SLIDING INTO ANTAR
Crash
Chapter 1
I
"Can't touch this!
Can't touch this!
My my my my music hits me so hard
Makes me say Oh my Lord
Thank you for blessing me with a mind to rhyme
And two hyped feet
Feels good when you know you're down…
Can't touch this
Look man u can't touch this
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh…"
Liz finally totally lost it, dissolving into hysterical laughter, and Maria actually snorted the Snapples she was sipping, as they watched Max and Kyle perform their rousing duo version of the MC Hammer hit while offering up a their best spirited rendition of Hammer's dance style."
Michael leaned back in his co-pilot's chair and closed his eyes, a smile on his face. After six weeks on a rescue mission in an alternate dimension, they were finally going home… The very thought made everyone smile; and the truth is, everyone was feeling a little giddy…
Maybe some more than others…
"Can't touch this! Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Stop!
Hammer time!
Oh-oh oh oh oh-oh-oh… Stop!
Hammer time!
Can't touch this!"
"Don't you guys know anything by Metallica?" Michael asked, shaking his head.
Max and Kyle stopped dancing…
"Well… what would you like to hear," asked Kyle.
"How about… Nothing Else Matters?"
"Don't know it."
"Okay, then, how about… Enter Sandman?"
"How does it go?"
Michael shook his head and sighed…
"Hush little baby, don't say a word
And never mind that noise you heard
It's just the beast under your bed,
In your closet, in your head
Exit light, Enter night
Grain of sand
Exit light, Enter night
Take my hand
We're off to never-never land."
"Oh yeah. I heard that before. How does the other one go," Kyle asked.
Michael picked up two long wooden pointers and started to pound out a drumbeat on the console in front of him…
"So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters
Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
And nothing else matters
Never cared for what they say
Never cared for games they play
Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
And I know
So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No nothing else matters…"
Michael stopped, and Liz, Tess, and Maria applauded.
"That was good, Michael," Tess encouraged… "Sing some more!"
Michael grinned and shook his head. "I can't sing. Let Max and Kyle entertain you. They're enjoying themselves." As if to punctuate his remark, Michael rapped, "Can't touch this! Can't touch this!" and Liz and Maria dissolved into hysterics all over again.
"Well, it wasn't all that funny," Kyle said.
Tess nodded, sniffling… "It was, Kyle. Trust me. It was!"
Ever since the Antarian mothership, the New Granolith, left Antar in Dimension Y, there had been an almost party-like atmosphere onboard. The work and the worries were over. The rescue had been a total and unqualified success. With nothing to do now but relax and enjoy the ride home, normally restrained personalities gave way to personalities rarely seen in other times, as inhibitions disappeared and everyone seemed to just enjoy the moment.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it all changed.
Michael leaned back in his seat, and the girls were coaxing Max and Kyle to dance again, when the ship suddenly lurched violently and veered sharply off its trajectory. This sent Max and Kyle sprawling to the floor, along with Liz, Maria, and Tess. Thrown almost completely out of his seat, Michael rolled back quickly and raised the seat to its upright position, then he looked out the huge fore window of the New Granolith…
"What the frikkin' galaxies was that? Did we hit something?"
Max was already beside him in the pilot's seat. The party atmosphere that had prevailed only moments before was gone. A few seconds later, Varec, Max's chief science officer and Antar's most revered scientist, ran into the room and stood beside Max and Michael. He was followed by Alex and Isabel, who had been in the arboretum.
As they searched the void of space outside the ship for any evidence of what had happened, Max noticed that the air in the control room seemed to be thinning, as though it were being sucked out of the room. What happened next was so unexpected that no one had a chance to do anything but stand there, speechless. A large vortex opened up… inside the ship… right there on the bridge. Immediately, the air that had just been sucked out of the room poured back in through the vortex… and something else came with it. First, a girl fell out, then, a young man. He was followed by an older man and another man.
Max and Michael had the four covered before they even got up or knew what had happened to them.
"Who are you," Michael asked, holding the palm of his hand out, prepared to defend himself and the ship. "What was that… thing… you came out of?"
The four newcomers looked around with a clearly puzzled look, as though they were trying to figure out the answers to the same questions themselves. The younger man stood up then helped the girl and the older man up, as the third man brushed himself off and checked to make sure that he still had everything he should have… two arms, two legs… hands… fingers. He seemed satisfied. Then he gazed out the window at the stars drifting by in the void of space…
"Uh, Cue Ball, you'd better look at this. That's not L.A. out there, man. Where are we?"
The younger man looked down at a remote control type device in his hand then looked out the ship's window. "I don't know, Rem. If I had to guess, I'd say the timer had a malfunction."
"A malfunction!" the other man exclaimed. "That's like saying that the Pacific Ocean is just a fish pond!" He gazed out the window again.
"What do we do now, Quinn," the girl asked, putting one hand on the young man's arm.
"Yes, that WOULD appear to be the question, wouldn't it," the older man said with a vaguely British-like accent. Then he walked over and stood facing Max and Michael…
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Professor Maximillian Arturo, at your service. My colleagues are Miss Wade Welles, Mister Rembrandt Brown, and Mister Quinn Mallory."
"Another Maximillian?" Kyle mused. "Can I stand it?"
"I'm 'Crying Man,'" the first man said.
"Well… two Maxes isn't that bad," Kyle mumbled apologetically.
"No… I mean, I'm Rembrandt 'Crying Man' Brown."
"Oh." Kyle nodded.
"Remmy is a singer," the girl said. "He had a group called 'The Spinning Tops,' and after that, he had a solo record called 'Topless' that went gold. He's good."
The man smiled, seeming genuinely surprised by Wade's comment. "Thanks, Wade."
Meanwhile, Varec had been staring, fixated, at the remote control-like device in Quinn Mallory's hand, and without announcing his intentions, he walked over and reached for it. Mallory immediately pulled his hand, and the device, back.
"I just wanted to see it," Varec said. "I don't want to take it from you… not permanently."
"You can see it in my hand," Mallory said, obviously protective of the device he had called a 'timer.' "It doesn't leave my hand."
"That must make it hard to eat… or sleep… or bathe," Varec said.
Mallory nodded. "That's my problem, I guess." Then he relaxed just a bit… "I don't hold it all the time. But I don't let other people mess with it. It's delicate."
"Is that what brought you here," Varec asked.
Max and Michael looked surprised. It hadn't occurred to them that the small device in Mallory's hand might have had any part in his being here; but Max and Michael knew that if Varec thought it did, there was probably something to it.
"Let me see the device," Michael said, holding out his hand.
"Don't even try," Mallory warned, adopting a defensive stance.
Suddenly, with no warning, a small bolt of energy erupted from Michael's palm, hitting Mallory on the shoulder. The device in his hand fell to the floor, and Michael had it before Mallory realized what had happened. Michael handed it to Varec.
"You think this thing had something to do with whatever's going on here?"
Varec looked at the device carefully, as Mallory rubbed his shoulder. Mallory was clearly unhappy but decided that a direct attack on someone who could paralyze his nerves with taser-like bolts from the palm of his hand was probably a bad idea. There would be other opportunities to get the device back… if he was vigilant.
Varec took Mallory's timer and left the control room.
"Don't worry," Michael said, "You'll get it back."
"But he doesn't know what he has there," Mallory said dejectedly. "He could damage it… or…"
"Or what," Michael asked.
Quinn just shook his head.
"We're not your enemies," Liz said, looking at Quinn Mallory then at each of the others in turn… "We would like to help you if you let us."
Wade looked at Mallory and nodded. "I think we should tell them, Quinn."
Mallory sighed. "The device is a timer. It counts down the time we have left before the vortex will open again. When it does, we have to be there if we're going to slide."
"Slide?" Alex asked, puzzled.
Mallory nodded. "The vortex takes us to parallel words. We're trying to find our way home… to our own world again."
"You don't know where it is?" Maria gasped. "Omigod, that's so… Omigod…"
Wade smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it is."
"We're going home, too," Liz said. "We've been in an alternate dimension for the last six weeks. Fortunately, we know how to get back home, though."
"Lucky you," Remmy laughed, "I wish we did."
"Maybe Varec can help you," Maria suggested. "He's the smartest person I know."
"Does he know anything about the Eisen-Rosenberg bridge to other gateways," Mallory asked.
Maria looked at him blankly… "The what?"
Mallory smiled. "I didn't think so."
"Quinn's kind of a genius," Wade said. "If he can't figure something out, it usually can't be done."
"So is Varec," Isabel said. "I'd put Varec up against Quinn anytime… or anyone else."
"You say the device is a timer," Max asked. "How long till it reaches zero?"
"Forty-three minutes… then we have to slide," Quinn replied. "You see why I have to get the timer back soon."
Max nodded. "Let's go see Varec."
Max led the group down the hall to Varec's lab and placed his hand over the handprint on the wall by the door. The door slid open. Quinn looked around the room and imediately spotted Varec at his workbench. Then he saw something else, and all the color drained out of his face. On the workbench sat the timer, carefully separated into over eighty small parts of all sizes and shapes.
tbc