26 Jan 2011

In the City of Tomorrow: Chapter 18

Posted by joncooper

Amy shrieked at the sudden, unexpected noise and involuntarily threw the bowl of popcorn in the air. Amanda reached out and froze it in midair, leaving popcorn kernels suspended in space. She then grabbed the remote and paused the movie.

“Tim!” Amy shouted. “Don’t scare me like that! What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” Tim replied, astonished. “How did you two get into my apartment?”

“We just walked through the door,” Amy replied. “But you’re not supposed to be home for hours! Don’t you have a date with Natalie tonight?”

“That’s been moved to next week,” Tim said. “She had to work tonight.”

“And you didn’t update your calendar?” Amanda asked.

“Why would I do that? We only moved the date one day – we’re going out tomorrow instead of today. It’s not a big deal. But what are you two doing here? The Sparrow didn’t make it to Xanthe – there were no survivors!”

“Actually the Sparrow is fine,” Amy replied. “Nothing bad happened to it. Everyone survived.”

“You can’t be serious! We just had a memorial service yesterday for all of you. Everybody was there – even the governor and all the leadership of the Rangers! And you mean to tell me that nobody died? Then where have you been all this time? Why didn’t you let us know?”

“That’s kind of complicated,” Amanda said.

“Where are Mom and Dad?” Tim asked.

“That’s complicated too,” Amanda added. “They’re fine but they’re kind of busy right now.”

Starting at the beginning the girls told Tim what had happened during the past week. They told him about the Sentinel and the Artilect, and how they had decided to remain in the 19th century for a while longer in order to fight the Poneri. As they talked Amy grabbed the popcorn bowl out of midair and set it down on the coffee table.

Tim shook his head. “That is really freaky.”

“It has been a strange week,” Amy agreed.

“No, I mean the whole popcorn bowl thing. That is quite a trick. How did you do it?”

“I caught it to keep it from falling – after miss emotional here threw it into the air,” Amanda replied.

“I was just startled!” Amy protested. “I wasn’t expecting any visitors.”

“I just find this really hard to believe,” Tim replied. “You do realize that the Poneri are just legendary creatures, right? They’re like the tooth fairly – they’re not actually real.”

“They are definitely real,” Amanda said. “They’re not solid, exactly, but they’re real. They look kind of like transparent blue energy things. They’re hard to describe.”

“And scary,” Amy added. “They’re very scary and very evil.”

“Then show me,” Tim replied. “I want to see this supposed portal to Poneri land.”

“All right,” Amy replied. She stood up and then held up her hand. “Just a second… wait for it…”

A moment later the three of them vanished, leaving Tim’s apartment empty. They rematerialized at the Cedar Brook Spaceport.

Tim froze, then blinked. “What just happened? Is that – hey! I recognize those buildings!” he exclaimed, pointing to a giant mining rig in the distance. “Is this Alpha Mensae? How is that possible?”

“Yeah, how is that possible?” Amanda asked. “You didn’t bring down the Wall did you?”

“Of course not!” Amy replied defensively. “I just didn’t want to hitch another ride on a starship – that’s much too slow. So I waited until the Gate opened to let a ship out and then zipped right through it.”

“Oh. Nice work!” Amanda replied. “I’ll have to remember that.”

“Is that the Starfire?” Tim asked, pointing to a ruined ship in the distance. The giant starship looked even worse in the daylight. “How was that wreck even able to land without destroying itself?”

“That’s it all right!” Amy said proudly. “C’mon, let’s go. The portal is in its cargo bay.”

“I’m not getting on board that disaster,” Tim protested. “I’ve seen enough – I believe you now. Just take me home.”

“Absolutely not,” Amy replied firmly. “You asked me to show you the portal and that’s what I’m going to do. We are not going back home until you’ve seen it.”

She grabbed her brother’s hand and the trio marched across the spaceport toward the aging vessel.

“What if someone sees us?” Amanda asked.

“You mean like that group over there?” Amy said, pointing. In the distance were piles and piles of wooden crates. The crew of the Starfire appeared to be in some argument with the spaceport officials. None of them were paying any attention to anything else. “They look pretty busy to me. Besides, alertness isn’t their strong point. We’ll be fine.”

The three of them entered the ship through one of its many hull breaches, and Amy led the way down its winding passageways to the cargo hold.

“This ship is a complete wreck!” Tim repeated, as he walked around a broken section of pipe that dangled from the ceiling.”

“Everyone says that,” Amy replied.

A few minutes later they entered the cargo hold. Since all of the cargo had been carried outside the area was completely empty.

“It looks so different,” Amy remarked. “It’s bigger than I thought.”

“You still couldn’t pay me to ride on this thing,” Tim said.

The girls led him to the rear of the cargo area and Amy pointed to an empty space. “There it is – right there! Can you see it?”

Tim let go of his sister’s hand and backed away. “I don’t see anything, but that’s ok. If you say it’s there then that’s good enough for me. I’m ready to go home now.”

“Don’t be silly,” Amy replied. She reached over and grabbed her brother’s hand. “Let me try to enhance it for you.”

Tim felt his vision begin to change. A wavy patch started to appear where Amy had pointed. After a moment it became more distinct – it looked like a tear in reality.

“I think I see it now,” Tim said. He let go of Amy’s hand and it instantly vanished. “Hey – where did it go?”

“You dropped the connection,” Amy replied. “I was showing you what I could see, but then you let go.”

“And you say that Poneri came out of that thing?”

“Lots and lots of them,” Amy replied. “It was awful!”

“What did you fight them with?”

“With these,” a voice said behind them. The trio turned around and saw Karen Perkins standing behind them, holding the gun that Amy had given to her. “And let me tell you, these things really work! I highly recommend these for any ghost busting that you might have to do.”

“Hey there, Karen!” Amy said. “How are things going?”

“Pretty good, thanks to you,” Karen replied. “We all got here safe and sound, and that’s the main thing. I just stopped by to leave my gun behind for the crew to use. We’re not going to need it anymore, but they might.”

“What do you mean?” Amanda asked.

“They’re not abandoning the ship,” Karen said. “They’re planning on taking it back into space.”

“They’re crazy!” Amanda exclaimed. “Don’t they remember what happened just two days ago?”

“Apparently not. Now, all of the passengers are off and Lee is staying behind as well – he’s scared to death. But Davis and Laura and that miserable excuse for a captain are staying. The captain doesn’t want to give up his ship and Davis and Laura don’t want to leave him by himself.”

“But it’s pointless!” Amy said. “If Steve doesn’t come out of that portal in two weeks we’re going to freeze it in time and destroy it. That will tear this ship apart. Given the condition of this ship they can’t possibly get very far in just two weeks.”

“He’s still going to try,” Karen replied. “At least they’ve got that preacher with him. Maybe he can protect them from our unfriendly visitors.”

“This is so stupid,” Amanda fumed. “Davis and Laura are going because the captain is going and they want to protect him. Reverend Knight is going so he can protect Davis and Laura. Does no one realize that if Davis and Laura and the preacher all stayed home the captain would be forced to stay as well? He can’t fly this ship by himself!”

“He actually thinks he can,” Karen said. “That’s why Davis and Laura are going with him. He was just going to fly off alone in this death trap.”

“He’s going to get everyone killed!” Amanda said. “He needs to be grounded. He’s lost all touch with reality.”

“We could always ground him ourselves,” Amy pointed out. “We could give him a good lecture or maybe break the ship or something. Then everyone would have to stay here.”

Amanda paused for a moment to think it over. “I wish we could but I guess we’d better not. We don’t need to be letting people know that we’re still alive. In fact, we’re not even supposed to be here. I think we should just get out of here.”

“I second that motion,” Tim said.

“All right,” Amy said. “We’ll go then.” She said goodbye to Karen and then the group vanished.

* * * * *

“So what should we do now?” Amy asked, as soon as they reappeared in Tim’s apartment.

“Woah,” Tim said. He glanced around the room and tried to reorient himself. “Ok. This whole ‘let’s instantly zip across the universe’ thing is going to take some getting used to. Do you realize how long it normally takes to get from Xanthe to the most distant colony on the fringes of civilization?”

“Much too long,” Amy replied. “This way is much better.”

“I’m hungry,” Amanda said. “Do you have anything we can eat?”

“I’m sure I’ve got some food around here somewhere,” Tim replied. “And yes, you two can stay with me until your friend returns or until you have to go and do whatever it is you’re doing these days. But I do think you should talk with the governor while you’re here. He needs to know what is going on.”

“That’s fine,” Amy said.

“That’s not fine,” Amanda replied. “We don’t need to let the whole world know what’s going on!”

“Governor Nicholas is not the whole world,” Amy replied. “It will be fine.”

“He really does need to know the truth,” Tim added. “I’ll set it up so that you have a private meeting with just him – no one else will be around. You can trust him.”

“If you say so,” Amanda said reluctantly.

Comments are closed.