"Elliott, what's wrong?" Jamie asked when I returned to my cot.

I wiped my eyes. "You think we're all actually dead?"

She furrowed her brow. "Why do you think that?"

"I just spoke to Mom and Dad. They're...scientists here, and still together. They were cutting up a Qulpari on a table. They seem to think I'm dead."

"I...don't know. My mom seemed to think I'm alive, and Grandma is alive too, apparently. Plus I can see and talk to you."

"You sure I'm not a ghost?"

She pinched me. "How's that, Casper?"

I smirked. "Then I don't understand."

"I think I do." Roy came walking up the hallway with a National Geographic and a paper. "Guys, look at this stuff. I found it in the cafeteria when I was getting ice cream."

I stared at the newspaper headline. "Challenger 2 lands on moon?" I did a double take when I noticed the photograph. "Wait, is that...?"

Jamie leaned over my shoulder. "What's Michael Jackson doing on the Challenger?"

"Doing the moonwalk, I guess." Roy pointed to a block of text. "He's an Air Force lieutenant."

"The King of Pop? In the Air Force?"

"It seems he has no musical career here."

Jamie gasped. "John Lennon's in concert?...Still?"

"It gets weirder." Roy opened the magazine. "Anything look off to you?"

I stared at a black and white picture of a strange man holding up a copy of the Chicago Daily Tribune. "Dewey...defeats...De Gaulle?"

"Yeah, like, since when has Charles De Gaulle been president of the United States?"

"Since 1948," Jamie said.

"Nice. You can read."

"I don't understand. Why's everything...so wrong?"

"Not wrong, technically, just not our version of events. I think I know why our friend Vorxora never used this technology to go home. Have you heard of parallel universes?"

We gave Roy blank stares.

"Okay, well, I've read a few science fiction novels in my time. The idea is that there are other worlds, just like this earth, but with...alternate histories. Philip K. Dick wrote one about the Nazis conquering America. There's been some others...it's possible we've just landed in one. And if the guys that built our machine are being cut open on a table in here, I don't blame them for abandoning the whole project."

"Those bodies were fresh," I said. "And the stuff around the machine looked ancient."

"Maybe time works differently here. Different planetary rotation, millions of miles away from earth."

I scratched my head. "That...doesn't make sense. Someone would still be out on the other side."

"Hell, it's just a theory. I don't know, maybe they got stuck in ice and they just now thawed them out?"

"Speaking of which," said Jamie. "You said you had ice cream. Weren't you just complaining about the cold?"

"Yeah, but when will I get to eat ice cream again?"

"Why do they even have that here?"

"Believe it or not, it's big in these wintery places. Take Alaska, for example—"

Boom! The entire building shook, the lights flickering. Snow dusted down on our heads.

Jamie jumped up from her cot. "What was that?"

Roy rushed to the door, looking out. "Bad news. I think our old pal Warkinde has found us."

I checked a window. A group of colossal oily creatures had appeared, red coals glowing and producing clouds of black smoke as they stomped across the snow. They sent tremors through the ground with every step.

Ann came rushing up a hallway. "What's going on out there? I'm detecting seismic activity!"

"Would you believe pollution monsters from an alien planet?"

The woman stared through the glass. Her eyes bugged out, skin turning pale at what she saw. "That's just great. As if we didn't already have enough pollution to deal with from this world!"

Roy laughed. "I forgot that real people talked like that sometimes."

Our geologist friend wrinkled her face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. It's just where I come from, nobody talks about the environment, it's just something you hear about on TV."

"That's why we got a hole in the ozone layer, and endangered species to protect. People like you don't talk about it."

"Actually, I've been on an alien planet for a few years, and pollution is...foreign to them."

Boom! The whole building rocked again.

"Yeah? So why are those things outside?"

"You can find a bad apple on any planet where there's life." Catching her sudden glare, he raised his hands defensively. "Not me, by the way."

"That's exactly what a bad apple would—"

A crash and a sudden tremor cut her argumentation short.

"That sounded like something hitting the building! Are they throwing snowballs? Ice?"

"Your guess is as good as mine!"

Bang! This time we cold see what had been thrown. Black goo dripped down a window.

"That's no snowball."

Jamie put on her collar. "I think we can handle them. We've done it before."

I shook my head. "You're the only one who brought along a musical instrument!"

Anne clenched her fists. "Music! Be serious! Why not a bazooka, or a flame thrower?"

Roy scoffed. "(And this is coming from Miss Greenpeace!) In case you haven't noticed, those things are already burning, and filling the air with pollutants! Think of what that would do to the ozone layer! Plus, we're essentially standing on a giant glacier."

She swore under her breath. "This is like our worst nightmare here at the base! CFC's, the polar ice caps melting, dying whales, dodos and penguins...and now all that's a living creature?"

"Do you have an electric guitar?" Gertie asked. "With an amplifier?"

Ann gave her a `What, are you crazy' look. "We actually got a guy, but, so what? It's not going to do shit!"

Roy grabbed a parka from a coat rack. "I used to be skeptical too, but then I saw a few things that changed my mind...Got any `fun sized' coats we can borrow? And boots?"

"I don't know. I'll...look around."

Researchers and other base personnel shouted in alarm, running through the corridors. It seemed a few important buildings has just been obliterated.

"I'll grab some things. You guys had better be right! (This is nuts!)" Ann rushed off down a hallway.

Gertie snatched up a parka and boots. It fit her like a circus tent, but she zipped up and knotted the boot strings tight.

I stared at her. "You really think you can take these things...with a stratocaster and some crummy amp?"

Jamie stole the coat that hung next to Gertie's. "This is all crazy. None of this stuff should work, but aliens have powers, and I think Gertie does too."

"Whoa, whoa, wait!" the skinny bearded guy cried as Ann brought us a cart bearing a Yamaha electric, and a black box with the cursive word `Fender' emblazoned across the front. "Where are you going with that?"

"It's complicated, Dan. They got some plan to destroy those giant monsters out there."

"What giant monsters?"

She waved him to the door.

Dan looked out, then, with eyes bulging, made a hasty retreat. "Good Lord!"

He backed right into Jamie.

Dan glanced down and scowled. "Hey! That's my coat!"

"Sorry. I don't have one. We'd like to save your lives, if you don't mind."

Dan looked like he'd just eaten a lemon. "You'd better bring that stuff back when you're done!"

"Yes sir."

The man stared as Gertie expertly tuned the guitar...by ear, strummed out the C and G chords, played an F barre, picked out a few bars of the song ET taught us. "You kids are child prodigies!"

My sister grinned.

Ann loaded the amp on a sled, attaching a car battery for power. Gertie plugged its cord into the guitar, cranked the volume up as far as it could go.

"Hey, don't blow the speaker!"

"Elliott!"

I recognized the voice at once. "Dad?"

I turned just in time to see my...father's alternate dimensional twin throwing me...an alien pan flute. "I overheard you and your parallel universe friends were starting a band. Maybe you can make use of this."

A lump caught in my throat. "Thank you...Mr. Taylor."

He gave me that dolphin click noise and pointed like, `Here's looking at you'...just like my real dad.