Sliding Into Antar

The Test

Chapter 8

VIII

Yes, what can we do to make you believe us," Liz asked, repeating Michael's question for Zorel and putting him under even more pressure to decide quickly whether or not these new people were friends or enemies. They looked like their parents. But that was not necessarily a plus. That made Zorel think all the more that they must be shapeshifters. He knew that they weren't his real parents. And yet, there was something… Zorel had no idea what it was or why he felt so bothered. He was, even at his young age, more than able to defend himself and the others with powerful blasts that he was capable of producing from the palm of his hand. He had done it before. He was not afraid of bad guys… Well… bad guys that he could see anyway. He shuddered briefly as he remembered the feeling Max's vice-like grip on his shoulder caused in him when Max was invisible.

Zorel turned to Maya, who was the same age as he was… "Maya…"

He said her name then just nodded, but Maya understood. She concentrated for several long moments then shook her head. "I don't feel any evil in their thoughts… not like I felt in the shadowshifters… or in Kivar."

"They may have found a way to hide it from you, Maya," Ceelya said.

Maya shook her head. "I don't feel like they're hiding anything like that. I can feel their thoughts, and I don't sense any evil in them."

"But they're not our parents," Zorel said firmly. "They're trying to trick us by looking like our parents."

"I don't feel any deceit coming from them," Maya said, shrugging.

"I think I can explain why we look like your parents," Isabel said. "Have you ever heard of alternate dimensions?"

Maya nodded. "They're not real. They're just a theory."

"They are real," Isabel said, nodding her head emphatically. "We're from another dimension. You see, we didn't know either… I mean… we thought we were returning home to our planet, in our own dimension, but somehow we found your planet instead… Do you understand?"

Zorel just looked at her. Isabel wasn't sure if he didn't believe her or if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Okay, you see," Isabel said, "We found out that other dimensions actually do exist, and we went to another dimension in our ship, but when we tried to go home, we came to this world, and we thought it was ours, but now we know it's not…" Isabel sighed dejectedly. "You don't understand any of this, do you?"

"I understand," Zorel said. "I'm just not sure if I believe you."

"It is possible," Kryys said, turning to face Zorel. "I've seen that there is something beyond the expanse… in the other place."

"The River of Time," Michael said, nodding.

"I don't know what it's called," Kryys said. "River of Time? That sounds like a good description."

"You never met the Drax guy?" Michael asked, somewhat shocked.

Kryys shook his head. "Who is that?"

In our dimension, he's been teaching my son… Kryys… that's you in our dimension… about the River of Time and everything like that. You know, the stuff you do, turning into atoms and disappearing."

Zorel looked at Kryys, surprised… "He knows about that."

"What else do you know about us," Andya asked suspiciously.

"Well," Liz said, "If you're like my Andya, you can make animals appear out of nowhere… and you hate gojos."

Andya's mouth opened in surprise. "I do hate gojos. They taste like little green caca."

"They do not!" Liz scolded. "They're good for you. They give you vitamins to grow up strong and healthy, and they taste good."

"She sure sounds like Mom," JoLeesa said. Andya nodded, her eyes reflecting her shock.

"We know everything about you… about all of you," Kyle said. "It's obvious that your families were a lot like ours. Same kids… so you must have had the same parents." Kyle looked at Danyy… "Your Dad was my Dad, Jim Valenti. But your Mom was Antarian. Her name was Jeliya."

Danyy looked surprised.

"On the world we were just on, my Dad… I mean, his double… married Amy DeLuca."

Danyy grinned then broke out laughing. "No way! Aunt Amy… and Dad?" Zorel laughed, too, then the others started to laugh.

"It's not really so funny," Kyle said. "They knew each other on Earth, you know. They even went out together a few times when they were on Earth."

"That's true," Danyy said. "I forgot."

"Your Dad dated Aunt Amy when they lived on Eluymer?" Andya asked in shock.

"Yeah… but that was when they were both little kids, I think," Danyy replied.

Zorel nodded understandingly. "Oh, well…"

"Do you believe us now," Isabel asked.

Zorel suddenly became very serious again. He was a child, only eleven going on twelve, but he was also the defender of all the children there. It was a role he had been cast into… or had taken upon himself. Either way, making a decision about these grown-ups now was clearly taxing his emotions as well as his powers of reasoning to their limits.

"There is one more thing that you must do… to prove that you're telling the truth," Zorel said. He looked around at each of the adults, then he pointed at Alex. "You… come with me."

Isabel suddenly looked terrified. "Where are you taking him?"

"It's okay," Alex said, giving Isabel a kiss. "I'll be all right."

Isabel shook her head. "Can't I go, too?"

Zorel stopped her. "Just him."

Isabel started to protest, but Alex shook his head. Then he walked off with Zorel and several of the other children. The children left Alyyx and Taz to watch the remaining adults. Isabel watched as the other children and Alex disappeared around a stand of trees and a small hill, then she looked at Max imploringly. Max shook his head slowly. "I think he'll be okay, Iz. Alex can take care of himself."

On the other side of the hill, the children took Alex into a large cave. Alex immediately noticed that all around him in the cave there were weapons sitting out in the open and totally unguarded… spears, knives, harpoons, even a laser cell disrupter… some weapons that were antiques and some weapons that had long been banned on Antar. If he had been an enemy, he could easily have used one on these children. They would be defenseless. He wondered how they could be so careless. They hadn't impressed him as being careless before. Young, yes… Immature… yes, but careless… no. They hadn't survived by being careless.

As Alex reached the back of the cave, he noticed someone sitting on a rock in the dark. At first, he couldn't tell who it was, but as he drew nearer, he gasped. "Max?"

The seated figure rose and looked at Alex but didn't say anything.

"Max, it is you! You're alive!" Alex exclaimed, approaching the standing figure rapidly. It suddenly occurred to Alex that the children might mistake his rush to check Max out as an attack on him and try to defend him… especially if Max was hurt. But surprisingly, the children made no move whatsoever to defend him. Alex checked Max over. Other than the fact that he never spoke, he seemed to be in pretty good shape.

"Max, why are you hiding in here?" Alex asked. "If you need help to fight Kivar, we can help you. We got rid of him before… twice… in two different dimensions. We're kind of getting good at it." Alex chuckled, trying to lighten the atmosphere and get Max to say something.

"Are you hurt, Max? 'Cause we can help you if you are. Our Max may be able to heal you if you can't do it yourself. Is anybody else alive, too?"

Max still did not answer.

Suddenly, Alex noticed all the unguarded weapons lying around again and became angry. Max was obviously hurt, and these children were just standing around. Not one of them was trying to help him. And they had carelessly endangered his life and theirs with all these unguarded weapons all around. Alex turned on Zorel…

"Zorel, you're their protector, right?"

Zorel nodded.

"Then you should know better than to leave all this stuff out in plain sight AND BRING A STRANGER IN HERE, TOO! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? I COULD BE HERE TO KILL THE KING! AND HE'S TOTALLY UNPROTECTED!" Alex was yelling. He knew it. But the total unmitigated stupidity of what he was seeing momentarily went to his head.

Zorel turned to Jiba and nodded, and Max slowly dissolved into the air. Then the weapons dissolved into the air… then the entire cave dissolved into the air. They were standing on the other side of the hill out in the open. Alex stood there, shocked.

"What… what just happened?"

"You just proved that you are who you said you are," Zorel said. "Or at least, that you're not our enemy. That's all we wanted to know."

"But…" Alex looked around. "What happened to Max?"

"He was never there," Zorel said. "The weapons were never there either. You already seem to have figured out that our storms were an illusion."

Alex nodded. "And the comet that was headed for us… with fireballs breaking off… one fireball went right through our truck!"

Zorel grinned and looked at Jiba. "That was a good touch, Jeeb."

Jiba smiled.

"You kids did all that?" Alex asked, incredulous.

"Jiba did it," Zorel said. "She can do mind warps even better than her Mom could."

Alex nodded… "Tess… Jiba's Tess' daughter… That's right!"

"After Kivar attacked us, our parents were… well, anyway… we chased Kivar off the planet with Jiba's illusions and my powers… and the powers of the other kids in our group. Andya made some wild animals… pawgors and stuff… lots of them. They weren't real, so when Kivar's soldiers tried to kill them, they just kept coming. Then Jiba rained storms and lightning down on Kivar and his soldiers, and they couldn't see to fight. They didn't even know where it was all coming from. After they had had enough, they left Antar in a big hurry. A few times, they've tried to come back, but we always give them a big welcome that sends them running away again."

"I've seen your welcome," Alex said, nodding. "It would make anyone run for their life."

"Not you apparently," Zorel said.

"Only because we thought we were coming home… and then Varec realized that the meteor or comet or whatever it was wasn't real…"

"I guess he would," Zorel said. "He's pretty smart like that."

Alex smiled, but then his smile faded away. "It's too bad about your parents getting killed, though."

Zorel looked at Maya, Jiba, and the others, and they nodded.

"Come with me," Zorel said, motioning to Alex.

"Where are we going?"

"To get the others who came with you… then to see if you can help us…"

tbc