopped.
“You gonna throw ‘em out or keep ‘em,” Max asked with a smile.
“There were five,” Liz said.
Max looked at the bugs and the cup on the dresser. “Well, one must have flown away or crawled off, Liz. There are only four now. Maybe the fifth one was the one you threw out.”
Liz was silent for several moments. Max noticed that a look like fear came over her for a moment. Then she swallowed and regained her composure.
“Yeah… yeah, you’re right, Max. It’s just flash bugs, right? It doesn’t matter if we lost one.”
“I’m sure Alyyx will find it, Liz.”
Liz nodded. Max kissed her and wrapped his arms around her. Liz closed her eyes. Then she opened them and looked into Max’s eyes, and their lips drew slowly closer… until they touched, this time for longer… much longer.
“Ewwww! Gross! I’m gonna need years of emotional counseling to get over what I’ve seen,” Alyyx said, walking into his room unexpectedly.
Max smiled but didn’t hurry to finish his kiss. When he finally did finish, he turned to Alyyx and said, “I seem to remember your Uncle Michael telling me about seeing you and somebody at the edge of the woods. You didn’t seem too worried about being psychiatrically damaged then, Alyyx. Hmmm?”
Alyyx was silent for a few moments. “Well… that was Jayyd. That’s different. She’s pretty… and young. You guys are old!”
“Not too old to whup you,” Max said, grabbing Alyyx and flipping him onto his bed as Alyyx giggled. “I happen to think your mama’s the prettiest girl around.”
“And young, too,” Liz added with a smile.
“Yeah! That’s right! And young, too,” Max said. Then he started to tickle Alyyx.
“Alright! Alright! I surrender,” Alyyx said, laughing hysterically.
“If we’re so old, maybe we better let you get a job and take care of us, Alyyx.”
“I didn’t mean you were that old, Dad! Just too old to… you know… be kissing and stuff like that.”
Max started tickling Alyyx again.
“Wait’ll you get a little older, Alyyx. You’ll feel differently.”
“Alright! Alright,” Alyyx giggled. I give up. You and Mommy can kiss.”
“That’s more like it.”
“Just don’t blame me when the psychiatrist says you caused it…”
Max jumped toward Alyyx, and Alyyx ran out of the room as fast as his seven-year-old legs would carry him, with Max right behind him. Liz shook her head and smiled…
“Children!”
tbc
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Island Breeze
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The Four Faces of Rath
The Four Faces of Rath
Three Little Pawgors
Chapter 45
XLV
Jim Valenti watched with Kathleen from the porch of their ranch house as Danyy played in the yard with his friend the pawgor. Ten months before, the pawgor had found a mate and increased the pawgor population by three, so Danyy now had not one, but five pawgors to play with. Mama pawgor usually preferred to watch as her three cubs and her mate -Danyy’s original friend- played “chase-and-catch,” “snatch-the-ball,” “hide and seek,” “pounce and leap,” and other “pawgor games” with Danyy; but she was still young, too, and occasionally she would succumb to temptation and join in the fun.
Kathleen still worried about Danyy, especially when he would be rolling in the grass with the pawgor, wrestling it as though he had a chance in the world of winning such a mismatch. Fortunately, although the adult pawgors were half again as large as a full-grown Siberian tiger or adult male lion, they seemed to know just how much pressure they could put on Danyy and not crush him or seriously injure him. Their antics looked savage and dangerous, but considering their abilities, they were actually being amazingly gentle, probably more so even than with their own cubs.
The cubs, however, were another matter. Though Danyy was able to communicate with all the pawgors and let them know when they were being too rough, the cubs had not yet developed a mastery of their powers and strength. Danyy had been scraped or lightly mauled a few times by the cubs’ already foot-long front teeth or their retractable claws, which just seemed to automatically “unretract” during hard play. Most closely resembling prehistoric saber tooth tigers, full-grown pawgors have a pair of two-foot long teeth in the front of their mouths. Danyy was never seriously hurt, though, and could still count all his fingers, hands, and other appendages. Nevertheless, it gave Kathleen cause for concern, though she did have to admit that she enjoyed watching Danyy having so much fun.
Jim had long ago returned the young pawgor to the Nan-Torel, a sort of deep forest-jungle that was its natural habitat, but the young pawgor often left the Nan-Torel to return to the Valenti ranch to find Danyy. When it found a mate and had cubs, it brought them to the ranch, too. The pawgors came and went as they pleased, which was another unusual thing on Antar. No pawgors had ever been known to leave the deep Nan-Torel, and almost no Antarians had ever gone into the Nan-Torel… not willingly anyway… so their paths didn’t often cross. The pawgor’s prowess is legendary on Antar. It’s just that since it lives in the dangerous Nan-Torel, nobody on Antar could remember ever actually having seen one… not until Jim Valenti came to Antar.
Antarians would often make weekend plans to drive by the Valenti estate just to get a glimpse of the pawgors. They certainly weren’t going to venture into the Nan-Torel to see one. The deep Nan-Torel, where pawgors live, is considered so dangerous that anyone who enters and is not heard from for twenty-four hours can be legally declared dead. Jim found the young male pawgor trapped under a fallen tree with its dead mama during a hunting expedition in the Nan-Torel, a venture that Antarians considered just plain foolish. He saved the young pawgor and brought it home, never suspecting that the twelve-foot-high enclosure he kept it in was no hindrance at all. When the pawgor was ready to it simply jumped over the fence without even exerting itself. He also never suspected that his young son, Danyy, was talking to the pawgor every day… mind to mind… or that they understood each other.
Now Jim watched as his son, Danyy, played with not one but five pawgors in their yard. He shook his head and smiled at Kathleen.
“Never thought I’d see the day, Kath.”
Kathleen watched as yet another car hovered slowly by on the off-the-path road that led by the ranch, trying to get a glimpse – and maybe a picture - of the pawgors.
“Looks like they never thought they’d see it, either,” Kathleen said. “Antarians don’t have a National Enquirer, but they don’t seem to have any shortage of enquiring minds.”
Jim nodded, and he and Kathleen both smiled.
“Maybe I should start something like the Discover channel on Antarian TV,” Jim said.
“Maybe you should, Jim,” Kathleen laughed, nodding. “I’ll bet it would be a big hit! It’s really amazing how little they actually know about their own fauna… especially considering that they’re probably several thousand years ahead of Earth technologically and in almost every other way. You know, before Max met up with the jah-ee, Antarians still considered the jah-ee to be a myth… and no one had ever seen a pawgor! Maybe you should do it.”
“Yeah,” Jim said, nodding. “Maybe I will, Kath. You know… maybe I will. That’s something Danyy and I could do together. Yeah! I’d like that!”
Jim turned to look as another car hovered up the country dirt road… but unlike the ones before, this one turned into the long driveway and drove up toward the ranch house.
“That’s Max and Liz,” Kathleen said, walking out to meet the car.
“Liz! Max! How are you?”
As the car’s engines purred to a stop, the doors automatically slid back with part of the roof, and Liz stepped out of the vehicle, a bright blue Xac-Var IV, and accepted a hug and kiss on the cheek from Kathleen, which she returned.
“We wanted to see how you guys were doing up here,” Liz said. “I don’t know why, but it just seems like we haven’t seen each other for a very long time.”
“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it,” Kathleen agreed. “I was just thinking the same thing this morning. Funny, isn’t it? We were all right here just a few days ago talking about… you know, the problems…” Kathleen was hesitant to open a dialog into the virus catastrophe that had befallen Antar. “But in spite of that, I can’t shake the feeling that we were somewhere else for… a lifetime or something.”
“You feel it, too?” Liz asked.
“Yeah. I’m remembering bits and pieces from when I was in the other timeline with Michael. The odd thing is, it feels more and more like I had a whole life there, not just a month or so after the Nogi-K’ya changed the timeline.”
“Yeah,” Liz agreed. “That’s how I feel, too. And there’s something from there that I know I should remember, Kathleen… only I can’t seem to remember it, and it’s killing me.”
“Well, it’ll come to you, Liz… maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a month… but it’ll come to you sooner or later. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“I guess not.”
“I see the little pawgors are doing fine,” Max said.
Kathleen nodded. “Yeah! They’re a wild and frisky bunch.”
“Don’t you ever worry that they’ll hurt Danyy,” Liz asked… “I mean, accidentally or something?”
“I do,” Kathleen said, nodding, “but Danyy seems to feel that he’s safe, and they are very gentle with him. I know it doesn’t look like it, but…”
“Is it normal for the pawgor to be chewing on Danyy’s head like that,” Max interrupted.
Kathleen turned around quickly. Danyy’s head was inside the pawgor’s mouth, and he was holding its two-foot-long front teeth in his hands like two bars of a jail cell. Kathleen started to yell or run to his defense, but at that moment, Danyy extricated his head from the pawgor’s mouth.
“Look, Mom! Now my hair’s all slicked down! I got Jung-Jo to lick it!”
Kathleen closed her eyes tightly for a moment and wrinkled her nose.
“You’re taking a long bath when you get in the house, young man! No ‘ifs,’ ‘ands,’ or ‘buts’!”
“Aw, Mom! I can comb my hair down now and it’ll stay down!”
“I didn’t know you worried about that,” Jim said.
“I don’t…” Danyy said, “but Mama likes it that way.”
“Not licked down,” Kathleen said, breaking out into laughter in spite of herself. Liz wondered if the laughter was amusement or relief. It was probably a bit of both.
“Max, what would you think about me starting a sort of Animal Channel or Discover-type channel on AntarVision,” Jim asked. “You know, there aren’t any zoos on Antar, and people here don’t even know what some of their animals look like. They’re just folk legends. Nobody ever saw a jah-ee before you befriended one…”
“Nobody who lived to tell about it,” Max corrected. “Well… almost nobody, I guess. Somebody had to have seen one to start the legends.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what I mean, Max. And nobody ever saw a pawgor until I brought Jung-Jo back… Okay, I know, nobody who lived to tell about it.”
Max smiled and nodded. He had seen a couple of pawgors when he was running from Kivar’s soldiers and hiding out in the Nan-Torel, but the soldiers who chased him into the Nan-Torel had seen them, too… and only Max had returned from the Nan-Torel. Nobody could be really sure what ever happened to the group of soldiers who went in after Max. But one thing is certain… none of them ever came out.
“I think it’s a good idea, Jim. Go for it if you want to do it! You’re the most qualified person on Antar to do something like that.”
“I think you’re the only person on Antar qualified to do it,” Liz laughed.
“You’re probably the only one who would do it,” Max said, nodding in agreement.
“Let’s go inside,” Kathleen said, pushing them toward the house. “I’ll get you some coffee and jaht-roo cookies. I might have some left-over japo, too.”
“Sounds good,” Max said.
Inside the ranch house, Max and Liz sat down together on a typical oversized Antarian sofa, as Kathleen hurried to pour some coffee for everyone and bring out a tray of jaht-roo cookies and chilled japo-mevanish. Few Antarian families were ever without these basic treats, which could always be whipped out on a moment’s notice for guests. For planned or more formal events, the japo-mevanish was served flaming. The flames gave the Antarian flan-like dessert a crispy but sweet coating, in a way like roasting a marshmallow over a fire. And jaht-roo cookies were made from a very light and wispy sugar dough, the same dough used to bake playing pieces for the Antarian game of Jaht-Roo, from whence they got their name. If you could take cotton candy, turn it into cookies, and make it slightly crisp, you would almost have jaht-roo cookies. Coffee, which had been unknown on Antar prior to Max’s return, was quickly becoming a favorite with many Antarians, as was tea, though native herbs and beans were usually substituted, since real coffee beans and tea leaves were a special commodity on Antar.
“Kath,” Liz said, turning to address Kathleen, “What exactly do you remember from Earth… I mean from the alternate timeline… not our real past in this timeline?”
“It’s kind of fuzzy, Liz… it’s just starting to come back to me… a little bit more each day. I remember working with Michael in some way to try to fix the timeline. I remember Jim being hurt… or maybe killed.”
Liz looked shocked, but then she seemed to remember something about it herself. “Yeah, I think he was… I remember something about that being said.”
“Well don’t look at me, girls,” Jim said. “I was dead. I can’t help you.”
“Maybe you were just hurt, Jim. I’m not sure you were dead.”
“No, I was dead, Liz,” Jim said with conviction.
“How do you know, Jim,” Kathleen asked. “Do you remember anything?”
“I remember… something,” Jim said.
“What,” Liz asked.
“I remember… that is, I think I remember… a bird… with a broken wing. I picked it up to see if I could help it, and it…”
“It what,” Kathleen prodded.
“It did something weird. It suddenly became very heavy and exploded or hit me with a flash of… energy or something… it blinded me.”
“What happened then?”
“I don’t know, Liz. That’s all I remember. Things just went blank after that. I think I might’ve been killed and fell into the quarry.”
“Yeah,” Kathleen agreed. “You were in the quarry! And you were… dead. I remember that now!”
Kathleen swallowed as she said the word “dead.” “I… I wanted to get us both back here to save you, Jim.”
“Well, the next thing I remember is being back here, Kath, so you girls must’ve done something right. But I guess I can’t be much help. You know, Michael could fill in a lot of these pieces. He came back with all his memories intact.”
“Yeah, I know,” Liz nodded. “But he doesn’t know what it is that I can’t remember. I already asked him.”
“Did he tell you anything else?”
“Not much. He said I needed to remember it all myself. But I know that Kyle was a professional trainer or something and Alex was famous… I think he was a country-rock crossover singer. And I was head of the molecular biology department at Harvard and almost married some idiot professor who won a Nobel using work I had done. Michael stopped the wedding.”
“Did Michael tell you all that,” Jim asked.
“No. I remembered most of it. Michael just confirmed it and gave me a few details I wasn’t clear on.”
“Yeah? Head of molecular biology at Harvard, huh? Way to go, Liz… I think. What about me?”
“You were the sheriff, Jim… in Roswell.”
“Dang, I was hoping I was a famous singer, too,” Jim said, feigning disappointment.
“You can sing for me, Jim,” Kathleen said. “I like your singing.”
“My groupie,” Jim said with a grin. “You know who else could fill in the gaps for us… those Nogi-K’ya guys. They were there wherever we were. They were in both timelines. They just moved around between the timelines like walking from one room to another.”
“Yeah, I know,” Liz nodded. “But they won’t tell me. They know! I’m sure of it… but they refused to tell me what I need to know.”
“Not very friendly of them,” Jim said.
“It’s not that… It’s just that they have these strict laws about changing time and all, and they’re afraid that telling me will cause some kind of time disruption or something.”
“They worry too much,” Jim said, shaking his head with a sigh. “It’s a wonder they ever get anything done at all. They spend their whole lives ‘studying possible ramifications.’ They don’t have time to do anything that might cause ramifications!”
Liz and Kathleen both laughed, and Max smiled.
“What about you, Max,” Jim asked. “What were you in the alternate timeline?”
Max shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t remembered yet.”
“Nothing?”
Max shook his head. It wasn’t the whole and honest truth. Max did remember some of his life with Liz in the future time “bubble.” He just hadn’t been able to explain it to himself yet. It wasn’t the alternate timeline that the others were in, and Max didn’t have that key to the puzzle yet… especially since he also remembered going to California after graduation and never seeing Liz again. Until he understood it himself, he was hesitant to mention anything at all. The fact is, Max had also felt a deep feeling in his gut… an empty feeling… like something had been lost that was far more than just important… something that had to be remembered. But Max had kept it to himself. He didn’t like to share his feelings openly with most people, and he wouldn’t share feelings that he didn’t understand with anyone.
“Strange that you don’t remember anything at all, Max,” Jim said. “Do you remember anything about Max in that timeline, Liz?”
Liz thought about it. “He was a student at Roswell High. We never really went together, I don’t think… just spoke to each other in the hall a few times. I went to Boston after I graduated, and I don’t know where Max went. I never saw him again.” Liz thought about it for a moment. “No… no, that’s not true. Max and I were together… at some time… But how can that be? I went to Boston and never saw him again.”
Liz looked troubled and perplexed. Jim thought he saw a similar look cross Max’s face.
“You sure you don’t remember anything, Max?”
Max shook his head then added, “Just what Liz said. What she remembers. That’s what I remember, too.”
“Then you do remember something.”
“I guess so… but it’s not important.”
“It might be, Max,” Kathleen said. “Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it’s not important.”
Max looked slightly embarrassed. “I guess you’re right, Kathleen, but if I don’t understand what I remember how can it help anyone?”
“Maybe if you and Liz both try, you might put the pieces together.”
Max nodded. “You’re probably right, Kathleen. I know I don’t open up much. I usually do with Liz, but I just don’t know how this could help. I don’t even know if it’s real… or just my imagination. I might just be misleading everyone… including myself.”
“Or you might not be,” Kathleen said.
Max nodded. “I remember going to California after graduation, like I said. I never saw Liz again after that… but… I also remember Liz coming to me… being with me.”
“That’s what I remember, too, Max,” Liz said.
“We were together for a while…” Max added.
“A day? A few hours? A month?”
“I don’t know, Kathleen,” Max said. “Longer, I think.”
“Longer than a month?”
Max nodded. Kathleen looked at Liz, and she nodded, too.
“Well, you both agree on something. There must be something to it.”
“Why didn’t Michael tell me this,” Liz asked, looking at Max.
“I don’t know, Liz. Maybe he didn’t know it.”
“How can he not know it, Max? He has all his memories!”
“Then maybe,” Kathleen interjected, “you need to figure out how you two had time to be together for more than a month without Michael knowing it.”
“Maybe,” Liz replied hesitantly. “I do recall hiding something from him.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Kathleen said. “What was it that you hid from Michael?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
“Okay then, let’s try it a different way, Liz. Why didn’t you want him to know whatever it was?”
Liz thought about it. “Max said it could hurt our chances of getting back to this timeline, I think.”
“Do you remember that, Max,” Kathleen asked, turning to Max. “Why would it hurt your chances?”
“I don’t know. I think the Nogi-K’ya said it would… or might.”
“Figures,” Jim mumbled.
“So the Nogi-K’ya were there,” Kathleen nodded. “Who else? Was anyone else there?”
“There were other people, sure. Max was in the palace here on Antar… but… it wasn’t here… not in this timeline, I mean… It was somewhere else. Michael wasn’t here. Kyle, Alex, Jim, and Tess weren’t here either… and you weren’t here.”
“What you’re saying, Liz,” Jim interjected, “is that it was a totally different timeline. That’s the only conclusion I can get from it. If it wasn’t this timeline and it wasn’t the timeline we were all in… the alternate one… it had to be a totally different timeline. How did you get there? Do you remember?”
“I think I used the sphere,” Liz said.
“Why did you go to this other timeline,” Kathleen asked.
“I was looking for Max… in the future, I think.”
“Do you remember why?”
“No… well, maybe. I think I wanted to find out if Max was really there and we were really married.”
“Okay. That’s important,” Kathleen said. “So you went to the future with the sphere. Only… it was the future of the timeline you were in, not this timeline… not the one you’re married to Max in.”
“Yeah… that must have been what happened,” Liz said.
“And you found Max,” Kathleen continued, “but the rest of us weren’t there. So you spent time with Max there… over a month according to Max…”
“A lot more, I think…” Liz said hesitantly. “A year, maybe.”
Kathleen’s mouth dropped open. “A year? And Michael didn’t know this?”
“No. I returned to the exact time I had left from, so there was no time lapse for him. It would have been like I left and came right back.”
“A year!” Kathleen repeated, incredulous.
As Kathleen was thinking about this, Danyy came running into the house, his hair slicked down flat.
“Mom! Look what I got!” he held out his hand, and in his hand were seven coruns, three yaronins, and several kyrin, close to fifteen dollars if measured in Earth money.
“Where’d you get that, Danyy?”
“People have been paying me to let them take pictures of me with my head in Jung-Jo’s mouth.”
“Oh, for…” Kathleen huffed. “Jim, you’ve really got to do something about this.”
Jim smiled and nodded. “D’you think they’d pay me if I stick my head in his mouth, Danyy?”
“Jim!”
“Alright… alright… just kidding, Kath. How about it, Danyy?”
Kathleen pursed her lips together tightly. At that moment, the three pawgor cubs followed Danyy into the house. Everybody laughed, and Liz added an “awwwww.”
“They’re adorable, Kathleen.”
“Outside, they’re adorable,” Kathleen said. “Inside, they’re something else. Danyy, can you take your friends back outside? Please?”
“Sure, Mom.” Danyy turned and herded the young cubs back out into the yard.
“Kath,” Liz said with some hesitation. “Why do I feel like there were four cubs?”
“I don’t know, Liz. There were always only three.”
“I’m getting that feeling again, Max… like one of them is missing.”
Kathleen looked at Liz and suddenly became almost white. “Liz, you were with Max for how long? A year?”
“I think so.” Suddenly, Liz realized where Kathleen was going, and all the color drained from her face, too.
“Omigod! Omigod! …Jeffy!”
tbc
Three Little Pawgors
Chapter 45
XLV
Jim Valenti watched with Kathleen from the porch of their ranch house as Danyy played in the yard with his friend the pawgor. Ten months before, the pawgor had found a mate and increased the pawgor population by three, so Danyy now had not one, but five pawgors to play with. Mama pawgor usually preferred to watch as her three cubs and her mate -Danyy’s original friend- played “chase-and-catch,” “snatch-the-ball,” “hide and seek,” “pounce and leap,” and other “pawgor games” with Danyy; but she was still young, too, and occasionally she would succumb to temptation and join in the fun.
Kathleen still worried about Danyy, especially when he would be rolling in the grass with the pawgor, wrestling it as though he had a chance in the world of winning such a mismatch. Fortunately, although the adult pawgors were half again as large as a full-grown Siberian tiger or adult male lion, they seemed to know just how much pressure they could put on Danyy and not crush him or seriously injure him. Their antics looked savage and dangerous, but considering their abilities, they were actually being amazingly gentle, probably more so even than with their own cubs.
The cubs, however, were another matter. Though Danyy was able to communicate with all the pawgors and let them know when they were being too rough, the cubs had not yet developed a mastery of their powers and strength. Danyy had been scraped or lightly mauled a few times by the cubs’ already foot-long front teeth or their retractable claws, which just seemed to automatically “unretract” during hard play. Most closely resembling prehistoric saber tooth tigers, full-grown pawgors have a pair of two-foot long teeth in the front of their mouths. Danyy was never seriously hurt, though, and could still count all his fingers, hands, and other appendages. Nevertheless, it gave Kathleen cause for concern, though she did have to admit that she enjoyed watching Danyy having so much fun.
Jim had long ago returned the young pawgor to the Nan-Torel, a sort of deep forest-jungle that was its natural habitat, but the young pawgor often left the Nan-Torel to return to the Valenti ranch to find Danyy. When it found a mate and had cubs, it brought them to the ranch, too. The pawgors came and went as they pleased, which was another unusual thing on Antar. No pawgors had ever been known to leave the deep Nan-Torel, and almost no Antarians had ever gone into the Nan-Torel… not willingly anyway… so their paths didn’t often cross. The pawgor’s prowess is legendary on Antar. It’s just that since it lives in the dangerous Nan-Torel, nobody on Antar could remember ever actually having seen one… not until Jim Valenti came to Antar.
Antarians would often make weekend plans to drive by the Valenti estate just to get a glimpse of the pawgors. They certainly weren’t going to venture into the Nan-Torel to see one. The deep Nan-Torel, where pawgors live, is considered so dangerous that anyone who enters and is not heard from for twenty-four hours can be legally declared dead. Jim found the young male pawgor trapped under a fallen tree with its dead mama during a hunting expedition in the Nan-Torel, a venture that Antarians considered just plain foolish. He saved the young pawgor and brought it home, never suspecting that the twelve-foot-high enclosure he kept it in was no hindrance at all. When the pawgor was ready to it simply jumped over the fence without even exerting itself. He also never suspected that his young son, Danyy, was talking to the pawgor every day… mind to mind… or that they understood each other.
Now Jim watched as his son, Danyy, played with not one but five pawgors in their yard. He shook his head and smiled at Kathleen.
“Never thought I’d see the day, Kath.”
Kathleen watched as yet another car hovered slowly by on the off-the-path road that led by the ranch, trying to get a glimpse – and maybe a picture - of the pawgors.
“Looks like they never thought they’d see it, either,” Kathleen said. “Antarians don’t have a National Enquirer, but they don’t seem to have any shortage of enquiring minds.”
Jim nodded, and he and Kathleen both smiled.
“Maybe I should start something like the Discover channel on Antarian TV,” Jim said.
“Maybe you should, Jim,” Kathleen laughed, nodding. “I’ll bet it would be a big hit! It’s really amazing how little they actually know about their own fauna… especially considering that they’re probably several thousand years ahead of Earth technologically and in almost every other way. You know, before Max met up with the jah-ee, Antarians still considered the jah-ee to be a myth… and no one had ever seen a pawgor! Maybe you should do it.”
“Yeah,” Jim said, nodding. “Maybe I will, Kath. You know… maybe I will. That’s something Danyy and I could do together. Yeah! I’d like that!”
Jim turned to look as another car hovered up the country dirt road… but unlike the ones before, this one turned into the long driveway and drove up toward the ranch house.
“That’s Max and Liz,” Kathleen said, walking out to meet the car.
“Liz! Max! How are you?”
As the car’s engines purred to a stop, the doors automatically slid back with part of the roof, and Liz stepped out of the vehicle, a bright blue Xac-Var IV, and accepted a hug and kiss on the cheek from Kathleen, which she returned.
“We wanted to see how you guys were doing up here,” Liz said. “I don’t know why, but it just seems like we haven’t seen each other for a very long time.”
“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it,” Kathleen agreed. “I was just thinking the same thing this morning. Funny, isn’t it? We were all right here just a few days ago talking about… you know, the problems…” Kathleen was hesitant to open a dialog into the virus catastrophe that had befallen Antar. “But in spite of that, I can’t shake the feeling that we were somewhere else for… a lifetime or something.”
“You feel it, too?” Liz asked.
“Yeah. I’m remembering bits and pieces from when I was in the other timeline with Michael. The odd thing is, it feels more and more like I had a whole life there, not just a month or so after the Nogi-K’ya changed the timeline.”
“Yeah,” Liz agreed. “That’s how I feel, too. And there’s something from there that I know I should remember, Kathleen… only I can’t seem to remember it, and it’s killing me.”
“Well, it’ll come to you, Liz… maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a month… but it’ll come to you sooner or later. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“I guess not.”
“I see the little pawgors are doing fine,” Max said.
Kathleen nodded. “Yeah! They’re a wild and frisky bunch.”
“Don’t you ever worry that they’ll hurt Danyy,” Liz asked… “I mean, accidentally or something?”
“I do,” Kathleen said, nodding, “but Danyy seems to feel that he’s safe, and they are very gentle with him. I know it doesn’t look like it, but…”
“Is it normal for the pawgor to be chewing on Danyy’s head like that,” Max interrupted.
Kathleen turned around quickly. Danyy’s head was inside the pawgor’s mouth, and he was holding its two-foot-long front teeth in his hands like two bars of a jail cell. Kathleen started to yell or run to his defense, but at that moment, Danyy extricated his head from the pawgor’s mouth.
“Look, Mom! Now my hair’s all slicked down! I got Jung-Jo to lick it!”
Kathleen closed her eyes tightly for a moment and wrinkled her nose.
“You’re taking a long bath when you get in the house, young man! No ‘ifs,’ ‘ands,’ or ‘buts’!”
“Aw, Mom! I can comb my hair down now and it’ll stay down!”
“I didn’t know you worried about that,” Jim said.
“I don’t…” Danyy said, “but Mama likes it that way.”
“Not licked down,” Kathleen said, breaking out into laughter in spite of herself. Liz wondered if the laughter was amusement or relief. It was probably a bit of both.
“Max, what would you think about me starting a sort of Animal Channel or Discover-type channel on AntarVision,” Jim asked. “You know, there aren’t any zoos on Antar, and people here don’t even know what some of their animals look like. They’re just folk legends. Nobody ever saw a jah-ee before you befriended one…”
“Nobody who lived to tell about it,” Max corrected. “Well… almost nobody, I guess. Somebody had to have seen one to start the legends.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what I mean, Max. And nobody ever saw a pawgor until I brought Jung-Jo back… Okay, I know, nobody who lived to tell about it.”
Max smiled and nodded. He had seen a couple of pawgors when he was running from Kivar’s soldiers and hiding out in the Nan-Torel, but the soldiers who chased him into the Nan-Torel had seen them, too… and only Max had returned from the Nan-Torel. Nobody could be really sure what ever happened to the group of soldiers who went in after Max. But one thing is certain… none of them ever came out.
“I think it’s a good idea, Jim. Go for it if you want to do it! You’re the most qualified person on Antar to do something like that.”
“I think you’re the only person on Antar qualified to do it,” Liz laughed.
“You’re probably the only one who would do it,” Max said, nodding in agreement.
“Let’s go inside,” Kathleen said, pushing them toward the house. “I’ll get you some coffee and jaht-roo cookies. I might have some left-over japo, too.”
“Sounds good,” Max said.
Inside the ranch house, Max and Liz sat down together on a typical oversized Antarian sofa, as Kathleen hurried to pour some coffee for everyone and bring out a tray of jaht-roo cookies and chilled japo-mevanish. Few Antarian families were ever without these basic treats, which could always be whipped out on a moment’s notice for guests. For planned or more formal events, the japo-mevanish was served flaming. The flames gave the Antarian flan-like dessert a crispy but sweet coating, in a way like roasting a marshmallow over a fire. And jaht-roo cookies were made from a very light and wispy sugar dough, the same dough used to bake playing pieces for the Antarian game of Jaht-Roo, from whence they got their name. If you could take cotton candy, turn it into cookies, and make it slightly crisp, you would almost have jaht-roo cookies. Coffee, which had been unknown on Antar prior to Max’s return, was quickly becoming a favorite with many Antarians, as was tea, though native herbs and beans were usually substituted, since real coffee beans and tea leaves were a special commodity on Antar.
“Kath,” Liz said, turning to address Kathleen, “What exactly do you remember from Earth… I mean from the alternate timeline… not our real past in this timeline?”
“It’s kind of fuzzy, Liz… it’s just starting to come back to me… a little bit more each day. I remember working with Michael in some way to try to fix the timeline. I remember Jim being hurt… or maybe killed.”
Liz looked shocked, but then she seemed to remember something about it herself. “Yeah, I think he was… I remember something about that being said.”
“Well don’t look at me, girls,” Jim said. “I was dead. I can’t help you.”
“Maybe you were just hurt, Jim. I’m not sure you were dead.”
“No, I was dead, Liz,” Jim said with conviction.
“How do you know, Jim,” Kathleen asked. “Do you remember anything?”
“I remember… something,” Jim said.
“What,” Liz asked.
“I remember… that is, I think I remember… a bird… with a broken wing. I picked it up to see if I could help it, and it…”
“It what,” Kathleen prodded.
“It did something weird. It suddenly became very heavy and exploded or hit me with a flash of… energy or something… it blinded me.”
“What happened then?”
“I don’t know, Liz. That’s all I remember. Things just went blank after that. I think I might’ve been killed and fell into the quarry.”
“Yeah,” Kathleen agreed. “You were in the quarry! And you were… dead. I remember that now!”
Kathleen swallowed as she said the word “dead.” “I… I wanted to get us both back here to save you, Jim.”
“Well, the next thing I remember is being back here, Kath, so you girls must’ve done something right. But I guess I can’t be much help. You know, Michael could fill in a lot of these pieces. He came back with all his memories intact.”
“Yeah, I know,” Liz nodded. “But he doesn’t know what it is that I can’t remember. I already asked him.”
“Did he tell you anything else?”
“Not much. He said I needed to remember it all myself. But I know that Kyle was a professional trainer or something and Alex was famous… I think he was a country-rock crossover singer. And I was head of the molecular biology department at Harvard and almost married some idiot professor who won a Nobel using work I had done. Michael stopped the wedding.”
“Did Michael tell you all that,” Jim asked.
“No. I remembered most of it. Michael just confirmed it and gave me a few details I wasn’t clear on.”
“Yeah? Head of molecular biology at Harvard, huh? Way to go, Liz… I think. What about me?”
“You were the sheriff, Jim… in Roswell.”
“Dang, I was hoping I was a famous singer, too,” Jim said, feigning disappointment.
“You can sing for me, Jim,” Kathleen said. “I like your singing.”
“My groupie,” Jim said with a grin. “You know who else could fill in the gaps for us… those Nogi-K’ya guys. They were there wherever we were. They were in both timelines. They just moved around between the timelines like walking from one room to another.”
“Yeah, I know,” Liz nodded. “But they won’t tell me. They know! I’m sure of it… but they refused to tell me what I need to know.”
“Not very friendly of them,” Jim said.
“It’s not that… It’s just that they have these strict laws about changing time and all, and they’re afraid that telling me will cause some kind of time disruption or something.”
“They worry too much,” Jim said, shaking his head with a sigh. “It’s a wonder they ever get anything done at all. They spend their whole lives ‘studying possible ramifications.’ They don’t have time to do anything that might cause ramifications!”
Liz and Kathleen both laughed, and Max smiled.
“What about you, Max,” Jim asked. “What were you in the alternate timeline?”
Max shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t remembered yet.”
“Nothing?”
Max shook his head. It wasn’t the whole and honest truth. Max did remember some of his life with Liz in the future time “bubble.” He just hadn’t been able to explain it to himself yet. It wasn’t the alternate timeline that the others were in, and Max didn’t have that key to the puzzle yet… especially since he also remembered going to California after graduation and never seeing Liz again. Until he understood it himself, he was hesitant to mention anything at all. The fact is, Max had also felt a deep feeling in his gut… an empty feeling… like something had been lost that was far more than just important… something that had to be remembered. But Max had kept it to himself. He didn’t like to share his feelings openly with most people, and he wouldn’t share feelings that he didn’t understand with anyone.
“Strange that you don’t remember anything at all, Max,” Jim said. “Do you remember anything about Max in that timeline, Liz?”
Liz thought about it. “He was a student at Roswell High. We never really went together, I don’t think… just spoke to each other in the hall a few times. I went to Boston after I graduated, and I don’t know where Max went. I never saw him again.” Liz thought about it for a moment. “No… no, that’s not true. Max and I were together… at some time… But how can that be? I went to Boston and never saw him again.”
Liz looked troubled and perplexed. Jim thought he saw a similar look cross Max’s face.
“You sure you don’t remember anything, Max?”
Max shook his head then added, “Just what Liz said. What she remembers. That’s what I remember, too.”
“Then you do remember something.”
“I guess so… but it’s not important.”
“It might be, Max,” Kathleen said. “Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it’s not important.”
Max looked slightly embarrassed. “I guess you’re right, Kathleen, but if I don’t understand what I remember how can it help anyone?”
“Maybe if you and Liz both try, you might put the pieces together.”
Max nodded. “You’re probably right, Kathleen. I know I don’t open up much. I usually do with Liz, but I just don’t know how this could help. I don’t even know if it’s real… or just my imagination. I might just be misleading everyone… including myself.”
“Or you might not be,” Kathleen said.
Max nodded. “I remember going to California after graduation, like I said. I never saw Liz again after that… but… I also remember Liz coming to me… being with me.”
“That’s what I remember, too, Max,” Liz said.
“We were together for a while…” Max added.
“A day? A few hours? A month?”
“I don’t know, Kathleen,” Max said. “Longer, I think.”
“Longer than a month?”
Max nodded. Kathleen looked at Liz, and she nodded, too.
“Well, you both agree on something. There must be something to it.”
“Why didn’t Michael tell me this,” Liz asked, looking at Max.
“I don’t know, Liz. Maybe he didn’t know it.”
“How can he not know it, Max? He has all his memories!”
“Then maybe,” Kathleen interjected, “you need to figure out how you two had time to be together for more than a month without Michael knowing it.”
“Maybe,” Liz replied hesitantly. “I do recall hiding something from him.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Kathleen said. “What was it that you hid from Michael?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
“Okay then, let’s try it a different way, Liz. Why didn’t you want him to know whatever it was?”
Liz thought about it. “Max said it could hurt our chances of getting back to this timeline, I think.”
“Do you remember that, Max,” Kathleen asked, turning to Max. “Why would it hurt your chances?”
“I don’t know. I think the Nogi-K’ya said it would… or might.”
“Figures,” Jim mumbled.
“So the Nogi-K’ya were there,” Kathleen nodded. “Who else? Was anyone else there?”
“There were other people, sure. Max was in the palace here on Antar… but… it wasn’t here… not in this timeline, I mean… It was somewhere else. Michael wasn’t here. Kyle, Alex, Jim, and Tess weren’t here either… and you weren’t here.”
“What you’re saying, Liz,” Jim interjected, “is that it was a totally different timeline. That’s the only conclusion I can get from it. If it wasn’t this timeline and it wasn’t the timeline we were all in… the alternate one… it had to be a totally different timeline. How did you get there? Do you remember?”
“I think I used the sphere,” Liz said.
“Why did you go to this other timeline,” Kathleen asked.
“I was looking for Max… in the future, I think.”
“Do you remember why?”
“No… well, maybe. I think I wanted to find out if Max was really there and we were really married.”
“Okay. That’s important,” Kathleen said. “So you went to the future with the sphere. Only… it was the future of the timeline you were in, not this timeline… not the one you’re married to Max in.”
“Yeah… that must have been what happened,” Liz said.
“And you found Max,” Kathleen continued, “but the rest of us weren’t there. So you spent time with Max there… over a month according to Max…”
“A lot more, I think…” Liz said hesitantly. “A year, maybe.”
Kathleen’s mouth dropped open. “A year? And Michael didn’t know this?”
“No. I returned to the exact time I had left from, so there was no time lapse for him. It would have been like I left and came right back.”
“A year!” Kathleen repeated, incredulous.
As Kathleen was thinking about this, Danyy came running into the house, his hair slicked down flat.
“Mom! Look what I got!” he held out his hand, and in his hand were seven coruns, three yaronins, and several kyrin, close to fifteen dollars if measured in Earth money.
“Where’d you get that, Danyy?”
“People have been paying me to let them take pictures of me with my head in Jung-Jo’s mouth.”
“Oh, for…” Kathleen huffed. “Jim, you’ve really got to do something about this.”
Jim smiled and nodded. “D’you think they’d pay me if I stick my head in his mouth, Danyy?”
“Jim!”
“Alright… alright… just kidding, Kath. How about it, Danyy?”
Kathleen pursed her lips together tightly. At that moment, the three pawgor cubs followed Danyy into the house. Everybody laughed, and Liz added an “awwwww.”
“They’re adorable, Kathleen.”
“Outside, they’re adorable,” Kathleen said. “Inside, they’re something else. Danyy, can you take your friends back outside? Please?”
“Sure, Mom.” Danyy turned and herded the young cubs back out into the yard.
“Kath,” Liz said with some hesitation. “Why do I feel like there were four cubs?”
“I don’t know, Liz. There were always only three.”
“I’m getting that feeling again, Max… like one of them is missing.”
Kathleen looked at Liz and suddenly became almost white. “Liz, you were with Max for how long? A year?”
“I think so.” Suddenly, Liz realized where Kathleen was going, and all the color drained from her face, too.
“Omigod! Omigod! …Jeffy!”
tbc
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Island Breeze
- Forum Moderator
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The Four Faces of Rath
The Four Faces of Rath
Jungle Jim
Chapter 46
XLVI
Few Antarians were still on the street, and those who still were were not stopping to talk to anyone. A quick “hello” was all one could get from most of them as they rushed toward home or in the direction of the nearest public vision screen.
“Where’s everyone going in such a hurry,” a Xarian tourist asked a young Antarian man who rushed by him.
“Home… to watch the vision screen.”
“What’s so important?”
“Jungle Jim. Today’s his first show. He’s going into the Nan-Torel. It’s going to be on vision screen live. He’s going to get eaten! I don’t want to miss it!”
“Jungle Jim?”
“Where are you from, man,” the Antarian yelled back from half way down the street. “Everybody knows the pawgor guy. That’s Jungle Jim.”
The Xarian started to ask something else, but the Antarian was already gone. So he did what everyone else seemed to be doing. He headed in the direction of the nearest public vision screen to watch whatever it was that the Antarians were all in a titter over.
At the edge of the public square, set into the wall of one of the public buildings, the Xarian found a large public viewing screen, already surrounded by a good-size crowd.
“Who’s this ‘Jungle Jim,’” the Xarian asked a man standing near him.
“You’re kidding, right?” The Antarian answered with a smile.
The Xarian shook his head. “No. I’m from Xarius. I don’t know.”
“Oh. Well, he’s one of the people from Eluymer. You know, the planet they call Urth.”
“Is he one of the ones who helped rescue the children from the Ghors?”
“Yeah. He’s one of them.” The Antarian looked at the Xarian and grinned. “He belongs to the woman who kicked Hosk the Ghor in the crotch…”
“Oh! That guy! Yeah, I know who he is now! Is that the guy that’s going to go into the Nan-Torel?”
“Yeah. It’s his first show. Everybody thinks it’ll be his last show. He’s going to get eaten.”
“Shhh,” a woman in front of them said. “It’s starting.”
Suddenly a hush came over the crowd, as Jim came onto the screen. He was standing at the edge of the Nan-Torel.
“Hello Antar! Today is a big day for me, and I hope it will be a memorable one for you, too.”
“That’s a pretty safe bet,” the Antarian whispered to the Xarian.
“Today, we’re going to go into the Nan-Torel, a place where Antarians have rarely ventured, to examine closely some of the unique and beautiful plant and animal life that is so abundant there. Follow me as we walk into this wondrous wild masterpiece of nature.”
Jim walked toward the edge of the jungle. As he did, he seemed to get further and further away from the cameras. Then he turned around and motioned to his camera crew.
“You’re falling behind, guys.”
Somebody said something from behind the cameras.
“Oh, for the love o’… Now’s not the time to tell me this. You didn’t think I was going to lug all the cameras in there and film myself, did you? Somebody’s got to go along with me.”
The crowd in front of the square was starting to chuckle among themselves. They understood the camera crew all too well. Jim might be ready to get eaten by wild pawgors or God knows what else. He was a crazy alien. But the cameramen were Antarians… and they were not.
“Cut! Cut!” Jim yelled, making a slashing motion across his throat to tell the cameramen to turn off the cameras. But then he seemed to have second thoughts, and he walked over and looked into the cameras again.
“Folks, it looks like our trip into the infamous Nan-Torel is going to be delayed…” Under his breath, he added, “until I can find a camera crew with some backbones.”
By now, the crowd in front of the vision screen was laughing hysterically. This was almost as good as seeing Jim get eaten. And that still might happen… if he could find someone else crazy enough to go into the Nan-Torel with him and film it.
“This is Jungle Jim the Pawgors’ Friend saying good-bye till next week,” Jim said to his audience. “I’ll be here… right here… next week… ready to take you on a trip that you’ll never forget. I hope you’ll be here, too. Until then, stay safe, and take time out to look at the world around you.” The camera’s went off, and the news commentators came on to go over what they had just seen. It seemed that the news crews were just as amused as the general populace. Jim’s first show had not gone as he had planned. But it was already the big hit of the season.
tbc
Jungle Jim
Chapter 46
XLVI
Few Antarians were still on the street, and those who still were were not stopping to talk to anyone. A quick “hello” was all one could get from most of them as they rushed toward home or in the direction of the nearest public vision screen.
“Where’s everyone going in such a hurry,” a Xarian tourist asked a young Antarian man who rushed by him.
“Home… to watch the vision screen.”
“What’s so important?”
“Jungle Jim. Today’s his first show. He’s going into the Nan-Torel. It’s going to be on vision screen live. He’s going to get eaten! I don’t want to miss it!”
“Jungle Jim?”
“Where are you from, man,” the Antarian yelled back from half way down the street. “Everybody knows the pawgor guy. That’s Jungle Jim.”
The Xarian started to ask something else, but the Antarian was already gone. So he did what everyone else seemed to be doing. He headed in the direction of the nearest public vision screen to watch whatever it was that the Antarians were all in a titter over.
At the edge of the public square, set into the wall of one of the public buildings, the Xarian found a large public viewing screen, already surrounded by a good-size crowd.
“Who’s this ‘Jungle Jim,’” the Xarian asked a man standing near him.
“You’re kidding, right?” The Antarian answered with a smile.
The Xarian shook his head. “No. I’m from Xarius. I don’t know.”
“Oh. Well, he’s one of the people from Eluymer. You know, the planet they call Urth.”
“Is he one of the ones who helped rescue the children from the Ghors?”
“Yeah. He’s one of them.” The Antarian looked at the Xarian and grinned. “He belongs to the woman who kicked Hosk the Ghor in the crotch…”
“Oh! That guy! Yeah, I know who he is now! Is that the guy that’s going to go into the Nan-Torel?”
“Yeah. It’s his first show. Everybody thinks it’ll be his last show. He’s going to get eaten.”
“Shhh,” a woman in front of them said. “It’s starting.”
Suddenly a hush came over the crowd, as Jim came onto the screen. He was standing at the edge of the Nan-Torel.
“Hello Antar! Today is a big day for me, and I hope it will be a memorable one for you, too.”
“That’s a pretty safe bet,” the Antarian whispered to the Xarian.
“Today, we’re going to go into the Nan-Torel, a place where Antarians have rarely ventured, to examine closely some of the unique and beautiful plant and animal life that is so abundant there. Follow me as we walk into this wondrous wild masterpiece of nature.”
Jim walked toward the edge of the jungle. As he did, he seemed to get further and further away from the cameras. Then he turned around and motioned to his camera crew.
“You’re falling behind, guys.”
Somebody said something from behind the cameras.
“Oh, for the love o’… Now’s not the time to tell me this. You didn’t think I was going to lug all the cameras in there and film myself, did you? Somebody’s got to go along with me.”
The crowd in front of the square was starting to chuckle among themselves. They understood the camera crew all too well. Jim might be ready to get eaten by wild pawgors or God knows what else. He was a crazy alien. But the cameramen were Antarians… and they were not.
“Cut! Cut!” Jim yelled, making a slashing motion across his throat to tell the cameramen to turn off the cameras. But then he seemed to have second thoughts, and he walked over and looked into the cameras again.
“Folks, it looks like our trip into the infamous Nan-Torel is going to be delayed…” Under his breath, he added, “until I can find a camera crew with some backbones.”
By now, the crowd in front of the vision screen was laughing hysterically. This was almost as good as seeing Jim get eaten. And that still might happen… if he could find someone else crazy enough to go into the Nan-Torel with him and film it.
“This is Jungle Jim the Pawgors’ Friend saying good-bye till next week,” Jim said to his audience. “I’ll be here… right here… next week… ready to take you on a trip that you’ll never forget. I hope you’ll be here, too. Until then, stay safe, and take time out to look at the world around you.” The camera’s went off, and the news commentators came on to go over what they had just seen. It seemed that the news crews were just as amused as the general populace. Jim’s first show had not gone as he had planned. But it was already the big hit of the season.
tbc
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Island Breeze
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 270
- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2002 10:01 pm
The Four Faces of Rath
The Four Faces of Rath
Unpleasant Realities
Chapter 47
XLVII
Maria walked into the suite that housed Zan’s office and several other government offices and smiled at the receptionist.
“Is Max in his office?”
“He’s busy at the moment, Maria. Can I let him know you’re here?”
“No. Don’t bother. I’ll just go on down to his office.”
“Maria, I don’t…”
It was too late. Maria was already half way down the hall. Reaching the door to Max’s office, she stopped to check herself over quickly then reached for the handprint on the door. It had long ago been encoded with her DNA. Like the rest of the group, Maria was authorized to enter at will. She started to press her hand to the handprint, but she heard someone talking inside…
“Zan, that’s my last one! Have a heart!”
The voice sounded familiar. Maria stopped and pulled her hand back for a moment to listen.
“You’ll get over it.”
“I won’t. This will do me in. If you do this, it’s all over for me, Zan. I’m begging you.”
That sounded like Rayylar, Tess’ husband.
“That’s the way it goes,” Max’s voice said.
“But you already have seven, Zan. Let me just have this one! Just one?”
“Can’t do it, Rayylar. It would destroy my reputation.”
“As a despot?”
“Call it what you will.”
“What gives you the right to take them all?”
“See that crown? I’m a king.”
Maria’s mouth dropped several inches, and she inhaled with a gasp.
“Just give me one more chance, Zan. I can get out of this slump, I’m sure of it.”
“Bring some more dough, Rayylar, and I’ll think about it.”
Maria gasped, then she placed her hand on the handprint quickly, and the door slid open. She was prepared to give Max a scathing earful. Maria didn’t know why he was being cruel. It wasn’t like Max… at least not like the Max she thought she knew.
Max and Rayylar looked up from the table… and both were smiling.
“Maria! Come on in,” Max said.
Maria looked around, perplexed. Then she saw the strands of sugar dough all over the place… on the table… on the chairs… on Max and Rayylar.
“What’s going on here,” Maria asked, a totally baffled look on her face.
“What do you mean,” Max asked. “Oh, you mean the sugar dough? Max reached up and pulled a strand out of his hair.
“We were playing Jaht-Roo,” Rayylar answered. Zan took my last star ship. He has beat me seven games now. No one can beat him!”
“Bring some more sugar dough tomorrow,” Max said, “and I’ll give you another chance… to lose again.”
“You’re heartless, Zan,” Rayylar said with a smile. “If you hadn’t had that double deck star destroyer, the one you keep referring to as a ‘king,’ I could have beat you this time.”
Max smiled. “But I did.”
“One of these days, Zan! One of these days I’m going to beat you.”
“Keep thinking that, Rayylar. They say delusions are good for some people.”
Rayylar grinned and shook Max’s hand in the Antarian fashion.
“See you tomorrow, Rayylar?”
“Count on it!”
Rayylar smiled and left the office.
“Maria! We can talk now. What brings you here?”
Maria stammered for a moment. I… I forgot. Jaht-Roo! You were playing Jaht-Roo?”
“Yeah…”
“I… I… Oh! Yeah! Liz said to tell you that Durj’ori is at the palace.”
“Oh! Good,” Max said, jumping up quickly and wiping more sugar dough off his clothes and out of his hair. “Liz and I asked him to come. It’s about the baby.”
“Jeffy,” Maria nodded. “Liz told me. Do you think you’ll find him, Max?”
Max shook his head sadly. “I don’t know, Maria. We’re going to exhaust every effort trying. We’ll find him… or spend our lives trying. You can be sure of that.”
“I know,” Maria said softly. “I’ve talked to Liz. She’s being really brave, but I can see in her eyes that she’s hurting. I know I would be.”
Max nodded and swallowed. “I want him back, too, Maria. It’s been two weeks since Liz remembered Jeffy when we were at the Valenti’s place, and we still don’t know how we’re going to find him. We spent eight days together doing nothing but looking for him and trying to think of some way to get him back. The sphere can’t take us to him, because –according to the Drax-ta-Kiya- that timeline was just a bubble and doesn’t exist at all anymore. We’re talking to Durj’ori today… to see if the Nogi-K’ya can do anything.”
“I hope they can help,” Maria said. “I really want to see that little guy.”
Max swallowed hard, and his eyes misted up. “So do I, Maria. I want to see him again, I mean.”
“You remember him, Max?”
“Yeah. As soon as Liz said his name at Jim and Kath’s place, I knew what had been missing. Let’s go to the palace. You coming with me?”
Maria nodded, and the two of them left quickly together.
**********
Liz closed her eyes and wiped them with the backs of her fingers, then she looked straight at Durj’ori…
“You were able to pop in and out of that bubble whenever you wanted to, Durj’ori. All your people were. What’s keeping you from doing it now?”
“The bubble isn’t there now,” Durj’ori said softly but firmly.
“I understand that. But your people can go backward and forward in time. The bubble was there at some point in time. You can go back to that point in time and find it.”
Durj’ori shook his head. “You don’t understand. The bubble has no past. It has no future. It was a ‘bubble,’ not a timeline. When it ceased to exist, it ceased to exist… forever. There is no past for it. I’m… sorry.”
“You mean even the Nogi-K’ya can’t find it?”
“We cannot find what does not exist.”
“But it does,” Liz said with absolute conviction. “It does exist. I don’t know where. I don’t know how. But I feel it, Durj’ori. I feel Jeffy!”
“Those are the instincts of a mother, Elizabeth… the feelings of a mother… maternal instincts. They are powerful… but sometimes they are only that.”
“No, they’re more,” Liz said firmly. “Jeffy is there… somewhere. I don’t know where somewhere is, but I know he’s there. I will find him.”
Durj-ori looked at Liz and then looked at Max. Then he looked down. The unpleasant reality was that there was nothing more to say. Neither he nor any other Nogi-K’ya could find Jeffy… even if they would be willing to, which was a big question mark as it was. Usually, before a Nogi-K’ya would intervene in time matters, their board had to do extensive studies, studies that took longer than humans –or Antarians– with their more limited life spans, could wait.
“I left that bubble,” Liz said after a few moments of thought. “and I have memories of it. Max has memories of it, too… just like we all have memories of the alternate timeline. Is it possible to have memories of something that never existed, Durj’ori?”
“I can’t answer that, Elizabeth,” Durj’ori said. “If you have memories then the answer must be yes. I would not think that it was possible, though.”
“Exactly,” Liz said. “I’ll find Jeffy, Durj’ori. With or without your help… I’ll find my baby.”
Durj’ori just nodded. “I wish you luck, Elizabeth… and Zan. I am truly sorry that we could not help you find the baby, but I have explained our reasons. We are powerless to help. We would at least study the possibilities for you if there was a hope of our finding your son… but…”
“Alright,” Max said, waving Durj’ori off, acknowledging the finality of Durj’ori’s decision. “We’ll work on other angles, Liz. We haven’t exhausted every possibility yet, Hon. Don’t give up.”
Liz smiled, and her eyes misted up. Then she gave Max a quick kiss on the lips.
**********
At the home of Michael and Maria Guerin, it was dinnertime, and the family sat together around the table. The main topic of discussion, unsurprisingly, was Liz and Max’s lost baby.
“I don’t know, Maria. Liz never mentioned her relationship with Max in the ‘bubble’ or whatever it was when we were together. She left and she came right back. I know how time works, but it’s really hard for me to grasp that she could have spent a whole year there and got pregnant and had a baby… and I never even suspected anything when she came back. I know it’s possible, of course. It just seems so… incredible.”
“Well, obviously she did it, Michael. Both of them remember it.”
“Yeah. I’m not doubting her memories or her word, Maria. It’s just that it’s… so incredible. I mean… she left me one moment… She returned like a minute later… and she had had a baby.”
“Yeah.” Maria smiled. “I’ll have to ask her how she did that.”
Michael smiled, too. “Well, we know that it really happened and Jeffy was real. Max and Liz both are sure of it, and I trust them, no matter how bizarre or incredible the story may seem.”
“Besides,” Maria added, “the Nogi-K’ya guy, Durj’ori, confirmed that the bubble did exist… once, and that they were there and Jeffy was there. It just doesn’t exist now… anywhere in time apparently.”
“Well, see, now that’s just odd, too,” Michael said, taking another bite of grelliats with Tabasco sauce. “If something once existed, for it to have no past now…”
“It’s possible, Dad,” Kryys said.
“How?”
“Well, it’s kind of like you said. It was a displaced, capsulated, and isolated time event.”
“I said that?” Michael asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Maybe not exactly, Dad, but yeah.”
“So what does it mean,” Michael asked.
“That it has no lasting past or future. When it’s gone it’s gone. Poof! No more.”
“Then how is it that Liz can still feel Jeffy?”
Kryys shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Is there something more to time than just time, Kryys?”
Kryys looked at his father. In some way, he actually understood what Michael was getting at.
“There is a place… beyond time,” Kryys said. “It’s beyond the reach of the Nogi-K’ya.”
“What is it? Like… Heaven or something?”
“No… not exactly. Not that far. It’s more like when you delete something on your computer. It’s gone, but it’s still compressed somewhere in the computer. Nothing is ever really gone.”
“You mean their baby might be compressed somewhere?”
“No! Of course not! I guess that wasn’t a good analogy, Dad. It’s more like… everything is made up of atoms. Their baby was made up of atoms. Those atoms still exist. Atoms don’t disappear or go away. But the atoms no longer have the forms that they once did. They’re scattered now.”
“Like when you do your swirly thing…?”
“Yeah… Only I control them and bring them all back together. Jeffy can’t do that, so his atoms are no longer in the form that used to be Jeffy.”
“So where are they? Spread all over the universe?”
“Maybe. But somewhere… beyond the realm of time… the essence or aura of Jeffy still may exist… and a pattern of who he was. It’s not impossible to believe that that could be found and his atoms retrieved and reorganized.”
“A pattern… you mean, like an actual blueprint?”
“Well, not like you’re thinking of, Dad. More like a sort of resonance in time… a cosmic displacement of sorts where he once was. Like music that came from grooves on what you used to call a record on Earth, Dad. No one had to be there singing, because the grooves produced a resonance that precisely recreated the music. The universe and time are like the grooves of a record. Jeffy would have left an imprint on the universe, and that imprint would produce a resonance… the music. We all do. It might be possible to find it. If it can be found, it could be used to reassemble his original atoms… to reassemble Jeffy.”
“Could the Nogi-K’ya do this?”
Kryys smiled. “Not a chance, Dad.”
“Could the Drax-ta-Kiya do it?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s more in his realm than in the time realm that the Nogi’s deal with.”
“Could you do it?” Michael asked.
Kryys was silent for several moments. “I think… maybe… I’m not sure.”
Michael looked at Kryys, and Kryys smiled. “I’ll be right back, Dad.”
Kryys’ body began to glow then dissolved into billions of shining atoms that swirled upward… then through the ceiling… then into the sky above.
“Great,” Maria said. “He forgot to wash his hands and face again.”
**********
Kryys’ atoms reassembled themselves next to the River of Time, and Kryys looked up the river… not with the eyes of a mortal but with a non-mortal awareness. After a time, he saw what he wanted. Dissolving into atoms again, Kryys reappeared somewhere on the other side of the river. It was an odd place… not really anything at all… just… nothing. It was beyond time and mere reality. It was here that Kryys expected to find Jeffy’s residual pattern… or resonance… if there was one. Not his actual aura or his soul… those would not be found here… but a sort of pattern of who he had been. It didn’t take long. Kryys dissolved into a whirlwind of atoms once more then began to add other atoms to his own. After several minutes, he reappeared at the edge of the River of Time.
Holding out his arms, Kryys summoned the cosmic winds to him. The winds began to blow… faster, then faster, whipping past Kryys’ outstretched arms, slowly “building” a small form… one atom at a time. When they were finished, Kryys looked at the figure in his arms. It was a dark-haired baby with an angelic face. It looked back at him… and it smiled.
Kryys smiled back at the baby in his arms. “You are kind of cute… for a baby, I mean.”
Kryys held the baby to him and dissolved once more into a whirlwind of atoms, reappearing in the dining room with his parents. He looked at his arms, but Jeffy was not there. Without a word, he dissolved again and reappeared on the edge of the River of Time.
“You tried, Kryys. It didn’t work, did it?”
Kryys didn’t need to turn around. He knew who it was. “What happened, Master? Where is Jeffy?”
“Where he was. You cannot bring him back, little Sundrop.”
“Why not, Master Drax?”
“Ah, little Sundrop! It is one of the greatest mysteries of the universe. Man can do all manner of things to others when they are men… but once they are in this realm, only they can make the decision to leave here.”
“But Jeffy’s a baby, Master Drax. He can’t make any decisions for himself.”
“I know, Kryys. And that is why he cannot come back.”
“It’s not fair, Master Drax. Jeffy would want to be with his Mama if he knew how…”
“But he does not know.”
“So there is no hope then, Master?”
“Well… I didn’t say that, Sundrop. You have found him. That is something. Now you must find out how to return him.”
“Can you tell me, Master?”
“No, Sundrop. It is not because I am unwilling. It is because I do not know. If this is to be done, it is something that powers beyond my own will have to accomplish.”
“I must find the way?”
“You must find the way, Sundrop.”
Kryys nodded. Then he dissolved and reappeared in his own home.
tbc
Unpleasant Realities
Chapter 47
XLVII
Maria walked into the suite that housed Zan’s office and several other government offices and smiled at the receptionist.
“Is Max in his office?”
“He’s busy at the moment, Maria. Can I let him know you’re here?”
“No. Don’t bother. I’ll just go on down to his office.”
“Maria, I don’t…”
It was too late. Maria was already half way down the hall. Reaching the door to Max’s office, she stopped to check herself over quickly then reached for the handprint on the door. It had long ago been encoded with her DNA. Like the rest of the group, Maria was authorized to enter at will. She started to press her hand to the handprint, but she heard someone talking inside…
“Zan, that’s my last one! Have a heart!”
The voice sounded familiar. Maria stopped and pulled her hand back for a moment to listen.
“You’ll get over it.”
“I won’t. This will do me in. If you do this, it’s all over for me, Zan. I’m begging you.”
That sounded like Rayylar, Tess’ husband.
“That’s the way it goes,” Max’s voice said.
“But you already have seven, Zan. Let me just have this one! Just one?”
“Can’t do it, Rayylar. It would destroy my reputation.”
“As a despot?”
“Call it what you will.”
“What gives you the right to take them all?”
“See that crown? I’m a king.”
Maria’s mouth dropped several inches, and she inhaled with a gasp.
“Just give me one more chance, Zan. I can get out of this slump, I’m sure of it.”
“Bring some more dough, Rayylar, and I’ll think about it.”
Maria gasped, then she placed her hand on the handprint quickly, and the door slid open. She was prepared to give Max a scathing earful. Maria didn’t know why he was being cruel. It wasn’t like Max… at least not like the Max she thought she knew.
Max and Rayylar looked up from the table… and both were smiling.
“Maria! Come on in,” Max said.
Maria looked around, perplexed. Then she saw the strands of sugar dough all over the place… on the table… on the chairs… on Max and Rayylar.
“What’s going on here,” Maria asked, a totally baffled look on her face.
“What do you mean,” Max asked. “Oh, you mean the sugar dough? Max reached up and pulled a strand out of his hair.
“We were playing Jaht-Roo,” Rayylar answered. Zan took my last star ship. He has beat me seven games now. No one can beat him!”
“Bring some more sugar dough tomorrow,” Max said, “and I’ll give you another chance… to lose again.”
“You’re heartless, Zan,” Rayylar said with a smile. “If you hadn’t had that double deck star destroyer, the one you keep referring to as a ‘king,’ I could have beat you this time.”
Max smiled. “But I did.”
“One of these days, Zan! One of these days I’m going to beat you.”
“Keep thinking that, Rayylar. They say delusions are good for some people.”
Rayylar grinned and shook Max’s hand in the Antarian fashion.
“See you tomorrow, Rayylar?”
“Count on it!”
Rayylar smiled and left the office.
“Maria! We can talk now. What brings you here?”
Maria stammered for a moment. I… I forgot. Jaht-Roo! You were playing Jaht-Roo?”
“Yeah…”
“I… I… Oh! Yeah! Liz said to tell you that Durj’ori is at the palace.”
“Oh! Good,” Max said, jumping up quickly and wiping more sugar dough off his clothes and out of his hair. “Liz and I asked him to come. It’s about the baby.”
“Jeffy,” Maria nodded. “Liz told me. Do you think you’ll find him, Max?”
Max shook his head sadly. “I don’t know, Maria. We’re going to exhaust every effort trying. We’ll find him… or spend our lives trying. You can be sure of that.”
“I know,” Maria said softly. “I’ve talked to Liz. She’s being really brave, but I can see in her eyes that she’s hurting. I know I would be.”
Max nodded and swallowed. “I want him back, too, Maria. It’s been two weeks since Liz remembered Jeffy when we were at the Valenti’s place, and we still don’t know how we’re going to find him. We spent eight days together doing nothing but looking for him and trying to think of some way to get him back. The sphere can’t take us to him, because –according to the Drax-ta-Kiya- that timeline was just a bubble and doesn’t exist at all anymore. We’re talking to Durj’ori today… to see if the Nogi-K’ya can do anything.”
“I hope they can help,” Maria said. “I really want to see that little guy.”
Max swallowed hard, and his eyes misted up. “So do I, Maria. I want to see him again, I mean.”
“You remember him, Max?”
“Yeah. As soon as Liz said his name at Jim and Kath’s place, I knew what had been missing. Let’s go to the palace. You coming with me?”
Maria nodded, and the two of them left quickly together.
**********
Liz closed her eyes and wiped them with the backs of her fingers, then she looked straight at Durj’ori…
“You were able to pop in and out of that bubble whenever you wanted to, Durj’ori. All your people were. What’s keeping you from doing it now?”
“The bubble isn’t there now,” Durj’ori said softly but firmly.
“I understand that. But your people can go backward and forward in time. The bubble was there at some point in time. You can go back to that point in time and find it.”
Durj’ori shook his head. “You don’t understand. The bubble has no past. It has no future. It was a ‘bubble,’ not a timeline. When it ceased to exist, it ceased to exist… forever. There is no past for it. I’m… sorry.”
“You mean even the Nogi-K’ya can’t find it?”
“We cannot find what does not exist.”
“But it does,” Liz said with absolute conviction. “It does exist. I don’t know where. I don’t know how. But I feel it, Durj’ori. I feel Jeffy!”
“Those are the instincts of a mother, Elizabeth… the feelings of a mother… maternal instincts. They are powerful… but sometimes they are only that.”
“No, they’re more,” Liz said firmly. “Jeffy is there… somewhere. I don’t know where somewhere is, but I know he’s there. I will find him.”
Durj-ori looked at Liz and then looked at Max. Then he looked down. The unpleasant reality was that there was nothing more to say. Neither he nor any other Nogi-K’ya could find Jeffy… even if they would be willing to, which was a big question mark as it was. Usually, before a Nogi-K’ya would intervene in time matters, their board had to do extensive studies, studies that took longer than humans –or Antarians– with their more limited life spans, could wait.
“I left that bubble,” Liz said after a few moments of thought. “and I have memories of it. Max has memories of it, too… just like we all have memories of the alternate timeline. Is it possible to have memories of something that never existed, Durj’ori?”
“I can’t answer that, Elizabeth,” Durj’ori said. “If you have memories then the answer must be yes. I would not think that it was possible, though.”
“Exactly,” Liz said. “I’ll find Jeffy, Durj’ori. With or without your help… I’ll find my baby.”
Durj’ori just nodded. “I wish you luck, Elizabeth… and Zan. I am truly sorry that we could not help you find the baby, but I have explained our reasons. We are powerless to help. We would at least study the possibilities for you if there was a hope of our finding your son… but…”
“Alright,” Max said, waving Durj’ori off, acknowledging the finality of Durj’ori’s decision. “We’ll work on other angles, Liz. We haven’t exhausted every possibility yet, Hon. Don’t give up.”
Liz smiled, and her eyes misted up. Then she gave Max a quick kiss on the lips.
**********
At the home of Michael and Maria Guerin, it was dinnertime, and the family sat together around the table. The main topic of discussion, unsurprisingly, was Liz and Max’s lost baby.
“I don’t know, Maria. Liz never mentioned her relationship with Max in the ‘bubble’ or whatever it was when we were together. She left and she came right back. I know how time works, but it’s really hard for me to grasp that she could have spent a whole year there and got pregnant and had a baby… and I never even suspected anything when she came back. I know it’s possible, of course. It just seems so… incredible.”
“Well, obviously she did it, Michael. Both of them remember it.”
“Yeah. I’m not doubting her memories or her word, Maria. It’s just that it’s… so incredible. I mean… she left me one moment… She returned like a minute later… and she had had a baby.”
“Yeah.” Maria smiled. “I’ll have to ask her how she did that.”
Michael smiled, too. “Well, we know that it really happened and Jeffy was real. Max and Liz both are sure of it, and I trust them, no matter how bizarre or incredible the story may seem.”
“Besides,” Maria added, “the Nogi-K’ya guy, Durj’ori, confirmed that the bubble did exist… once, and that they were there and Jeffy was there. It just doesn’t exist now… anywhere in time apparently.”
“Well, see, now that’s just odd, too,” Michael said, taking another bite of grelliats with Tabasco sauce. “If something once existed, for it to have no past now…”
“It’s possible, Dad,” Kryys said.
“How?”
“Well, it’s kind of like you said. It was a displaced, capsulated, and isolated time event.”
“I said that?” Michael asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Maybe not exactly, Dad, but yeah.”
“So what does it mean,” Michael asked.
“That it has no lasting past or future. When it’s gone it’s gone. Poof! No more.”
“Then how is it that Liz can still feel Jeffy?”
Kryys shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Is there something more to time than just time, Kryys?”
Kryys looked at his father. In some way, he actually understood what Michael was getting at.
“There is a place… beyond time,” Kryys said. “It’s beyond the reach of the Nogi-K’ya.”
“What is it? Like… Heaven or something?”
“No… not exactly. Not that far. It’s more like when you delete something on your computer. It’s gone, but it’s still compressed somewhere in the computer. Nothing is ever really gone.”
“You mean their baby might be compressed somewhere?”
“No! Of course not! I guess that wasn’t a good analogy, Dad. It’s more like… everything is made up of atoms. Their baby was made up of atoms. Those atoms still exist. Atoms don’t disappear or go away. But the atoms no longer have the forms that they once did. They’re scattered now.”
“Like when you do your swirly thing…?”
“Yeah… Only I control them and bring them all back together. Jeffy can’t do that, so his atoms are no longer in the form that used to be Jeffy.”
“So where are they? Spread all over the universe?”
“Maybe. But somewhere… beyond the realm of time… the essence or aura of Jeffy still may exist… and a pattern of who he was. It’s not impossible to believe that that could be found and his atoms retrieved and reorganized.”
“A pattern… you mean, like an actual blueprint?”
“Well, not like you’re thinking of, Dad. More like a sort of resonance in time… a cosmic displacement of sorts where he once was. Like music that came from grooves on what you used to call a record on Earth, Dad. No one had to be there singing, because the grooves produced a resonance that precisely recreated the music. The universe and time are like the grooves of a record. Jeffy would have left an imprint on the universe, and that imprint would produce a resonance… the music. We all do. It might be possible to find it. If it can be found, it could be used to reassemble his original atoms… to reassemble Jeffy.”
“Could the Nogi-K’ya do this?”
Kryys smiled. “Not a chance, Dad.”
“Could the Drax-ta-Kiya do it?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s more in his realm than in the time realm that the Nogi’s deal with.”
“Could you do it?” Michael asked.
Kryys was silent for several moments. “I think… maybe… I’m not sure.”
Michael looked at Kryys, and Kryys smiled. “I’ll be right back, Dad.”
Kryys’ body began to glow then dissolved into billions of shining atoms that swirled upward… then through the ceiling… then into the sky above.
“Great,” Maria said. “He forgot to wash his hands and face again.”
**********
Kryys’ atoms reassembled themselves next to the River of Time, and Kryys looked up the river… not with the eyes of a mortal but with a non-mortal awareness. After a time, he saw what he wanted. Dissolving into atoms again, Kryys reappeared somewhere on the other side of the river. It was an odd place… not really anything at all… just… nothing. It was beyond time and mere reality. It was here that Kryys expected to find Jeffy’s residual pattern… or resonance… if there was one. Not his actual aura or his soul… those would not be found here… but a sort of pattern of who he had been. It didn’t take long. Kryys dissolved into a whirlwind of atoms once more then began to add other atoms to his own. After several minutes, he reappeared at the edge of the River of Time.
Holding out his arms, Kryys summoned the cosmic winds to him. The winds began to blow… faster, then faster, whipping past Kryys’ outstretched arms, slowly “building” a small form… one atom at a time. When they were finished, Kryys looked at the figure in his arms. It was a dark-haired baby with an angelic face. It looked back at him… and it smiled.
Kryys smiled back at the baby in his arms. “You are kind of cute… for a baby, I mean.”
Kryys held the baby to him and dissolved once more into a whirlwind of atoms, reappearing in the dining room with his parents. He looked at his arms, but Jeffy was not there. Without a word, he dissolved again and reappeared on the edge of the River of Time.
“You tried, Kryys. It didn’t work, did it?”
Kryys didn’t need to turn around. He knew who it was. “What happened, Master? Where is Jeffy?”
“Where he was. You cannot bring him back, little Sundrop.”
“Why not, Master Drax?”
“Ah, little Sundrop! It is one of the greatest mysteries of the universe. Man can do all manner of things to others when they are men… but once they are in this realm, only they can make the decision to leave here.”
“But Jeffy’s a baby, Master Drax. He can’t make any decisions for himself.”
“I know, Kryys. And that is why he cannot come back.”
“It’s not fair, Master Drax. Jeffy would want to be with his Mama if he knew how…”
“But he does not know.”
“So there is no hope then, Master?”
“Well… I didn’t say that, Sundrop. You have found him. That is something. Now you must find out how to return him.”
“Can you tell me, Master?”
“No, Sundrop. It is not because I am unwilling. It is because I do not know. If this is to be done, it is something that powers beyond my own will have to accomplish.”
“I must find the way?”
“You must find the way, Sundrop.”
Kryys nodded. Then he dissolved and reappeared in his own home.
tbc
-
Island Breeze
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 270
- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2002 10:01 pm
The Four Faces of Rath
The Four Faces of Rath
A Will, A Way, And Family
Chapter 48
XLVIII
Liz sat with her hand over her mouth and her eyes misty and wide open as she listened to Kryys describe the baby he had held in his arms and tried to bring back.
“That’s him, Kryys! That’s Jeffy! My little angel! Where is he now?”
“He’s still there, Aunt Elizabeth, where he was.”
“Is he okay, Kryys? Is he safe? Is he happy?”
Liz understood the irrelevancy of her questions. More than anyone there other than Kryys himself, Liz knew and understood that Jeffy was in no danger where he was… that he didn’t exist physically in the way that we understand existence. But Liz still felt the need to ask.
“He’s fine,” Kryys said. “He smiled at me.”
Liz looked at Kryys, and her eyes welled up with tears. She smiled, as the tears began to roll down her cheeks. Max put his arm around her and kissed her, gently wiping her tears away with his fingertips.
“We’re going to get him back, Liz. Kryys will find a way… with our help. I’m sure of it.”
Kryys blushed slightly, and Maria hugged him to her. Michael looked at Kryys and smiled, clearly proud of his son.
“I can’t wait to see Jeffy,” Maria said soothingly to Liz. “Kryys said that he looks like an angel. He said that he was cute for a baby.”
Liz laughed, even as she wiped another tear from her cheek.
“That’s high praise from a seven-year-old, Maria. I know Alyyx tries to distance himself from most babies. I think when children –boys especially- are his age and Kryys’, they’re trying to grow up themselves, and maybe that’s just a little too close to… you know… to where they’re trying to get away from.”
Maria nodded. “Yeah, Zorel is ten. Jayyd is younger than Kryys, but only by one year, so he doesn’t remember having another baby around. He wasn’t old enough. He’s still kind of our baby.”
“I’m not a baby, Mom,” Kryys said emphatically. “I’m going to school already.”
“We know, Kryys,” Michael said. “We didn’t mean you’re a real baby, just that you’re one of our children… and you’re special to us.”
“Because I was the president of Alyendis and the allied planets?”
“No,” Michael said. “…Because you’re you… you’re our son.”
“Do you remember that, Kryys… being the president,” Liz asked, surprised.
“Yeah… sort of. Not all the details, but I know that I did that… The Drax-ta-Kiya says I’ll remember everything as I get older. When I’m with him, I remember, but when I’m here, I forget a lot of things.”
Max nodded. “That’s probably good, Kryys. It allows you to grow up as a… well, the way you should, without a lot of adult memories haunting you. There’ll be plenty of time for adult memories when you’re an adult.”
“Yeah, I know, Uncle Zan. That’s what Master Drax tells me. It’s okay. I like playing with Zorel and Alyyx and Danny and the others. A president can’t do that.”
“You are wise beyond your years, Kryys,” Max said with a smile. Michael laughed, and Kryys grinned sheepishly.
“Kryys, what can your Aunt Liz and I do to help you bring Jeffy back to us?”
Kryys thought for several moments. “I don’t know, Uncle Zan. I think of more things when I’m in the other place… where the River of Time is. I need to go back there and see if I can think of something.”
Max looked at Michael and Maria, and they nodded.
“You know I want to see the little guy,” Maria said. “I already feel like I know him.”
“Go when you’re ready, Kryys,” Michael said. “Be back for supper.”
“I will, Dad,” Kryys said, already starting to dissolve into a swirl of brilliant atoms. Michael, Maria, Liz, and Max watched as Kryys disappeared through the ceiling of the palace.
“You think he could teach me to do that,” Max asked jestingly.
“He hasn’t had any luck with me,” Michael said. “He tried once. I stood outside with my hands out and my eyes closed and concentrated really hard. Then I thought I felt my atoms starting to dissolve, but it had just started to rain. Everybody else ran inside and left me out there with my eyes closed and my arms out in the rain, thinking I was dissolving.”
Maria giggled. “It’s all right, Michael. I like all your atoms right where they are. I don’t need any of them changed.”
Michael blushed slightly and grinned.
**********
Somewhere across time and the universe, far from where Max and Liz sat with Michael and Maria, Kryys sat on a rock at the edge of the River of Time, thinking.
“Master Drax said that no one can be taken from here. They would have to leave of their own will. But a baby doesn’t have the ability to think that way, so a baby could never leave. And I didn’t come from here… I came from somewhere else first and just went back where I came from, so maybe nobody can really ever leave here. I guess if somebody came along and put someone’s atoms back in place, that person might be able to return if they had the knowledge required to want to leave.” Kryys sighed. “But Jeffy doesn’t… He’s just a baby.”
Kryys lifted his head and looked at the River of Time. “But… maybe…”
Kryys dissolved and disappeared momentarily. Returning after a few moments, he held out his arms and called for the cosmic winds. In a short time, he once again had Jeffy in his arms.
“Jeffy, you’re going to take a little ride with me down the river.”
Kryys held the baby to him and dissolved in a swirl of atoms. This time, though, instead of returning home, he reappeared further down the River of Time. Kryys looked at the baby in his arms. It was no longer a baby… and Kryys was no longer seven. Seven years had passed. Kryys, now fourteen, set the young boy in his arms down.
“Jeffy, you’ve got to want to go home,” Kryys said to the now 7-year-old Jeffy.
The young boy looked at Kryys with a bewildered look.
“Jeffy, your Mama and Daddy want you to come home. Do you understand?”
Jeffy looked at Kryys and then at his surroundings but showed no sign of understanding.
“Can’t you answer me,” Kryys asked.
“He can’t,” a voice behind him said. Kryys turned to look at the Drax-ta-Kiya.
“He never learned to speak, Kryys. You brought him through time. That was brilliant. I should have thought of it myself. But he doesn’t understand. Jeffy is still a baby, because he has never been taught or even been exposed to others long enough to learn or to have any understanding of what you’re saying.”
“I can teach him, Master.”
The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled. “It is no small matter to take care of a baby and teach it, Kryys. You would have to feed it… now that it is in this form. It could take months, maybe years. I know you are willing, Sundrop, but I do not believe that you are able, even with your abilities. It takes more to raise a baby than just a boy who is willing to teach it.”
Kryys looked crestfallen. “I tried to think of something, Master, but I don’t know what to do. There must be something.”
“You are very determined, Sundrop. Your determination will serve you well.”
Kryys turned to ask the Drax-ta-Kiya if he meant by that that he would eventually succeed in getting Jeffy home, but the Drax was gone.
“Well, Jeffy, it’s just us.” Kryys picked up a flat pebble and skipped it over the surface of the river, which wasn’t actually water at all but was actually a stream of cosmic particles. It did look very much like a river, though. Kryys waded into the edge of it, holding Jeffy’s hand. Jeffy followed along silently. Kryys reached into the cosmic stream and pulled out a small, shining piece, probably a minute remnant from an exploded star or some other cosmic event. He handed it to Jeffy, and Jeffy looked at it then threw it toward the surface of the stream as Kryys had done with the flat pebble.
“Yeah, that’s how you do it,” Kryys said. “But it has to be flat to skip.” He picked up a flat pebble and handed it to Jeffy. Jeffy looked at it then threw it at the surface of the stream. It skipped twice then sank into the cosmic stream.
“That was very good,” Kryys said, grinning. “You learn quick!”
Jeffy smiled but said nothing.
“Jeffy… I have another idea. I hope you don’t mind being a baby again. We’re going back where we were.” Kryys started to take Jeffy by the hand but then thought for a minute. “I’m going to have to pick you up, Jeffy. When we get there, I wouldn’t want to be dangling you by the arm.” He reached down and picked Jeffy up in his arms.
“You’re a really big baby, Jeffy.”
Jeffy smiled.
Kryys dissolved into a swirl of atoms then reappeared at the place he had first brought Jeffy to. He looked around him and called out…
“Master Drax! Master Drax, can you come?”
“I am here, Sundrop. What do you need?” a voice said.
Kryys turned around to face the Drax-ta-Kiya. “Master, hold this,” he said, placing the baby in the Drax-ta-Kiya’s hands.
“What are you planning to do, Sundrop,” Master Drax asked, his voice reflecting concern for the first time since Kryys had ever known him.
“You’ll see, Master. Just wait here!”
Kryys dissolved in a swirl of atoms. The Drax-ta-Kiya looked at the baby in his arms. Then he called out hesitantly, “Kryys! You are going to be right back, right?” Kryys didn’t answer. He had already disappeared. The Drax-ta-Kiya looked at the baby again and smiled at it.
“Well, I guess it’s you and me for now, little… let’s see, what can I call you? Kryys is already ‘Sundrop.’ You will be… ‘Angel-eyes?’ You do have an angelic look, little one… What else could I call you? ‘Starshine?’ Hmmm. Maybe. Or how about…”
Jeffy looked at the Drax and smiled.
“’Angel’s Smile.’” I’ll call you ‘Angel’s Smile,’ because you have an angel’s smile… and because you could make an angel smile with that smile of yours, little one.
Suddenly, Kryys reappeared. He had Liz by one hand and Max by the other hand. The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled and handed the baby to Liz, who ran to hold it. Kryys thought that he noticed a look of relief on the Master’s face. Must have been his imagination, he thought.
“Master, I couldn’t take Jeffy to his mama and daddy, so I brought his mama and daddy to him.”
The Master looked at Liz and Max holding the baby in their arms with tears running down their faces. “I know you have good intentions, Sundrop, and you have an angel’s heart… but is this really a good idea? They cannot take him home… and they cannot remain here…”
“I know, Master. But if this works, they may not have to.”
“I hope you’re right, Sundrop.”
The Drax-ta-Kiya dismissed himself, leaving Kryys with Liz, Max, and the baby.
Kryys watched Liz and Max fawning over the baby, kissing it, playing with it… and he smiled. Then he sat down on his rock by the stream and waited. It was impossible to say exactly how long Liz and Max remained there. Time wasn’t exactly measured in this place. But Kryys waited until he judged that they had had several hours with Jeffy. Then without warning or saying a word, he took Liz and Max each by a hand and dissolved with them into a swirl of atoms. As he expected, they arrived back with Jeffy no longer in Liz’s arms… and Liz was heartbroken. She pleaded with Kryys…
“Kryys, take us back… please. We weren’t ready to leave yet. We didn’t get to say goodbye to Jeffy…”
Kryys looked down timidly at the floor, but he steeled his resolve, knowing that he was doing the right thing.
“Kryys,” Max said, a tear coursing its way slowly down his own cheek, “…we’ll always be eternally grateful to you for giving us this chance to see Jeffy, but couldn’t you give Liz… give us… just a few more minutes to say goodbye properly?”
Kryys swallowed and shook his head.
“Hold out your arms, Aunt Liz.”
Liz looked at Kryys for a moment, then she did as he said. She waited. “What’s supposed to happen,” Liz asked after a few moments.
“I’m… I’m not sure,” Kryys said. “I was hoping…”
Suddenly a small stream of atoms swirled through the ceiling and down through the room into Liz’s arms. Liz stood dumbfounded as Jeffy appeared in her arms. Then he looked at her, smiled, and cooed.
Liz and Max were in Heaven.
“How did you know,” Max asked Kryys after he had convinced himself that Jeffy was real and was really there in Liz’s arms.
“I wasn’t sure, Uncle Zan, but I thought I felt something when I held Jeffy. He’s like me… but he doesn’t know about his gift. He’s too young. When the bubble disappeared and his atoms dispersed, he was lost… until I found him and brought him back. He just had to want to come here. That’s why I took you and Aunt Liz to be with him for a while. He’s just a baby, so he had to get to know you again. He remembers you now… and now that he knows where you are he wants to be with you again.”
“Thank you,” Liz said, her voice breaking, as she hugged Kryys and the baby both to her.
“That goes for me, too, Kryys, Max said, his eyes red. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you…”
Kryys smiled. “It’s alright, Uncle Zan. I understand.”
Max nodded. He wondered if Kryys remembered his own children… the ones he left behind on Alyendis when he was brought back to his own time and planet and became a child again. Sometimes he thought Kryys did remember. But he wasn’t sure. Some day, of course, he would, and undoubtedly, he would want to return to the family he loved… when he was President Kryys.
As Max and Liz stood looking at their new addition, Maya, JoLeesa, Andya, and Alyyx came running into the room from outside…
“Mom,” Maya started to ask… “When’s dinn…?” Maya’s eyes grew wide with surprise as she saw the baby… “What’s that, Mom?”
“This is Jeffy,” Liz said, smiling broadly. “…your little brother.” Liz held the baby out a bit for the girls and Alyyx to see.
“Woah,” Alyyx managed to say after a moment. “I didn’t know you could get one so fast!”
Max laughed, and Liz smiled.
“Yeah, Mom,” JoLeesa said. “How did you get him so fast? Is he… yours?”
“He’s all mine,” Liz said, grinning. “…all ours,” she corrected herself, looking at Max.
“We’ll explain it all later,” Max said.
“This time, Dad,” Alyyx said, “when you explain about that stuff… start all over. Either I missed something major or you didn’t tell me everything there was to know.”
Max pulled Alyyx to him and tousled his hair a bit, laughing. Then he put his arms around the girls and Liz, with Jeffy in her arms, and pulled them all together.
“Come here, Kryys!” He pulled Kryys into the group. “You’ll always be like one of our children, Kryys. We’ll always love you like our own.”
Kryys smiled and breathed in deeply, apparently feeling that his efforts were well rewarded already.
“Can I take you home, Max asked?”
Kryys shook his head. “No need, Uncle Zan. I can get there faster… It’s almost supper time, and I promised Dad I’d be back for supper.”
Max smiled. “Thanks again, Kryys. If we can ever…”
Kryys grinned then dissolved into billions of brilliant atoms that swirled around the room and disappeared through the ceiling. Max turned his attention to Liz and Jeffy. He kissed Jeffy on the cheek then kissed Liz and put his arm around them and the other children.
“Family!” Max said smiling. “Let’s go get dinner somewhere. I’m hungry.”
Liz smiled. “Yeah… I think I am, too. Can we go to Var’nat’s Kires-Ryym? It’s a great family restaurant with great food… and they love babies there. I just need to pick up some special items first at a store somewhere…” She motioned toward Jeffy.
Max smiled and nodded. “Yeah! A family place!” He looked at Jeffy’s smiling face and touched him on the tip of the nose playfully. “Because we’re a family, Jeffy!”
tbc
A Will, A Way, And Family
Chapter 48
XLVIII
Liz sat with her hand over her mouth and her eyes misty and wide open as she listened to Kryys describe the baby he had held in his arms and tried to bring back.
“That’s him, Kryys! That’s Jeffy! My little angel! Where is he now?”
“He’s still there, Aunt Elizabeth, where he was.”
“Is he okay, Kryys? Is he safe? Is he happy?”
Liz understood the irrelevancy of her questions. More than anyone there other than Kryys himself, Liz knew and understood that Jeffy was in no danger where he was… that he didn’t exist physically in the way that we understand existence. But Liz still felt the need to ask.
“He’s fine,” Kryys said. “He smiled at me.”
Liz looked at Kryys, and her eyes welled up with tears. She smiled, as the tears began to roll down her cheeks. Max put his arm around her and kissed her, gently wiping her tears away with his fingertips.
“We’re going to get him back, Liz. Kryys will find a way… with our help. I’m sure of it.”
Kryys blushed slightly, and Maria hugged him to her. Michael looked at Kryys and smiled, clearly proud of his son.
“I can’t wait to see Jeffy,” Maria said soothingly to Liz. “Kryys said that he looks like an angel. He said that he was cute for a baby.”
Liz laughed, even as she wiped another tear from her cheek.
“That’s high praise from a seven-year-old, Maria. I know Alyyx tries to distance himself from most babies. I think when children –boys especially- are his age and Kryys’, they’re trying to grow up themselves, and maybe that’s just a little too close to… you know… to where they’re trying to get away from.”
Maria nodded. “Yeah, Zorel is ten. Jayyd is younger than Kryys, but only by one year, so he doesn’t remember having another baby around. He wasn’t old enough. He’s still kind of our baby.”
“I’m not a baby, Mom,” Kryys said emphatically. “I’m going to school already.”
“We know, Kryys,” Michael said. “We didn’t mean you’re a real baby, just that you’re one of our children… and you’re special to us.”
“Because I was the president of Alyendis and the allied planets?”
“No,” Michael said. “…Because you’re you… you’re our son.”
“Do you remember that, Kryys… being the president,” Liz asked, surprised.
“Yeah… sort of. Not all the details, but I know that I did that… The Drax-ta-Kiya says I’ll remember everything as I get older. When I’m with him, I remember, but when I’m here, I forget a lot of things.”
Max nodded. “That’s probably good, Kryys. It allows you to grow up as a… well, the way you should, without a lot of adult memories haunting you. There’ll be plenty of time for adult memories when you’re an adult.”
“Yeah, I know, Uncle Zan. That’s what Master Drax tells me. It’s okay. I like playing with Zorel and Alyyx and Danny and the others. A president can’t do that.”
“You are wise beyond your years, Kryys,” Max said with a smile. Michael laughed, and Kryys grinned sheepishly.
“Kryys, what can your Aunt Liz and I do to help you bring Jeffy back to us?”
Kryys thought for several moments. “I don’t know, Uncle Zan. I think of more things when I’m in the other place… where the River of Time is. I need to go back there and see if I can think of something.”
Max looked at Michael and Maria, and they nodded.
“You know I want to see the little guy,” Maria said. “I already feel like I know him.”
“Go when you’re ready, Kryys,” Michael said. “Be back for supper.”
“I will, Dad,” Kryys said, already starting to dissolve into a swirl of brilliant atoms. Michael, Maria, Liz, and Max watched as Kryys disappeared through the ceiling of the palace.
“You think he could teach me to do that,” Max asked jestingly.
“He hasn’t had any luck with me,” Michael said. “He tried once. I stood outside with my hands out and my eyes closed and concentrated really hard. Then I thought I felt my atoms starting to dissolve, but it had just started to rain. Everybody else ran inside and left me out there with my eyes closed and my arms out in the rain, thinking I was dissolving.”
Maria giggled. “It’s all right, Michael. I like all your atoms right where they are. I don’t need any of them changed.”
Michael blushed slightly and grinned.
**********
Somewhere across time and the universe, far from where Max and Liz sat with Michael and Maria, Kryys sat on a rock at the edge of the River of Time, thinking.
“Master Drax said that no one can be taken from here. They would have to leave of their own will. But a baby doesn’t have the ability to think that way, so a baby could never leave. And I didn’t come from here… I came from somewhere else first and just went back where I came from, so maybe nobody can really ever leave here. I guess if somebody came along and put someone’s atoms back in place, that person might be able to return if they had the knowledge required to want to leave.” Kryys sighed. “But Jeffy doesn’t… He’s just a baby.”
Kryys lifted his head and looked at the River of Time. “But… maybe…”
Kryys dissolved and disappeared momentarily. Returning after a few moments, he held out his arms and called for the cosmic winds. In a short time, he once again had Jeffy in his arms.
“Jeffy, you’re going to take a little ride with me down the river.”
Kryys held the baby to him and dissolved in a swirl of atoms. This time, though, instead of returning home, he reappeared further down the River of Time. Kryys looked at the baby in his arms. It was no longer a baby… and Kryys was no longer seven. Seven years had passed. Kryys, now fourteen, set the young boy in his arms down.
“Jeffy, you’ve got to want to go home,” Kryys said to the now 7-year-old Jeffy.
The young boy looked at Kryys with a bewildered look.
“Jeffy, your Mama and Daddy want you to come home. Do you understand?”
Jeffy looked at Kryys and then at his surroundings but showed no sign of understanding.
“Can’t you answer me,” Kryys asked.
“He can’t,” a voice behind him said. Kryys turned to look at the Drax-ta-Kiya.
“He never learned to speak, Kryys. You brought him through time. That was brilliant. I should have thought of it myself. But he doesn’t understand. Jeffy is still a baby, because he has never been taught or even been exposed to others long enough to learn or to have any understanding of what you’re saying.”
“I can teach him, Master.”
The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled. “It is no small matter to take care of a baby and teach it, Kryys. You would have to feed it… now that it is in this form. It could take months, maybe years. I know you are willing, Sundrop, but I do not believe that you are able, even with your abilities. It takes more to raise a baby than just a boy who is willing to teach it.”
Kryys looked crestfallen. “I tried to think of something, Master, but I don’t know what to do. There must be something.”
“You are very determined, Sundrop. Your determination will serve you well.”
Kryys turned to ask the Drax-ta-Kiya if he meant by that that he would eventually succeed in getting Jeffy home, but the Drax was gone.
“Well, Jeffy, it’s just us.” Kryys picked up a flat pebble and skipped it over the surface of the river, which wasn’t actually water at all but was actually a stream of cosmic particles. It did look very much like a river, though. Kryys waded into the edge of it, holding Jeffy’s hand. Jeffy followed along silently. Kryys reached into the cosmic stream and pulled out a small, shining piece, probably a minute remnant from an exploded star or some other cosmic event. He handed it to Jeffy, and Jeffy looked at it then threw it toward the surface of the stream as Kryys had done with the flat pebble.
“Yeah, that’s how you do it,” Kryys said. “But it has to be flat to skip.” He picked up a flat pebble and handed it to Jeffy. Jeffy looked at it then threw it at the surface of the stream. It skipped twice then sank into the cosmic stream.
“That was very good,” Kryys said, grinning. “You learn quick!”
Jeffy smiled but said nothing.
“Jeffy… I have another idea. I hope you don’t mind being a baby again. We’re going back where we were.” Kryys started to take Jeffy by the hand but then thought for a minute. “I’m going to have to pick you up, Jeffy. When we get there, I wouldn’t want to be dangling you by the arm.” He reached down and picked Jeffy up in his arms.
“You’re a really big baby, Jeffy.”
Jeffy smiled.
Kryys dissolved into a swirl of atoms then reappeared at the place he had first brought Jeffy to. He looked around him and called out…
“Master Drax! Master Drax, can you come?”
“I am here, Sundrop. What do you need?” a voice said.
Kryys turned around to face the Drax-ta-Kiya. “Master, hold this,” he said, placing the baby in the Drax-ta-Kiya’s hands.
“What are you planning to do, Sundrop,” Master Drax asked, his voice reflecting concern for the first time since Kryys had ever known him.
“You’ll see, Master. Just wait here!”
Kryys dissolved in a swirl of atoms. The Drax-ta-Kiya looked at the baby in his arms. Then he called out hesitantly, “Kryys! You are going to be right back, right?” Kryys didn’t answer. He had already disappeared. The Drax-ta-Kiya looked at the baby again and smiled at it.
“Well, I guess it’s you and me for now, little… let’s see, what can I call you? Kryys is already ‘Sundrop.’ You will be… ‘Angel-eyes?’ You do have an angelic look, little one… What else could I call you? ‘Starshine?’ Hmmm. Maybe. Or how about…”
Jeffy looked at the Drax and smiled.
“’Angel’s Smile.’” I’ll call you ‘Angel’s Smile,’ because you have an angel’s smile… and because you could make an angel smile with that smile of yours, little one.
Suddenly, Kryys reappeared. He had Liz by one hand and Max by the other hand. The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled and handed the baby to Liz, who ran to hold it. Kryys thought that he noticed a look of relief on the Master’s face. Must have been his imagination, he thought.
“Master, I couldn’t take Jeffy to his mama and daddy, so I brought his mama and daddy to him.”
The Master looked at Liz and Max holding the baby in their arms with tears running down their faces. “I know you have good intentions, Sundrop, and you have an angel’s heart… but is this really a good idea? They cannot take him home… and they cannot remain here…”
“I know, Master. But if this works, they may not have to.”
“I hope you’re right, Sundrop.”
The Drax-ta-Kiya dismissed himself, leaving Kryys with Liz, Max, and the baby.
Kryys watched Liz and Max fawning over the baby, kissing it, playing with it… and he smiled. Then he sat down on his rock by the stream and waited. It was impossible to say exactly how long Liz and Max remained there. Time wasn’t exactly measured in this place. But Kryys waited until he judged that they had had several hours with Jeffy. Then without warning or saying a word, he took Liz and Max each by a hand and dissolved with them into a swirl of atoms. As he expected, they arrived back with Jeffy no longer in Liz’s arms… and Liz was heartbroken. She pleaded with Kryys…
“Kryys, take us back… please. We weren’t ready to leave yet. We didn’t get to say goodbye to Jeffy…”
Kryys looked down timidly at the floor, but he steeled his resolve, knowing that he was doing the right thing.
“Kryys,” Max said, a tear coursing its way slowly down his own cheek, “…we’ll always be eternally grateful to you for giving us this chance to see Jeffy, but couldn’t you give Liz… give us… just a few more minutes to say goodbye properly?”
Kryys swallowed and shook his head.
“Hold out your arms, Aunt Liz.”
Liz looked at Kryys for a moment, then she did as he said. She waited. “What’s supposed to happen,” Liz asked after a few moments.
“I’m… I’m not sure,” Kryys said. “I was hoping…”
Suddenly a small stream of atoms swirled through the ceiling and down through the room into Liz’s arms. Liz stood dumbfounded as Jeffy appeared in her arms. Then he looked at her, smiled, and cooed.
Liz and Max were in Heaven.
“How did you know,” Max asked Kryys after he had convinced himself that Jeffy was real and was really there in Liz’s arms.
“I wasn’t sure, Uncle Zan, but I thought I felt something when I held Jeffy. He’s like me… but he doesn’t know about his gift. He’s too young. When the bubble disappeared and his atoms dispersed, he was lost… until I found him and brought him back. He just had to want to come here. That’s why I took you and Aunt Liz to be with him for a while. He’s just a baby, so he had to get to know you again. He remembers you now… and now that he knows where you are he wants to be with you again.”
“Thank you,” Liz said, her voice breaking, as she hugged Kryys and the baby both to her.
“That goes for me, too, Kryys, Max said, his eyes red. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you…”
Kryys smiled. “It’s alright, Uncle Zan. I understand.”
Max nodded. He wondered if Kryys remembered his own children… the ones he left behind on Alyendis when he was brought back to his own time and planet and became a child again. Sometimes he thought Kryys did remember. But he wasn’t sure. Some day, of course, he would, and undoubtedly, he would want to return to the family he loved… when he was President Kryys.
As Max and Liz stood looking at their new addition, Maya, JoLeesa, Andya, and Alyyx came running into the room from outside…
“Mom,” Maya started to ask… “When’s dinn…?” Maya’s eyes grew wide with surprise as she saw the baby… “What’s that, Mom?”
“This is Jeffy,” Liz said, smiling broadly. “…your little brother.” Liz held the baby out a bit for the girls and Alyyx to see.
“Woah,” Alyyx managed to say after a moment. “I didn’t know you could get one so fast!”
Max laughed, and Liz smiled.
“Yeah, Mom,” JoLeesa said. “How did you get him so fast? Is he… yours?”
“He’s all mine,” Liz said, grinning. “…all ours,” she corrected herself, looking at Max.
“We’ll explain it all later,” Max said.
“This time, Dad,” Alyyx said, “when you explain about that stuff… start all over. Either I missed something major or you didn’t tell me everything there was to know.”
Max pulled Alyyx to him and tousled his hair a bit, laughing. Then he put his arms around the girls and Liz, with Jeffy in her arms, and pulled them all together.
“Come here, Kryys!” He pulled Kryys into the group. “You’ll always be like one of our children, Kryys. We’ll always love you like our own.”
Kryys smiled and breathed in deeply, apparently feeling that his efforts were well rewarded already.
“Can I take you home, Max asked?”
Kryys shook his head. “No need, Uncle Zan. I can get there faster… It’s almost supper time, and I promised Dad I’d be back for supper.”
Max smiled. “Thanks again, Kryys. If we can ever…”
Kryys grinned then dissolved into billions of brilliant atoms that swirled around the room and disappeared through the ceiling. Max turned his attention to Liz and Jeffy. He kissed Jeffy on the cheek then kissed Liz and put his arm around them and the other children.
“Family!” Max said smiling. “Let’s go get dinner somewhere. I’m hungry.”
Liz smiled. “Yeah… I think I am, too. Can we go to Var’nat’s Kires-Ryym? It’s a great family restaurant with great food… and they love babies there. I just need to pick up some special items first at a store somewhere…” She motioned toward Jeffy.
Max smiled and nodded. “Yeah! A family place!” He looked at Jeffy’s smiling face and touched him on the tip of the nose playfully. “Because we’re a family, Jeffy!”
tbc
-
Island Breeze
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 270
- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2002 10:01 pm
The Four Faces of Rath
The Four Faces of Rath
Jungle Jim Returns
Chapter 49
XLIX
“Okay, aim the cameras right over here. I’m going to be standing right here when I open. Then I’ll turn and walk into the Nan-Torel… and you guys will follow me with the cameras… into the Nan-Torel… Got that?”
The camera crew nodded.
“Good! This show is going to happen gentlemen… and lady,” Jim said, nodding toward Obyal Var of Video XSO Xarius. “I had to bring you guys all the way from Xarius, but it’ll be worth it. I’m gonna teach these Antarians about their fauna if it kills me.”
Jim thought about that last statement a moment… “And I don’t mean like the Antarians think it’s going to, either!”
There was some chuckling from the camera crew, which consisted of four large, beefy Xarian male cameramen and Obyal Var, the well-known female correspondent from Xarius.
“Okay, let’s do it,” Jim said, staking out his position in front of the cameras. “Action, gentlemen!”
The cameras came on, and Jim smiled as they panned dramatically across the dark Nan-Torel and came to rest on his face.
“Hello, and welcome to the Jungle Jim Show! Last week I promised you that I would return and we would take a trip into the Nan-Torel. Today, that is finally going to happen. I want to thank the team from Video XSO of Xarius for coming here to film this for you today.” Jim motioned toward the camera crew, and one of the cameras panned slowly over the five Xarians. Each one smiled and waved in turn.
In the square in the center of town, Antarians were already packed around the public viewing screen. The rest were all in their homes watching. The Return of Jungle Jim was unquestionably the most eagerly anticipated event to ever hit Antarian “TV.”
“They’re all gonna get eaten,” one Antarian woman said, as she and a friend watched in the public square.
The other woman chuckled. “They’re taking bets down at Rag’lyng’s on how long it will take till the first one gets eaten… and what will eat him.”
The first woman shook her head. “Well, I hope Jungle Jim doesn’t get eaten myself. I’d like to see him come back every week. He’s interesting… and he’s kind of good looking…”
Her friend nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that, too…” Then she added, “But don’t get too attached to him. He’s going to get eaten.”
Jim turned and motioned to his crew, then he walked toward the edge of the Nan-Torel. The crew followed, much to Jim’s relief. There were no real paths in the Nan-Torel… at least not ones made by human feet. No Antarians ever went in there voluntarily. But there were smaller trails… ones made by… well… no one really knew what.
The first thing that became obvious as they plodded into the Nan-Torel, was that there was not an abundance of light available. The trees and jungle-like growth were dense everywhere. Fortunately, the Xarian cameras, like their Antarian counterparts, had advanced power cores that could run for days without recharging. The lights could also burn for as long as was likely to be needed without any recharging, so lighting would not be a problem.
The camera crew followed, recording every step Jim took and every plant he pushed out of the way, as they pressed on for the next fifteen minutes deeper into the Nan-Torel’s dark depths. About half a mile inside the forest-jungle, Jim stopped and turned toward the cameras with a smile…
“Folks, this is something I want to show you.” Jim held up the branch of a Guma plant. Its huge orange, purple, and red mushroom-like leaves waved and undulated as if they were alive.
“This is a poison Guma fungus plant. The leaves of the Guma plant are not normally deadly to touch, but they can leave some very painful reminders of why they are called ‘poison’ Guma plants. These leaves move around almost as if they were… well, I would say alive, but the fact is, they are alive. All plants are alive, and all plants move! They just normally move too slowly for us to notice. You have undoubtedly seen that many flowers open in the day and close at night… the Yura flower always faces the sun… and the Dyswo plant lies down at night but reawakens and creeps slowly back up as the sun rises in the day. The poison Guma plant moves, too. The difference, of course, is that its movements can be observed. It is saying to keep away. That is why, as you can see, I am being careful to touch only the branches and not the beautiful fungus leaves.”
Jim carefully let the branch back down, and the camera crew turned sideways to squeeze by the plant, giving it a wide berth. Suddenly, everyone heard a noise… something that sounded like a flutter of wings. The camera crew looked around somewhat nervously, but no one saw anything. Jim searched the trees. He didn’t see what had made the sound, but he did see some trees that interested him.
“These are Ama trees,” Jim said, smiling broadly. “You may be familiar with a smaller subspecies of the Ama tree. It grows outside the Nan-Torel, and its leaves, which are also much smaller, are often used to make salads. A smaller, less-poisonous relative of the Guma plant can also be found outside the Nan-Torel, and it is often detoxified and eaten in salads. The leaves of the giant Ama trees of the Nan-Torel fall densely on the forest floor in many places, and they can be very useful to you if you should ever happen to spend the night out here.”
Around TV screens all over Antar, more than a few viewers chuckled at Jim’s last statement. “There’s no chance that’s ever going to happen,” seemed to be the comment heard from most of those watching.
“The fact is,” Jim continued, “when Zan was forced to flee into the Nan-Torel to escape from Kivar’s soldiers during the Battle for Antar, he slept under piles of Ama leaves at night. And do you know why? I’ll give you a clue… It wasn’t to stay warm. The Nan-Torel is quite warm. Sleeping under a big pile of Ama leaves was the only means he had to protect himself from the bat-like rob-jeta that descend on any unprotected living thing in the Nan-Torel at night like flying meat cleavers. The rob-jeta can devour a shebble –or an Antarian for that matter- down to the bones in just three minutes while it sleeps.
“Well, only if someone is crazy enough to sleep in the Nan-Torel,” one of the viewers in the square said, eliciting another round of laughter from the crowd gathered there.
Not seeing the source of the sound they had heard earlier, Jim led the camera crew further down the small, unknown trail… or what appeared to be a trail. Then he stopped again, this time to carefully pick up a ten-foot-long snake that he spotted in a bush. The snake was red with brilliant blue zig-zags that somewhat resembled lightning bolts along its sides. Above the zig-zag pattern, there were small, luminescent greenish spots that glowed brightly in the Nan-Torel’s darkness. The belly was a very light minty green color.
“Look at this little beauty,” Jim said enthusiastically, holding the snake up, as the camera crew backed away a few feet. “What a find this is! This is just extraordinary! I can’t believe our good luck! What I have here is none other than an Antarian green-spotted fire snake. Many of you have heard of the fire snake… but most Antarians believe it is merely a myth. And yet here it is… one of those legendary snakes, my friends, live and… hissing its displeasure at us…
Check this out!”
Jim picked up a small branch from the ground and carefully pulled the snake’s tail with the branch until the tip of the tail touched the snake’s head. As soon as it did, the entire snake lit up then seemed to explode, throwing a roaring sheet of flames high into the air. The camera crew backed up quite a bit further, and some of them looked around nervously.
“Don’t worry,” Jim said, smiling, as he gently draped the fire snake back over its bush. “The snake was not harmed. The sheet of flames she shoots out is her way of defending herself. In the Nan-Torel every creature must have some means of defense to survive. Few other creatures will mess with a fire snake.”
“I can see why,” one of the cameramen mumbled. Obyal Var swallowed and nodded, her eyes still wide.
As Jim turned to lead the crew down the trail a bit further, one of the cameramen tripped and fell headlong on the ground. The other cameramen stared as the ground rose up where the fallen cameraman had gone down… then the ground moved to one side. Obyal Var turned a camera on her fallen comrade and followed the moving mound of leaves and grass, which continued to grow higher and higher. Jim rushed over to it and attempted to lift it so that the cameras could get a better view.
“Help me out here someone. This guy’s heavy!”
The camera crew seemed unsure.
“It’s just a wiffer,” Jim said. It’s a large animal similar to a turtle. It’s harmless. The leaves and grass stuck all over its back are its defense. It stays camouflaged.”
Two of the large Xarian men decided to assist Jim, and together they lifted the wiffer for Obyal Var to get a good shot of it. It did look very much like a turtle, but it was probably something entirely different. The head had a pair of stiff combs or ridges that were vaguely reminiscent of a dinosaur’s. The tail was armored and had spikes on the sides. In spite of its appearance, though, the wiffer appeared to be quite gentle and harmless. The three men set it back down, and it quickly used its spiked tail to dig into the ground and bury itself again, leaving only a few inches of its camouflaged shell protruding above the ground. So this was what the cameraman had tripped over.
Having seen and touched the gentle wiffer, the camera crew seemed more relaxed, calmer, and less nervous… but that was only until they heard the shriek. It pierced the darkness like a stab going through each one there. And it was followed by a series of short shrieks from the other side of them.
“Oh! Excellent!” Jim said. “That was the sound of the wild pawgor and its mate answering him!”
Jim turned around to address the cameras, but they weren’t there. In homes all over Antar and in the public square, viewers watched as bushes, underbrush, and poison Guma plants rushed by. All they could see were feet running as the cameras bounced aimlessly around, held by the camera crew running for their lives.
In the palace, Liz and Max watched and smiled, then they looked at each other and both began to laugh.
“Oh God, I shouldn’t be laughing,” Liz said, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I feel guilty. Jim is our friend. He’s like family.”
In the countryside, at his own home, Jim’s oldest son, Kyle, was feeling no such guilt as he rolled on the floor with laughter, causing Jeliya to smile in spite of herself.
“Kyle, you’re awful, you know that? He’s your Dad.”
“I know,” Kyle said, breaking into another fit of hysterical laughter.
“Aren’t you worried about him?”
“Who? Dad? Naw… He’ll be fine. He may not be amused, but he’ll be fine, Jilly. This reminds me of a low-budget movie some college kids made back on Earth called ‘The Blair Witch Project’ or something like that. It was just a bunch of people running and all you saw was their feet and bushes and the ground going by.” Kyle lapsed into laughter again. “I know Dad’s not going to be amused, but it’s funny as hell!”
**********
Jim was sitting next to the Starkeen River tossing pebbles into the water when Kyle walked up.
“How’s it going, Dad?”
“I’ll live,” Jim said, tossing another pebble into the water.
“Aw, Dad… You still steaming about the Xarian camera guys running out on you?”
“I looked like a fool, Kyle. What was I thinking?”
“Maybe you were thinking that Antar needs a little education about its natural heritage. Maybe you were thinking that they would learn something… and enjoy it… and you’d enjoy doing it.”
“Maybe I was an idiot,” Jim said quietly, tossing another pebble into the river.
“Well, the VideoAntar News teams don’t think so, Dad.”
Kyle sat down next to his father. “They were saying this morning that you’ve done something that no one ever expected or ever has before. You’ve awakened a real interest in Antarians in their natural heritage. They want more.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah! The Jungle Jim show outperformed every other show in Antarian history.”
“That’s just because everyone wanted to see me get eaten.”
“No it’s not, Dad. Antarians just have a sense of humor.”
“So I’ll laugh while I’m being eaten.”
“You don’t get it, Dad. They don’t really want you to get eaten. They just enjoy saying that. It’s like a big joke. They like to have fun with everything. And now they say that there’s a real interest growing in the fauna of the Nan-Torel, and it’s because of you.”
“Yeah? You really think so?”
“I know so, Dad. I’ve heard it everywhere. They want more of Jungle Jim!”
Jim sighed and tossed another pebble into the river. “It’s no use anyway, son. I’ll never find a crew that won’t run the first time something howls out there. I can’t blame them really. They don’t understand the wildlife in there. They’re scared. They don’t want to get eaten… and if they went in there without the proper understanding and respect for the wildlife, they would.”
“Exactly, Dad… and that’s why Jungle Jim is needed.”
Jim looked at Kyle and thought about what he had said, then he nodded. “Yeah… so the message is really gettin’ through, huh?”
“Yeah, Dad. It is.”
“Alright. Alright, then. I’ll give it one more go.” Jim stood up and dusted himself off. “Let’s go up to the house and have some coffee. We can talk about how I’m gonna hogtie the next camera crew and keep ‘em on a leash.”
Kyle laughed. “Well, the Xarian crew won’t be able to return for quite a while.”
“Why’s that, Kyle?”
“The news on VideoAntar said they were all suffering from poison Guma plant rashes. Seems they weren’t as careful when they were running to get back out of the Nan-Torel as they were going in.”
Jim laughed. “Well, they’ll get over it.”
“So will you, Dad. Come on! Let’s get that cup o’ coffee you promised me.”
tbc
Jungle Jim Returns
Chapter 49
XLIX
“Okay, aim the cameras right over here. I’m going to be standing right here when I open. Then I’ll turn and walk into the Nan-Torel… and you guys will follow me with the cameras… into the Nan-Torel… Got that?”
The camera crew nodded.
“Good! This show is going to happen gentlemen… and lady,” Jim said, nodding toward Obyal Var of Video XSO Xarius. “I had to bring you guys all the way from Xarius, but it’ll be worth it. I’m gonna teach these Antarians about their fauna if it kills me.”
Jim thought about that last statement a moment… “And I don’t mean like the Antarians think it’s going to, either!”
There was some chuckling from the camera crew, which consisted of four large, beefy Xarian male cameramen and Obyal Var, the well-known female correspondent from Xarius.
“Okay, let’s do it,” Jim said, staking out his position in front of the cameras. “Action, gentlemen!”
The cameras came on, and Jim smiled as they panned dramatically across the dark Nan-Torel and came to rest on his face.
“Hello, and welcome to the Jungle Jim Show! Last week I promised you that I would return and we would take a trip into the Nan-Torel. Today, that is finally going to happen. I want to thank the team from Video XSO of Xarius for coming here to film this for you today.” Jim motioned toward the camera crew, and one of the cameras panned slowly over the five Xarians. Each one smiled and waved in turn.
In the square in the center of town, Antarians were already packed around the public viewing screen. The rest were all in their homes watching. The Return of Jungle Jim was unquestionably the most eagerly anticipated event to ever hit Antarian “TV.”
“They’re all gonna get eaten,” one Antarian woman said, as she and a friend watched in the public square.
The other woman chuckled. “They’re taking bets down at Rag’lyng’s on how long it will take till the first one gets eaten… and what will eat him.”
The first woman shook her head. “Well, I hope Jungle Jim doesn’t get eaten myself. I’d like to see him come back every week. He’s interesting… and he’s kind of good looking…”
Her friend nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that, too…” Then she added, “But don’t get too attached to him. He’s going to get eaten.”
Jim turned and motioned to his crew, then he walked toward the edge of the Nan-Torel. The crew followed, much to Jim’s relief. There were no real paths in the Nan-Torel… at least not ones made by human feet. No Antarians ever went in there voluntarily. But there were smaller trails… ones made by… well… no one really knew what.
The first thing that became obvious as they plodded into the Nan-Torel, was that there was not an abundance of light available. The trees and jungle-like growth were dense everywhere. Fortunately, the Xarian cameras, like their Antarian counterparts, had advanced power cores that could run for days without recharging. The lights could also burn for as long as was likely to be needed without any recharging, so lighting would not be a problem.
The camera crew followed, recording every step Jim took and every plant he pushed out of the way, as they pressed on for the next fifteen minutes deeper into the Nan-Torel’s dark depths. About half a mile inside the forest-jungle, Jim stopped and turned toward the cameras with a smile…
“Folks, this is something I want to show you.” Jim held up the branch of a Guma plant. Its huge orange, purple, and red mushroom-like leaves waved and undulated as if they were alive.
“This is a poison Guma fungus plant. The leaves of the Guma plant are not normally deadly to touch, but they can leave some very painful reminders of why they are called ‘poison’ Guma plants. These leaves move around almost as if they were… well, I would say alive, but the fact is, they are alive. All plants are alive, and all plants move! They just normally move too slowly for us to notice. You have undoubtedly seen that many flowers open in the day and close at night… the Yura flower always faces the sun… and the Dyswo plant lies down at night but reawakens and creeps slowly back up as the sun rises in the day. The poison Guma plant moves, too. The difference, of course, is that its movements can be observed. It is saying to keep away. That is why, as you can see, I am being careful to touch only the branches and not the beautiful fungus leaves.”
Jim carefully let the branch back down, and the camera crew turned sideways to squeeze by the plant, giving it a wide berth. Suddenly, everyone heard a noise… something that sounded like a flutter of wings. The camera crew looked around somewhat nervously, but no one saw anything. Jim searched the trees. He didn’t see what had made the sound, but he did see some trees that interested him.
“These are Ama trees,” Jim said, smiling broadly. “You may be familiar with a smaller subspecies of the Ama tree. It grows outside the Nan-Torel, and its leaves, which are also much smaller, are often used to make salads. A smaller, less-poisonous relative of the Guma plant can also be found outside the Nan-Torel, and it is often detoxified and eaten in salads. The leaves of the giant Ama trees of the Nan-Torel fall densely on the forest floor in many places, and they can be very useful to you if you should ever happen to spend the night out here.”
Around TV screens all over Antar, more than a few viewers chuckled at Jim’s last statement. “There’s no chance that’s ever going to happen,” seemed to be the comment heard from most of those watching.
“The fact is,” Jim continued, “when Zan was forced to flee into the Nan-Torel to escape from Kivar’s soldiers during the Battle for Antar, he slept under piles of Ama leaves at night. And do you know why? I’ll give you a clue… It wasn’t to stay warm. The Nan-Torel is quite warm. Sleeping under a big pile of Ama leaves was the only means he had to protect himself from the bat-like rob-jeta that descend on any unprotected living thing in the Nan-Torel at night like flying meat cleavers. The rob-jeta can devour a shebble –or an Antarian for that matter- down to the bones in just three minutes while it sleeps.
“Well, only if someone is crazy enough to sleep in the Nan-Torel,” one of the viewers in the square said, eliciting another round of laughter from the crowd gathered there.
Not seeing the source of the sound they had heard earlier, Jim led the camera crew further down the small, unknown trail… or what appeared to be a trail. Then he stopped again, this time to carefully pick up a ten-foot-long snake that he spotted in a bush. The snake was red with brilliant blue zig-zags that somewhat resembled lightning bolts along its sides. Above the zig-zag pattern, there were small, luminescent greenish spots that glowed brightly in the Nan-Torel’s darkness. The belly was a very light minty green color.
“Look at this little beauty,” Jim said enthusiastically, holding the snake up, as the camera crew backed away a few feet. “What a find this is! This is just extraordinary! I can’t believe our good luck! What I have here is none other than an Antarian green-spotted fire snake. Many of you have heard of the fire snake… but most Antarians believe it is merely a myth. And yet here it is… one of those legendary snakes, my friends, live and… hissing its displeasure at us…
Check this out!”
Jim picked up a small branch from the ground and carefully pulled the snake’s tail with the branch until the tip of the tail touched the snake’s head. As soon as it did, the entire snake lit up then seemed to explode, throwing a roaring sheet of flames high into the air. The camera crew backed up quite a bit further, and some of them looked around nervously.
“Don’t worry,” Jim said, smiling, as he gently draped the fire snake back over its bush. “The snake was not harmed. The sheet of flames she shoots out is her way of defending herself. In the Nan-Torel every creature must have some means of defense to survive. Few other creatures will mess with a fire snake.”
“I can see why,” one of the cameramen mumbled. Obyal Var swallowed and nodded, her eyes still wide.
As Jim turned to lead the crew down the trail a bit further, one of the cameramen tripped and fell headlong on the ground. The other cameramen stared as the ground rose up where the fallen cameraman had gone down… then the ground moved to one side. Obyal Var turned a camera on her fallen comrade and followed the moving mound of leaves and grass, which continued to grow higher and higher. Jim rushed over to it and attempted to lift it so that the cameras could get a better view.
“Help me out here someone. This guy’s heavy!”
The camera crew seemed unsure.
“It’s just a wiffer,” Jim said. It’s a large animal similar to a turtle. It’s harmless. The leaves and grass stuck all over its back are its defense. It stays camouflaged.”
Two of the large Xarian men decided to assist Jim, and together they lifted the wiffer for Obyal Var to get a good shot of it. It did look very much like a turtle, but it was probably something entirely different. The head had a pair of stiff combs or ridges that were vaguely reminiscent of a dinosaur’s. The tail was armored and had spikes on the sides. In spite of its appearance, though, the wiffer appeared to be quite gentle and harmless. The three men set it back down, and it quickly used its spiked tail to dig into the ground and bury itself again, leaving only a few inches of its camouflaged shell protruding above the ground. So this was what the cameraman had tripped over.
Having seen and touched the gentle wiffer, the camera crew seemed more relaxed, calmer, and less nervous… but that was only until they heard the shriek. It pierced the darkness like a stab going through each one there. And it was followed by a series of short shrieks from the other side of them.
“Oh! Excellent!” Jim said. “That was the sound of the wild pawgor and its mate answering him!”
Jim turned around to address the cameras, but they weren’t there. In homes all over Antar and in the public square, viewers watched as bushes, underbrush, and poison Guma plants rushed by. All they could see were feet running as the cameras bounced aimlessly around, held by the camera crew running for their lives.
In the palace, Liz and Max watched and smiled, then they looked at each other and both began to laugh.
“Oh God, I shouldn’t be laughing,” Liz said, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I feel guilty. Jim is our friend. He’s like family.”
In the countryside, at his own home, Jim’s oldest son, Kyle, was feeling no such guilt as he rolled on the floor with laughter, causing Jeliya to smile in spite of herself.
“Kyle, you’re awful, you know that? He’s your Dad.”
“I know,” Kyle said, breaking into another fit of hysterical laughter.
“Aren’t you worried about him?”
“Who? Dad? Naw… He’ll be fine. He may not be amused, but he’ll be fine, Jilly. This reminds me of a low-budget movie some college kids made back on Earth called ‘The Blair Witch Project’ or something like that. It was just a bunch of people running and all you saw was their feet and bushes and the ground going by.” Kyle lapsed into laughter again. “I know Dad’s not going to be amused, but it’s funny as hell!”
**********
Jim was sitting next to the Starkeen River tossing pebbles into the water when Kyle walked up.
“How’s it going, Dad?”
“I’ll live,” Jim said, tossing another pebble into the water.
“Aw, Dad… You still steaming about the Xarian camera guys running out on you?”
“I looked like a fool, Kyle. What was I thinking?”
“Maybe you were thinking that Antar needs a little education about its natural heritage. Maybe you were thinking that they would learn something… and enjoy it… and you’d enjoy doing it.”
“Maybe I was an idiot,” Jim said quietly, tossing another pebble into the river.
“Well, the VideoAntar News teams don’t think so, Dad.”
Kyle sat down next to his father. “They were saying this morning that you’ve done something that no one ever expected or ever has before. You’ve awakened a real interest in Antarians in their natural heritage. They want more.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah! The Jungle Jim show outperformed every other show in Antarian history.”
“That’s just because everyone wanted to see me get eaten.”
“No it’s not, Dad. Antarians just have a sense of humor.”
“So I’ll laugh while I’m being eaten.”
“You don’t get it, Dad. They don’t really want you to get eaten. They just enjoy saying that. It’s like a big joke. They like to have fun with everything. And now they say that there’s a real interest growing in the fauna of the Nan-Torel, and it’s because of you.”
“Yeah? You really think so?”
“I know so, Dad. I’ve heard it everywhere. They want more of Jungle Jim!”
Jim sighed and tossed another pebble into the river. “It’s no use anyway, son. I’ll never find a crew that won’t run the first time something howls out there. I can’t blame them really. They don’t understand the wildlife in there. They’re scared. They don’t want to get eaten… and if they went in there without the proper understanding and respect for the wildlife, they would.”
“Exactly, Dad… and that’s why Jungle Jim is needed.”
Jim looked at Kyle and thought about what he had said, then he nodded. “Yeah… so the message is really gettin’ through, huh?”
“Yeah, Dad. It is.”
“Alright. Alright, then. I’ll give it one more go.” Jim stood up and dusted himself off. “Let’s go up to the house and have some coffee. We can talk about how I’m gonna hogtie the next camera crew and keep ‘em on a leash.”
Kyle laughed. “Well, the Xarian crew won’t be able to return for quite a while.”
“Why’s that, Kyle?”
“The news on VideoAntar said they were all suffering from poison Guma plant rashes. Seems they weren’t as careful when they were running to get back out of the Nan-Torel as they were going in.”
Jim laughed. “Well, they’ll get over it.”
“So will you, Dad. Come on! Let’s get that cup o’ coffee you promised me.”
tbc