The Departure
Chapter 47
XLVII
Maria smiled in silence, as Michael wrapped her in his arms and rocked her; and both watched silently from the huge dome of the New Granolith's observatory as the blue orb called "earth," which had once been their home, grew ever and ever smaller. Nearby, Liz looked at Max, and Max smiled and hugged her. Liz sighed and leaned her head against Max's chest. Beside them, Alex and Isabel held each other and wondered at what lay ahead, and Kyle and Angie Lee watched in awe, as the earth finally became just another distant star in the sky. It was a solemn moment for those who were leaving earth for the first time. The life that they had once known was ending, and a new one was beginning. Of course, some things would still be the same; they still had each other. But almost everything else would be new. New… and unknown. The thought was at once exciting and sobering. There wasn't much to be said.
But if there was little to be said, there would soon be plenty to see. The couples discovered that they were fast approaching what appeared to be another planet. Liz recognized it right away. And perhaps surprisingly, Michael did, too…
"That's Mars… the red planet," Michael asserted authoritatively. "It has that reddish color, because the surface is full of iron oxide."
Liz smiled and nodded but appeared surprised. "Yeah, that's right! How did you know that?"
Michael gave Liz a sort of smirk. "I did attend class, you know… well, sometimes I did. I was there the day they talked about Mars. It looks just like the pictures. It's one of earth's two nearest planets… Mars… and Venus."
Max had long ago noticed that Michael tended to absorb and remember anything that had to do with the stars and planets. Unfortunately, Michael did miss quite a few science classes, but the lectures he was present for, he could probably recite word for word… even now.
It had taken only twelve minutes for the New Granolith to travel the forty-eight and a half million miles to Mars, and that was at sub-galactic cruising speed, a small fraction of the speed that the New Granolith was capable of. Now, almost as quickly as Mars had appeared, it was disappearing again in the distance behind them, becoming a smaller and smaller reddish dot… then finally only a distant star, as the earth had done before it.
With earth and Mars no longer in sight, the group finally left the observatory and joined their Antarian doubles on the bridge of the control deck. The view from the bridge wasn't quite the 360-degree view that the observatory had offered, but it was awesome nevertheless. The bridge had a very large partial surround window for the pilots to see through.
Approximately 342 million miles and just over forty minutes after passing Mars, the New Granolith found itself approaching another planet… Jupiter. And again, the younger Michael was the first to identify it…
"The largest planet of earth's solar system… Jupiter. It lies 483.6 million miles from the sun and has an equatorial diameter of 88,729 miles, compared with earth, which lies 92.9 million miles from the sun and has an equatorial diameter of just 7,926 miles. It takes 11.86 earth years to make one Jupiter year."
"I take it you were in class the day they talked about Jupiter," Max said with a grin.
"I showed up for class when I wanted to," Michael grinned back. "When the teachers were talking about something interesting, not something boring."
"Like Ulysses?" Maria asked.
"Yeah… like Ulysses," Michael replied, nodding. "Don't knock it unless you've read it."
"Michael, you're special," Isabel laughed. "You know so many insignificant little details about some things and you're so totally clueless about others."
"Like I said, don't knock it," Michael smirked. "Albert Einstein refused to memorize his own phone number, because he said it would take up space in his brain that he could better allocate to other things… and he could always look his phone number up in the phone book. I just save my brain space for more important things, like Einstein. Who needs to muck it up with a lot of boring crap like dissecting frogs or economic theories?"
Isabel laughed and nodded. "You may be onto something, Michael."
"Well, I'll tell you one thing," Alex said. "They didn't teach us that there were this many moons around Jupiter. I've already seen more than forty."
"Yeah… There were supposed to be only fourteen according to our science book," Michael agreed. "But I remember Mr. Munson saying that some new ones had been discovered since the book was written."
"A lot of new ones apparently," Alex agreed emphatically. "It'd be kind of cool to explore some of them, but they're probably made up of hot poisonous gasses or something and we'd all die as soon as we stepped out of the ship."
"Some of them may be," Michael concurred.
Standing nearby, Liz from Antar looked at Max of Antar, and her mouth dropped open…
"Max… do you think…?"
Max didn't need mind-reading abilities to guess what Liz was thinking.
"Well, this dimension has been like ours so far… mostly. It could be, I imagine."
"What could be?" the younger Michael asked.
"It could be that there is a small moon that you can explore," Michael's Antarian double replied.
"Well, I was thinking of something else," Liz said breathlessly, looking at Michael then back at her Max for support.
"The spheres?" Max asked.
Liz nodded. "They could be there, Max. It would solve so many of their problems. I know I couldn't use our spheres in this dimension, but if this dimension has its own spheres…"
Max appeared to think about it for a moment. "Yeah… it would solve some problems alright… and they just could be there. There's only one way to find out, though."
Max looked at Varec. "Varec, do we have any oxygen pills left onboard?"
"I can make some. It would take about an hour."
"Good. Make them," Max agreed. "I think we have a little moonwalk ahead of us."
----------
The New Granolith sailed into Jupiter's gravity field… past moon after moon of different sizes and consistencies, slicing through clouds of colored gasses and brilliant shifting lights. After twenty-seven minutes of searching, the ship hovered over one moon, one that was quite small but looked comparatively benign and inviting. Max brought the ship down and set it firmly on solid ground. Then he smiled…
"Welcome to 'Michael's Moon.'"
Thirty minutes later, Max lowered the ramp from the cargo bay, and the "moonwalkers" started their long trek down the ramp to the surface. Alex checked his breathing. He wasn't. The fact is, the little moon had only a very tiny amount of breathable air on it… not enough to sustain life as we know it. But more importantly, its atmosphere was not poisoned or injurious to life as we know it either. The difference in the oxygen needed… in fact, all of the oxygen needed… was supplied directly into the bloodstream by the two time-released oxygen pills Varec had given each of them ten minutes before opening the cargo doors. These pills would last for several hours. This meant that the body had no reason or need to breathe, so it simply stopped. For the most part, not breathing wasn't very noticeable unless one thought about it. The urge to breathe is brought on normally by the build up of carbon dioxide in the blood as oxygen levels become depleted. With oxygen being continuously supplied, however, there was no CO2 build up; and therefore, no urge to breathe.
The younger couples walked down the ramp first… though perhaps 'bounced' would be a better description. Maria and Liz took great pleasure in leapfrogging over each other as soon as they felt the extra spring in their steps brought on by the light gravity. Pretty soon, everyone else was leaping and bouncing with them. They discovered that it was possible to jump twenty or thirty feet high and forty or fifty feet forward with very little effort. For the moment, though, no one was quite brave enough to test the limits of the moon's gravity. In the back of each one's mind was the thought that possibly… just possibly… they might jump too high and not come back down again… simply float away into space. It wouldn't have happened, but no one present wanted to find out. Max allowed the newer moonwalkers to jump and bounce around like this for about ten minutes, enjoying themselves in their new surroundings, before setting about business and gathering everyone together for the trek they were about to make.
The Antarian group knew this moon well. They called it "Michael's Moon." Michael of Antar found this moon in the other dimension. He proposed to Maria on this moon. And… he found the diamond that he later had set in Maria's engagement ring on this moon. He still did not know that the diamond he found, and that Maria now wore, was the "crystal" that Maya, JoLeesa, and Andya's space skimmer had lost over 12,000 years before, stranding them on this tiny moon and starting a saga in Antarian history that was only discovered when Maya's diary and pictures… and the all-important spheres… were found in a cave on this moon and brought back to Antar. The Antarians in the group had every reason to believe that if historic events unfolded the same way in this dimension as in theirs, the spheres might be on this moon, too, in this dimension. It was an exciting thought.
"Michael's Moon" had a total circumference of only two miles, so the other side was only about a mile away, and the New Granolith disappeared very quickly over the horizon as the group walked and bounced along toward the lost cave, led by Max and Michael of Antar.
In more than one way, the younger couples were reliving what their Antarian counterparts had gone through before them in their dimension…
"You know what, Max," Liz said, turning to Max as they walked, "You make me feel like I'm on top of the moon!"
Max smiled. "Yeah. Me too. And we really are, huh?"
"I remember the first time you let me see inside your thoughts so that I wouldn't be afraid. I saw what you felt… what you REALLY felt… about me. I couldn't believe you thought I was beautiful… Me! Liz Parker! …Small town girl from nowhere! Now look… I'm Mrs. Liz Parker Evans… happiest girl in the… in the whole universe!"
Max grinned. "Well, I did have to get killed and have my DNA brought all the way across seven galaxies to find you… but it was worth it! I'd do it all again…"
"Would you?"
Max nodded. "In a heartbeat!"
Liz looked at Max and beamed; then she kissed him.
"Our Michael proposed to Maria right over here… by this rock," Max of Antar explained to the group. "We call this 'Make Out Lane.' I'll let you figure out why."
"And over on that side of the moon," Michael said, pointing in the direction of Jupiter, "there's a rock that Max and Liz sat on watching Jupiter. We call it the 'Kissing Stone.' Anyone want to guess how that one got named?"
The younger Maria smiled and kissed her Michael. Then Michael pulled her down onto the rock beside him.
"Maybe I can't propose to you here, Maria, since we're married already, but we can, you know, consolidate our love again here."
Kyle grinned impishly. "Well, if you ask me, I think you guys should wait and get a room, myself."
Michael kissed Maria then looked at Kyle. "Don't get your hopes up, Kyle. We're not giving away the lessons you need here. You're still gonna have to get Angie Lee to show you how."
"Oh, like you think I don't know?" Kyle retorted.
Michael smiled but said nothing.
"I know!" Kyle said emphatically.
"He does," Angie Lee said, vouching for him. "He knows. He figured it out."
Kyle turned several shades of red. "Let's talk about something else, okay?"
Michael grinned. "Whatever." Then he kissed Maria again. When they opened their eyes, after a few minutes, Michael turned Maria's hand over and placed something in it. She opened her hand to look. It was a large uncut diamond.
"Where did you get this?" Maria gasped.
"I found it back there by some rocks and picked it up when we were walking here. I know you've already got a diamond ring, but we can have this one set for you as a kind of, you know, remembrance about our time here on this moon. It can be our moon, too."
Maria wrapped her arms tightly around Michael and kissed him passionately. With the pills Varec had given them, breathing wouldn't be necessary.
Max knew what this place meant to Michael and Maria, so he made no attempt to rush them. Besides, he and Liz would want to visit their own special site before they left this moon. It faced the huge planet of Jupiter. The view was awesome… and to Max and Liz, very romantic.
Soon, however, the group was once again on its way to the cave; and after a short ten minute walk, they were there. The cave was hidden from view in a small depression that might easily have been missed or overlooked. It was a coincidence that Jim Valenti and Kyle had found it while exploring the moon in the other dimension.
Turning on their lights, the couples followed Max and Michael into the shaft that led downward deep into the interior of the small moon. The depth of the cave inside the moon had probably been all that had saved fifteen-year-old Maya, Andya, and JoLeesa from being killed 12,000 years before when their little moon, the smaller and closer of earth's two moons at that time, was hit by a meteor that knocked it out of earth's orbit and sent it floating off into space to eventually be captured by the gravity of Jupiter. Unable to return to earth after the meteor strike, because their space skimmer had lost one of its crystals and didn't have enough power to counter the forces of the rapidly decaying and increasingly irregular orbit of their little moon, the girls eventually found themselves on a frightening ride through space that they believed would end in their deaths. It almost did… except for the intervention of an unexpected rescuer, Shaqor Niseel, the young prince from a distant planet called Xarius, who was on a trip with his father and grandfather to another part of the galaxy when they found the girls. That might have been the end of it, but as fate would have it, these three girls were much more important than anyone at the time knew; and their lives would prove to be intertwined with those of our heroes, especially Liz.
The group walked deeper and deeper down into the shaft of the cave. About half a mile into the little moon, the shaft suddenly opened up into a huge and very high room. This had been Maya, Andya, and JoLeesa's secret hideaway, where they had been when the meteor struck. Max, Michael, Liz, Maria, and the other Antarians in the group looked around the huge room. It was exactly as they remembered it in their own dimension. Would the spheres be here, too? Did Maya, Andya, and JoLeesa, in this dimension, ever come to this little moon? Did they find this cave and make it their special hideaway? Did they ever even come to earth in this dimension 12,000 years before with their parents, who were xenobiologists learning about animal life on distant planets? If everything happened… only if everything happened… then maybe…
Liz of Antar walked over to the far wall of the huge room and ran her hand over the wall. She wasn't sure of the exact spot where the hidden niche had been cut into the wall, but she tried to feel it. Anyone else would not have been able to… it had been sealed by 12,000 years of time. There were no longer any cracks around the opening. It was a solid wall.
Liz's hand stopped over one spot on the wall…
"I think… this may be it. I'm not sure."
Michael and Max began to dig and probe around the area, searching for an interior crack line around the secret niche in the solid stone wall. They soon found the crack. It was there. After several minutes, they had retraced the original cutout area around the secret compartment, then they removed the piece that served as the door. Max reached into the wall and carefully removed an old book, Maya's second diary. He placed it into a sealable container that they had brought from the ship just for this purpose. The diary was fragile. The pages could not be opened until they could be reconditioned on Antar. Any attempt to open them now would destroy the diary… it would literally crumble into dust. The special container would keep it safe until it could be reconditioned.
Max 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, Max found a third item. It was a beautiful box made of something that looked like oak, but it wasn't the slightest bit deteriorated. They opened the box. Inside were four smooth, round balls that looked like steel but were much lighter. Each was slightly smaller than a golf ball, and each one sat cradled in its own special holder in the box.
"Bingo!" Michael said, as Max of Antar handed the box to the younger Liz, his wife's double from this dimension.
"I believe these are yours, Liz."
Liz looked at Max curiously but took the box in her hands.
"It's beautiful… but what is it, Max?"
"You'll see."
Max reached into the box and took out one of the spheres. He placed it in Liz's hand and took the box back to hold it for her.
"Speak to it, Liz."
Liz looked at Max and smiled warily. "What am I supposed to say? It's just a steel ball."
"Ask it what it does."
Liz looked at Max again, and her smile faded, turning into stunned seriousness.
She looked at the sphere… "What… what is your function?"
At first, the sphere seemed to do nothing at all, but then it began to glow with a bluish aura and floated out of Liz's hand. Liz stepped back automatically but then slowly edged forward again. That's when the sphere spoke.
"I am the sphere of location. My function is to locate."
"Locate… what?"
"Anything that you wish to find or that you have lost."
"You can tell me where anything is?"
"I can."
Liz was unsure what she should say and finally just whispered, "Okay… Thank you."
The sphere settled back into Liz's hand. Max replaced it in its compartment in the box and handed Liz another sphere.
"Ask it."
Liz held the sphere up. "What do you do?"
The second sphere began to glow almost immediately with a greenish aura then floated out of Liz's hand.
"I am the sphere of visions. I will show you anything that you wish to see."
"You can show me anything… like what?"
"Anything you wish."
"Can you… show me… my dad and mom… right now?"
The room shimmered, and a vision appeared. Liz clearly saw her parents, who at that moment, were flying back to Roswell from Montana. Liz swallowed in amazement. She looked at the image for several moments and reached out with her hand as though to touch it, but it wasn't really there. It was a vision. Liz started to reach for the sphere to place it back in the box, but something in the look on her mom's face made her stop. Then she saw it on her dad's face, too. It scared her. It wasn't right. Suddenly, the plane pitched to one side, and to her horror, the people on it began to be tossed around wildly.
"What's the matter?" Liz cried. "What's happening to them?"
"I cannot answer that," the sphere replied. "It is unknown to me. I merely see."
Liz watched in near panic as the plane began to plunge downward. She barely noticed Max of Antar holding the third of the four spheres.
"Try this one, Liz."
"Max! This is no time!"
"Try this one. Now!"
Liz held the sphere in her hand.
"Ask it if it is the sphere of protection, Liz."
"Are you?" Liz asked.
The sphere rose from her hand and glowed with an amber glow. "I am the sphere of protection."
Liz didn't need any further prodding. "Can you help the people on that plane? What's happening to it?"
As Liz watched, the plane leveled out again and began to fly smoothly. The passengers, who appeared to have been suddenly and unexpectedly thrown around, settled back into their seats. Bags from the bins above had fallen out into the aisles.
"They will arrive safely."
"How did you…? What did you…?" Liz stammered.
"There was an explosion on the craft. It lost parts."
"What parts?"
"The tail… and a wing."
Liz gasped then looked again at the vision. Somehow, the plane was flying… with one wing and no tail.
"It will arrive safely," the sphere repeated.
"What are you?" Liz asked. "What kind of power am I being given?"
"The power that Shaqor Niseel gave to MayaSabriena. I belonged to Shaqor Niseel. I was given to MayaSabriena to protect her. I answer only to her now… or to her rightful heir and descendent."
"Descendent?" Liz repeated. "You mean… then… I'm…"
"You are."
"Omigod," Liz said softly. "I didn't know."
Liz placed the sphere of protection back into the box. "Will the plane be okay if I place you back in your box?"
"Yes."
Liz wiped her eyes and took one last look at the vision then replaced the sphere of visions in its holder in the box, too. There was one sphere left. Liz removed it from the box and held it in her hand.
"What is your function?" she asked shakily.
The sphere glowed with a pure white aura and floated from Liz's hand.
"I am the sphere of the portal."
"Portal? Like… a door? To where?"
"Anywhere you wish to go."
Liz paused for a moment. "Can you… can you put me on that airplane… with my parents?"
"No."
Liz closed her eyes and sighed heavily.
"But I can open a portal for you to go through. You will be where you wish to go."
"On that plane?"
"If that is your wish."
"It is!"
As soon as Liz said this, something that looked like a wall of smooth water appeared in front of her. She touched it, and it rippled. Then she swallowed hard and stepped directly into it… disappearing.
Liz looked around her. People were crying. Jeff looked stunned as he held Nancy and tried to reassure her. He could see that the wing was gone on his side of the plane. Only a tiny stub remained… certainly not enough to fly with. Jeff knew this for a fact. How could he explain this even to himself… much less to anyone else? As he wondered about it, a hand touched him on the shoulder. Turning around, Jeff saw Liz standing there. She smiled.
"It's going to be okay, Dad. Everything is going to be okay."
Nancy looked up at her daughter and gasped. "Omigod! Liz? How…?"
Liz kissed her mom on the cheek. "Never mind how, mom. Just believe me. It's going to be okay."
Nancy nodded and wiped the tears off her face with Jeff's sleeve.
Liz looked around the plane at the other passengers and smiled at them reassuringly. "It's going to be okay. The plane will land safely. Everyone's going to be okay."
A woman in the seat beside her pulled on Liz's sleeve, and Liz turned around to look at her.
"Are you an angel?"
Liz smiled but didn't answer. The portal reappeared at that moment, and Liz stepped through it.
The woman leaned over toward Jeff. "That was an angel."
Jeff nodded and smiled. "I know."
Twenty minutes later, the plane landed. Those who were willing to continue on were placed on another plane, as mechanics and officials began to pour all over the damaged craft, shaking their heads in stunned amazement and looking over and again at the pilot as though he were at the very least Superman.
An officer patted the pilot on the back. "You had to have had some divine help with this one, Ken!"
"It was an angel," the lady said, walking up behind them. "We had an angel on our plane."
Back in the cave again, Liz placed the sphere gently back into its cradle in the mysterious box.
Max of Antar smiled and handed Liz the box back. "I guess you can visit your parents whenever you want to now. We need to find the original diary and the camera first, though. They should be over there in that corner of the cave somewhere. Then we need to be on our way to Antar."
"There's something I need to do before we go," Liz said. "Can the sphere of the portal go into the past?"
"Actually… I did that once," Liz of Antar said. "It can go into the past, but it doesn't work interdimensionally."
"Can the sphere of visions see into the past?"
Liz of Antar nodded.
"Good.
Then I need to go somewhere," the younger Liz said.
"Go where?" Max asked.
"Actually, WE need to go somewhere," Liz corrected.
"We?"
Liz nodded.
Max looked at Liz questioningly… "Where?"
"Vietnam… August 18th… 1966… 5:05 PM… their time… Long Tan, northeast of Ba Ria, Phuoc Tuy Province. There'll be a heavy thunderstorm, so we'll need raincoats… and the sphere of protection."
For several moments, no one spoke. There was only a stunned silence in the cave.
tbc