Sliding Into Antar

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Rocky Mountain High North

Chapter 23

XXIII

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The candle flickered, as the young woman kneeled and held up it in front of her face, staring at the flame. Then she carefully placed it on the altar of the little chapel high in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

"Someone very special?"

She looked up to see who had asked the question and saw an elderly man wearing a robe.

"Someone I once knew. He died in a car accident fifteen years ago."

The man in the robe nodded. "Do you know the proper way to do this… the candles?"

The young woman shook her head. "I'm sorry… I've never been to… you know… your church before. But a friend who comes here told me I could light a candle for him here. Is it okay?"

The man smiled understandingly. "I prefer to think that it's God's church rather than mine. He's the authority. I keep the doors open all the time. We're all God's children… if He let you in, why should I not?"

"Thank you," the young woman said. "I… I've never done this before… lit a candle for anyone… but I've been thinking about my friend a lot recently, and I needed to feel closer to him right now… to them… Alex… and Isabel."

The man nodded. "I'll leave you to your meditation."

"Thank you," the young woman said again, turning and looking into the candle's flame for several minutes, as she thought about Alex and said a silent prayer for him. Then she took out a second candle and lit it. Holding it up, she stared into its light for several moments and offered a second silent prayer. Then she opened her eyes and looked into the candle's light again, but this time she saw a face… a young girl's face. Liz stared into the flicker of the flame for a moment, captivated by the vision of the little girl, who could not be more than six. Then she realized what it was about the little girl that held her… It was Isabel's face.

The candle slipped from Liz's hand and fell onto the floor, catching the hem of her dress on fire before she could stand up. But as quickly as it happened, another little girl, one who appeared to be only four or five years old, waved her hand over the dress, and the flames died. Shocked by what had just happened, Liz looked at the two little girls and realized that they were quite real. She started to say 'thank you' -or tried to- but instead, she gasped as she looked into the face of the second little girl. The eyes were Alex's, though they were softer… so was the mouth… and the nose was Isabel's. The little girl was quite pretty, very pretty even, but there was no mistaking the look, especially in the eyes.

Liz swallowed hard and glanced back at the young 'Isabel,' who smiled but did not speak.

"Thank you," she finally managed to say, turning back to the younger girl, who had put out the flames.

The little girl smiled and pointed toward the door of the chapel, and Liz turned to look. Walking toward her were two people, one a young woman, the other a young man wearing an enormous grin. Liz took a deep breath and held it… for a brief moment, questioning her eyes… then she grinned and her mouth dropped open…

"ALEX! OMIGOD, ALEX!" Liz rushed to throw her arms around him and held on as though she feared he might disappear again if she ever let him go.

"Alex…" she repeated several more times before pulling back and looking at him again… just to be sure she hadn't lost her mind and grabbed the priest. "Alex, Omigod, where did you… how did you… what…"

"All the 'W' questions except 'when ,'" Alex chuckled.

"When did you…" Liz added, smiling, then she turned to the young woman at his side… "And Isabel! Omigosh, this is wonderful! This is just… so incredible! I can't believe it!"

"It's all a long story," Alex said, hugging Liz again, with a sheepish grin on his face.

Liz looked at him and put her right hand on her hip… "Well get comfortable… because you're not going anywhere, Mister Alex Whitman, until I've heard every last detail of it."

Alex sat down, and Isabel sat down beside him, then Mali and Gidi jumped into their laps, smiling at Liz.

"They're ours," Isabel said, turning and kissing Alex, who was smiling from ear to ear.

"Ba'sha ein 'er na-ee?" the older of the two little girls asked.

Isabel smiled and nodded.

"You named her after me?" Liz asked.

"You understood that?" Isabel asked, surprised.

Liz put her hand over her face and nodded. "Max and I studied everything we had available… including some books and manuals that were given to him when they tried to get him to return to Antar. We learned a few words and expressions."

Isabel nodded. "It looks like more than a few!" She smiled at the older of the two little girls, sitting on her lap… "This is Maria Elizabeth. We call her Mali, for short. And this is Gloria Diane…" she indicated the younger girl, sitting on Alex's lap, "We call her Gidi."

"They're so precious," Liz said, reaching out to hug each of the girls then lifting Gidi's face up to look at it. "I always knew you would look good as a girl, Alex!"

"Okay, now, see, that's just so not what I came back to hear, Liz," Alex said, grinning in spite of the faked tone of indignation adopted.

Liz scrunched up her nose and smiled. "But it's true," she said insistently.

"It was always my curse," Alex said, smiling at Isabel… "The girls all thought of me as just another girlfriend."

Isabel grinned. "Well, we'll just keep the truth to ourselves, okay Alex? They never need to know."

"Oo-kay… moving on to other things," Alex said, closing his eyes tightly and smiling.

"We saw the password on your computer, Alex," Liz retorted, "Maria figured it out. But you're special… you're more than that… a lot more… to us."

"Well, I guess I'm kind of different things to different people," Alex said, grinning sheepishly.

"As it should be," Isabel replied, nodding, and threading her arm through his.

Liz gasped… "Omigod! I just thought about something… how did you know where to find me?"

Isabel nodded toward the door. "Max told us. He's outside with… ummm… well… with some friends. You'll see."

"Ooh, a mystery," Liz laughed… "Okay."

"They didn't want to all come in and make a circus out of it in here," Isabel added.

"Alex…" Liz said, looking straight into his eyes… "What happened to you? You supposedly died in a car accident, which I still think Tess had something to do with, then you reappear here, alive and with children… and married to Isabel… You ARE married, aren't you?"

Isabel held up the back of her hand and wriggled her fingers for Liz to see the rings… "The best wedding coruns could buy."

"Antar," Liz said, nodding. "I kind of figured that out. Now fill in the details for me… and DON'T leave anything out."

Alex did his best to tell Liz everything that had happened… how Tess had caused his death then had taken him to Antar to be healed, how Isabel had gone along on impulse while chasing Tess, how they had gotten rid of Kivar and had become the king and queen after Max had refused to return to Antar, and how their doubles from the other dimension had shown up and had brought them back to earth for a visit.

"So when I walk out there…" Liz said slowly, "I'm going to find two Max's?"

Alex nodded.

"And another Alex… and another Isabel?"

Alex nodded again, adding, "And a Kyle and a Maria and a Michael who are not from this dimension… and Tess… two of them, ours and theirs."

Liz's jaw dropped.

"Like Isabel said," Alex chuckled, "They didn't want to create a circus in here by all of us coming in."

Liz nodded. "Let's go back to our house… We can talk there. Do you have transportation? I got a ride here with a friend."

Alex smiled… "Of a sort," he said, pointing upward.

"You have a space…!" Liz lowered her voice to a whisper and raised her eyebrows… "You have a space ship… up there above us?"

Isabel smiled and nodded. "Freaky, isn't it?"

"Just a little," Liz admitted. "That's your transportation?"

"Hey, don't knock it," Alex retorted with a grin, "Maria's mom's Jetta wouldn't make it to Antar and back."

"Maria's mom's old Jetta wouldn't make it up this mountain," Liz laughed.

"Old Bob would never have made it to Antar and back either," Alex added, "So we're stuck with the new Bob… up there."

Liz smiled… "Omigosh! You remember Bob? That's so… What do you mean, the 'new Bob?'"

"Just kidding. 'IT,' up there, belongs to Max from the alternate dimension, so I call it the new Bob. That's one big, shiny, alien jeep up there!"

Liz nodded… "All right… Okay… We go your way. We take New Bob."

"Good choice," Alex said, grinning impishly… "Max had it detailed on Venus after the Jovian mud races just so you'd be impressed. He even promised not to pop any space wheelies while you're onboard!"

Liz laughed. "You know something, Alex," she said, turning to him and smiling happily, "You're certifiable! …And I've missed you like crazy! Have you seen Maria yet?"

Alex shook his head. Then he, Isabel, and the girls walked out with Liz, and moments later, everyone was gone.

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Two hundred feet above the small chapel in the Rockies, Liz and Max stared out the huge bridge window of the New Granolith at the mountains below.

"Pretty incredible, huh?"

Liz turned and looked at her double from the other dimension, and nodded. "It's kind of hard to take this all in. I mean… Max and I went onboard a spaceship once before… when they wanted him to return to Antar. But that ship was nothing compared to this. It was like a rowboat compared to… the Queen Mary."

Liz's double laughed and nodded. "Interesting comparison… but pretty accurate. The New Granolith is all state of the art. Varec designed most of it and helped build some parts of it. There's only one Varec, I think, in every dimension. I've only ever seen one space ship that was bigger and more complex than the 'New Granolith,' and that's Shaqor-Niseel's ship, the 'Xarius Voyager.' Shaqor-Niseel Vredis Davor is the king of Xarius. The Xarius Voyager is like this huge city… well, more like a small planet, actually… You can fly all through it in these smaller spaceships. We saw lots of smaller ships flying around inside it, and he once stored a small moon in his cargo bay while searching for kidnappers who had taken refuge on the little moon. The Xarius Voyager has these air lanes mapped out between one sector of the ship and another all over the place, and it's really busy. Shag told us that there are over 500,000 people on his ship, and each one of them has a specific job to do! Several thousand of them make their permanent home on the ship, get married there, have children there, and live their entire lives there.

"Wow! That is pretty impressive," Liz admitted. "But this ship is plenty amazing itself. It's huge!"

"It is," the other Liz agreed. "And it's a great ship. We love it. It's like a small city or a hamlet compared to Shaqor's planet-sized ship… but we have extensive gardens… and even a small forest with a trail going through it on one level. And we don't need 500,000 people to operate this ship! Max and Michael have flown it to earth by themselves before. Of course, there are a number of automated droids onboard… fancy robots that do a lot of the work… like cleaning, cooking meals, gathering the vegetables from the gardens…"

"I'd love to see the gardens and forest," Liz said.

Her double nodded. "You will… don't worry! Max would never let anyone get away without showing off his ship!"

Both Liz's laughed, and Max smiled.

"We have another surprise for you, Liz," Max from the other dimension said… "My, uh… double here already knows about it, since we went to your house first." He turned and motioned toward the entryway to the bridge… Phillip and Diane Evans stood there, a big smile on both of their faces… and beside them were Liz's parents, Jeff and Nancy Parker.

"We thought you guys might like to see them… being so far away and all," Max said.

Liz gasped, and her face lit up as though the sun had just been let in and had suddenly shone on it. Running to hug her mom and dad, she met them halfway, tears forming in her eyes… "Thank you! Thank you! Omigod, this is the greatest thing I could ever have asked for! Alex and Isabel came back… and they're alive… and you're both here!"

"We were surprised when Max showed up and asked us if we'd like to come see you," Jeff said, "But how could we turn down an offer like this?"

Liz laughed and sniffed, nodding in agreement.

"How have you been," asked Nancy, checking her daughter over, "It's so rare that we hear from you, Lizzy."

"I'm sorry, Mom. We still have to be careful… even after all these years. Pierce is still out there. We haven't seen him for years now, but we keep tabs on his career, in a manner of speaking. I write to you as often as possible. We just don't want to give Pierce too many opportunities to pick up on our location."

"Are you safe up here, Max?" Jeff asked.

Max shrugged. "We think so. We're as safe here as we're ever going to be anywhere. We're pretty high up in the Rockies… they call them the Columbia Mountains around here… and the Kettle Mountain Range… We're very close to the Canadian border. We could slip over the border in an instant if we had to. So far, we haven't had to, though. We have friends here. They don't know everything about me, but they would let me know if anyone were asking questions or looking for us. This area is pretty remote and rugged… and it's really beautiful. I'll show you some of it while you're here."

Jeff nodded, and Nancy smiled.

"You can see some of it from up here," Liz said, pointing out the bridge window. "That peak way over there to the west is Abercrombie Mountain. It's in Stevens County, the next county over. Beyond that, if you look hard, you can see another of the highest peaks in the area, Copper Butte. It's two counties over, in Ferry County. Here in Pend Oreille County the highest point is Gypsy Peak, and of course there are hundreds of smaller peaks in these Northern Rocky Mountains, too. It's all mountains up here. Idaho is just to the east of us, and Canada is just to the north."

"We have elks, caribou, bears –both black and grizzly- moose, deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, eagles, geese, ducks, ospreys, and many other kinds of wildlife," Max said, "And these mountains were once a big gold rush area. Gold and other ores can still be found up here."

"Max has a special knack for finding large gold nuggets," Liz added. "We've kept a low profile, but any time there's a big bill coming due or we need something, he just happens to find a nugget or two."

"If you get too many, I could use a few," Jeff said, with a wink.

Max nodded and smiled.

"I heard you were flying, Max… private small jet pilot for some bigwig."

Max nodded again. "Over on the coast. I'm on call all the time, but I only fly a few times a month. He likes to keep a low profile, and so do I, so we don't ask each other too many questions."

"Is he… like you," Nancy asked.

"God, I hope not!" Max exclaimed, "He's kind of a geek…"

"Would we know him," Nancy asked.

"Could be," Max nodded. "I'm not at liberty to say. But, yeah, just between us, I'm pretty sure you do."

Jeff nodded.

Max turned to his double from the other dimension… "Do you think we could take this ship south over the plateau. I'd like to show you some things."

Max turned to Michael, and Michael nodded and jumped into the pilot's seat. Moments later, they descended over some smaller mountain ranges and then over a large plateau.

"That range way off in the distance to our west is the Cascade Mountains," Liz said. "That's where some of the better-known peaks, like Mount Saint Helens and Mount Rainier, are. Between the Cascades and the Rockies lies the Columbia Plateau, which is what you're seeing below us now. The Yakama Indian Reservation is at the south end of the plateau, and the Colville Indian Reservation is up near us. The Snake River lies to the south, and the Columbia River lies to the north. The Columbia Plateau is part of the largest lava plateau in the world. Those dry canyons with steep walls that you see are called 'coulees." After the last ice age, glaciers blocked the Columbia River's path to the ocean, and the water and ice flowing around the glaciers cut trenches across the plateau as they melted and moved on toward the Pacific. Later, after the glaciers had melted, the coulees dried up, leaving spectacular gullies. You've probably heard of Grand Coulee. Wherever you see extensive patches of dried lava covering the land, those are known as 'scablands.'"

"It's… oddly beautiful," Phillip Evans said, gazing at the varied rugged landscapes below the ship as they passed over them.

Max nodded. "There's a lot of variety here in Washington state. We have mountains… big ones! We have the Columbia Plateau, with its coulees and scablands… and on the Pacific coast, to our west, there are the islands. Liz and I generally prefer to remain up in the mountains, where we feel at home and safe, but Bill sometimes lets me have the jet… to keep my rating up and earn flying hours… so Liz and I occasionally fly down here to the plateau or over to the coast. And Spokane isn't far to the south of us… It's right below Pend Oreille County."

"Then why couldn't you fly down and see us," Diane asked.

"We've considered it, believe me," Max said with a sigh, "But if Pierce is still watching for us down there, he's bound to notice a corporate jet flying into Roswell with his number one alien at the controls."

Diane cringed. "I hate Pierce! Can I say that?"

Max smiled. "Why not? I think we all understand."

"Well, what I don't understand, Max," Alex said, "Is why you chose to stay here, where Pierce is looking for you, when you could have returned to Antar and been the king… with nobody hunting you… I mean, once Kivar was gone."

Max sighed and nodded. "I understand why you feel that way, Alex, but Michael and I both talked about it… with Liz and Maria, too… and all of us decided that we belong here now. This is our home. Pierce can't take that away from us. We can't allow him to. And besides, the Northern Rockies are beautiful and adventurous. Liz and I are happy there… so are Michael and Maria."

"Michael and Maria are there, too?"

Max nodded. "We'll see them… before you leave. I'm assuming you intend to go back to Antar again and haven't abdicated the throne."

"As odd as it might sound, Max… Antar's my home now," Alex said with a grin. "Isabel and I are happy there… Our children were born there."

Max nodded then smiled. "Sounds like it worked out for the best all around then."

Alex nodded.

"I'm so glad that you and Liz are happy here," Isabel said, "I've worried about you, Max."

"You've worried about us!" Max exclaimed, suddenly turning on Isabel… "Alex was killed in a car crash… we thought… and you disappeared off the face of the earth… No one had any idea what happened to you! We've all had this big hole, Isabel…" Max swallowed, and his eyes grew uncharacteristically misty… "In our hearts," he said, finishing his sentence, after he had steeled himself to make sure that his voice wouldn't break. He tapped his fist against his chest and blinked away the tears that threatened to betray him.

Isabel put her hand on Max's cheek and smiled, looking into his eyes, then she put her arms around him and hugged him. "I'm sorry, Max. I'm sorry for everyone I left behind without saying anything. But you better than anyone should know that our lives sometimes force instant decisions on us. I love Alex, Max… If I hadn't gone… right then… I would have lost him forever. What would you have done, Max?"

Max nodded and closed his eyes. "I would have done what you did, Iz."

Isabel smiled. "I know. You saved Liz's life even though Michael and I thought you had betrayed us and had put us all in mortal danger. I understand why you did it now."

"I've got an idea," Liz said… "If everyone has seen enough of the coulees and scablands, lets go see Maria and Michael."

Everyone seemed to like that idea, and Michael from the other dimension reassumed the pilot's seat of the New Granolith… "Same coordinates, Max?"

Max nodded. "That'll work. Their house is only about five miles from our house. I can guide you to it once we get there."

As the sun set in the distance over the Pacific Ocean, an invisible alien ship climbed back into the skies high above the centrally located Columbia Plateau and drifted off toward the high Rocky Mountains in the northeast corner of the state.

At the same time, in a small chapel high in the Northern Rockies, an elderly priest noticed two candles that had been left on the altar. Bending over, he picked them up and looked at them… they had long ago burned down to the holders they had been placed in. He smiled and looked upward… toward Heaven…

"I pray the young lady has found the peace she was looking for."

tbc