ACT ONE

Spindrift flew up through hazardous flak--a gigantic flock of geese. Mark rolled on the floor of the engine room, conscious but hurt. Steve looked out at a bird hitting the window. "We can't keep doing this. We can't keep rolling with the punches."

Steve dodged geese. Even so, a heavy roll threw Barry's cowboy hat off into Dan's lap. Dan threw it back. "Steve, why don't we migrate too?"

"You mean if you can't beat em join em?" Steve liked the sound of the idea and turned the ship to follow the geese. "This will take us back to those mountains."

Dan nodded. "Our power cells are low."

"Yeah, we can't follow them all the way," Steve sped the ship faster and faster and soon they could see the mountains looming up ahead. The buffeting had stopped; the geese and Spindrift were flying together.

Barry saw the mountain range filling the viewport. "We're gonna crash!"

Dan knew what Steve was doing. The ship shot ahead of the geese. Then Steve pulled its nose up and the craft shot upward. Mark fell back against the side wall. The incredible force of gravity held everyone to their seats. Mark's notebook was thrown against the wall and held there. Fitzhugh had picked up Barry's little dog, Chipper, and held him tightly. It seemed like five minutes before the ship reached miles high over the flock of geese, but then the birds, trying to fly over the mountains, also began to rise. Steve then shot the ship back towards the plains, hoping he would leave both the mountains and geese far behind. The plan worked out but not without causing great strain to the entire ship.

Dan saw a couple of warning lights winking on the panel in front of him. "Steve. Look, we have to land right now!"

"Roger," Steve slowed the ship.

"Look!" Barry saw the plains closer as Spindrift descended in a forward motion. Below was an odd mixture of grassland, forestry, and desert. Spindrift flew between two gigantic trees.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know, Dan. I guess it's not exactly like the American desert. It is a little cooler. Remember, this is an alien planet."

The ship slowed to a point where they could see a tiny clearing amid brush, grass and sand. "Perfect," Steve fit the ship down into the clearing and then shut down the entire ship. "We made it," he unbuckled himself , "Barry?"

"Okay," he puffed, also getting up, "Shouldn't we see about the others?"

"Yes," Steve smiled and went into the hall. He opened the passenger compartment door to see a still shocked Fitzhugh clinging to a restless Chipper, who finally broke loose and ran up to Barry. "Everyone..." he was about to ask them if they were okay when he realized one of them was missing, "Where's Mark?"

Betty was already up and running toward the engine room. Steve paced after her. Barry and Valerie followed while Fitzhugh catatonicly unbuckled himself and stood up slowly. He began checking for bruises. By the time Steve reached Mark, Betty had helped the engineer/scientist sit up. He was pouting, "I'm all right. I just hit my back." He saw the worried faces which soon included Fitzhugh's. "I'm okay, really."

Betty agreed. "Nothing's broken."

"She said we ran into some geese. Tell me it wasn't geese."

"They weren't..." Steve started and then paused before adding, "...earth geese." He smiled, "If you're okay, I want to scout around outside."

Fitzhugh gulped uneasily, "Dan's already outside."

"What?" Steve pushed past Barry, Valerie, and Fitzhugh.

Betty and Val helped Mark stand up. Betty warned Mark as they helped, "Easy."

Steve ran down the door to meet a sandy ground with his feet, "Dan?" Bushes, twigs, large and smaller rocks, clumps of green and yellow grass lay in various unkempt areas.

"Here," Dan called calmly. He walked back from some long stemmed furry plants. "Not bad."

The others, Barry with Chipper, Fitzhugh behind him, a dazed Mark and a worried Betty and Valerie---also came outside. They felt insecure. They had a right to. For two and a half years their camp had been in the forest just outside a giant city. It had been moved twice, both times by giants having captured the ship. Circumstances worked out and it had been freed again but it was always settled back in that same forest. The only other spot was a brief stay behind a parapet in a park in a giant city and the ship had been discovered there, too. Now they were in another place, another spot to worry about.

"There's no sign of giant activity anywhere," Dan informed them.

"Maybe on giant people," Steve looked around, "But there's plenty of wildlife." His gaze fell on the ship and he looked up at its roof, "Any damage to her?"

"Nothing major at all. Only it's covered with some..."

"Okay, I expected that." Steve grinned then ran inside, to everyone's confusion. He came out with large jars and two buckets, made from thimbles long ago. "Girls, go down to the river and fill these jars up. First, we have to clean the ship a bit. Then cover it with yellow sand and some leaves."

Betty took three jars, "Okay, but are you trying to get rid of us?"

"No, but hurry because when that's done, we need to replenish our water supply."

"You were right," Val said to Betty as they tracked past sand and leafy stems, "He was trying to get rid of us."

"Fitzhugh," Steve saw him trying to look inconspicuous. "You and Barry go look for some soft sand---not like this hard stuff but the same color."

"Come on, Chipper," Barry called to the dog, pulled on his leash, and soon the boy was clear out of sight before Fitzhugh could protest to Steve.

"Am I to play nurse maid to a child?"

"Barry's no longer a child, Fitzhugh, although I have been worrying about the way he's been acting lately."

Dan and Mark began to listen too. Dan asked, "Why?"

"He seems to be acting more...well, like a kid again."

Mark shrugged, "Maybe he's just going through a second childhood. A lot of kids do."

Dan nodded, "Don't forget, Steve, he lost so much of his first."

"Yeah, I know," Steve said, trying to hide the feeling of guilt in his voice and not succeeding, "Look, Fitzhugh, just keep your eyes on him---and the girls too if you can."

"Well, I'll try."

"Good."

"We're depending on you, Fitzhugh," Mark called after him, "We have some important work here."

"Mark," Steve watched Fitzhugh leave, "Is there a way you can make our power cells stronger? So that way we can fly for a longer amount of time?"

"Steve, you must be a mind reader. That's just what I was working on when we hit that flight of geese."

"We may need it," Dan exclaimed, "...to find that space warp we came through."

"If it's still there."

"It is," Steve said, "While you've been so busy working on the ship in the past and recently, I've kept an eye out for it with our scanner scope. I've seen it a few times."

Dan was a bit surprised, "Why didn't you mention it before?"

"Well, I...I didn't want to raise our hopes too high."

Dan agreed, "I get it but we still have tons of work to do on the Spindrift."

"Yes but now if our work comes through and we need to move her from one place to another we can and also know that that space time warp thing is still there."

"Well, let's get started," said Mark.

Betty and Valerie carefully made their way across open spots in a damp path to the lake which ran into a slight river--slight by standards. At a dry base rock the girls stopped. The water was just below. Val puffed, "Let's get started. No one said getting water was a clean job. Any sign of Fitzhugh and Barry?"

"No, I heard Steve tell them to look for sand," Betty opened a huge jug and began to fill it with water, "I sure hope they can stay out of trouble this time."

"Fitzhugh always blunders into something." If Val was paying more attention she would have noticed that only a few dozen feet below the water they broke----was a giant eye looking up at the two girls.

Barry was high in a tree---a very skinny but still giant tree. "Hey Mr. Fitzhugh, look at me! I can still climb a tree!" Chipper nervously began to bark at the base of the tree, from which protruded thin, hard branches which Barry used to pull himself up. The tiny dog ran up to Fitzhugh who breathlessly pulled his way out of a long bed of yellow grass.

"Barry, get down from there!"

"No giant," Barry gazed at what he thought was a scan of the area, "None at all!"

A giant swallow landed on the branch just next to Barry. It had a giant mouth big enough to swallow hundred Barry Lockridges. It was white and awkwardly built. Fitzhugh saw it but Barry didn't. In one move it would swallow the boy. Fitzhugh yelled, "Barry get down! A giant bird!"

Barry turned to see it and then looked down, realizing how high he had climbed. As he looked, two baby tiger cubs crawled out of the brush at the base of the tree. Chipper nearly jumped into Fitzhugh's arms as the cubs were very close to them. The two cubs ran near the tree and Barry saw the bird flap nearer to him and knew his only hope was the jump. He dropped onto the back of one of the cubs with a soft thud. He hadn't been that high up. Barry knew cats to enjoy a back rub.

The cub was about to playfully roll on its back to play with this new thing on its back but slowly it felt a warm, comforting rub produced by the boy.

"Barry, are you all right?"

"Look, Mr. Fitzhugh, giddy yup!" The cub seemed to obey Barry and with a cute run, it shot off---its brother tagging along.

Fitzhugh put Chipper down and both ran as fast as possible toward the cubs. To see them, Fitzhugh climbed on top of a huge boulder----the area they had ran to was a rocky one. He saw Barry and the two cubs heading for the lake. "Barry! Barry, stop!" Engrossed in the boy's plight, Fitzhugh didn't see a huge python cobra looming up behind him, quietly ready to strike. Tense, Chipper, from down below, began to bark loudly!

Barry turned, holding onto the cub's hair, "That way!" The cubs ran toward the rock Fitzhugh was on. "Mr. Fitzhugh! Behind you!"

"Barry, you'll get killed! Get down!"

"No, Mr. Fitzhugh, YOU get down!"

Fitzhugh couldn't understand this: even at the worst of times, Barry was always polite and hardly ever answered back, at least not in this disrespectful manner...unless the boy was calling out a warning of some kind...and not being disrespectful at all. Realization of this made Fitzhugh's senses more acute. He heard a hiss and turned around. He yelled and stumbled back, falling off the rock onto some sand. Barry and the cubs were not close enough to help him. Fitzhugh lay unconscious now with only Chipper protecting him----while the thick python slowly crawled from around the rock toward them. Chipper began to lick Fitzhugh but the snake advanced steadily!

END OF PART ONE