With tears in my eyes, I half ran, half stumbled up to my alien friend. "Please, ET! Isn't there something you can do to help her?"

Vorxora hesitated before answering, looking very depressed. I couldn't tell if this were because of Meazquad, or if he truly had no hope for my sister. "I have heard rumors, but it is a sofeiwa." The word seemed to imply gambling, the closest earth equivalent probably being `long shot.'

"Would it be any worse than what we're doing here?"

ET bowed his head. "I do not know."

Hearing a faint cough, I glanced at my sister. It turned out she still breathed, but just barely. I silently wondered how she'd rescued me from Sovirox, but she was in no condition to explain. "We've got to do something! If there's a chance we can save Gertie, even a small one, we need to try it. It's obvious your doctors have done all they can here...what's your...sofeiwa?"

ET took a deep breath. "There are legends of a great tribe of healers living in the Nolgaci ruins. It would be a long, dangerous journey through Mavdamar jungle. Many have died trying to find them. Some say the Latogapa does not exist, that all the healers have died long ago...But I still do hear stories of miraculous healings."

"You're not going," Roy growled. "It's suicide. I know you love your sister...God knows I love her too, but I still think these doctors can come up with a cure."

ET didn't look so sure, and neither did one of the doctors.

"Look, sometimes a person is just too far gone, and if medical science can't figure it out, no amount of wishful thinking or Voodoo witchdoctoring is going to change..." He let out a heavy sigh, shook his head. "I'm sorry. I know that's not what you want to hear..." He turned his back to us, leaned against a wall, sniffed and wiped his eyes. "Great job, Roy, breaking kid's hearts. Now I know what the highway patrolman feels like."

Norenio gave him a sympathetic puppy dog whimper, wrapped her arms around him. She nuzzled close, whispered things in his ear.

"Honey, a man has to be strong for his family."

She muttered something else.

"And how do we know that's not just a fairy tale?...On my planet there are con artists that stick bloody parts of animals on people and act like they're reaching into their bodies and healing them of cancers and things. People come from miles around, but it's just a money making trick. I had a boss that died because of that. He refused to see an actual doctor-"

"This isn't earth," Norenio interrupted.

"No-ey, do you know who Don Quixote is? Baron Munchhausen?"

She blinked rapidly, indicating she hadn't.

He started to sing the theme to Man Of La Mancha, then stopped when it didn't help. "It's a wild goose chase. We're not going to find anything."

"How do you know?" she asked.

After a long thoughtful pause, Roy marched up to ET and said, "Do you have an actual map?"

Gertie's doctors were nice enough to provide us with a padded sort of 'litter' to carry her with, equipped with heater, IV solution, oxygen concentrator and other life support equipment. The white egg shaped machine somehow floated in the air like a hovercraft.

"Hi! Which one of you is Gertie?" someone asked as we were leaving the building.

Shocked to hear anyone speaking my native tongue so fluently, I glanced down and became even more shocked. A little curly haired brunette boy, about Gertie's age, had just randomly strolled out of nowhere, bearing a stuffed raccoon and a Sony Walkman. A glowing marble dangled from a chain around his neck, the apparent match to Gertie's bracelet.

"I'm sorry," Roy coughed. "This really isn't a good time."

The boy didn't go away. Instead, he stared at Lori, hands nervously fidgeting in the pockets of his leather jacket. "Are you Gertie?"

She shook her head. "I admit you're cute, but you're way too young for me."

The kid furrowed his brow, giving me a questioning look like she were joking.

"That's not her."

The stranger gazed at the floating egg. "What's that you got in there?"

"Gertie," Lori sighed.

"She's very sick."

He looked hopeful. "Can I...see her?"

I glanced at Roy.

The man shook his head. "There's too much of a contamination risk."

The boy was crushed. "I'm sorry...I just thought, after going to the place and finding I'm not the only human being on the planet, and even matched together with a weirdly desperate non male companion, you might not be jerks. Guess I was wrong."

Roy wasn't having it. "What part of `sick' do you not understand?"

The boy suddenly looked depressed. "She's dead, isn't she?"

"No, but we're in a hurry to help her."

"I wanna help," the boy blurted.

"Kid , where are your parents?"

"I don't have any."

"Great. Just what I need. Another orphan."

The boy leaned over the litter. "Can I see what all the fuss is about?"

Roy still looked hesitant. "Gee, I dunno..."

Norenio said something to him about helping Gertie heal, and cheering her up.

"I probably shouldn't, but I guess a quick glance wouldn't hurt..."

The moment the lid to Gertie's vehicle opened, a whole range of emotions flickered across the boy's face, excitement at the prospect of a new playmate, admiration of the beauty that illness and injury still hadn't touched, then pity at her miserable condition, and finally disappointment at how Ill she was and barely even noticed him. He muttered something about how this was "Like his mother all over again."

The lid came closed again. "What happened?"

"Long story."

The kid wasn't the only one following us around. Someone apparently forgot to hitch up our large avian friend, and now it was hovering over Gertie's egg, poking it with its beak. Roy shooed it away, but it didn't seem to understand, mooing in protest.

"Back, you dumb Lummox!"

"Maybe it thinks it's a baby," Lori suggested.

And then we heard faint knocking from within the egg.

With a sigh, Roy opened the egg again.

The bird sniffed deeply, stared at my sister, then jerked back in surprise when she reached for him and started coughing.

Roy rubbed her forehead. "You need to rest, Gertie."

"Where are we going?" she croaked.

"To see a specialist. A special doctor. Just relax and get some rest."

She squirmed on the cushions, squinting at the boy. "Who's that?"

Roy chuckled softly. "Don't get too excited, but I think you have a boyfriend."

The moment they made eye contact, her eyes watered and she had to close her eyelids.

She smirked. "He...looks nice."

"Let's, uh, work on you resting getting well for the time being, and talk about the romantic stuff later."

Gertie looked like she disagreed, but then, after a coughing fit, gave him a reluctant nod and pushed something that made the lid close again.

ET did have a map, plotted out on his electronic device, though I could clearly see a multitude of gaps and blank areas in the topography. Only the first leg of our voyage seemed to be clearly defined with one hundred percent certainty.

"My name's Pete," the boy called as he trailed behind us. "Peter Quill. I've been living with a Qulpari for six months. He was real happy that I found other people of my kind. He's been single for a long time. He got really embarrassed about bringing me to the place, well, until we found out about you! Is it okay if I live with you guys? Things are going to get awkward between me and Yizewo if I keep hanging out. He's got two new friends, if you catch my drift...Actually, it's already been awkward. They don't like it when I talk to them when they're in the soupy stuff, trying to make babies, but the tub is right on the way to the toilet...That green stuff isn't soup, by the way. It's totally gross. They get real upset when you try to eat it, too. You know what I'm talking about, the green stuff? In the tub?"

"Kid," Roy said. "You talk too much."

ET summoned a craft for us, a vehicle that looked like an acorn with maple helicopter seed wings. Its interior, though larger than the typical treetop flying machine, didn't allow for much more than our bodies and Gertie's litter. I could touch the ceiling with my hands, and Roy and Norenio couldn't get situated without bending over. Our giant avian friend tried to join us, but we had to shoo it away, it couldn't even fit through the door.

Since Pete kept asking, we gave him the details about what happened to Gertie, well, what we could piece together.

Our craft flew through forested areas, to a region thickly populated with massive clusters of pillar and elkhorn coral, ranging in sizes smaller than houses to taller than the empire state building. They pulsed with an eerie inner light, in Day Glo blues, oranges and purples, sometimes in a white or gold color.

It didn't look like the friendliest place to land, but we descended within a clearing surrounded by oversized brain coral.

"Hey neat!" Peter said. "What are we doing here?"

"Trying to find a doctor," I sighed.

We didn't expect to have anyone greeting us at this secluded, unpopular region of the planet, but the moment we climbed out, I noticed we had a welcoming party.

First of all, we already knew that Vadful was following us, we'd seen him flying around the windows. A couple of times he made us nervous by tapping on the glass with his beak, but mostly he remained well behaved, leaving our vehicle undamaged, though he came close to stomping us in his excitement the moment we landed.

And then Tolmina stepped out into the clearing with a couple new friends, apparently not the romantic type either.

The first was a stranger we'd never seen before, an Abreya with a face like a pacman frog and a long gray dress, the other companion: Our pale friend spike.

"Hey little guy!" Roy called cheerfully. "I was just wondering where you'd run off to! How'd you find us?"

Tolmina pointed to ET.

Roy frowned at the Abreya. "...Who's this?"

"I have found you two nennops," Tolmina explained. "Tiffrid is a certified Sapelam from the Pemgurm. He has heard my stories of difficulty, and is open to a challenge."

Roy's face flushed red with anger. "So now you're blabbing my private information to random strangers? How dare you!"

I didn't often see Qulpari blush, but Tolmina's skin did change a different color at this moment. "The information was given in the utmost confidence and confidentiality required of all Sapelam nennops at his level. He understands that he cannot share the information with anyone else outside our Luherra."

Roy still looked skeptical. And angry. "And what about your other friend?"

"Vukvuzan has sworn kedoonk, as official nennop for...Elliott and Lori. He will not be concerning himself with your relationship, except in terms of Elliott and Lori's relationship to you."

"Well thanks for asking for my permission!" Lori cried indignantly.

I crossed my arms. "Really? Now you're upset? Who's being a jerk now?"

Lori glanced at me, opened her mouth to say something unpleasant, maybe take back the nice treatment she'd given me at the hospital, but Spike, apparently in possession of an ear slug, spoke first. "Elliott, please do not collect treasures of hurt."

I rolled my eyes. "Easy for you to say."

Spike didn't reply to that, he just stared at me expectantly.

"What? What do you suggest? Apologize for something she did?"

"What I did!" Lori shouted.

Spike let out a snarling cat sound, holding up a silencing finger. "Elliott is expressing his feelings now. Wait your turn. You will get a full uninterrupted vent afterwards."

Lori scoffed at this, but said nothing, probably because Roy was chuckling.

"Elliott, what would you like to have from Lori, in abundance?"

"Respect," I blurted.

Spike's eyes seemed to be saying that was an okay goal, but I thought it was lame, so I added, in a lower tone, "Love."

Lori sighed through her nose. "Is it my turn now?"

"That depends," said Spike. "What kind of treasure are you sharing?"

She crossed her arms. "What exactly did Tolmina tell you about us?"

Our little orange friend shrank nervously at the comment.

"Enough," said Spike. "He said you...Were not adverse to the idea of a nennop."

Lori frowned. Instead of replying to his comment, she asked, "You're talking about stamp collecting, aren't you?...Saving up a bunch of complaints until you can 'spend' them in an argument?"

Spike raised an eyebrow ridge. "Is that a pastime of yours?"

I snorted, started nodding my head.

"Not really," she answered. "I just read about it in a self help book."

"That...does not sound helpful to me. Perhaps you and Elliott should begin collecting...love stamps."

I blushed.

Lori frowned a little at Spike, patted his head.

"Jerk," Charlie said. I didn't want to repeat my earlier mistakes, so I just yelled, "Charlie, shut up!"

"Jerk," he repeated.

"You can talk intelligently," I growled. "Stop playing stupid games."

"You have a nennop," Charlie answered.

"I can tell that word offends you," Spike said. "You should explain your feelings to Charlie."

I scowled at him. "Like, how it hurts my feelings?"

Charlie whimpered. "I'm sorry. I just thought it was a funny word."

"It's okay," I sighed. "I guess I kinda earned the title, after all I did."

Charlie nuzzled me.

Roy only heard half of all that because he was having his own dialog with whom he called 'Mister Toad.' He ended up resignedly accepting the stranger's services just to get him out of the way. We were in a hurry to help Gertie, after all.

Why was Tolmina there to begin with? It seemed ET had sent him a few messages while we were at the hospital.

It actually turned out to be a good idea, because none of us had thought to pack anything. Well, except for a few random odds and ends inside Vadful's saddle bags.

Spike was the most prepared out of all of us, he'd packed pallets and food and even a sophisticated, very compact sort of tent for us to sleep under. Tolmina also brought food and some supplies. Of course you know this meant we all suddenly became beasts of burden. Vadful only let his master saddle him with so much.

"Okay, chief," Roy said to ET. "Where to?"

Vorxora consulted his map a moment, then we were off down a rocky trail.

"Dream...the impossible dream..." Roy sang to himself. "Great, now I've got that song stuck in my head."

The coral wasn't the only thing oddly not submerged under water. As we walked along, a mass of tiger shrimp, like you'd see in the bottom of an aquarium, but more than six inches in length, scattered out of our way like cockroaches when a light switch comes on.

Retreating to a safe distance, they continued stuffing their translucent bodies with dirt and grime from the trail, feelers wiggling around unmoving black eyeballs.

"Eeew!" Lori cried with a shudder. "That's...Horrible!"

Roy shrugged. "Oh, I dunno might taste good with some garlic, butter and Parmesan breadcrumbs.."

"Stop," I said. "You're making me hungry, and I'm not even supposed to eat stuff like that."

"What, you allergic?"

"Something like that."

"He's Jewish," Lori said.

"I thought they just couldn't eat shellfish."

"Shrimp has a shell."

"You ate bugs earlier today. Just saying."

Our alien companions got confused by our kosher talk, so we had to explain some things as we hiked.

We saw neither hide nor hair of our enemies, Sovirox and his associates seemingly having found something better to do than terrorize us.

I asked ET if it were right for us to go on a quest to save Gertie when Sovirox had basically told me his plans of overthrowing the government, but he told me he'd informed someone already, and when I expressed further concern, he added, "I thought you wanted to save your sister" and "We'll worry about that later."

We stopped for lunch. I can't say that our meals were much better than, I don't know, cooking up land shrimp, but it was okay. Pete said he preferred his bug and vegetable pockets with a little more seasoning on them, but otherwise we didn't have that many complaints. We were starved. We made it past the well established point on ET's map, arriving at a blank portion we weren't so sure of, our route a mere suggestion based on half verified rumors and legends.

Night fell. Although we had light from the twin moons, stars and glowing coral, we still decided to stop and rest for the night, to make good progress and have a well lit view of any obstacles ahead.

Our tents were built like umbrellas. You stuck a pole into a tarp on the ground and the roof spread out with a locking lever. Secondary 'wings' unfurled as the main center piece popped out. You didn't have to fight it like an earth tent.

It covered a fair amount of ground, the major drawback being the issue of height. Roy complained that he'd slept in pup tents taller than that. Still, it worked well enough for our purposes, and it even had some sophisticated type of 'windows', and I'm not talking about some cheap vinyl or nylon screen. You actually had a clear view of the sky and everything.

Our big feathery beast had to stay outside, of course.

Gertie, having done nothing all day but rest, again knocked on her egg. Of course, by now she knew how to open it herself, so it came open while Roy was reaching for the buttons.

After asking where we were, and getting an update, she sat up a little, introduced herself to Pete.

"What do you got?" he asked her, a hint of a sob edging into his voice. "Cancer?"

Gertie shook her head. She looked like she wanted to give an explanation, but couldn't breathe well enough for it.

"Maybe when she gets better, she can explain what happened," I said.

Gertie coughed a few times. Roy gave her some water, which helped a little. At least she could talk then. "I fought...Sovirox. And his...people. Elliott ( cough) trouble, so I ( cough) him off the tree. I -" She broke into a coughing fit. "Sovirox attacked me, and his mushroom guy (cough) thing with claws-"

That's about all we could get out of her.

She kept coughing.

"Shh, don't try to talk," Roy said, rubbing her head. "You need to rest."

"I'm tired of resting. It's so boring in here."

"I know, sweetie. There really isn't that much we can do about it."

Tolmina set up something with his communicator so it could play a kind of game, showed her the basics of it. It was educational, showing her how to arrange words in Qulpari, with some science lessons here and there, meteorology, alien biology, as well as music and history. It kinda kept her busy while the rest of us slept.

That, and listening to Pete yabber. Apparently he ran away from home after he lost his mom (didn't care much for his dad, I guess) getting 'abducted' shortly afterward ( it sounded like he actually stowed away on a Qulpari ship) I suppose it's understandable, considering what he went through.

The boy gave Gertie his stuffed toy. He called it `Rocket', telling her stories about how the raccoon was some kind of brave wisecracking space alien with expert weapon skills, how it could protect anyone (though it didn't actually have weapons, or clothes to put them in). It was kind of cute how she believed him, and pressed Rocket close to her chest.

In the early pre-dawn hours, when everyone else ( including Gertie) was asleep, I heard a familiar voice singing outside the tent.

"Can you hear me...Can you hear me calling?"

When trying to get my attention, Dad would sometimes jauntily quote Silent Running by Mike and the mechanics. This is why, when I heard it, my eyelids flew open in surprise.

The voice called my name.

Scarcely believing what I was hearing, I rushed to a window. Although Charlie had originally curled up next to me on my pallet, he rolled over in his sleep, so didn't notice me getting up.

It wasn't just a voice. I saw someone outside.

The square jaw, slick black hair, beard stubble, the eyes. He was dressed in a NASA flight suit, but that was the only weird thing. "Dad?"

The man smiled at me. "Elliott! They told me you'd be here!...C'mon, kid. We've got a ship waiting. Let's get you home."

I furrowed my brow. "I...can't. Gertie's sick. It's something you can't treat on earth. We're trying to find a doctor."

"Out here?" He laughed.

I sighed. "It's our only hope we have of finding a cure."

"Come outside," he said. "Let's talk."

I didn't see anything particularly wrong with that, so I slipped out of the tent and walked with him, down a nearby trail.

"How'd you get here?" I asked.

"Your science teacher's very clever. He rigged up a little space shuttle to come after you."

"Yeah, but how'd you find the secret base in the moon? How'd you find this planet? How'd you get the air and supplies? Did you come all this way in your own shuttle, or did you have have help from the Qulpari?"

He took a deep breath. "Actually, we had a little help from the U.S. government. Turns out they were just as interested in locating you as I was. Your teacher figured out a way to track your equipment, and your guys on the moon had their own tracker they were willing to part with. None of them came with us, but they did give us some supplies to help us along. I kinda fibbed about my intentions, of course."

I stopped in my tracks. "Wait, who's we? Who's here with you?"

"Hey! Ed!" Dad called to someone behind a clump of Coral. "Come out here!"

Mr. Sigler stepped out of the dark, giving me a warm smile. He wore a NASA flight suit too. "There's our young man!...What happened to your friend?"

I thought maybe that Ed wasn't Mr. Sigler's first name, but was too excited to ask Dad about it. "Back at the tent. We're trying to get medical help for my sister."

As he started saying apologies, Mom came rushing out, pulling me into her arms. "Elliott! Oh my God! I was so worried!"

We held each other and wept for joy.

Once our eyes had dried a little, she sniffed and said, "Where's your sister?"

I told her what happened, and what we were doing. She looked sad, but seemed to think we were making a good decision.

"So...you and Dad are back together?"

She nodded. "For now. We were both worried sick. We might have our disagreements, but we both love you and want you back home."

I swallowed. "As soon as Gertie is better, I'll go anywhere with you."

She nodded. "Elliott, we brought some stuff for you. I didn't have that long to pack, but I thought you'd appreciate some snacks and fresh clothes...We got some of your favorite books, and an old stuffed rabbit you used to like..."

"Mom, you didn't have to..."

She gave me a look like it wasn't any trouble. "Our ship's a few yards down the trail..."

I glanced the other way, wondering if I could figure out how to return to camp.

"Don't worry, sport," Dad said, rubbing my head. "We won't leave without them."

A few more feet down the trail, I at last saw their ship.

Pretty impressive. Built by actual NASA engineers, it resembled the ball end of that space station from 2001.

Roy should have staked me down again. If i knew what would happen next, I would have begged for it.

When mom led me to the open hatch on the side of the space ship, I noticed an odd translucency, and then, as I stepped on the boarding ramp, instead of clomping up a solid piece of metal, my feet sank into something wet and squishy.

I turned back, looking questioningly at Mom and Dad, but as I stared at them, they both became insubstantial spook lights floating in the dark.

The ship vanished, revealing a vast revealing a vast pool of lime gray gelatinous substance, surrounded by armies of those oversized aquarium shrimp things, all waving their feelers at me.

I looked down and saw I was sinking deeper in the stuff.

I tried to wade out of it and run, but then dozens of glistening arm-like limbs whipped out of the slime, pulling me back in.

A huge yawning mouth appeared in the ooze, making sounds like massive air bubbles escaping from a tar pit.

I screamed as the things grasping extensions sucked me into its gaping maw.

I went under, into the depths.