The Four Faces of Rath

isndbreeze · Post by **isndbreeze** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 3:40 pm

The Four Faces of Rath RSVP Subtitled: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition Your Condition Was In) Chapter 63 LXIII The crew of the New Granolith tried to get some rest before their scheduled arrival on earth in Dimension Y, which had now been moved up to only twenty-seven hours away, but everyone was too wound up to sleep. Most of them did manage to grab several short “catnaps” along the way, but these tended to be broken up by what Varec had now termed “dimensional paranormalities.” Actually, nothing too serious had occurred since the “blushing rose” incident, but smaller occurrences seemed to be the norm rather than the paranormal, Varec’s name for the events notwithstanding. Colors often changed for no known reason, a fact that had kept Michael from eating his Antarian golden egg omelet at breakfast. The first bite had looked like a normal golden egg… but then the egg had slowly turned purple, and after that it had turned green. Michael tried to swallow a bite of the green eggs but couldn’t manage it and finally pushed them away with a comment about never having liked Dr. Seuss anyway. The food was not the only thing that tended to change colors often, though… people did, too. At the moment, Max was a vivid blue, which Michael found somehow very amusing. Michael was himself a nice bright red. Isabel and Alex were both green, Maria was golden, and Liz was pearly white. Tess was a silvery color, while Jim Valenti was bronze. Varec, who was a sort of turquoise, was still trying to decide whether or not these changes were real or imagined. His theory of the moment was that they were akin to a psychedelic experience… not real but imagined… brought on by cosmic stresses on the mind. Despite his theory, though, every test he did seemed to indicate that the phenomenon was real, and he was slowly becoming convinced. “Well, we won’t have to convince anyone that we’re aliens,” Michael joked, looking at the colorful faces around him. Max nodded. “I imagine when we stop traveling through the rifts, though, all the colors will revert to normal… and we’ll be our old boring colors again.” “Well, I’m not bored with my old color,” Michael said. “I mean… looking at you looking like that is just whacked, Max! You look like one of those guys that bang out that weird music on pipes and never talk… those blue guys in the TV commercials… what were they called?” “Those blue guys, I guess,” Max said. “That’s what I called ‘em.” “Blue Man Band,” Isabel corrected. “Ah,” Michael said, nodding… “Yeah… okay. You know… I got to say, though, Max… Maria looks pretty good… golden… rose… baby blue… or even that iridescent abalone color she was earlier… All this changing colors is a little kinky… but it kind of spices things up… you know what I mean… in a way.” Max grinned. “Maybe Jayyd would change her mama’s color for you now and then, Michael. I’m sure Jayyd wouldn’t mind.” “Jayyd gets too creative, Max. Besides, I don’t want Maria thinking she’s not… you know… exciting like she is, ‘cause I’d love Maria any color.” “awwww…” Maria said, walking up behind Michael at that moment and kissing him. “You can be so sensitive and sweet sometimes, Michael.” Michael turned an even brighter red than he already was. Maria chuckled. “Don’t worry. It’ll be our secret.” “Max knows now,” Michael said, nodding toward Max. “Oh, I think he probably figured it out a long time ago,” Maria giggled. “Yeah,” Max said with a smile… “but I’ll keep your secret, Michael. Nobody else has to know.” Michael sighed. “I know when I’ve been outed, Max. Besides, you’ve probably already told everyone else.” Max smiled. “I didn’t have to. They know you’re a complicated man with a lot of levels.” Michael raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. “Yeah… yeah, that’s right! That’s a good way to look at it. You’re right. Thanks, Max. Complicated… different levels… yeah, that’s a good description.” “Well, I still like sensitive and sweet,” Maria teased. “Just one of my many complicated levels, Maria,” Michael said. “Whatever you want to call it,” Maria agreed, smiling. “Hey guys,” Alex said, walking into the room at that moment… “Varec says earth is in sight… We should be there in about an hour tops.” “Varec said an hour tops?” Max asked, not believing what he had heard. “Well… actually, I think he said thirty nine minutes, twenty-seven and three quarter seconds, plus or minus three nanoseconds.” “Now that sounds like Varec,” Max laughed. Michael nodded. “Let’s go up to the bridge and take a look,” Max said, motioning the way to the others. “Oh, and by the way, Alex… that’s a really fetching mint green color you are this morning.” Alex rolled his eyes then turned and walked toward the glass ascension chamber. “Get over it, Max. I’m taken.” Max and Michael both laughed. “I just said it was fetching,” Max chuckled. “I didn’t say it was my color.” “Uh uh,” Michael agreed. “Mine either.” “Well, that’s good,” Alex said dryly. “Isabel will be glad to know that.” “I’m sure she will,” Michael chuckled. “I didn’t know she was into little green aliens. You need a couple of little antennae on your head, though, Alex… to complete the look.” “Yuk it up all you want,” Alex said, as they rode the ascension chamber up to the bridge. “You haven’t looked at yourself in the mirror this morning, I assume.” “Maria likes me red,” Michael said. “Good,” Alex said with a smile. ‘You won’t be lonely then… cause you’re not my color, Michael… or my type.” Max snickered. “Touché. Point for Alex.” “You either, Max. I’m not into blue either.” “Oh well! I’ll get over it,” Max said, grinning. Alex, Max, Michael, and Maria exited the ascension chamber and hurried to the bridge. Liz and Varec were already there waiting. “There it is,” Varec said, pointing straight ahead. “Earth, Dimension Y. We’ll be there in eighteen and five-seventh seconds, plus or minus two nanoseconds… I can calculate it more accurately if you want when we get a little nearer.” “No need,” Max said, grinning understandingly. “Your ‘rough estimate’ will be fine, Varec.” Max stared out the window at earth, which looked about the size of a marble floating in the distance. As he stared, he began to feel uncomfortable. Suddenly, without warning, Max jumped and dodged then swatted at something. Everyone looked at him, without a clue why he had done what he had just done. “Didn’t you see it?” Max asked, flustered. “See what,” Michael asked. “I just saw you doing some kind of weird rain dance.” “It was a… a helicopter… It flew right in my face.” “A real, like, big helicopter?” Michael asked, a bit incredulous. “Yeah…” Max said, shaking his head with disbelief. “I mean, yeah… it was a real helicopter… It was weird.” “I didn’t see anything,” Maria said. “Me either,” Alex agreed. Michael stared out the window for a several moments at the earth ahead, trying to see what Max might have seen. For a few moments, he saw only the small blue orb floating in the distance. Then suddenly, he jumped to the side, waving his hands wildly in front of his face. Maria looked at him curiously. “Missiles,” Michael said. “Missiles were coming right at me! I waved my hands, and the wind from my hands blew them away from me. What the hell’s going on here, Varec?” “Could be a mind thing… from the travel through the rifts,” Varec said cautiously… “but I’m more inclined to think you’re seeing something that’s actually happening down there on earth right now. Sort of a remote… sensory… visual… perspective…” “An RSVP,” Max said, amused. “Works for me,” Michael nodded. “You think they’re being attacked down there with missiles,” Maria asked Michael. Michael shook his head slowly. “I don’t know, Maria. It could be.” “What can we do about it if they are,” Alex asked. “We’re still fifteen minutes away.” “Send them an RSVP,” Max said. “Huh?” Alex turned and looked at Max. “Send them an RSVP,” Max repeated. “A Remote Sensory Visual Perspective. If we’re seeing them… maybe we can make them see something, too… make them see something we want them to see… get into their minds.” “Like what,” Alex asked. Max thought a minute. “Varec… you have the power to bring things to you… even over galaxies… Could you bring something to you through dimensions?” “The jah-ee? The pawgor?” Varec asked, sensing where Max was going. “Well, not actually,” Max said. “They would be easy targets for missiles if somebody is shooting missiles down there. I don’t want to put them in that kind of danger… But could you transfer an image of them down there to earth?” Varec thought a moment. “I don’t know. I might could… if I contacted the real jah-ee and pawgor back on Antar first… through you. It would be like… accessing multiple imaging sources.” “Sort of a conference call, you mean,” Max said. “I guess so,” Varec agreed, raising his eyebrows. “The jah-ee or pawgor would actually see and react to the situation… and the people down there would see them… but they would really still be on Antar, so they wouldn’t actually be able to do anything to anyone on earth.” “And no one on earth could do anything to them,” Max nodded. “But the people down there wouldn’t know that… right?” Varec shook his head. “No. I’m sure they would believe that they were in danger.” “Then RSVP them,” Max said again. Send the jah-ee to attack the helicopter or the pawgor to attack anyone on the ground who’s threatening Liz and the others. Whoever’s shooting missiles down there, give them a jah-ee to distract them till we can get there.” Varec closed his eyes and concentrated, placing one hand on Max’s arm to make a connection. Varec had the ability to bring the jah-ee… or it’s image… to him and transmit it to earth, but it was Max who had the mental connection with the jah-ee that would allow the jah-ee to know what was happening. After what seemed like several long moments, Varec opened his eyes and nodded. “The jah-ee understands.” Max nodded. Varec closed his eyes again. After several moments, he reopened them. “Danyy’s pawgor doesn’t hear us.” “Only Danyy can speak with the pawgor,” Max said. “I never could.” “I could still bring the pawgor’s image to earth,” Varec said. “It just wouldn’t understand what was going on.” Max shook his head then thought about it again. “The pawgor knows Jim. If Jim appeared to be in danger… or any of us for that matter, it might figure out what was going on. It’s a very smart animal.” “It wouldn’t understand that it was only seeing a vision, though, Max. It would believe that the situations were real and the danger present.” Max nodded. “It could be confusing to the pawgor… maybe we can use it as a last resort. At least, the pawgor couldn’t be harmed… It just wouldn’t know that.” Varec nodded. Nine minutes later, the New Granolith streaked invisibly into earth orbit, headed toward Roswell. With all its systems functioning and turned on, the ship was totally invisible to the eye and to radar, so no one noticed as the huge Antarian mother ship streaked across the Atlantic, then over Florida, and finally over the Gulf of Mexico, turning north toward New Mexico and Roswell. As the ship approached Roswell, Max scanned the town and countryside for any activity suggesting an ongoing attack of some kind. It didn’t take long to pinpoint the Mesaliko Reservation. Focusing on that area, the monitors began to pick up clear images of what was going on. “There are fighter jets everywhere,” Max said. “We’d better stay invisible for a while. There’s a helicopter down below. And a lot of houses are on fire. It looks like they’re attacking the Mesalikos.” “Liz and Alex must be there,” Michael said. “Why else would they attack the Mesalikos?” Max nodded. Then he saw a missile streak from one of the fighter jets. It scored a direct hit on something that had just emerged above the clouds. Max gasped, as he got a good view of the craft that had been hit. “Is that one of our ships?” The smaller craft tumbled, out of control and in flames, toward the ground, breaking up as it fell. “It is,” Varec confirmed. “It’s an old one. I don’t know who could be piloting it, though.” “You think the army captured it and figured out how to fly it?” “I doubt it. It has too many safeguards. It would only respond to a limited number of DNA profiles… probably only to one of the original crew.” “Then someone of ours is in trouble,” Max said. Varec nodded. “Lock on to him,” Max said. “Put out the fire and bring him onboard.” Michael rushed to lock on to the smaller ship and bring it into the New Granolith’s huge hangar. Held in the magnetic grasp of the Antarian mother ship, the smaller ship stopped tumbling, leveled off again, and began to rise, then the flames went out, smothered by a mist within the magnetic field that was lifting the smaller craft up. Within moments, the smaller craft, which was actually almost two hundred feet across, was sitting inside the much larger New Granolith, and Michael was in the cargo hold, waiting for the pilot to come out. The bottom of the smaller ship opened. Although the vessel had originally had an antigravity system that held it off the ground, that system, and most of the others on the smaller vessel, had been seriously damaged by the missile. Now the ship sat on the floor of the New Granolith’s cargo bay, leaning slightly to one side. The pilot had to bend over and squeeze himself out between the bottom of his craft and the floor. The young man walked up to Michael, stopped, and smiled. “I am Rahn… of Antar. I’m glad that you have arrived. We need your help.” “I’m beginning to see that,” Michael said. “Let’s get up to the the bridge, Rahn. Max will want to talk to you. I’m Michael… some know me as Rath.” “I recognized you,” Rahn said, as he walked with Michael to the ascension chamber. “The situation is already critical. I’m afraid we must act quickly. Your friends – and mine – are locked inside one of the houses on the Reservation. I heard one of the special agents order the house to be blown up with a missile.” As they stepped out of the ascension chamber, they were met by Max. “This is Rahn. Rahn… Max,” Michael said, quickly dispensing with introductions. “Rahn says that we need to hurry, Max. Liz and Alex are locked in one of those houses on the Reservation, and a special agent has given the order for the house to be blown up with a missile.” Without speaking, Max headed back to the bridge with Michael and Rahn right behind him. “Remove the invisibility field,” Max said to Varec, as he walked onto the bridge. “I think it’s time they saw us. Maybe we can attract a little attention away from them down there and onto us.” Varec passed his hand over two sensors, and the New Granolith suddenly became visible, casting a huge shadow over about three miles of land as it blocked out the sun. Michael adjusted the New Granolith’s audio receptors to pick up the communications of the fighter jets. Right away, something was picked up. “Uh… This is Wingman One. It’s getting overcast up here. Come in someone… Anyone… Doesn’t anyone hear me anymore? Damn! What is that? It’s affecting my signal… Too big to be anything but cloud cover, but… not like any cloud I’ve ever seen…” Another signal was being picked up from lower down, probably from another fighter jet. “What’s going on up there, Wingman One? Where are you? Reply, Wingman One. We didn’t copy all of that last communication about the cloud cover. It’s supposed to be clear and sunny all day today…” There was a slight pause. “Okay… Guess the weather guys got it wrong again, Wingman One. We’re starting to see that cloud down here, too, now. Getting kind of dark all of a sudden.” It appeared that the two pilots were no longer able to actually hear each other. However, the New Granolith’s audio picked up another communication from farther away… “Cobra Nine checking in. Missiles are ready. Waiting for your orders, sir. Just say the word.” A voice came back, “Missiles? Plural?” “You said you wanted big, sir.” “I did! I do!” “Well big is what you’ll get, then, sir. Missiles one, three, four, and six are armed and ready to fly. Just say the word, and that house is going away for good!” “Fire, Cobra Nine! Fire! Just do it!” “Roger that, Culpepper. Cobra Nine Out.” Michael looked at Max, and both of them instantly and instinctively knew what was happening. Max turned to Varec… “Varec, we need the jah-ee… NOW!” Varec had already begun to concentrate. The Cobra pilot’s voice came back… “Firing One…” There was a distinct pause, as Cobra Nine hesitated, rubbed his eyes and shook his head, then looked out his windshield again. “Uh… Cobra Nine here… Hold on a minute… There’s something… Uh… What the! HOLY…!” The pilot jerked his stick back and to the right, taking his helicopter into a corkscrew loop for a moment. Then he straightened it out again… “What’s happening, Cobra Nine,” Culpepper asked, disturbed that he had not yet seen the explosion he desired and curious about Cobra Nine’s unexplained aerobatics. “Something almost flew into me,” Cobra Nine said after a minute. “You’re the only chopper in the area, Cobra Nine. And I don’t see any jets near you.” “Negative.” Cobra Nine’s voice said, sounding strangely quaky. “Well, what was it then?” Cobra Nine decided to keep what he THOUGHT he had seen to himself… at least for now. In his experience, pilots who had reported unusual sightings had often been grounded and sent to the base psychologist for extensive testing. Most had come back saying that they hadn’t actually seen anything unusual after all and it had just been sun spots. Those who persisted in the belief that it had been anything else never flew again. “Sun spots,” Cobra Nine said after a few moments. “It was just sun spots.” “Sun spots?” Culpepper asked, somewhat doubtful. “The sun seems to have gone behind a big cloud, Cobra Nine.” “Well, up here, there are sun spots, sir,” the pilot insisted. “Never mind, Cobra Nine. Just blow that house blown up… NOW! Carry out orders!” “Yes, sir!” Cobra Nine circled around and headed back toward the home. Once he had lined up his target again, he flipped a switch and spoke into his helmet mike… “Missile One is armed… Firing!” As Cobra Nine started to flip a second switch that would fire the first of the four missiles, the huge bird suddenly reappeared in front of him. Cobra Nine closed his eyes and opened them again. It was still there… and heading right at him. In a near panic, he took his helicopter over into a sharp dive to avoid colliding with the giant raptor, which had an almost unbelievable wingspan. Cobra Nine guessed it to be 65 feet from wingtip to wingtip. He was not off by much. Leveling off after his hastily executed rollover and dive, Cobra Nine looked out his windshield, searching the sky in every direction for the impossible bird. Then he spotted it. Out of nowhere, it dived at his helicopter, its huge claws extended in his direction. Cobra Nine instantly knew that this giant, eagle-like raptor, with its giant talons, could easily tear his helicopter apart or grab and hold onto it… and it might even be able to carry it away. If he allowed this bird to get its talons on his helicopter, the outcome would clearly be devastating. Already flying too low, Cobra Nine rolled over and tried to dive again, this time plowing his helicopter right into the ground. The already armed missile flew off, traveling along the ground toward the house. Clipping a tree along the way, the missile went into a spin then headed back toward the helicopter. The pilot of Cobra One, seeing the missile coming, bailed out of his downed helicopter and ran, trying to put as much distance between himself and the helicopter as he could. Ultimately, the missile missed the helicopter, streaked through the underbrush and trees and ended up in the nearby river. Moments later, there was a tremendous explosion beneath the water of the river. When the dust had finally cleared and the rain of fish, pieces of fish, and river water had all ceased to fall, the Cobra lay on its side, all its rotors bent or broken and its body severely damaged. It would not likely be taking off again any time soon, if ever. Culpepper had watched Cobra Nine dive and level off then dive again and crash in a cloud of dust. He wanted to curse the pilot of the downed helicopter, but at the moment he was too stunned. Culpepper had not seen the jah-ee. Only the pilot of Cobra One had been able to see the huge Antarian bird. But the crash absolutely baffled Culpepper. The pilot of Cobra One was one of the best they had… and yet… he was flying as though he had lost his mind. It was inexplicable and utterly baffling. Culpepper would soon understand, though. Varec had expanded the range of the RSVP. Now anyone who was in the area would see the jah-ee. Maybe it was a flicker perceived from the corner of his eye… Maybe it was just a feeling… but something made Culpepper look up again at that moment. He saw the huge bird descending toward him, its talons extended, and the blood all rushed out of his face. tbc Coming Up: Max and Michael from Antar join the battle to help their younger counterparts on earth. Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub129.ezboard.com/bmajiklmoonsr ... dbreeze</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://users.aol.com/isndbreeze/aim116b.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 3/27/04 5:36 pm

isndbreeze · Post by **isndbreeze** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 4:38 pm

Thanks for the feedback, Tracie, Veca, Melisa, and Isabel! F-Troop! <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/lol.gif ALT=":lol"> Well, cavalry refers to horsemen, really (from the latin, cavallo or something, I'm guessing), so maybe our gang is really the ufory or the alienry. Now I'm thinking of that Indian chief guy on F-Troop as their Gray Hawk. <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/eek.gif ALT=":eek"> Anywho! Our guys will get the job done! <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/slinkie.gif ALT=":slinkie"> CHARGE! <div style="text-align:center"><img src="http://users.aol.com/isndbreeze/skysymb ...   Gerry - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hopeless Candy-Coated, Stargazing, Dreamer! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</div>

Post by **roswellkitkat** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 1:25 pm

That was awesome! I was on pins and nnedles reading! RSVP...that is a pretty cool trick.

Post by **majiklmoon** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 12:23 am

ahem...I am very annoyed. I left feedback on this the other day, but for some reason, ezboard saw fit to eat it or something...grr<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/mad.gif ALT=":mad"> In any event, I love this story very very much <center>It all started with a boy, a girl, and a silver handprint.</center><center><a href=http://pub84.ezboard.com/bmajiklmoonsrealm><img src=http://members.aol.com/majiklmoon/image ... a></center>

vecastone · Post by **vecastone** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:55 pm

They arrived !! They arrived !! Great update !! I can´t wait to see what happen next, I missed this story <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilie ... smilie.gif ALT=":party">

isndbreeze · Post by **isndbreeze** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 1:39 am

The Four Faces of Rath Into The Fray Chapter 64 LXIV Culpepper saw the huge bird descending toward him, its talons extended, and the blood all rushed out of his face. He turned to run but slipped and began to roll down the hill. He might have rolled all the way to the bottom had it not been for a large prickly bush about half way down. Rolling into the bush, Culpepper rushed to crawl under it as far as he could get, scarcely paying attention to the thorns. Feeling somewhat safer in his hiding place, Culpepper scanned the sky again for the huge bird of prey, his heart still beating wildly. The bird seemed to have disappeared. Culpepper looked for his two-way radio/walkie-talkie but realized that he had dropped it during his roll down the hill. He would have to come out from under the bush to retrieve it, and that thought made him shiver involuntarily. After several minutes without seeing the huge eagle-like bird again, however, Culpepper cautiously extracted himself from beneath the bush and looked around. Still seeing no bird, he ran quickly up the hill to where his two-way radio lay and hastily made a call… “Culpepper here… Come in Cobra Leader.” “This is Cobra Leader. What’s happening there, Culpepper? Did Cobra Nine give you the fireworks you wanted?” “Negative,” Culpepper said simply, not expounding on the reasons or causes. “Negative?” “That’s what I said… Negative! I need another pilot.” There was a short pause. “Where is Cobra Nine?” “Crashed.” There was another pause. “Do you need emergency vehicles?” “Negative,” Culpepper responded again. “Cobra Nine is okay…” (“For now,” he mumbled under his breath, blaming Cobra Nine for not disposing of the huge bird before it had a chance to attack him.) “All right,” Cobra Leader replied hesitantly. “I’ll send Cobra Two. ETA in seven minutes.” “Roger that,” Culpepper responded. “Put a rush on it.” Culpepper breathed a deep sigh and scanned the sky again, looking for the jah-ee… and he realized that he was still shivering. On the Reservation below, meanwhile, Max, Michael, Liz, Maria, Alex, and the others were all tied up and awaiting what was intended to be, in effect, their execution. After overwhelming them with the Cobra helicopters and then subduing them with gas, Agent Culpepper had ordered them all bound and locked inside one of the empty houses. He had then ordered the house to be blown up with a missile. That “job” had fallen to Cobra Nine, who had no idea that the house was occupied… though he never asked either. Cobra Nine was just happy to give Culpepper a bright fireworks show, and he planned to fire a total of four missiles into the house to accomplish that goal… but an unexpected encounter with the jah-ee had ended his plans early, and Culpepper had had to call for another Cobra helicopter, Cobra Two, to finish the job. Inside the house, meanwhile, Max and Michael were making the most of their brief reprieve. Michael had managed to chew through the fiberglass tape that bound his hands and had helped Max to finish getting the tape off of his hands. Then the two of them had untied themselves and the others. “What are we going to do,” Liz asked, hugging Max. “If we try to run, they’ll see us… and they’ll shoot us on sight… especially with you having to carry me.” Max swallowed. He knew that Liz was right. Free of the ropes or not, there was nowhere they could run to. Yet as long as they were in that house, they were still condemned prisoners… merely waiting for their execution to take place. “We need to make a run for it,” Michael said, clearly preferring to die fighting than to sit there and perish without a fight. “We can hold some of them off for a while.” “But we’ll still all die, right?” Alex asked. Michael nodded solemnly. “Just checking,” Alex said. As the group debated their options, few as they seemed to be at the moment, high above them, another group was also debating… inside the Antarian mothership, the New Granolith. “Have you located them yet,” Michael asked Varec. Varec shook his head. “There’s too much going on down there… and a lot of smoke over the reservation. But I’m concentrating on the area that was in line with the flight of that last flying machine with the spinners on top.” “Helicopter,” Michael said. Varec nodded. “That’s probably a good idea,” Max agreed. “We know it was on its way there to blow up the house. Where was the pilot when he said he was ‘firing,’?” “He was just outside the Reservation. His weapons would have followed this course…” Varec traced a marker over an improvised map of the reservation. “It would have most likely impacted in this area…” He drew a circle around five or six houses. “Can we pinpoint it any closer,” Max asked. “I’m trying,” Varec replied. “The missile had a variable range. It can’t be determined which house it would have struck for certain… but I may be able to narrow it down to… three houses.” “Do it,” Max said. “Max!” Liz cried out suddenly, as she watched the monitors. “There’s another helicopter coming!” Max looked at the monitor. “Damn. He’ll be in range in… two minutes. We don’t have much time.” “One minute, twenty-one and one quarter seconds,” Varec corrected. “That’s what I said,” Max mumbled… “not enough time.” “Look!” Michael yelled, pointing at the monitor. “Someone’s going into one of the houses.” Varec quickly compared his improvised map to the monitor. “That would be this one.” “Why would anyone be going INTO a house that was about to be blown up,” Maria asked. “Maybe it’s one of OUR group down there… trying to save the others,” Isabel suggested. “I don’t know anyone else who would be putting their life in danger going into a house about to be blown up, do you?” “That’s the house,” Max agreed. “Gotta be! Concentrate on that house! Get ready to bring anyone who’s down there onboard quickly.” Varec rushed to prepare the New Granolith’s systems for quick teleportation of carbon life forms. “Someone’s coming out!” Liz said. “Look!” Everyone looked at the monitor. Three people had emerged from the house and were helping the others to get out. But they would not have enough time… “MISSILE!” Alex shouted, pointing at the screen. Max and Michael both saw it at the same time. “Transport! Now!” Max yelled. “Get them out!” Varec activated the transporter systems, and at the same moment, a bright light engulfed the house. Simultaneously, the house seemed to disappear from the monitor. On the bridge of the New Granolith, nothing could be heard but the heavy breathing of those watching the monitor for what seemed like an eternity. “Did we get them?” Max asked after several moments, somehow finding his voice again, though it was still shaky. Varec shook his head. Maria closed her eyes, and tears ran down her cheeks. Michael held her and wiped his own eyes. “We came so far… so far for it to end like this,” Maria cried. “So far… and so close. It’s not fair.” “Reality isn’t always fair,” Varec said softly. “We try to make it fair. That’s what living is about.” “Well…” Michael said, rubbing his reddened eyes again. “I don’t know about the rest of you… but I’m going to make someone down there pay. I don’t feel very forgiving at the moment.” “What are you going to do,” Varec asked. “You can’t just destroy everything down there. There are innocent people down there, too.” Michael turned around and headed to the ascension chamber. The chamber reopened in the cargo bay, and Michael got out, heading for the room that housed his special bike… the one Varec and his scientist friends had made for him years before. On his way there, Michael noticed that the bottom bay doors had only partially closed after bringing Rahn’s ship onboard… and he noticed something else… “Hmmm. The lower beam never deactivated.” Michael started to deactivate the beam, but as he reached for it, he noticed something through the partially open bay doors. It looked like a fighter jet. It must have been caught in the beam. Instead of switching off the beam, Michael opened the bay doors all the way… and the fighter jet was drawn into the hangar. Then Michael closed the doors. The jet’s engines were already dead. They had probably run out of fuel long before. A helmeted individual sat in the pilot seat, staring blankly at Michael below. “You’ll be the first,” Michael mouthed to the pilot. “Get out!” The pilot couldn’t hear Michael; and in truth, he couldn’t see him very well either. He had been spinning around and around in his plane, caught in the attractor beam, for over an hour. Trying to get out of the plane, he tripped and fell on his face on the floor. For a time, he just lay there and moaned. Michael walked up to the pilot and turned him over with his foot so that he would be facing up and he could see his face… and so that the pilot could see his. “What are you moaning about? You’re punishment hasn’t even begun yet.” “Dizzy,” the pilot mumbled, moaning again and trying not to throw up. Not totally successful, he pulled his helmet off quickly to avoid choking. “Are you… are you… going to kill me?” “I’m considering it,” Michael replied honestly. “You killed my friends.” “The ones in the flying saucer?” “No. The others. Rahn escaped. You should have been lucky enough for the others to have escaped, too. They didn’t.” “What others?” “The ones on the Reservation. The ones you and your squadron were sent to kill.” “I was just sent to chase a flying saucer,” the pilot said feebly… “A stolen flying saucer… from Area 51.” “Who stole it from whom,” Michael asked. The pilot was silent for several moments. “I see your point. But it was Army property. I’m required to go after it.” “Are you required to kill innocent civilians?” “I didn’t kill any innocent civilians.” “What about all those houses on the Reservation? You didn’t kill any Mesalikos?” “I… I didn’t do that. The tanks… and the Cobras did it.” “But if you had got the orders to do it, you would have done it.” The pilot didn’t respond. “Why shouldn’t I kill you right now… right here,” Michael asked, holding up his palm and allowing it to glow brightly in a clear demonstration of the threat he posed to the pilot. “It was national security,” the pilot said. “Don’t you have security issues where you come from? Who’s in charge of security on your… on your… uh… planet?” Michael lowered his hand slowly, and his palm stopped glowing. “I don’t kill innocent civilians or people who have done nothing wrong except for being born who they are.” “Lucky you,” the pilot said. “You must know who is a threat to you and who is not.” “I determine that first,” Michael replied. “Like you did with me?” the pilot asked. “I haven’t killed you yet,” Michael said. “And you may be a threat.” “But do you know that I am?” “I know you have the capability to be.” “Ah! The capability… Yes… And would aliens have that ‘capability?’” “Not necessarily.” “Your hand looked like it had that capability.” Michael looked at his hand. “Don’t ever doubt it. But I haven’t used it… yet.” “You were going to.” “I haven’t decided for sure that I’m not still going to,” Michael said. “See? You do have security issues. And your answer to them is not so totally different than ours.” “Yes it is,” Michael said. “You’re still alive.” “For the moment,” the pilot said. “Yeah… for the moment,” Michael agreed. Michael placed his hand over a sensor on the wall… “Max!” A voice came back over the intercom. “Is that you, Michael?” “Yeah. I’m sending you a prisoner.” “A prisoner?” “Yeah. He’s coming up in the chamber. Have someone waiting for him. I’ll explain later.” Michael motioned toward the ascension chamber, and the pilot slowly got back on his feet and walked into the chamber. “We’ll finish this later,” Michael said, closing the door and sending the chamber up. As the bay doors at the bottom of the New Granolith reopened, a very special bike dropped out. It had wheels, but it also had an oddly aerodynamic look. One moment it was there, freefalling through the air… the next, it had disappeared in a blaze of light as though the sky had just opened up and swallowed it though a portal. Michael was on his way to settle a debt. <div style="text-align:center">**********</div> On the Reservation below, fifteen people stood silently… “Max?” “Yeah?” “Are we… are we still…” Liz stammered. “I can’t see you.” “I’ve still got you in my arms, Liz.” “I know. But… what just happened to us?” “I don’t know.” tbc Coming up: The Antarian mothership drops in for a closer look –much closer- and shakes things up in Roswell, as Michael seeks those who are responsible for the blast that he believes killed their counterparts. And “not-so-old friends” meet again. Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub129.ezboard.com/bmajiklmoonsr ... dbreeze</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://users.aol.com/isndbreeze/aim116b.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 4/5/04 1:43 am

isndbreeze · Post by **isndbreeze** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 2:37 am

Thanks for the feedback, Melisa, Tracie, and Veca! Here's the next part. I have a new part of TNTDD ready, too. It comes more or less right after this chapter of TFFOR, so without any further fanfare...... <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/ufo.gif ALT=":ufo"> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> <div style="text-align:center"><img src="http://users.aol.com/isndbreeze/skysymb ...   Gerry - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hopeless Candy-Coated, Stargazing, Dreamer! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</div>

Post by **majiklmoon** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 10:24 pm

Another awesome update gerry. Have i mentioned lately how cool you are <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/thumpup.gif ALT=":thumbsup"> <center>It all started with a boy, a girl, and a silver handprint.</center><center><a href=http://pub84.ezboard.com/bmajiklmoonsrealm><img src=http://members.aol.com/majiklmoon/image ... a></center>

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 4:01 pm

Yay! I managed to live up to my promise of being monster feedback monster!<img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/lol.gif ALT=":lol"> I have read and read and finally I'm all caught up. Frankly I'm still winded from all the action. Imagine reading four parts of both this and TNDD combined! The tension and the anticipation was killing me! But what a great couple of parts! Michael to the rescue!!!<img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/boldyellow.gif ALT=":yellow"> More! More! <div style="text-align:center"><img src="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sra ... f8323d.jpg" style="border:0;"/></div>

isndbreeze · Post by **isndbreeze** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 10:06 pm

Thanks for the wonderful feedback, Tracie and Isabel! That was a marathon reading session, Isabel! The chapters have gotten longer in both of these stories recently. But ain't it good to be all caught up! <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/lol.gif ALT=":lol"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/ufo.gif ALT=":ufo"> Here's the next part of TFFOR. If you're all caught up on TNTDD, this will be nothing new really, because the stories are coming together now as the casts come together. Though the story will be the same, it will appear in both "books" so that both will be complete. <div style="text-align:center"><img src="http://users.aol.com/isndbreeze/skysymb ...   Gerry - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hopeless Candy-Coated, Stargazing, Dreamer! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</div>

isndbreeze · Post by **isndbreeze** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 10:07 pm

The Four Faces Of Rath Author’s note: This next chapter was revised and edited from Chapters 28 (“Follow The Phoenix”) and 29 (“Michael Times Two & Other Miracles”) of “The Night The Dreams Died.” At this point in the saga, the two different casts, one from Antar and one from earth, are coming together, and their stories will be too intertwined to be separated once they are together. For now, though, to the extent that it is possible, “The Night The Dreams Died” and “The Four Faces Of Rath” will each still be told from the POV of the separate casts in the two stories, and because of this, many of the scenes that are relevant in one may not appear in the other. For example, Angie Lee creating the false ghosts, Angie Lee and Kyle’s joking and flirting with each other, and Amy’s superb revenge on Judge Lewis do not appear in this next chapter of “The Four Faces Of Rath,” coming up, while additional comments may be made by the “Rath” cast. It is just a case of reporting from two different POV’s. Likewise, Rahn’s being brought onboard the New Granolith did not appear in “The Night The Dreams Died.” We just saw his stricken ship stop falling and mysteriously begin to rise again. It was only in “Rath” that we learned that he had been transported aboard the New Granolith. Neither did “The Night The Dreams Died” have the scene where Michael took his bike and headed out to settle accounts, thinking that the group below had all died in the explosion. In “The Night The Dreams Died,” we see him only after he appears on earth through the rift. To a large extent, however, the stories will begin to overlap more in this chapter and will merge together completely very soon, probably in the second half of this chapter. Chapters that are relevant to both stories will continue to be posted in both stories so that both stories will be complete. Michael & The Amazing Bike Chapter 65 LXV Unknown to Michael or to anyone else on the Antarian mothership at that time, the fifteen people who had been in the house that had just been blown up had not died. However, as smoke and flames rose all around them, they stood silently, wondering themselves whether or not they were still alive. “Max?” “Yeah?” “Are we… are we still…” Liz stammered. “I can’t see you.” “I’ve still got you in my arms, Liz.” “I know. But… what just happened to us?” “I don’t know.” Max looked around. He could see the bombed out, fiery remains of the house. He could see the flames. But he couldn’t see any of the other members of their group. “Michael! Are you there?” “I’m right here, Max. I’ve got Maria. She’s still with me.” Max called out the name of each of the remaining twelve people who had been with them, making sure that everyone was present and accounted for. “We need to figure out what’s going on here and where we’re going. Angie Lee?” “I’m here, Michael.” “I’m assuming you’re still the reason we can’t see each other.” “Yeah.” “Okay… and no one else can see us either?” “Right.” “How did we just survive that… you know… thing… just now? Did you do something?” Angie Lee looked at the scene around her. It looked more like the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust than anything she recognized. “I didn’t do anything… except cover us with a mind warp shield to keep anyone from seeing us.” “Could your mind warp shield have protected us?” “I… I don’t know. I don’t think so. I know I wouldn’t have counted on it… or expected it to.” “What was that bright light right before the explosions,” Diane Casey asked. “I saw a bright light.” “Yeah, she’s right,” Alex agreed. “I saw it, too. I just thought it was part of the explosion, but since she mentioned it, I do remember seeing the bright light right before the explosions.” “I don’t think it had anything to do with my mind warp,” Angie Lee said. “It was like something from outside… maybe it protected us.” “Then let’s take advantage of it and get out of here,” Michael said. “I don’t care what it was… a mind warp or divine intervention… I’ll take it! Max and I’ll lead. The rest of you… just hold on till we get there… wherever there is.” The group walked away from the now-destroyed home… occasionally passing a still-standing home then more that had been destroyed. The Mesaliko Reservation, it seemed, no longer existed… certainly not as the place of quaint and peaceful little homes that it had once been. It was now a charred and destroyed battleground. Michael wondered how in the name of all that was holy the perpetrators of this desecration would explain this to the country… to the people… to their superiors… TO THE PRESIDENT! Did even the president know about it? Michael wondered. How high did this go? Would it even matter? If no one was left to testify against the perpetrators of this massacre… they could make up any lies that seemed convenient to them… and they would undoubtedly be exonerated of any and all wrongdoing. Michael steeled his resolve. He was determined that he would survive to tell the world what had happened here… even if it killed him. They were passing the last of the Mesaliko homes when Max stopped suddenly, without warning. “Judge Lewis,” Alex and Liz both whispered at the same time. “And he’s talking to Culpepper,” Kyle added. “That can’t be any good.” “Just keep walking,” Max said. “They can’t see us. Nobody talk or make any noise till we’re well past them.” Max led the group on past the two men. Judge Lewis and Agent Culpepper continued talking, and it was obvious that neither one suspected that the group had been there. After several minutes, Max and his group had put a fair distance between themselves and their nemeses. “That was almost too easy,” Alex said after they were out of ear shot once more. “ I kept expecting one of them to turn around and see us or something.” Alex didn’t know it at the time, but his words would soon ring prophetic. “Hey, Max, listen,” Michael said, interrupting the conversation as they walked. “Do you hear something?” Max listened. “Sounds like a car coming.” Max led the group off the road and onto a grassy shoulder. Then they stopped and watched. Within moments, a Humvee appeared. “Everyone stay quiet,” Max cautioned. “They still can’t see us, so there’s no need to panic. Just stay still and be quiet till they’re past.” The group watched in silence as the Humvee approached. It was going much slower than they would have expected, barely more than walking speed. It slowed more… then it stopped. Judge Lewis jumped out and looked at the ground excitedly. “See! I told you those were shoe prints! And I told you they were new! They go off into the grass right here.” A few minutes later, another Humvee approached. In it were several soldiers armed with AK-47’s, a lieutenant, and a higher ranking officer, the second-in-command to General Hawkins. More Humvees showed up soon after that. In the end, the entire group found itself captured once more, though in the process, Amy managed to do some severe damage to Judge Lewis. Michael groaned. “Sorry, Max… I let you down.” “You did all you could,” Max replied. “I don’t want to hear any self-recrimination. I’m as much to blame as anyone… More, actually… because I’m the one leading.” “Give it a rest, you two,” Gray Hawk said with an ever-present air of authority in his voice. You’re both to blame.” Max looked at Michael and raised his eyebrows slightly. “Nice to have someone who can put it all into perspective for us.” Michael nodded. “Weren’t you a little hard on them, Grandfather,” Angie Lee asked. “No. If I said nothing, each one would continue to blame only himself, and we would have to listen to that forever. Now they will have to put it behind them, because neither will want to blame the other.” Angie Lee kissed Gray Hawk on the cheek. “You always were a peacemaker, Grandfather. What do you think they’ll do with us?” “I do not know… I will not allow them to hurt you, A’in Ji Lii.” “I know,” Angie Lee said. “I know. That’s what worries me.” The fifteen handcuffed prisoners and Judge Lewis were stuffed into the five Humvees, including the one Culpepper and the judge had arrived in originally. Then Culpepper’s driver was ordered by the General’s second-in-command, against Culpepper’s wishes, to follow the convoy and return to the base with the prisoners in his vehicle. Still fuming, Culpepper, who had to stay behind, dropped his objections for the moment, but he never planned to allow any of the prisoners to return to the base… even knowing that they would “disappear” once they got there. Culpepper didn’t want these prisoners to merely “disappear.” “Disappeared” prisoners could still talk… and sometimes they escaped, as he had seen some of these do once already. He wanted them dead… and he had an idea how that might still be accomplished. Unfortunately, it might mean sacrificing “a few” soldiers… and the General’s second-in-command. Culpepper smiled. The Humvees drove off through the reservation, heading over the hills rather than out the official entrance, and as they drove away, Culpepper made a two-way radio call… “Cobra Leader, this is Culpepper. Come in.” “Cobra Leader here.” “There’s a convoy of five Humvees leaving the Reservation… It’s heading over the hills from the Reservation bearing south-southeast. The vehicles were commandeered by the terrorists that were holed up on the reservation. They’ve killed the drivers. The intended target of the terrorists is Area 51. They intend to use our official vehicles to gain entrance and sabotage sensitive areas of national security. I’ve been ordered to stop this convoy before it reaches the base…” “They’ll never get there,” Cobra Leader replied resolutely. “Trust me.” “The whole nation is counting on you, Cobra Leader. Don’t fail us! Culpepper out.” Culpepper pressed the button turning off his two-way radio. Then he looked at the Humvees disappearing in the distance over the hill… and he smiled. Three minutes later, as the Humvees headed out across the desert, the General’s second-in-command spotted something far ahead of the convoy but approaching fast. “What do you make those out to be,” the officer asked the driver. “I don’t know, sir. I believe they’re helicopters… looks like maybe some of our Cobras.” “Why would more Cobras be coming out here now?” the officer asked, more to himself than to the driver, who obviously wouldn’t know. “I don’t know, sir… but they’re headed directly towards us.” “Yes… they are, aren’t they,” the General’s second-in-command said slowly, beginning to have a bad feeling, as he started to put the pieces together. “Driver, stop the vehicle! Get out! Everybody get out! NOW!” No one in the Humvees had time to react to the officer’s order. As they started to move, the air itself seemed to open up in front of them between the Humvees and the approaching helicopters. There was a tremendous BOOM, blowing out all the windows in the Humvees, as something shot out of a rift and the rift closed back up again. The object headed straight for the convoy. It looked like… but the officer’s mind refused to believe it… a rider on a motorbike… coming right out of a hole in the sky. Michael touched down on the ground in a puff of smoke and flying grass, and within mere seconds, he had closed the gap and pulled up beside the convoy. Everyone could see now that it was a motorbike… but… what kind of motorbike comes out of the sky… or makes a sonic boom? Certainly nothing that anyone present had ever seen. It was sleek and aerodynamic, and though it lacked wings, it almost looked like it could fly… in fact, it appeared that it just had. The mysterious helmeted rider, dressed in a sleek black fabric that might have been some kind of leather, dismounted and looked at the Humvees. Since most of the soldiers had dropped their weapons when the boom had thrown them out of their vehicles, the newcomer seemed to enjoy a certain advantage at the moment. Apparently just realizing this, several of the soldiers scrambled for their weapons, and as they did, the newcomer started to raise one hand. The soldiers hesitated… Was he surrendering? “OH! OW! DAMN!” The soldiers began dropping their guns like hot potatoes. The barrels of the guns started to melt and closed up like straws that had had the air suddenly sucked out of them. Then the stranger’s hand began to glow brighter and brighter. Sensing immediate danger, the soldiers nearest to the closest Humvee scattered, putting distance between themselves and the vehicle’s gas tanks, but the stranger did not target the vehicle. Instead, he released a blast from the palm of his hand that left a ten-foot-wide, five-foot-deep crater in front of the scattering soldiers. It appeared to have been done as a sign… some kind of demonstration of his powers… a warning that he was not to be trifled with or challenged. It worked. After surveying the scene, the rider calmly removed his helmet. As he did, two gasps came from inside the second Humvee. “It’s you,” Max said, looking at Michael then back at the stranger again. “Can’t be,” Michael replied, shaking his head. “It’s got to be a trick!” Max jumped out of the Humvee, and Michael followed him. Alex, who had been riding in the third Humvee, behind the one Max and Michael were in, was already out and heading toward the newcomer, too. Inexplicably, both Alex and Liz, who because of her legs could not leave the vehicle she was in on her own, were smiling broadly. “Don’t they even know when they should be afraid,” Michael wondered to himself, turning back and looking at the newcomer again. Michael walked up to the strange sky rider, and the two of them stood there, face to face. They were the same height. They had the same hair, the same eyes, the same build… though the newcomer might have been a few years older. The newcomer smiled… then nodded slightly, with a look of satisfaction and relief on his face… “I thought you guys looked like you needed some help down here. “Yeah,” Michael said, nodding in return but still a bit suspicious. “You thought right. I guess I owe you.” The newcomer shrugged. “It was nothing that you wouldn’t have done yourself.” “How would you know…” Michael started to ask reflexively, but he had already guessed the answer. “Michael,” Alex said, strolling confidently up to the newcomer with a huge smile on his face. “Meet our Michael.” “I just did,” the newcomer said, smiling. Alex turned to Max and Michael of his group… “Remember when Liz and I were in the hospital and they thought we were in a coma…? Oh, wait… you wouldn’t know about that, would you!” Alex suddenly remembered that Max and Michael had still been missing and were presumed to be dead when that had happened. “Well, I remember it,” Kyle said, walking up and looking at the newcomer. So do Dad… and Mom.” Jim smiled and put his arm on Kyle’s shoulder. Standing beside Jim, Amy was smiling, too. Kyle had called her the “M” word… “Mom.” And it sounded somehow so very right. Within seconds, the newcomer was surrounded by the other members of the group and having to hold his hands up to stop them from asking any more questions… for the moment. In time, he would answer all their questions. “There were some helicopters headed this way,” Edmonds said, finally screwing up enough courage to approach the newcomer, too. “What happened to them?” The newcomer shrugged. “If they were near the rift when I came out of hyperspace they probably either crashed or had to set down or return to base for repairs… The bike makes a pretty big bang when it comes out of hyperspace. It would have caused a lot of damage to any helicopters that were too close.” Max smiled. “I can attest to the power of your sonic boom… or whatever it was. It broke all the windows out of the Humvees… and I think it blew the clothes off of a couple of soldiers, too. The newcomer Michael laughed. “Like the shebbles.” Max looked puzzled, and Michael began to explain… “The first time I rode this bike, I came out of hyperspace in the hills of the Chanesio region on our planet, Antar. That region is famous for its shebble herding. Shebbles look kind of like a cross between a yak and a buffalo or something, and their abundant hair is harvested by the shebble herders in the region. It comes off pretty easily I found out. When I came out of hyperspace on my bike, a whole field full of shebbles were suddenly left as bald and pink as a newborn baby’s butt by the sonic blast… and shebble hair floated down out of the sky for most of the rest of that day. I thought it was pretty funny at the time… but the royal treasury had to reimburse the shebble herders for all their losses.” The newcomer smiled at the memory. “You know… it WAS pretty funny, though! Maybe not as funny as Max’s hat with the big feather, but…” “Sounds funny to me,” Alex agreed. “I wish I could have seen it.” “I wish you could have, too,” the newcomer Michael said. “You’d have appreciated it. It wasn’t a total loss, though. The shebble manure market had really good profits that week.” Alex grinned. “There’s somebody else over there who’d like to say hello to you.” He motioned toward Liz in the third Humvee. The newcomer smiled and walked over to the Humvee. “Hello again, Liz.” “Hi!” “I’m glad to see you and Alex made it back safely and you’re both okay.” Liz nodded. “Except that my legs don’t work again… not like they did on Antar… when we were in those perfect new prefab bodies.” “Yeah, I remember you said that you were paralyzed. Couldn’t Max help you?” Max looked somewhat uncomfortable, and he shook his head. “I couldn’t. I tried. Her spine had a gap in it where the bullet went through. I closed the gap up, so at least she isn’t risking instant death now every time she moves… but it didn’t give her the use of her legs back, Michael. Uh… can I call you that?” “Yeah. It’s my name.” “Well, it’s just kind of weird, you know, having two of you here at the same time.” “There’s another Max here, too,” the newcomer said. “He’s up there… in the ship.” Michael motioned upward. “Maybe he can heal Liz… or maybe both of you can together…” Max’s face suddenly brightened noticeably, and his eyes sparkled… partly with new hope… and partly from the tears that began to well up in them without warning. He nodded emphatically… “It’s worth a try! I think we ought to do it! Yeah… Let’s do it!” “You’ll get the chance,” the newcomer said, pulling out a small device and pushing a button. A second later, everyone had disappeared except the newcomer. He smiled and looked around at the empty Humvees with their broken windows. There was nothing but the breeze around him now. It was kind of nice. Michael got back onto his bike and twisted the throttle. The bike shot forward instantly, building speed at an incredible rate. In just under six seconds, the air in front of him split apart and opened, and the bike and its rider rushed into the rift. Then the rift reclosed with a thunderous BOOM, blowing the Humvees through the air like paper toys. On the hill, there was no longer anyone around to care. <div style="text-align:center">**********</div> The fifteen friends and their former captors saw only a bright light. Then the world they had known disappeared from beneath their feet. It was an odd yet somehow strangely calming and peaceful experience. They were entirely and totally at the mercy of whatever this was, yet somehow, it seemed almost impossible to fear it. Whatever lay ahead, they all knew instinctively that none of them could change or alter it now. The experience in the light lasted no more than three or four seconds, but it made a lasting and deep impression… especially on the soldiers and the General’s second-in-command, Edmonds. As the light began to diminish and their surroundings became visible again, the twenty-eight people noticed that they were in a very large white room now. Looking around, at first, no one saw anything but the distant white walls of the huge room, but then there was movement. Something small… smaller than an average human… climbed -or seemed to glide actually- down a makeshift ramp to the floor. The alien creature had on an all-white robe. The soldiers looked at Edmonds, and Edmonds shrugged and looked at Max and Michael. Max and Michael appeared to be as surprised as the others. The small alien glided up to the group and stopped. Then it spoke… in English… “Someone will be here to escort you momentarily. In the meantime, I will try to answer any questions you might have.” That was probably a mistake. The helpful little “alien” could not have foreseen the barrage of questions he was about to receive, and Diane, with her instinctive nose for news, was right at the front, but one of the soldiers managed to ask the first question… “Which way did I go?” The little alien appeared puzzled by the question. “Did I go up or down,” the soldier asked, hoping to clarify his question. “You went up,” the little alien replied. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” the soldier mumbled. “Where are we,” Diane asked. The small alien turned and faced Diane. “You are on the Antarian mothership… the New Granolith.” “A spaceship!” Diane turned and smiled at the soldier, who looked embarrassed. “Are you… Antarian?” Diane asked. “I am,” the small alien confirmed… but I am not biological.” “What is your species then?” one of the soldiers asked. “Species?” The small alien seemed puzzled by the word when it was applied to him. “Yeah, you know… your people… What are they?” “I am a droid… or a robot if you prefer… though perhaps more advanced than any you may be familiar with.” “A robot,” Diane repeated, already thinking of a hundred more questions she wanted to ask the small creature. “Are your people… robots then?” “No. I am a robot… a droid. My usual function is to prepare and serve the meals on the ship for the biological beings who must be fueled and lubricated in that manner.” Diane smiled and nodded, seeming to understand… “You prepare the food. Were you sent here to meet us?” “No. I was already here. The walls of this bay needed to be painted, and it is my turn to paint.” The little droid held up a mechanical arm-like device with a white roller on the end of it. I was painting when you arrived. I don’t usually wear this frock, but it would not be good if I were to become painted due to an accident. My systems might require extensive cleaning.” “You have to cook and then paint, too?” Little Fox asked, seeming surprised. “I am not required to paint,” the little droid replied. My function is only to prepare and serve the meals. I traded places with one of the painter droids… just for a few hours… to see what it would be like to do something different. It was his turn to paint… so I am here to take his place… and he is preparing lunch right now. The little droid actually seemed to sigh. “Actually, this frock is no different really than the apron I wear when I prepare food for the dining room. It just covers more of me.” “So… everyone on your planet doesn’t wear white robes then…” the soldier asked. “And all the rooms aren’t white?” “No, of course they are not,” the little droid replied. “There are many colors on Antar… and on this ship, too… a lot of colors.” The soldier smiled and swallowed. “Okay. That’s kind of good to know… I think.” Several others started to ask questions, but at that moment, a section of the wall moved to one side, and three people walked in. One was Max. It seemed that everyone in the room turned to look at the Max who was with them then back at the new Max who had just entered. The second one to enter was Michael, whom they had met below on earth. The third was different… a little bit. His eyes were ever so slightly larger, his skin was ever so slightly lighter than might be expected, and he exuded an “alien” air about him in some way that no one there could precisely explain… probably no more so in reality than many humans, and certainly less than some… Carrot top and Dennis Rodman came to Diane’s mind. This third man could be human… He was certainly very good-looking… but there was that air… He just seemed different somehow. “Gentlemen,” the new Max said, addressing the newcomers. “Michael has already filled me in about you.” He looked at Edmonds directly. “I take it we can expect this meeting and the time you are here on our ship to be peaceful.” “Would we gain anything if it were not,” Edmonds asked. Max shook his head. “No.” “That’s what I thought,” Edmonds said. “We will not resist. We have no weapons. We’re your prisoners.” Max nodded. “In a manner of speaking, we could say that, yes.” Then he turned to the third man who had entered the room, the one with the strangely alien air but rugged good looks… “This is Varec. Varec is Antar’s brightest and most revered scientist. He’s also one of the most eminent scientists in the whole of the known universe. This ship is his design… and he helped build it. He’s part of our crew… and our friend… and our science expert… along with my wife, Liz.” The younger Max, holding Liz in his arms, looked stunned. “Does that surprise you,” the Max from Antar asked. His younger double shook his head thoughtfully. In his arms, Liz smiled. The Max from Antar walked over to his younger self and held out his arms. The younger Max hesitated… but then he put Liz into Max of Antar’s arms. “Come on,” Max said to his younger self. “You and I have business to attend to. Let’s go somewhere more private. Varec, you come with us. Michael will take care of finding a proper place for each of our… visitors.” Max walked out of the room carrying Liz, and the younger Max followed along on his heels, not letting his Antarian counterpart out of his sight while he had Liz… even if this person was… well… him. Max from Antar stepped into the glass ascension chamber with Liz, and his younger self and Varec stepped in with him. The chamber began to rise smoothly upward. After several brief moments, it stopped, and the doors opened. Max stepped out, followed by the others, and walked toward the bridge, where Liz and Maria from Antar were waiting… “You found them! They’re okay then?” Maria exclaimed excitedly. “Just like Michael said,” Max replied. “They’re all okay and they’re all onboard.” “That’s wonderful,” Liz said. “I’m so glad!” “I am, too,” another voice said from nearby. The younger Max and Liz turned around to look. “Rahn!” they both exclaimed at the same time. “Omigod,” Liz said, “We thought something had happened to you!” “It kind of did,” Rahn said. “I went back and found my old ship on the base where Maria said it was… and I flew it to the reservation to rescue you… my friends… but I was shot down.” “You crashed?” the younger Max asked. “I would have, but the people on this ship saw my ship going down and retrieved it with a magnetic wave beam. I’ve been here, working with them to save you… but we thought you were killed when the missiles hit the house. How did you escape?” “Angie Lee covered us with a mind warp shield so we couldn’t be seen,” Liz said. “We were leaving when a bright light suddenly engulfed us then the missiles hit. We thought we were dead for sure, but something protected us. We aren’t sure what.” “The mind warp shield,” Varec said. “So that really was what saved us then?” Max asked. “Not by itself,” Varec replied. “I believe the beam we sent to try to retrieve you may have interacted with the mind warp shield in a way that may have protected you from the explosions… but the combined protection also caused the beam to lose you. So we thought that you had all been killed in the explosion.” “Well, I’m happy to report that that rumor is not accurate,” Max said. “I am happy, too,” Varec said. “Me, too,” Rahn added. “That goes for us all,” Max from Antar said. “Let’s see what we can do for Liz.” Max laid the younger Liz down on the sofa at the back of the room and motioned to his younger self. “It will take both of us to do this. And even then…” “It’ll work,” the younger Max said positively. “It’s got to! It’s just got to.” Max from Antar placed his hands over Liz’s lower spine, where the bullet had injured it, and the younger Max placed his hands on top of those of his double. The glow over Liz’s back almost doubled when the younger Max added his hands to those of his Antarian counterpart. For almost a minute and a half, they continued, then the glow began to ebb. “I feel better,” Liz said. “I feel stronger.” “Can you move your legs,” Max from Antar asked. Liz looked at her legs and tried to move them. As she did, her face seemed to go from joyous to unsure… then to despair. “I can’t. I still can’t feel them.” “Let’s try again,” the younger Max said to his double. “I know we can do it!” Max from Antar seemed less sure than his younger self, but he nodded. Both of them placed their hands directly on Liz’s back, and their hands glowed with a strong, powerful force for over two minutes. Liz felt it from her back to her head and down to her toes. It was a warm, comfortable, healing feeling. “Try to move your legs now,” Max said again. Liz tried… then she tried again. Then the tears started to run down her face. The younger Max turned away to hide his own tears and smacked his fist into the wall. “Max.” It was Liz who had spoken… “You love me anyway, don’t you?” Max bent over Liz and held her tightly in his arms, as the tears ran down his face onto hers. “You know I’ll always love you, Liz. I’ll love you no matter what. I just wanted you to be able to live your life again like… like…” “Like what, Max?” “Like you could have if you’d never met me.” Liz closed her eyes and hugged Max tightly. “I’d give up my legs for you all over again, Max. It wouldn’t matter. I made my choice. I chose you. That’s what I want. If that means I’ll never walk again, it’ll still be my choice. And, Max… it’s worth it… to me.” Max cried. For a while, no one in the room spoke. It was Rahn who finally broke the silence. “Well, there could be one other… possible… solution.” Max looked up. “I don’t want to give you any false hope. Keep in mind that it may not work,” Rahn said. “It won’t matter,” Max replied. “Nothing I do can help Liz.” Liz kissed him. “Your being here with me already has helped me, Max. It’s the life I chose. It’s the life I want. Understand that… please!” Max sniffed and turned back to Rahn. “What can be done that I haven’t tried already, Rahn?” “Among my people, there is a… small procedure that is done at birth or very soon after birth that prepares us to be able to change our form. You would not be expected to be able to change your forms, because you have not had the millions of years of evolving that we have had as shapeshifters… but…” “But what?” “But… it is possible that if I did this procedure to Liz… maybe… she might be able to learn… one day… to walk again by… I guess you could say, rebuilding her spine… changing its form… changing it inside the bone where the nerve is. It would be shapeshifting… but merely in a very small way. Your bodies would not be capable of any more than that. I’m not really sure that they’re capable of even that… but it would be worth trying.” “What would you have to do to Liz,” the younger Max asked. His Antarian counterpart nodded, on the verge of asking the same question. “It is not invasive. They do it to babies in our culture. Someone who knows what part of the brain to activate has to use their power to activate that part of the baby’s brain… or in this case, Liz’s brain. Humans have similar brains to ours. I am almost certain that you have that potential… it has just not evolved. And humans do not know how to activate it. It does not activate automatically even in all of our people… only in a very few. That is why we have to do the procedure to activate and prepare newborns.” “And it won’t hurt Liz?” Max asked. “It cannot hurt her,” Rahn said. “How come I have never heard of this procedure before,” Max of Antar asked. Rahn looked momentarily uncomfortable. “It is one of our greatest secrets. We do not tell others.” “Show me,” the younger Max said. “Do it.” He looked at Liz, and Liz nodded. Rahn put his thumb on a point just behind Liz’s right temple and his second and third fingers on points behind her right ear. Then he concentrated for several moments… Then he removed his hand. “That’s it?” both Max’s asked at the same time. “Yes. It does not teach one to change… it only prepares a small area of the brain to be receptive to learning how to change. Liz may never learn to walk again. You will forgive me if she does not, won’t you, Max?” “Rahn…” Max shook his head. “Even if Liz never walks again, you tried to help her. I’ll never forget that. I’ll owe you for that as long as I live.” He turned back to Liz… “Do you feel any different, Liz?” Liz shook her head. “I still feel the warmth from what you did before, Max. It made me feel good all over… like a really deep massage. But I don’t feel my legs.” Max nodded and looked back at Rahn. “You said it might take some time before she learns to walk, right?” “If she learns,” Rahn said. “She may not. It was just something I had to try.” “Thank you,” Max said. He turned back and smiled at Liz. Liz hugged him then kissed him… and Max felt her leg move slightly. Max jumped back, shocked. “You… you moved!” “I did?” Liz seemed to be unaware of it. “I didn’t feel anything.” “Try again,” Max coaxed. Liz concentrated… and her leg moved again.” “How did you do that,” Max asked, excitedly. “Can you do it again?” “I was just picturing what the spinal cord should look like inside the spinal segments and the discs… and I pictured my spine… in my mind… being like that.” “Well, it’s working,” Max said, almost jumping up and down with excitement. “Amazing,” Rahn said. “It is incredible that she would be able to do that so soon. It’s a very good sign.” Liz smiled and concentrated again, “imagining” her spine whole and as it should be in its entirety. At first, the effort was somewhat taxing, but then it began to be easier. The “image” seemed to be retained in her brain for later recall… probably in that part of the brain that Rahn had activated. Liz “recalled” the image again. It was really not so hard to do now. The image was right there… just waiting to be put into use. Using all the effort she had to remember what it had been like to walk, Liz pushed her hand down on the sofa and pushed her body up into a sitting position. This in itself was not really new. Liz had been able to do this for a long time now. But what happened next was unexpected. Liz set both feet on the ground, rocked forward, testing her weight on them like a fledgling bird testing the wind under its wings before flying, then stood up. tbc Coming Next: The Tide Turns

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 6:39 am

<img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/hotgreen.gif ALT=":hotgreen"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/hotgreen.gif ALT=":hotgreen"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/hotred.gif ALT=":hotred"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/hotred.gif ALT=":hotred"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/clap.gif ALT=":clap"> <div style="text-align:center"><img src="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sra ... f8323d.jpg" style="border:0;"/></div>

vecastone · Post by **vecastone** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 1:11 pm

I thought I ´ve already left fb here !!! I am so happy Liz can walk or at least is beginning to walk !! yeayyyyyyyyyyyy <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilie ... smilie.gif ALT=":party"> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/tongue.gif ALT=":p"> arty<img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilie ... smilie.gif ALT=":party">

Post by **majiklmoon** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:29 pm

bump <center><a href=http://pub84.ezboard.com/bmajiklmoonsrealm><img src=http://members.aol.com/majiklmoon/image ... a></center> <center><img border=0 src="http://www.majiksfanfic.com/banners/Kyle.jpg" /></center><center><a href=http://pub84.ezboard.com/bmajiklmoonsrealm></center>

Post by **Island Breeze** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:46 pm

The Four Faces Of Rath

Culpepper’s Last Flight

Chapter 66 (Adapted from TNTDD Ch 32)

LXVI

“Climb out of the plane,” Agent Culpepper yelled up to the pilot of the F-14 preparing to taxi to the runway. The pilot pulled back his canopy and removed his helmet, then he powered down his jet.

“What’s going on?”

“I need your plane,” Culpepper said. “I’ve been ordered to use this one for a special mission.”

“I wasn’t told anything,” the pilot said.

“This is very hush-hush, Lieutenant. I expect you to keep it that way. You guys haven’t been able to dent that UFO with your missiles. General Haggerty wants me to try something else.”

“It won’t do any good,” the pilot said, shaking his head. “We’ve fired thousands of rounds and at least twenty missiles at that thing. It all just disappear into thin air. That ship’s impervious. It doesn’t even know we’re attacking it. It would take a nuke to bring it down.”

“That’s what I told the general,” Culpepper said.

“A nuke?”

“The general wouldn’t give me one. I had to come up with something just as good. Lieutenant, did you ever watch Star Wars… you know, the original movie?”

“Yeah… I saw it several times. I’ve got all the episodes on DVD.”

“Remember the Death Star?”

“Yeah.”

“Remember how they destroyed it?”

“Yeah. Luke shot a missile into a small vent that went to the reactor in the core.”

“Right. And when the Death Star was being rebuilt in the third movie, they destroyed that one by flying one of those X-Wings right into the inside of the thing, firing into the reactor, and flying back out before it all blew up.”

“Yeah. I remember that,” the pilot said.

“Well, Lieutenant, there’s been an AWAC up there taking recon photos of that ship and the area and transmitting them back. I assume General Hawkins or General Haggerty sent it up. Look at these recon photos that have been coming in. Do you see anything?”

“I see one monster UFO,” the pilot said.

“Do you see this vent… right here?” Culpepper pointed to a part of the picture.

“You’re going to fire a missile into that?” The pilot looked unconvinced.

“It’s a bigger opening than it looks like in the photo, Lieutenant. That opening is big enough to fly a fighter jet into… and back out again.”

The pilot shook his head. “Uh uh… It may be big enough to fly into, but where are you going to turn around? You don’t even know what’s in there?”

“The reactor’s in there, Lieutenant. Recon has confirmed it. It’s emitting some kind of ions from the vent that can only come from a reactor. It’s not nuclear, but it should blow up with one helluva a bang just the same. There’s a similar vent on the other side of the ship. That’s a distance of three miles… one and a half in… fire my missiles… then one and a half out the other side. This F-14 can cover that distance in under 30 seconds. It should be enough time for me to get out before the whole thing goes up.”

“You’re crazy,” the pilot said, shaking his head. “Did General Hawkins approve this?”

“General Haggerty ordered it,” Culpepper lied.

The pilot breathed a deep breath and let it out slowly again. “Well, I guess he knows what he’s doing… but I wouldn’t want to fly into that thing and shoot a missile into its reactor… whatever it is… then try to get back out again.”

“Nobody’s asking you to, Lieutenant. I flew one of these planes for several years before I became part of the Unit. I’m taking this ride.”

“I’m glad it’s you and not me,” the pilot said honestly, stepping out of the way, as Culpepper climbed into the pilot’s seat and powered the F-14 up again. Moments later, Culpepper taxied the F-14 to the end of the runway… then the plane’s engines roared, as the jet rushed down the runway and lifted into the air, banking into the sun and heading off in the direction of the Reservation and Roswell.

The pilot watched his plane disappear then walked into the airmen’s barracks and set his helmet down on a table.

“I thought you were flying,” a voice behind him said.

The pilot turned around, and a young airman handed him a cup of coffee.

“Thanks. Yeah, I was, but apparently the General had other ideas.”

“Ah, yes! He can be like that.”

“Weren’t you on the first recon mission… the one that just got back,” the lieutenant asked the young airman.

“Yep… We got a great bird’s eye view of that thing. It’s huge! I can only wonder how they make it just sit up there like that.”

The lieutenant nodded. “So the primary propulsion it uses isn’t nuclear, huh?”

The airman raised his eyebrows a notch and shook his head. “How’d you know that?”

“Somebody told me. What kind of reactor does it use?”

The airman breathed in deeply then exhaled softly. “Anti-matter.”

The lieutenant’s face turned ashy white, and he appeared to reel. He ran one hand through his hair nervously then laid it on the back of the chair beside him. The young airman noticed that the knuckles of the lieutenant’s hand were turning white as he held onto the back of the chair; and realizing that something was very, very wrong, he turned several shades lighter himself… “What? What’s the matter?”

“Barker’s going to fire a missile into an anti-matter reactor in that UFO up there… with my plane,” Strickland said, trying to sound calmer than he actually was. “If he does… it’ll be the end of… maybe the world… but at least this hemisphere. Do you know what even a small amount of destabilized anti-matter could do?”

The airman shook his head. “Maybe they have a secure containment field or something around their reactor.”

“Maybe,” the lieutenant agreed, “but I can’t take that chance… the WORLD can’t take that chance. I’ve got to get to a radio.”

Lieutenant Strickland ran from the airmen’s barracks and jumped into a small truck that was sitting in front of the barracks with the keys still in it, then he drove across the airfield to the control tower. As fast as he could, he ran up the stairs and knocked desperately on the door. He heard the electronic latch unlock, and one of the controllers opened the door.

“Lieutenant?”

“I need to come in.”

The controller moved aside to let Lieutenant Strickland enter then immediately turned his attention back to the UFO on the horizon. It was clearly visible in the distance from the tower, and both of the controllers were watching it intently with something akin to deep awe, even though it sat quite a few miles away from the airfield or the base itself, over the Mesaliko Reservation and the town of Roswell.

“I don’t have time to explain,” Strickland said, grabbing for the microphone. He needn’t have bothered. The two controllers weren’t paying any attention to anything that he was doing. Strickland pressed the button to speak…

“Barker! Barker, come in!”

There was no answer. Strickland called again, but Barker was apparently not answering his radio. He probably had it turned off. That would be something Barker would do. That way if he was ordered back to base he could say that he never heard the order and blame Strickland with leaving his radio turned off.

“Dammit, Barker, come in!” Strickland yelled over the radio one more time. For a moment, he seemed to despair… but then he turned to the controllers…

“Has anyone tried to contact that ship up there?”

“What for,” the younger of the two controllers asked, with a tone of amusement in his voice. “We don’t have anyone on the base who speaks Martian.”

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe they might understand US,” Lieutenant Strickland asked, turning the frequency dial to scan for any possible signal source.

“What would we say to them,” the second controller asked.

“You might try, ‘hello!’” Strickland said with a tone of obvious irritation in his own voice.

Strickland picked up the mike and pressed the button again…

“This is… uh… this is Lieutenant David Strickland… If anyone can hear me on that ship… this is important. Come back… I mean, uh… reply!”

Strickland turned the dial several times, each time repeating his message again, then a few moments later, he got an unexpected surprise…

“Go ahead, Lieutenant Strickland. We’re listening.”

Both controllers looked at each other, their eyes wide.

Strickland pressed the button on the mike again… “Uh… okay, we, uh… we have… well, YOU have… WE ALL, I guess, have an emergency situation here. One of our agents is going to fly a fighter jet into a large vent on your ship. He intends to fire a missile into the reactor as he flies through the core. Do you understand me?”

There was silence on the radio. For a moment, Lieutenant Strickland’s heart sank into his stomach. Maybe they hadn’t understood anything he had said. What had made him think that they would understand him anyway? They probably didn’t even know what a jet was… or a missile… at least not by those names. And Barker… or Culpepper, as he preferred to call himself, would be getting there very soon… if he wasn’t there already.

“Lieutenant,” a voice came back over the air finally, “I have someone here who is qualified to discuss the risks with you.”

“I am Varec,” a different voice said, with an accent that the lieutenant couldn’t place. The other voice had sounded… well, now that he thought about it, almost American… perhaps even New Mexican. This new one, though, was different somehow… maybe Canadian. No. Not Canadian… Definitely not Canadian…

“Mister Varec,” Lieutenant Strickland said, shaking himself out of his thoughts and back to the matters at hand, “your ship and our world are in danger. If Agent Barker flies into your ship’s vent and fires a missile into your anti-matter reactor… and manages to blow it up… it could destroy not only your ship but potentially half of our world.”

“You are well-informed,” the voice from the ship above said.

“And desperate,” Strickland said sternly. “There’s no time. Barker may be there already.”

“Wouldn’t the outflow of air push anything back out of the vent,” Strickland heard the first voice ask the one named Varec.

“A bird, yes, Zan… maybe even a small plane,” Varec replied… “but probably not a slip-stream… what you call a ‘jet.’ It has enough power and speed to fly into our vent, but I do not think that it could fly through the containment area in the core.”

“I hope you’re right,” the first voice said… “because I think I see it coming now.”

Max, Michael, Varec, Liz, Alex, Isabel, Maria, and the others who were currently on the bridge crowded nearer to the huge front window of the ship to catch a glimpse of the fast approaching fighter jet.

“Strickland,” Varec said, “Warn your pilot not to enter the core! He will not survive.”

In the pilot’s seat of the approaching F-14 fighter jet, Barker, alias Agent Culpepper, sat transfixed, gazing at the huge mothership ahead of him with a single-minded, blind fanaticism and a trace of a smile on his face. He never really entertained the thought that anything could go wrong with his plan. Of course, somewhere deep inside his mind, he knew that it could… but there was a certain arrogant self-assuredness about Culpepper that wouldn’t allow him to seriously consider failure. He was sure of himself. He was sure of his abilities. He was sure of his plan.

Barker aligned the F-14 Tomcat with the huge spaceship’s oval-shaped starboard vent and adjusted his speed and flaps slightly, rotating the plane’s adjustable wings out just a bit for stability as he slowed the jet’s forward speed to make any final course adjustments. The plane wobbled ever so slightly as it continued to speed toward the opening. Seeing himself right on course, Barker increased the throttle to full and turned on the afterburners.

Strickland pressed the button on his mike to warn Culpepper away, but it was already too late. At that moment, Barker’s fully-armed F-14 Tomcat flew straight into the starboard vent at full throttle and with afterburners blazing. Max looked at Varec then at Michael. Both of them stood there silently… waiting.

It was exactly as Barker had imagined it inside the huge oval-shaped vent… The passage was easily sixty feet high… probably a bit more… and it was wider than four F-14 Tomcats placed wing to wing, not enough room to turn a jet around in but certainly enough for any crack pilot like himself to fly through. Barker’s F-14 Tomcat, by comparison, was sixteen feet high and had a wingspan of 64 feet, 1.5 inches “spread,” which is at their maximum span. The wings can be drawn back into the “swept” position, which reduces their span to only 38 feet, 2.5 inches, or “overswept” position, which reduces them almost another five feet, to 33 feet, 3.5 inches.

As Barker flew into the huge vent, he did notice a significant amount of air resistance. His plane’s airspeed dropped by about one fourth as it encountered the outflow of air coming from the core. It felt a bit like driving a car into a strong headwind. But Barker was not concerned. At full speed or three quarters speed, his success, he was absolutely positive, was assured. The plane’s afterburners would push him through the heavy outflow of air on the way in and onward to the core. There, he would fire his missiles… then the rushing outflow of air on the other side of the ship would actually provide him with a tailwind, helping him to get out before the ship exploded, as he exited with the airflow. It was a sweet plan.

What Barker, alias Culpepper, did not know was that the reactor was actually well protected and totally impervious to any of his missiles. But more important than that, to Culpepper, would have been the knowledge that the reactor was cooled by forced air flowing around the inside of the entire core at a speed greater than that of any hurricane ever known on earth. In a sense, this was a ship that actually breathed. When they were not in space, air was sucked in literally through every centimeter of the skin of the ship and diverted into the core where it flowed around the reactor many times before being vented out through the huge vents. The system was very efficient… but incredibly violent, wind-wise, within the core itself. In the vacuum of space, the air was unnecessary to protect the reactor.

As Culpepper flew Strickland’s F-14 Tomcat ever deeper into the enormous passageway inside the vent, heading toward the core of the mothership, Max and the others braced themselves for… they weren’t quite sure what. But Varec knew. It was he, after all, who had designed the ship… and he had helped to build it. Approximately forty seconds after entering the vent… a bit longer than expected due to the heavy air flow being vented from the core… Culpepper was approaching his expected target. Then he saw the huge, swirling storm circling the core ahead of him. It looked like a half-mile-wide monster tornado. There was no way around it. Belatedly realizing what he was flying right into, Culpepper instinctively pressed his right foot hard to the floor in a brief moment of sheer panic, but there was no brake pedal.

Suddenly and with total clarity, if only for a brief second, Culpepper realized that he was doomed.

The fighter jet slammed into the howling 3000-mile-per-hour winds with the force of a train wreck, and the winds slammed the jet to the side like a sledgehammer hitting a fly, exploding the plane’s already armed missiles one after the other. What was left… because it could no longer be identified as a jet… tumbled around the core with the wind, as it continued to break into smaller and smaller pieces. Within a matter of mere seconds, it had been reduced to tiny motes of flotsam barely large enough to even recognize. These circled the core a few hundred times at 3000 miles per hour before being ejected from the starboard and port vents and fluttering to the ground below like a million tiny silvery butterflies sparkling and glinting in the sunlight of a bright new day.

In a way, the silvery, glistening confetti falling in streams from the ship’s vents was almost beautiful. As for Culpepper, his body had either been pounded into oblivion by the winds and by the unexpected premature explosions of his own missiles or simply absorbed by the anti-matter reactor… in which case, Culpepper may ironically actually have provided a millisecond or two of extra energy to the ship that he had sought to destroy.

Varec swallowed nervously but was clearly unsurprised when no one onboard felt so much as a bump… even as all the missiles of the fighter jet blew up one-by-one inside the core. Fortunately, the explosions were effectively damped by the ferocious winds and caused no damage whatever to the ship or to the reactor.

“What’s going on there,” the voice of Lieutenant Strickland crackled over the radio. “What’s happening?”

“I believe you will need to replace your… jet,” Varec said simply, in total seriousness… “and your agent.”

There was a momentary silence over the radio before Strickland replied.

“Then the world is safe… and I take it, you are, too.”

“We are all safe,” Varec said, confirming Strickland’s statement.

“Good,” Strickland said simply, his voice a bit shaky but seeming sincere. “That’s good.”

“Lieutenant Strickland,” the southwestern-sounding voice of the one named Zan said, returning once again to the air… “Thank you.”

“For what?” Strickland asked, genuinely unassuming. “I didn’t do anything… well, nothing that helped anyone.”

“You did. You warned us. If we had needed to stop your agent, we could have done so… because of your warning… but it wasn’t necessary for us to take extraordinary, uh, ‘measures’ to stop him. The reactor is quite safe when the ship is in the atmosphere… because of the cooling winds that blow around it… and in space, where it doesn’t need to be cooled, it’s still well protected, I assure you, even without the winds. I am sorry about your… your loss, though.”

Strickland sighed. “Yes… that was a fine plane… an F-14 Tomcat.”

“Yeah… well… I was referring to the pilot, actually,” Zan replied.

“Culpepper?” Strickland exclaimed impulsively, momentarily sounding unexpectedly shocked. “Yeah well… thanks… but he knew what he was doing. That’s the problem really. He did know what he was doing… and he would have destroyed the world.”

“Lieutenant Strickland.”

“Yes?”

“There are a good many other jets… and helicopters… still flying around our ship. You may want to warn them of what will happen if any of them has any idea about flying through the core like your agent did.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Strickland said, actually managing a slight smile, “I think they got the message… It’s still streaming out of your vents.”

<center> ********** </center>

The best laid plans of mice and men… Isn’t that what they say?
Oh, yeah, and of Antarians… and Antarian hybrids… Let’s not forget them. Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, Alex, Isabel, Tess, Rayylar, Varec, and Jim from Antar in the original dimension (which Varec had now named “Dimension A”) had planned to come to Dimension Y, save their doubles from a disastrous end, and return home all in… oh, maybe three weeks time, including travel. But as the expression implies, plans don’t always go… well… as planned.

Okay, Varec didn’t actually call them Dimension Y and Dimension A. He used the first letter and the next to last letter of the Antarian alphabet, but those letters not being present on any known earth computer, we will use A and Y.

Max and his crew had planned to stay on earth in Dimension Y perhaps two or three days, but circumstances stretched that time out to well over five weeks during which time several important things happened, including some weddings and a most unusual honeymoon… a clandestine casino… and an almost disastrous attack on both of our gangs by a treacherous shapeshifter named J’Shalo, whom the Antarian group had once known as Nasedo in their dimension but who was unknown to the local group. One can read about all of that, though, in the companion chronicle, The Night The Dreams Died, so we will skip ahead to what happened next…

From J’Shalo, the two groups learned that Kivar, in this dimension, had recently been killed by one of his enemies on Antar… and so… our heroes agreed to take their younger doubles… and another shapeshifter, named Rahn, whom they had befriended… home. That’s right… home. You know… like “E.T call home…” That home. Antar. “Up there,” the place where Max was pointing when Liz asked where he was from. This, of course, meant still more time before they would get to go back to their own dimension.

Thanks to Rahn, on Antar in Dimension Y, they met a shapeshifter named Ta’lan, and Ta’lan rewarded Rahn’s benefactors with a huge meal and a very special gift for saving him and bringing him home. Unfortunately, the gift would have required the group from Dimension A to remain yet another day in Dimension Y (at least) and take a trip into the high mountains around the Ke’cje shapeshifters’ valley, so Max and crew decided that they would forego the gift and instead return home right away. Ta’lan gave Max a sealed note to give to her double when they got back home, and she gave the younger group from Dimension Y their gift the next day in the high mountains surrounding the Ke’cje Valley.

That pretty much brings us forward in time to the original group’s return to Antar in Dimension A… if we skip over the details of the trip back… and we will, because that took seven months, not merely a few days as expected. That story is yet to be told. The good news is, Max has a ghostwriter working on it from Liz’s diary notes as we speak. So that’s it… here we are…

Home… or is it?

tbc

Coming Up: Back home on their own Antar after a longer-than-expected return trip, our group on the New Granolith finally gets to relax. But at home, they learn that some things have changed… and some things that they thought had changed… well, read on. We’re getting close to the end.

Post by **Island Breeze** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:50 pm

The Four Faces Of Rath

Out Of A Nightmare

Chapter 67

LXVII

Maria dropped to her knees and ceremoniously, but with genuine emotion, kissed the soil she had just stepped onto after walking down the long ramp from the New Granolith. Standing beside her, Michael smiled and nodded understandingly. He was almost tempted to kiss the ground himself. Max took a long, deep breath of “real” Antarian air, and Liz hugged him and wiped away the tears that were forming in her eyes. Alex and Isabel spun around and around in the early morning Antarian sunlight, giddily acknowledging… and finally believing… that it was real. Nobody from the ship… not Jim Valenti, not Tess or Rayylar, not even the scientific-minded Varec appeared unaffected. They had made it! They really had finally come home.

It had been a long trip… much longer than any of them had expected. The trip to the other dimension had not taken that long, especially after they found a way to speed up their arrival. And the time spent with their doubles on earth had been rewarding, even if it had lasted somewhat longer than expected. But the trip home…

Tess had said it best when she surmised that they had taken a wrong turn somewhere and made a side-trip through hell. Nobody had ever disagreed with her assessment, though there had been some good times along the way and they had made many new friends.

Even now, it was hard to believe that they were really home. It had taken barely over a week to get to earth in dimension Y… and almost seven months to get back. Seven very long and often disheartening months during which they began to think that they might never see home again at all… that this might be their lives, or whatever their lives were fated to become now, lost in the depths of space and time, far away from the homes they had once had, far away from the families they loved. They hadn’t even seen Kryys since leaving the other dimension. With his special abilities, Kryys found Maria and Michael, his mom and dad, in Dimension Y, but when they were ready to leave for home, he left, too, departing the same way he had come, through the time continuum, returning home almost instantaneously. The others had to come back by a more conventional route… in the Antarian mothership. But wherever the ship and its crew had been since leaving Dimension Y… even Kryys apparently hadn’t been able to find them.

No… no one at all was disagreeing with Tess’ assessment.

Only a scant thirty minutes earlier, everyone onboard had wondered what surprises this new planet would hold for them as they entered its atmosphere. They had long before almost given up hoping that it would be their Antar each time they found another Antar. They had learned to approach each new planet cautiously, without drawing attention to their presence, and to take nothing for granted. But this time was different… Max knew almost immediately. It wasn’t the golden sea rotating slowly below them that tipped him off. Most of the other “Antars” looked the same. It was the sudden connection he had to the jah-ees, the one he had healed, in particular. It had been like plugging in a lamp and the light suddenly coming on. Max hadn’t even realized that the connection was missing until it was suddenly restored. Then he knew. This was home… This was really it… their Antar. Convincing the others had taken some effort, but in the end they had each given in to their desire for it to be true and had dared to believe… or at least to hope. And now they knew.

Home! This was home! Their home! If they ever had had any doubts, those doubts were about to be dispelled completely. Jim looked up to see Kathleen coming toward him. He smiled broadly, and Kathleen began to run, throwing herself into Jim’s arms. Close behind Kathleen were Jeff and Nancy Parker, Philip and Diane Evans, Charles and Gloria Whitman, and Jeliya, who were running to keep pace with all the children. Kyle and Jeliya had not gone on the trip, but Kyle had shown up with Kryys right before they started back home. Jeliya had stayed on Antar to help watch the children with Kathleen and the grandparents.

Little Jayyd, running to get to her mom first, leapt almost ten feet into Maria’s arms, then Zorel and Kryys tackled her, almost taking her down with their exuberance. Maria swung them all three around and around, kissing and hugging them, until she was dizzy, then they tackled Michael, who joyfully held, hugged, and kissed the children he had never intended to be away from for so long and had thought he might never see again.

Maya, Andya, JoLeesa, and Alyyx quickly latched onto Liz and Max, who kissed and hugged them as though they might never let them go again. Liz looked around for Jeffy and spotted her baby in Jeliya’s arms. She held out her arms, and Jeliya started to walk toward her, but Jeffy wasn’t waiting, apparently. Dissolving into atoms, he disappeared from Jeliya’s arms and reappeared in Liz’s outstretched arms.

“He remembers me,” Liz cried, as tears ran down her cheeks. Jeliya nodded. After being away for over seven months, Liz had really feared that little Jeffy, who was not yet a toddler when she left, might not even know her anymore. It had given her a scary, empty, lost feeling in her stomach that she could not describe. But Liz’s heart leapt with joy when Jeffy came to her and she held him again and kissed him, telling him how much she loved and had missed him, something that she told all her children over and over again.

Not far away, Tess was on her knees with her arms around both Jiba and Drel and her face buried between theirs, as tears of joy flowed freely down her cheeks, too.

Mareeya and Ceelya, sitting in Alex’s arms, with Isabel hanging onto them, were all smiles. Though they might have been a little big by now to hold both at the same time, Alex wasn’t complaining. He had scooped them both up in one fell swoop, and right now, he could have held twice as much weight easily and not even noticed.

Amy and Liz-Jolee held onto Varec as though they might have to split him in half to satisfy them both, and Varec loved it.

Danyy Valenti threw his arms around Jim, who held his younger son and smiled from ear to ear, as his eyes grew misty. Kyle walked up to Jim and smiled… then nodded to his father. Jim nodded back then unexpectedly reached out and pulled Kyle to him and hugged him, too.

Feeling something nudge his arm, Danyy turned around and saw Jung-Jo, who had sneaked up silently at his side while he was hugging his father. Danyy squealed with delight and threw his arms around Jung-Jo’s neck and hugged him, too. Jung-Jo closed his eyes, his face etched with the classic expression of a very happy feline. He may have been a pawgor, a distant alien relative, perhaps, of saber-tooth tigers, but he was just a big, happy kitty cat right now. And like all the others, Jung-Jo was glad to be home. As everyone hugged and kissed, laughter gave way to sobs, then sobs gave way to laughter again.

Home. It felt good! It felt so very good… to everyone!

<center> ********** </center>

The driver pulled the hovercar into the parking area beside the palace and passed his hand over a small symbol on the console. Instantaneously, the car and its occupants were transported down into the palace garage adjoining the underground portions of the palace. The engines, already whisper-quiet, whirred to a stop, then the car’s doors rose upward and Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, and Varec got out and walked to the side, as a second vehicle, a longer one, appeared in the place of the first one, which had already transported back out. As the doors of the second vehicle rose, Isabel, Alex, Tess, Rayylar, Jim, Kathleen, and several of the children got out. Once everyone was there, they all walked together down a short hallway then took a large, lavishly-appointed ascension chamber up to the main floor of the palace. The palace ascension chambers more closely resembled rooms than simple elevators. There were comfortable chairs to sit in, and the floors were carpeted. No one sat down this time, though. The ride up was short, and they were too excited. As the chamber stopped and the door opened, they stepped out to find the royal palace staff lined up waiting to greet them… and all smiles.

“Welcome home, Zan! Welcome home, My Lady!” the Antarian lady closest to them said enthusiastically. “It has been a long time. We missed you.” She turned and smiled at Maria… “My Lady… and Rath! It is good to have you back, too!”

“It’s been too long, Ami’tya,” Max replied with a smile. “We missed you, too. We missed our homes and families.”

“We’re really, really very glad to be back,” Liz added, giving Ami’tya, then the others in turn, males and females alike, a warm and heartfelt hug. At the moment, it just seemed right.

“Someone is waiting to see you, Zan,” Ami’tya said, pointing toward the parlor, as Liz hugged the last staff person.

Max looked at Michael with a puzzled look. “We just got back. Who else would know that we were here before we even got back to the palace?”

Michael thought for a minute. “That’s a good question, Max… one that I’d like an answer to. Come on.”

Michael and Max walked into the parlor, and Michael instantly scowled and turned around to walk back out without saying a word.

“Michael? Where are you going?” Maria asked, coming in behind him as he tried to leave.

“Anywhere… anywhere but here.”

“Maybe they have something important to tell us,” Maria insisted.

“Nothing I want to hear,” Michael replied, gently moving Maria out of his way.

“Maybe we should hear them out,” Max said cautiously, taking Michael by the arm.

Michael spun around to face Max… “Why? So they can tell me that I screwed up time again or… or… changed what was meant to be… or… that they’re going to change everything back the way it was? I don’t want to hear it, Max!”

Max looked at Durj’ori, the Nogi-K’ya, then at the Drax-ta-Kiya of Jeroglasst questioningly. The question was unspoken, but they understood.

“It is true, we disapprove of capricious changes to the time continuum… the river,” Durj’ori said.

“See?” Michael said, waving his hand in frustration then turning on Durj’ori…

“This is a family and friends reunion, Durj’ori! Which you are not either of! You understand that? We just got back from… from hell… or somewhere just about as fun. You’re the last person I want to see or talk to right now!” Michael took Durj’ori by the arm to escort him to the door then reached back to get the Drax-ta-Kiya with his other hand. “You, too, Drax. No offense, but I don’t want to hear that you guys are just calmly going to undo everything that we accomplished in the other dimension. And I don’t want to know it if I messed up the time continuum… river… thingamawhiz that you guys play and romp in all the time. So just get out! Make an appointment. I’ll try to work you in… say in about a hundred years. That’s the way you guys do things, isn’t it?”

“That is fine for me,” Durj’ori said, “but you may be a very old man.”

“I’ll risk it,” Michael scowled. “Besides, that’s what I was hoping… to be a very old man before I ever see you again.”

“When you change what was meant to be,” Durj’ori explained, oblivious to Michael’s protest, “you risk dire effects to the entire universe… unknown and dire effects. That is why the Nogi-K’ya are so careful.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t give a yegg’s hairy ass,” Michael replied caustically, shoving Durj’ori further toward the door.

At this point, Max couldn’t help coming to Michael’s defense…

“Michael didn’t do this on his own, Durj’ori. I agreed with it. It was the right thing to do. If you have a grievance, it will have to be with me, too.”

“Me, too,” Liz said, stepping forward.

“And me, too,” Maria said, stepping up and taking Michael’s arm protectively.

“You’ll have to take it up with all of us,” Alex said, stepping forward to add his own voice to those of the others.

“Durj’ori,” Isabel said, in an unmistakably threatening and icy tone, “if you change what happened in that dimension, and those… those… our doubles there die and never find the happiness or freedom that we helped them find, I’ll make sure, personally, that all your remaining days are miserable beyond belief.”

Isabel had no idea how she might make good on that threat. After all, the Nogi-K’ya were semi-immortal. They did die, but only after billions of years… even the Nogi-K’ya were unsure exactly what their life spans were. But Durj’ori took a step back as Isabel stepped toward him. It seemed that even the semi-immortal Nogi-K’ya knew when to retreat. And the look in Isabel’s eyes was saying that this would be a very good time.

“Actually,” the Drax-ta-Kiya said, “Durj’ori and I are not here to condemn you or your activities in the other dimension.”

The Drax-ta-Kiya was not an ally of the Nogi-K’ya, nor were their causes normally the same, but he felt that it would be best, for both of their sakes, if this were clarified quickly.

“”You aren’t?” Maria asked.

“We are not,” Durj’ori replied.

“Then why are you here,” Michael asked, still not convinced. “Why should I believe that you’re not here to gang up on me for changing the river of time or something? You may already have changed everything back the way it was before we went there to help our doubles? Are you going to swear that you didn’t change anything back… or that you won’t change it back later?”

“We will not… we did not,” Durj’ori said.

Michael seemed to relax noticeably when Durj’ori said this. “Okay… well… okay… that’s good to know…”

“Actually, we came to commend you,” the Drax-ta-Kiya said. “It would seem that your trip was very successful… and the results have been… acceptable.”

“Acceptable… I guess that’s high praise coming from you,” Michael said.

The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled. “Neither Durj’ori nor I are able to leave this dimension. The Nogi-K’ya are not bound by time, but they are restricted to this dimension. And I have not mastered the concept of traveling through dimensional time or space. In that respect… and some others… Kryys’ powers are far greater than my own… he merely needs… guidance. He is, after all, still only a child.”

Michael nodded, for once in total agreement with what the Drax-ta-Kiya was saying.

“I have always appreciated your guidance… and I appreciate your helping Kryys to understand his powers and use them wisely,” Michael admitted.

The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled slightly and nodded. “That has always been my pleasure.”

“The reason we are not displeased with what you have done in the other dimensions,” Durj’ori added, “is that you did not change time there. You changed their present. That is acceptable, especially when it is for… what you would call… a good cause.”

“Then you agree that it was a good cause,” Michael asked.

Durj’ori nodded. “Changing time always has consequences that are difficult to foresee. The Nogi-K’ya may take hundreds of years tracing all the ripples that will occur in the time continuum if a particular change is made… before permitting the change to be made. When you went into your past here, you changed time, and there were consequences. But this time, that did not occur.”

“Everything came out okay, though, after I went into my past before,” Michael insisted cautiously. “Didn’t it?”

“You brought back a plague… I believe you called it the Zwolinski plague. Fortunately, you and Max survived it.”

Michael winced painfully, as Durj’ori reminded him, and his head slumped…

“I was unable to save thousands of other Antarians who died from it, though. I was responsible for their deaths for bringing the plague to Antar.”

The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled again… or appeared to smile… almost, as he sometimes was prone to do. One was never quite sure.

“Rath, you really must do a census on your planet sometime. After you and Zan came out of it, there was a slight shift in the flow of time. I don’t guess you would have noticed.”

“A shift… how? What does that mean,” Max asked.

“The people who died never died, Zan.”

“But… how…”

“A slight nudge to the river of time.”

“You did that?”

The Drax-ta Kiya shook his head.

“Who then?” Max asked. Then his eyes widened with sudden intuition… “Kryys?”

“No. Kryys wanted to do it, but he knew that the river held another future, so he waited. The Nogi-K’ya did it.”

“The Nogi K’ya? Without a ten thousand year study? They’re getting reckless and carefree,” Max exclaimed reflexively, with more than a touch of sarcasm.

The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled. Max thought that it was the first time he had ever seen him actually smile.

“They thought that they sort of owed it to you.”

“No argument there,” Michael said. “They screwed up the whole time thing in the first place. It caused us a lot of grief.”

“Well, they apparently had a contingency plan… a plan worked out over several millennia… for dealing with such an emergency. When their other efforts failed to produce the desired results in the time needed for… more mortal beings like us… they fell back on the plan. They have corrected all the anomalies now. Those things which still remain uncorrected were deemed… acceptable.”

“Acceptable?” Max repeated with a tone of exasperation. “Acceptable? What is acceptable about making mistakes and then just leaving them that way?”

“Your baby, Jeffy, was a mistake, Zan. He was created in a different time bubble, a bubble that no longer exists… a bubble that perhaps never really existed in the real sense of time, as you know it. If the Nogi-K’ya had returned everything to the way it was, without allowing for exceptions, there would be no Jeffy.”

Max swallowed hard then nodded. “I guess I do owe them then.”

“It would seem so.”

“What else did they not change back?”

“They left almost everything that Rath… or Michael… did in the alternate time line he was in the way he changed it. They deemed the changes he caused to be… desirable.”

Max looked at Michael, and Michael shrugged.

“Dumas Zwolinski will grow up to be a different person because of your intervention,” Durj’ori said, turning to Michael. “Hank won’t change, but he’ll stop and think first now, and that will lead to small improvements in his behavior. The ripples from these and other changes that you caused will touch many other people through the millennia. We have traced and plotted these changes and have deemed them all desirable… so we have allowed them to remain. We do not believe in changing time, but we believe that after it has been changed, all possible time lines must be considered.”

“So I did something right?” Michael asked cautiously.

The Drax-ta-Kiya smiled again. “Apparently so.”

Michael seemed momentarily stunned, then a bemused look came over his face. Max saw it and smiled.

Maria put both of her arms around Michael and hugged him. “Well, I knew you were right, Michael. I’ve always known it. You’ve always been right as far as I was concerned… no matter what anyone else out there might have thought. When you were searching for yourself in the past, all of us here knew who you were… and we know who you are. You’re someone with a heart. Whether you’re painting beautiful portraits or saving kidnapped children or protecting the kingdom or… or being my soul mate… you’re someone with a heart. I don’t think that can ever be wrong. In the end, it’s the only thing in this universe that can be right.”

Isabel nodded and stood beside Maria. “You know I haven’t always agreed with you on everything, Michael…”

Michael grinned, remembering how he had goaded and irritated Isabel with his off-the-cuff remarks when Liz and Alex from the other dimension had been here with them.

“But I could have told the Nogi-K’ya what Maria just said… without a ten-thousand-year study,” Isabel continued. Then she turned to Durj’ori… “We’re glad you guys finally figured it out.”

Durj’ori thought about expounding on the possibilities of having good intentions and still making mistakes, especially in matters affecting time, but he wisely had second thoughts. Instead, he just nodded.

“Well,” the Drax-ta-Kiya said, standing up. “There is an interesting expression among the people of the planet that Rath grew up on… ‘All’s well that ends well.’ I, uh… I think we can all agree that, in this case, at least, that quaint saying is true. Durj’ori… if you will accompany me, perhaps we should leave these people alone now so that they can enjoy their homecoming. Oh, and… Zan… have you had any more dreams about flying?”

“How did you…?” Max started to ask, but the Drax-ta-Kiya held up one hand…

“Don’t forget that letter of acquaintance that the shapeshifter, Ta’lan, gave you to give to her double in this dimension. It may be… eye-opening.” Having said this, the Drax-ta-Kiya dissolved into a billion tiny glowing atoms and disappeared, taking Durj’ori with him.

Max looked at Liz and reached into his pocket for the crumpled paper.

“I had almost forgotten it. So much has happened in seven months.”

“What does it say,” Maria asked.

Max shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s sealed. Ta’lan said to give it to her double as soon as we could after we got back home. She said it would explain some things… and it’s our gift from her and Rahn for helping Rahn and bringing their king back.”

“Then I guess we need to make a trip to the Kec’je shapeshifters’ valley,” Michael said, “But not today. Tomorrow… or the next day maybe. Today, I just want to be with my family again… in my own home.” Michael put his arm around Maria and smiled… “And I have a special gift for you, Maria, of my own.”

Maria grinned and hugged Michael. “Ta’lan’s gift can wait another day, I think. Right now I need yours a lot more.”

tbc

Coming up: The Kec’je secret

Post by **Island Breeze** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:53 pm

The Four Faces Of Rath

Ta’lan

Chapter 68

LXVIII

Ta’lan unfolded the crumpled note that Max had given her and read it… then she turned it around several times aimlessly, as though thinking about it, and read it again. After several minutes, she folded it back up carefully, smoothed it out with her hand, and handed it back to Max.

“You say this was given to you by me… only in another dimension… my double?”

Max nodded. “Yes… Exactly.”

Ta’lan stood up and walked around Max and Michael then turned and looked at them…

“I must say, I was never convinced that things like alternate dimensions really existed. This is… well… extraordinary if it is true.” Then, apparently remembering that Max was their king, she quickly added, “I’m not saying that it’s not true, of course, only that it is… extraordinary.”

“We understand,” Liz said. “We thought the same thing. We didn’t know until recently that alternate dimensions existed either. I mean… it’s always been in the realm of possibility… a theory. But no one had ever proved it… well… that we know of anyway.”

Without replying, except with a slight wave of her hand, Ta’lan unexpectedly walked into the next room and returned with a tray of drinks. She passed the tray around, and each one took one of the thin, fourteen-inch tall, one-inch wide high-fluted glasses filled with a bluish-amber liquid. The odd, constantly color-changing liquid was pretty… perhaps even appealing… in a strange, alien way.

This is a Ke’cje drink called da’nish,” Ta’lan said, as they each took a glass from the tray. “It is quite good. You will like it.”

Ta’lan watched, but only Kyle took a drink. The others sat with their drinks in their hands, waiting.

“Max, this is really good,” Kyle said enthusiastically, taking another sip. “Try it!”

“I would wait if I were you, Kyle,” Michael said.

“This is too good to wa… wait,” Kyle said, already beginning to slur his words.

“Why don’t all of you drink,” Ta’lan asked with an innocent smile.

“We’re waiting for cookies,” Michael replied.

“Qnist’as,” Liz corrected.

“Micha… Mi-chael!” Kyle slurred, “That’s rude, man! You don… don… don’t go iv somewuz house ‘n jus’ ask for coo… cookies. Ha… hav some mannnners.”

“Qnist’as,” Max replied, “Their called qnist’as. You don’t drink da’nish without qnist’as, Kyle. They keep you from getting bombed… like you are now.”

“Oh,” Kyle replied with a giddy smile, taking yet another sip. “Now yoush tellsh me.”

Ta’lan smiled and nodded then stood up and went back into the other room, reemerging momentarily with another tray, this one piled high with qnist’as.

“I was testing you,” she said as she passed the tray around, “But I guess you know that. I had to be sure you really had been in a Ke’cje house and had not been tricked by another species of shapeshifters… some of the bad ones… especially the shadow dwellers. They’re not Antarian.”

Max nodded. “Kyle wasn’t with us in the other dimension until we started back. His double was there, but our Kyle stayed here with his wife and all the kids when we went. We needed someone to stay behind and take care of things here. He didn’t know about the da’nish or the qnist’as.”

Kyle smiled and held his glass up in a toast, looking through the sometimes bluish, sometimes amber fluid with one eye closed and a big smile on his face.

“Eat your cookie, Kyle,” Maria said, sticking one of the qnist’as in his mouth. Kyle sputtered but chewed the cookie and swallowed it. Within seconds, a change began to come over him, as he began to sober up, and his face reddened a bit as he suddenly realized that everyone was looking at him…

“What happened? Did I do something to embarrass myself?”

Liz smiled and shook her head. “No. You just got a little drowsy for a moment there, Kyle. You have to eat the qnist’as with your da’nish or you wind up in la-la-land.”

“Oh.” Kyle heaved a cautious sigh of relief, apparently not quite remembering what he had or had not just done. “That’s strong stuff, isn’t it?” he said, taking another bite of qnist’a then another sip of his da’nish. “It’s really good, though.”

The others all ate one of the qnist’as then took a sip of the bluish-amber fluid.

“It is good,” Liz agreed. “Just don’t ever forget the qnist’as.”

“I won’t ever again,” Kyle said with a sheepish grin. “Trust me on that!”

“So explain to me exactly how you came to meet my double in this other dimension,” Ta’lan said, sitting back down to listen. “It is unusual for outsiders to come here to the Ke’cje valley… and when they do, they usually do not remember anything when they leave.”

“Not if they drink some of that da’nish,” Kyle nodded.

“The Qu’rosk trees,” Liz said. “It’s the Qu’rosk trees. They’re everywhere. They’re beautiful but intoxicating to outsiders.”

“Is everything here intoxicating,” Kyle asked.

Ta’lan smiled and shook her head.

“Just the da’nish… and the flowers on the trees. Their fragrance gives everyone a feeling of well-being. The Ke’cje are accustomed to it, and we can tolerate it, but outsiders become somewhat giddy and talkative. They forget where they are. Once they have breathed the fragrance for a while, everyone talks. And when they leave, they forget where they have been. But we do not get many visitors. In this valley, we are well-protected by high surrounding cliffs on every side.”

“How do you get out, then,” Kyle asked.

“We fly.”

“Fly? Oh, right… you can shapeshift. Are we going to forget we were here when we leave?”

Ta’lan shook her head again. “Not if you do not breathe the fragrance of the Qu’rosk trees’ flowers outside for very long. Now tell me how you met my double in the other dimension.”

“Well,” Max said, setting his glass down on the tray, “it was Rahn who led us there… here… to the Ke’cje valley.”

“Rahn!” Ta’lan exclaimed.

Momentarily startled by Ta’lan’s reaction, Max stopped talking.

“Go on, please,” Ta’lan coaxed.

“Don’t be mad at Rahn,” Max said. “He was helping me… my double, I mean… to get his kingdom back.”

“I’m not mad at Rahn,” Ta’lan said. “I’m sad. When you mentioned Rahn’s name, my heart jumped. He is… was… like a son to me. I practically raised him myself. I taught him everything he knows. And I haven’t seen him in… I think it’s been sixty… seventy years now. Rahn would have contacted me before now if he had been able to. I can only assume…”

Ta’lan’s voice trailed off, and her eyes misted up.

“Omigod,” Liz said softly, touching Max on the arm. “Max, do you think…”

“…that he’s still a prisoner on the base back on earth?” Max asked, finishing Liz’s sentence for her. “I don’t know. Our doubles rescued him in the other dimension. In our dimension, we never did.”

Liz looked at Maria, and both of them sat in stunned silence, their mouths open for several moments.

“We can’t abandon Rahn,” Maria said. “He helped us so much… He’s like… one of us.”

“This Rahn doesn’t even know us,” Michael pointed out quite correctly, though no one there felt that to be the case after all they had been through with his double in the other dimension. Even Michael seemed to be trying to convince himself of it… and not very successfully.

“Well we just got back from a very long and difficult trip,” Max said. “I guess we could plan a rescue mission, though. I’ll ask Varec how long it would take the New Granolith to get to earth at the fastest speed.”

“We don’t need to do that,” Liz said. “We’re in our own dimension. The spheres will work here.”

Maria’s eyes lit up, and a smile came over her face.

“I’ll be the one to go,” Michael said. “I can rescue him if things get hairy.”

“There won’t be anything to get hairy,” Liz replied confidently. “I’ll go. All I have to do is pop into his cell, get him, and bring him back. They’ll never even know where he went.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Michael objected. “I should be the one to go. You and Max are needed here.”

“Oh, like, and you’re not?” Liz asked defiantly. “Michael, you’re needed here as much as anybody… much more than I’m needed…”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Max said with a half smile. “No offense Michael.”

“None taken.”

“I thought Dan Klein ended all that crazy alien hunting stuff in our dimension after the president made him the head of the agency,” Alex said. “Do you really think they could still be holding someone on the base and no one knows about it?”

Max nodded solemnly. “I think it’s possible. Dan wouldn’t even have to know about it. The president wouldn’t even have to know about it. Those guys didn’t answer to anyone. They were a renegade unit. They thought they were saving the world. Zwolinski may have been changed when Michael went back to the past, but there was that FBI guy, Pierce, and there were others who were just as bad who were part of that whole thing. I think it’s possible. We won’t know for sure until we go there and find out.”

Michael turned around to Liz to insist that she give him control of the sphere, but at that moment, Liz stepped through the portal, which she had quietly called while the others were talking. As the portal closed up behind her, Liz said simply, “Take me to Rahn.”

In her haste to rescue a friend, Liz hadn’t followed her own cardinal rule: use the sphere of visions first to see where you may be going. Liz stepped out of the portal only to find herself looking into a very bright light. For a moment, she was blinded by it, but then she made out some things around her… It looked like a lab of some kind. The walls were bare and white. And under the center of the lights lay a man on a gurney. He appeared to be connected to various different wires and devices, and she couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead. Liz stepped forward to find out, and that’s when something hit her from behind… hard. The room spun momentarily, as she collapsed to her knees then to the floor and the bright lights disappeared into darkness. As she lay there in a state of semi-consciousness, she vaguely heard voices around her…

“Where did she come from?”

“I don’t know. She just appeared out of nowhere… She must have made herself invisible to get in.”

“You think she’s one of them? She may have been sent to rescue him. Could she be one of his people?”

There was no answer from the second man.

“Only one way to find out, I guess,” the first voice said. “This guy over here’s never been any use to us. Almost seventy years of shock treatments, probes… I’ve even removed bits of his organs… and he still won’t tell us anything or do anything that’s nonhuman at all… except for the fact that he’s lasted this long and doesn’t look a day older than when he was brought in here… or so they tell me… I wasn’t even born then myself.”

“I’m telling you,” the second voice said, “He doesn’t understand our language.”

“He understands,” the first voice said confidently, “He understands. He’s just stubborn. Let’s see what it will take to get this one to talk.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

There was a pause, then the first man replied, “We dissect her… piece by piece. One way or the other, I’m getting something out of this one.”

“Oh my God,” Liz thought with a sick feeling, as she drifted into unconsciousness, “The white room. What have I done?”

tbc

Post by **Island Breeze** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:57 pm

The Four Faces Of Rath

The Whitest Room

Chapter 69

LXIX

Liz opened her eyes slowly and noticed a light shining in her face from above. She seemed to be lying on something hard now, but she didn’t think it was the floor. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious. Her first thought was to check herself over to see if anything had been removed… not clothes… but organs, tissue samples, or the like. After a quick appraisal, she decided, with some relief, that she had not been cut… at least not yet. Even her clothes were still intact. This was definitely a good sign! Another good sign was that she did not appear to be tied up, chained, manacled, or otherwise restrained. But where was everybody?

Liz looked around the room. It was even whiter than she remembered it… almost bleached white now… as though scoured of all color by some very powerful detergent or force. In fact, it was probably the “whitest” room she had ever seen in her life. And it appeared that she was the only person there. It was perplexing… and more than a little bit discomfiting. She would rather have her torturers where she could see them. Being all alone in the room made a cold shiver of anticipation go up her spine. What were they planning? And why had they left her here all alone and unrestrained?

She took a deep breath and told herself that it really didn’t matter. They couldn’t hurt her… well, not when she was awake and conscious anyway. She had the sphere of protection. All she had to do was call on it. She didn’t know exactly what it would do to protect her, but she knew with absolute certainty that it would. Of this there wasn’t the slightest doubt.

But where was everybody? And where was the man she had seen on the gurney before? Had that been Rahn? She never got close enough to be sure. One thing she did know for sure, though, was that she wasn’t going to just lie here like a lamb on the altar of some FBI or army rejects’ paranoia and just wait for them to return and have their way with her.

Liz leapt from the gurney with a bounce and headed for the door. She knew that she could call the portal and it would take her straight back home… or anywhere else she wanted to go. But that wouldn’t save Rahn, and she was determined to return the favor Rahn had shown them in the other dimension by saving him now… or his double… in this one. Carefully, Liz opened the door just a crack and peeked out. At first, her mind refused to accept what she was seeing, and she shook her head and looked again. Then she opened the door all the way.

There was nothing outside the room… just the blackness of space… the twinkling of distant stars… the vastness of the cosmos.

“What the…”

Liz leaned forward carefully, holding onto both sides of the doorway with her hands, and looked down. There was nothing below the room, either, as far as she could see, except space. And yet… there was breathable atmosphere in the room… even with the door wide open.

“What happened,” Liz asked rhetorically, knowing that there was no one there to answer. In her place, most people would have been terrified, but Liz was calm… perplexed and confused… but calm. She knew that she could get home anytime by calling the portal; she wasn’t stuck here. But then again… after the events of the last seven months… through various alternate dimensions… who could be sure of anything? Liz suddenly began to sweat, as fear crept up her spine. Just to be sure, she called out, and the portal appeared. She breathed a deep sigh of relief and relaxed again.

“It’s alright. I don’t need you yet. I… I’ll call you again when I’m ready… soon.”

The portal disappeared as it had come, leaving Liz alone with her thoughts. She looked out the door again. Nothing. Just stars twinkling in the distant vast darkness of space.

“Maybe I’m hallucinating. Maybe I’m not really awake. They gave me something and I’m hallucinating.” Liz looked at her hands and decided that it was really her, not a hallucination.

“Where is Rahn?” she asked, again knowing that no answer would be forthcoming.

She looked around and then called for the sphere of visions…

“Please show me Rahn… right now.”

A mist appeared in the room, and as it smoothed out and became calm, a vision appeared in its midst. But the vision was almost as much a riddle as what was going on here. In the mist, Liz saw only the room she was in… and the gurney. There was no Rahn.

“I… I guess I wasn’t clear,” Liz said, almost apologetically, “I said ‘Rahn,’ not ‘room.’”

Liz waited, but there was no change in the vision. Exasperated, she sighed and waved her hand dismissively…

“You may go. Thank you.”

The mist disappeared, and Liz rubbed her hands together nervously. “That never happened before. The sphere never made mistakes… not like that.” Liz looked at the gurney. The vision had shown her the gurney. Could Rahn be hiding under it maybe? Liz picked up the sheet that hung down from the side of the gurney, but there was nothing underneath. She looked around the room again then leaned back on the gurney and put both hands behind herself to boost herself up onto it… The gurney moved.

Believing that she had moved the gurney with her weight, Liz pushed it up against the wall then tried to sit on it again. It moved again.

“Okay, that’s not normal,” Liz mused out loud. “Rahn, if that’s you, turn yourself back into… something I can recognize NOW!”

As she said this, the gurney stretched and contorted, but it all happened so fast that Liz was unable to follow the motions until it was too late. The “gurney” had become a snake… a very large snake… perhaps a python or an anaconda from the look of it, though Liz wasn’t trying to identify it; she just wanted to get it off of her. Unable to move her arms, as the huge serpent coiled and tightened against them, Liz let go with a very “un-Liz-like” string of epithets, disparaging everything that slithered on the ground and even some snake mamas.

This seemed to have an unexpected effect. The huge snake relaxed its grip, if only slightly, and turned its head to look directly into Liz’s eyes, its forked tongue flicking only inches from her face.

“I know you’ve got a crush on me, but if we’re going to get all warm and cozy,” Liz said feistily, turning her face to one side, “Can we at least skip the tongue?”

The serpent held its tongue momentarily, but apparently was unable to do so for long. Within seconds, the tongue flicked out again. Then the serpent relaxed its grip and began to change… this time into a man.

“Alright, Rahn, you’ve got some explaining to do,” Liz said, clearly irritated, after the change was complete.

“You are the one who must explain,” Rahn replied calmly. “I could change back into a serpent again and hold you that way… or swallow you if I wanted to. I only let you go because it seems that it is impossible to keep my tongue in my mouth as you demanded… to be a snake and not to be a snake. It just happens reflexively. And also, I let you go because we must talk.”

“You don’t want to eat me, Rahn. I’d give you indigestion.”

“I do not believe that you would cause me any digestive problems,” Rahn said, looking Liz over.

“Well, let’s assume that I would,” Liz insisted firmly and with finality.

“Who are you,” Rahn asked. What did you do that made… this happen?” Rahn indicated the void beyond the door.

Liz looked at the gaping void… “I was kind of hoping you could tell me that. I don’t know what happened. I came here to save you and take you home to Antar… to Ta’lan… but someone hit me from behind, and when I woke up, this is where I was. Well… actually… I was lying… on top of the gurney… on top of… you.” Liz looked at Rahn.

“Yes, well, there is an explanation for that,” Rahn said, “You know Ta’lan?”

Rahn appeared to be moved at the mention of Ta’lan’s name.

“She’s waiting for me to return with you. Now about that explanation…?”

Rahn smiled just slightly. “Well, at the exact moment you were hit on the head, it was like everything exploded in the room. When I could see again, you were lying on the floor unconscious. I needed to talk to you… to learn what had happened… but I assumed that you had caused it and might try to kill me like you killed the others… so I pushed the gurney out the door and took its place… to hide myself from you until I could be sure of your intent. I lifted you onto my back so that I would know when you woke up. Sometimes I… go to sleep.”

“Wait… The explosion killed the other men…?” Liz asked, shocked.

Rahn nodded. “They were ejected from the room by some great force. They floated away in space, so I would say that it killed them, yes.”

“The sphere of protection!” Liz exclaimed softly, realizing what must have happened. “It had to be the sphere of protection. I didn’t call it, but it saved us once before when no one even knew that we were in danger. It must have thrown the whole white room into space and thrown them out to protect me.”

“Why did it not also kill me?” Rahn asked.

“I guess it knew that you wouldn’t harm me. I don’t know how it knows, but it always seems to. If you had really intended to hurt me, you would have died when you pounced on me as a snake.”

“Then I think it was a good thing that I was not hungry enough to try to eat you,” Rahn said dryly. It was impossible for Liz to know if he was joking or serious. Rahn rarely displayed his true feelings openly, though his double had shown an amazing amount of emotion -for a shapeshifter- when he had seen his home valley again from the New Granolith’s window for the first time in seventy years.

“Well, I guess there’s nothing left to do but go back home… to Antar,” Liz said, surveying the room again and marveling at the stars outside the open door. “This room can just stay out here… in space… or wherever ‘here’ is. The men who were holding you can’t hurt either of us anymore… or anyone else. You’re a free man, Rahn… I mean, a free Ke’cje. Are you ready to go home?”

Rahn’s face, not usually easily readable, became a jumbled mass of emotions, as the reality of his new situation actually began to dawn on him. He was free. He really could go home. Home!

“How long will it take to get there?”

“How long does it take to step through a portal?” Liz asked, smiling. “PORTAL!”

When Liz called, the portal appeared. It looked more like a large, borderless, free-floating mirror than a portal. Rahn touched it, and his touch sent ripples spreading from one side of the “mirror” to the other.

“Come on,” Liz said, taking Rahn by the hand. Then she stepped into the “mirror,” taking Rahn with her.

They stepped out in Ta’lan’s living room.

Shapeshifters don’t show emotion. It was almost an axiom on Antar. And oceans don’t suddenly dry up and stone walls don’t generally move… but they can crumble. Liz looked at Max and smiled, tears coming to her own eyes, as Ta’lan rushed forward to hold Rahn, and the two revealed a side of the Ke’cje shapeshifters that few, outside of their own people, had ever witnessed.

Rahn was the long-missing child, believed dead, returning home at last. Ta’lan was the “mother” he had always known… practically the only mother he had ever known. She had raised him after his own mother disappeared when he was barely more than a toddler. Rahn still remembered his real mother, but it was Ta’lan who had filled that position with so much love and affection for so many years of his life. And a shapeshifter’s years were long. Rahn, who was over a hundred years old now, was barely out of adolescence, a young man just coming into his prime.

“Rahn what happened,” Ta’lan asked, wiping tears from her eyes. “Where were you all this time?”

“On Eluymer… a place they call ‘Earth.’ I went there with the original scouts. It was supposed to be a quick trip. We were going to find a place for the pods and wait for the carekeepers then return home. It didn’t work out that way.”

“No, it didn’t,” Ta’lan said, giving Rahn yet another kiss on the cheek. Liz didn’t even know that shapeshifters did that. “But then… why not,” she asked herself. “They’re basically human after all… more or less… kind of. Different but basically no different.” Liz smiled and leaned on Max, and he pulled her closer into his arms. Maria leaned over unexpectedly and kissed Michael, who smiled and put his arm around her then kissed her back. Alex and Isabel leaned into each other and just sighed. It was a good moment… one of those wonderful, happy moments that are all too rare… and it brought a warm, abiding glow to all their hearts.

tbc

Coming up: Ta’lan honors the request made by her double from the other dimension.

Post by **Island Breeze** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:59 pm

The Four Faces Of Rath

The Request

Chapter 70

LXX

Ta’lan hugged Rahn one last time then looked at Max and smiled.

“It would seem, Zan, that you have been a good friend to me… and to Rahn… in two dimensions. For that, I wish to thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Max said politely, returning the smile. “But it was nothing really. Rahn helped us, too… in the other dimension, I mean.”

Ta’lan nodded. “Still, you brought Rahn home again… in both dimensions. That is something that I cannot forget or allow to go unrewarded.”

“We don’t want any reward, Ta’lan,” Liz said, holding one hand up to stop her. “Seeing Rahn back home again and happy is enough reward for us.”

Everyone nodded, and several voiced their agreement. Ta’lan took a deep breath and sighed, glancing at her newly returned adopted “son” again… then she continued,

“My double in the other dimension that you were in suggested a proper reward, and I am inclined to agree with her.” Ta’lan held up her own hand to stop Liz before she could object again. “It is appropriate for several reasons. My double has already offered it to your doubles in her dimension… for their help. That is one reason. And I see from her note that my estranged mate, J’Shalo, has already taken an irreversible step that I can only repair now by also offering you the gift that my double suggested.”

Liz looked at Max, and Max shrugged. Ta’lan in the other dimension had invited all of them and their doubles to a big dinner at her house before they left. The doubles, who were from that dimension, had gone somewhere with Ta’lan later to receive their “gift,” but Max and the crew from the New Granolith had departed for their own dimension immediately after the dinner, and Ta’lan had given Max the note then, asking him to give it to her double in this dimension once he was back home again. The note was sealed, and Max had no idea what she had written in it, but he knew that it was to be some kind of reward. He had carried the message with him for the last seven months while they were lost somewhere in interdimensional limbo, finding dozens of Antars only to discover time and again that none of them was their own. In all honesty, Max had almost forgotten about the note. It hadn’t been high on his list of priorities lately. After the first month of being lost in the interdimensional chasm, Max had begun to seriously wonder whether or not they would ever see their own Antar again or even ever meet the Ta’lan of their own dimension.

“How did you meet J’Shalo,” Ta’lan asked.

Max looked at Michael and Michael looked at Rahn, who had no idea at all what they were talking about, since it had been the other Rahn who had helped them in the other dimension and this one knew nothing about what had happened to them there.

“Actually,” Michael said, “J’Shalo found us… on the New Granolith… a few days before we left earth to go to Antar there. Our doubles in that dimension had never heard of him before. He never came to Roswell with Tess there like he did in our dimension… the first time they ever saw him was when he showed up on the ship and tried to kill us all. But in our dimension, when we lived on earth, we knew him as Nasedo.”

“Yes… some of that was in the note that my double sent. Do you know why he wanted to kill you?”

Max nodded. “He wanted our ship… to get back to Antar. Apparently, Tess took his ship and left him stranded on earth a couple of years ago. Then he found out that Kivar had been killed by one of his enslaved enemies and that no one was in control on their Antar at the moment, so he thought that he could take over and seize power, but he needed a ship to get back. J’Shalo tried to get Rahn to help him fly the New Granolith. When Rahn refused and threatened to reveal him, Nasedo… J’Shalo I mean… turned into a Xiangar viper and bit Rahn, leaving him to die.”

Ta’lan winced. “And Rahn survived? How?”

“Liz’s double… in the other dimension,” Maria said proudly.

“Is she a shapeshifter?”

Maria shook her head.

“I don’t understand then. How could she help Rahn? The Xiangar viper’s poison is the deadliest substance known to the Ke’cjes in the whole universe. Only another Ke’cje might have been able to save him.”

“Rahn told her what to do to purge the poison from his brain.”

“But if she was not a shapeshifter, how could she have done that… and why didn’t J’Shalo try to kill her, too, when he incapacitated everyone else on the ship?”

“He did try. But she wasn’t affected by J’Shalo’s touch. Rahn had made an adjustment to Liz’s brain a few days before J’Shalo showed up.

Ta’lan looked surprised. “Why?”

“Rahn was trying to help her… to walk again. But because of the adjustment Rahn had already made to her brain, J’Shalo’s touch didn’t affect her like it did the rest of us. When J’Shalo touched the rest of us in our sleep, our brains went haywire. We would have all died within twenty-four hours. But Liz wasn’t affected, because her brain had been prepared already, by Rahn, in a way that wouldn’t harm her. She helped Rahn to eliminate the poison from his brain… and Rahn helped the rest of us…”

“By doing the correct alteration on all of you…”

Maria nodded.

Ta’lan ran her hand over her face and shook her head slowly. “If I ever catch J’Shalo again, I may bite him myself… as a viper, of course.”

Maria smiled and laughed. “In a way, your double did. We caught J’Shalo. Well, Jung-Jo, the pawgor, did. J’Shalo had turned into a hawk… a large bird… to try to escape, but Jung-Jo snatched him out of the air. Max and Michael put him in a cage, and Rahn gave him just enough poison of the Xiangar viper to take away his power to shift back.”

Ta’lan smiled. “Interesting! But eventually such a small dose of the poison would wear off.”

“He gets a tiny dose in every meal… to keep him that way. We took him back to your double in the other dimension, and she decided to leave him in the cage until he changes.”

“Ha!” Ta’lan laughed. “J’Shalo is in trouble then!”

“You don’t like him very much anymore, do you,” Maria asked.

Ta’lan sighed. “It isn’t as simple as that, Maria. J’Shalo was my mate. But that was a long time ago. He ran off and left the Ke’cje valley and everything we love here. No one knew where he went. J’Shalo cannot change. I still have some feelings for him, but I am realistic. He will not change. Too bad you didn’t bring my J’Shalo home. I might have enjoyed having him in a cage where he couldn’t run off and leave and not tell anyone or care about anyone he had left behind. A bird of prey would suit him. Besides, J’Shalo has caused a great deal of pain to many people besides me. He has no conscience… not like you do or I do. If he feels the need, he will simply kill you and then forget about it. He was never normal as a Ke’cje, and he gave outsiders a wrong impression of what the Ke’cjes are like. Fortunately, most of us stay in our valley where we are well-protected and happy. It doesn’t matter so much what outsiders think. But no… J’Shalo is not normal by any standards that I know of.”

“We figured that out already,” Michael said, “When we knew him on earth. He was supposed to be our protector, but he killed people… like stepping on a bug. That’s what he thought humans were basically. And the J’Shalo in the other dimension even tried to kill us.”

Ta’lan nodded. “Well, because of what he did to your brains and because of what Rahn there had to do after that, your brains have been permanently altered. Not in a big way… but in a very important way. It is because of this, ironically, that I am able to offer you the gift that my double has asked me to offer to you… Didn’t you tell me that Kyle was not with you in the other dimension?”

Liz nodded. “Not at first. Our Kyle did not meet J’Shalo. His double did… but not our Kyle… And Jeliya, his wife, wasn’t there either.”

Ta’lan reached over and touched Kyle on the temple and behind the ear at the same time then concentrated for a moment. Then she did the same to Jeliya.

“What did you do,” Kyle asked. “Did you change my brain?”

“Only a little… and for the better,” Ta’lan said with a smile, “Come!”

Ta’lan led the group out of her house and into her back yard, passing through some kind of door or portal on the back of the house that looked like a large, almost invisible membrane. She didn’t open it but rather simply passed through it. The others followed. Michael turned back and touched the membrane they had just walked through. It was solid now… and hard as steel. And it was smoky-colored from the outside. From the inside, it had been clear as air and had simply flowed around them as they walked through it… like passing through a cloud.

“How do you get back in,” Michael asked, tapping on the steel-hard doorway from the outside.

Ta’lan smiled. “When I am ready… it will let me in.”

Alex ran his hand over the door, too, then looked at Michael. “That’s solid, man.”

Michael nodded.

“If you look up in that direction,” Ta’lan said, pointing toward the east where the high mountains rose up around the Ke’cje valley, “You will see the T’chor Ja’nah. That’s a mountain range that reaches into the high east winds that flow above our valley. In that mountain, there are many excellent aeries… places that we, as Ke’cjes, treasure.”

“What’s an aerie,” Maria asked, looking at Liz.

“That’s like a high lookout point… or an eagle’s nest,” Liz said.

“Somehow I just knew you’d know that,” Maria laughed.

“It’s a good word,” Liz replied softly.

“For you it is,” Maria chuckled. “I would have just said a ‘ledge’ or a ‘nest.’”

Liz smiled.

“We will be going to the top of that mountain,” Ta’lan said. “Normally, I would just fly up there, but you cannot do that, so we must walk to the mountain. Then Rahn and I will have to carry each of you up one at a time by your arms to the top of the mountain. We must fly up. It is the only way. Is everyone here okay with that?”

“We could get there faster,” Liz offered cautiously, “With the portal.”

This time it was Ta’lan’s turn to be confused… “What portal?”

Liz held out her hand and called for the portal, and a mirror-like apparition suddenly materialized in front of her.

“This portal.”

Ta’lan touched the portal, and it rippled, like touching water… but it wasn’t water.

“What is this?”

“It’s a portal. It will take us anywhere we want to go… in this dimension. It won’t work in any other dimensions. I found that out.”

“Where does it come from,” Ta’lan asked, amazed.

“It’s actually one of four spheres that were given to me by Shaqor Niseel of the planet Xarius. But I don’t need to actually have the sphere in my possession to use it. I only need to call it.”

“Amazing,” Ta’lan said, clearly impressed. “How do you use it? Do you just step through… like my convex entry portal?”

“Follow me,” Liz said. “Portal, please take us to the top of that mountain to the east, the one called the ‘T’chor Ja’nah.’ We would like to see…” Liz smiled and glanced at Maria… “an aerie.”

Liz stepped into the portal, and, one by one, the others all followed. They stepped out on a high ledge overlooking the Ke’cje valley to a view that was breathtaking in beauty… and more than a little bit breathtaking in height.”

“Omigosh!” Maria exclaimed, glancing down at the valley far below. “That’s… awesome!” Quickly, she edged up next to Michael and lifted his arm and put it around herself… “Now’s your time to shine, Spaceboy. Keep me from falling off of here. I’m not an eagle, you know.”

Michael smiled. “I’ll hang on to ya, Ree. Don’t worry.”

Actually, the place where they were standing was more than merely a ledge. They were standing on the edge of it overlooking the valley, but behind them was a rather substantial small, grassy plain that ran about a hundred feet before butting up against the mountain. And in the side of the mountain, there was a cave. Other than for the fact that Maria couldn’t see any way a person could get up here unless they could fly or had a sphere like Liz’s, Maria thought that this would be a great secluded hideaway for her and Michael… their own private… aerie. Maria smiled as that thought flitted through her mind. But who was she kidding? The only way she would ever get back up here again would be if she begged Liz to let her use the sphere. Not that Liz would mind. Liz had always been very generous, letting any of them use the sphere of the portal. But sometimes Maria just wanted to keep her intentions private except to herself and Michael.

“If you hold your arms out at your sides,” Ta’lan said, “You can feel the wind flow under them. It feels like the wind will just lift you up.”

“I think I’ll keep my feet on the ground,” Maria said. “I don’t want to be lifted up unless I’ve got wings or something to get me back down safely.”

The others laughed, but inside, most of them had pretty much the same feeling.

Ta’lan smiled. “I don’t expect anyone to jump off of the cliff, but I want you to feel what I’m talking about.”

One by one, each one extended his or her arms out to the sides and faced into the wind.

“Now close your eyes and imagine that there are wings on your backs. Feel them growing out across the backs of your arms. Feel the wind under them lifting you up…”

Isabel opened her eyes suddenly. “Is that what this is all about,” she gasped, as she realized what Ta’lan’s intentions were. “You’re trying to teach us to… to shapeshift?”

Ta’lan just smiled.

“I don’t think we can do that… can we?” Alex asked, more curious than afraid.

Liz shook her head. “Our bodies aren’t capable of shapeshifting. That’s why when J’Shalo did what he did to our brains it almost killed us. He made our brains produce uncontrollable impulses to shapeshift, but our bodies weren’t able to… not successfully. It would have been fatal if Rahn hadn’t altered our brains to allow us to control the impulses.”

“Exactly,” Ta’lan said. “And now you can control them.”

Liz thought about it for a brief moment… “No… I mean, yes, we can control the impulses now, but our bodies haven’t, you know, adapted over thousands of millennia to allow us to shapeshift the way yours and Rahn’s have. I still don’t know where you get the extra mass from to grow in size or where the mass goes when you reduce your size down to the size of a… a roadrunner, like Rahn did in the other dimension. Our bodies simply can’t do that.”

“That is probably true, Liz,” Ta’lan agreed. “You have not had the many millennia to adapt the way we have. And your bodies probably cannot grow larger or smaller… at least not by any significant amount. But you can shapeshift. You can have wings. And you can fly.”

Liz looked at Ta’lan with a look of total incredulity written all over her face. The whole idea flew in the face of everything she knew about science… or physics… or the human body. But something inside her was telling her that Ta’lan knew what she was talking about. It wasn’t possible… but it was probably true. It was a contradiction that Liz, especially, found hard to reconcile in her mind.

“Bumblebees fly, don’t they, Liz?” Maria asked.

“Yeah.”

“And science says they shouldn’t be able to fly… aerodynamically.”

Liz looked momentarily thoughtful, then amused. “Maria! You WERE listening in science class!”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Well, maybe I learned a lot of things, Liz. I just don’t let any of it blind me to other truths.”

Liz laughed. “As crazy as that sounded, Maria, it made a whole lot of sense. Thanks, girlfriend!”

“Anytime.”

Liz turned back to Ta’lan. “You really think we could grow wings?”

Ta’lan nodded.

“Where would the extra mass come from?”

Ta’lan smiled. “From within you. In order to fly, Liz, two things have to happen. You have to have wings… and you have to be lighter. Fortunately, when we grow wings, the mass needed for the wings conveniently comes from elsewhere in the body, and that reduces our weight. It comes from bones, fat, and other tissues in the body that won’t need it temporarily. This makes us considerably lighter, inch for inch, because the wings are very big but not heavy. Birds have hollow bones, you know.”

“Okay, but… how can our bodies change shape? We have a fixed shape…”

Ta’lan shook her head. “Not so fixed as you may think… Your bodies are not so very different than ours, Liz. Your bodies are living things, not stones that cannot change. When you are born, you are a baby, but you grow… and change. The arteries and blood circulate antibodies and platelets and all kind of things to different parts of your body all the time. If you are wounded… you heal. You gain weight or lose it depending on how your body stores or uses fat. Your hair grows and has to be cut. Finger and toenails grow. In many ways, your bodies, just like ours, change from minute to minute and day to day. Is it so hard to believe that something more might be possible?”

Liz shook her head and stretched her arms out at her sides. Then… one by one… the others did the same. Ta’lan smiled…

“Close your eyes and feel the wind flow beneath your arms. Then imagine that you have wings above your arms, on your back, and feel the wind that is beneath your arms flow under the wings, too. Feel it under your arms first. That way you can transfer the sensation to the wings that you wish to create. Feel the lift.”

Liz concentrated. So did the others. Suddenly, there was a soft thud, and everyone opened their eyes. Kyle was lying on the ground on his left side. On his right shoulder blade, a small wing had started to grow.

“Kyle, what happened,” Maria exclaimed, as Jeliya ran to help him. “I think you were doing it!”

Kyle nodded, at a momentary loss for words. Then he found his voice again… “The wind flipped me over.”

“You are only beginning to learn,” Ta’lan said. “The wind beneath only one wing can do that if you are not expecting it.” Ta’lan reached out her hand to Kyle and he took it, standing back up and brushing himself off.

“Try again,” Ta’lan said.

Everyone stretched their arms out wide again. This time, they all felt an odd sensation… as though something was beginning to happen… or at least trying to happen… but it was a startled scream that broke their concentration again.

“ALEX!”

They all looked up to see Isabel, two perfect wings spread wide, rising slowly into the wind.

“Alex, get me down! I don’t know how to get down!”

“Give me your hand,” Alex yelled back, reaching up toward Isabel, who was hovering just above them.

“Move your wings forward and up a little,” Ta’lan said. “Reduce the lift. Just don’t reduce it all at once.”

Isabel did, and slowly, she settled back to the ground. Immediately, Alex tackled her.

“I’m on the ground, Alex. I don’t need it now,” Isabel said.

“But I do,” Alex replied. Isabel rolled her eyes and smiled then put her arms around Alex…

“You’re starting to grow wings, too, Alex! Did you know it?”

“I knew I felt something.”

“Omigosh! Look at Liz,” Maria exclaimed. “She’s… just like Isabel! She’s doing it!”

“So are you,” Liz said. “Have you looked at yourself, Ree? You look like a little Christmas tree cherub.”

Maria reached back and felt two small wings on her back. They were about half as long as her arms.

“Omigod! How did I do that? Will they get any bigger?”

“If you concentrate, they’ll get bigger,” Ta’lan said. “Your wings should be about four times as long as your arms, but when you become proficient at flying, you will adjust them to the length that works best for you.”

“This is so cool,” Maria exclaimed. “I’m a shapeshifter!”

Ta’lan raised her eyebrows a bit and nodded. “I guess that is true. You are part of our family now… you all are.”

“I think I can feel something on my back,” Michael said to Maria. “Do you see anything?”

Maria checked Michael’s back. He did have two very small wings beginning to appear.

“You’re doing it!”

Michael grinned and looked over at Max.

“Hey, what’s the hurry,” Max said defensively. “I’d rather get it right.”

“Yeah, sure you would, buddy,” Michael replied. “We know!”

“Well, I would,” Max said, feeling his shoulders for any possible trace of a wing.

“Don’t worry,” Liz said comfortingly, “You’ll do it, Max.”

“I’m not worried!” Max exclaimed. Then he lowered his voice just a bit. “I’m not worried. I’m just waiting to see what mistakes everybody else makes, so I don’t make them. I’m doing it the smart way. That’s all.”

“I know,” Liz said, nodding.

“I am!” Max insisted.

“We know,” Maria said.

Max closed his eyes again and concentrated.

Meanwhile, Maria and Michael’s wings had grown, but they both seemed to have stopped growing at about the length of their arms. Kyle, who was still struggling to get his other wing to come out, couldn’t help noticing… and commenting…

“Hey, Michael, if you guys are gonna stop there, I can use a couple more little angel cherubs for my tree come Christmas.”

“Very funny, Valenti! Yuk it up! I don’t see you flyin’ yet.”

“We don’t need longer wings, Kyle,” Maria said. “We’re hummingbirds.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Michael said. “We’re hummingbirds. What are you going to be, Kyle? One hand flapping in the wind?” Michael smiled.

“If I wanted to be,” Kyle replied feistily. “But I want big wings myself!”

“That’s good, Kyle… but I don’t think Isabel will give them to you. What would she fly with then?”

“C’mon guys,” Jeliya said, “Stop joking and concentrate on what you’re doing. It’s your wings you’re trying to grow, not your tongues.”

Kyle looked at Jeliya and smiled sheepishly. He noticed that Jeliya had some pretty impressive wings already… and she looked great. Kyle had to admit to himself that he liked what he saw… not just in the wings, but in Jeliya. She was hot.

“Truce, Michael?”

“Truce.”

Ta’lan had finished looking over Liz’s wings and was inspecting Isabel’s and Jeliya’s when suddenly Maria gasped again.

Everyone looked where Maria was pointing just in time to see a form fall off the ledge. It was Liz. Max leapt forward to grab her and disappeared over the edge, too.

“MAX!” Michael yelled, panicking. “Max, you don’t have wings! Aw crap…”

Michael leapt off the ledge behind Max.

“MICHAEL!” Maria gasped, realizing that Michael’s wings were not yet long enough to be anywhere near effective enough to fly, the hummingbird joke notwithstanding.

In the meantime, unaware of what was happening behind her, Liz had spread her wings out to their full length and was gliding out over the valley. Half way across the valley, she turned back toward the cliff and saw not one, not two, but three other pairs of wings in the distance coming towards her. And behind those was yet another. She thought that two of them might be Isabel and Jeliya. They were the only ones, besides herself, whose wings were fully-formed and ready to fly. But she had no idea who the third person could be… or the forth.

As she drew nearer, she realized, with some shock, that the one in the lead was neither Isabel nor Jeliya, but Max. And not far behind Max was Michael, flapping furiously but managing to stay aloft, since his wings had grown out another several feet in length. Not far behind Michael was Maria, also flapping furiously but beginning to slow into a more normal pattern as her wings grew out enough to support her. But Max! Liz couldn’t believe what she was seeing. He had had no wings at all… not even a hint… when she had jumped off the ledge. Liz didn’t know it, but Max had had no wings when he had leapt either. He did now, though… and so did Michael and Maria, who were coming up fast behind him. Not far behind them was Rahn, who had come to help if needed. Fortunately, it appeared that he would not be needed.

Max glided up beside Liz and took her hand…

“I thought you fell off the ledge…”

“I thought you had no wings.”

Max smiled. “Well, I couldn’t let you just fly away.”

At that moment, Michael caught up with them. His wings were almost full length now, and his flapping had slowed considerably, allowing him to rest his aching muscles a little and glide.

“Max, holy cheese, man! What were you thinking?”

“I had to save Liz.”

“It looked to me like you were the one who needed saving!”

“What do you mean? I told you I could do it when I was ready!”

“Yeah? Did you believe it, though? ‘Cause I sure didn’t!”

Max shrugged and grinned. “Maybe… a little bit. Okay, I had my doubts, but hey, I’m here now. What about you? I didn’t think you were ready yet.”

“Somebody had to save you, Max.”

As Michael spoke, Maria glided up beside him. He turned and looked, surprised to see her there…

“Maria! What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? Saving you!”

“Me? I don’t need saving. I’m saving Max.”

Liz started laughing.

“What’s so funny,” Maria asked.

“So many lifesavers and no one to save! Have any of you even looked at the gorgeous view down below us?”

Maria looked down and swallowed. “Omigosh! What am I doing?”

“Flying, I think,” Liz replied, still laughing.

“I don’t like heights, Liz! I never did.” Maria looked again at the valley and the river far below and swallowed. “It is beautiful, though.” She looked at her wings and felt the wind beneath them supporting her as she glided along almost effortlessly now. “I think… maybe… I could get used to this…”

Liz laughed again.

In the distance, two more sets of wings leapt from the ledge, then another, each one settling into a gentle glide like so many beautiful gliders in the morning sun. Michael smiled at Maria, and Maria reached out to take Michael’s hand, her left wing just behind his right wing, as they sailed together across the valley, turned, and then sailed back again toward the ledge they had leapt from. Releasing Michael’s hand, Maria flapped her wings several times, lifting herself above the ledge, then she settled lightly onto the ground on her feet. Because of her lighter weight, it had seemed almost too easy.

Right behind Maria, Michael settled onto the ledge, too, then turned around and looked again at the glistening wings gliding in the sunlight over the valley…

“Nice! I think I’m really going to like this!”

“I thought you would,” Ta’lan said with a smile. “There’s nothing as freeing or as joyous as flying.”

“Not much anyway,” Michael agreed, taking Maria into his arms and wrapping her in his wings.

tbc

Post by **Island Breeze** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:05 pm

The Four Faces Of Rath

Four Faces, One Heart

Chapter 71

LXXI

Maria clung to Michael’s arm and smiled as they left the C’prysta, unquestionably the dressiest --and the most expensive-- place for a night out on Antar. The C’prysta had the best food of the galaxy’s best food. It was ten stars out of five and as gourmet as it was possible to get. But it was also a place to dance the night away and listen to great music performed live by Antar’s most popular bands and singers. Michael and Maria had been to the C’prysta a few times, but not very recently. The fact is… family restaurants like Var’nat’s Kires-Ryym and the CrashDown had become their eat-out locales du jour. Nowadays, “get-out-and-get-away” usually meant taking the kids out for a family outing; and there was no denying that Michael and Maria loved and cherished every family moment together. But tonight was a different kind of night. Tonight had been a real “GET-OUT-AND-GET-AWAY” night to cap off a really, really “GET-OUT-AND-GET-AWAY” day.

Maria breathed the night air in deeply, with great satisfaction, and leaned her head on Michael’s arm, lifting her eyes to look into his… “It’s been a long time since we got all dressed up like this, Michael… I’m glad we did this. It was a wonderful evening.”

Michael looked at Maria and smiled. Her eyes seemed to dance under the Antarian moonlight, and her face had a radiant glow.

“A great day deserves a great evening, Maria. I thought you’d like it.”

“I loved it!” Maria reached up to give Michael a kiss. Then she looked into his eyes and smiled… “I love YOU.”

“I love you, too,” Michael said, with immense sincerity. He remembered a time when those words had been very hard for him to say. Michael knew better than anyone how far he had come since coming to Antar… and how much farther still he had come since he and Max had brought Maria and Liz to Antar. The two years they had spent on Antar without Maria and Liz had had a profound effect on both of them. Michael never wanted to be without Maria again, and in some strange way, he felt that those three words were the key to making that wish come true.

“How were your Golden Sea pink-ringed shrimp?”

“The jarlagos-droozeen were great,” Maria sighed, “So was the Grelligo soup… and the Corvian brandy.”

“Oh, yeah, well, that… Corvian brandy’s like liquid gold. It should be good!” Michael looked at Maria and grinned. “But it WAS good, wasn’t it!”

“Worth every kyrin.”

Michael nodded. “You know, I don’t think I ever saw anyone fix grelliats like that. I really liked them.”

“I noticed…” Maria patted Michael on the stomach. “I’ll see if I can duplicate their recipe.”

“Really?”

Maria shrugged. “Yeah, why not! If they can do it, I can do it.”

Michael and Maria reached the end of the C’prysta’s arbored walkway and crossed over a small boardwalk bridge that led to the edge of the Golden Sea. There, they removed their shoes and continued walking along the beach under the full moons.

“Daneela Varel sang great, didn’t she, Michael?”

Michael nodded. “Yeah. I still think she sounds like Dido.”

Maria laughed then thought about it. “Yeah, I guess she does… kind of.”

“Max and I were talking about that once… a long time ago… when we went to save you and Liz after the earth was destroyed in the other timeline… about how she sounded like Dido. Daneela’s older now, but she still sounds great.”

“Yeah… she does,” Maria agreed, “I love the mellow, romantic edge she gives to her songs.”

Michael nodded. “And Var Juma… don’t you think Var Juma sounded like Ivy? Remember ‘Edge Of The Ocean?’”

Maria looked at the Golden Sea and looked back at Michael, smiling. “Any reason you’d think of that song right now, Michael? Edge Of The Ocean?”

Michael shrugged, playfully kicking a gentle wave that rushed up over his feet… “Coincidence.”

Maria smiled. “Yeah, I see the resemblance in the voices… and the styles. I loved the music, Michael… but you know what made tonight really special?”

“What?”

“You.”

Michael stopped and looked at Maria then wrapped her in his arms and kissed her. After several minutes, they resumed walking again, each with an arm around the other.

“You made it special for me, too, Maria. I even liked dancing with you.”

Maria giggled. “I know you don’t usually like to dance, Michael, but you did seem to be having a good time.”

“I was.”

“You sure it wasn’t the Corvian brandy?”

Michael laughed. “No… it was you… it was you. The brandy was good, but only you can make me dance.”

Maria giggled again then smiled. She knew that there was great truth in that simple statement.

As if to punctuate what he had said, Michael took Maria’s hands and began to dance with her on the beach, in the moonlight, as the gentle waves of the Golden Sea swished in and out over their bare feet. The rivulets of water flowing back out under their feet moved the sand beneath them, tickling Maria’s toes. She laughed… then she let herself go with the moment, enjoying the chance to truly lose herself with Michael… It was all so freeing! Together they spun and leapt, they swayed and dipped, they laughed… and completely let go… but mostly, they held each other tight, swayed to the music in their heads, and kissed as though there were no tomorrow…

And somewhere in the night, someone else watched…

“What do you think?”

“He looks like he’s enjoying himself.”

“I told you he’d be fine.”

“Well, I like to see things for myself, old man. No offense, but it’s how I’ve survived. And I want to make sure that he does, too. He’s kind of… you know… me… in a way.”

The old man smiled and nodded. “So… does this arrangement suit you, Rath?”

Rath sighed and nodded… “I’m grateful to you, Drax… and to the Noogies, too, for setting up a special timeline for Zan and Ava and me to live on in… I just don’t want to mess things up for him… for Michael… in his timeline. I mean, him being me and all.”

The Drax-ta-kiya looked at Durj’ori beside him and smiled, which was as close as he ever came to laughing.

“It’s Nogi’s… Nogi-K’ya,” Durj’ori said. “And you’re welcome. Michael altered your timeline when he was there. Granted, it was our fault, actually, but that’s not important now… Anyway, we had the option of putting it back like it was and leaving it that way or splitting off the altered line into a separate timeline. In view of the… fate that awaited you all in your original timeline, we thought you would not object to this arrangement.”

Rath shook his head and looked at Zan, and Zan shook his head in agreement… “Ava and I are happy… as long as it does not affect them in their time.”

Durj’ori smiled proudly. “You don’t know how many Nogi-K’ya worked on this without any rest for the last year to make sure that that would be the case… and to get it done while you are still alive. Your kind has such a desperately short lifespan.”

“It was shorter in the timeline Kivar was in,” Zan said.

“So now nobody gets knocked off by Kivar… ‘cause Kivar won’t be in our timeline?” Rath asked.

“It’s not as simple as that,” Durj’ori said. “What happened in the other timeline will still happen… but you were split off from that timeline right before it happens. In that timeline, you still die, but here you live on. And Michael and Max are still created from your DNA and Zan’s… from that timeline.”

“Don’t ask him to explain it further,” the Drax-ta-kiya said, “Neither you nor I will live long enough to hear the entire explanation.”

“Sadly, that is true,” Durj’ori agreed.

“This guy, Michael… Tell me about him,” Rath said, “I mean… I know he’s me… or he’s made from me… but he’s different, too… and yet, he’s not. I like him… He can be a serious warrior and protect his kingdom… like me… when he needs to be. But he has an artist’s soul…”

“Also like you, I have heard,” the Drax-ta-kiya said.

Rath shrugged slightly. “Not many know that. Only my closest friends… of which there are very few.”

“It’s not a crime, Rath.”

“It would make me look weak if it were widely known.”

“Like Michael?”

“No. I didn’t say that Michael was… I see what you mean. But Michael… it’s all in the package. It’s who he is.”

“Is that bad?”

Rath shook his head. “Michael is what he is… a warrior and an artist… a true and faithful friend… and… and something more. I can’t quite put my finger on it. When you look at me, you see a man of one face, at least outwardly. I am loyal and faithful and a warrior, too, but they are all seen through this one face… the face of the warrior. Michael is much more complex. He has three… maybe four… yes, four faces. And he has learned to separate and cultivate each of these… aspects… of his life… as something to be cherished. There is the warrior-protector, the creator or artist, the faithful and true friend, and something else… very important. I think… it is something about him and his lady, Maria… Even when he’s not with her… he still is. There is this… something… defining… between them.”

“Candy?”

Rath looked at the Drax-ta-kiya, and the old man smiled and held out his hand with something in it.

“What is that?”

“Something I obtained on the planet Michael grew up on. It’s called candy.”

Rath took one of the little pellets and looked at it. Then he tasted it. “It tastes like Xa’fa.”

“They call it chocolate,” the Drax-ta-kiya said. “I think it is the same thing.”

“What does the little symbol on it mean?”

The Drax-ta-kiya shook his head. “It is a W… or an M… depending on the way you hold it.”

“There’s only one problem with it,” Rath said, savoring and then swallowing the pellet. “It makes you want more.”

“It does, doesn’t it,” the Drax-ta-kiya agreed, putting another one into his own mouth then handing Rath several more. “It does indeed.”

<center> <<<<>>>> Epilogue <<<<>>>> </center>

As the sun’s first rays crept over the Golden Sea, Michael rolled over and looked at Maria lying beside him in the sand. The gentle waves moved in and out around them, and Maria smiled and put her arms around Michael and kissed him passionately.

“My mother warned me about guys like you, Michael Guerin.”

“I guess it’s a good thing she’s not here then, huh?”

Maria giggled. “Yeah. Or she might see me do this…” Maria kissed Michael on the lips gently… “or this…” She unbuttoned his shirt and ran her hand over his chest.

“The sun’s coming up,” Michael said, looking around worriedly. “People will be showing up at the beach soon.”

Maria put a pout on her lips, but even Michael could tell that it was feigned. Her eyes still danced with the memories of the past twenty-four hours.

Michael smiled and rolled over on top of Maria, wrapping her in his arms, then rolled over again with her on top of him.

“Now this is closer to what I had in mind,” Maria said, lifting her head and gazing into Michael’s eyes adoringly, as another wave swept up the beach underneath them, playing with Michael’s hair. Both Michael and Maria were thoroughly soaked, but neither of them seemed to care.

“Do you think Max and Liz went straight home after the C’prysta,” Maria asked.

Michael laughed. “I haven’t thought about it. I don’t know. They were still dancing when we left. They probably danced all night then went home.”

Maria nodded. “Mmm… yeah… probably. You’re a lot more fun.”

Michael laughed again. “Liz and Max might disagree with you there, Ree. But for the record, you could be right.”

“Of course I’m right. I picked you to live my life with, didn’t I?”

“Yeah… you got me… for better or for worse. You know, Maria, I was wondering… about this shapeshifting thing, you know… do you think we ought to mention it to the kids?”

“GOOD LORD, NO!” Maria exclaimed, then she began to laugh. “Zorel and Jayyd would badger us to death to change them so they could do it, too! That’s all I need is for Zorel and Jayyd to fly away whenever they want to! I mean… we’ve already got Kryys with his… ‘special gift’ popping in and out without warning. Maybe we could tell Zorel and Jayyd when they’re, oh, I don’t know, married and about thirty? Until then, let’s just keep this as our own little secret, okay? I’ve got a feeling Kryys knows already, but he’ll keep our secret… if we ask him to.”

Michael nodded. “That’s pretty much what I was thinking.

Michael stood up and brushed the sand off of his back and legs. Then he picked Maria up in his arms. She put both of her arms around Michael’s neck and gazed into his eyes dreamily. “Did I ever tell you I love you, Spaceboy?”

Michael smiled and nodded. “Let’s go home, Maria. The kids will be over at your mom’s till noon. I think there’s a hot bath at home with our names on it just calling to us.”

Maria grinned… and then nodded. “I hear it!”

“Oh, and Ree… in case you haven’t heard me say it recently, I love you, too.”

Michael carried Maria back to the little boardwalk bridge, where they found their shoes, right where they had left them. Then they walked across the bridge… and back to the everyday lives they knew and loved… together.

As the Antarian sun rose over the Golden Sea, it glinted off of a Fan-Ji IV hovercar quietly leaving the parking lot of the C’prysta… heading for the countryside.

<center> <<<<>>>> The End <<<<>>>> </center>

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