Sliding Into Antar

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A Very Remarkable Trip

Chapter 38

XXXVIII

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As morning arrived in the underwater kingdom of Antar, two sliders silently departed from the palace. Inside one of the sliders were ten Aquarian Antarians… Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, Isabel, Alex, Kyle, Varec, and the two young women who piloted the vehicle… and Max, Michael, Jim, and Varec from the New Granolith. Inside the other slider were Quinn, Wade, Maggie, Professor Arturo, Remmy, Liz, Maria, Alex, Isabel, Tess, Rayylar, and Kyle from the New Granolith, plus the two young women who piloted their slider… and one other individual, Jung-Jo, whom they had picked up from the ship, with the blessings of the Aquarians.

The two young women piloting this slider spent a lot of time looking over their shoulders. The guests, however, spent their time watching the scenery, entranced, as their sliders surged forward through the tube out of the palace then left the city of Coruz'Antar, headed for the next nearest city on the way to the Ke'cjes' valley.

As for Jung-Jo, he was enjoying every moment, looking very much like he wanted desperately to stick his head out a window somewhere and enjoy the breeze… if there had been a breeze… and if there had been a window. Instead, he sat behind the young woman who occupied the seat next to the driver, an "arrangement" that was changed when the others noticed that every time Jung-Jo swung his head from one side to the other to see the fish going by, his long tongue slapped the poor girl on the back of the head. Already, this had produced "pawgorlicks," hair standing out sideways in both directions, on the back of her head… and one very paranoid young lady who was certain that at any moment she was going to be eaten whole… at least, she prayed that it would be whole… and fast… and painless.

It took sixteen minutes, at a speed of approximately 150 miles per hour in the tube, to reach the next city. This gave the visitors time to see a lot of the underwater environment; and even though the closest objects were sometimes a blur, the water was extraordinarily clear, and there was plenty to see in the near distance. All too soon, the slider was sliding into Merplex'Antar, Antar's second biggest city in this Aquarian world, and a city that did not exist on any other Antar that they had been to, including their own. Merplex'Antar appeared to be a very modern city, but then everything on this Antar had a modern look to it. That was probably because it had to be scientifically advanced in order to survive under the sea.

The slider continued on through Merplex'Antar, passing through several large domed buildings that were under a much larger dome that covered the entire "downtown" sector of the city. They recognized one of the internal domes as a mall, because there were numerous different stores and shops inside it, and it was a designated stop and exit point. However, the slider vehicles did not stop for shopping on this occasion. Two other stops that they passed may have been merely access points, places where sliders could access the tubes.

Within minutes, they had passed through Merplex'Antar and were speeding toward the outlying cities of Jarnat, Aluzia, Chanesio, and Grelligo. These were names that the group from the other dimension did recognize. Jarnat was where the Kiren mist was first used successfully, Aluzia was the provider of Antar's golden eggs, and Grelligo was famous for its hallmark Grelligo soup. As for the Chanesio "region," as it was known in the other dimension… well, it had a permanent place in Michael's memories as the place where he came out of hyperspace the first time he tried out the jet bike that Varec had given him. The wind blast from reentry blew the hair off of a field full of shebbles, leaving them pink and bald and costing the royal treasury, which had to recompense the shebble herders for their losses, since the shebbles' hair was a marketable commodity. Max paid it, considering it worth every kyrin for the humor value alone, but Michael still reddened slightly whenever he thought about it. That never kept him from retelling the story, though, to anyone who would listen.

It took twenty-four minutes to reach Jarnat from Merplex'Antar. Jarnat was a small city, entirely enclosed under a single huge dome, and the sliders slid through the city in less than twenty seconds without slowing down. The next city, Aluzia, was only eight minutes from Jarnat. Even in this underwater world, Max and Michael both recognized this city immediately… maybe it was because of all the signs advertising their claim to fame… Aluzian golden eggs.

"I didn't know you had hens here," Michael said, turning to his Aquarian double. But the Aquarian Michael just looked at him, puzzled… "Hens?"

"Yeah… those things that make golden eggs," Michael retorted in a sort of "duh" tone of voice.

"Oh," his double said, scratching his chin… "Kryykens?" Actually, the Aquarian Michael did know what hens were… he had lived on earth when he was growing up. But he enjoyed jerking his other-dimension double around a bit.

Michael stared at his Aquarian counterpart for a moment… "Hens… you know… feathers, wings, beaks, cluck, cluck, cluck… ta-da! Eggs!"

The Aquarian shook his head… "Long tentacles, slippery, beaks, swishing, growling sound… ta-da! Eggs!"

"Squid eggs?"

"Squid eggs… fish eggs… eel eggs… the Aluzians turn them all golden through some process that no one else has ever been able to copy. It gives the eggs a rich golden color and an even richer flavor."

"Squid eggs?" Michael repeated, incredulous. Well, it made sense. This was an underwater world, so the Aluzians would not have their famous hens. But squid eggs…?

"Ooh! Golden caviar!" Michael exclaimed, suddenly putting a whole new face on the Aluzian enterprise. "They might just have a market after all!"

"A pretty BIG market," the Aquarian Michael replied, "Aluzian golden eggs are famous all over Antar and on a number of other planets."

"Does Grelligo produce their famous Grelligo soup here, too?"

"They do," the Aquarian replied, "Although I suspect it's made a bit differently than the Grelligo soup you may be accustomed to."

Michael nodded. "Yeah, they probably make it out of seaweeds here."

The Aquarian nodded. "That… among other things."

It had taken three minutes to pass through Aluzia, which was a fairly large and spread out city, though not as large as the Chanesio region that lay ahead. Eleven minutes after passing through Aluzia, the sliders reached the city of Chanesio'Antar and slid into the first of several massive domes. This had been a shebble herding region in the other dimension, the one the New Granolith group had come from, and it was huge, though it had been only sparsely populated there. Chanesio, in the other dimension, had mountains, pastures, and lots and lots of land… uninhabited land. This Chanesio, as they would soon see, was equally large and spread out… and mountainous; but it had a much larger population… and not a shebble anywhere.

"What do they do in Chanesio on this Antar," Michael asked.

"They manufacture sliders, like the one we're riding in," the Aquarian Michael said. "Chanesio is our biggest manufacturing center. They also manufacture space ships… for us and for other planets."

Michael nodded. "Shebble herders to manufacturing center… interesting. That's different!"

It took a full seven minutes to pass through Chanesio'Antar. They had to pass through five domes, each of which could have been a respectable-sized city itself. Max and Michael noticed the fact that the slider tube went up and down a lot here; this was a mountainous region. At one point, in fact, they passed through, rather than over, an underwater mountain that rose over a thousand feet upward, to within nine feet of the surface. If it were only a little higher, it would be this Antar's only dry land above sea level.

Twelve minutes after leaving Chanesio, the sliders came to Grelligo'Antar. Though not a very large city, Grelligo had the singular distinction --besides producing Grelligo soup-- of being the furthest point that the slider tubes went to. It took a mere sixty seconds for the sliders to pass through Grelligo, but they were now at the end of the tubes. The young pilots expertly maneuvered their sliders through designated exit tubes and emerged into the sea. Now, they were on their own… at the mercy of the sea… but the pilots seemed confident and unfazed.

The sliders operated differently outside the tubes. They had their own power source, a series of hidden water jets underneath, at the rear of the vehicle, and a guidance system that used small, rotating jets to turn and control the vehicle. But even outside the tubes, they still ran smoothly and dependably… and the view seemed to only got better and better the further they went, perhaps because now they were going slow enough to see even the closest objects clearly!

Partly because of the distance and partly because the sliders could no longer travel as fast as they had in the tubes, it took almost fifty-five more minutes to reach the outskirts of the mountains surrounding the Ke'cje Valley. Max noticed that they had been going deeper, which made sense, because the Ke'cjes' valley was the deepest inhabited area on this Antar, at 1200 feet. But now, it appeared that they would have to go over the mountains; and these, like the Chanesio Mountains, were no small mountains. Several of the peaks, in fact, reached to within twenty feet of the surface.

The young pilots plotted a course over the lowest mountain, one that rose to within 400 feet of the surface, and took their sliders upward. As they crested the mountain, at a depth of 385 feet, they saw a magnificent sight… six huge, manta-ray-like creatures swimming together in formation. Each creature easily measured at least 25 feet across the wings and had seven 30-foot-long trailing tails and a ridge of multiple, 10-foot-long, training filaments down the middle of their backs. This drew "ahs" from everyone in the other-dimension group, including the Sliders. But as they descended toward the valley on the other side of the mountain, the manta-ray-like creatures followed, surrounding the smaller sliders and occasionally bumping them. Max noticed that the young pilots' looks began to change from one of total confidence to worried, and he quickly consulted with Michael. They agreed between themselves to wait and see if it got any worse. So far, the bumps had only been minor. These huge creatures could easily have crushed them if they had wished to. It was probably only accidental bumps by curious creatures… or maybe the creatures were testing the sliders to see what they were. Either way, so far, they had not actually shown themselves to be hostile, merely intimidating.

A fairly harrowing fourteen minutes later, the two sliders safely approached the dome over the Ke'cje Valley, and their pilots searched for a way in. They found it on the far side of the dome, well-concealed under a huge outcropping of the mountain. Max realized that it was probably only by sheer luck that they had found it as quickly as they did… and maybe at all. Obviously, these were a people who valued their privacy. And they were about to be invaded by outsiders.

The two sliders coasted through the opening under the dome, and the manta-ray-like creatures followed. When the sliders rose into the air-filled sector of the dome, the mantas rose, too, to the top of the water. There, they began to change…

"What's happening?" the Aquarian Maria asked.

"They're Ke'cjes… shape shifters," Michael from the New Granolith said, realizing the truth. "They were checking us out… and probably trying to scare us away."

"Well, it was working," the Aquarian Maria said.

Judging from the looks on the others' faces, Michael could see that they agreed. But they were here. Now they had to meet these strange people who were almost never seen outside of their own reclusive valley… the legendary, and often feared, Ke'cje shape shifters.

End of Chapter 38

tbc…