The street was a bustle of activity. Cars passed by on the road to the west, and a large building rose up tall to the east, blocking the morning sun. The wide sidewalk was lined with pedestrians passing by next to the road, with a large number of white tables and chairs next to the building. At one such table, separated from the pedestrians by a humble green fence barely two feet tall, sat three people under an umbrella.
Remmy, his eyes closed in supreme satisfaction, took a bite of his massive, greasy, dripping cheeseburger, making an "Mmmph" sound as he chewed. He was careful not to get the various sauces on his zipped open tan jacket, red undershirt, black pants, or black sneakers. Maggie chuckled and took another fry from her paper cup, dipping it into a smaller cup of ketchup and biting into it, her head resting on her right fist. She ditched the jorts for a pair of black jeans on the previous world, and was wearing her grey t-shirt, tan mini-jacket, and black boots. Sensing something amiss, she stopped chewing on the fry, then turned a pair of dark eyes to her other companion.
Conrad Bennish Jr. sat facing the road, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses. He wore a white undershirt with an aloha overshirt, blue jorts that went past his knees, and flip-flops. He didn't look in the slightest like an interdimensional traveler. He smiled, nodding as he watched Maggie, who slowly passed her eyes between him, then the fries, then back to him. "You want some?" she asked nonplussed, indicating her fries with a nod of her head.
"Sure," he answered, opening his mouth. A fry flew forward and bounced off his forehead, landing on the table in front of him. "You missed," he said with a grin, picking the lone fry off the table, then licked off the salt before devouring it. Feeling a loss of appetite, Maggie made a face, then slid the cups towards him.
He shook his head. "No, please," he protested slightly with a cheeky smile, pushing the cups back. "Continue." Maggie slowly lowered her head down between folded arms on the table. "Remmy," her muffled voice came out. "Say something."
Remmy laughed his inimitable slow and high-pitched laugh, then reached out to take the cups. "Well, if neither of you is gonna partake..." he started, pulling them towards himself.
While he ate, Bennish leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. "Is this all you guys do?" he asked. "Just slide from world to world eating stuff, hanging out in the hotel, watching TV? It's been days of this. We could be doing this back on Earth. Which is safe, by the way," he said smugly.
Maggie raised her head, lacing her fingers across her belly. "This is downtime," she explained. "When we start running into trouble, you'll beg for times like this where the biggest trouble on your mind is pool or hot tub." She looked up at the umbrella. "Besides, we gotta find a way to get to Quinn's homeworld, and that wasn't going to happen on your Earth, right?"
Nodding in agreement, Bennish pointed at her. "Danger down the road. I'll take your word for it, Maggs," he said, to which she made a face. "Can you stop calling me that?" she protested. "It's too close to those ape bastards." He grinned cheekily and raised his hands, palms up. "So you take the name back from them," he countered. "You're a soldier; do you want to give any ground up to those guys?"
Defeated, Maggie relented, exhaling with a slight grunting noise. Bennish turned to Remmy with another wicked smile. "I can't believe we're getting free rides through the interdimensions, man," he praised his companion. "You seriously just guess your doubles' PINs and hit up the ATMs like slot machines?" Remmy smiled, mouth full of fries, then swallowed, wiping a bit of ketchup from the corner of his mouth. "I may bring the creative juices to my music, Radman," he answered, "but I got tired of forgetting the numbers all the time."
Bennish reached out a hand over the table, Remmy mirrored him, then they slapped hands together three times, pulled back, and pointed at one another. Maggie looked to her left at Bennish, then to her right at Remmy, then smiled despite herself. "How much time?" she asked.
Reaching into his pocket, Bennish flipped open the odd grey timer, then keyed in the password. (hangloosebuddy), Maggie remembered him sharing, stifling a small laugh. He tapped the screen once, then smiled. "Couple of minutes," he said, looking up. "Find an alley again?"
The other two nodded, and leaving behind their pay from Remmy's entirely too fat wad of cash, they walked until they found a nice spot between two buildings. Engaging the device, Bennish opened the multicolored vortex, flipped closed and stored the timer, then leaped in first. Remmy and Maggie followed right behind, bellies full and ready for the next world.
They slid through the familiar tunnel, bright rainbow lights quickly running through the sides. Maggie and Remmy exchanged glances, then looked towards Bennish ahead of them, sliding towards the exit. Without time to think, the bright colors of the tunnel clouded from bright and colorful to dim and murky.
Seconds later, the three of them exited the vortex, striking the dirt ground below and coming to three rolling stops. Looking around, the barest of areas was lit up under the whirling vortex behind them, with a watery blue and white illuminating the ground there. And when the vortex closed, they were in complete and utter darkness.
"Guys?" Maggie called out.
"Yeah," Remmy's voice came from her left, coming closer. There was a short bit of silence, long enough to worry. "Radman?" Remmy called out quietly. The air was freezingly, unbelievably cold. They started stomping on the dirt and drawing their arms in.
A sudden beam of light reached up towards the sky. It lit up Bennish's face, still bearing his sunglasses, as he looked to the starry sky, then around him. He slowly swung the timer around, aiming the beam until he caught both Maggie and Remmy in its glare. They were both covered in dust and dirt from their entry into this world. The two of them covered their eyes from the sudden brightness, so Bennish turned the beam down towards their legs. "Sorry," he said, teeth chattering somewhat, then drew closer to them.
"Cool gadget, Connie," Maggie said, brushing herself off. He grinned behind the beam of light. "But do you really want to be wearing sunglasses in a place like this?" she continued, coming closer. He backed up suddenly, raising one hand in a stop motion and shaking his head. "Nobody touches the shades, Maggs," he answered in what sounded like faux sincerity, then gestured towards his own chest. "They're a very intimate part of my being."
She shrugged, and Remmy smiled. "Believe it," he muttered in an aside, then turned to Bennish. "Is the light going to be a problem?" he asked. "What if the timer runs out of juice while we're here?" Bennish grinned his cheeky grin. "That one's on generator power, my man," he assured him. He shook the timer up and down, causing the beam of light to illuminate the two alternately from top to bottom. "Just a little shake, and we're back in business."
He turned the beam of light towards the ground between them, then tapped a button on the display. "12 hours, kids," he said, teeth still chattering and body starting to shiver. Maggie looked at him, dressed for a day at the beach, in concern. "You should take my coat," she offered, but he just waved her off, turning around. "Just give me a few minutes," he responded, doing some sideways arm muscle exercises across his chest. "I always feel better after about ten minutes or so. Just stay cool."
His head perked up, then he turned back to the other two, putting the beam of light at a spot on the ground between them. "Bad choice of words," he admitted, smirked, then picked a random direction to start walking in.
Their breath came out in massive clouds as they walked in silence for about a minute. Bennish flashed the light ahead to catch a glimpse of yet more empty dirt every few seconds, before quickly bringing it back to the earth ahead of them. It was deathly quiet, except for the occasional and very light rush of wind.
"This reminds me of a gig I had, after I split from the Topps," Remmy said through chattering teeth, breaking the silence. "It was Reykjavik, December. Four hours of daylight for the whole day. I was up on stage, opening for some nobodies."
Maggie chuckled between her teeth chattering. "Yeah, up on the stage, sky all dark," he continued. "Crowd was dead, sitting around in the pitch black. Was like playing in a tomb. And when I finally finished serenading my sweet spectators, it was off to a free dinner at the manager's expense. You ever heard of thorramatur?" he asked. Silence came back to him from the dark. "Lord, I never ran as fast towards a burger joint in my life," he continued. "I can still see that boiled goat head looking at me." He shivered, only somewhat from the memory.
"Rem, I appreciate you keeping our spirits up," Maggie started, barely audibly and only slightly above a whisper, "but we're in the middle of complete darkness. If anything lives here, it probably hunts by sound." Remmy immediately clammed up, smiled at her, then pointed a finger between his forehead and hers.
Their wanderings soon brought them through the empty dirt to a few humble lines of plants. They were low to the ground, and had many leaves, some small and some large, growing out horizontally. Bennish, standing between the other two and flashing his light between them, spoke. "Plants..." he whispered. "They have to get some kind of light. Think it'll be day soon?"
Remmy shook his head. "I dunno man," he whispered. "We've seen some pretty strange stuff these past few years. I've seen time move backwards, dragons, a purple sky... plants in darkness wouldn't even crack the top ten list of weirdness." Maggie nodded. "They look like ferns and mini-palms," she added quietly. "They aren't exactly light gulpers." She looked up at the stars above in thought. Something seemed off.
"Guys," she said softly, pointing towards the starry sky. "Where's the moon?" The other two looked up. Bennish flashed the timer upwards, then realizing the silliness of what he just did, brought it back to a spot in front of them. "Whoa," he whispered. "If it's not on the other side of the planet, and this Earth never had a moon, that could mean some gnarly weirdness."
Remmy and Maggie exchanged a glance as he went suddenly quiet for several seconds. "Like?" they asked together. He pointed an accusatory finger towards space. "Like maybe no plate tectonics, a less stable orbit and heavier tilt, the loss of the magnetosphere..." he listed off, then turned to them. "So odd weather patterns, no seasons, weird day lengths, even the atmosphere getting burned away by the sun."
"That might explain why it's so cold," Remmy offered. Maggie nodded. "But we can still breathe, so I guess that last possibility is out," she added. "Let's just concentrate on finding shelter before we freeze to death." She pointed forward, and the three continued on.
Fifteen minutes passed in near silence, their strength sapping with every passing minute. Maggie's mind raced with possibilities for survival, like digging themselves a shelter underground or covering up with the local flora. Bennish still refused to take her coat, but even he was having difficulty keeping up the tough guy act, shivering as he was.
A distant cry made them all freeze up. There were sounds of a scuffle ahead. Remmy took the timer from Bennish, and after gesturing for everyone to get down, he shut off the light, throwing them into darkness once more. Another cry shot through the night, one of stark fear. "C'mon," Remmy said, linking both of their arms with his and bringing them forward.
As their eyes adjusted to the darkness and the cries grew louder, they could start to make out shapes ahead of them. There were two larger figures next to a small, almost underground dwelling that seemed to be glowing ever so softly green from within. They were grabbing at a smaller shadow, which seemed to be trying to get away from them.
When they were about 15 feet away, Remmy pulled the others to a stop. "Maggie and I will take the big guys," he whispered. "Maggie, left. Radman, you take this," he continued, putting the timer into his hands, "and flash it the second we tell you to. Everyone ready?"
The two squeezed his arms in confirmation. "Go!" he hissed, then crouch ran towards his target. Maggie and Bennish were right behind him, the latter covering the bright display of the timer with a hand and hovering a shaking finger over the button for the light.
"Now!" Remmy shouted, throwing a punch into the face of the man on the right, then tackling him to the ground. Maggie kicked the leg of the one on the left, then slipped behind him and jumped onto his back. He was wearing a thick and heavy black coat, so she wrapped her arms around his throat.
Bennish flashed the bright beam out, catching both of them in their goggled eyes, and they both shouted out in pain. Maggie and Remmy ripped the goggles off as the two men clutched at their eyes, but they soon recovered. Maggie's man drove her directly into the wall of the dwelling, knocking the wind out of her, while Remmy's backhanded him in the face and escaped his grip. Both ran into the darkness, and a few seconds later, the loud roar of an engine pierced the darkness, retreating into the black.
"Oof..." Maggie grunted, struggling to get to her feet. Remmy went to her, kneeling down to put her arm around his neck and slowly pick her up. "Bet I'd fight like a pro too, if I was wearing a big black coa..." she started, then stopped, seeing the fallen girl next to the little dwelling. "Oh," was all she could muster. Remmy followed her look, his eyes wide and eyebrows raised in surprise.
Bennish turned the light to the ground beneath the girl. "Whoa," was all he could say, and with a slow movement, removed his sunglasses. She was wearing what looked like a black gown, but it wasn't her clothing that drew their attention: she had a strangely thin and long face, impossibly white skin, and long white hair that matched in color. Her eyes were significantly bigger than a normal person's and completely black, and both her nose and mouth were small, cherubic even. Her ears extended out from her face somewhat, and ended in tiny points.
Reaching a hand down, he waited until she reached a slender arm and hand up to take his. Her grip was soft, but oddly warm and comforting, especially for the night air. Gently pulling her up, she smiled a gentle smile from her tiny mouth, then spoke in a strange singing noise, looking into his eyes. She then turned to the others, spoke again in the strange and melodic melody, then walked towards the odd dwelling, still holding Bennish's hand. She pulled open what seemed to be a door built into the earthen structure.
There was a sudden rise in temperature as the three entered, with their mysterious host at the lead. The dwelling was slightly belowground, and the ground seemed to be composed of more of the dust and dirt from the outside. A gentle light was being given off by what seemed to be some kind of bioluminescent mushrooms in each corner of the room. There was a hole in the wall on the far side, and what looked like two open passageways leading off into separate parts of the dwelling.
The strange girl beckoned them to the center of the room, gently brought Bennish to the floor, then released his hand and went into the small passage leading into the back room. She returned shortly thereafter with three black blankets. After wrapping them around each of the three, they felt their strength slowly returning, and she went into a different side room.
"Feels like silk," Maggie commented, wrapping herself tighter in the soft material. Bennish nodded. "Makes sense," Bennish added, putting his sunglasses back on. "In total darkness, you'd have to make more use of bugs or worms..." he trailed off, watching the strange girl return with something in her hands. "...or mushrooms," he finished, looking at the dark toadstools in barely contained disgust.
Remmy held up the goggles to his eyes, seeing nothing. Then, turning them over, he located a button on the bottom, pushed it, then lifted them up to look once more, smiling. "Night vision," he said, handing them over to Maggie. She lifted them to her eyes and nodded. "Guess those guys were some kind of kidnappers," she reasoned, looking over at Bennish. He was reaching out to take one of the mushrooms from the girl's hands with a stupid grin on his face.
"Hey Connie," Maggie said. He turned to her. "Don't eat those things," she warned. "You don't know what they're made of." He looked at their strange, pale host, then back at Maggie, not lowering his hand. Maggie widened her eyes insistently. "We're only here for a day!" she protested. "I'll get you some fries on the next world, ok?"
"I don't wanna be rude," he answered back, looking back into the smiling girl's eyes with a wide grin of his own. Maggie fell backwards in sighing defeat, hugging the silk blanket tight on the floor. Remmy chuckled. "Just ask her to bring us some water, man," he suggested.
Bennish pointed towards him from under the blanket, then nodded his head in agreement. Pulling his hands out, he made a rubbing motion on his throat, then made an "O" with both of his hands, tilting his head back to pour imaginary liquid into his mouth.
The strange girl's eyes widened slightly, then she took Bennish's mushroom, smiled, then left to the same side room with the mushrooms, returning shortly after with a bowl filled with a clear liquid. The three scooted over, and they all leaned over the bowl. "Looks like water," Remmy offered, to which Maggie made a face. "Yeah, but are there any 'additives' we should be aware of?" she said suspiciously, looking at him. Bennish smiled, looked up at the girl, then between Remmy and Maggie. "Seems cool to me," he said.
Without giving them a chance to drink, the strange girl went to the hole in the far wall, where they could now see a pile of wood and plant matter. She tossed a colorless powder onto the pile, causing a minor flash of light, and flames began to devour them. She placed the bowl atop the growing flame, then took a step back, turned to them, and smiled again, saying something in her melodic language. The relieved look on their faces caused her to titter in a sing-song manner, then she sat next to Bennish. "I guess we can hang out here until we slide..." Maggie started, then followed Remmy's smile and look to see Bennish and the strange girl laughing together. "Yeah, bet Radman likes that plan," he answered amusedly.
Remmy and Maggie spent the next few minutes quietly getting their strength back and examining the goggles, while Bennish tried to communicate with the girl. He pointed at himself and said his name, to which the girl intoned something like "Ko-Ra-Du." Pointing at herself, she intoned, "Di-Na-Oo." Beyond that, getting basic vocabulary seemed futile, especially when she seemed to titter after every attempt of his to sing something. Eventually, he settled for pantomime. Taking his hands out, he raised two fingers, pointed outside, made gentle punching motions, then shrugged, making a confused look.
Her black eyes widened, and she spoke out in her melodic language, now tinged with an animated tone. Bennish nodded, pretending like he understood her. Then he took his arms out, made a flexing motion with his entirely too small biceps, turned towards the door, then turned his head back, nodding in determination. She giggled and covered her mouth, then after singing something, reached out to take the sunglasses from his face. He smiled a wide grin as she placed them on her face, then looked around the room with amazement and a bright smile.
"An intimate part of your being," Maggie commented from behind him, raising a suspicious eyebrow. Bennish turned to her. "For a very intimate moment," he added, then turned back to Dinau. He covered his eyes, pointed a finger up towards the sky and wagged it left and right, then lifted his hands and knit his eyebrows in confusion. Dinau mimed his actions, then after a short moment of thought, her face brightened. She went into the right room, and returned with two mushrooms.
Worrying for a moment that she was asking him to share the fungi, she instead held one in her left hand, then rotated the other around the first with her right. She was careful to face one part of the mushroom at the other at all times.
A dawning came upon Bennish. He looked back at the others, who were watching intently. Turning back to Dinau, he slowly took the mushroom from her right hand. He held it up to her, placed it next to the one in her hand, then rotated it around, making sure to spin it while he made a circle around her mushroom. Dinau closed her mouth in a pouty expression and her eyes squinted slightly, bringing them almost to human size. She took the mushroom back from him, then rotated it a second time, again keeping it facing the first.
"Tidal locking," he muttered, smiling up into Dinau's face, who smiled back. He turned to the others. "This Earth's tidally locked to the sun," he said excitedly. Remmy and Maggie exchanged a glance. "So where's the moon?" he asked, to which Bennish shrugged. "I dunno Remmster," he admitted. "Maybe it's orbiting around the other side right now, maybe this Earth never had one. But we're on the cold side of a tidally locked Earth."
He scooted towards them, while Dinau moved towards the fireplace and looked in on the water. "One side is always facing the sun and blazing hot," he said, drawing on the earthen floor, "and the other faces away in freezing cold darkness. The only real normal part you might find is the stripe in the middle, but even then, it's possible the two air fronts meet to make huge, honkin' storms."
Remmy spoke up. "So we're on the dark side?" he asked, to which Bennish nodded. "Probably closer to the stripe, otherwise we woulda frozen to death a few seconds after we got here," he surmised. Remmy knit his eyebrows together. "And we'll be safe here, right?" he followed up. Bennish smiled. "Our wicked cool babe Dinau over here already saw to that," he said, wrapping his blanket tighter as she scooted closer towards him with the bowl. He took the piping hot container from her and carefully sipped at the heated brew, and when he was done, she offered the bowl to the others, who drank as well.
"Awesome!" he said to Dinau. She returned his smile. "This could have all kinds of long term effects. Plant and animal life suited for both light and dark, wind patterns... the water cycle! A lot of it might be underground, but without rain clouds? Are there rain clouds? It might depend on the wind... Bro, the windstorms! How bad could they be?"
Composing himself, he looked to Dinau. "I guess someone living on this side of the planet would need to adapt to the low light and lack of heat," he surmised, stroking his beard in thought, then grinned. "You're one wicked warm babe, you know that, Dinau?" he asked, pointing at her. She smiled in confusion, then sung a single word in her musical language. Bennish went back to stroking his beard. "It's likely that to find higher concentrations of life, it would be near the stripe," he surmised. "I wonder if they look the same, or how long they've been here..."
He looked over to see Maggie and Remmy, already lying down and tucked in for the night. Dinau stood and gently pushed Bennish to his companions, still wearing his sunglasses, smiling and bowing slightly as she slipped into the back room. Bennish nodded with a massive grin on his face, scooted himself over to his companions, then lay down to rest.
A commanding bark. A buzzing, humming sound. Maggie opened her eyes slowly, her eyes already adjusted to the darkness of her short rest. She froze, looking up to see the two men from before, one with a large metal device with an arcing, blue electrical current running its length, inches from her face. "Guys," she said calmly. "Wake up, but do not move."
The others awoke and looked up, getting a better look of the two men. Both were wearing heavy black coats, black gloves, and what looked like dark ski hats, with a new set of goggles strapped to the tops of their heads and pointing up. The one behind was chocolate-skinned with a wide nose, large hazel eyes, and a mouth tight-lipped and serious, his right hand on the metal rod at his side, and the other at his other side, fingers moving slightly in anticipation of a fight. The other in front was fair-skinned with a sharp nose, smaller mouth, and blue eyes, one of which was slightly closed by a shiner. He held the rod by a handle at the base in his right hand, while his left was wrapped around something in a bulge in his left pocket. Otherwise, they looked like any human would.
Dinau emerged from the back room and froze, saying nothing. Her eyes were still blocked by Bennish's sunglasses. Despite Maggie's words and a warning shout from the man with the brandished rod, Bennish rose to stand between the two men and Dinau behind him, still clutching his blanket. The man in the back waved his hand across everyone in the small dwelling, saying something in an unknown language that sounded intimidating but clean, then pointed outside, continuing his strange utterances.
The first man with the electric staff turned his head slightly to his partner, keeping his eyes on Maggie and Remmy, and spoke something more calmly. The one in the back gestured towards the first, a sound like impatience filling his strange words, as his eyes darted back and forth between the four in the earthen dwelling and the first man. The first one responded, then looked back at Maggie and Remmy. Taking his left hand out of his pocket, he raised it up slowly in peace, then deactivated the electric current in the staff.
Slowly reaching back into his left pocket, he pulled out a thick and folded sheet of paper, then gave it to Maggie. She reached out carefully to take it, unfolded it, then showed it to Remmy. Bennish and Dinau carefully approached from behind.
It was a bit hard to make out in the dark, but it was a picture of a planet, one side facing the sun and drawn in bright red, while the other faced away, drawn in blue and black, separated by a white line down the middle. "Told ya," Bennish said from behind them. Maggie turned to make a face, then looked back at the picture.
The first man gave his staff to the one behind him, then slowly approached, taking off the glove of his right hand. He pointed towards the far side of the planet, said something in the strange language, then placed his thumb against his other four fingers. Pointing the five digits towards the south pole of the planet, he alternated between extending his thumb and fingers away from each other, then bringing them back together, in a spreading motion, speaking the strange language again.
He stepped back from the four, then hugged his arms around the front of his body, shaking, saying a single odd word in his language. Then he pointed to the outside of the dwelling, made the spreading motion with his hand again while speaking more of the same language, then returned his arms to his body to pantomime shaking again. Stepping forward to point at the picture again, he ran his finger along the white band of the planet, speaking something more insistently.
Dinau, surprise on her face, sang something at the two men. The first man looked back at the second in confusion, who snapped his fingers on his right hand, then sang a single word back to her. Suddenly flustered, she attempted to run out of the dwelling, but the second man caught her and held her back.
"Hey!" Bennish started, standing to confront the man, but the first raised his hands forward in a calming gesture. Saying something in his language, he indicated towards the three, then motioned out the door of the dwelling. "Better do what he says," Remmy said, standing slowly and holding the silk blanket around him. "Whatever it is he's saying..." Bennish followed, turning on the timer and keeping the beam of light close to the ground.
Outside, the temperature was unbearably cold and worse than before. Dinau was still trying to escape the second's man's grip, but he spoke to her in a calm, but determined, voice. Even under the blankets, Maggie shivered heavily. "It's... freezing!" she exclaimed through chattering teeth.
"I think... some kind of cold snap is coming up," Bennish guessed from the first man's earlier gestures. "I don't know who these guys are, but they seem like rescuers, not kidnappers."
Dinau sang out in fear. "Koradu!" he recognized, but the rest was unclear. She looked in the direction from where the three had first come into the area with pleading eyes. Getting an arm free from the man's grip, she pointed in the same direction, then at herself, then back the same way, singing her mystical language. The man locked down her arm again, then moved away from where she was pointing. Bennish followed him with the timer's light beam to reveal a strange sight in the darkness.
It was some kind of silvery-white craft. The bottom part was wide and its corners circular, and oddly enough, seemed to be hovering over the ground. It was easily 20 feet long and a little less than ten wide, and atop it was the cabin of sorts: there appeared to be two seats up front for a driver and a passenger, and the back was a pair of long seats facing one another, able to hold a few people on either side.
The second man opened a door than went upwards on the far side of the cabin, then pushed Dinau inside, closing the door. The first man beckoned the three to follow him, opening the cabin on the closer side, and the three piled in as quickly as they could. Inside, it was warmer than the freezing temperatures outside, not comfortably so, but enough to know they wouldn't be suffering from frostbite anytime soon.
Dinau was in a panic, gesturing out the back window of the hovercraft and speaking quickly in her musical language. The chocolate-skinned man entered from the driver's side and put his hands on the steering wheel, and his partner soon followed and entered from the passenger side. The one on the passenger side pulled a safety belt over his body, then spoke his strange language to the others, indicating they should do the same. All but Dinau and the driver did so.
The driver leaned back, singing out a single word. Dinau turned around, then sat up on her knees in the center seat between the driver and passenger seats, leaning up against the backrest with her head facing towards the front of the craft. The driver placed his hand on a console to the right of the steering wheel, and after it suddenly lit up, he turned the hovercraft around to face roughly where Dinau was pointing earlier. She nearly tumbled over at the gentle but sudden movement, but Bennish caught and held her until the hovercraft was righted. She smiled in thanks, then leaned over the seat and back into the driver's cabin. The driver hit a button to blast extremely bright lights that pierced through the dark, then after singing a single word back and pointing ahead, Dinau indicated forward and slightly to the left.
The driver snapped his fingers, then shouted something back to the four in the back, tapping his safety belt that he quickly fastened. Dinau remained facing forward while Bennish clicked her belt into place along her back, then kept a firm hand on the soft gown running down her back to keep her steady. The hovercraft lurched forward into the lit up darkness.
Following Dinau's gestures, it was mere minutes before the hovercraft came upon two more of the otherworldly beings in the distance, who froze when they saw the lights of the craft approaching. Drawing nearer, it became clearer that one was larger and the other smaller, and both were dressed in black gowns. The driver pounded on the center of the wheel twice, blaring out a low, but powerful, pair of noisy blasts into the darkness. The two beings immediately turned to run.
Dinau struggled with her belt as the craft kept slow pace, and as soon as Bennish unbuckled her, she moved to the driver's side and opened the door. She called out to the two in the musical language, and after a moment of stunned shock, the two turned to run back towards the craft. In a moment, the two were inside, embracing Dinau from both sides. They all intoned the musical language at once, then turned to speak a single musical word in unison to the driver and the man in the passenger seat. The latter turned as they bowed to him, then he called something out and indicated his seat belt. Without hesitation, the three settled into the remaining seats of the hovercraft, then buckled up. The man snapped his fingers, then the driver whipped the craft around quickly, then roared forward back towards Dinau's dwelling, much faster this time.
Settling into the ride and their unknown destination, there was a sense of quiet relief. Dinau sat between Bennish and Maggie, excitedly exchanging her musical language with the other two, still wearing the sunglasses. The other two, sitting across from Maggie and Dinau, motioned towards the shades, and Dinau laughed. She put a single warm hand down on Bennish's bare right thigh, speaking the language again, and he jumped slightly at the warmth in her hand suddenly thawing his cold skin. She looked to him and tittered, and he smiled back stupidly.
Remmy looked to his left at the larger of the two beings, who looked back at him with large, black eyes. He sang something in the musical language, bowed deeply, then smiled. "Yeah, back at ya," Remmy responded, returning the smile.
Maggie, suddenly feeling guilt wash over her, turned to tap the man in the passenger seat on the shoulder. He turned, showing out his black eye. She pointed at his eye, then the driver's throat, then placed two hands together in a prayer motion, bowing her head slightly. Remmy noticed what she was doing, and immediately copied her. The passenger smiled and turned to the driver, saying something in the unknown language. The driver barked a laugh, then said something else. The two raised their right hands and snapped their fingers in unison, then with a smile, the passenger turned back to watch the road.
A few minutes passed by as they sped over the earth at high speed and past lines of tiny plants, before another pair of headlights approached from in front of them. The driver eased slightly to the right, then as the lights drew closer, blared the horn twice. The other vehicle returned the sound, then blazed past them. Less than a minute passed by before another hover zoomed past, then another, and another, the driver blaring his horn twice at each one. He pointed towards the next approaching craft, said something in the strange language, then pointed behind them, snapping his fingers again.
The smaller of their two new passengers sang something to Dinau, who turned her head towards the front of the craft. She slowly raised her right hand to the two, then tried to snap her delicate fingers together, but failed. She made a pouty face, trying twice more to mimic the sound, but only failed twice more. The passenger noticed her attempts, said something to the driver, then the two shared a laugh, snapping their fingers again.
The passenger gestured towards the road ahead, said something, then turned around again. Bennish grinned at Dinau and gave her a hang loose sign. With a smile, she was at least able to awkwardly return that gesture.
More craft raced in the other direction, and as the minutes passed, the world began to brighten outside. Soon enough, it was bright enough for the driver to turn off the lights, and Remmy, Maggie, and Bennish were better able to look outside. The sky lightened, the trees got larger, and the dirt gave way to patchy groups of small blades of grass. It only got greener as they continued on. Dinau's friends, seeing the painful brightness for the first time, had no choice but to pull their silk gowns up to their eyes to block out the painful light.
"Hey man," Remmy said, turning to look at the man in the passenger seat. "Do you got something for these two?" The man turned around, then looked forward again, pushing a button on the right side of the dash. A compartment popped open between Maggie and the smaller of Dinau's friends, revealing several pairs of large and shaded goggles. Maggie took them out and offered them to the two, who quickly took them and wrapped them around their heads. Looking around, they smiled and sang out something in the mystical language.
With the sky above them brightening, the violent windstorms above became more apparent. Clouds appeared and disappeared in seconds, being thrust every which way by the winds without mercy. Bennish unbuckled and climbed over Dinau, who shrank back to let him practically smother her body. "Whoa," he said softly in amazement. The man in the passenger seat glanced sideways at him, then pointed ahead, saying something. Bennish looked ahead, his eyes widening with every passing second and his jaw dropping more in surprise. "Whoa!" he nearly shouted, as the sight came into view.
Dinau squeezed up and past Bennish to turn and see, Maggie looked past the driver's head, and Remmy and the other two watched, as a great silver shape slowly rose from beyond the horizon. Drawing closer at their high speed, the shape got bigger and bigger, impossibly big, until it was in full view: a massive metallic structure, maybe a mile long and hundreds of feet high, its back end open and pointing towards them.
"Yo, Dinau!" Bennish exclaimed, putting an arm around her shoulder and pointing. "Check it out!" She sang out a single surprised word, then fell silent. The two up front laughed, then the man in the passenger tapped his seat belt and pointed to Bennish, saying something. Getting the hint, he turned around and buckled up again, but still turned to look through the front of the craft.
In moments, they were outside the towering structure. Hovercraft by the dozens were screaming out of the facility, both back towards the darkness that they had emerged from, and towards the far distance where the trees behind them gave way to a blasted land of desert sands. Other craft were returning from both directions, coming to a stop outside the structure.
The hovers coming from the Nightside let out more of Dinau's people, their black gowns flowing as they exited. One of the black-coated men was standing outside the massive structure, pointing inwards over a massive metal ramp and its gargantuan, yawning entrance. A particularly brave member of Dinau's people, almost indistinguishable from the man next to him in a borrowed black coat, black ski cap and black gloves, showing only his face, sing-shouted next to him. It was unclear if he was translating the man's instructions, or just explaining something he had already experienced within the facility, but both gestured for the new arrivals to enter.
The Dayside hovers parked on the other side of the entrance, letting out unfamiliar, but no less striking, groups of people. They were olive- and ebony-skinned, and their faces were long and ended in gentle points with small, button noses, while their ears bore similar points to the Nightsiders. Unlike the Nightsiders, they wore long tan robes that seemed to be made of some kind of wool, and when some of them removed the wrappings around their heads, they revealed completely hairless scalps. Their eyes were smaller and dark, but most strangely, they occasionally flashed whitish-blue, especially when they were examining the metal structure, like human birds of paradise.
When their hovercraft came to a stop, Dinau sang to her two friends, then all six of them unbuckled and jumped out to race into the structure. Remmy and Maggie exited last: the former lightly slapped the hovercraft twice and gave a thumbs up, while the latter put two fingers on her lips and bowed slightly in thanks. The driver beeped twice in response, then whipped the craft around to race back into the Nightside once more.
Inside, the structure was mostly bare and the roof reached up high, with several hovercraft secured to the side walls by massive metal bars, and they were pointing down towards the floor. Crowds of the three odd beings hurried to and fro. A handful of the black-coated men gestured towards the facility's internals, but now there were several women in white coats who were running between groups to examine the most injured among them, large white medical bags in tow. There were groups of Nightsiders who seemed to be looking for lost loved ones, Daysiders who were digging through massive crates to distribute large, possibly plastic, containers of water to both groups, and Nightsiders who seemed to be working as "on the job" interpreters. For the first time, the three saw the children of the two races in tiny gowns and robes, waddling about unsteadily, hands clasped to their families and loved ones. Most of the two groups seemed to be heading towards the internals of the massive structure, though aside from several passageways on the back end of the entrance, it was difficult to see any farther due to the distance and the rush.
One man pushed past Remmy and Maggie, lifting one hand in apology and saying something in his strange language, before he began peeling off his heavy black coat. Dumping it to the floor, his fair-skinned body was barely covered by a short pair of black shorts and a sleeveless black shirt. Were it not for the lack of printing, he might have looked like Bennish. Dashing towards one of the hovers hanging on the wall, he placed his hand on the metal restraint for a short second, at which point the hover slid off of the wall to come to a floating rest in front of him. He jumped into the driver's side, then put his hand on the console, and the hover roared to life. Steering carefully around the crowds entering from the outside, he was soon pointed towards the Dayside and roaring off towards it. A metal door opened in the ceiling of the structure, and a long curved portion of the wall rotated down, slowly bringing another restrained hover from somewhere above to a rest at the bottom of the wall, pointing down. Looking carefully through the rushing crowds, it was clear that there were several, possibly dozens, of unused hovers on either side.
"They've still got a bunch of those flying car things," Remmy pointed out. Maggie nodded. "We should get in there," she suggested. "Those guys got us out of the cold snap, and we belted and choked them out for it." Bennish came up between them, then put an arm up and around both of their shoulders. "Then what are we waiting for?" he said, clapped both of their shoulders, then marched forward with purpose towards one of the vehicles.
Remmy turned to stop one of the black-coated men, a fair-skinned man with a large nose and blue-grey eyes, who stopped and looked to him. Balling his left hand into a fist, he brought his thumb and fingers together, making a continuous spreading motion on one side of his fist. The man snapped his fingers. Remmy then pointed to the opposite side of his fist, narrowed his eyes, then tilted his head left while shrugging. The man pointed to his throat, then rubbed it, then brought a hand up, pointed a finger down, and spun it in a circle.
"Storms, just like Radman said," Remmy deduced. "Probably some kind of water problem too, but I think that's out of our pay grade." Maggie smiled and slapped Bennish's left shoulder with the back of her hand. "Remind me never to play charades with you guys," she said.
The man snapped his fingers then started to rush off, but Remmy gently took hold of his arm, pulling him back. Confused, the man watched as Remmy pointed towards three nearby hovers, then himself, then Maggie and Bennish. Miming the turn of a steering wheel, he lifted two imploring hands to the man.
He tilted his head, then after a second's hesitation, pulled a strange, Y-shaped black device from a coat pocket. Holding the button on the right, he spoke into the strange machine. A voice came out in the same language, calm and short. The man spoke back into the device, gesturing towards the three, then the three hovercars. The voice on the other head suddenly increased in volume, almost shouting, causing the man to wince. When he finished, the black-coated man spoke a few words into the device, then returned it to his pocket.
The three were prepared for disappointment, but the feeling lasted mere seconds. In a dash, the man slapped his hand on each of the three hovercars in turn, bringing them to a floating rest at the side of the facility's entrance. He pointed at the cars, shouting something in his language. The three quickly entered to sit in the driver's seats.
Remmy had barely pulled his door down when the man jumped and slid across the front of his craft, pulled open the passenger door on Maggie's craft, then pulled his right glove off, crawling into the vehicle and reaching his right hand in to a place on the console to the left of the steering wheel. He took her right hand with his left, then placed it to the right of the wheel. After a second, the hover came to life, and he took his hand back, Maggie following soon after. An imprint of their two hands remained on the console for a second, then vanished. The man slapped her shoulder in what seemed to be appreciation, then helped the other two to activate their craft.
Sliding over Remmy's craft for the third time, and eliciting a slight smile from him, the man took out three of the Y-shaped devices from another pocket, bringing them together in a line. He held a finger under each, holding a button on their bottoms for several seconds, and after a slight intermittent beep began to fill the air, he tapped each of the devices into one another twice. The beeping stopped, and giving one of the devices to Maggie, he held the right button on one of the others, speaking an unknown word into it. It came instantly out from Maggie's. She nodded, caught herself, then snapped her fingers.
The man gave another to Remmy, slid across the front of his car a final time, then tossed the third at Bennish, straight into his open door. He fumbled it, dropped it on the floor of the hover, then recovered it and held it up with pride. "Right button to talk," Maggie spoke through the devices, and the boys nodded in understanding.
Maggie watched as the man rushed to stand next to Remmy's hover. After making the swirling motion with his index finger pointing down, the man pointed away from where the three had first come in, then turned to Remmy and Bennish, repeating the motions.
"Looks like we're going storm hunting, boys," Maggie said through the radio. Remmy turned to smile at her, then spoke into the radio. "Let's ride," he said simply, then looked down at the controls before him as the man dashed off towards the exit of the structure.
"It's just the big three," Maggie quickly figured out, then explained through the radio. "Gas, brakes, and that stick on the right controls forward and reverse. Let me go first." Pulling the stick backwards, she laid her right arm to rest on the chair behind her, gently tapped the gas, then pulled out towards the center of the entrance. Volunteer Nightsiders and Daysiders raised their arms to stop foot traffic for the briefest of seconds while Remmy came up behind her. The two pointed towards the exit.
Remmy held up his radio and pushed the button. "You coming, Radman?" he asked. Bennish's hovercar seemed to stall out, and he restarted it, only to stall it out once more. Maggie smirked, and held up her radio. "C'mon Connie," she started, "it's an automatic. How hard can it be?"
Holding up his radio, Bennish spoke. "It's not," he answered. Remmy and Maggie turned to look at him from their craft. "I've got three pedals and the stick goes to four different slots." He restarted the hover once more, but this time, was able to slowly back it up between a gap in the crowd. "You want me to take it?" Remmy asked. "We can ask that guy to re-hand the car or whatever it is he did."
"Nah, just had to get used to it," Bennish spoke back. Looking out his window at a familiar Nightsider wearing dark sunglasses, Bennish threw up a hang loose sign. She smiled and waved back. "Besides, chicks dig guys who can drive stick," he added. He gently throttled the hover towards the exit, and Remmy followed with his trademark laugh. Maggie shook her head with a grin. "He's not wrong," she muttered, privately and off the radio, before catching up with the other two.
Leaving behind the crowd of Daysiders entering the facility's entrance from their right, the three were finally able to burst forward at a powerful clip. Maggie and Remmy had long since strapped their seat belts on, but when Bennish started to feel his body being squeezed into the back of his seat due to the powerful thrust of the craft, he finally decided that he might have to do the same.
More craft whipped by them on the left, flying back towards the facility with Daysiders piled in their craft, and the three greeted each and every one with the usual two-horn blast that their earlier rescuers had done. The trees were long since gone, and little more than a flat, arid, sandy wasteland stretched out before them.
Remmy snickered in his craft, then got on the radio. "Man, the things I've done since Q-Ball sucked me and my Caddy up in that vortex," he reminisced. "Blasting those robot spiders on that game world, outrunning dinosaurs, investigating ghosts and hauntings... and now this."
"How's she handling, Rem?" Maggie's voice came over the radio. He looked over to his right to catch her smile, then shrugged. "Well, nothing can top my beautiful red baby, and this thing could use a nice paint job," he started, but patted the steering wheel gently. "But I can get used to this kind of flyin' in style."
Maggie smiled in response, then grew more serious. "These guys are really advanced," she said, eyes scanning the desert ahead for survivors. "Do you think they can help us find Quinn's homeworld?"
Soon after, Bennish's voice spoke up. "Maybe," he said, "but we don't have enough time to feel 'em out. Even if we didn't have the language problem, there's still whatever base system they use for their math, whether or not they know how to slide, whether they know about interdimensional travel in the first place, whether they even WANT to help us..."
"Yeah, I getcha," Maggie answered, a tinge of disappointment in her voice. "So who do you think these guys are? Human obviously, but what's going on around here? Are they some kind of cops? Government?"
Remmy's voice came up. "The stripe would probably have the highest real estate values," he guessed. "Maybe the rich decided to help out the poor on this world, set them up with some nice digs."
"You think it's on some kind of cycle?" Maggie further wondered, to which Bennish spoke up, "It's possible," he answered. "There's probably a lot of natural forces fighting towards equilibrium in a place like this. It might even be yearly when the planet gets closer to the sun... throws the system out of whack."
He looked down to check the timer. "We've got about an hour left," he said. "With the time we spent getting out here, adjusting for extra weight from our pickups, the time to get back, and getting settled in, we should turn back in about 20, 25."
Remmy chuckled. "You sure you don't want to head back a little earlier, get some quality time?" he joked, looking back to see Bennish throwing his head back in laughter. "What'd I tell ya back on Earth, Radman?" he said over the radio. Bennish nodded in strong agreement, grinning. "The honest truth, and nothing but!" Bennish called back.
Still holding the radio in his left hand, he pulled up between Remmy and Maggie's hovers. "You know, it's weird that they'd have hovercars with manual shifting," he said. "Does it inject different types of fuel, keep a pilot light or energy source running...?"
Trailing off, he shrugged, then looked over at Remmy, and spoke into his radio again. "So, 'Downtown Brown'," he said. Remmy turned his head slightly. "You've seen those 70s cop shows, right? So remind me..." Bennish reached over to the stick to his right. "Can you downshift in an automatic?" he asked. With a cheeky grin, he brought the hover to a lower gear, floored the gas, and rocketed ahead of the other two.
Maggie didn't need a radio to hear Remmy's whoop of excitement as he pulled ahead. "Not so fast, boys!" she called into the radio, flooring the hover to catch up.
A few minutes later, they started to notice the brown rolling clouds of a horrendous sandstorm, hundreds of miles long, bearing down on them. Catching up to the other hovercraft that had headed out before them, they watched as one after the other came to twisting after lurching stop, doors sliding up to let in isolated groups of the Daysiders, with sand being blown and tracked in as the people piled inside.
The three pressed forward, watching as group after group was picked up and taken back in the opposite direction. It almost seemed as if they weren't needed, but as they headed closer to the rising, violent storm, the number of hovers available began to decrease. But despite the bulk of the hovers having picked up frightened and panicked Daysiders to begin their trek back, there were also fewer Daysiders ahead to see. Either earlier and more daring hover pilots had already picked them up, or...
"Two groups left, I got 'em," Remmy suddenly spoke up. He pulled up between two Daysiders holding onto one another as they struggled away from the storm, and another group of five of roughly the same height that looked like a group of friends escaping together. Unbuckling, he quickly threw open the two doors on the passenger side, waited until they all piled in, pointed to his seat belt, then started back towards the facility with his people strapped in.
Maggie and Bennish continued forward, seeing almost nobody for several minutes. Luckily, her keen eyes soon spotted the flapping of a group of tan robes ahead, where several Daysiders had buried themselves in the sand. Instructing Bennish to peel to the right then keep going straight, she stopped next to the lump of robes, then blared the horn twice.
Sand flew everywhere as the group of five stood, then darted towards the hover, leaping in for dear life. When they were secured, Maggie turned the hover back, but kept her speed low, not knowing how far the range on the radios was. "You can't get much closer!" she called into the radio, and a crackling voice came back. "...ake your peop... ...irst!" the voice came back. "I see... ...st group ahea...!"
"Are you sure?!" she shouted back. "...ot kids!" his voice returned, then went silent. Maggie put the radio down, floored it, then began the trip back. In short order, she caught up to Remmy, then picked up the radio again. "He's got one last group back there," she said. He shook his head. "If he's as good as he thinks he is," he called back, "then he's got the best chance of all of us."
Confused, Maggie picked up her radio to see what he meant, but Remmy soon continued. "We're the ones who might be stuck in this place, but he's got the timer," he explained. "Worse comes to worst, he can open a portal and fly straight out of here. We've seen it done before. Wade drove Q-Ball, the Professor, and me out of a love jail through the portal in a Humvee." He paused. "Remember? You were there when Q-Ball drove the other one through to Christina's world," he added.
"Unless that storm pulls the hover up, and they can't get into the vortex," she spoke back solemnly. There was no answer. They drove in near silence, with only the quick flurry of bass-toned words from their Dayside charges filling the air.
Shortly after, the familiar sight of the silver structure rose over the horizon. Swirling dust was making it harder to see, but as they drew closer, even the kicked up sand couldn't hide the mammoth facility. The outside was almost completely empty, aside from one of the black-coated men, and a lone Daysider and Nightsider volunteer, waving everyone in. Maggie and Remmy slowed down, bringing the hovers to a careful stop within the structure, and as their passengers hopped out with quick and alien words of gratitude, white-suited women dashed forward to usher away and check the survivors.
Two black-coated men snapped their fingers at the two, then ushering them out, took control of the hovers to secure them to the sides of the facility. Maggie and Remmy stood at the entrance to the structure, watching as the horrendous storm drew ever closer. The wind slowly began to whip up outside, blowing more sand into the entrance. A handful of the black-coated men stood with them, holding radios to their mouths, waiting to give a single command.
"C'mon, Radman," Remmy said softly, eyes never leaving the horizon. Maggie put a gentle and reassuring hand on his shoulder, leaning closer. "Have faith, Rem," she said. He put his right hand over hers. "Always," he answered with a smile. The two continued their vigil.
Mini tornadoes seemed to be rising up between the facility and the rolling cloud. The heat of the coming storm began to mix with the cold of the Nightside. Sand blew harder about the structure. The rolling storm cloud drew ever closer.
And then, a lone silver dot appeared ahead of them. Maggie and Remmy's faces broke out into wide smiles, then she turned, waving her hands out to the sides of the structure. "Everybody make way!" she shouted, waving groups of black-coated men, white-coated women, and volunteer Daysiders and Nightsiders to the edges of the facility.
"Maggie!" Remmy shouted from behind her. She turned, eyes wide, just in time to dive out of the way before Bennish's silver-white craft flew through the air, descending fast enough to smash into the floor of the structure, then came to a side-braking, metal-screeching stop in the center, throwing sand in a wave farther in. It leaned upwards at an angle for an agonizing three seconds, then fell and righted itself, still hovering off the ground.
Each of the black-coated men shouted something into their radios, and an outside ramp rose up to slowly slam shut, the sound echoing throughout the massive entrance. Lights flooded the large room from above, and cheers, whoops, and shouts of various beings and languages filled the area.
Remmy walked over to Maggie, now lying on her back with her arms above her head, palms open. "I am going to kill him," she stated. His trademark laugh filling the air, Remmy reached a hand down to pull her up.
Bennish leaned back into his chair, breathing heavily. He checked the timer, showing two minutes remaining, then nodded. The family of Daysiders in the hover clapped him multiple times on the right shoulder and arm, and a black-coated man opened the driver's side door to squeeze his left shoulder, saying something unknown, but tinged with a sound of approval.
Maggie and Remmy walked over, unbuckling his belt and pulling him out of the car. Maggie made a face, half what a big sister might make when chiding a little brother, the other half a look of impressed respect.
"So THIS is sliding?" Bennish asked with a grin. Maggie laughed despite herself. "Between the fries and outside cafe parts, yeah, pretty much," she answered. They both held up fists and bumped them sideways together.
Much less cool, Remmy squeezed and lifted Bennish in a massive bear hug. "That was AMAZING, Radman!" he said with a wide smile, which Bennish returned. But when they realized how close they were to one another, both of their faces fell, Remmy dropped Bennish, then the two played it off as best they could: Remmy made a slight fist and rubbed the tops of his fingernails on his shirt, speaking something quickly involving the words "Good job," while Bennish raised both of his hands to Remmy in a calming gesture, then flexed his smaller biceps in a show of machismo, mumbling something about "A day's work." Maggie couldn't help but laugh.
A familiar figure in a black gown, sporting black sunglasses, approached. Maggie and Remmy stepped back as Dinau drew close to Bennish, then with only a smile and two hands around his waist, drew her lips to his in a deep kiss. Bennish's eyes closed, and when Maggie saw his grip loosening on the timer, she took it from him before it could drop to the floor. She looked at the display, then showed it to Remmy, who shook his head with a smile.
The ground began to rumble. Dinau and Bennish didn't seem to notice, but Remmy and Maggie looked around in confusion. The black-coated men and white-coated women all pointing a single finger towards the steel ceiling, then snapped their fingers.
"We're going up," Maggie said flatly, then without another word, opened the portal. The rainbow-lined vortex held to the floor of the silver starship as the massive spacecraft began its ascent.
Remmy walked over to Dinau and Bennish, clearing his throat. Dinau slowly pulled away, then looked at the portal in confusion. Bennish's face was blank for several seconds, his eyes still closed. When Dinau looked back at him, they slowly opened, and he grinned. She returned the look, eyes still behind his sunglasses.
"Room for one more?" he called to Remmy, not taking his eyes off her. Remmy shook his head. "She's got people here. Probably a different diet, and a sun allergy on top of that," he responded. Bennish lowered his eyes in defeat, then pulled away from Dinau's embrace. Seeming to understand, she reached up to slowly take the sunglasses down, but Bennish shook his head, pushing them back on her delicate nose. He tapped her lightly on the forehead with a single finger, then exchanging final smiles, he walked towards the portal.
Faltering near the vortex, he turned to see her once more, flashing the hang loose sign. Dinau returned it with a smile, and Maggie, shaking her head, grabbed his gesturing arm, then pulled him into the tunnel. Taking one last look around, Remmy called out, "Have a great flight!" Then without another word, he jumped into the vortex, and it closed behind him.