Prologue
Before retirement, Blake Harford lived a boring life as a computer applications teacher. He possessed no advanced math skills in an era where only Star Trek™ could transport one to “Strange New Worlds.” One day, he awoke to find himself the Chief Science Officer and second in command of a galactic starship … and mystified how many unfamiliar faces aboard recognized him. Did he lie on his resume like some politicians do? And why does his first mission involve shepherding worlds? And what exactly is shepherding worlds? Come aboard and find out!
Chapter 1: You’re Late!
Was I dead, dreaming, or just hung over? Wait a minute—I don’t drink. I’ve never been high on alcohol in all my seventy-six years. Perhaps I’m listening to an audiobook and am simply placing myself empathetically in the protagonist’s place. Oh, I hope it’s the protagonist. I certainly wouldn’t want to be the bad guy.
I sat up and stared at the inside walls, floor, and ceiling of a white room about twelve feet square. “No windows or doors. That’s sure odd. At the very least, they could have installed a skylight.” A pain nagged me above my right eye. Rubbing it with my hand, it hurt even more. “Ouch!” I jerked my head back. “Where the hell am I?” Raising my hands, I scrutinized them. “They’re just as wrinkled and decrepit-looking as ever. I can’t be dead because one is supposed to be resurrected young again after death.” I lowered my hands. “At least that’s what Hollywood would have you believe.”
After spending a few minutes touching three walls, I noticed the fourth one shimmered, fading in and out of focus. Stepping closer, I reached out and tried to touch it. My fingertips passed through, and I jerked my hand back. “Wait! What if I stick it in, and it comes out missing?”
A wrinkled hand with five long, slender fingers and a thumb thrust through. Its leathery grasp wrapped around my wrist and wrenched me through the wall.
******
When the hand released me, I clenched my wrist and examined my hand. “What the hell?” I noticed the surrounding brightness had diminished considerably and scrutinized the limited, rocky space. It’s a tiny cavern. It can’t be more than fifteen feet across. Toward my right perched the only cave entrance. Gawking at my abductor, I felt my eyes widen. “Who the …! You’re not from Earth!”
He tilted his narrow head and stared through his gold-colored, sunken, human-like eyes. Two tear-shaped membranes above his slimly trimmed ears pointed toward the back of his bald head. About four-and-a-half feet tall, the skinny alien sported a flat nose with a single nostril. A deep rift that extended down to his nose divided his skull into two equal hemispheres.
I stepped back. “Who … are you!”
“Said the caterpillar to Alice.”
“Whoa … you speak perfect English.”
He raised his shorter-than-normal arms upward on each side of him. “That’s how it is with ancient Earth science fiction television shows. The writers always find a way for the aliens to speak their language fluently. Why should I be any different?”
I pointed at him. “How do you know about that?”
“After Earth finally became a planet of unitary peace, goodwill, and understanding in the twenty-eighth century, your leaders recovered much of the lost history of your planet.”
I redirected my index finger toward the creature’s red, white, and blue outfit. “Is that a uniform?”
“Yes.”
He wore cobalt-blue slacks and a two-toned pull-over shirt with red on top and white beneath. The red dipped to a curved point several inches into the white, terminating just beyond the obscured belly button, assuming he had one. The same color extended to the shoulders and arms, his sleeves ending at the elbow. Two horizontal gold bars stood out against a cobalt background above the right breast, and the tight collar around the neck offered open relief across the throat.
A band, the color of his slacks, surrounded his forehead and gave way to a broader red, cobalt-blue, and white band above it that flared up and outward to form a flat, lapis-colored top. The insignia from his right breast repeated in silver, only in the center of the blue band. A golden torch symbol with the globe of a planet on top, awash in rainbow colors, perched above the left breast.
“I’m Major Zolar Phoenix … the Ursa-Majorian Assistant Chief Engineering Officer.”
“I’m familiar with the two gold bars, but where I come from, that is the rank of an army captain … and they wear them vertically, not horizontally.”
He glanced down at them. “Not here. I am a major … and only one of two aliens with a relative serving aboard my starship, my nephew Orbulus. He’s seventeen and in his last year of school in Chara’s class. Though you never met Orbulus or me, you know Chara Brooks.”
I felt my eyes stretch wide. “I don’t know that I do.”
He laughed. “Of course you do.” He touched his right membrane. “Look, you’ve got to hurry. Like the White Rabbit, you’re late. If you don’t get to where you need to be, you may be lost in limbo forever.” He clenched my left arm and shoved me toward the cave opening. “Now hurry!” I hesitated, and he pushed me again. “Go! For your own sake.”
“I’m old and can’t run that well.” I glanced back, and he pointed to the only exit. “Run, Blake … run!”
He knows my name!
“Damn right I do! Now … skedaddle!”
I hobbled toward the entrance to the best of my ability and kept going.
Chapter 2: A Real Cliffhanger
I trundled down the cavern path as fast as my feeble legs would carry me. Reaching a section where the walls ballooned outward somewhat, I sat on a flat rock, huffing and puffing. “I haven’t had exercise since my feet started bothering me.”
A human female dressed in the same red, white, and blue uniform as the Ursa-Majorian alien stepped into the minuscule expansion of the cavern. Instead of slacks, she sported a cobalt blue, below-the-knee-length skirt. A four-sided, blue, pyramid-shaped hat with a flat-platform top differed significantly from the alien. A five-pointed, metallic bronze star perched above her right breast and repeated itself on the left and right panels of the hat. The front panel held the golden torch rainbow symbol. When she turned her head to look around, I noticed that the back panel remained blank.
Jamming her hands on her hips, she scowled with her twenty-something face surrounded by long, blond hair. “What are you doing, Blake? You spent entirely too much time with Major Zolar Phoenix.” She bent forward and pointed behind her. “The ground here will not remain stable for long. You’ve got to keep going!”
I leaned against the rock wall. “Look … uh … lady—”
“Commander Meri Diana Magenta.”
I poked my right index finger into my left palm several times. “Commander Magenta … I want some answers.”
She yanked me to my feet. “Fine! Just keep moving.” Meri Diana jogged off ahead of me, and I followed the best I could. The commander must have realized she had outpaced me because she slowed so I could catch up.
“Where am I, and how the hell did I get here?”
“Listen closely, Blake. You’re pretty damn important. If you don’t reach where you need to go, the entire starship’s complement of five-hundred and thirty-one will have been lost. I can’t explain it all … you just need to keep moving. Now, speed it up a little!”
She pulled ahead slightly, and I managed to stay with her. After doing that several times, I moved at a pace I thought impossible.
“Your name … it sounds familiar … except for the Magenta part. Who’s the starship’s captain?”
“The commanding officer is a higher rank than captain, but there’s no need to explain more now.”
My foot hit a small protruding rock, and I sprawled onto the cavern floor. Seconds later, Meri Diana Magenta hoisted me up by my armpits.
“Blake, you’re more feeble than a seventy-six-year-old.”
“Guess I didn’t take care of myself. So, why am I so important?”
“Without you, I don’t exist. Nor will my sisters Chara Brooks and Electra Magenta.”
“Chara Brooks? The teacher?” I shook my head. “I don’t know. The names sound kind of familiar.”
The ground started shaking.
“What’s happening?”
“This entire area is unstable. That’s why we must hurry and get to the jumping-off point before everything collapses.”
I shielded my head as a few rocks fell from the cave ceiling. “This is as dangerous as hell. Let’s get out of here!”
“Finally, we’re on the same page.” She grabbed my hand and took off again.
More rocks fell from the ceiling as we dodged them the best we could. The shaking ground increased until it became difficult to stay on our feet. We were forced to slow down. The cavern floor just ahead fell away, and we stood on a precipice, watching the rocks fall into a cavernous abyss.
“We won’t make it!” I spun to face her. “What now?”
She pointed ahead. “There’s the other side. You’ll have to jump the gap.”
“That’s a good thirty feet. What do you think I am, an Olympic athlete?”
“You’re right. You’ll need some help.”
She grabbed my right arm and spun around several times, pulling me along.
“That’s my bad arm! You’re causing me a lot of pain!”
“Better that than we both go down! Trust me, down is not where you want to be!”
As I approached the cliff edge on the next go-around, she let go, and I sailed out into open space.
Chapter 3: We’re in Wonderland, Peter
“Ahhhhhh!” I flew after Meri Diana let go of my hand. Something struck my back, and I lost my breath for several seconds.
The earthquake! I need to get away from the precipice! Sitting up, I discovered my feet dangling over the cliff’s edge. A glance across to the other side found Meri Diana gone. I turned and climbed to my feet, but the ground started quaking. Before me, spread an open, red, rocky surface.
“Where have I seen that before? Oh, yeah … pictures of the Martian landscapes.” I trudged ahead, slipping to one side, then another while the ground continued shaking. A few minutes later, the shaking subsided, and I stopped to look back. “I’m in the narrow cave again. What happened? Settings can’t change that fast. Did the earthquake ever happen? Did I rush across the Martian surface, or was I lying in the cave resting while imagining all that? Next thing you know, Alice will come along carrying her Dinah. Then I’ll know I’m either dreaming … or just plain wacko.”
“What are you waiting for?” I spun to face a female pre-pubescent child. She grimaced and slapped her hands on her hips. Adorned with a uniform identical to Meri Diana’s, she wore no insignia. Only the torch and rainbow hat pin repeated where the chest insignia should have been. “You’ve got to hurry, or you’ll miss out.”
“Who … are … you?”
She threw her hands in the air. “All you need now is a hookah pipe.” She slapped her hands on her hips. “Stop talking like a caterpillar and follow me.” Spinning around, she bolted off. “We can speak on the run.”
“Oh … I see. I’m still in space Wonderland.”
She slowed and allowed me to catch up.
“What’s the hurry? There’s no more earthquake.”
“Marsquake, you mean.” She sighed. “Why did I get this assignment? I was supposed to play with my classmates in the Ethereal Matter Simulator. The E.M.S., we call it. At any rate, it is my recess time, and you’re wasting it.”
“How old are you, and what’s your name?”
“Rana Magenta, and I’m eleven.”
“Magenta … like Meri Diana Magenta … her daughter?”
Her lips pursed as she sped up a little. “She’s my great aunt … or just my aunt … depending on which of my parents you go through. It’s all quite complicated, making explaining it very difficult.”
“Well … you’re either a niece or a grandniece to the same person. One woman can’t be both to you.”
“Here I go again … both of my parents are related to Electra Magenta, the commanding officer of the E.G.C. Mintaka.”
I screeched to a halt, and she stopped a few feet ahead of me and turned back.
“Hold on one minute, Rana. You mean a brother and sister married and conceived a child?”
“No … Electra is my grandma through my mother Alcyon … or my aunt through her brother Deneb.”
I shook my head. “It’s still incest, no matter how you look at it.”
“Not if you know that my aunt adopted Alcyon … or my Great Aunt Electra and her husband, Zosma.”
I scratched my chin. “Of course … adoption.”
“Anyway, I shouldn’t have to explain it to you. You should know that already.” She twirled around and sprinted off.
I caught up and let a few seconds reign before speaking. “I don’t know how I should know it.” I touched a finger to my bruised forehead. “I did get hit in the head before arriving. Perhaps it caused amnesia.”
“Whatever. We’ve got to hurry now, or the window will close … and we’ll both be out of luck.”
“Okay.” I kept my mouth shut and concentrated on ignoring the pain in my side. I had given up running in my latter years—and even walking fast after my age topped seventy-five. My feet couldn’t take it anymore, what with gout and a constant corn problem plaguing me the last few years.
Rana Magenta had gotten about thirty feet ahead, or I should say that I dropped back that far as my stamina wore thin. She stopped suddenly, and I caught up.
As I pulled beside her, she pointed across a white open area.
“This is the end of the cave, then? Now what?”
She extended a hand forward. “It’s just a short distance to the jumping-off point.”
I reached down and noticed for the first time that the field’s whiteness resembled a cloud. Mist swirled, and I spied no actual surface. I pressed my hand on it, and it kept going into fluffiness until it disappeared.
I whipped the hand back up. “You’re kidding me. You want me to walk on this?”
She grinned. “It will support you. Watch.” She stepped onto the cloud. Her feet sunk in until they disappeared, but she did not fall through. She stretched her hands to either side. “See. It’s perfectly safe.”
“Hmmmmmm. For a road runner, maybe.” I rubbed my chin. “Say, I don’t look like a coyote to you, do I?”
“Come on. Step on, and let’s get going.” She looked at the device on her wrist. “We’re almost out of time.”
I hopped beside her but kept plunging downward. Rana caught my hand and kept me from falling.
“Are you trying to kill me?”
“I know what the problem is. You have to have faith that you can walk on a cloud.” She eased a hand on her chest. “Think of me as Peter Pan. Your doubt is causing you to fall through. You can’t go down now … or everything is lost.”
“Okay, Pete, I believe! I believe!”
“As my Grandma Electra always says, ‘Saying so won’t make it so.’” You actually have to believe. She always said that to my Great Aunt Chara Brooks, her sister. That was back before Albacron was subdued … but again, you should know that.”
“This is all probably a dream, anyway. There’s no harm in believing I can walk on a cloud, but don’t let go until I can get up there with you.”
“That’s not showing much faith. Just believe that you can do it.”
This is a dream! Of course, it’s quite possible to walk on a cloud. I remember a long-ago dream of entering a Ben Franklin Five and Dime. I started pushing over the aisle displays and spilling the merchandise all over the floor. Oddly enough, none of the customers in my dream even batted an eye … maybe because it wasn’t supposed to happen. I brought in another dimension and upset the apple cart. Yeah … I can believe it!
I closed my eyes and envisioned rising and standing beside Rana. When I opened them, I stood a whole head taller than her. “Wow! I did it. I believe.”
She eased a hand forward. “Then let’s get on with it.” She ran off, and I followed. After a hundred yards, she stopped again, and I pulled beside her.
“What now?” She pointed down. The cloud ended, and I could see the land far below. “Wowowski! We must be at least a thousand feet up.”
She smirked. “Funny you should say that. Wowowski is something my father Deneb says all the time. But maybe not so funny since he got it from you.”
“What do you mean? I’ve never met Deneb before.” I shrugged. “It’s just a coincidence, that’s all.” I looked at the land below. Solid rock composed the cliff face down to a flat, partially forested floor. I whistled. “Looks like a dead end.” I pointed down. “I hope we don’t have to be there.”
She plopped the point of an index finger on her chest. “I don’t, but you do.”
I looked down again. “Like that’s going to happen. You got a parachute on you?”
She shook her head. “You’ll have to jump.”
“Like hell. Even if this is a dream, dreaming you die could mean you actually do.” I swiped an arm from one side to the other. “No, ma’am. I’m not taking any chances. Now, let’s stop this nonsense, return to where the cloud field started, and find another way down.”
Rana jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “There are only two ways down. Either you choose to jump on your own, or you let Mother do it for you.”
I squinted. “What? My mother died in 1988. What are you talking about?”
She grinned like a Cheshire cat. “Mother Nature.” She pointed behind me. “You can go that way ….” She pointed to my right. “Or you can go that way.” Rana pointed to my left. “Or you can go that way. Whichever way you choose …. you’ll end up that way.” She pointed down.
“I don’t care to listen anymore. I’m going back to find another way.” I twirled around, took two steps, and froze in place. The giant cloud field behind me had shrunk to within fifty feet of us. Looking to my left and right confirmed that the same situation existed as far as I could see. “What the …?”
I turned to Rana, who smiled, held a hand beside her head, and waved her fingers. “As you once said when your plane took off from a Mexican tourist city, ‘Bye-bye, Puerto Vallarta.’ Bye-bye, Blake. Maybe I’ll see you later. Maybe.”
And like the Cheshire cat, she faded away, leaving only her smile behind, and seconds later, it disappeared.
I groaned. “My, people come and go so fast around here.” I looked back to discover the cloud field had shrunk to within twenty feet of me.
Rana’s voice echoed from nowhere in particular. “It would be best to jump instead of waiting for Mother to force you to fall.”
My oversized gut pulled inward until it met my backbone. “What am I going to …? Wait! I had faith that I could stand on a cloud. Why can’t I have the same faith that I can walk on air? Yeah, I know a roadrunner that can do it.” I turned to face the ever-shrinking cloud. “I can walk on air … all the way back to the cave entrance.”
The cloud field encroached to within ten feet. “Yes, I can do this. Keep evaporating away, clouds. Do your worst, Mother Nature. When that cloud completely disappears. I’ll still be standing right—” The last of the cottony puffiness vanished, and I plunged downward. “Heeeeeere!”
Go on to Chapters 4, 5, and 6 (Coming soon)
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