Fan Fic and More

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All Good Things…

Chapter 27

XXVII



Everyone who had camped out the night before had enjoyed themselves so much that they asked to be allowed to camp out for a second night. And seeing how much the first group had enjoyed themselves, some of those who had stayed onboard the ship the first night decided to join them for their second night of camping… though a few still chose to remain in the comfort of the ship.

Max agreed that camping out another night would not be a problem, and a round of cheers went up as he announced his decision. Since they had not yet rolled up the tents, they left everything in place and went fishing in the river for dinner. Jim caught several nice rainbow trouts, and Zorel caught a couple more. Varec even caught a couple, so it appeared that they would not be going hungry. Kryys and Maya, with some of the other children, collected a couple of buckets full of blackberries and blueberries. And the water from the river was ice cold and delicious.

Michael filleted the fish, and Maria and Michael cooked them over a campfire. Simple though it was, it was declared one of the best meals the group had ever eaten. That night, as the stars came out and the frogs and crickets began to sing, the group lay watching the canopies of the trees above their tents and the starry sky beyond, thinking that it couldn't get much better than this.


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Meanwhile, in Roswell, New Mexico, agent Nick Jenkins wadded up a written order and threatened to throw it in the garbage…

"How could they do this? How could they even think it? That man's a certified coo-coo looneybird. I have no intention of being part of any group of his again!"

Agent Lon Benson shook his head, "I don't like it either, Nick, but we don't have a choice… not if we want to stay in the Department. We have to take our orders."

"Well, it stinks," Jenkins asserted emphatically.

Agent Diane Casey had just entered the room and overheard their conversation. "I'm no more thrilled about it than the two of you. I can't figure how they ever let Zwolinski come back."

"Well, he convinced someone up there," said Benson. "I don't know how… but they've given him five agents and his job back to go after these… 'aliens.'"

"Do you sometimes get the idea that someone else up there… higher up the ladder… isn't quite rowing with both oars in the water either," asked Casey.

"Shhh… Don't let them hear you say that," Jenkins said.

They all laughed, but deep down, they had more than just an uneasy feeling that it wasn't just a joke.

Director Zeb Sikorski walked into the room at that moment, almost as if on cue…

"I've got your orders! All of you… you're shipping out in twenty minutes… high priority. Your commander will be Dumas Zwolinski. Any questions?"

Diane Casey grimaced, but no one said anything.

"Good! Then consider yourselves out of here."

"Out of here to where, sir," asked Jenkins.

Director Sikorski looked at him for a moment as if sizing up the question…

"Tennessee, Jenkins… near Gatlinburg. Anything else? Should I spoon-feed you sissies, too? You've got your orders! Now get out! Zwolinski will brief you on the way."

The three walked out of the office, leaving Sikorski behind them. Diane Casey had her hands tucked just inside the waist of her pants… both middle fingers extended where they couldn't be seen.

In the parking lot, Zwolinski was waiting with a shuttle. Agents Rick Hughley and Dan Christopher were already in the vehicle. Jenkins, Benson, and Casey climbed in with them, and Zwolinski ordered the driver to the airport as fast as he could get there.

"Gentlemen," Zwolinski started, then added "…and lady! I have a Lear jet waiting at the airport to fly us to Knoxville and a fully outfitted Nighthawk helicopter waiting at the airport to fly us into the mountains. We're going after some aliens that have been infesting our planet for too long now and whose time is finally up."

"Sir," asked Diane Casey… "If I might ask… how do we know where to find these aliens… or, for that matter, that they actually are aliens?"

"Oh, we know," said Zwolinski flatly, “I have a network of informants that you could only dream of, Agent Casey! One of my informants overheard two hikers talking about seeing something strange in the Smokies near Gatlinburg. They were hiking along the river last night when they saw two black bears.”

Zwolinski grinned as he let this information sink in.

Jenkins shook his head… "Sir… black bears are nothing uncommon in those mountains. Hell! If those hikers went into the Smokies and didn't see any black bears, now that would be strange.”

"You didn't let me finish," said Zwolinski, "You see… these black bears weren't just nosing around looking for food or being your average 'Yogi Bear' pests. They appeared to be standing guard in front of some tents… They chased the hikers away then went back and assumed their positions again like they were pets or something."

Diane looked at Benson then at Zwolinski, with a slight grin… "Did anyone check to see how many empty beer cans were in the hikers' backpacks, Sir?"

"Joke all you want, Casey," said Zwolinski, "but I know what I know. I've dedicated my entire life to ridding the Earth of this alien scum, and nobody but nobody knows how to recognize their trail better than I do. Thank God or the devil or whoever is on my side out there that Director Sikorski still believes in me and feels as I do about this alien scourge! He'll be joining us for the takedown."

Casey, Benson, Jenkins, Hughley, and Christopher looked at each other. Their faces revealed nothing, but their minds seemed to be in agreement. They were following a mad man… two mad men, including Director Sikorski! But they were still FBI special ops agents… and they had their orders.


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In their tent, Liz sat up suddenly, gasping, sheer panic in her eyes. Max rushed to hold her…

"What is it, Liz?"

"I had a premonition… like the one I got when we were in danger at our graduation." Huge tears rolled down Liz's face as she spoke. Max knew this was not something he wanted to hear.

"I saw Zwolinski… and Jayyd. Zwolinski shot Jayyd dead, and you couldn't save her or bring her back… and I saw Danyy's pawgor… and a mysterious stranger affecting our destinies in some way.”


-----------------------End of Chapter 27

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The Devil in the Smokies

Chapter 28

XXVIII


Max leapt to his feet and raced out of the tent, yelling to awaken all the other campers. Soon, everyone was awake and wondering what was going on.

"We've got to go!" Max said flatly. We have to go now! Leave the tents. I'll transport us up to the ship."

There was a lot of confusion… but no one questioned Max's decision. To a person, everyone ran to the middle of the clearing. Then they heard the rising sound of a helicopter coming. Max took out the remote transporter and started to press the button that would transport them all back into the safety of the ship, but before he could activate the beam, a burst of machine gun fire from the helicopter sprayed him in the back, sending him sprawling into the clearing, unconscious, as his blood flowed unstoppably into the ground from more than a dozen bullet holes.

Now, everyone was rushing frantically to protect themselves and the children.

Realizing that their only hope of avoiding a mass slaughter was to get everybody back aboard the ship… including Max, who could be looked at there… Michael dived for the transporter remote. It was a long shot, at best, but Michael did not stop to consider the odds… He knew them. Diving headlong into the clearing, he closed his fingers around the precious device, lifting it from the ground just as machine gun fire from the helicopter strafed him, sending him crumpled to the earth beside Max. The helicopter made a wide circle; then, turning back toward the group, it fired a sidewinder missile.

Everyone ran for safety. Roselle picked up Jayyd, and Denise and Maria grabbed Kryys by the hands, pushing Zorel, who wanted desperately to help his father, in front of them into the forest. Krys, Nina, Lisa, and April rushed Maya, Andya, JoLeesa, and Alyyx into the forest, as Liz ran to try to help Max. Somehow, by blind luck, the errant sidewinder missile struck the invisible new granolith, which suddenly lost part of its invisibility and anti-gravity capability and pitched down into the trees, looking like a huge city built into the treetops at an odd angle.

Kyle and Jeliya grabbed Rayyn and Taz, and Rachel and Tracie helped cover them, as they rushed the children into the forest. Alex and Isabel, helped by Sabrina and Trude, made for the trees with Mareeya and Ceelya. Andrea rushed Liz-JoLee to Varec and Amy, and they escaped into the forest behind the tents. Jim and Kathleen ran to the trees with Andrew, carrying Danyy, as Jim covered them. It was chaos on a major scale.

Trying desperately to get to Max, Liz fired off two power surges from the palms of her hands, striking the helicopter in the tail and rotor, snapping off the tail and bending the rotors upward. Unbalanced, the blades spun themselves into oblivion, and the helicopter plummeted to the ground about a hundred yards away in the forest. Liz didn't pay much attention to the fallen helicopter, though, instead, rushing immediately to Max's side to try to help him. Zorel and Maria were already rushing to Michael's side, too. Both Max and Michael were unconscious… seriously, and possibly fatally, injured. Liz and Maria, with help from Zorel and a few others who had returned, managed to get Max and Michael back to one of the tents, but they did not go inside, preferring instead to remain outside where they could watch for danger.

After about ten minutes, everyone had returned to the clearing. Max had regained some measure of consciousness, but he was not totally coherent and was not strong enough to help either himself or Michael, who still lay unconscious and dying. Then, at the worst possible time, machine gun fire came again, unexpectedly and suddenly, from the trees to the west, where the helicopter had fallen. But this time it did not come from the helicopter's guns; it came from hand carried weapons. Six-year-old Alyyx Evans fell to the ground wounded. More gunfire followed immediately, with devastating results. Those not hit ran for cover.

The sun was now rising, and they could see the total extent of the horror. Besides six-year-old Alyyx Evans, Amy, Isabel, seven-year-old Rayyn, six-year-old Taz, their father, Kyle, six year-old Ceelya Whitman, and eight-year-old Maya lay wounded and bleeding in the clearing, along with Rachel, Tracie, Trude, and Nina, who had tried to save them and had possibly given their lives in the effort.

At the moment, the gunfire had mysteriously stopped, and everyone again rushed out to do whatever was possible for the wounded. Max was fully conscious now, having succeeded in healing the worst of his own wounds, at least internally. Forcing himself up, he went from one injured person to the other, placing his hands on their wounds to heal them… including Michael.


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Meanwhile, on a mountain ledge, by a roadside in the distance, a solitary stranger watched as a car with four FBI agents not associated with, nor aware of, Zwolinski’s operation approached along the winding mountain road. Noticing the crashed Nighthawk helicopter… but not the new granolith, which still had some degree of invisibility on the side they were on… the agents stopped the car and pulled out a set of binoculars then got back into the car and started off to help their coworkers. But as the car started forward, the mysterious stranger stepped in front of it, forcing it to brake suddenly and skid to a stop… two feet in front of him.

"What the hell are you doing… trying to get run over?" one of the agents yelled.

Undaunted, the stranger stood his ground and merely waved dismissively… “It's okay. You're not needed here. There's been a small accident, but it's being handled.”

"What's that guy down there doing to those people,” the driver asked, pointing at Max down below the hill trying to heal the wounded children and other victims. “Are those people dead?”

The stranger shook his head, “That's… uh… that's Father Max… He's giving last rites. I told you, it's being handled.”

The agent in charge looked at the stranger for a moment, clearly suspicious…

"I think we'll go see for ourselves."

The stranger looked down and took what appeared to be a small notebook and pen from his shirt pocket… then he pressed the button on the pen and began to write on the pad. As he did, the radio in the agents' car suddenly came to life… "Unit sixteen! Unit sixteen! Come back!"

The driver picked up the phone, “Unit sixteen here. Go ahead.”

"Unit sixteen, report immediately to the substation in Knoxville. You will be briefed upon arrival."

"Unit sixteen here. We may have a situation here where we’re needed…"

"You have your orders, Sixteen. Follow orders and wait to be briefed!”

The agent sighed, in obvious frustration… "Unit sixteen here. Understood. Out.” Looking unhappy, he took one last look at the downed FBI helicopter below the hill then turned the car around and headed toward Knoxville.


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Meanwhile, Max had succeeded in healing all the injured, and the group was taking action to find out just who it was that had fired on them and what had happened to them. Maya was able to locate the agents with her telecommunication ability. They, however, having no Antarian DNA, could not hear or sense her. Maya pointed out to Max and Michael where the agents were.

As this was going on, Liz, Isabel, and Alex walked back into one of the tents. What they would find there was the last thing any of them ever expected. After recovering from his initial surprise, Alex was the first to speak…

"What the hell are you doing here?"

“It's good to see you, too, Alex,” said Tess, "I thought you guys might like some help getting out of here.”

“Tess…” Liz exclaimed, “How did you get here? You said you didn’t want to come with us.”

"Yeah, well, I was… kind of interested in this guy I met on Antar… and as for how I got here, I borrowed a ship… a bit smaller than the new granolith, of course."

"Didn't work out with the guy, huh," Alex asked.

"Don't be so negative, Alex," Tess said. She removed an invisibility warp, and standing beside her was a handsome Antarian man about her age.

"Meet Rayylar… my husband."

Rayylar smiled.

“Well, as you can see,” said Alex, with a tone of frustrated sarcasm in his voice, “We're just having a picnic here. I'm glad you could join us.”

“I can get us all past the agents out there by putting an invisibility warp on their minds so they won't see any of us,” Tess said.

Liz and Isabel looked at each other then at Alex.

“Let's run it by Max and Michael.”

After conferring with Max and Michael, the group agreed it was their best chance at escaping alive.

“Let's do it,” said Michael.

Tess led the group past the agents the same way she and Rayylar had come in. It appeared that it would go off without a hitch, but just as they were reaching the road, a shrill alarm went off. All the agents converged on the point where the alarm had sounded, and Zwolinski fired several random bursts of machine gun spray into the air, hitting Tess. As Tess went down, she and the entire group became visible, and they were immediately surrounded by the five agents plus Zwolinski and his superior, Director Sikorski.

"Well, well, well…" said Zwolinski, "I guess patience does pay off in the end. You can play with my mind, you can play with their minds, but that alarm doesn't have a mind to play with. It sees… it hollers… and I get my prey!"

Zwolinski pointed his automatic weapon at the group.

"They’re just children, some of them, Zwolinski," Agent Casey reminded him.

"Not children, agent Casey! Godless alien scum! Scum that I’ve sworn to eradicate from the Earth!"

With that, Zwolinski punctuated his contempt by opening fire on the smallest member of the group, five-year-old Jayyd Guerin. Roselle and Michael saw it coming and threw themselves in front of Jayyd. Both were cut down along with Jayyd by repeated bursts of automatic weapons fire. When it stopped, the five agents with Zwolinski stood speechless and pale. Max rushed to Jayyd and Roselle and pressed his hand against them to try to heal them, but it was hopeless. He tried to heal Michael… but he, too, was gone. Tears welled up in Max's eyes, and Maria knew the truth. Dropping to her knees in agony, Maria pressed Jayyd's torn and bleeding little body to her heart and cried with such bitter sadness and heartbreak that the five agents all had tears in their eyes. Of everyone there, only Zwolinski and Sikorski remained unmoved.

Zwolinski and Sikorski picked up their weapons to finish the job, but as they opened fire on the survivors this time, the bullets bounced back at them. They had forgotten about Tess. She had momentarily regained consciousness and encased all the agents in an impenetrable force dome from which they could not escape and which they could not shoot through.

"For God's sake, Zwolinski!” Casey screamed, tears streaming down her face, “Those were children!”

Zwolinski started to argue, but five other agents’ guns, now turned in his and Sikorski’s direction, changed his mind. Perhaps for the first time in his life, Zwolinski did something intelligent… he shut up.

Max moved quickly to heal Tess and called for Varec. Varec came to his side. “Varec, I need your help. There’s still one chance for Jayyd and Michael and Roselle, but you’re going to have to help me.”

"Anything, Zan! Anything at all! I’m here for you!"

"You alone of all of us have the power to transport an object from great distances. Could you transport… say… a jah-ee from Antar to Earth?"

Varec seemed unsure. "It’s a long way… seven galaxies! But… it is possible."

Max closed his eyes and placed several mental pictures into his head…

Great Urgency…

Need help…

Quickly…

Water from falls…

Island of the jah-ee…

Ama leaves…

Desperation…

Max waited several minutes then appeared to hear a response.

"Now, Varec! Reach out to the jah-ee through me and bring it here if you can."

Varec closed his eyes and went into deep concentration. This continued for almost a full minute with no result. Then suddenly, a cry of "jaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" resounded throughout the mountains. As everyone, including the agents encased in their bubble looked up, a bird with a wingspan of sixty feet circled once then dropped into the clearing and settled on the ground beside them. It stood as tall as a young tree, higher than a house. In one talon, it held a huge Ama leaf containing almost three gallons of precious water from the life-saving falls underneath the secret island habitat of these elusive birds of Antarian mythology.

Max took the Ama leaf and spilled some of the water on Jayyd… then on Michael and Roselle. After a moment, Roselle began to stir… then so did Michael. Soon, Roselle was awake and able to stand. Maria hugged her and waited for Michael to awake, too. Max poured more of the life-saving water onto Jayyd's wounds… then more. Finally, he poured the last gallon of the water onto her wounds. But Jayyd never moved. Her little body had been very nearly cut in half by the machine gun in Zwolinski's hand. Even the life-giving waters of the island of the jah-ee could not bring Jayyd back to them now. Maria hugged Jayyd to her heart again and cried as she rocked her little girl.

As all this was happening, Jayyd's brother, Kryys, had come forward to look at his little sister’s broken body. Max tried to kindly move him away, but Kryys would not be moved. Some of the other children came forward and tried to bring him away…

“You can't do anything, Kryys. You've never had any power of any kind. You couldn't even change colors like Jayyd could.”

Kryys' eyes welled up with tears, and as he stood there, he began to glow… at first just a little bit, then brightly. Molecules began to fly around him like a whirlwind of a billion fireflies all aglow, and his hair began to wave as though he were in a storm. As the whirlwind of brilliant molecules grew, it became brighter and brighter and the billions of atoms surrounding him flew faster and faster… then, suddenly, Kryys disappeared in a brilliant blaze of light, the molecules bursting forth and surrounding Jayyd and Maria, who still held Jayyd to her heart. As the brilliant tiny lights engulfed and embraced mother and daughter, flowing over them… around them… through them… Jayyd's tiny, torn body began to mend… molecule by molecule… cell by cell. Finally, after several minutes, the swirling brilliance began to subside… Kryys once again became visible and slumped, exhausted, to the ground.

Michael, who had just regained consciousness, stood up… both palms glowing with the force of two deadly power bolts. He faced the agents and raised his hands, which now held enough energy to vaporize the dome and all the agents inside. But a little hand tugged on his shirt, and he looked down. It was Jayyd. Michael's eyes welled up with tears, as he let the green force ebb from his palms then picked up Jayyd and hugged her and Maria together.

Jayyd whispered to Michael, and Michael smiled his agreement, setting Jayyd down.

Walking over to the force dome that Tess had created around the agents, Jayyd waved her hand, and Zwolinski became green-skinned with flaming red eyes and hair. The other agents were stunned, then amused, except for Sikorski. Jayyd made him purple with pink polka dots.

"How much trouble would it be to bring one more thing from Antar,” Max asked Varec, who was more sure of himself now. Max whispered to Danyy, and Danyy put on a delighted grin, nodding enthusiastically. Max told Varec what he wanted, and Varec concentrated. In only a few seconds, Danyy's pawgor stood in front of the dome; and all the agents, despite the protection of the force field around them, stood lined up along the back of the force dome, as far from the pawgor as they could get.

"I think he’ll be a good guard," said Max.

As the Antarians walked away from the dome, Agent Jenkins turned to Zwolinski…

"Well, Zwolinski, I have to hand it to you. You were right. We finally did catch us a godless alien. In fact, when we get out of here, if we ever do, we've got not one but TWO godless aliens to take back with us. All the agents turned and looked at the green-skinned, red-eyed Zwolinski and purple polka-dot-skinned Sikorski, who shook their heads aghast.



---------------------End of Chapter 28

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Repairing the Damage

Chapter 29

XXIX


After making sure that everyone was safe and all their wounds were taken care of, Max and Michael, along with Varec, turned their attention to the new granolith, which now sat in the treetops looking rather like the city of Oz had fallen out of the sky. They brought Jim Valenti, Liz, Tess, and several others in on the discussion of how the ship might be repaired, given where it was located.

The transporter was not functioning. Ultimately, it was determined that someone would have to climb a tree in order to reach the entrance to the cargo bay. They would then have to manually deploy the ramp from the cargo bay to the ground so that others could get onboard to assist in the repairs.

The climbing job fell to Michael, since his handprint would be recognized by the ship, allowing him entrance to the cargo bay. Michael set out climbing one of the trees, but after climbing to the top, he could not reach the ship's doors from the tree and was forced to climb back down to the ground.

Jim suggested that the jah-ee could carry someone up to the ship, perhaps landing in the top of a tree close enough for someone to reach the cargo bay doors. Max considered this possibility and decided that he would be the one to go.

The jah-ee bent its head down so that Max could get onto its neck just over the front of the wings. After Max was situated, the huge bird of Antarian myths spread its massive wings and leapt upward, flapping vigorously to gain altitude and rise out of the clearing into the sky. Having cleared the trees, the jah-ee circled the area once on its sixty-foot wings then chose a landing site near the top of a large sturdy tree close to the ship's cargo bay doors. Max reached forward and placed his hand against the doors' sensor, and the doors opened. Then he slid off the jah-ee, dropping into the opening.

Watching from their bubble prison, the five agents… Diane Casey, in particular… were fascinated by the jah-ee and by its uncanny relationship with Max. They were also in awe of the pawgor, which stood guard over them; though, clearly, they weren't going anywhere as long as the bubble dome was in place.

"I'm going to try to lower the ramp," Max yelled to Michael. "Be ready."

"I’m ready… Go ahead," Michael yelled up to Max.

"The ramp doesn't want to budge," Max yelled back down. "Without the system hydraulics, it's too heavy for one person to crank it down."

"You want me to come up and give you a hand," Michael asked… "Or maybe Jim?"

Max thought a minute… "No, I'm going to need you down there to control the sensors on your end when the ramp's down, and I'll need Jim down there, too, to help position it."

Agent Jenkins called to Michael to get his attention. At first, Michael ignored him, but when Jenkins persisted, Michael looked at him…

"What?"

"Well… I just wanted to tell you that there are a few of us here who would like to help… I know you don't have any reason to trust us, but…"

Michael thought about it then shook his head, but then he looked back up at Max and decided to at least consider the option.

"Okay, who's willing to help?"

"Me, Casey, Benson, Christopher, and Hughley… the five of us are willing to do what we can,” Jenkins replied.

Michael yelled up to Max and asked him what he wanted him to do. Max sat down on the edge of the open cargo bay door and thought for several moments. At end, he stood back up and yelled down…

"Alright… if they really want to help… send agents Jenkins and Casey up. I'll send the jah-ee to get them."

Jenkins swallowed hard. He knew that he had volunteered, but he hadn't actually considered having to ride the jah-ee to get up there. Still, Jenkins was not one to go back on his word. Casey seemed both terrified and thrilled at the same time at the prospect of being carried on the back of this wondrous bird. It was hard to tell which emotion would win out. Her eyes were wide and her face somewhat pale, but her attitude implied that she would gladly die for this chance if that's what it took.

"Oh, one thing…" Max yelled down to agents Jenkins and Casey, "Be very careful not to touch or accidentally get scratched by the talons. The jah-ee's talons are hollow and contain a poison that’s always fatal, even from a single scratch. Even I can't cure it… only the water from their secret island can, and we don't have any more of that here."

Jenkins swallowed again, a bit harder this time, and his stomach felt like it had a knot in it. His face had begun to sweat. Still, he had volunteered, and he was determined he would honor his word. Casey, too, seemed a bit paler than before, if this was possible, and her legs were shaking now, but nothing could have kept her from this. She would do it if her life ended with this one last act of self-fulfillment.

The jah-ee circled back over the area then landed, flapping its wings vigorously as it dropped between the trees into the clearing. The wind produced by its wings was amazing… even Jim had to hold onto a tree to keep from being blown over. After the jah-ee had landed, Tess removed the dome so that Jenkins and Casey could come out… the pawgor could watch Zwolinski, Sikorski, and the others. Jim Valenti collected all their guns and took them back to one of the tents.

The jah-ee bent its head down low, and Agent Jenkins climbed on just over the front of the wings, where Max had sat. Agent Casey climbed on in front of Jenkins and held tightly to the feathers on the back of the jah-ee's neck, as Jenkins held on to her from behind. The jah-ee raised its head, and the two riders were suddenly lifted to the height of a housetop before they could catch their breaths. Then the jah-ee leapt into the air and vigorously flapped its wings to rise above the hundred-foot-tall trees. Clearing the trees, it settled into a circling glide, returning to land on the perch where it had left Max before. Agent Jenkins had his face buried in Casey's back, preferring not to watch what he strongly suspected were his last moments on Earth. Casey, on the other hand, seemed actually to be enjoying the ride, the thrill of the adventure overshadowing and overcoming even her fears.

The jah-ee lowered its head so that Casey and Jenkins could slide off into the cargo bay. Jenkins had never been so glad in his life to be on solid ground… then he remembered that they were still high up in the trees.

Max got right down to business…

"Jenkins, I need you to crank the other side over there while I crank this side, and Casey, I want you to keep pressing that pad over there to see if we might get a little help from the systems. And I need you to also make sure that the ramp is moving straight on both sides."

Casey nodded, and Jenkins assumed his place at the other side of the doors. Max and Jenkins both pulled on the cranks, which were jammed. At first, they got no results, but then, under their combined pull, the jam gave way and the ramp began to move. The ramp systems never functioned, but Casey was able to keep the ramp straight, and with the jam freed, Max and Jenkins were able to lower it to the ground.

Once the ramp was down and Varec and Jim had positioned it at the bottom, Varec, Jim, Liz, Tess, and a few others went onboard to see what could be done to repair the ship. Fortunately, they were well equipped for this task. Like Max and Michael, Tess was well trained in maintaining and flying a ship. Liz had also been trained in the physics and properties of space travel and in some of the complexities of a ship's systems. A knowledge of physics and space had always been part of Liz's goals in life, and she had not allowed the opportunities she had been given living on Antar -and being in constantly close contact with Antar's most revered scientists- to be wasted. She had continued her studies, as time permitted, at Antar's University of Physical Sciences and had even assisted in the lab as an apprentice a few times. And, of course, there was Varec. Varec had almost single-handedly designed the new granolith, and he was recognized as one of the universe’s most eminent scientists… not only on Antar, but in most of the known galaxies.

Each one went to work immediately checking out the ship's systems. Casey and Jenkins watched, unable to help except as they were asked to, not knowing anything at all about the kind of machinery they were seeing.

A little over an hour later, Tess, who was lying on her back under one of the control modules, scooted out from under the console, with a smile on her face.

"I take it," Jim said, "that means you fixed something."

Tess nodded.

Jim laughed, looking at Tess, "You should see yourself! You look like Cinderella after she cleaned the fireplace!"

Tess grinned, "Yeah, well… I don't have to worry about that any more! I'm not the Queen now, so I don't have to always be so careful about how people see me. If I were the Queen…"

Liz slipped out from under the other console and finished her sentence for her… "You'd probably look like this!"

Tess looked at Liz and started to giggle uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry," Tess said when she could again control herself. "I don't mean to seem disrespectful… It's just that… that…" she again dissolved into hysterical giggles… "You should see yourself, Liz!"

Liz smiled good-naturedly… "Well, at least this is the natural color of my hair. Maybe we can get JoLeesa to clean us up and do something with your hair so it's blonde again," Liz said, laughing.

At that moment, the ship began to hum and suddenly righted itself to a level position.

"It looks like the guys are having some success with the engines and gyros, too," said Liz.

Twenty minutes later, Max, Michael, Varec, and Jim met Liz and Tess back in the control room. The ship was again air-worthy, hovering above the trees with its anti-grav repulsors, and was once more invisible.

Agent Casey approached Liz… "You're the Queen of your planet?"

Liz nodded, suddenly feeling a touch of self-consciousness about how she looked and understanding better Tess' former obsession with her perception of the requirements of the position. Liz wiped the light Antarian grease off of her nose.

"Yes, and Max is the King. I guess I don't look much like a queen right now, do I…"

Casey shook her head, "Just the opposite! What I see is a real leader who isn't afraid to get dirty to do what has to be done for her people. You don't know how I've always wanted to meet someone from another planet… someone like you… That's why I got into the Unit. I always figured if anybody would ever get to see a real being from another planet, much less meet them, it would be the guys in the Unit. It… didn't go the way I planned it…"

"For me either," said a familiar voice behind her. Diane Casey turned around to see Kathleen, who had just transported up with most of the others. Diane's mouth almost fell to the floor…

"Kathleen? Kathleen Topolsky? I thought… I mean, they told us… I thought… you were dead!"

Kathleen nodded, "Yeah, that's what they wanted everyone to think. I knew too much. They couldn't let me go. Tess rescued me. Now I live on Antar with my husband, Jim, and our son, Danyy. You know, the little boy who talks to the pawgor and controls it?"

Just when it had seemed Diane's jaw couldn't fall any further without someone accidentally stepping on her lower lip, her mouth somehow managed to fall further…

"He's your son? Oh my God, he's so cute! How… how does he talk to that animal?"

"The pawgor? We don't know. That's his gift… his power. Others have other powers… Jayyd can change colors."

Jenkins smiled, and Casey snickered, remembering Zwolinski and Sikorski.

"Max can heal. You've seen that. And Kryys… no one knew he could do that. That's something we never saw before."

"That power has never been catalogued before on Antar," Varec added. As far as I know, Kryys is the only one who has it. But most of our powers were originally born of need and later passed on as recessive and dominant genes. In Kryys' case, he has given birth to a completely new and, if I might say so, most awesome power. It happened because he felt the intense need and somehow made it happen."

"This is incredible!" Diane said. "I've imagined all kinds of things about what life out there might be like, but you're not like anything I ever imagined! You look human! You speak English!"

"Oh, Antar has it's own language," said Liz, who proceeded to say a few sentences in perfect Antarian. “As for me, I was born on Earth, but I also have ancient Antarian DNA, as I recently have learned. Max is both Antarian and human. Varec is full Antarian."

Diane shook her head, "I couldn't tell the difference if you didn't point it out. We're all so much alike."

"More than you think," said Kathleen, "More than you think."

Having repaired all the damage to the ship, they all transported down to the ground again. Agent Diane Casey and Agent Jenkins looked up and were stunned to see that the ship was nowhere to be seen, having regained its invisibility capabilities.

Max walked over to the other agents and told them they were free to go. Agents Christopher and Benson took the purple-skinned, pink-polka-dotted Sikorski and the green-skinned, red-eyed Zwolinski by the arm, but Director Sikorski decided to make a run for it and broke for the forest. Before anyone could react, the pawgor was after him.

A few moments later, there was a scream. Everyone ran in the direction of the scream and found the pawgor chomping on some bones and Sikorski's pants lying beside the bones. The pawgor was crushing the bones in his strong side teeth. Casey grimaced involuntarily and looked away. The others stood there, not knowing what to think. Then they heard a noise in the tree above the pawgor. Looking up, they saw Sikorski hanging to the side of the tree about half way up. The pawgor could easily have leapt that high, but it appeared to have found the carcass of a recently killed small animal and had decided to eat, since Sikorski wasn't going anywhere.

Michael looked at Zorel, "I guess this one is yours, Zorel."

Zorel grinned from ear to ear. Moving his right hand forward briskly, Zorel hurled a power bolt toward Sikorski's naked purple, pink-polka-dotted butt. The power bolt was right on target, flashing as it struck. Sikorski let out a howl and fell to the ground with a thud.

Agent Casey wrinkled her nose…

"Oh my God! That purple skin reeks when it's scorched!"

Jenkins laughed and shook his head, "That's not the skin you're smelling, Diane."

Diane was silent for a moment… "Good Lord! What did he have for lunch… rotten beans and spam? Now I know what that flash was when he got zapped!"

The others were laughing hysterically and holding their noses.

"Well, someone go over there and cuff him," Benson said.

"He can get those scorches taken care of wherever he's going,” Max said, laughing. “I'm not laying my hands on his butt!"

Casey found this especially funny. She handcuffed Sikorski while holding her breath.

"The things I have to do for you guys," she said to Benson.


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

After the new granolith and its remarkable travelers had departed from the area, Agent Casey radioed for help to be picked up, telling headquarters that they were bringing in two aliens. As they walked into headquarters, sub-Director Haskell met them.

"Is this the one that ate Zwolinski," he asked, indicating the green one with red, flaming eyes and red hair. Diane and the others nodded.

"I am Zwolinski, you frikkin' fools!" Zwolinski protested.

Haskell grinned, "Yeah, sure you are! You ate him!" Haskell took off his hat respectfully but then looked at the hat for a moment and put it back on…

"I never liked Zwolinski that much anyway…

And this purple, polka dot creature ate Director Sikorski?"

They nodded. Haskell shook his head, "Kind of looks like Sikorski, too… only Sikorski was uglier. Put them both in the retaining rooms. I'll want a full battery of tests."

"You want them dissected," asked Agent Burns.

"Naw… just lots of probes, skin samples, stuff like that. We'll keep them around. They’ll be valuable for studying."

As Agent Casey walked back out of the building, Agent Dan Klein was just entering. Klein had two snarling, fang-baring Dobermans on leashes, and he was quite enjoying watching everyone back off and give his new dogs a wide berth. But Diane merely smiled and patted the two snarling Dobermans on the head as she walked by. They whimpered slightly.

"Cute puppies," Diane said.

Klein stood dumbfounded for a moment, staring at Diane in disbelief… "What's with you, Casey? You got ice water in your veins?"

"Ever see a pawgor, Klein?"

Klein looked puzzled.

"Naw… I didn't think so," Casey said.

Then she turned and walked away, smiling to herself, leaving Klein scratching his head with his two Dobermans beside him.




-----------------------End of Chapter 29

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



To Quit or Not to Quit

Chapter 30

XXX


As the new granolith sped northward, leaving behind the Smokies, Max called a special meeting of all persons aboard, including the children, to explore their feelings about the events of the previous day and to decide whether or not they should continue their trip or return home.

"A lot of you suffered serious injuries… some of you might have died or maybe even did die during the attacks on us yesterday. I can't ask you to act like nothing happened and pretend that you’re having fun if any of you don’t feel that way. So it will be your decision. Do we continue… or do we go home?"

There was a short silence as the travelers looked at each other, trying to gauge their companions' feelings.

"Well, I’d like to continue the trip," said Zorel respectfully. “But I wasn't one of the ones who got real bad hurt, so I can understand if some others feel different… I guess."

Michael smiled at Zorel's thoughtful answer but also, especially, at the little "I guess" that he tagged onto the end. He knew that Zorel was dying to see everything he could see and continue this trip and that it was hard for him to make the concession that he had just made.

"I wasn't one of the ones injured the worst either," said Jim Valenti, "I guess I would also understand it if some would prefer not to go on."

Kathleen nodded and squeezed Jim's hand. Several others nodded as well.

Max looked at those from Earth who had helped during the trip…

"Oh, I don't think we should be the ones to decide," said Kristine… Krys, as the others called her. "This is something that you should decide. I’m okay with whatever decision you make based on everyone’s feelings."

Max looked at Maria. She looked down and shook her head slightly. No one would think the worse of Maria if she did not want to go on. She had almost lost her little girl. No one had been affected as much as she had unless it was the ones who were actually injured the worst.

It seemed that everyone was inclined to end the trip and return home. No one but Zorel had actually said that they wanted to continue, so after looking around for any dissenting opinion, Max said, "Okay, then, so be it. We will return home after dropping our guests off."

Everyone was silent, seeming to accept the decision. Then little Jayyd turned loose of Maria's hand and walked up to Max at the front of the group…

"I'm almost six years old, so I can say my opinion, too, right?"

"You bet you can, Honey!" Max assured her. There was a lot of agreement from the group.

"Well, I got hurt real bad. I think maybe I was dead until Kryys fixed me…"

There was some chuckling from the group at Jayyd's choice of words, but no argument with its basic correctness.

"…but," Jayyd continued, "I would be sad if everyone goes home now just because I got hurt. I want to see all the wonderful things and do all the fun things that we came to do. If we go home now, it's just letting those bad men win, because that's what they wanted. But they don't have the right to decide what we can do. Some people think I'm scared or sad, because I got hurt, but I'm not scared or sad. That's why I made the bad men different colors… so they can understand… so they can be different, too, and see that it's not bad to be different. It's just who they are now, like this is who we are. And I think if we want to still be who we are, we can't let them change us."

Jayyd stopped and looked at Max to see what he would say. But he didn't have to say it. The entire group began to stand up, one by one, and applauded over and over and over again, some with tears in their eyes, agreeing wholeheartedly with all that little Jayyd had said. It seemed that a wise five-year-old had spoken for them all… from the heart. Through the eyes of a very wise five-year-old, they again saw the brightness, the happiness, the joy that childhood offers but which can be occluded by scars picked up along the way to -and through- adulthood.

Maria smiled broadly, as she gathered Jayyd back into her arms and kissed her, telling her how wonderful she was. So it was decided… The trip would continue, and the "bad men" would not change their hearts or their outlook on life. They were who they were, and nobody had the right to change that or to take their happiness away.


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

Max and Michael took the new granolith up into space and settled into orbit for the rest of the day so that they could have a nice dinner and a peaceful night. The next morning, before breakfast, Max walked into the lounge at the end of the corridor, where the living quarters were, and found ten or twelve of the girls holding their tops up. He blushed and quickly put his hands over his eyes. Liz giggled and pulled his hands off. All the tops were back in place.

"Everyone was just comparing the silver handprints you left on them," Liz giggled.

Max blushed again… "It was all innocent!"

"Oh, I know that," Liz giggled… "You HAVE to be faithful! You leave silver handprints on everyone you touch!"

Max shook his head and grinned sheepishly, "So this is the ‘Bearers of the Silver Handprint Club?’

"That's sort of it, I guess," said Liz. The others nodded and laughed.

Max smiled. "I guess you would be ‘Bearer of the Silver Handprint #1.’ You were the first girl I ever laid my hands on…"

Liz nodded then grinned coyly… "Uh… and ‘Bearer of the Silver Handprint #2’ would be Kyle… and #3 would be Jim, right?"

"Ummm… yeah, uh… well, you girls carry on."

"Bye," said Liz, smiling.

It seemed that after the battle, there wasn't one person onboard who hadn't required at least minor treatment by Max, so everyone onboard had, at least for now, a silver handprint somewhere on her or his body. Some had two or three handprints. In time, of course, the handprints would disappear, as Liz's had after the incident at the CrashDown.


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

After breakfast, the new granolith dropped down over Canada, heading north toward the North Pole.

"I don't think you kids will get to see Santa Claus," Max said wryly, but you may see some baby seals and maybe a polar bear… and a lot of ice! You won't see penguins here either. Contrary to what a lot of people think, there are no penguins at the North Pole… only at the South Pole."

The new granolith stopped, and the visitors transported down onto the ice.

"Wow! This is cold!" Zorel said, grinning. The other children agreed. It had been snowing, and there was a layer of fresh snow on the ice, so Michael showed them how to make snowballs to throw at each other, which delighted the children… and some of the adults. Jim and Kathleen threw more than a few snowballs in each other’s direction, and Amy even hit Varec with one. Everyone enjoyed it. Jeff Parker built a small snow fort and challenged Jim, who built his own snow fort and "cannon balls." Soon, some of the children had joined in on both sides.

Seeing some seals enjoying themselves sliding down an ice hill on their bellies, Danyy ran and asked Max if he could bring "his" pawgor down from the ship for a while to play with him. Max decided to allow it. Liz took pictures of Danyy and the pawgor sliding down the hill. The pawgor, which was now almost full-grown and already larger than the largest tiger or lion, actually seemed to enjoy sliding on the ice and would get behind Danyy and push him with its head and two huge front teeth to help him back up the hill so that they could do it all over again. Liz and Maria couldn't help but giggle as Danyy and the pawgor went careening down the slope time and time again, sliding on their butts, on their bellies… on their backs with feet up in the air…

"That cat's gonna have one cold butt," Maria laughed.

"You know what they remind me of," Liz asked.

Maria shook her head.

"Calvin and Hobbes!"

Both Liz and Maria began laughing. Maria nodded. "You're right, Liz! You know, I was just thinking… I guess it's a good thing Varec sent the jah-ee back home… I can't see the jah-ee enjoying this."

Liz shook her head. "No. I don't think the jah-ee would enjoy the cold or the ice at all. It's a tropical bird. The pawgor's tropical, too, but it's a mammal. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it's a wild animal and not one of the kids!"

Maria nodded. She knew what Liz meant. If it weren't for Danyy's unique ability to totally communicate with the pawgor, they would all be on its menu; but because of Danyy, it was as tame as a friendly tabby cat around them.

While Liz and Maria were talking, Maya, Andya, and JoLeesa Evans walked down the ice a little ways with Mareeya and Ceelya Whitman and Liz-JoLee z'Varec and came across some seals with babies that still had white fur coats.

"Oh, can we take one home… please!" they begged.

Max and Liz talked them out of it, explaining that the seals needed to live where it is cold and still needed to be with their mothers.

Before leaving, everyone joined in building a giant snowman, which they took lots of pictures of for the memories. The snowman was almost twelve feet high. Jim had had to hold Zorel on his shoulders, and Zorel had had to climb up on the snowman's shoulders to make the head. It was a masterpiece!

As the new granolith departed, Max flew low over the icescape and out over some of the ice floes so that the children could watch from the observation dome atop the ship. From there they saw polar bears, more seals, and offshore, a pod of Orcas… also called "killer whales." Along the way, they also spotted a couple of other species of whales.

Jayyd had been right. There was still happiness and joy in the world, and they were still who they were… and letting the "bad men" destroy their happiness would have been a bigger travesty and a deeper tragedy than anything they had already experienced. With a new outlook on life, the group looked forward to their next stop and to new adventures… this time, without the interference from their old nemesis.



<center>End of Chapter 30
tbc…</center>

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



Life Goes On… In The Stars, And On Earth

Chapter 31

XXXI



Leaving the North Pole behind, the new granolith flew across Canada and Alaska then down along the Pacific coast, skirting the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, arriving at San Francisco, where all the visitors transported down and rode the trolley down the steep hill.

Next, they traveled to Aspen, Colorado, where they tried a little skiing. Jim and Kathleen were pretty quick to catch on, though neither had ever skied before. Amy kept falling down and finally pulled Varec down with her. Sliding down the hill together, they looked like a couple of children with the giggles. Michael and Maria actually were beginning to master the beginner’s slope, and the children were having the time of their lives skiing and snowboarding on the hills.

Kyle and Jeliya chose to cuddle together by the fireplace in the resort and sip hot cocoa. Before leaving, everyone joined Kyle and Jeliya around the fireplace for hot cocoa and coffee.

From Aspen, the new granolith took a dazzling flight through the Grand Canyon then flew up through the Rocky Mountains to the Black Hills of South Dakota and Mount Rushmore, where the visitors got to see the carvings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt in the side of the mountain.

From there they hopped back across the country to Niagara Falls, which they chose to view from the ship's observation dome, allowing them to see it close up in all its splendor as the ship dropped down invisibly in front of the falls. Then they headed out across Manhattan to see the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island, continuing on to Washington DC to get a glimpse of the White House and Capitol.

From DC, the ship headed south once again, this time to Saint Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States, where they enjoyed the huge beaches of Saint Augustine for an afternoon and visited the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. After Saint Augustine, they continued on to South Florida.

The next day, a few members of the group tried SCUBA diving in the Keys. Max and Liz, who had learned to dive on Antar, in the Golden Sea, were very anxious to try the diving in the Florida Keys. Michael and Maria, too, had learned to dive on Antar and went along. Jim and Kathleen had never dived before, but they were doing a lot of things on this trip that they had never done before, and both took to diving like fish. Of course, both were already excellent swimmers. Lisa, one of the "Antarians" from Earth, had previously dived with dolphins in the Bahamas and was thrilled at the opportunity to dive in the Keys. Kristine chose to try it, too, and so did Rachel, Denise, Roselle, and a couple of other 'Earth Antarians.' Zorel, who never got left out of anything that sounded like fun, went along, as did Maya, Andya, JoLeesa, and Danyy. Jeff Parker went, too, but Nancy, Amy, Varec, Isabel, and Alex stayed on land, choosing instead to do a little shopping with the rest of the children and the other "landlubbers."

After a 30-minute boat ride, the divers arrived at Molasses Reef. The waters were crystal clear; visibility was almost a hundred feet. Where the boat stopped, the depth varied from twenty or thirty feet to over forty feet in places. The reef was huge. Corals rose from the bottom like mountains, harboring every imaginable kind of fish: snappers, grunts, filefish, puffers, parrotfish, groupers, and schools and schools of yellowtails and other fish. It was like swimming in a vast, amazing aquarium!

As they glided along through the undersea corals, Liz had a premonition that they were being followed. Turning around to look, she saw several bottlenose dolphins exactly like the ones on Antar. And just like the ones on Antar, these approached her playfully. Liz and Max held onto the fins of two of the dolphins and were given a ride. Lisa, Maya, Andya, and JoLeesa, too, played with the dolphins, but Danyy seemed to be 'communicating' with them. The dolphins pressed their snouts up to Danyy, and he gave every indication of understanding what they were telling him. Without warning, Danyy suddenly swam a circle around the other divers faster than they could turn to follow him, using body movements more than his feet to propel him along. In fact, he swam so fast that his mask slipped down to his neck and he had to reposition it on his face. But that wasn't the only thing he had lost. Turning and smiling sheepishly at the others, Danyy put his swim trunks back on and pulled them back up to his waist. Everyone realized that the dolphins had somehow communicated to Danyy how they moved so efficiently through the water with so little effort.

Nearby, Jim and Kathleen were exploring a grotto. As they passed the edge of the coral outcropping at the entrance to the grotto, Jim spotted a seven-foot-long fish that looked like a shark. Their instructor/guide, Gerry, wrote on his underwater slate that it was a cobia. The cobia circled Jim and Kathleen, examining them both with its huge eyes, then nonchalantly swam away to check out something somewhere else, leaving them in awe.

As the divers climbed back onto the boat after their dive at Molasses Reef, they were ecstatic. They were even more delighted to learn that the boat would be making another stop for a second, shallower dive at the statue of "Christ in the Abyss." The statue of Christ sits on the bottom in about 20 feet of water and stands about ten feet high or more, with hands outstretched toward the surface. It has a companion statue in the Mediterranean or somewhere and is very popular, especially with underwater photographers. Several large barracudas swim around the bottom of the statue but never seem to bother the divers or snorkelers, many thousands of whom visit every year.

As the group dived along the bottom, Maya spotted a small balloonfish and pointed it out to the instructor. The instructor reached out and easily captured the slow-moving balloonfish, which immediately puffed itself up with water until it was twice its former size and round as a balloon. As the balloonfish expanded, the spines on its body were forced into an upright position, which would have made it difficult for most predators to swallow. The spines were not sharp enough to keep one from carefully handling the fish, though, and the instructor passed it to Maya, who then passed it on to Andya and JoLeesa so each one could marvel at this little creature whose main defense is making itself difficult to swallow. Then they released it and it swam away, slowly returning to its normal size and shape, as the spines returned once more to their normal position against its sides and back.

When the boat arrived back at the dock, everyone could hardly stop talking about everything they had seen. For Zorel, especially, the dives had been a real adventure. Those who had chosen to go shopping instead of diving had missed it… but they had their own stories to tell.

Once everyone was back onboard the new granolith, Max flew the ship down along the Keys to Key West then back out across Florida Bay, the area of water that lies to the west of the Keys between the Keys and the mainland of Florida, so the visitors could see the thousands of small islands and cays there and the many species of birds, including flamingos, herons, egrets, pelicans, sea gulls, ospreys, bald eagles, and others. The only thing they didn't seem to have was a jah-ee!

The new granolith sailed in over Flamingo at the bottom of the Everglades National Park then turned out off the west coast of Florida.

"Well," said Max, as the new granolith left Florida behind, sailing gracefully out across the Gulf of Mexico, "Is there anywhere else anyone would like to visit before we go home?"

Max looked around at all the guests and visitors…

"There's one place," said Alex… "It's in Roswell."



-----------------------End of Chapter 31

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



For the Love of… A Ghost?

Chapter 32

XXXII



In a small office in Washington DC, a figure was frantically looking through documents in a certain "X-File." Finding what she was looking for, she hurriedly stuffed the papers into a portfolio then looked around to make sure no one had seen her. Several of the papers seemed special, and these she placed in the front of the portfolio to look at further after she was away. Closing the file drawer quietly, Diane Casey tiptoed out of ex-Director Zebulon Sikorski's former D.C. office and headed for the airport, hoping she would not miss her flight.

As Diane left Sikorski's office, another figure watched from his own office on a closed circuit monitor connected to a hidden camera in the corner of a painting in Sikorski's office. Following Diane outside, the man watched as Diane hailed a cab; then he hailed a cab, too.

"Follow that cab in front of you. Whatever you do, do not lose it," the man warned the driver.

The cabbie looked back at the man in his cab and stretched his hand back to him with palm up. The man placed a hundred dollar bill in the cabbie's hand; this seemed to get the desired response.

"I've never lost one yet… for the right people," said the cabbie, as he drove off after the cab that carried Diane Casey.

In another D.C. government office complex nearby, three highly secret special agents dressed in black watched feedback from cameras hidden in smoke detectors in Sikorski's office and in the other man's office as well as from hidden cameras in other smoke detectors throughout the building and in a light fixture outside the building. They looked at each other and nodded silently then left the complex and were driven away together in a special government limo.

From a bench in the park across the street, a mysterious man watched everything, took out a pen and note pad and made some notes on the pad, then put both back in his pocket, got up, and walked away.


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

The new granolith swept in over The Gulf of Mexico and Texas and headed straight for Roswell. With all the new upgrades that Varec and the other scientists had given the ship before it departed on this trip, it had gone entirely undetected except for the time when it was accidentally hit by Zwolinski's missile in the Smokies. Max felt very confident in the ship's ability to remain undetected by any known Earth systems, so he headed straight for their intended destination.

As the new granolith flew over Roswell, Max and Michael chose a wooded area not far from town as a good place to park the ship and transport down. Fortunately, the UFO Festival was going on, so the town was crowded, and the sudden appearance of so many new faces on the streets went totally unnoticed. So many "UFO freaks" in town, and not one of them suspected that a real "UFO" the size of a small city had flown in right above their heads and parked itself over the woods nearby.

The group walked together down the street, stopping a few blocks away, in front of a house. Alex swallowed hard then walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. An older lady came to the door… well, older than Alex remembered her…

"Mom?"

The lady looked at Alex and tried to speak, but no words came out, only tears, as she hugged him and began to cry.

"Dear? Who is it?" called Alex's father from the living room. Mrs. Whitman turned around with tears streaming down her cheeks and pushed Alex into the living room in front of her. Alex's father gasped, dropping his newspaper from his hands and leaping from his recliner faster than anyone would have thought him capable of doing with his bad knee.

"Alex? My God, Alex! We thought you were dead! Where have you been? What happened to you? When they took you away, nobody would tell us anything… They just told us to forget about you… But we could never forget, son… we could never…" Mr. Whitman broke down and began to cry, too, as he hugged his son, who still had not been able to speak.

"It's a long, long story, Mom… Dad! I promise to tell you everything. First, I want you to meet someone…"

Alex motioned, and Isabel walked in with Mareeya and Ceelya.

"Mom! Dad! My wife…"

"Isabel? Isabel Evans?" Mrs. Whitman exclaimed, hugging her. "Your family disappeared, too…"

“And…” Alex said, coaxing Mareeya and Ceelya forward, “your granddaughters."

"Granddaughters?" Mrs. Whitman gasped; then she began to cry all over again, as she dropped down to her knees and hugged Mareeya and Ceelya to her, wrapping them in her arms. They hugged her back. Mr. Whitman got down on his knees, too, and hugged the girls and his wife together. Alex helped them back up after a few moments.

Isabel found it a bit difficult to speak.

"Mom… Dad…” Alex said, “I want to tell you everything, but there are some people I don't want to leave outside too long…"

"Oh… Goodness!" said Mrs. Whitman, "Bring them inside, Alex… Bring them inside!"

The Whitman's didn't know how crowded their house was about to become, but they didn't mind. They were happier than they had been since Alex had disappeared. It was like Christmas and birthdays and every other special day all wrapped up in one, as they celebrated Alex's "return from the dead" and their new family… with two new granddaughters!

Alex walked back out of his room… "Mom, you guys haven't changed a thing in my room since I left," Alex said incredulously.

"We always knew you were coming back, son," said Mr. Whitman "You had to come back… even if you were dead and it was your ghost!"

Alex shook his head, "So all this time you never changed anything… all for the love of a ghost…" Alex mused. I think that would make a good song…"

"Your guitar's still there, Alex," said Mrs. Whitman.

Alex smiled… "I saw it."

That afternoon, Mr. Whitman whipped up a huge, "Texas-style" barbecue in the back yard and cleaned out the refrigerator. Everyone ate real Earth hamburgers, barbecued chicken, steaks… whatever was in the Whitmans’ refrigerator. He called the local grocery store and had them deliver drinks, more steaks, corn-on-the-cob, potato chips, and other items. Then everyone relaxed and kicked around in the backyard pool or played with the dogs. Mr. Whitman had a beautiful Irish setter and a Saint Bernard that he had "adopted" after Alex had disappeared. They were no substitute for the son he had lost, but they did give him love and attention, allowing his heart to mend when he had needed it. The children loved the dogs, too! Mr. Whitman showed the children how to throw a Frisbee; and the Irish setter, "Big Red," would catch it, sometimes flipping in the air as he did. The Saint Bernard, "Elmo," could also catch the Frisbee, and he jumped pretty high, but he didn’t do flips.

That night, everyone returned to the ship to sleep. Alex had told his parents the entire story about his abduction by the Unit, Tess' breaking him out, and his life on Antar. Max and Michael kept the ship where it was so that they could say goodbye to the Whitmans in the morning before they left. They wanted Alex to be able to see them for as long as possible before leaving again.

In the morning, the group transported back down and headed through town toward the Whitmans' house. As they walked, a man ran up to Max and took him in both hands, turning him around.

"It is you! Max! Where have you been? Were you abducted again?"

“Brody!” Max exclaimed, looking at the man holding him. "Brody! We… we shouldn't be seen together."

"Oh, are they after you again, Max? I always got that feeling right before it happened, too… only, it hasn't happened to me for quite a few years now. Do you think I'm free, Max?"

Max looked at Brody and nodded, but he couldn't help himself. Brody deserved an answer, and they would be leaving today anyway…

Brody was the owner of the UFO museum in Roswell. Certain members of the former Antarian council had used Brody and other “abductees” as remote "mouthpieces" to talk through, taking over their minds and leading them wherever they needed them to go. The “abductees” would wake up days later, knowing they had been somewhere but unable to remember any details. Brody had always found it severely disconcerting, but he had learned to accept it… or at least to tolerate it due to its inevitability.

When Brody first met Max, he said something about being “one himself,” referring to “abductees.” Max stated simply that he was one, too, thinking that Brody was admitting to being an Antarian. Brody thought that Max was confessing to having been abducted, and he found a new friend in Max. Though Brody never knew it, Max healed his daughter, Sidney, when she was dying of a rare cancer. The Antarians had cured Brody of the same disease the first time they abducted him.

"Brody… come with me," Max said. "I have some things to tell you… about your abductions… that you really should know."

Brody didn't argue; he just followed. Max told the others to go on, and he took Brody into the woods, far off the road.

"What are we doing here, Max?"

"Watch…"

Max pressed the remote, and the transporter transported them into the new granolith. Brody was speechless, finally asking,

"Are we being abducted again, Max?"

Max shook his head, "No… not abducted, Brody… not this time. I brought you here, because you deserve an explanation for what… my people did to you, and I wanted you to believe me." Max proceeded to explain everything to Brody. When he was finished, Brody wiped his forehead and ran his hands through his hair.

"I don't know what to think, Max… how to feel. I think I probably should be angry… but I'm not. I'm just relieved… and happy. For the first time, I really do believe that I'm free, and I know what really happened to me. And… you saved Sidney. It was you!"

Max nodded.

"I always knew that was some kind of miracle… for her to be dying then wake up totally cured on Christmas morning. How…"

"It's a gift I have, Brody… the power to heal."

"That's a wonderful gift, Max."

Max nodded. "Brody… if you want to, I could take you with us to Antar… Sidney, too, of course. A few other people from here are already living there."

Brody looked at Max. "The people who disappeared?"

"Yeah. The special agents from the Alien Task Force got them, but we rescued them, and now they're…" Max pointed up.

"On your planet?"

Max nodded.

"Wow… that's a lot to think about… but I don't need time to think, Max. I know the answer already. Sidney and I belong here. And now that I know the truth about what happened to me… and that I’m finally free… I feel like I’ve been reborn… I’m a new person. You couldn't know how good that feels. I’m so thankful to you! You'll be a good leader, Max… I know it. You're an honest person. There aren't many leaders like that, you know!"

Max smiled. "We're leaving today, Brody. I'd be happy to drop you off somewhere after we pick everyone up. You game?"

Brody thought about it for a moment then smiled. "Why not! It’s my choice now, right?"

Max and Brody went to the control room, and Max passed his hand over the print of his palm on the console sensor. The ship moved upward and rotated then flew across the crowded Roswell street in front of the UFO Museum and the old CrashDown Café, which was gone. Nobody looked up or ever suspected, as the ship floated across the town and stopped over the Whitmans' house.


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

Everyone had transported back up to the ship except Max, Michael, Alex, Isabel, Mareeya, and Ceelya. They were waiting to say their final good-byes to the Whitmans, who had gone into their bedroom a few minutes before.

They came back out carrying two suitcases…

"Son…" Mr. Whitman said, holding Alex's hand tightly in his, "Do you think there's room on that UFO thing of yours for two more people?"

Alex smiled, "Dad… Mom, if there's not, I'll kick Max and Michael off!" Alex looked at Max and Michael and grinned. "Just kidding, guys!

No, really, Dad, there's all kinds of room. Do you really want to go? What am I saying? Come on, before you change your minds!"

Alex took them both by the hand as though to keep them from changing their minds, and Max reached for the transporter button to transport them all up to the ship.

"Oh! Can I say it?" asked Mrs. Whitman.

Everyone looked at her.

Mrs. Whitman smiled… "Beam us up, Scotty!"

Max smiled and pressed the remote transporter button. The Whitmans' house was now vacant.


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

A couple of minutes later, a cab pulled up in front of the Whitmans' house. Diane Casey jumped out and began knocking on the door, but there was no answer.

"I missed them! No… No… I can't miss them… I can't!"

She knocked again… There was no reply. Diane sat down on the front porch swing, put her face in her hands, and wiped tears from her eyes, realizing that she had arrived too late.

Just then the door opened, and Max looked at Diane.

"Can I come in, Max?" Diane asked quietly, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Max nodded.

"I thought you had left and I had missed you."

"We had. Well, we had all transported up to the ship, that is. But I saw you, from the control room of the ship, when you jumped out of the cab, and I decided to find out what was so urgent."

"I want to go with you."

Diane didn't mince any words. Time was precious, and she knew what she wanted.

Max thought about it for several minutes, walking back and forth. Then he decided to call in some help. Calling up to Michael on the remote communicator, he asked for Maya to be sent down. In a couple of minutes, Maya stood in front of them.

"Maya," said Max, "You can communicate with people over long distances, and I know you can tell what’s in their minds sometimes… whether they have good or evil intentions. Do you have any feelings about Miss Casey?"

Maya nodded, "I remember her when I was calling to the people from Antar."

Max looked surprised, "You remember Diane Casey? How?"

Maya shrugged, "I guess she has a little bit of Antarian DNA."

"Did you ask her if she wanted to come with the others?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"She wanted something bad for us, so I didn't give her any information."

Max looked at Diane.

"I thought I remembered her," said Diane, "I saw her in a dream, but she never spoke to me. It seemed so real."

"So you're saying that Miss Casey has bad intentions for us?" Max asked Maya.

Maya looked at Diane for a few moments, "Not now… She wasn't bad, but she was helping bad people. That's what I saw before. But now she's not helping those bad people, and she really just wants to come with us."

Max nodded then thanked Maya and sent her back up to the ship.

"Why do you want to go to Antar, Diane," Max asked.

"I've always felt like I belonged somewhere else, Max. It's just that now I know where."

Max nodded again. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay, you can come."

Diane almost fainted. A smile ran from ear to ear, and all the tension disappeared from her face. Max pressed the transporter button…

At that moment, the front door of the Whitmans’ house was knocked open by two large Dobermans that charged straight into the transporter beam with Max and Diane. Reappearing on the new granolith, Max pulled Diane aside. The snarling Dobermans ran out of the transporter room and came face to face with Danyy and his pawgor.

The dogs tucked their tails and yelped, running back into the transporter room, and Max immediately transported them back down. Klein was paying the cab driver, who had grabbed him as he ran after his dogs, preventing him from stopping Diane. The dogs came running back out of the house with tails between their legs, yelping and whining. Then Diane appeared in the door. Klein looked at her.

"God, Diane! I never saw these boys so scared of anything as they are of you! Calm down Hercules… you, too, Thor."

Diane made a fake snarling motion with her lips. Klein shook his head.

"Must make it hard for you to get a boyfriend! Geez! I'll bet you're still a virgin!"

"You'll never know, Klein," Diane said smiling. "Did you want something?"

"Me? No! I… I just wanted to know what you were up to… you know… curiosity, that's all."

"Oh… okay."

Klein turned and started to walk away. Then he turned around and took one last look at Diane.

"Diane… Wherever it is you're going… Good luck!"

Diane smiled, "You, too, Klein… You too!"

A few minutes later, as Klein walked down the street of Roswell, he looked up to see a shooting star pass over his head…

"Goodbye, Diane," he whispered.



-------------------------End of Chapter 32

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



Starlight, Star Bright…

Chapter 33

XXXIII



The new granolith streaked through the atmosphere over agent Klein's head, leaving Roswell behind and producing a brilliant, streaking contrail that would have looked like a shooting star to anyone who was looking up at that moment… anyone, that is, who had no reason to suspect.

With the stealth systems turned on, the new granolith itself was invisible to the eyes and to all known Earth detection devices. When the ship moved fast suddenly, though, as it was quite capable of doing, water droplets in the atmosphere would condense and combine with scattered light in the atmosphere to produce a unique brilliant streak, or "contrail," that was quite unlike that of any airplane, and it was always thought to be a shooting star by those who saw it.

The ship headed for high Earth orbit where Max and Michael would bring it to a halt behind the moon, as they had done once before, and where they would discuss the final plans of this trip before heading out across the seven galaxies for home.

With the new granolith "hidden" behind the moon, everyone met in the galley dining room for dinner.


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

In Roswell, as agent Klein walked down the street, he was approached by two men in black who took him by each arm…

"Come with us," the man on his right said plainly and quietly, with an air of menace in his voice.

Agent Klein looked at the two men and decided not to argue. He looked around for Hercules and Thor. They had been on leashes which he had been holding in his hand, but somehow the leashes were no longer in his hand, and the Dobermans were nowhere to be seen. There were, however, several other "agents" in black suits walking away from them in the opposite direction. Klein felt a sudden stab of fear run through him like a cold foreboding.

The agents in the black suits placed Klein in a black government limo and whisked him off to a secretive compound at an isolated military installation. Klein was blindfolded for the trip, but he knew they had gone underground. He could feel it by the difference in temperature and humidity. He also had little doubt where they had taken him. Not that he let on that he had any idea or even suspected, of course… but Klein knew… he was inside the place known as "Area 51."

Klein was placed in a chair, and his blindfold was removed. His hands were placed in handcuffs attached to the sides of the chair. Interesting that this chair had two permanently attached handcuffs just waiting to be placed on the wrists of whoever sat in the chair, he thought. Klein waited for anyone else to speak first. He knew that it wouldn't do any good to ask questions. These were men who didn't answer questions… they asked them.

It didn't take long for the agents to get down to business. Turning on a recording device and seating himself in front of Klein, the first agent, who seemed to be in charge, looked directly at Klein with steely eyes and an attitude to match…

"Why did you come to Roswell?"

Klein shook his head and shrugged. Then he smiled slightly and said simply,

"For the UFO Festival."

"Why would a special agent with the task force's alien unit be interested in a UFO festival for freaks?"

"Why does someone go to the circus…" Klein answered. "for the hell of it… to enjoy myself, you know? to laugh at the freaks."

The agent wasn't buying it, but Klein already knew that.

"Why did you have a hidden camera in Director Sikorski's office in D.C.? Why were you watching agent Casey?"

Klein was surprised by these questions but realized that he probably shouldn't be. These guys had cameras everywhere. They probably even had one in George Bush's bedroom at the White House.

"I… suspected someone was stealing papers from Sikorski's office."

Klein lied, but he wanted it to seem plausible; and if they were watching, they already knew that Casey had taken the papers.

"Is that your responsibility?"

Klein shrugged, "Well, with Director Sikorski gone, some of us, you know… would like to advance up the ladder a bit. I was just trying to be on top… find things out…"

The man in the black suit looked at Klein with no trace of emotion or clue as to whether or not he believed him. Klein looked the agent directly in the eyes, trying hard to exude a calm, truthful frankness about himself that would make the agent believe him.

"Why did you go to the house of the couple named 'Whitman?'"

Klein choked a little. They knew everything. Well, undoubtedly they had checked to see where the cab had dropped him off. Therefore, they must also know that Casey went there…

"I was following agent Casey," Klein said… "to see where she was taking the papers… who her contacts were."

Klein felt a small relief. Surely they would believe this. They already knew the facts, after all, just not the why's.

"And did you?"

Klein shook his head.

"What if I tell you I don't believe you, Klein," the agent said. "The Whitman house is vacant. There's nothing in the refrigerator; not much else was taken, though. Looks like they went on a trip… a very sudden trip! What do you know that you're not telling us?"

Klein shook his head. This was rewarded with a backhand from the agent in black that left blood on Klein's upper lip and a loose tooth behind the cut.

"I have no time for games, Klein. You will tell us what we want to know or we will get it out of you in other ways."

Klein knew what this meant, but even if he had not been hiding anything, he didn't know many real details. The truth is, he didn't know half as much as he thought he did, and the information he was protecting would not have helped the men in black suits very much. But Klein was determined not to give them anything they did not already know.

"What did you do with my dogs?" Klein asked.

The agent ignored the question. Instead, he turned and motioned to another agent who pushed a button causing a large bay-type door to slowly roll open from side to side. Klein gasped. Behind the doors was what would appear to be a fully functional "UFO." Klein turned white. He had never seen the new granolith, which was much larger than this ship, but the only thing he could imagine was that somehow, some way, they had shot down the ship that he suspected Diane was on. Klein had trouble speaking, and his hands trembled.

"I see we've got your attention now. Maybe you'd like to tell us why?"

Klein shook his head.

The man in black motioned again and snapped his fingers. Another agent wheeled out a cart or gurney with a body on it, the body of a young woman… Klein couldn't tell if she was alive or dead, but she was clearly not in good shape and had multiple injuries, it was difficult to tell from what. The ship did not appear to have crashed or to be damaged in any way. But one thing he could tell… Diane had dark hair, this woman was blonde. Klein almost felt relief, but he couldn't look at the blood-soaked young woman lying on the gurney and feel anything but sympathy… and sick to his stomach.

"Is this who you're protecting?" asked the man in the black suit.

"I… I don't know what you're talking about," Klein stammered.

The second agent walked out and came back in leading a young, dark-haired girl, about 8 or 9 years old, by handcuffed wrists. She appeared to be heavily drugged. The man in the black suit looked at Klein but sensed only confusion, not the reaction he had expected. He realized that Klein really didn't know who these two were.

At that moment, the young blonde woman on the gurney groaned and rolled her head over to one side. Seeing the little dark-haired girl, drugged and handcuffed, the young blonde woman's eyes opened wide with shocked surprise. She tried to speak but couldn't because of the blood in her mouth. Finally she managed to whisper hoarsely, "Maya?"



--------------------------End of Chapter 33

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



First Star I See Tonight…

Chapter 34

XXXIV



Onboard the new granolith, the guests were enjoying their dinner, their last, most likely, before setting off for home. The "Earth Antarians," or "Antarians Too," a play on an Antarian speech expression and the title of a beloved Antarian children's storybook, were still onboard for this last dinner and would be dropped off at their homes before leaving for Antar. Tess and Rayylar had already been dropped off in the desert near their hidden ship and were probably already on their way back to Antar.

Liz kept looking at Maya, who did not appear to be well… but this was almost impossible, since almost all illness had been eradicated on Antar many years in the past. Perhaps she picked up something on Earth, Liz thought. But that, too, was unlikely… their immune systems were enhanced by inoculations and special food supplements on Antar, all but eliminating that possibility. Maybe it was Earth's atmosphere… It was toxic to some Antarians… but Maya had not shown any evidence of having a problem with the atmosphere, nor had the other girls.

"Maya, Dear, you haven't eaten any of your grelliats. Is there something wrong?"

"No, Mom. I'm just not hungry."

Liz raised her eyebrows and looked at Max, who smiled and raised his eyebrows, too. Maya not hungry? That was a first. In fact, all three of the girls were frequently teased about being "hollow" inside, because they could put so much food away and never show it.

"May I be excused?" asked Maya. "I'm finished, and I'd like to go to my room. I'm… tired."

Max seemed concerned but agreed. Maya left the table without saying anything to anyone. Liz excused herself and followed Maya to her room.

"Are you sure you're okay, Honey?" Liz asked, closing the door behind them.

"Sure. Why wouldn't I be? I'm just tired… I told you."

Liz wasn't so sure. Something nagged at her. But it didn't make any sense that Maya should be ill. It just wasn't heard of anymore where they lived. So Liz gave up and returned to the galley after covering Maya up and leaving her to rest. But that nagging feeling persisted.

At the table, the Antarians, the new Antarians, and the Antarians Too were all talking about the things they had seen on this trip. It seemed that everyone had something to tell. Varec was most impressed by the simple, mechanical things on Earth. He had been so impressed by an old-style cash register that he had bought it from the storeowner.

"Do you realize," Varec said, "that that thing is one hundred percent mechanical? It doesn't depend on any electronics or neuronics at all! Something like that has not existed on Antar in over… fifteen thousand years, I believe. I'm sure that there isn't even one in our museum in CoruzAntar!"

The "Antarians Too" were amused by Varec's seeming infatuation with mechanical things, so common on Earth.

"You know, Varec," said Trude, smiling, "you remind me of another 'alien' we have on cable TV late night reruns."

"I do?" Varec seemed interested… "Who?"

"ALF."

All the Antarians Too laughed.

"Well, I don't mean that badly," said Trude. "We all love ALF! But on his planet, what was it… Melmac or something like that… lint was more valuable than gold."

Varec shook his head, "I must find this planet! I have lot's of lint that I can trade them!"

Everyone laughed. Max explained that ALF was a fictional character on Earth TV. Zorel was grinning from ear to ear. He had seen ALF a couple of time while watching Earth cable back at home, but he was not going to say anything, preferring instead to enjoy the conversation the way it was going.

Diane Casey was the center of attention through much of the meal. As the newest new-Antarian-to-be, she was of interest to everyone. Everyone asked her about her life, her work, her likes and dislikes. Diane was a bit shy about being the absolute center of so much attention, but she quickly understood that she was being made welcome and a part of the group.

The Antarians Too also were quite involved in the discussions. They wanted to know about Antar, and the Antarians wanted to know about them. Dinner was very animated, and everyone enjoyed the food. Diane was especially interested in the different foods, and she was as infatuated with the little droid as Varec was with his cash register.

Max had been thinking about something for some time, and before the meal, he had pulled Michael, Liz, Maria, and Varec aside to discuss it with them. He had made a decision on the matter now and decided to break it to the group.

"Folks… I have a… well, an offer to make, I guess. Those of you who accompanied us on this vacation have been called the 'Antarians Too,' well… because you really are 'Antarians, too!' Michael, Liz, Maria, Varec, and I have discussed this and have decided that, if any of you would like to, you are welcome to come with us to Antar for ten days as our guests in return. This would allow you to see the place that you… that someone in your past… came from. Varec has offered to bring you back at the end of ten days…"

"There's just one thing," Kyle said, wiping his lips with his napkin "You have to watch a video and take a one-hour tour of the CoruzAntar Time Share Resort…"

Everyone laughed, even Varec, who wasn't sure what a "time share" was but understood that Kyle was joking and that the Earthlings understood the joke quite well.

"Does anyone want to go?" Max asked.

There was a lot of enthusiastic nodding in the group. To a person, everyone wanted to see another planet… and not just any other planet… but Antar, birthplace of their ancestors, seven galaxies away.

"Excellent," said Max. "Then we will not need to return to Earth and can set out immediately for Antar."

"Starlight, star bright…" said Roselle, looking toward the sky.

Diane Casey added, "First star I see tonight…"

Michael smiled, "It's too far away to see tonight, but you'll see it soon! And you'll never forget it! It looks like a jewel hanging in space… a piece of gold. It's beautiful!"

The new granolith rotated away from the backside of the moon and aimed for space… in the direction of Antar. One second it was there, the next it was thousands of miles away as it went to star speed.


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

In a bunker under Area 51, a small girl felt everyone she loved getting further away. She tried to use her powers of telecommunication to communicate with someone… anyone… but she was too groggy. She couldn't even speak her own name, much less use her powers. She knew the young blonde woman lying on the gurney, but in her drugged condition, she couldn't remember her name.

The men in black suits discussed with each other what they should do. It was obvious that Klein did not know the two aliens that they had captured. Whether or not he knew anything else of use to them was uncertain. They decided to let him live long enough to find out if he knew anything worth their attention or not.

"What do we do with these?" the second agent asked, indicating the young blonde woman and the girl.

The first agent stared at them for a few moments…

"Take them apart… See if you can find any source for any of those powers that idiot Zwolinski was always talking about."

Something inside Klein snapped, and he lunged into the four agents in the room like a locomotive, carrying the seat he was handcuffed to with him. All four men in black suits were bowled over, but it was to little avail. In no time, they had subdued the still-struggling Klein, who now had many more cuts and bruises on his face and body than before.

The men in black suits left the room, leaving Klein handcuffed to his chair, which now sat beside the young blonde woman…

"I'm sorry," Klein said to the woman and the girl… "I tried, but I don't think any of us is going to leave here alive… Who are you? Are you really an alien? Do you know Diane Casey?"

The young woman whispered to Klein, "Tess."

"Is that your name?" Klein asked.

She tried to nod but found it too painful… "Yes," she whispered.

"Can I do anything to help?" Klein asked after a moment.

Tess struggled to speak, "Keep… keep them from giving shot… drug… to Maya."

"The girl?" Klein asked. "Yeah, I can see that they drugged her pretty good."

"Keep… keep from…" Tess tried to repeat her admonition.

"I don't know if I can," said Klein "but if that'll help, I'll do everything I can to try. Okay?"

Tess smiled slightly then lapsed into unconsciousness again.

"Damned filthy pigs," Klein said to himself… "Even their filthy skin sheds all over the place."



-----------------------End of Chapter 34

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



I Wish I May, I Wish I Might…

Chapter 35

XXXV



The new granolith was well on its way out of Earth's solar system, having passed Jupiter and Saturn and, just a few minutes ago, Pluto. At star speed, the ship easily covered many thousands of miles per second. It was, after all, a long way to Antar… Seven galaxies had to be traversed.

Dinner had ended about an hour before, and everyone was relaxing and discovering new things… especially those who were new to the ship. Mr. Whitman ran his hand over the backs of Big Red and Elmo, his Irish setter and Saint Bernard, which Diane had transported back down for after the Whitmans were on the ship. Right after the Whitmans were picked up, Brody had been dropped off at his house, beaming with amazement and the joy of knowing that he was free at last… and just knowing what had happened to him all those times that he couldn't remember or account for clearly.

Alex walked up to his Dad, holding his mom by the arm.

"You want to go see some really cool places, Dad? Mom and I are going up to the arboretum. It's like this really cool park with lots of trees, a stream, a gazebo, a swing…"

Mr. Whitman smiled and nodded… "Let me put Big Red and Elmo back in their place. I'll be right with you."

Alex escorted his mom and dad to the arboretum, and they walked… and talked… about Alex… about Antar… about Mareeya and Ceelya and Isabel… about all the things that they needed to catch up on. For the first time in years, the Whitman's were truly, truly happy.

Kathleen took Diane Casey to the gardens to show her where some of the vegetables were grown and the pool and waterfall. Then they went to the observatory at the top of the ship. Diane watched in awe as the stars zipped by in their celestial brilliance in the darkness of space. She knew that this is what she had been born for… this was her destiny.

Liz was with Max, Michael, Maria, and Varec in the control room when Andya entered…

"Andya! What are you doing here?" asked Liz.

"I was worried, Mom."

"About what, Dear?"

"Maya."

"Oh! Yeah, I know… She hasn't seemed to be herself since we left Earth. Have you noticed anything else, Andya," Liz asked with obvious concern in her voice.

"Well, Mom… It's strange… I don't know what to think, but it seems like… like… the further away we get away from Earth, the weaker Maya gets. And…"

Andya paused.

"And what, Dear?" Liz prodded her.

"And… I don't know, but sometimes it seems like she's… just fading out. I can't explain it, Mom. A little while ago, I was with her, and she just started to look weak, then for a moment she looked like a ghost or something."

Max looked at Liz. He could tell that Liz was frightened. Maria took Liz's hand…

"Come on Liz…" she said softly, "Let's go check on Maya. I'll go with you."

Liz nodded, and the two of them and Andya went back to the room where Andya had left Maya. There was no one in the room.

"This is where I left her, Mom. I don't know if she went somewhere, maybe to the game room down the hall… but she didn't seem to be feeling like playing."

They walked quickly down to the game room. Isabel was coming out.

"Did you see Maya?" Maria asked.

"No. I haven't seen Maya at all since dinner," Isabel replied. "Maybe she went to the arboretum or somewhere to play with some of the other children."

"No, Mom!" Andya said emphatically. "She wasn't feeling like playing."

Liz was silent, but her silence was a manifestation of the deep dread she was feeling in her stomach. Something inside her was telling her that this was extremely serious… life threateningly serious… but she just didn't know what, and that was the part that was killing her. Her little girl was in trouble, and she didn't know how or why or what, and she couldn't help her.

Maria took Liz's hand. Liz's face was pale… she wiped a tear from her eyes with the other hand.

"It's alright, Hon," Maria tried to reassure her, softly. "We'll find Maya, and Max will figure out what's wrong with her. It'll be alright! Really! Come on… Let's go look somewhere else."

Liz nodded and followed Maria, but in her heart and soul she dreaded what she already knew… Wherever Maya was, she was beyond her help.

On the control deck, Max, Michael, and Varec were watching the stars fly by when the door opened and then closed. They looked, but there was no one there. Max looked at Michael.

"I'll have to look at that," Michael said. "Must be a glitch."

As they started to turn away, a small figure shimmered in front of the door momentarily and reached out for Max. Max rushed to reach her, taking hold of her hands for only a brief moment before she disappeared.

Michael and Varec stood speechless.

"That was Maya!" Michael managed to say after a moment. "What's wrong with her, Max?"

Max ran to the pilot's seat.

"Turn the ship around, Michael… "We're going back!"



-------------------------End of Chapter 35

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



Have The Wish I Wish Tonight

Chapter 36

XXXVI




In a bunker under Area 51, a solitary man in a black suit prepared another injection for Maya, filling the syringe with a vile, reddish-looking drug. Klein had no idea what it might be, but it obviously kept Maya's powers in check. After filling the syringe, the man looked around for something, and not seeing it nearby, he laid the syringe down and walked out of the room. Klein wasted no time "jumping" his chair over to the syringe and picking it up with his hand from the side where his hand was handcuffed to the chair.

"What do I do with this?" he asked, almost to himself. "If I empty the syringe, they'll notice it's empty and just refill it."

Tess looked at him and whispered, "Blood."

Klein thought a moment. "Yeah, I could fill it with my blood."

"No!" Tess shook her head painfully but emphatically… "My blood! …Not yours! …Not same!"

Klein nodded, "Yeah, I guess you would have different blood, wouldn't you, if you're aliens. But you don't look like you can afford to lose any more blood, little girl. You're too weak already."

"Do it!" Tess moaned. "They'll kill us… anyway."

"You've got a point there," Klein said. "You've definitely got a point there."

He emptied the syringe and reached his hand as far to the side of the chair as the cuffs would allow, pushing the needle into the vein on the inside of Tess' arm at the elbow and pulling back on the plunger with two fingers. The syringe filled with blood. Klein placed the syringe back where he had got it and hopped back over to where he had been. Shortly, the man in the black suit came back in wearing rubber gloves and proceeded to inject Maya with the contents of the syringe. Then he left the room again.


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

Onboard the new granolith, Max and Michael were piloting the ship slowly over the areas where they had previously been, trying to get a sense or a feeling for where Maya might be. They continued to do this for several hours, then through the night, with no results. Then, in the middle of the morning, it happened. Liz, standing with Max, Michael, Maria, and Varec in the control room, suddenly gasped slightly and, for a while, seemed to be somewhere far away. Coming back to herself after a few moments, Liz said simply,

"Roswell… Area 51."

"What did you see," asked Max.

"Maya," Liz answered. "In trouble… she was able to contact me, but she may not be able to again."

In the bunker, the first man in a black suit came back in and took Tess and Maya into another room. From what Klein could see, it looked like an operating room.

The second man in black picked Maya up and laid her on a table, strapping her arms and legs down tightly. Then the two men turned their attention to Tess, who was already restrained.
The first man nodded, and the second one cut her clothes off. The first man took a scalpel and ran it slowly from Tess' breastbone down to her abdomen, opening her up and spreading the sides of her body apart to expose the internal organs. Tess grimaced, then screamed, trying to fight the pain… then she lapsed into unconsciousness. The second man in black reached into Tess' body and removed an organ that didn't look familiar to him, cutting it loose with the scalpel. They laid it on top of her and reached in to see what else was there.

After removing Tess' liver, kidneys, and heart, they turned their attention to Maya. The first man in black cut off Maya's clothes then took a new scalpel and began to cut.

On the new granolith, where everyone was meeting to discuss rescue plans, Liz suddenly screamed and became hysterical…

"They're cutting her, Max! They're cutting her! We've got to find her! She needs me! Oh, my God! We've got to help her! NOOOOO!"

Maria tried to do something for Liz but didn't know how to even start. If it were her little girl, she would be hysterical, too. Maria wound up just holding Liz and crying with her. Max and Michael were both pale. In the room, the atmosphere was one of stunned disbelief. No one noticed at first, as Kryys began to glow. But they certainly noticed when he burst into a million brilliant molecules and disappeared through the sides of the ship.

In the bunker, the first man in black proceeded to cut Maya open as he had Tess, cutting from the breastbone down to the abdomen. As he started to pull the cut area apart, the room became suddenly saturated with light. Brilliant molecules poured in from every corner and every part of the room, swirling like a hurricane around the room, over and through every living thing.

Klein watched through the open door as the viciously flying molecules ripped through the men in black, removing cells from their bodies as they screamed and attempted in vain to escape. The brilliant swirling maelstrom reduced them to pieces, tearing them apart cell by cell, molecule by molecule, until there wasn't enough to identify. Then the same swirling molecules surrounded Maya and Tess, flowing over them, around them, through them… cell by cell, molecule by molecule, repairing the horrible damage that had been done to their bodies. Klein watched in utter awe, until about twenty minutes later, the swirling slowed, the repaired bodies began to stir, and the glowing molecules turned slowly into… a little boy.

Klein jumped his chair over to the little boy and tried to help him as he collapsed onto the floor, but with his hands cuffed to the chair, he was unable to reach down to him.

"Here, let me," a voice said behind him. Klein looked up to see Tess standing there. She picked up Kryys and laid him gently on the table as Maya looked on. Klein's face flushed red. It was only then that Tess realized that the one thing Kryys hadn't repaired was… well, their clothes. Tess grinned and wrapped a sheet around herself and another around Maya.


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

Outside the bunker, four military women with high-ranking insignia drove up and ordered the guards to open the doors for them.

"I will need to see some orders," said the first guard.

"Son, these are your orders!" barked the first woman authoritatively. "You either open these doors now or answer to the commander as to why you refused to allow a decontamination team in and those men inside all perished."

"Decontamination?" the second guard asked.

"Come on, soldier! Move it! Seconds mean lives here!" The woman pulled out a bundle that looked something like decontamination equipment.

The guards looked at each other then decided to let the women pass. Once inside the bunker, Nina turned to Roselle…

"Gee, Roselle! That was good! You almost made me pee my pants! Were you a sergeant or something? Marines maybe?"

Roselle just smiled, "No… I’ve worked with kids."

Kristine and Denise chuckled, but then all four became somber again as they walked down the long hall, looking for some clue as to where in this massive complex Maya was being held. Kristine stopped a man in a white lab coat after they had gone about two hundred yards…

"You there! Where are you going? You're not going to the bio lab where the dissections are done are you?"

"No… why?"

"Never mind… you don't need to know!" Looking at Nina, Kristine added, loudly enough for the man to hear, "The poison gas hasn't spread up this far, I guess. I would expect a lot of casualties from here on in, though. Put your masks on."

The man in the lab coat looked fleetingly down the hall to the right then rushed off to the left. Kristine pointed down the hall to the right,

"That'll be the way to go."

At the end of the hall, the four came across a guard who, after a few moments, still couldn't decide whether or not to let them pass.

"Son!" Nina said, imitating Roselle and snatching the man's pass card key that opened all the doors, "I'm confiscating this from you! You are a disgrace to the Unit! You were placed in charge of this door and you tell me you can't make up your mind whether or not to let someone with NO CREDENTIALS pass? Well, son, the answer is, YOU DON'T! GOT THAT? YOU DON'T! EVER! Consider yourself demoted!" Nina reached up and ripped one of his stripes off. "Report to the Commander's office at 0 eight hundred in the morning for reassignment!"

"Yes, Sir! Sorry, Sir!" the man said, hurrying off down the hall.

"You two scare me!" Kristine said.

Using the confiscated passkey, the four were able to pass through six more sets of steel doors, as the hall led deeper and deeper into the mountain. Opening the seventh set of doors, they came face to face with Agent Klein. Then they saw Tess and Maya. Tess and Maya appeared quite well, though Klein appeared a bit beat up. Tess had released him from the handcuffs, but she didn't have the power to heal his wounds. Kryys was lying on the table beside them, sleeping soundly and looking like a little angel after exerting so much energy. But if he looked like an angel to those present now, Klein knew well that he had also been a fierce angel of death to the men in black, and Klein was mightily impressed.

"What's that mess?" Nina asked, pointing at what remained of the men in black.

"Dog food," said Klein somberly "…if Hercules and Thor were here."

Denise took the remote transporter and a directional finder signal out of the bag that they carried. She pressed the directional signal and waited thirty seconds, the amount of time agreed upon in order to allow Max to locate them and position the new granolith above them. Tess picked up Kryys in her arms, then Denise pressed the remote transporter button. Kristine, Roselle, Nina, Denise, Maya, Tess, Kryys, and Klein all disappeared from the room below the mountain and reappeared inside another room.

"Welcome to the new granolith," Max said.

Tess smiled and handed Kryys to Max, trying to keep the sheet around herself from falling down. Maya ran into her mother's arms. Liz cried and hugged Maya to her as though she would never let her go.

"I got my wish," she said to a smiling, misty-eyed, Maria, who understood all too well… "I got my wish."



--------------------------End of Chapter 36

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



What Was That All About?

Chapter 37

XXXVII



Liz kissed Kryys, who was still sleeping in Max's arms…

"My little star! My little super nova! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you soooo much!"

She still didn't know all the details… Klein would soon fill them in on all of this… but Liz had seen… or felt… or somehow sensed when Kryys had healed Maya, and she knew that Kryys was special… very special! Of course, she had always known this, but this trip had awakened something in Kryys that no one on Antar had ever seen before, something awesome and powerful.

Tess looked at Max and touched him on the arm lightly…

"Max… I need your help."

"What is it, Tess? Anything in my power…"

"I need your help to find Rayylar. We were ambushed when we went to get our ship, which was hidden in a cave in the desert. The last thing I remember is seeing Rayylar go down when he was hit in the head by some kind of electrical taser-type beam from behind… Then I was hit. I wasn't knocked out instantly… the beam glanced me, leaving me dizzy and confused. I tried to fight back, but I was sort of 'short-circuited' or something. I couldn't make anything work. Then ten or twelve men began hitting me with rifle butts… I don't remember anything else until I woke up in the place where you found me. And then I saw Maya… they had her, too. And then…" Tess began to shake, "I remember them cutting… cutting me open with a razor or scalpel…"

Max grimaced involuntarily…

"I'll get together with Michael… he's the best tactician there is anywhere… together we'll come up with a plan. And Varec is very helpful, too. We'll get Rayylar back, Tess… if he's, if he's not…"

Tess put two fingers to Max's lips and shook her head…

"He's not… Don't say it…" Tears filled her eyes.

Max nodded, "We'll find him, Tess."

Max turned to Michael…

"We need to get Tess and Maya… and Klein… and Diane Casey… and you and me and Varec together to find out just what happened. I want to know how the freakin' hell they got Maya in the first place when we thought she was with us the whole time! And I want to know what went down down there! And I want to find Rayylar…"

Michael nodded without speaking. Such tall orders were becoming the norm rather than the exception these days. Fortunately, Michael was the one man who could make them happen, and they both knew it.


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

In the conference room on the control deck, Max, Michael, Varec, Tess, Maya, Liz, Maria, Klein, and Casey had all taken seats, and Max got right down to business.

"Maya, Sweetheart, would you tell us what you remember? What happened to you? How did they get you away from us? Where…"

Liz cautioned… "Not too many questions at once, Honey… Let her answer."

Max was anxious to know all the answers and didn't realize that he wasn't giving Maya a chance to answer the questions.

"Where were you when they got you, Maya?" Max asked.

"In Roswell…" Maya thought a moment. "I was… I was walking down the street with everyone else when that man stopped you, Daddy, and asked you if it was really you."

"Brody?"

"I think so. You were talking to him, then everyone else went to Uncle Alex's mommy and daddy's house, but you went with your friend back to where the ship was."

"Yes… yes… That's right…" said Max. "I remember… Brody and I went back so I could show him the ship to prove we were who I said we were."

"I was with everybody else, but I remembered I wanted to tell you something, Daddy, so I asked Nina if I could go back, but she said no, and I asked Mommy and she said no, too."

Max nodded, "It would not have been safe. They were right." He looked at Maya, "But you went, didn't you? How did you get away from them without them knowing?"

Maya was on the spot. She had a secret that she had never told anyone, not even her sisters. She had used it often to her advantage, and no one ever knew or was the wiser. She hated to give it up, but… she couldn't lie. She would have to tell her secret and accept the consequences.

"I made a copy of myself…"

Max looked at Maya in disbelief. Maya quickly added…

"But, Daddy, I didn't really disobey! I stayed there with Mommy and everyone just like they said to do. I just went to find you, too."

Michael leaned back in his seat and grinned. Maya's logic amused him. It sounded like something he might have come up with in her situation at her age… maybe even a little older. Actually, he decided it might be worth remembering… It was, after all, very logical.

"You left a copy of yourself with your mother, and you ran back to find me," Max corrected her.

"Well, not really, Daddy… Both of them are me, really, but one is just always stronger. I can't be apart for a long time or the one that is not stronger will go back together with the other me that is stronger."

"Does each one know what the other one is doing?" Max asked.

"No, not when they're apart. But after they're back together, I remember everything that both of them did."

Klein smiled momentarily, thinking how useful that would have been for him in high school for, say… dating.

Max shook his head. "I would say that you should be punished for disobeying, but I think what you've been through was… well, I think you've learned why you should listen to us when we tell you something and not try to find a way around it. How did they get you, Maya?"

"When I was going back to find you, those men with the black clothes were there, and one of them got in front of me and kept looking at me like… I don't know… weird… like he knew me. But I never saw him before. It felt weird, like he was Antarian… only different."

Max was suddenly very interested in where this was going.

"What do you mean, Maya? How was he like an Antarian?"

"I could feel his thoughts sometimes, but they weren't like yours or Mommy's or even Nina's or the other 'Antarians Too.' They were different… sort of choppy… and evil. And when the man grabbed me some of his skin came off on me where he grabbed me. It was like he was Antarian but not real."

Max momentarily paled.

Michael looked at Max, "I thought all the 'skins' were killed."

"I guess not," Max said. "Were all the men in black clothes just like him?"

Maya shook her head, "Just that one. The others didn't know who I was; but that one… somehow he knew, and he grabbed me and told the others, so they put me in a car and took me to that place where they cut me, and Kryys saved us."

Max looked at Klein, "I want to hear about this, too. What happened down there?"

Klein smiled and shook his head as though he still didn't quite believe it.

"I don't know what kind of things you guys can do, but one thing I can tell you, I'm never forgetting this! When they took the blonde girl, Tess, and the little girl, Maya, into that operating room -the dissecting lab- and strapped them down, there wasn't anything I could do. They had me handcuffed to a chair."

"That's what I heard," Max said.

"Well, they cut the blonde girl, Tess, all up. I mean, they took her heart and her insides out… everything, while she was still alive!"

"Okay, okay!" Max waved his hand and winced. "I get the idea."

"And then they started cutting on the little girl, Maya. That's when all of a sudden the room started to fill up with light particles… kind of a swirling… hurricane of light particles coming out of the walls, out of the ceiling, everywhere. These particles were flying all over the place, over everyone… through everyone in the room, like a bunch of angry wasps. When they went through the men in black suits, they were taking chinks out of them, taking them apart piece by piece. It was like watching a film of something being built in reverse and it all gets unbuilt… They were all screaming and trying to get away, but faster than piranhas could've eat 'em, they were all gone except for a pile of crap on the floor."

Michael had begun to pay a lot of attention. He knew his son was amazing, but this amazed even him.

"Then," Klein continued, "the light particles swirled all over the two girls and through them and everything, but instead of taking them apart, it put everything back together… not like putting the whole heart back in or something… but like atom by atom, streams of atoms, moving atoms back where they belong. I can't describe it any other way. Just awesome. After that, he just turned into this little boy and collapsed on the floor and went to sleep."

"Oh, and I should tell you… before they took Tess and Maya into the dissection lab, they were giving Maya injections of some kind of drug… something red. Tess over here, she was all beat up, and I didn't think she was gonna live through the day, but she kept trying to whisper to me to protect Maya and keep them from drugging her. She thought it was real important. So I was gonna fill the syringe with blood out of my arm, but Tess said no, to use hers, because it's different… so I filled the syringe with her blood, and when the man in black came back in, he gave her that thinking it was the drug."

Liz nodded her head vigorously, "That's why Maya was able to contact me… after some of the drug wore off. The 'skin' must have known that she might have some kind of powers, and he wanted her kept drugged."

"Makes sense," Michael said. "The 'skin' was working for himself, probably to get their ship, but he would have infiltrated the task force to be in a position to know if any 'aliens' with a ship were found. And he would recognize us more easily, because he knew what to look for. The other task force guys probably didn't."

Max nodded. "Well, that answers some of the questions I had… Maya, when in the name of Earth and Antar did you find out that you could make a copy of yourself?"

Maya squirmed a bit… "When I was two, I think."

Liz and Max's mouths both fell open.

"And you've done this before, young lady?" Liz admonished her.

"Yes," Maya said abashedly, in a quiet voice.

"Oh my," Liz said… "I don't want to even think about it."

Varec smiled, "Welcome to your heritage, your majesty."

Liz knew what he meant. She was Antarian now… her children were Antarian. What did she expect them to be? Children will be children. If they have a power, will they not find some way to use it? It just keeps Antarian parents on their toes. But in the end, Liz knew that she was lucky. Her girls… and her little boy… were respectful and obedient… well, obedient except when they could "logically" find a way to get around it anyway. She could hardly ask for more.

"Okay," said Max… "This meeting is over. Michael and Tess and I will stay here and plan how we might find and save Rayylar. The rest of you may go unless you wish to remain." Max looked around, but no one was moving. He shrugged.

"Okay, then let's make some rescue plans."

Michael spoke first, "I think we need to 'liberate' a certain spaceship from the Army… from Area 51… first. It's a lot smaller than the new granolith. We're like the 'Mother ship' to a little ship like that. We could use the transporter to transport it out of the mountain and into our cargo bay. I would have to reconfigure the transporter beam temporarily to redirect it to the cargo bay instead of to the transporter room, but it could be done."

Max nodded, "Work on it, then, Michael. It's a good idea. If you need help, Varec can help you."

Michael shook his head, "He's welcome to help, but I won't need any help for that."

"Okay," Max said… then the big question is, where is Rayylar being held?"

"I can tell you that," said Maya.

All eyes looked at Maya.

"Well, he is Antarian."

Somehow, Max and Michael and everyone had forgotten this fact. Of course! Maya could communicate with him, assuming that he was alive, which he must be if she knew where he was…

"Where is Rayylar, Maya?" asked Max.




-----------------------End of Chapter 37

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



Rayylar

Chapter 38

XXXVIII



"Where is Rayylar?" Max asked Maya, who had just reminded everyone that her telecommunications power allowed her to make contact with anyone with Antarian DNA… and Rayylar was one hundred percent Antarian.

"He's on an island," said Maya.

"Is he injured… or hurt? Is he okay?" asked Tess.

"He's… hurt, but he can hear me. He's locked in some kind of dark place."

"Where is this island, Maya," asked Michael. "Do you know its name?"

Maya thought for a few moments, trying to get an answer from Rayylar's mind…

"It's… It's in the… Caribbean… Vieques."

Michael looked at Max… "Vieques? Is that an island?”

"Yeah… yeah…" Max said after a moment. “Remember? That's that little island where the U.S. Navy drops live bombs and the civilians were protesting… It's off… uh… Puerto Rico. I think it belongs to Puerto Rico."

"Oh yeah," Michael said, "Now I remember. Someone got killed by a bomb or something from one of the Navy jets, and all these people were getting arrested for protesting the Navy… Jesse Jackson went over there to protest and got arrested."

"Right."

"What's Rayylar doing there," Michael asked.

"They took him there," said Maya. "He's locked up somewhere on the Navy base."

"Where?" asked Michael. "We need to be able to find him."

"He can hear jets flying over all the time… and bombs," said Maya.

Max looked at Michael… "The story I saw on TV said that the bombing and artillery was on the east end of the island I think."

"I wouldn't know that," said Michael. "How big is this island?"

"It's like twenty one miles long and three or four miles wide, I think. There are about ten thousand civilians living in the middle, and the Navy drops live bombs on the east end. The west end is Navy, too, but the live bombing is on the east end… I'm pretty sure of that."

Michael nodded, "Well, Max, you're the one with the amazing memory for trivia, so I'll take your word for it."

"I just listen to the news, Michael," Max said. "Before anything else, let's go get us a baby UFO, though!"

Michael and Max left the conference room and headed to their places at the pilots' console. Bringing the ship around to the place where they had found Klein, Tess, and Maya in Area 51, they calculated where Tess' ship was located based on Klein's estimates of distances and direction to where he had seen it. Michael activated the transporter and waited…

"Well, we'll either have a baby UFO in our cargo bay or something else," said Michael… "I guess I’d better go down and check."

Michael took the ascension chamber to the cargo bay. Ten minutes later, the ascension chamber returned. Michael stepped out…

"Well?" asked Max.

"Well…" Michael said somberly…" He paused for a moment… then he smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"Alright!” Max yelled, grinning, "We've got us a baby!"

"Congratulations!" said Liz, who had just walked into the room behind them with Maria unnoticed.

"I hope the two of you will be very happy!" said Maria.” Liz and Maria both giggled.

"We can't leave you two guys alone for a minute without you getting into trouble," Maria added.

Max and Michael turned somewhat red. "Tess' ship! It's a ‘baby ship…' we meant compared to the new granolith being, like, the 'mother ship…'" said Michael firmly. He looked at Max. Both of them just got redder. "I think I need to talk to Varec about something," said Michael. "Yeah… I need to talk to Klein some more, too," said Max. Both of them rushed out of the control room, leaving the ship on automatic.

Maria walked over and sat down in Michael's chair.

"Hey, let's take the car and go shopping or something, huh, Liz? Toss me the key."

"Might as well," Liz replied. "Looks like the guys are occupied."

Both of them giggled and leaned back in the pilots' seats, watching birds pass by as the ship rose automatically through the clouds into the sky then into low Earth orbit to await the pilot's further orders.

The truth is, both Liz and Maria actually did know how to fly the ship, and both had sat at the controls at one time or another during the trip; however, when the controls were set to accept orders from a particular pilot and co-pilot, only the palms of those two individuals on the console palm prints would be recognized, and only their orders would be followed by the ship. There was a procedure for countermanding that in case one of the two was killed or otherwise unable to be there, but it was naturally not given out as common knowledge. Of those currently onboard, only Max, Michael, Varec, Liz, and Maria knew the procedure. Max had offered to teach it to a couple of others, but so far they had not taken him up on the offer.

Shortly, Max and Michael returned with Varec and assumed their places at the pilots' consoles. They brought the ship around and down into the atmosphere then headed southeast across the Gulf of Mexico toward the Caribbean, crossing Key West. As they neared Cuba, ninety miles southeast of Florida, they breezed past several Cuban MiG's over international waters. The pilots were oblivious to the presence of the huge mother ship right beside them. Max and Michael listened in on their conversations…

"Oye, oye… Qué pasa, muchachos… You see any 'Brothers to the Rescue' planes from the Miami exiles today?"

"No… nada… They no come here again… Nada can come here without us know eet… even eef a fly come… I would shoot off eet's 'cojones…!'"

All the MiG pilots laughed.

"Tell our fearless leader hee ees veeeery safe steel,"

More laughter.

Michael grinned and gave Max that impish look that meant he had mischief in mind…

"Should we, Max?"

"Go ahead," Max said. Sometimes the two of them could almost read each other's minds and didn't need to say any more. Michael took the new granolith around behind the MiG's and slowed its speed to below Mach 1, the speed of sound. Then he increased the speed rapidly to the equivalent of Mach 8, tearing through the middle between the MiGs, producing sonic booms and air turbulence that sent the MiG's spinning for a few moments. The MiG's didn't hang around. Faster than one could say, "Oye," they turned around and headed back toward Cuba at full speed.

Max laughed… "Serves them right, Michael. Too bad we don't have time for more fun."

Michael grinned.

Within minutes, the new granolith passed over Puerto Rico then turned to the left toward the little island of Vieques less than twenty miles off Puerto Rico's eastern coast. Max brought the ship in over the north coast of Vieques, passing over Rompeolas and the three-mile-long landing known as 'Mosquito Pier.' He continued on along the north coast, crossing the town of Isabel II in the middle. Flying low over several more miles of beautiful beaches and palm trees, they soon saw the eastern end of the island and several Navy jets making practice bombing runs. They were in the right place. Now they just had to locate Rayylar.

Max knew that staying in this location would not be safe for the new granolith, even with the shields that Varec had designed for the trip before they left engaged, so he took the ship back along the southern coast and "parked" the new granolith directly over the top of a small cay or island known locally as "Cayo de Afuera" about a half mile offshore of the little village of Esperanza. Here, he figured, they should be relatively safe while they formulated a more detailed plan to rescue Rayylar.


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

That afternoon, three men and two women drove up to the gate at Camp Garcia, the Marine Base on Vieques Island. One of the men flashed his ID at the guard…

"Agent Klein with the task force in Roswell, New Mexico. I'm here to see the Commander in charge of the prisoner."

The guard at the gate looked confused. Klein realized that he probably knew nothing about the 'prisoner.'

"Which way to the Commander's quarters, private?"

The private looked at Klein's ID then at Casey's. He looked briefly at the insignia and uniform of the other woman and the uniform and decorations of the Captain with them. Then he opened the bars and waved them through without much comment, pointing them in the direction of the Base Commander's office.

Commander Groton answered the door himself and allowed the four visitors into his office…

"What can I do for you, General …Captain," Groton asked Jim Valenti and Michael.

"Sir, we are here to take possession of the special prisoner," said Valenti.

Groton looked at the four… "I don't know anything about any special prisoner."

"Sir, the prisoner has been determined to pose a significant risk factor to this facility and this island. I have been sent to escort him to Roswell under special guard," Jim persisted.

"I repeat," said Groton, "I know of no 'special prisoner' at this base, General, with all due respect."

Jim pulled out a toy ray gun that had belonged to Alyyx and showed it to Groton. He picked up Groton's small desk globe and tossed it into the air then pointed the ray gun at it and pulled the trigger. Michael, standing behind Commander Groton, threw a small power bolt with his palm, destroying the globe, blasting it into dozens of smoking pieces.

This did get the Commander's attention.

Jim handed the toy ray gun to Groton, who pointed it at a tree outside his window and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

"Why didn't it work?"

Jim smiled, "You have to know the secrets of these aliens. I do. Do you?"

Groton looked at Jim for several long moments.

"Who did you say you are?"

Jim showed him his ID… "Brigadier General Valenti, assigned to the alien task force in Roswell. And this is Agent Klein, Agent Casey, Captain Guerin, and Air Force Captain Harding." Klein and Casey showed him their ID's.

"You see, Sir," Jim said, "We know how to control this alien. We also know that he poses a significant threat to this facility, which we are not at liberty to disclose."

Groton looked as though he might again be becoming intransigent.

Jim looked out the window, "Oh, s*&%! It's begun… We didn't get here soon enough!"

Groton looked out the window in time to see clouds moving in a circular pattern and two cows outside his office suddenly fall over dead with their feet up in the air then melt into the ground, disappearing completely into the soil.

"What the crap is going on, General," Groton asked, alarmed. "What's happening on my base?"

Looking out his window again, he saw several marines with strange, ghoulish looks on their faces. Then their faces began to fall off. Groton had had enough.

"Can you stop this?" he implored Jim Valenti. "Do you have an antidote? If you take the prisoner away will everyone still die?"

"Not if I can neutralize him in time," said Valenti. "But there's not much time now, I'm afraid."

Groton ran outside and jumped into his Humvee, "Come with me."

Jim, Michael, Klein, Casey, and Tess Harding piled into the Humvee, and the Commander drove them at the fastest speed the Hummer could handle, which was none too slow, over the dirt roads of the base until they reached an area near the bombing range. Here they came to a concrete and steel reinforced bunker hidden under a cliff in an "arroyo." Groton opened the door with a special key on his belt. Rayylar stood there. Tess had to fight the urge to run into Rayylar's arms and hug him. Rayylar knew that they were coming… and he knew the plan. Maya had told him telepathically. So he stood pat and followed the plan.

"You can't stop me," Rayylar said to the Commander. "Everyone here will die."

"Not if I can help it," Jim said, pressing a small patch to Rayylar's arm. Rayylar suddenly went limp. Jim picked him up and put him into the Hummer.

"He'll be out till I take the patch off… or… twenty-two minutes, whichever comes first."

The Commander leapt back into his Humvee and made it back to his office in under fourteen minutes, a new record.

"You'll have him off my base… off this island before he can do any more harm, General."

"I can promise you that, Sir. That I can," said Jim. He put Rayylar into their vehicle and headed off the base in the direction of the nearby village of Esperanza. In Esperanza, they parked the vehicle down a small dirt back road and waited. In a matter of seconds, an invisible beam transported them and their vehicle into the new granolith.

"Welcome to the new granolith," Max said to Rayylar, smiling. Max placed his hand on Rayylar's forehead, healing the head wound he had received.

"I can work on the smaller scratches and things later," Max said… then he turned to Jim and Michael, leaving Rayylar to Tess, who had her own special pain killer for him, which she administered liberally.

"How did it go?"

"Well," Jim said… "The base Commander wasn't buying it at first… or at least he was playing it super cool and cautious. But Tess' mind warp convinced him!"

"Big time!" Michael added. "He was ready to carry Rayylar off the base for us! Those melting cows were too much, Tess! I loved that touch!"

"Oh, well, you should have seen the marines walking by his window turn into ghouls and their faces fall off!" said Jim, laughing. "That was great!"

"The old mind warp still works, huh Tess," Max said, grinning. "I'm glad you don't use it like another Tess I once knew."

"Another Tess?" Tess asked quizzically, holding tightly onto Rayylar, who was now beaming from ear to ear and feeling no pain.

"Never mind. She died a long time ago."

"Oh… I'm sorry."

Max turned and looked at Tess then smiled… "Don't be."




-----------------------End of Chapter 38

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



And a Time to Relax

Chapter 39

XXXIX



Max was not sorry that the old Tess was gone. In fact, he had only now fully realized and finally accepted that this Tess was indeed different… so much so that one might consider the “Tess” that existed in the old time line to be “dead.” Max greatly preferred this Tess. Perhaps when he and Michael changed the old time line, all those years ago, the Tess that emerged in the new time line was what she was meant to be all along, and the deviate version was a product of the old “wrong” time line. Whatever it was, Max was sure of one thing. He liked this Tess. He had had trouble accepting this for a long time, but now he was sure of it.

It was getting dark now, and Max and Michael took the new granolith out over the bay. As they did, they noticed the beautiful sparkling lights in the bay below them. They had never heard about the unique bioluminescent bay on Vieques’ southern shore, but they decided to take a look. It was beautiful… like stars twinkling in the water as well as in the sky. Max notified the entire group that anyone who wished to see it could go up to the observatory and watch. Most of those onboard did. Max took the ship down into the water. The bioluminescent bay is relatively shallow, and the new granolith, which is over seven stories high, could not submerge completely, but that wound up being perfect. The dome stuck partially out of the water as the ship moved through the bay, exciting the bioluminescent organisms below and on the surface and creating streams and swirls of billions of beautiful tiny “lights” in the water in its wake.

Then the new granolith emerged from the bay and headed off into low Earth orbit. Supper had been prepared. It was a late supper, and today had been a long day. Everyone met in the dining room, and the little droid served them.

There was quite a large group to serve these days. There were the Antarians, including Max, Michael, Isabel, Varec, Jeliya, Tess, Rayylar, and Liz, plus Maria, Kyle, Alex, and Amy, who by virtue of being married to Antarians, were considered Antarians themselves, plus, of course, all their children… there were thirteen children. There were the “new Antarians,” Jim and Kathleen… and now Diane Casey and the Whitmans… but Jim and Kathleen’s son, Danyy, was considered Antarian, so Jim and Kathleen generally were, too. And there were the “Antarians Too,” Nina, Lisa, Sabrina, Andrea, Roselle, Denise, April, Lauren, Tracie, Trude, Rachel, Kristine, and Andrew, those who, by virtue of being descended from the three royal girls who came to Earth 12,300 before, elected to come on this trip as protectors of the children. Then there was Klein. At this point, no one had decided what he was. And, though they were not present at the table, there was a pawgor and two dogs -Big Red and Elmo- onboard now, too. Even so, the new granolith was less than half full as far as its passenger capacity was concerned.

It seemed that while the drama had been unfolding on Vieques, someone had managed to use the transporter beam of the new granolith to “beam” a few dozen spiny lobsters onboard from the sea off the south side of Vieques, so tonight the guests dined on Caribbean spiny lobsters along with their badas, grelliats, and other traditional Antarian fare.

“Did our ship appear to be all right? They didn’t scratch it or damage it, did they, Michael?” asked Tess.

Michael shook his head, “No scratches or dents that I saw, why?”

“It’s just that… it’s a rental…” Tess said.

Liz covered her mouth. She didn’t think that it would be too queen-like to spray her drink across the table, and she was about to. Maria didn’t get her mouth covered quite in time. Both of them looked at each other and grinned privately. Of course, ships were rented out on Antar and some other planets in their system, but it still sounded ludicrous on the surface of it.

“I hope you didn’t agree to pay by the mile,” Kyle added drolly, “Maybe they’ll give you some consideration for having to be be towed back.”

Rayylar smiled, “No need to worry, Kyle. My Grandfather owns the concession. He owns them all.”

“Oh…” Kyle said and went back to eating his grelliats. Tess smiled and ignored the little jokes.

Diane Casey had been taking everything in, trying to learn what it was like to be Antarian. Klein was seated beside her.

Max looked at Klein and asked him the million dollar question…

“Do you want to go with us to Antar or are you staying here, Klein? You have a couple of choices. Some of those onboard are going to Antar for ten days then returning to Earth. You could do that, too. Others of us will be staying there. Diane will be staying with us. That’s an option you have, too.”

Klein shook his head… “I appreciate it! I really do! And God knows, I would sure like to stay with Diane, but… well, I don’t belong there. Diane, she’s different. Even I can see that. She belongs out there in the stars. I’ve got things to take care of here. So… I’m gonna stay… if you wouldn’t mind dropping me off somewhere before you go.”

“Wouldn’t you like to go and come back with the others?” Diane asked. “They tell me it takes seventeen days to get there. You could stay ten days… then it’ll take seventeen days coming back. You’d be back in forty-four days.”

Klein shook his head… “I’ve got things to take care of here. Maybe some day…” He smiled at Diane. Diane leaned over and gave him a kiss.

“I guess I’m gonna miss you, Klein,” she said. “Who’d have thought?”

“Who indeed,” said Klein.

Roselle, Nina, Denise, and Kristine were asked for about the millionth time to tell everybody again about how they had managed to get into the complex at Area 51 and how they had found Maya along with Tess and Klein. Everyone especially wanted to hear again the details of Roselle and Nina’s sergeant-like performances, which evoked a great amount of laughter from the group, as did Kristine’s comments about the poison gas. Jim, Michael, Tess, Klein, and Diane also had to retell their versions of the Vieques adventure, especially the part about the melting cows, which had everyone in stitches. Rayylar was asked to tell what had happened to him and Tess and how he had wound up on Vieques. All in all, there was no shortage of topics to talk about at dinner, and dinner was a very spirited and happy event this night.

After dinner, Max and Michael piloted the new granolith back to Washington, DC, which was where Klein asked to be taken. On the way there, Klein and Diane explored the arboretum and the gardens, marveling at the natural beauty that had been incorporated into the ship. On their way through the arboretum, they came across Danyy, who was walking his pawgor. Klein stopped in his tracks and turned momentarily pale.

“That, Klein…” said Diane, “is a pawgor.”

She ran her hand over the pawgor’s soft fur and took Klein’s hand and laid it on the cat’s back. Klein stroked the pawgor along the back then instinctively began to scratch its neck. The pawgor looked extremely satisfied and began to purr. Before Diane realized it, Klein was down on the ground talking to the pawgor and scratching its neck and back as though it were his pet. Diane shook her head. “Who’d have thought…” she said.

Over DC, Klein and Diane said their good-byes, and Klein thanked Max and Michael for the most amazing adventure of his life… and for saving his life, which he had not forgotten.

“No sweat,” said Michael. “You helped us get Rayylar back, too, so we’re even.”

Klein smiled. Max engaged the transporter, and one more pedestrian appeared on the streets of D.C. across from the offices of the FBI.

Klein looked up to see a shooting star pass over his head, and this time he knew for sure.

“Goodbye, Diane,” he said, “…until I see you again.”



-----------------------End of Chapter 39

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



Earth in the Rear View Mirror

Chapter 40

XL



The new granolith was out of Earth’s atmosphere and headed for Antar. All those who were supposed to be onboard were accounted for… most of them were in the observation dome atop the ship watching the Earth grow smaller and smaller and disappear into the distance as the starry darkness of space surrounded them.

Alex stood between his parents with one arm around each one as they watched the planet where they were born… the only planet they had ever known… disappear behind the ship in the great vastness of space.

“Penny for your thoughts, Mom… Dad,” said Alex.

Mister Whitman shook his head then smiled…

“I never dreamed… not even remotely… that I would one day see the Earth disappear like that in the distance… that I would be on my way to an alien planet across -what is it?- seven galaxies?”

“Yeah,” Alex said simply.

“I just wanted to get to Paris someday,” Mrs. Whitman said to Alex. “…not another planet!”

“But are you guys happy?” Alex asked.

The Whitmans both looked at Alex and smiled, giving him his answer.

“To be near you and your family… our grandchildren, Alex,” said Mrs. Whitman… “You couldn’t have made us stay behind!”

“No, she’s right, Alex,” said his Dad… “That’s a stubborn woman, your Mom! She would have dragged me there by the ear if I’d said no!”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t have to do much dragging,” said Mrs. Whitman. “You had those suitcases out and ready to be packed when I came in the room.”

He laughed… “You’re right, Dear, nothing could have made me stay behind either. You see, Alex, home is where the heart is, and you… and those little girls of yours… you’re our heart.”

Mrs. Whitman moved closer to her husband and kissed him on the cheek. “I think that’s the nicest and truest thing I’ve ever heard you say!” Both of them smiled.

Diane Casey was too thrilled for words. She stood watching the stars zip by, looking like a child on Christmas morning or a student on the first day of summer vacation. To the rest of the group, it was also a moving experience… it was always a moving experience to watch one’s planet fade away into space and know that one is headed somewhere across the galaxy… or in this case, across seven galaxies! But to Diane, this was a special day. It was truly the first day of the rest of her life.

The group cheered as they passed Mars. About forty minutes later, as they approached Jupiter, Max unexplainably slowed the new granolith to sub-light speed then to atmospheric speed. Some of those still in the observation dome wondered why… but some had a very good idea.

The new granolith sailed into Jupiter’s gravity sphere, passing moons of many different sizes and consistencies, slicing through clouds of colored gasses and brilliant shifting lights. Finally, the ship hovered over one small moon, one that looked benign and inviting. Max brought the ship down and set the anti-grav repulsor lock to hold the new granolith in place. Shortly, Max’s voice came over the intercom…

“For those of you who are new or don’t know, we are now on “Michael’s Moon.”

The Whitman’s, Diane, Kathleen, and a few others who weren’t on that earlier trip some years ago looked around at the other voyagers and then at Maria and Michael.

“Michael’s Moon” is very special,” Max continued… “This is where Michael proposed to Maria.”

“Awwwwwwwwwww…” was heard throughout the room.

Michael put his hand over his eyes… “I can’t believe he’s doing this to me!”

Maria smiled and hugged him, precipitating a new round of “awwwwwwwwwwwww.”

“Max, you just wait!” Michael said under his breath, turning red. “Sooner or later…”

Max came back on the intercom… “We’re going to take a little while to go off the ship and have some fun and see some sights… everybody is invited to attend a picnic that we have prepared, and we’re going to hike to the other side of the moon. There’s a cave there… the very cave where, a few years back, Jim Valenti found the camera and some other items that were left there over twelve thousand years ago by the three girls, MayaSabriena, AnDasniya, and JoLeesa. It was due to this discovery that we eventually learned that Liz was the closest living direct descendant of MayaSabriena and later that Liz was the true Queen of Antar. You might also be interested to know that, twelve thousand, three hundred years ago, when those girls were on this moon, this moon was in orbit around Earth. It was the smaller of Earth’s two moons at that time.”

Several gasps were heard.

“It was knocked out of Earth’s orbit, probably by a comet or an asteroid. The girls were on it at the time it was hit and very nearly never made it back to the Earth and their parents. It’s a very interesting and dramatic bit of history for anyone who does not yet know about it! Liz can provide you with a copy of ‘Sabrina’s Diary,’ which is what we called the diary kept by MayaSabriena. The original diary was found in the cave we will be going to, and it is this diary that provided us with this amazing story of courage and survival.”

“The moon awaits,” said Michael… “Shall we?”

“Wait till you find out how you’re going to get oxygen out there!” Maria said to everyone, grinning.

As the group arrived in the lower cargo bay, Max passed out two little capsules to each person.

“What’s this for?” asked Diane.

Maria grinned… “Just take ‘em! You’ll see!”

A few minutes after everyone had taken the capsules, Max opened the airtight ramp doors and lowered the ramp. The guests walked down the ramp to the moon. After a few moments, Diane noticed… She placed her hand in front of her nose then turned her wrist over and placed her watch face under her nose. It didn’t fog.

“Maria! Am I supposed to not be breathing?” Diane asked her.

Maria nodded… “The capsules provide time-released oxygen directly into the blood stream, so the body doesn’t feel the need to breathe, and it just stops. But you’re okay. When the oxygen from the capsules begins to wear off, in a few hours, you’ll begin to breathe again automatically and probably won’t even notice it. There’s a small amount of oxygen on this moon, but it’s not enough to support people anymore.”

“Awesome!” Diane said, astonished.

The children were already seeing who could jump the highest. Some of them had also heard the stories of how Kyle had sailed more than eighty feet high over the top of the new granolith, pretending to be Superman, during the first stop on this moon years before, and they were begging Kyle to show them how he did it. Kyle tried to convince the children that that had been a long time ago; but secretly, he eyed the ship wishing he might reprise that little stunt… without anyone watching this time, though.

After a period of about twenty minutes for everyone to “play” and adjust to being in the light gravity and to not having to breathe, Max rounded everyone up and led them off toward the cave on the other side of the moon.

It was a twenty to thirty minute hike to the other side. There they found the cave.

“Right where we left it!” Michael said jokingly.

The entrance was hidden in a small valley so that it was not readily seen. Max had brought plenty of lanterns, and they all turned them on as they went inside. About half a mile down into the interior of the moon, the shaft opened into a very large “room.”

“Well, this is it,” Michael said to the group. “You are looking at the very spot where those three girls were… Maya was writing in her diary, one of them was trying to hang pictures on a wall… when this moon was suddenly struck and knocked out of its regular Earth orbit. It had been closer to the Earth than the other moon. For a few days after it was struck, it followed an irregular, elliptical orbit, then it slipped out of Earth’s grasp altogether and drifted away into space, eventually being trapped by the gravitational pull and becoming a moon of Jupiter, where it has been ever since. Jim found the girls’ camera right around that corner there, and the diary was found right over here. It was months before we could open the diary. It was in such a delicate condition that we carefully wrapped it and took it back to Antar unopened. There, the scientists put it through many chemical and weathering treatments just so that the pages could eventually be opened without crumbling into dust.”

“Awesome,” Diane said, shaking her head.

Varec was in Heaven. This place, to him, was like visiting the place where civilization began. It was almost holy. He had worked tirelessly to restore MayaSabriena’s diary and preserve it after Max and Michael had brought it to him on Antar, he had kept Max and Liz informed of its contents as it was painstakingly opened and read, one delicate, preserved page at a time. This was a place that he had never expected to see… and now he was here… actually standing on the very site, half a mile inside a small moon seven galaxies from his home planet. Varec walked around the room, touching the walls, looking into the corners, looking at the ceilings some three stories above.

Even the children seemed quiet and in awe of this place… after all, it was studied in Antarian schools now as an important historical event and place. They all knew about it. It was like looking at the place where Abraham Lincoln had sat and worked, but somehow more… even more, because it was so far away and no one ever expected to actually see it. And it probably added something to the attraction of the mythos that the three girls had been only fifteen… the children could relate to them and to their moving tale of courage and terror here.

Liz had been one of the people most emotionally affected by the diary. She had read it many times over the years before she ever found out that the girls had made it back to Earth… the diary ended without saying. Now she, too, stood looking around the room…

“It almost seems like they’re still here…” Liz said quietly. She realized that Andya was tugging on her sleeve…

“What is it, Andya?”

“Mom… I think… I think I can see them. Well, not really them, but like… where they were, what they were doing. It’s like a movie that keeps playing over and over in here.”

An involuntary shiver went up Liz’s spine… “I can’t see anything. What do you see, Andya?”

“Can I show you?”

Everybody turned and looked at Andya. Liz nodded.

Andya moved her hand slowly through the air several times, and then, like three ghosts from the past, MayaSabriena, AnDasniya, and JoLeesa were there in the room. Well, they weren’t really in the room. They did not even see the visitors. But the visitors saw them -or some aura of them that had been left behind. Maya was writing and talking to JoLeesa. All three girls were very frightened.

Liz couldn’t help herself anymore. Tears poured down her face and she fought a serious urge to run and grab them up and tell them that it would be all right. But of course, they weren’t really here. What the visitors were seeing happened over twelve thousand years before. Somehow Andya was able to see or perceive that invisible aura and amplify it enough that the others could see it, too.

Everyone stood in stunned silence watching the scene play out before them. JoLeesa was fidgeting with a picture on the wall… finally she managed to remove it, along with a piece of the wall behind it. Behind the picture, a fairly good-size hole had been carved into the wall. JoLeesa placed something into the hole then replaced the piece of the wall over it. She left the picture on the floor.

Varec walked over to the wall and ran his hand over the spot where the hole had been. There was absolutely nothing there now… or… over twelve thousand years time, the piece of the wall plugging the hole had resealed itself, becoming simply part of the wall again. Varec and Michael began to dig with pocketknives around the edges where the plug had once existed. A few minutes later, they removed the piece. The hole was still there… and something was in it.



-----------------------End of Chapter 40

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



What Happened on Michael’s Moon

Chapter 41

XLI



Removing the piece of wall that had plugged the hole, Michael and Varec saw that the hole was still there… and something else. Michael reached into the hole and carefully removed an object. It was in a clear bag made of something like plastic, and it appeared to be a book or another diary. Michael reached in again and took out another object. This one looked like a baby’s bracelet, but it was unusually ornate and beautiful. Reaching in again, Michael found a third item. It was a beautiful box made of something that looked like oak, but it wasn’t the slightest bit deteriorated, so Michael and Varec surmised that it must actually be something other than wood. They opened the box. Inside were four smooth, round balls that appeared to be made of steel. Each was slightly smaller than a golf ball, and each one sat cradled in its own special holder in the box.

“What do you think these are,” Michael asked Varec.

Varec shook his head… “I couldn’t even guess.” He picked up one of the balls. “It feels like steel, but it’s much too light… I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Great!” said Michael… “Just what we need! Another mystery!”

“I love mysteries,” Varec said smiling.

Michael looked at Varec and grinned, too. “I know you do. Well, figure out what this stuff is. I have every confidence in you, Varec.”

Varec tested the balls’ weight, moving his hand up and down with one of them in his hand, then shook his head…

“I hope I can honor that confidence, Michael… I’m not so sure myself… This is not something I have ever seen or even read about on Antar…”

Michael reached into the hole again… It appeared he had found everything. Varec reached in, too, just to be sure. There was nothing more in the hole. They replaced the wall plug, and the group began the half-mile trek back up the shaft to the exit.

Once outside the cave, Michael and Max led the group to the site where the picnic had been prepared. It was the same place where Max and Liz had sat years before, watching Jupiter fill the sky in front of them. From this side of the moon, which faced the giant planet Jupiter, the entire sky was filled by the view of Jupiter and its multi-colored swirling gasses and storms. The view was absolutely spectacular.

“Folks,” said Michael with a mischievous smile, “This is the exact place… and this is the very rock, where on our first trip by here, when we were bringing Liz and Maria and the others to Antar, Max and Liz sat kissing and cuddling for hours watching Jupiter and making out…”

“Awwwwwwwwwwwwww,” was heard throughout the group. Among the children, there were a few “he-he-he’s” and, from the younger ones, a couple of “ew’s.”

Michael wasn’t finished…

“Not needing to breathe, they didn’t have to come up for air… so in honor of Max and Liz, I’m naming this rock, “the kissing stone.”

Everyone laughed and clapped their approval.

Max turned red and looked menacingly at Michael, who was grinning from ear to ear and looking something like the cat that had just caught and swallowed the mouse.

Max and Liz’ youngest child, six-year-old Alyyx, noticed Jayyd looking at him and smiling… “Oh! Don’t even think it! Ew!”

Everyone enjoyed the picnic, though some found the act of eating while not breathing to be hard to get used to. Certainly, no one was complaining about the view. After the picnic, everyone spent some time looking around and enjoying themselves. A few had their pictures taken sitting on the “kissing stone.” Jim discovered that the stone had the unusual power of forcing men to grab the girl beside them and kiss them passionately… well, that’s the excuse he gave Kathleen anyway as he kissed her in front of the group.

Alyyx made sure that he stayed a little further away from the stone after that “revelation…” especially when Jayyd was anywhere near it or was smiling.

Amy and Varec discovered that some rocks behind a small outcrop a little ways from there had the same “effect” and were much more private. But being a scientist, Varec told Amy that he wanted to test the theory that they wouldn’t have to come up for air. Amy agreed to help him with the experiment, agreeing that the hypothesis was worth testing.

Mister Whitman even gave his wife a peck as they had their picture taken sitting on the rock.

“Well, I think this picture outdoes any Paris pictures, Dear,” Mister Whitman said. “I’d say we’re the only people on our block to have our picture made on a moon with Jupiter behind us.”

Mrs. Whitman smiled.

Michael led the rest of the group back to the new granolith, leaving Max and Liz alone to remember… and revisit… that special day some years before.

An hour and a half later, Max and Liz arrived back at the ship. Most everyone was still playing around outside. Michael had taken Maria to their private place, the place where he had proposed to her, to spend some time alone with her. Alex and Isabel had never had the occasion to see this moon the first time. Alex had not yet joined them on Antar, and Isabel had chosen to remain on the ship and read a novel rather than to go off onto the moon. This time, they were spending their last hours here exploring and finding their own “special place” on “Michael’s Moon,” as were Kyle and Jeliya. Jeff and Nancy Parker, Jim and Kathleen Valenti, and Varec and Amy had also gone off on their own to “explore.” Kyle had not yet met and married Jeliya the first time he was here, and Amy had not yet met and married Varec.

At the end of the day, everyone had returned to the ship tired and very, very hungry. The little droid served up the evening meal in the dining room, and everyone had a lot to talk about as they ate. It had been, after all, a most amazing day on “Michael’s Moon.”



-------------------------End of Chapter 41

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



Maya's Story

Chapter 42

XLII



As they prepared to leave Michael’s Moon, Maria and Jeliya whispered something to Max. Max grinned and made an announcement…

“It seems we are missing one person again…”

There was an audible gasp in the dining room.

“If everyone will come with me to the observatory, though, I think we may find our missing person.”

Having finished eating, everyone filed out of the dining room and followed Max up to the observation dome.

“What’s going on,” asked Michael. “What are we supposed to see?”

“Just wait,” Max said grinning… “I think you’re about to find out.”

After a couple of minutes wait, Zorel suddenly gasped and pointed…

“Look!”

“Alright!” several of the children joined in… “He did it!”

Everyone looked where Zorel pointed as Kyle sailed over the top of the ship, hands stretched out in front of him like Superman. The children all cheered, and the adults clapped. Michael gave Max a high five, also grinning from ear to ear…

“Kyle will never live this down,” Michael laughed.

“Not if we have anything to say about it,” Max agreed, chuckling.

Back onboard the new granolith, Kyle had no idea he had had an audience until everyone began to slap him on the back and tell him how much they had enjoyed watching him jump over the ship. At first, Kyle was embarrassed, but soon he realized that, at least to the kids, he had just become a certifiable hero. He guessed he could live with that.

Max and Michael approached him grinning mischievously…

“You didn’t think we would accept a black-out game did you, Kyle?”

Both of them ducked and ran as Kyle made a fake start in their direction for the benefit of the kids watching… and just because he enjoyed watching them run.


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

The new granolith was now well on its way to Antar. It had been two days since they had left Michael’s Moon when Varec rushed into the entertainment room in a frenzy of excitement looking for Max. He found Max watching videos with Liz, Michael, Maria, Diane Casey, Kathleen, and a few others.

“What’s all the excitement,” Max asked, as Varec rushed in.

“Zan! …Max! I was able to open and begin reading the new diary! It is in very, very good condition, especially considering its age! The plastic-like bag that it was stored in was hermetically sealed, so the diary was very well protected. It is delicate, but not at all too delicate to read carefully.”

Max was suddenly interested; Liz was even more excited than Varec, if that was possible.

“What does it say,” Liz wanted to know immediately.

Varec sat down beside them and handed Liz a copy that he had produced for her. She began to read; Max read along over her shoulder…


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

15th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

I’m MayaSabriena. I had to start a new diary, because I filled the last one up already. That wasn’t too hard! There’s not much else to do when one has given up and accepted that death is certain and the only thing one has left is one’s thoughts. I know now that we are never going to get back to Eluymer again. We tried to leave the little moon yesterday, but the enclose skimmer wouldn’t start again. That was our last chance. There is nothing else that we can do now but wait here for what is inevitable. We were all crying yesterday, but now there don’t seem to be any tears left, so we just wait… and me… I write. That’s what I do when I’m happy… when I’m sad… when I’m scared… I always write!

Since yesterday, the little moon has only gotten further and further away from Eluymer. It will not return again. This I know for sure. We have begun a voyage through the universe, and this moon is our ship… our ship of doom. I am so hungry! It has been… well, I really don’t remember when we ate the last food we had, but it was days ago, maybe a week. I will write more later. That is all for now. This is Maya. Bye.


16th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

Eluymer disappeared today. When we went out and looked, it was gone… no longer visible. We are truly, truly alone now, and so, so scared. But it doesn’t do any good to be scared, so we have all agreed that we must accept our fate. AnDasniya, JoLeesa, and I, MayaSabriena, have all decided that if there is a month left or only a day left of our lives, we will enjoy it and make it worth having lived it! We will watch the stars and the planets, we will take care of each other, and I will write our feelings and our experiences down here so that maybe someday someone might read about them. We are trying not to be sad but to think of this as an adventure or something. It’s hard though…

Sorry for that, but whoever reads this should know. It’s not easy to know that… soon… we will all be dead.

Bye now. This is Maya.


19th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

Guess what! I’m so hungry, I’m not even hungry anymore! Is that funny or what? Oh, and something did happen today. We passed the closest planet to Eluymer, Boreis. It looks kind of red from far off and even redder when one is closer. Andya and Leesa and I waved and hollered as we went by, as though someone on Boreis would see us and wave back or maybe even come get us! Ha ha! I guess we weren’t close enough for Boreis to capture our moon and hold it, though. We just passed on by it, and we are still continuing our journey through the universe… to where? We do not know! Bye now! This is Maya.


20th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

Andya is still asleep. I couldn’t wake her up this morning… I kissed her on the cheek and put some folded clothes under her head so she would be more comfortable. I guess it’s morning. We really don’t know. We just sleep when we feel tired, which we are a lot lately. Andya is breathing hard. That scares me. Leese isn’t feeling very well either. She passed out a couple of hours ago, but she came back to in a little while. Leese has been trying to comfort me, even though she is more tired than I am. She put her arm around me and said she loves me. And I just started to cry. We’re trying to still be brave and find something to convince us that it’s worth it to live, even like this, because we believe that life is worth it. I know that Leese and Andya are worth it to me! God, I love them so much! If there’s anything good about us dying out here, it’s that we’re all together and won’t have to be apart for long. I think we’re all just too hungry to stay awake. This is Maya. Bye.


19st I mean 18st, oh… 21st day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

I can’t wake Andya or Leese up. I think I just want to sleep too. Write later. Maya,



Coming to the bottom of the first page of the diary, Liz quickly turned the page, shaking uncontrollably, and gasped… “Oh my God!

…Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God!”



-----------------------End of Chapter 42

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



The Darkest Hour

Chapter 43

XLIII



As Liz turned the page and quickly scanned the second page of the diary, she gasped involuntarily at what she saw…


22nd day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

I guess it’s true what they say, that the darkest part of night, the darkest hour, is right before the dawn. Well… it couldn’t have gotten any darker for us! I really do think that we were just this close (Since I know you can’t see me, I’m holding my fingers about as far apart as one of those little hard-shelled bugs with pretty spots on them)… We were that close to the end! I’m sure of it!

What a joy today is! My sisters are well again! I am well! We just had the greatest meal we’ve ever… ever… ever… ever had! Oh my God was it good!

We were on the little moon from the 6th of Oyymstar till the 21st of Oyymstar… that’s fifteen days! Worse, we ran out of food the third day, so we had nothing to eat for twelve days. I had stopped being hungry already. I just felt tired and sleepy… and sometimes scared. I don’t know how we kept on going! I think it was because we had each other. I don’t know any other answer. We kept each other going.

Well, I guess you want to know what happened, so I will tell you! We were all sleeping when the moon began to vibrate real hard and woke us up. We thought it was like an earthquake or something… we didn’t know what to think. Then we saw this light that kept getting bigger and bigger, and Andya thought we were dead! But as you can see, we weren’t! I hope you’re as glad about that as we are! (That might be hard! He he!) But anyway, the light kept getting bigger and bigger until we saw that it was a space ship of some kind. At first, it just looked like a normal sized ship, but as it kept coming closer, we saw that it was really, really big… bigger than any ship we had ever seen before. So this huge ship opened these doors or something on the bottom and just sort of came down on top of our moon. It took the whole, entire moon inside it! Can you believe it? I mean, yeah, it’s a small moon, I know… but it’s still a moon!

Anyway, this is one really, really big ship! I think the excitement of everything gave us a rush of adrenaline or something, because we all got up to see what was happening, and Andya and Leese couldn’t even stand up before. I almost couldn’t, either.

After we were inside this huge ship, a small ship that was kind of like our enclose skimmer came down from somewhere out of the top and landed on our moon right there where we were standing. When the door opened, we didn’t know what to expect, but guess what! This guy stepped out and he looked just like us, only he wasn’t Antarian. And this is the good part! He’s only nineteen years old and soooooooooo good looking like you wouldn’t believe!

This guy who looks like the handsomest guy we’ve ever seen lands on our little moon where we are almost dead and says to us, “Would you like to go with me?”

Well, my dear diary (and whoever may read you some day), I would have done it all over again to go with this guy, and that’s the truth! Andya and Leese would have, too. I know, because you should have seen their faces… the way they looked at him! (Did I tell you he was gorgeous?)

We went with this guy in the little ship, and he took us to a docking bay way up somewhere… I can’t even begin to describe how big this ship is! When we looked back down, we could see our moon floating in the bay of this monster ship.

So this guy who’s the handsomest guy we’ve ever seen takes us to a place where he says we can rest and wash up, then someone like a nurse or something brings us some food and drinks on a tray and checks us all over to see if we are all right, and she mixes some things in our drinks and leaves. I guess it was some kind of medicine or something, but it didn’t make the drinks taste bad. Of course, anything would have tasted good to us after what we had just been through!

A few hours after that, the same guy came back (Did I tell you he was gorgeous!) and he took us to a beautiful dining room where we had a full meal… and what a meal! None of us could eat much of it, because we hadn’t eaten in so long that our stomachs couldn’t take too much. But it was sooooooo delicious!

Well, that’s about as much as I know right now. I don’t even know this guy’s name, and he saved our lives! We’re back in the room where he took us to begin with. It’s comfortable. Real beds! Oh My God! Real beds! I thought I would never see one again! Leese and Andya are as thrilled as I am. All three of us haven’t been able to stop talking and wondering about this guy since we got here! (He’s soooooo gorgeous!) Who is he? Where is he from? I’ll write more when I know something. Bye now. This is Maya.



------------------------End of Chapter 43

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



The Secret Life of MayaSabriena

Chapter 44

XLIV



Liz had turned to the second page of MayaSabriena’s diary with a deep, aching sense of dread, fearing that she would find a few incoherent ramblings… or something that she really didn’t want to hear… that one or more of the girls had died. Her startled reaction when she turned the page and read what had just happened to them brought everyone in the room up out of their seats. Now none of those in the room could wait to find out what had happened. Liz continued reading…


23rd day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

When we woke up this morning, at first we thought maybe we had really died or something! You should have been there and seen us! I think we all three thought we were dreaming. We just kept feeling the beds and looking at all the nice stuff around us. Oh, and just the feel of nice, soft, clean PJ’s! I think we really were in Heaven!

A lady came early in the morning and asked us to come with her. We followed her, and she took us to the dining room again where they had breakfast all prepared. I’m not really sure what I was eating… but I wasn’t feeling very fussy! Something looked kind of like eggs, only different. It was sort of scrambled, but it was brown and bright gold with blue swirls in it… looked really weird, but tasted pretty good! And there was some kind of bread we had never seen before and several fruits we had never seen before. To drink, they gave us something that was really different-tasting. It’s hard to describe… kind of like, I don’t know, orange and pineapple juices mixed together with a little bubbly stuff in it that made it taste really good and feel kind of warm going down your throat… not bad warm like, you know, something that’s supposed to be cold but isn’t? It was cold… only it sort of tickled the throat and felt good going down. It made my stomach feel good the same way, too.

When we finished eating, we saw that the guy who rescued us was standing there watching us and smiling. Oh my God! What a smile! He’s sooooooo hot! Did I tell you that? Anyway, he comes over to us and holds out his hand like this handsome prince asking a princess to dance! I just held my hand out. Leese and Andya did, too. He took our hands and led us out of the dining room into another room that was kind of like a really nice big office. Then he asked us to sit down on this big sofa by the wall. He sat down on a chair beside us then a man came in and said, “hello” and sat down in front of us at this desk. He was older, probably at least forty, but he looked like maybe twenty-five.

The man looked at us and smiled and asked us our names and where we were from and a lot of other things about us. We told him we were Antarian and were living on Eluymer while our parents did research there, and we told him all about what happened to us on the little moon. He was very interested and sympathetic.

I think he must be the father of my handsome prince, because I can see a resemblance. And they’re both really handsome, too! I mean, for a guy who’s so old and not a teenager anymore, his father looks really handsome, you know.

He told us that they were travelers from another galaxy that was very, very far away and that they were going to a planet that was even further away. I told him Antar was very far away, too… seven galaxies from Eluymer. But get this! He said that his planet is one hundred and forty galaxies away! Wow! Can you believe it? I mean… our ship couldn’t get there in a lifetime! And the planet they’re going to is still eighty-three galaxies past Eluymer!

Their planet is called Xarius. The man asking the questions name was Davor-Nil… and my handsome prince! I know his name now! It’s Shaqor-Niseel. His complete name is Shaqor Niseel Vredis Davor.

Shaqor-Niseel!

I think I like it! Maybe I’ll call him Shag and his Dad, Dave… well, not to their faces, you know, but just when I’m talking about them with JoLeesa and AnDasniya. Shag is sooooooo hot! God, he’s gorgeous!

That’s about it. After they asked us a lot of questions and told us who they were, they took us to a room where there were lots of games and fun things to do and told us we could go there to enjoy ourselves whenever we wanted. After that, we went back to our rooms for a while. That’s where I am now. I’ll write more soon. This is Maya. Bye.


24th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

I am finding out a lot of things about this huge ship… and about Shag, too! This morning after breakfast, Shag took us all three for a spaceship ride around inside the ship. Yep, that’s what I said… a spaceship ride! Well, a ship that’s big enough to swallow a whole small moon would be too big to walk around in!

We rode in a very cool looking little spaceship, actually an anti-gravity vehicle like a small spaceship, that was a little larger than our enclose skimmer. Shag showed us a lot of the different parts of the ship. It’s like this huge city… no, more like a small planet that’s hollow inside. You can fly all through it in these smaller spaceships. In fact, we saw lots of smaller ships flying around inside the big ship. They have these air lanes mapped out between one sector of the ship and another all over the place, and it’s really busy. Shag told us that there are over 500,000 people on the ship, and each one of them has a specific job to do! Is that awesome or what!

Oh, and this you’re not going to believe… Well, I almost didn’t anyway! Davor-Nil is like the supreme commander of the ship, and he isn’t Shag’s father; he’s his great grandfather… and I told you he looked like he was about twenty-five but was probably about forty? Well, he’s actually ninety-four! Talk about being wrong! I was right about Shag, though… he’s nineteen. I’m almost always right about ages! It’s a talent I have. These people are so different, though… like they don’t ever get old or something.

I met Shag’s father, Larjan-Vigil. Shag’s grandfather is still on Xarius. He didn’t come with them, because he has to take care of the affairs of their planet. He’s the king of Xarius… the “Zasharn,” and his name is Jistahl-Nisheel.

Right now I’m writing this in my room. It’s almost time for dinner. JoLeesa is getting dressed, and AnDasniya is combing her hair… again! We all want to look good… Well, you would, too, if you saw Shag! Oh! Okay, I won’t say it…

Yes I will! He’s soooooooo hot! (Sorry, I couldn’t help it! He’s got this dreamy smile!) That’s all for now. Dinner’s ready. Bye, Maya.


24th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

I’m back in the same day, but this is something I just had to write down while I’m still shaking! Anyway, after dinner, Leese, Andya, and I went to the game room. While we were there, Shag came and asked me if I would go for a walk with him. He took me to this place that’s like a park… it’s really beautiful, with fountains and trees and lots of flowers and all. And you are not going to believe this! Guess what!

Oh My God… HE KISSED ME!

Not just on the cheek either! I nearly passed out! He’s the first guy! The first one I ever kissed… and on the lips, too! I wasn’t expecting it, and I didn’t know what to do, so I just did what seemed natural. I think my heart stopped for a while! All I could think about was the feel of his lips on mine and how his arms felt holding me. I hope I did it right… I hope he liked it! I would just die if he thought I was, I don’t know, just a little girl who didn’t know how to kiss. I mean, not that I want him to think I go around kissing every other guy, of course! I don’t know what I mean! Anyway, I had to tell you this. I can’t wait for tomorrow!



-----------------------End of Chapter 44

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



Romance in the Stars

Chapter 45

XLV



They say for every boy and girl
There’s just one love in this whole world
And I-I-I know I-I-I’ve found mine…

The heavenly touch of your embrace
Tells me no one can take your place
E-e-e-e-ever in my heart…

Young love… first love… filled with true devotion!
Young love… first love… We share with deep emotion!”

Liz half sang, half hummed under her breath, not really remembering all the words of the old Sonny James song, and forgetting that anyone was listening, as she smiled and continued to read more of Maya’s diary…


25th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

This is MayaSabriena! Remember this date: the 25th of Oyymstar, Antar year 4,702! I know I will remember it forever! And yesterday’s, too! Because yesterday, I got my first kiss ever! And it wasn’t from some toad either… it was from the most gorgeous guy who ever lived! It was Shag! Okay, his name is really Shaqor, but I call him Shag!

Today, Shag asked me to go for a walk with him again in the park. When we got there, he kissed me again! When Shag kisses me, I see stars and all kinds of things! I can’t even describe it! And when he holds me in his arms, I just melt! I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, and I know that I will never feel this way about anyone else again as long as I live! So I’m going to tell you a secret… I’m in love!

It’s no secret to AnDasniya and JoLeesa anymore. They both guessed… and they wanted to know everything when I got back after walking with Shag. Andya almost fainted when I told them he kissed me. It was too funny! Leese just stood there with her mouth open like she didn’t believe it. I told her these lips cannot tell a lie… they were kissed by the handsomest guy in the universe! Oh My God! If I weren’t wearing them, I swear, I’d put them in a case or something just to look at them forever! And I’d write under them, “These lips were kissed by the handsomest prince in the universe!” I keep looking at them in the mirror and touching them. It doesn’t feel real! I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and find out that I’m really still on the little moon and this was all a beautiful dream that I had as I was dying…

If it is… I’ll at least be the happiest girl who ever died!

Bye now! This is Maya.


26th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

Davor-Nil told me today that they’re waiting here for several more days before going on to Alenora… That’s the planet that they’re going to. They’re waiting here to meet another ship and pick up some things that they’re going to take the rest of the way. Dave (That’s what I call Davor-Nil) said that after they pick up these things from the other ship, they will put JoLeesa, AnDasniya, and me in our enclose skimmer, which is all fixed, and drop us off as they pass Eluymer, close enough so that we can get back home safely, and they’ll make sure that we get back okay.

I know I should be happy. I know that Mom and Dad must think we’re dead, and that makes me so sad for them. I really want to go home and tell them we’re all right and that they don’t have to worry. But I’m really sad, because I will have to leave Shag! What can I do? I don’t want to leave Shag! I love him! And he loves me, too! He told me! Oh, I don’t know what to do! I have to go back to Eluymer… I know that… and Shag has to go to Alenora then back to Xarius. I’ve decided that I’m going to ask him if I can go with him to Xarius when they come back. This is Maya. Bye now!


27th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

Shag took me for a ride today in the anti-gravity ship. Guess where we went! You won’t guess in a hundred million years! Okay, I’ll tell you… We went to the little moon… It’s still in the bay of the ship! We walked on our little moon, and I showed him our secret cave where we slept and where we were when the moon was hit…

Shag told me that he loves me and wants me to come to Xarius with him, too. He gave me two gifts to keep to think of him while he is away… the bracelet he wore when he was a baby… and a box with four spheres called Vreenis Spheres. The Vreenis Spheres are named for the planet where they come from, Vreenis, and it is more than two hundred galaxies past Xarius the other way… That is so far away, I can’t even imagine it! Anyway, Shag said that the spheres have special powers. When I asked him what they would do, he just said, “You’ll find out.” Eek! I really want to know what the Vreenis Spheres do!

This is so great! Shag said that the box is hand-made out of the wood of a tree on Xarius that is so hard that only a special tool made on Xarius can cut it, and it never rots or changes color or anything. It’s beautiful! The baby bracelet is beautiful, too! I’ve never seen anything like it. It has beautiful jewel stones in it that I’ve never seen before! I feel bad, because I don’t have anything to give to Shag to think of me. But Shag said that one of my kisses would be more memorable to him than all the treasures in the universe! That was so beautiful! Can you believe it? I just want to marry him right now!

I showed Shag the secret space behind the picture in our cave, and he put the bracelet and the Vreenis Spheres in it. It will be three more days before I have to go back to Eluymer, so we’re going to come back to the little moon again tomorrow.

Bye now! This is Maya!


27th day of Oyymstar… Antar Year: 4,702

Something terrible happened today, but it turned out to be (I hope) not as bad as I had thought. I’m still very sad about it, though. Shag took me back to the little moon, but the moon was gone. I was crying, because the beautiful gifts that Shag gave me were in the cave in our secret space, but Shag just kissed me and said not to worry, it would be all right.

We found out that Davor-Nil had ordered the moon to be released, allowing it to continue its journey to wherever it might have gone. They don’t like to change “the will of the Creator,” Davor-Nil told me, in matters regarding the cosmos, like moving planets or moons around. But Shag told me that sometimes they had done it under special circumstances. One time, they moved an entire planet that was going to be hit by a huge asteroid… then they moved the planet back after the asteroid passed, so it would still be where it was meant to be. There were 30 million inhabitants on the planet, and the inhabitants didn’t know anything about space travel and never knew that they had even been saved.

Shag told me that even though I don’t have the Vreenis Spheres, I can still use them and their powers. He told me what to do to make them come to me anywhere I am. The only thing is that, when I am not using them, they will always go back to the secret place in the cave again unless someone ever takes them out of there. So I can have them, but I can’t have them. Oh well… All I ever really want to make me happy is Shag!

This is Maya! Bye now!


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

Liz turned the page, but there was no more.

“That’s all I’ve been able to read and copy for you so far, your majesty, said Varec. “I thought you would like to see it right away.”

“You know me well, Varec! You know me very well!” Liz said with a laugh. “And Varec…”

“Yes?”

“It’s just ‘Liz.' Okay?”

Varec smiled and left the room, leaving the others to also read the pages of the diary that he had completed reading and copying.

Back in the laboratory, Varec picked up the box with the Vreenis Spheres and opened it. Removing one of the spheres, he turned it first one way and then the other and looked at it from all angles, but he still had no idea what would make the sphere work or what it might be able to do. Holding the sphere up in front of him, Varec spoke to it jokingly…

"Well, my little friend, what is it that you can do? Show me your powers…"



------------------------End of Chapter 45

<center> <<<<<>>>>> Life In the Stars <<<<<>>>>> </center>



The Vreenis Spheres

Chapter 46

XLVI




“[fosize=24]W[/size]ell my little friend,” Varec said jokingly to the sphere he was holding, “Show me your powers…”

At that moment, Max and Michael were at the pilots’ controls of the new granolith. Michael yelled out; Max barely had time to gasp. Then there was nothing left but a billion atoms spreading across the galaxy where the new granolith had just been. The new granolith was gone along with everyone and everything that had been on it, its atoms spread from one end of the universe to the other.

Seconds later, Max and Michael looked at each other with faces whiter than those of any “real” ghosts,

“What the frikkin’ galaxies just happened, Max,” Michael managed to ask.

Max was shaking… “I’m not sure. You saw it, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Michael nodded, “I sure as hell saw it! I couldn’t get to the controls in time. It should have destroyed the ship! We couldn’t have missed it, no way! Do you see it on the scans?”

Max looked at the scanner, “Yeah, it’s behind us. Somehow we missed it, but…”

“How?” Michael asked, perspiring, as Max had never seen him perspire before.

“I don’t know,” Max answered… “I really don’t know! Did you feel like, for a moment there, we just, I don’t know, didn’t exist?”

“Yeah… You felt it, too? Weird, huh? Maybe Varec can give us some answers.”

Max nodded.

In the laboratory, they found Varec with his hand outstretched, a look of amazement on his face, and one of the Vreenis Spheres floating just above his hand, emitting a soft glow. Max and Michael momentarily stopped in their tracks, taking in the scene. Then they remembered why they were here.

“Varec,” Max said…

Varec looked at Max.

“Something just happened,” Max said, “and we can’t explain it. We were hoping you might offer some explanation.”

“What happened?” Varec asked.

Michael spoke first, “Max and I were at the controls just talking to each other with the ship on automatic. I looked up and saw a wave of energy coming right at us. I didn’t have time to get to the controls, and even if I had, there’s no way we could have missed it… This ship should have been destroyed! But when we looked at the scanner, it was behind us, and we were still here. Can you explain that?”

Varec shook his head. “No. I can’t.”

“That is what you wanted of me,” a voice said from somewhere in the room. Max and Michael jumped and looked around for the source of the voice. Varec looked at the sphere, which still floated where he had left it, and realized that it was the sphere that had spoken.

“What did I want?” asked Varec. “What did you do?”

“I dismantled this ship and its occupants into subatomic particles and spread them across the universe for several moments.”

“Why?” asked Varec, now looking pale himself, even for an Antarian.

“Because that was what you wanted.”

“I didn’t want my subatomic particles dismantled and spread across any galaxies!” Michael exclaimed.

“Yes, you did,” the sphere insisted.

“Why would I want that?” Michael asked, flustered.

“Because it would save the ship.”

Michael stood speechless.

“From what,” asked Varec.

“I think I know,” Max answered, “…from a wave of energy from an exploding super nova. We saw it coming, but there was no way to avoid it. Even if we had had time, the energy wave stretched thousands of miles… probably hundreds of thousands. We wouldn’t have been able to avoid it. This ship would have been destroyed, and we would all be dead now.

The sphere continued, “I converted your ship into subatomic particles and spread them across the universe to keep them from being destroyed by the phenomenon. When it was past, I gathered the particles together again.”

Michael and Max looked at each other then at Varec in absolute awe. For a moment, none of them could think of a word to say. Then Varec looked at the sphere…

“What is your function… your purpose?”

“My function is to protect when I am asked.”

“But we didn’t ask,” Michael said.

“It was written in your minds… that you wished to preserve this ship and the people on it. I honored that request.”

“…because we own you?” asked Michael.

“No,” the sphere answered plainly. “You do not own me. You cannot own me, nor can any other person, except I be promised to them by my original creator or by the person to whom my original creator promised me or by any other person to whom I was promised. I am promised to one person… to that person alone… and her descendants.”

“And this would be?” Michael asked.

“MayaSabriena… and her descendant who is on this ship.”

“Liz,” Michael said to Max, who nodded knowingly.

“So… all someone… someone to whom you are promised… has to do is ask, and you will protect them?” asked Max.

“Yes.”

“I guess you have other means of protecting… I mean… you don’t always convert things into subatomic particles…”

“That is correct,” the sphere answered. “There are other means.”

Varec reached up and took the sphere carefully from where it floated and placed it back into its special holder in the box.

“THAT was awesome!” Michael said.

“Should I try another sphere?” Varec asked.

Both Max and Michael seemed suddenly unsure. “Yeah… well, maybe… I don’t know… Maybe we should think about it for a bit,” said Max, who was far more uncertain than he usually was about anything. “Well, okay, let’s try one.”

Varec took the second sphere from the box and held it in front of him.

“Show me your power.”

Nothing happened.

“Show me your power… my little friend?” Varec tried, remembering his former words. Still, there was no response.

“I think it will only answer to Liz,” Max said.

Varec nodded.

“Then why did the other one answer to Varec?” asked Michael.

“Did it?” Max asked, “…or was it answering to Liz? The fact may be that we just happened to want the same thing as Liz, to protect the ship, and it was actually doing her will.”

Five minutes later, Max and Michael had Liz in the lab with them, trying to explain what had happened. Varec handed Liz the second sphere.

“Try it, Liz,” Max urged. “Ask it what it does.”

Liz looked at Max and Michael then at Varec, trying to determine if they were playing some kind of joke on her. She saw that they were not. She looked at the sphere then held it out in front of her…

“What do you do? What power do you have?” she asked.

The sphere floated from her hand and began to glow with an amber glow. The other sphere had glowed greenish.

“I serve you,” the sphere answered.

“How?” Liz asked.

“I can show you things that are not here.”

“Can you show me… the palace on Antar? The dining room?”

The lab glowed slightly, and an image of the palace dining room appeared in front of them. They watched as the staff set the table for the evening meal.

Liz thought a moment… Can you show me something from the past… MayaSabriena and her sisters?”

The room glowed again and MayaSabriena, AnDasniya, and JoLeesa appeared in front of them. They looked almost like they were waiting to be spoken to, but Liz knew that these images were from the past, not the present. She reached up and took the sphere. Placing it back into its holder, Liz removed the third sphere and held it out…

“What is your function?” she asked.

The third sphere floated from Liz’s hand and began to glow with an electric blue glow.

“My function is to locate,” the sphere said.

“Locate what?” Liz asked.

“Any person… or any thing that you wish. Shaqor-Niseel gave me in promise to MayaSabriena so that she might always be able to locate him… wherever he might be in the universe.”

Liz carefully placed the third sphere back into its holder and removed the last sphere. Holding it in front of her, she asked…

“What is your function?”

The fourth sphere floated from her hand and began to glow with a pure white glow.

“My purpose is to provide a portal,” said the sphere.

“A portal… to where?” Liz asked.




-----------------------End of Chapter 46