With bleary eyes and thudding heart, I rushed to the shore, watching breathlessly as Jamie carried my sister in.

To my surprise, Gertie moved independently, and since my girlfriend wasn't strong enough to carry her out of the liquid anyway, Gertie got up on her own two legs and staggered out on land.

Gertie doubled over, retched out globs of pink slime, coughed several times. Well, at least she wasn't dead.

She took several deep breaths, near hyperventilating.

"Gertie! You're alive!" I ran to her, drew her into my arms, hugging her tightly. It transferred sticky slime to my clothing, but I didn't care. "I thought you were gone! I don't know what I'd do without you!"

"Sorry," she gasped. "I didn't mean to die."

I laughed. "You have nothing to be sorry about! I love you!"

I let go, allowing her to breathe. Charlie flew up to her, purring and rubbing up against her like a cat.

I pressed my forehead to Gertie's. We were both going to need a bath. "Look. I'm the one that should be sorry, putting you through all this mess...how are you?"

She smiled, coughed a little, but I noticed the coughs bore less phlegm than before. "...Better. That stuff was horrible. I thought I'd drownded. It went up my nose and I breatheded it in, but it feels like cough medicine. I'm better now...where's Pete?"

"Gertie! Thank the Lord!" In a flash, Roy had my sister in his arms, crying on her. "We all thought you were gone! I was just thinking how I was going to live with myself—" He wept into her sticky slime covered hair. "Don't ever leave me again." He sniffed, looked up at the sky to address God. "Thank you." He kissed Gertie on the head.

Norenio smiled at them like a proud mother, you know, glad to see harmony in the family again or something. Tiffrid looked pleased.

ET hugged my sister, chest glowing brightly. Mine and Jamie's glowed too.

"It's a good thing I was watching," Jamie remarked. "You were too busy staring at that egg pod to notice your sister wasn't dead."

I flushed red in anger. "I was in shock, okay?"

She sighed. "I get it. I'm just saying..."

I swallowed my pride and hugged her. "...Thank you. I...don't want to think about where we'd be without you."

Jamie smirked. "Hey, she's kinda my sister too."

I thought about how we'd pretended to be brother and sister on earth, and blushed. Spike's smug facial expression seemed to say, `I'm proud of my students.'

ET, also pleased, called his mate to tell her the good news.

Norenio blurted something in her language, gave my sister a hug. Vadful stomped up and nuzzled her, shuddered as he noticed the slime.

Roy gave Gertie an apologetic look. "I, uh, kinda pissed off your little boyfriend, and he ran off. I'm real sorry about that...anyways, how are you doing, kid? Did that pink crap do you any good? It must be helping somewhat, you're breathing, right? Jeez, you sound better!"

My sister nodded, let out a couple soft dry coughs, then breathed normally.

She looked me in the eyes. "Did I hear you sing Against All Odds earlier? When I was floating above the lake?"

I chuckled. Although I and Pete serenaded her with the song when her condition seemed especially bad, in attempts to get her to sleep, it hadn't been during her little memorial service. "No, that was something else."

"It sounded pretty."

I smiled. "You want me to sing it again?"

"That's okay. I don't want to make you sad." I guess she'd noticed how my smile faded a little.

We couldn't agree about what to do with the slime. It had curative properties, so Roy hesitated to have Gertie scour it off, yet it would drip everywhere and make a mess, and we didn't know what happened when it turned bad, or if it turned bad. We decided to leave it alone and let it soak into her, Roy making comparisons to Vic's Vapo Rub (though that gave Vic's more flattering a compliment than it truly deserved).

Spike bottled a few large samples of the stuff, stowing them in a compartment inside Gertie's pod.

Although Gertie felt better than she'd felt in the last hours, if not completely cured, Roy insisted that she stay in the pod and rest. "This is a miracle, but I still think we should take you back to the doctors and make sure you've fully recovered before we jump to any conclusions."

She sighed, but did what he said.

We still had to locate Pete. We formed a search perimeter, following clues he'd carelessly left behind. Again, he made no effort in covering his tracks, so we soon found footprints and debris telling of his whereabouts.

Roy suggested that we set up camp and leave Gertie under the watch of Norenio and ET, but Gertie wanted to "Help out with the search", or at least join us as we looked.

"He's my boyfriend. I want to be there to meet him so he doesn't run away again. Plus sitting around in a campsite is boring."

ET also pointed out that setting up camp might clue Xetgupa into our location, something worse than leaving her behind. I guess wheel ruts are a little easier to cover up than a huge tent and lights.

Roy didn't think it a good idea to call for Pete, since the sounds would likely drive him further away, so all of us just spread out and tracked him.

As mentioned before, though Vadful was large, and winged, he lacked enough strength to keep carrying Gertie's pod, so we had to pull her along by ground. It kind of slowed things, but after losing her once, I wanted to treasure every living moment I had with her, in case it was for good next time.

Gertie obeyed Roy's order to stay in the pod, but then got restless, opened the lid, and sat up, content to be carried around in her little alien rickshaw like some kind of princess. Being so happy she was alive, I didn't complain, even when I did the carrying.

Dusk fell.

Pete's trail crested a hill along an escarpment. From our vantage point, above the clusters of immense, tree sized coral, we caught flashes of light resembling the Aurora Borealis, but taking on recognizable forms, in a way that reminded you of fireworks, but vastly more complicated.

Earth fireworks have a limited number of patterns, mostly sparkling flowers and waterfall shapes, but the Qulpari light show (I hesitate to use the word `pyrotechnics') was art, the faces of Qulpari, Abreyas, wildlife, and the Afaka-Japanese-like symbols of the Qulpari language. I asked ET what it all meant.

"The annual celebration of the permanent end to the Great Plague."

Fortunately, Pete had also paused to marvel at the aliens' light show, for we at last caught up with him.

He turned to look at us, then stared in disbelief. "Gertie?"

My sister sat upright in her pod, giving him a bashful wave.

"Gertie!" Pete rushed up to her, giving her a hug. He frowned when he noticed the sticky ooze. "You slimed me!"

Gertie giggled, smeared some on his forehead.

"Look, kid," Roy said to Pete. "I'm sorry I attacked you. It was wrong. I guess...I just didn't have your faith. I'd given up on miracles a long time ago and didn't think that pink Ghostbusters slime would do us any good. Lord knows I more than anyone else, would have liked to see her come back to life, but I wasn't as open minded as you were. I know that doesn't make up for what I did, I just wanted to apologize for being an ass, and say that when you ran off, it scared me, because, believe it or not, I care about you, and want to be the kind of man your father wasn't...If he's that bad of a guy."

Pete gave him a slight nod, face reflecting a begrudging agreement.

With everyone now present and accounted for, we began our slow trek back to where we'd first arrived.

Although much easier than finding our way in, it still took us awhile, and we constantly checked over our shoulders in fear of Xetgupa returning.

Me and Jamie practically fought each other for the right to pull Gertie's pod, but we `fought' with smiles on our faces. Charlie cuddled with my sister in the egg. Tiffrid smiled at our harmonious behavior.

Vadful kept mooing at Gertie like a cow, making her giggle.

I gave ET an apologetic glance. "I'm sorry I said to you earlier. I...didn't mean it. You're the coolest alien I've ever met. You're still my best friend..."

ET smiled a little, but it faded. "I have made your life very difficult. I am sorry."

"No, I, don't blame yourself. I risked everything to save your life. You didn't deserve to get cut open. It's really humanity's fault. The government's fault."

"Still, you are right about things being better if we had never met. If I had never gotten separated from my crew, if I had never been in danger..."

"That wasn't your fault, but yeah." I cleared my throat. "Still, I'm glad to have you as my friend."

"As am I."

Gertie had hacking coughs from time to time, and said her lungs felt like they were burning, but her facial expressions reminded me of the Queen of Sheba being carried by slaves, kinda bored and above it all. That was, when she and Pete weren't holding hands. It cheered me, though, seeing her condition improved.

In fact, better than that, when her pod got stuck, she actually got out and used her powers to move it over rocks or out of mud and ditches.

Roy smiled, walking arm in arm with Norenio as they watched the two children.

Gertie asked Spike if she could play the instrument we'd found.

"It's delicate. The object is very old."

"I'll be careful."

Spike looked skeptical. "Do you know how to use it?"

My sister shrugged. "I took guitar lessons in school."

The school had loaned us a guitar for that purpose, ironically we still had it at our house, with Dad. I wondered how we'd ever get it back to the school.

Spike, like most Qulpari, being not too attached to material things, let Gertie try her hand at playing.

My sister once tried to impress Michael by playing TV theme songs on the guitar, so I wasn't too surprised to hear her little fingers plucking out the first couple opening bars to The A Team.

She didn't know how to play all the notes, and, of course, the instrument wasn't merely stringed, she had to blow on a pipe as well. As she faltered on the strings (she's no Jimmy Hendrix) she attempted to puff out a few notes, but in between her lungs recovering and having little training in woodwind instruments, the notes came out a bit sour.

It seemed the instrument agreed with my sentiments, for a moment later, a white flash erupted from a jewel on its bug-like belly, a lightning bolt shooting out and striking a giant coral standing nearby.

A huge chunk caught fire and fell smoking to the ground. Vadful got spooked, rose up on his legs, wings spread wide, knocking ET sideways.

"Whoa!" Pete cried. "How did you do that? That was badass!"

Gertie smiled, but looked puzzled. "I...dunno."

When she tried to make a second attempt, Roy snatched the device out of her hands. "Put a cap on that scherzo, Mozart. You came this close to giving me a brown note. You want to set this whole forest on fire?"

Spike, inclined to agree, put the object away for safekeeping.

Norenio found the man's concern puzzling, but only shrugged.

Jamie gave my sister a thumbs up.

We continued to travel.

All of a sudden, fiery white light blazed around us, the effect so startling that Vadful's foot came down above Spike, and would have crushed him to death, had Gertie not used her power to move him out of the way at the last second.

Three small, glowing, child sized figures with enormous heads appeared, regarding us with large almond shaped eyes. I thought, for a moment, that Dad had somehow arrived with some clever trick like he'd used at the army base, but these silver suited figures had weird anatomy, showed no human mannerisms, didn't even appear to breathe through their slot nostrils.

"You guys again!" Roy cried. "I was wondering where you'd gotten off to!"

I and my companions stared at him.

He cast us a sheepish smile. "They're Asogi. They met me at Devil's Tower. They're how I got here in the first place."

One alien waved a disproportionately oversized hand. Roy waved back. "Hey! Futambe! Gosh! Small planet, huh?"

I blinked, and all but one of the figures vanished.

Roy didn't seem surprised. "Hey, can you help us? We're just trying to get back to the Yakwoti...the...hospital place."

The creature didn't seem to speak with its slot shaped lips, but we all somehow heard it speak. "We have medical equipment on our craft."

"Great. Okay. Can you check out this little girl, then? She was just at deaths door..."

Futambe unclipped a rod from his belt, waved it over my sister, then frowned at the readout. "We will have to examine this one more carefully aboard our ship. Follow me."

Although the mysterious stranger had appeared, seemingly from nowhere, he walked with us through the maze of giant coral.

At first, I didn't trust the creature. His appearance seemed a little too convenient, but Ixhoyca was dead, ET assuring me that no others of its kind existed on his planet. Also, the sudden appearance of beings that abducted Roy and brought him to Jufuceri seemed infinitely more plausible than Dad dropping in with my divorced Mom and science teacher. Plus, unlike those figments, the stranger could be seen by everyone else.

In fact, he carried tools, jury rigging a substitute levitation device for Gertie's pod from some spare parts and random equipment we had been carrying around. I don't know of any figment that can do that!

Despite these modifications, we still faced a hike.

At this point, except for Gertie, we all felt dead tired. You could have confused Jamie with a zombie, with her stooped posture, drooping eyelids...she looked like how I felt. Charlie dozed in Gertie's egg. Norenio kept leaning on Roy's shoulder with her eyelids lowering.

Spike trailed behind, about as deadheaded as his cartoon counterpart. Tiffrid, well, he seemed to be skilled in looking placid all the time. Even Vadful had slowed to a plodding pace.

"The guy teleported here with his buddies," Pete complained. "Why can't he just...Get on his...Tricorder and beam us aboard?"

Roy frowned. "I've been wondering that myself. The first time I encountered these guys, their ship nearly took the doors and roof off my truck."

Our guide told us it took too much power to do that, that they don't take apart your molecules like they do on Star Trek, they levitate you into the craft with the machines, and shuttles like his lacked the equipment. They'd have to send for the mother ship.

"If we can, we probably shouldn't," Gertie said. "We'd get spotted by Xetgupa for sure."

"I guess it's just as well. Those things can give you pretty horrific first degree burns."

We hiked up a coral debris scattered hill. Pete hurled a chunk at a land shrimp. "How did he get here so fast in the first place?"

Futambe replied without expression. "I can use my mind to transport myself and small objects over short distances. It requires a great amount of my strength, and I have not mastered moving other individuals. My crew can do this to a lesser extent, but none of us can do this more than once a day."

The alien took us to, well, an actual flying saucer. I guess there had been some truth to those stories after all. Ornately etched silver, inlaid with gold, covered the vehicle, the mirror-like surfaces helping to camouflage it within the surrounding 'forest.'

Our new acquaintance lowered a boarding ramp, leading us inside. Vadful tried to come aboard too, but Norenio coaxed the beast to back away. She decided to stay outside and keep the creature out of trouble.

To our shock and delight, we found our friend from the moon greeting us at the threshold.

Gertie waved to the orange one. Charlie gave him a nuzzle. ET smiled, his chest glowing.

"Tolmina! What are you doing here?"

"Futambe found me while I waited in the clearing. He said it would be cooler and more comfortable in his ship, and they could send someone to meet you when you returned from your trip."

Jamie stopped staring with her mouth hanging open. "Guess that explains...everything."

Tolmina smirked at Gertie. "It appears you've found your cure."

"Hopefully, yes," Roy said. "We're going to check and see."

Our friend glanced at Pete, who at the moment still clung to my sister's hand. "Gertie, I see you have your second partner. Do you feel the need to have a third?"

She shook her head violently.

Tolmina nodded. "Very good!"

Tiffrid appeared to be taking careful mental notes about all this.

Spike brought out the pink ooze. "We need to have this studied."

"Certainly," said Futambe.

The main entry chamber, vast and open, didn't offer much in the way of furniture. The reason became clear when I watched three other aliens like our guide relaxing in the air. Why use chairs or benches when you can float?

Up ahead lay a control area, a room with purple algae sticking to the windows, and some other places with closed doors.

Futambe took Gertie into a side room with an examination table, of sorts - chrome railings shaped like a cow's rib cage...I saw little devices in places, but not the huge walls of computers I expected from a flying saucer. On earth we still hadn't fully grasped the concept of miniaturization of electronics.

Our new friend had a silent discussion with a pair of others like him, probably with telepathy, and they instructed Gertie to lie down on the table.

The table glowed for a few moments, the alien checking and rechecking various small devices for readings.

At last Futambe said, "My scanners detect traces of severe fungal infection around the lungs and airways, but overall, I'm seeing strong signs of remission. In fact, do not be surprised if within twenty four hours, the fungus disappears from her body entirely."

When we told him about our miracle cure, he did some scans of it, asked for a sample, which we gladly provided.

Gertie showed him the musical instrument. "Can you help me play this safely?"

Futambe's slot mouth turned down slightly at the corners. "I...have not seen one of these for a very long time. The right notes can mend bones and shatter rock, cause healing or death. I recommend training with a Nogtam on a basic Zemedo before doing any musical experiments." Spike gave a knowing nod in response. Apparently he was a Nogtam. "I will, however, teach you a basic tune that should be relatively harmless..."

Futambe taught Gertie how to play the ship signal tune, Re Mi Do Do So, with some extra notes. The music caused several panels aboard the craft to change color and glow, something like fireflies filling the air...and Gertie actually learned to master that one (Well, with a few pauses to cough and catch her breath).

Roy clapped appreciatively. "Wow. I...don't know what use we'll find for that talent, but it's neat. I'll give you that." He took a deep breath. "Well, it seems you're feeling better, at least. The sick kid we had before wouldn't have had the strength to tackle a wind instrument like that!...Guess we can go home now, huh?" He gave the alien a hopeful look. "Any chance you can fly us back to Kizris?"

Futambe asked the others, and they seemed to think it to be an okay idea.

However, the moment his people got in the control room, starting up their weird sounding engines, the sounds got a lot weirder, the whole ship crashing around and shaking like it had been hit by an earthquake.

Two of Futambe's crewmates opened the entry hatch, letting down the boarding ramp to check out the engine and do some repairs.

Seconds later, something like black spears erupted from their backs, and they collapsed on the floor, flesh bubbling and rotting away.

A dark eyeless figure in a mushroom hat loomed in the hatchway.