Sliding Into Antar
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The Last Shopping Trip
Chapter 40
XL
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The young pilots navigated their sliders back into the water and took them down to the level where they had originally come into the Ke'cjes' valley, underneath the dome… and moments later, they were back in the open sea.
Just ahead of them were the mountains that surrounded the Ke'cjes' valley, and the slider pilots began to ascend in order to go over the mountains, as they had before. But as they began to rise, Max noticed that they were once again surrounded by the huge ray-like creatures with long trailing filaments…
"Looks like our friends are back."
"What do you think they want," Michael asked, as the creatures circled the sliders several times.
"I think they want us to follow them," Max replied, motioning to the pilot of their slider to follow. She nodded and turned the slider in the direction the ray-like creatures were swimming. The other slider followed; but after a few moments, some of the passengers became concerned…
"Uh… we're going to run into the side of that mountain up ahead," Kyle said, "If we don't turn some way or other soon."
In spite of appearances, the ray-like creatures continued straight toward the cliffs. But they had no intention of running the sliders into the mountain; they were actually heading for a very large, and well concealed, cave. Liz was the first to see it and quickly pointed it out to the others…
"They're showing us a way through the mountain."
The rays swam into the cave, and the two sliders followed, turning on their lights in order to see in the darkness. The cave was huge inside; but most surprisingly, it appeared to be natural, not a man-made or Antarian-made phenomenon. All around the two sliders, there were huge stalactites and stalagmites that were undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of years old… formed when these mountains were still above sea level. But now, strange sea creatures swam among the cave's many outcrops and made their homes in them. The slider pilots followed the rays as they turned a bend, in the darkness, and they noticed thousands of little eyes watching them from among the projecting calcium and lime deposits…
And one not-so-little set of eyes…
"Look out!" Kyle yelled, but the pilots had already seen the thirty-foot-long flopping creature with eyes larger than a semi tractor-trailer truck's tires, and they skillfully avoided it. Though impressive in size and appearance, the creature made no effort to attack them. In fact, it seemed to be looking for a hiding place… probably from the huge rays that were leading the sliders through the tunnel-like cave.
In only six minutes, the sliders emerged on the outer side of the mountain. The cave's opening on this side projected downward and was all but invisible to anyone looking straight at the mountain. And as if this were not enough, it was further concealed by a large rocky outcrop above it and tons of Antarian pink and green corals, making it even better hidden than the one on the valley side had been.
"No one would ever find that entrance," Michael said, shaking his head in wonder… "Unless they knew exactly where it was."
"Well, going through the mountain just saved us twenty minutes," Max said, smiling.
The huge rays rolled over and headed back toward the cave, and the sliders' occupants waved a last goodbye as the creatures seemed to simply disappear into a solid mountain. Moments later, Wade watched the mountains fade and disappear in the distance behind them… just as the domed valley had on the other side…
"That was fun! I still can't believe I'm really on an alien world… and that I met a real alien shapeshifter. I didn't even know they actually existed. But Rahn was so cool! And Ta'lan! And those guys that change into the ray things! I wish the Ke'cjes were hooked up to the internet… It's a shame that they can't access the worldwide web."
Quinn smiled. "Yeah, I heard you suggest to Rahn that they form an Antarian-Ke'cje web and connect it to earth's web so you could chat with them from time to time. Do the Ke'cjes have computers?"
Liz from the New Granolith nodded. "On our Antar, we have computers… and so do the Ke'cjes."
"Here, too," the Aquarian Liz said, "Of course, our computers use a different alphabet and language than earth ones, but their functions are similar. We don't have an Antar-wide web, though. I think that would be a good idea… Max?"
Max shrugged. "I like it."
Liz smiled at Wade. "You may be the inspiration for Antar's first web. Maybe we'll call it the Wade Web… the WW."
Max smiled and chuckled.
"Cool," Wade said, with an exuberant grin, as she glanced back at Quinn. But when she saw Quinn's face this time, she had a very quick flash… like a repressed memory… of herself… "Quinn, Let's get married… right here… right now."
Wade shook her head vigorously, trying to dislodge the strange and unexpected "memory."
"He's mine!" Maggie objected, pulling Quinn back by the other arm, "He loves me!"
Wade flushed and then turned pale, as the dialog continued in disjointed flashes…
"He loves me more," Wade heard herself say, and she saw herself pulling Quinn the other way again.
Wade shook her head briskly and rubbed her eyes.
"Is something wrong," Quinn asked, looking concerned.
"I… I think I got an eyelash in my eye or something," Wade replied, still looking somewhat pale.
"Let me look at it," Quinn said, moving to sit beside Wade.
"I'll do it," said Maggie, moving ahead of Quinn and taking the seat beside Wade. She looked at Wade's eyes and then shook her head. "It must have got out on its own. I don't see it, Wade."
"Yeah… I think it did," Wade agreed, "I think it's gone now." She looked at Quinn, and Quinn smiled. Then she turned and stared out at the sea. She wasn't sure what she had just seen, but she decided that it was best not to mention it.
For the next fifty-five minutes, they rode in relative silence, everyone marveling at the wondrous sights around them. The water of the Golden Sea was clear beneath the surface. Viewed from space, or even just from a distance, it had a rich golden hue, just as earth's oceans have a blue hue. But down here, it was as clear as a glass of pure spring water. And there was plenty to see! Fifty-five minutes actually went by faster than anyone expected; and all too soon, they found themselves approaching Grelligo. The young pilots expertly maneuvered their sliders into the tube that connected all the city domes from that point on; and moments later, the riders felt a distinct jet-like surge, as their sliders suddenly accelerated in the tube to roughly 150 miles per hour.
Twelve minutes later, the sliders sped into Chanesio… and straight through Chanesio's five huge domes… without slowing down, which took seven minutes. Eleven minutes after that, they sped through Aluzia, and eight minutes later, Jarnat. Twenty minutes after passing through Jarnat, the sliders entered the city of Merplex'Antar; and as they passed through several smaller domes inside the main city dome, the riders noticed that their sliders were slowing down. As they entered the fourth internal dome, the vehicles slowed even more.
"Are we there?" Wade asked, suspecting that they still had another stop to go.
Liz smiled. "Max and I asked the girls to stop the sliders at the Merplex mall. We thought you might like to do some shopping before you go home."
Wade's eyes lit up; but just as quickly, she looked suddenly crestfallen…
"I don't have any money. Will they let me window shop?"
Liz grinned and handed Wade a silver button about the size of a dime.
"What's this?"
"It's the Antarian equivalent of a credit card," Liz said, smiling, "It will adhere to your clothes wherever you put it. I have one for each of you."
"Cool!" Wade exclaimed. "How long do we get to pay it off?"
"You don't have to, the Aquarian Maria said, "This is the good kind of card! Everything gets billed to Max. I've been trying to get one of those forever!"
Michael grinned and looked at Max.
"Oh, wow!" Wade said, sounding a bit emotional, "You mean I can buy whatever I want… with this?"
Liz nodded. "Just put it on you… here. Then pass your hand over it." Wade did. "Now it's encoded to your DNA. Only you can use it. When you buy anything now, the cashiers will automatically charge the purchase to Max… as long as you have this on."
"I don't suppose this would work on earth…"
Liz shook her head and smiled.
"Nice try, though," Michael said with a grin.
Liz placed a similar button on each of the other guests, including their doubles from the other dimension. "You're all set!"
"I don't think we can buy much," Wade said, "We don't have any way to get it home. We kind of like have to slide."
"But we slide, too," the Aquarian Isabel said.
Maggie laughed. "Okay, but you slide in a slider… we do it the hard way… free style! It's kind of like… tumbling through this tube to where you're going without a vehicle."
Liz smiled. "Well, see, here's the best part. Our Varec and his double have been going over some things together with Quinn and Max… your Max… and Max agreed that they're going to get you home a little differently this time. When you open your vortex with that timer thing of yours, the New Granolith will go through it. You get to ride home in style."
Wade looked at Quinn, and Quinn grinned, then Wade, Remmy, Professor Arturo, and Maggie all cheered.
"That way, I can tie you to a tree myself and make sure that you stay there this time," Varec said, with a wry grin on his face. Quinn smiled and seemed to turn slightly red.
At that moment, the slider turned and exited the tube through one of the mall's access points. Then it circled around the mall and came to a stop in what could only be described as a slider parking garage. Looking around, the guests saw hundreds of sliders of every possible length and style. The basic shape of each was the same; it had to be to fit into the tubes. But that seemed to be the only major similarity. They were all different colors. Some had more windows than others. Some were almost all windows and had clear roofs to boot, and others had almost no windows except in the front. Some were short, and some were really long, like buses or limos. But they all conformed to the shape of the tubes, a kind of sideways oval shape.
The guests and their Aquarian hosts got out of the two sliders they had just arrived in, and Liz herded the group toward a long escalator that led upward…
"That's the way in. Shall we go forth and conquer the mall?"
Everyone nodded, grinning with anticipation.
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As they reached the top of the escalator, the visitors looked around at all the different stores and saw that the inside of the mall was huge. Directly in front of them was something that appeared to be a department-type store. The name on the sign above the door said, "Kyyks At Merplex," but the Sliders couldn't read it. To them, it was all a bunch of swirls and hieroglyphs.
"Looks like Sears or J.C.Penneys," Wade said, walking toward the huge store.
"More like Saks Fifth Avenue," Maggie said, looking around as she followed Wade in. Quinn, Remmy, Professor Arturo, and the group from the New Granolith followed the girls in, as did the Aquarian group, their hosts on this planet. It didn't take Wade long to spot something that interested her… especially since it seemed that the ladies department was strategically placed where it would be seen as soon as one walked in. Wade and Maggie began looking through the clothes. Quinn looked at Remmy and the professor and shrugged. But a moment later, Wade pulled out a contour-fitted emerald-green gown that seemed to have a natural shimmer, though it had no sequins or other visible attachments…
"Ooh, slinky… and elegant!" Wade exclaimed, holding the gown up in front of herself… "It looks like it could fit!"
"Try it on," Liz suggested. "The fitting rooms are right over there."
Wade took the gown and rushed into the fitting room. Maggie shook her head and grinned. A few moments later, Wade opened the door and stepped out with the gown on. She looked stunning, and from the look on Quinn's face, he thought so, too. His lower jaw dropped, but it was his eyes that told the story. It was understandable. He had never seen Wade in a formal-type gown before… especially one like this one. It made her look so… different. It seemed to hug and emphasize all the right features just the right way. Maggie noticed, too. She also noticed Quinn's reaction…
"Uh, Wade, Dear, just between us," Maggie said, pulling Wade aside after she had taken the dress back off, "That gown's not really right for you. It makes you look fat… here." Maggie indicated Wade's buttox and tummy and gave her a sympathetic look. "And the boobs… the gown makes them look kind of… distorted… fakey. I'm sorry."
Wade looked at the gown again then at Quinn, who was still looking her way, and nodded. "Thanks for helping me decide, Maggie!" Then she put the gown into her hover cart and pushed it down the aisle, a smile on her face. Maggie watched Wade walk away, with the gown in her cart, and shook her head. "That girl may be more of a challenge than I thought."
"Do they have a sports and entertainment section," Remmy asked.
Liz pointed to another escalator. "Up one floor."
"That's where I want to look," Remmy said.
"I'll go with you," Professor Arturo hurried to add. "Quinn?"
Remmy smiled and took Quinn by the arm, pulling him with them. "Oh, yeah… yeah! I'm coming, too!"
"I'll join you," Michael from the New Granolith said, going with the three Sliders. "Me, too," Kyle said. Then Jim joined them, too.
"Well, that's most of the Y-chromosomes," Maria from the New Granolith said. "How about we look at shoes… Oh, you know what? There's somewhere else I want to look at first!"
Liz nodded, knowing exactly what Maria had in mind. "Me, too, Maria! Wait up! Isabel's coming, too, I think!"
"Here it is!" Liz said a few moments later, pointing at the sign over the department. Maria smiled from ear to ear and quickly began to shuffle through one of the racks, as Isabel and Liz tackled another rack nearby…
"Ooh, this one is darling!" Maria said, pulling out a boy's medium-sized shirt that appeared to be made of something waterproof. "I can just see this on Zorel!"
"You've got to get it!" Liz said, "It's perfect, Maria!"
Liz gasped and pulled something off of the girls' rack that looked vaguely like a cross between a jacket and a blouse. It was made out of blue denim… or something that looked like denim… and it was waterproof like the boy's shirt Maria had pulled out. The denim-look blouse or jacket was tied at the waist with a color-coordinated sash, and it had a large, oversized, stand-up collar that was vaguely retro, though the overall look was futuristic. On the back of the jacket –Liz had decided that it was a light jacket- there was a great picture of a swimming dolphin. Liz pulled out two more of the jackets with the same denim look and design but different colors. One was dark off-red, the other forest green; and each had a color-coordinated sash at the waist…
"If they don't like the colors, Jayyd will gladly change them for the girls, I'm sure, huh, Maria?"
Maria laughed and nodded. "There's nothing Jayyd likes better than changing colors for people. She's a real helper!"
"Those are for Maya, JoLeesa, and Andya?" Isabel asked. Liz nodded, as she pulled a boy's small-size T-shirt with a large glow-in-the-dark starfish embossed on the front of it off the boy's shirt rack and held it up with a grin.
"For Alyyx?" Maria asked. Liz nodded.
"Oh, Liz! It's darling! You have to let me come over and see him with it on!"
Liz grinned. "I need to find something for Jeffy now. Is everything here waterproof?"
"I think so," Isabel said, "It makes sense… they're a water people… kind of."
"What kind of fabric do you think these are made of," Liz asked, showing Isabel the jackets and the T-shirt. Isabel shook her head. "I don't know. It has a nice feel… it should be comfortable. It's definitely strong… whatever it is. It should last a long time!"
"You don't know Zorel!" Maria said.
Isabel laughed. "Yeah, well, Mareeya and Ceelya can be hard on clothes, too! You're lucky with Jayyd. But she's still little."
"Yeah," Maria agreed. "I need to find something for Jayyd… and Kryys!"
While the girls shopped for the children they were missing so much back home, some of the guys had already left the department store and had walked down the mall to see what else they could find. They were currently in an electronics outlet.
"What would you reckon the function of this unusual gadget to be," Professor Arturo asked, holding up a hand held device about the size of Quinn's timer. Quinn looked at the device in Professor Arturo's hand and shook his head. "I don't know. It emits a signal from the diode in the front, obviously. It appears to be watertight. And it has a small, inset video screen on the top. If I had to guess, I'd say it was some kind of hand-held laser.
Michael asked the clerk about the device then nodded. It is a laser… a laser sonar."
"That is a contradiction in terms, my good fellow," Professor Arturo said, "A sonar is a sound emitting device, whilst a laser is a light emitting device."
"The clerk said that it emits a laser light, which in turn creates a sound wave in the water. The returning sound wave is picked up and rides the laser light back, then a picture is recreated on the screen… in color. You can see anything underwater up to about three thousand feet away with this thing… in full living color!"
Quinn took the device and looked at it, impressed. "That's amazing! I'm not sure what I would do with it…"
"Well, I am," Professor Arturo said, reclaiming the device from Quinn. I will take this, my good man."
The clerk touched a screen, and a small, multi-colored light instantaneously flashed on the dime-sized button on the outside of the professor's shirt pocket.
"What was that?"
Michael smiled. "That was the machine reading your credit card."
"That's all there is to it? I don't have to sign anything?"
Michael shook his head. "Nope. It's coded to your DNA and billed to Max's double here. No one else could use it even if they did have it."
Professor Arturo smiled. "I may buy something else! This is quite stimulating!"
Michael picked up something that looked like a plastic mechanical fish and asked the clerk about it. After a short conversation in Antarian, he had the clerk put three of them in a bag for him.
"What are those for," Professor Arturo asked.
"They're swim buddies. They swim with you in the water. They can play tag with you and do tricks like leaping out of the water; and the clerk claims they can be trained to do other things like finding lost objects underwater, protecting their owner from dangerous creatures, and even pulling a disabled full-grown man back to safety."
"Those little plastic fish can do all that?" the Professor asked, amazed.
Michael smiled. "I wouldn't bet my life on it. It's sales hype. But it's still pretty amazing. I'm getting one for Zorel, one for Kryys, and one for Jayyd."
The Professor nodded and smiled. "Lucky children. They will have a great time with them if those creatures can do half of what was promised."
"That's the way I see it," Michael agreed.
"You miss them, don't you," Quinn asked.
Michael nodded, and his eyes misted up. "We've seen a lot of things in all these other dimensions… it's been a real experience. But I'd give anything to hold Jayyd in my arms again or play games with Zorel and Kryys… even if I can't ever beat Kryys at anything anymore."
"Is he the oldest," Professor Arturo asked.
Michael shook his head. "No… he's the middle one. Zorel is the oldest. But Kryys has special abilities. He's kind of unique… even on Antar."
The professor nodded understandingly. "I'm certain that he is. But in their own way, all the children are, aren't they?"
Michael nodded and wiped his eyes quickly then smiled.
In a small shop nearby, Alex and Max from the New Granolith were looking at items inside a display case.
"Can I look at that one," Alex asked in Antarian.
The clerk smiled and removed a stunning double ringed choker made of perfect pearls and highly polished red-black corals.
"It's beautiful," Alex said, taking it in his hands carefully and spreading it around his fingers. "What do you think, Max? You think Isabel will like it?"
"If she doesn't, I'll marry you myself," Max said.
Alex looked at Max and raised his eyebrows. "That's more than I want to know, Max."
Max grinned. "It's a joke, Alex! I just meant that, yeah, she'll like it. She'll love it! Who wouldn't?"
Alex smiled and turned back to the clerk. "I'll take it."
Max asked to see a pearl heirloom cameo locket and necklace set from the case, and the clerk took it out. Max held it up and admired it. "What do you think, Alex? Will Liz like this?"
"Wow! If she doesn't, I'll discuss that marriage with you."
Max looked at Alex and raised his eyebrows.
"Or not…" Alex said, "But if you wanted to give me the necklace, I wouldn't turn it down."
Max turned back to the clerk and handed her the necklace… "Can you gift wrap it?"
"Mine, too," Alex said. "They're for our wives."
The clerk nodded and smiled, as she wrapped the gifts silently.
Over the next two hours, all the guests visited at least a dozen different stores in the mall, and each one bought something to take home. In fact, most of them bought a number of items to take home. Their host would have a pretty sizeable bill after this trip, but Max from the New Granolith was pretty sure that his Aquarian double was good for it… and then some.
As the hour approached to meet at the kiosk, everyone headed in that direction. Max and Alex found Tess and Rayylar already there. They had gone for a romantic walk and had watched a movie together, but they were also carrying a couple of bags, so they definitely had bought something to take back with them.
Within minutes, the entire gang was there. Maggie was conspicuously wearing a new pair of shoes and had a rather chic looking pink coral bracelet on her wrist. She also had some items in a bag.
"Look what I found," Wade said, taking a pair of shoes out of a box. The shoes were emerald green and matched the gown she had bought perfectly. She had also found a small matching purse.
"They're beautiful!" Tess said. "Where did you find them?"
"At Kyyks Merplex store," Wade replied excitedly. "I also got a couple of blouses and some really far out jeans! What did you get?"
Tess smiled. "Some things for Jiba and Drel."
"Who are they?"
"Our children… back home."
Wade looked at Tess then at Rayylar, momentarily not knowing what to say, then she hugged them both. "I hope you find your planet real soon."
"Thanks," Tess said, wiping the corner of her eye and smiling.
End of Chapter 40
tbc…