Sliding Into Antar
And Stranger Things
Chapter 4
IV
The New Granolith was, in many ways, a small city in space. It had all the comforts that a mother ship could be expected to have… and probably a few more… on seven different levels. Level 1, the lowest level, contained the cargo and storage bay. It was also where the off-ship vehicles were kept and where the "pod room" was located, a special, watertight room that housed a small submarine, which Michael had christened the "Maria Mia."
Level 2 was the galley and dining room area.
Level 3 housed the living quarters; and at the end of the corridor on that level, there was a lounge with video games, a TV, and various other sources of entertainment.
Level 4 was the bridge and control deck, with the pilots' consoles and seats. This level also housed all the critical flight control equipment as well as the internal components of the engines.
Level 5 consisted entirely of a series of interconnected gardens, where many of the vegetables eaten onboard were grown. The gardens also sported many beautiful flowers and walking paths, one of which led to a small waterfall and a deep pond that was often used for swimming.
Level 6 was the arboretum. The trees in the arboretum supplied all the oxygen needed for interplanetary travel. There was a long path through the trees that began and ended at the same place, so there was no need to turn around and return the way one had come. It had been designed to meander back and forth through the park, giving the stroller the maximum possible walking distance, about a mile and a half. Approximately in the center of the arboretum, there was a gazebo with a swing, and further along on the trail, there was a small clearing where one could lie down by a clear little brook that provided water to the trees, have a picnic, or swing on a two-person swing suspended by vines from high up in one of the trees.
Level 7, the uppermost level of the ship, was the observatory, a bubble-shaped domed room with a 360-degree view of space. Among other things, the observatory boasted a couple of comfortable sofas for relaxing and watching the stars zip by and two special seats for remote viewing with RV goggles. The observatory was Michael and Maria's favorite getaway place on the ship. It also happened to be Isabel and Alex's favorite getaway place, so the two couples often competed to see who could get there first and claim it or had to agree to "schedule" their use of it… if they wanted to guarantee their privacy. From the observatory, one could watch the stars zip by as the ship sped along on its journey through the cosmos.
After dinner, Max and Liz had shown their four visitors to the rooms where they would be spending the night so that they could relax and freshen up. Then Liz, Maria, Isabel, Alex, and Tess had offered to show them around the ship. Max had given the visitors pretty much complete access to the ship, except for the control areas on level four… and even there, as long as they were accompanied by Max, Michael, Jim, or another crew member.
"Have you seen Quinn?" Rembrandt asked Tess, who happened to be nearby as he emerged from his room.
"I think he's down the hall… playing pool with Rayylar."
Rembrandt laughed. "That'd be Cue Ball! You got a pool room, huh?"
"It's more like a game room," Tess said. "Come on. I'll show you where it is."
Tess led Rembrandt to the lounge and pointed toward the pool table, where Quinn and Tess' husband, Rayylar, were playing. They watched, as Quinn chalked up the end of his cue stick again.
"Hey, Cue Ball! You gonna go see some of the ship with me?"
"Yeah… sure… in a little while, Remmy."
Rembrandt chuckled. "Yeah, I know. Don't get between Cue Ball and a good game of pool. Okay, I'll go see it. You can see it when you get ready."
Quinn nodded, carefully aiming and sinking the four ball into the side pocket, as Rayylar watched.
Tess smiled and shook her head. "I'll show you around if you'd like."
"Yeah… That'd be nice."
"What would you like to see?"
"Ummm… well, what's a good place to see?"
"How about the arboretum?"
"Yeah! That sounds good. That means trees, right? Like… Arbor Day… arboretum?"
Tess nodded. "That's where all the oxygen for the ship comes from. It's a park with lots and lots of trees… kind of a little forest right here on the ship."
As they stepped out of the ascension chamber on the sixth level, Rembrandt saw that there was a meandering path through some rather substantial deep woods in front of him.
"Are you sure we're on a ship out in space, Tess? This is incredible," Rembrandt said, looking all around him at the trees and forest-like growth, as the two of them walked along the path.
Tess smiled and nodded.
They had just passed the mid-way point and the gazebo about a thousand feet back, when Rembrandt felt a cold, moist something touch his hand and sniff, then lick the back of his neck and all the way up the back of his head, standing his hair on end. Tess was several steps ahead of him on the trail, so it obviously hadn't been her. Slowly, Rembrandt turned around to look behind him.
His eyes opened wide, and he wheezed once. Every instinct in his body screamed "run," but then he remembered Tess. Without a word, which he would have been unable to utter at that moment anyway, Remmy scooped Tess up over his shoulder and ran, as fast as his legs would carry him, all the way to the end of the path. There, he quickly sat Tess down, wheezing and gasping for breath.
"Are you okay?" Tess asked.
"It's a… It's a…" Rembrandt pointed back down the trail with a shaky finger. "Lady, you've got something WILD runnin' around loose in here! It has big… huge… fangs or something. It looks like a saber tooth tiger!"
Tess giggled then broke out laughing.
"I don't know why that's funny," Remmy gasped.
"That's just Jung-Jo."
"Who?"
"Jung-Jo. He's a pet." Tess turned around to find Jung-Jo waiting patiently next to the ascension chamber. He had gone the other way and had beat them both back, but until this moment, Rembrandt hadn't seen him sitting there.
Tess patted Jung-Jo on the head and ran her hand down his back. "He's really just a big friendly puddy tat… if he likes you."
"That's what worries me," Rembrandt said, backing away cautiously. "How do I know he likes me?"
"Because he hasn't eaten you yet," Tess replied matter-of-factly."
"YET? He could swallow us both and not even have to burp," Rembrandt protested.
Tess laughed, taking Rembrandt by the hand. "Come here. Touch him. He won't hurt you."
Rembrandt cautiously reached his arm out as far as it would go and patted Jung-Jo on the head, then he smiled.
"Yeah… Yeah, he is kind of friendly, isn't he? You know, that gives me an idea. Does he have to stay here in the arboretum all the time?"
Tess shook her head. "Actually, Jung-Jo kind of comes and goes as he wishes. You never know where he'll be."
"Do you think I could borrow him… just for a little while?"
Tess shrugged. "Ask him if he'll go with you."
Rembrandt swallowed and patted Jung-Jo on the head again. "You want to come meet someone, Jung-Jo?"
The cat stood up.
"I guess he's okay with it," Tess said.
>>>>>>
Quinn had the three ball, the two ball, and the six ball in his sights. He had carefully calculated each ball's trajectory. If he hit the cue ball just right, it would drop the three ball into the far left corner pocket, the two ball into the left side pocket, and the six ball would rebound twice before dropping neatly into the right corner pocket nearest to him. Quinn bent down and rechecked the line of sight. Then, seeing that everything was perfect, he carefully drew the cue stick back…
Rayylar saw Rembrandt and Tess come in, and he saw Jung-Jo with them, but he was so accustomed to having the big cat around all the time that it didn't faze him. He showed no reaction at all. Quinn, however, was totally absorbed as he prepared to drop three balls with one shot. He probably would have done it… He had dropped more than that on many other occasions.
Quinn shoved the cue stick forward over his left thumb, and as he did, out of the corner of his eye, he caught just a glimpse of something. It almost didn't register through the haze of his single-minded, intense concentration…
Almost…
There was a long ripping sound, as the cue stick missed the cue ball and dug itself in under the felt top of the pool table. Almost simultaneously, Quinn leapt straight up and did a sort of quick side step to the other side of the table. It happened so fast that he didn't even realize he had done it.
"Ooh, Cue Ball! I never saw you do that before," Rembrandt said, looking at the long rip in the felt.
Quinn looked back and forth, first at the pawgor then at the ripped felt, then the pawgor then the ripped felt. It was hard to tell which one shocked him the most.
"WHAT is that?" he finally asked.
"It looks like a big rip to me," Remmy said.
Quinn grimaced. "I can see THAT, Rembrandt! The CAT… Do you know what that is? It could be dangerous!" Even as he said this, his intense curiosity seemed to win out over the initial shock, and Quinn worked his way back around the table toward Jung-Jo.
Rembrandt patted Jung-Jo on the head. "Dangerous? You mean like sliding into unknown worlds… or maybe… telling Michael what happened to his pool table?"
Quinn found himself momentarily at an unusual loss for words. And as fate would have it, Michael walked into the room at that moment. Michael immediately spotted the ripped pool table and looked at Quinn. Quinn shook his head apologetically. Michael looked at the table again then at the pawgor, and he knew what had happened. Without a word, he passed his hand over the pool table, and the felt was once again unblemished.
Quinn took a deep breath -it was more like a gasp- and ran his hand over the felt that, just a moment before, had appeared to be irreparably damaged. It was perfect now… almost better than new if that was possible. He couldn't find even the slightest evidence that it had ever been damaged. He looked at the table again then at Michael…
"Listen, Michael… if you ever want to go into business… you could really get rich repairing pool tables and stuff!"
Michael smiled. "That's all right."
"I'm really sorry about the table. I never did that before."
"I know," Michael said, patting Jung-Jo on the head. "Jung-Jo can be a bit of a shock if you're not prepared."
Quinn looked at Rembrandt, who chuckled guiltily. He knew that Quinn wouldn't forget this and would find a way to repay him sooner or later in kind.
And as if the adrenaline in the room weren't already soaring high enough, at that moment, Professor Arturo walked in with Wade, looking for Quinn and Remmy. Spotting Jung-Jo, Wade did a double take and backed quickly out the door; but after a second look, she inched her way back in cautiously. Professor Arturo stopped dead in his tracks, momentarily dumbfounded. His eyes refused to even blink, as he stared in awe at the sight before him.
"My Gawd! It's a Smilodon californicus! A saber tooth cat! Here! And very much alive by all appearances! Where in the world did you find it?"
"Jung-Jo is a pawgor," Tess said. "They're common in the Nan-Torel forest on Antar. They're the reason Antarians avoid the Nan-Torel. Well… one of the reasons. But Jung-Jo's friendly. Unless he has a reason not to be."
"I'll be very sure not to give him a reason then," the professor said.
"Jim Valenti rescued Jung-Jo when Jung-Jo was very young," Tess continued. "He was trapped under a fallen tree and would have died if Jim hadn't found him and taken him home to fix him up and nurse him back to health."
"As far as we know," Michael added, "Jim is the first person who ever went into the Nan-Torel more than once… willingly… and survived. He even did a Vid production on the Nan-Torel and its fauna for Antarians. They think he's crazy. But he's something of a legend and a folk hero on Antar. His younger son, Danyy, can talk to animals, and we think he's the reason Jung-Jo is so tame."
"Amazing," Professor Arturo said. "Simply amazing! I can only wonder what else there might be in that Nan-Torel forest of yours… perhaps even dinosaurs!"
Michael laughed. "I don't think so. Jim never saw any dinosaurs. Lots of rob-jettas, nasty bats that will eat you, fire snakes, and of course, pawgors… and more poisonous plants than anyone can imagine… but no dinosaurs… that we know of."
"Mmmm… all the same, it would be a marvel to be able to catalog the creatures in that forest, I would think."
"You know… Jim might have a copy of the video he made that was shown on Antarian TV," Michael said. "It's not VHS compatible… not even close… but Varec could probably adapt it and copy it for you. I imagine Jim would be more than happy to let you have a copy. He's always trying to educate Antarians about the Nan-Torel."
"That would be incredible," Professor Arturo said. "I would be truly indebted to all of you!"
"I'll see if Varec can do it," Michael said.
While Michael, Tess, and Professor Arturo were talking, Wade had edged over next to Rembrandt and was already petting Jung-Jo, who seemed to be very much enjoying all the attention he was getting, especially the petting.
"Where ever did you find this marvelous beast," Professor Arturo asked Rembrandt.
Rembrandt laughed. "In the arboretum. He sneaked up behind me and licked the back of my head."
"Yes… I wondered how you had straightened all the hair out on the back of your head and why it was sticking up on the top."
Rembrandt ran his hands over his head, trying to push his hair back down, but it just popped right back up in the back like an antenna.
"You'll have to shampoo it," Tess said. "Danyy likes to let Jung-Jo lick his hair and give him pawgorlicks. That's probably why Jung-Jo did it. But the pawgorlick won't go away until it's shampooed. It drives Danyy's mom nuts." Tess giggled as she thought about it.
"Did you see any of the other parts of the ship," Remmy asked, turning to Wade, who smiled and nodded enthusiastically.
"Alex and Isabel took the professor and me for a walk through the gardens. They have some incredible gardens… they're awesome! Did you like the arboretum?"
Rembrandt smiled sheepishly… "What I saw of it. The second half was sort of a blur."
Tess giggled again.
"I would very much like to see the observatory on the top level before we leave," Professor Arturo said.
Michael nodded. "That can be arranged. I'll be glad to show you up there right now if you'd like."
"Talking about leaving…" Max said, walking in the door at that moment with Liz. "I was just in to see Varec, and he has a message for you. He spent most of the evening making calculations and carefully recalibrating your timer. He traced your slides back to the first one you made by making a ghost image or something of your timer's internal computer."
"I tried to trace it back," Quinn said. "The trail wasn't strong enough to find anymore… after all the slides we've made."
"Well, Varec was able to make a ghost image and sharpen the resolution. And he said to give you this message… He hopes you won't miss sliding terribly much… because he made some changes to your timer, and tomorrow morning… You're sliding home."
In the room, there was total silence… then the room exploded in cheers.
tbc